Buddha at the Gas Pump

Jurgen Ziewe has been following a strict regime of meditation since 1969. In 1973, after a six-month stint of intensive meditation for up to five hours a day, he decided to abandon the practice completely, being disappointed with the lack of progress and some negative side effects. Then one day out of the blue, at breakfast, he spontaneously experienced a total dissociation from his body and enter...

Bernardo Kastrup has a Ph. D. in computer engineering with specializations in artificial intelligence and reconfigurable computing. He has worked as a scientist in some of the world's foremost research laboratories, including the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Philips Research Laboratories (where the "Casimir Effect" of Quantum Field Theory was discovered). Bernardo has...

Sruti is a spiritual teacher and feminist advocate. She writes about her experience with an uncommon and painful illness called Interstitial Cystitis. This ongoing and chronic condition challenged her to stay present with daily pain and to look further inward for answers. In an extreme moment of pain, in which consciousness began to fade, Sruti experienced the erasure of all that clouds over the e...

Geneviève De Coux was born in 1947 in Namur, Belgium during her parents’ holidays. The family lived in the Belgian Congo. Geneviève and her brother enjoyed an idyllic childhood until 1960, the year of the Congo’s independence. The family emigrated to Belgium. Their paradise was lost. Geneviève found herself in Brussels, this radical change of scenery stoked the fire of her ontological search and s...

In 1982 Tom began teaching Conscious Living at the Woodbury Yoga Center in Connecticut, and in 1990 at The Awakened Heart Center in North Carolina. Conscious Living is an all-inclusive way of life. It includes the possibility of radical awakening along with the integration of body, emotions, mind and spirit; living skillfully and effectively in this world; and being in loving, empowering relations...

Thomas Razzeto is one of the newest and freshest voices among the teachers of our balanced, ancient nondual wisdom. Thomas easily digs deeply into the core of this wisdom to reveal both its essential truth and the heartfelt compassion that all true sages embody when they are genuinely engaged in the world without being entangled by it. The first time Thomas heard this nondual wisdom was in 2005 wh...

Chadwick Johnson is a teacher at heart. Chad does not claim to be an expert in the various subjects that he teaches, but rather, he teaches the subjects in which he seeks to become an expert. In fact, Chad ultimately attributes his spiritual clarity and ability to articulate non-dual concepts in a simplistic manner, to this “the teacher is the student” approach to sharing Truth. Chad had a spiritu...

Suzanne Giesemann is the author of 11 books, an inspirational speaker, metaphysical teacher, and evidence-based medium. She is a messenger of hope who captivates audiences as she brings love, healing, and comfort through her work. Suzanne’s gift of communication with those on the other side brings stunning evidence of life after death, as well as validating her teaching about the purpose of life,...

A former athlete, teacher, and business entrepreneur, JC is now an author, producer, and teacher who corresponds with students worldwide. A student himself, first of his enlightened father, and later of world-renowned teachers J.Krishnamurti and Eckhart Tolle, JC's own investigation into the nature of Life and the universe led to realizations in Pure Consciousness that eventually led to the writin...

Why are we here? Is there a God? Can there be authentic mystical experience? Are Hindus and Buddhists correct that we can attain a state of enlightenment? Can psychedelic drugs give us a glimpse of it? Does religion have a viable place in the modern world? Is there a common core of values and insights among the world's religions? Huston Smith spent his career in a search for answers to these and o...

The Rev. Matthew Wright is an Episcopal priest, writer, and retreat leader working to renew the Christian Wisdom tradition within a wider interspiritual framework.  He writes a monthly column, Belonging, for Contemplative Journal and serves as priest-in-charge at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Woodstock, NY.  Matthew lives with his wife, Yanick, alongside the brothers of Holy Cross Monastery in...

Mary Reed is an “accidental” mystic who, following eleven years of profound, involuntary visions and insights into divine realms, surrendered her executive life in Washington, DC to explore her spiritual gifts in a remote Buddhist nunnery in India. She grew up without any interest in religion but with an innate knowing that humans had more ability to access greater wisdom than most seemed to reali...

