The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi grew from a series of lectures given by Andrew Harvey at the California Institute of Integral Studies in 1993. The lectures celebrated Rumi’s work as mystic, poet and prophet. Before giving the lectures, Harvey had a dream where he asked an old man in a mosque how he… Continue reading The Way of Passion: Book Review
Brahman is the Sanskrit word for the Ultimate Reality, the Supreme Being, or the Absolute. It is unchanging, unborn, unmanifest, and infinite. But Brahman is both transcendent and immanent; the ground from which all of manifest reality arises, including time and space. Brahman is omnipresent and is the spiritual source of the universe. In Hinduism… Continue reading Spiritual Glossary: Brahman & Atman
Jnana is a Sanskrit word that means knowledge, particularly of the spiritual kind. It is used in many different Indian traditions. Jnana isn’t knowledge in the usual cognitive sense, but refers to knowledge embedded in the experience of the true nature of reality. It isn’t something that can be understood with the intellect because it is… Continue reading Spiritual Glossary: Jnana
Moksha is a Sanskrit word meaning liberation or release from illusion. It is freedom from the cycle of birth and death, or samsara. Moksha is achieved through the identification of your true Self or the true nature of reality, and can be gained through many different practices or paths, such as devotion or service to… Continue reading Spiritual Glossary: Moksha
Maya is a Pali and Sanskrit word meaning illusion or delusion. It is used most commonly to refer to the illusory appearance of the phenomenal world, but it also means the power through which the universe becomes manifest. Maya is the world of duality and relativity, the world of the conditioned and separate self. As… Continue reading Spiritual Glossary: Maya
Hinduism is the main religion in India and is the oldest major religion in the world, ranking third in popularity behind Christianity and Islam. The word Hindu comes from the Sanskrit Sindhu, the historical name for the Indus River in what is now Pakistan, and was first mentioned in the Rigveda. Hinduism is seen as a… Continue reading Spiritual Glossary: Hinduism
Nirvana is Sanskrit and means to be extinguished or to blow out (as in blowing out a candle). It’s often interpreted to mean blowing out the flame of illusion, or the self. In Pali nirvana is spelt nibbana. Hinduism and Jainism also talk of nirvana as the state of moksha. Nirvana means freedom from suffering.… Continue reading Spiritual Glossary: Nirvana
Addled: Adventures of a Reluctant Mystic is my forthcoming novel about a modern mystic called Zoe Popper. It follows the ups and downs of awakening, and explores the difficulties of the spiritual path in a post-modern world. Addled is a love story for our cynical times, and includes everything from music and cookery to cleaning,… Continue reading Adventures of a Reluctant Mystic
Satori is the Japanese term used in Zen Buddhism to refer to awakening and the realisation of the true nature of the self, or Buddha nature. It is sometimes also called Kensho, where ken means ‘seeing’ and sho means ‘nature’ or ‘essence’. Kensho is generally understood to be your first experience of realisation and is often a tiny glimpse of Buddha… Continue reading Spiritual Glossary: Satori
Jessica Davidson 