The Direct Path: Creating a Journey to the Divine Through the World's Mystical Traditions - Softcover

Harvey, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1907486410 ISBN 13: 9781907486418

Publisher: Watkins, 2011

Synopsis

One of the most compelling ongoing spiritual autobiographies of our time continues. Disillusioned after years of seeking the truth in the world's major religions and mystical traditions, Andrew Harvey (A Journey in Ladakh) embarks on a bold new path, one that charts a course of personal enlightenment through unmediated contact with the Supreme Being. The Direct Path, as Harvey calls it, is not only desirable in itself, but essential for humanity's ability to surmount the environmental, political, social, and spiritual challenges besetting our species . . . and our world.

About this title

Review

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: organized 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--i.e., 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. Judeo-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, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

Rather than depending upon gurus to mediate our way to God, a renowned spiritual scholar maintains that what is required is the Direct Path, sacred practices of mind, body & spirit through which we can each attain a personal union with the divine

Edition details

• Publisher: Watkins
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1907486410
• ISBN 13: 9781907486418
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 291