Sublime

Among many others, I draw on the ideas of two spiritual teachers I should mention. One is my friend Douglas Harding, whose unique and inimitable approach sheds light on the Self as Consciousness, which is pure Kashmir Shaivism. The other is the enigmatic 20th-century teacher G. I. Gurdjieff. I met his teachings in my earliest days as a spiritual se

Swāmī Muktānanda (“Bābā”) probably did more than anyone else in the 20th century to make the teachings of Śaiva Tantra known in the West,

Among them, I recommend Pandit’s Specific Principles of Kashmir Shaivism for the new student. More yogic works are Swami Lakshmanjoo’s Self Realisation and The Secret Supreme, Swami Chetanananda’s Dynamic Stillness I and II, and, of course, Siddha Meditation by Swami Muktananda.

Sufi teacher Idries Shah

I especially enjoyed the work of Sir John Woodroffe (1865–1936), a.k.a. “Arthur Avalon,” who—while prominently serving as Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court in British India—spent his private hours explaining, defending and ultimately practicing in the then widely reviled Hindu religious schools of Shaiva and Shakta Tantrism.

Devipuram—“The Goddess’s Abode”—the temple complex that Guruji had spent more than three decades building up from almost nothing in the rural wilds of eastern India.