Logically, the Self is pure awareness which transcends all of the objects of perception. Swami Dayananda is a member of the Order of Sanyasins, or spiritual renunciates. He suggests that we often confuse this true self, which is awareness itself, with the objects of awareness--such as our own bod...

Does the mind exist as a distinct entity apart from our thoughts about it? U. G. Krishnamurti was a disquieting skeptic and author. As "mind" is a myth, he says, so is the notion of "self." The human being is like a dog chewing a dry bone. When its gums bleed, the dog may believe the bone is rich...

Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, discusses the Tibetan view of mind as a clear space encompassing the entire universe. He describes how the experience of deep compassion is cultivated in Tibetan Buddhism. Then he presents the Tibetan view of rebirth and the afterli...

Ole Nydahl a trained Tibetan Buddhist meditation master in the Kagyupa tradition, takes us step by step through the teaching--first quieting the mind, then focusing on four motivations for meditation, and finally taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. He also discusses the signif...

The Tibetan lamas are specialists in understanding the "bardo" planes of the afterlife. Ole Nydahl is among the first westerners to be trained as a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master. Philosopher and author of Entering the Diamond Way, Nydahl describes the mind as a pure, limitless field where ou...

The late Irina Tweedie is the author of Daughter of Fire, a diary of her intensive spiritual training in India with a Hindu Sufi master. In this moving and personal interview, Mrs. Tweedie, who was a Sufi teacher in London, describes the bliss, peace and love--and the despair, hatred and loneline...

The Sufis are inheritors of a tradition which has influenced many world religions. Their work, which involves dreams, altered states of consciousness and teaching stories, is to further the evolution of humanity by offering deep intuitive training to select individuals. The late Mrs. Irina Tweedi...

Huston Smith, Ph.D., author of Forgotten Truth, delineates the common threads that run through spiritual traditions of all cultures. Because the science of acoustics has nothing to say about beauty, he says, does not mean that Brahms isn't beautiful. Similarly, the notions of the soul and spirit ...

The underlying cause of most social and personal problems is lack of mindfulness. Psychologist Charles Tart, Ph.D., author of States of Consciousness and Waking Up, discusses how difficult it is to translate meditative awareness to the problems of daily life. He describes the training methods of ...

Gnosticism involves a fusion of middle-east traditions including Judaism, Christianity and Manicheanism. June Singer, Ph.D., is author of Seeing Through the Visible World: Jung, Gnosis and Chaos and A Gnostic Book of Hours. She discusses the Gnostic belief in the direct apprehension of a spiritua...

The genuine spiritual tradition of all religions encourages the cultivation of independent action and conscience. David Steindl-Rast, Ph.D., a Benedictine Monk, is co-author, with Fritjof Capra, of Belonging to the Universe. He proclaims that the message of Christianity is that we are all related...

Robert Frager, Ph.D., is past president of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology and the founder of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Here he shares his wide experience as a student and participant in diverse spiritual traditions. These include yoga in India in the school of Param...

The average human is functioning in an unawakened state, according to Russian philosopher and mystic George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Psychologist Kathleen Speeth, Ph.D., author of The Gurdjieff Work and Gurdjieff: Seeker of the Truth, was raised by parents who were students of Gurdjieff, whom she met...

How can there be separate things in a universe that is interconnected? How can we be separate beings in a universe created by God? Arthur M. Young, inventor of the Bell helicopter, was the founder of the Institute for the Study of Consciousness. Young suggests that the ancient dieties act in our ...

The native shaman learns to interact with the spirits of the underworld and the higher worlds in order to intercede in behalf of humans in the "middle world." Michael Harner, Ph.D., has authored The Jivaro, Hallucinogens and Shamanism and The Way of the Shaman. He is currently actively involved i...