Abdy was born in Iran in 1964 to the Electriciteh family. At an early age he realized that his realm of reality was beyond what he could share with others. As a child, his awareness of extraordinary abilities, such as putting light and sparkles on people, could only be rationalized as a dream. When, thirty years later, he realized those sparkles were being received by the people, healing them phys...

Della had the good fortune of a life that many would have wanted to live. She grew up in a loving environment. She went to college. She started a family. She became a doctor and worked in emergency. She wasn’t looking for anything. She didn’t have any spiritual beliefs. She was happy. Then, in 2005, during a hypnosis session, she had what could be described as a near-death experience. Her heart wa...

Joey Lott is not a spiritual teacher. He’s not offering enlightenment, awakening, liberation, or any such carrot to keep you searching for something else. Instead, he’s just a fellow person who had the fortune to discover that the willingness to stop seeking for answers, for solutions to all kinds of imagined spiritual problems, reveals the peace of just being whatever is happening - which is all...

Once called by Norman Cousins, “An accomplished court jester to humanity,” David Ellzey is a transformative speaker, entertainer, author, and mentor – who has inspired a quarter of a million people worldwide to explore the oneness of humanity and of life. As mentor, coach, and teacher, David guides clients with unflinching self-inquiry, techniques like The Sedona Method for emotional well being, m...

Salvadore Poe was a successful musician from New York, making records, touring, having videos on MTV, and doing film scores when in 1997 he had a life-changing experience that propelled him on a single-pointed inquiry in search of enlightenment. During the next seven years, he immersed himself in intensive retreats in USA, Europe, and India, met many teachers, including U.G. Krishnamurti, Douglas...

Brief history of Norio: I always loved wheels ever since I was a small child. The first set of wheels was a bicycle, which by age nine, I was riding 40 miles at a time. Age 19, I drove a taxi in Boston for five years. I began driving a truck, as well as greyhound buses, at age 25. I began what I refer to as "true inquiry" while driving my truck in 2003, thereby being able to see the silence, from...

Andrew Harvey is an author, speaker and founder/director of the Institute of Sacred Activism, an international organization focused on inviting concerned people to take up the challenge of our contemporary global crises by becoming inspired, effective and practical agents of institutional and systemic change, in order to create peace and sustainability. Andrew Harvey has taught at Oxford Universit...

Michael Roads passed away April 28, 2024. His wife writes, "To our Dear Heart Family... Carolyn here. It is with an open and heavy heart that I share with you Michael transitioned at 3:06 AM, 28 April, Brisbane time. He had a very difficult last couple days...difficult enough to tip him over the edge into complete surrender, to the final letting go. His last hours were very peaceful. He was sleepi...

John Astin is the author of three collections of poetic and prose reflections on the non-dual nature of reality, Too Intimate for Words, (2005) This Is Always Enough(2007), and Searching for Rain in a Monsoon (2012). He is presently at work on a new book, It’s Not What You Think It Is: Reflections on the Inconceivable Nature of Reality. Along with his writing and teaching, John is also a singer, s...

Stan Grof, M.D., Ph. D. is a psychiatrist with more than fifty years’ experience researching the healing and transformative potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. His groundbreaking theories influenced the integration of Western science with his brilliant mapping of the transpersonal dimension. He is one of the founders and chief theoreticians of Transpersonal Psychology and received a...

Gail is a clinical psychologist and author in Santa Barbara, CA, who joyfully speaks from her own experience about the possibility of moving from common everyday problems to living in the deepest acceptance and peace. Problems are seen as opportunities; the illusion of the separate self as a doorway to enduring happiness. Stories are honored, while fierce and loving investigation invites their dis...

Adam Bucko is an activist, spiritual director to many of New York City’s homeless youth, and co-author of a new award-winning book called “Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation (Sacred Activism)". He grew up in Poland during the totalitarian regime and spent his early years exploring the anarchist youth movement as a force for social and political change. At the age of 17, Ada...

Originally from the Netherlands, Prajnaparamita has been in search of her true nature all her life. Initially investigating and studying psychology, religion and philosophy, she eventually met a truly awakened soul and surrendered her heart, her mind and her life. Over several decades Prajnaparamita received a rich vista of non-dual teachings: Advaita Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, Zen and Ch’an. Onc...