This book describes a landmark stage in Andrew Harvey's powerful spiritual journey. After a series of direct mystical experiences, a spiritual awakening with his guru Mother Meera (as described in his earlier book Hidden Journey) and his revelatory encounter with the great Tibetan mystic Thuksey Rinpoche in Ladakh, Harvey began the next stage of his journey: a period of intense mystical searching in many of the world's major mystical traditions. But his conclusion after years of seeking for the truth is that none of the traditional ways of reaching God, via religions or various gurus, can or do succeed. The Direct Path - direct contact with the supreme being - is not only desirable, it is essential for the future of mankind. Harvey contends that it will only be when large numbers of the human race claim their own divine humanity and act from it that we will be able to preserve the environment and see that justice is done to the poor, the starving and the downtrodden. This is Christ's real teaching and it was also the basic tenet of the ancient shamanic cultures, of early Buddhism and of Hinduism - and most of the schools of Judaism stressed the necessity of communicating with the divine directly. Andrew Harvey shows readers how to use meditations, rituals, prayers, mantras and mystical passages - as well as dancing - in their search for fulfilment.
Andrew Harvey is a renowned spiritual scholar and a master of the world's mystical traditions. He's the author and editor of more than 30 books but
The Direct Path can be viewed as the benchmark of his spiritual philosophy. "I feel I have been waiting all my life to write this book," he states, and at the core of
The Direct Path are his clearly defined beliefs: organised religions and guru systems have largely failed to serve the spiritual needs of humanity. We are all children of God since we each contain a spark of God's divinity--ie, we each have a soul, and as such, we do not require middlemen to mediate our way to God. What is required is the Direct Path, sacred practices of mind, body and spirit through which we can each attain a personal union with the divine. The fruit of this union is the "birth" of energy which is transformative and boundless and which must be shared with our fellows through active humanitarian work so that we each become "servant-warriors for peace and justice". And on this birth depends the future of humanity.
"This is a radical vision, of course," Andrew Harvey explains, "but it is not a new one." The prophets across all native and religious traditions have espoused the same essential teachings, that the divine dwells within each of us and that by accessing our divinity we will attain union and so comprehend the true meaning of human fellowship. Judaeo-Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Islamic and native, Andrew Harvey, draws on mysticism rather than dogma from across the spiritual spectrum. He gives us an eloquent and wholehearted explanation of the Direct Path and its necessary practices, such as breathing, meditation and focused exercise, and he conveys a compelling vision of why the birth of transformative energy within each of us is so essential to the future of humankind. --Lucas LoBlack
