Martin Lyons

I started writing while living in a cave in India, over 45 years ago. I wanted a neutral environment to reflect more deeply upon everything I had learned and experienced to date.

William Blake's caution that we all see and understand the same things quite differently ("but thou read'st black where I read white") was firmly impressed upon my mind. I could recognize that we each tend to interpret and utilize the same information very differently. Therefore there are so many arguments in such fields as political and religious belief (or disbelief, as the case may be).

I had grown up in England, but wasn't so excited about my prospects there. I had done well at school, receiving an above average education at a series of private schools.

After entering the public education system, I found that my earlier teachers had covered the entire pre-university syllabus by the time we reached age 12. I had excelled in History, English and Biology, winning a science prize offered to many private schools at that time, for an in-depth paper on the many varied and specific adaptations displayed by bats.

I completed my university entrance exams 2 years earlier than the usual schedule, and decided to take time to work and look at life outside of the school system before attending.

I quickly discovered I could make more money than most people without working as hard as them. Yet I felt more at home in the burgeoning 'underground' or alternative culture, and found myself disconnecting from the norm.

At the same time, I didn't really feel at home there either.

Everywhere I looked, people seemed anxious and dissatisfied, obliged to spend so much time doing things they really didn't want to, and living in conflict with much of their environment and its inhabitants.

I felt profoundly unsatisfied. I didn't know exactly what it was I was looking for, but I knew it wasn't what others around me had or what my familiar society offered.

I determined I wanted to be free to find something else entirely; and so I gave away almost everything I owned, got a small backpack, and spent many months hitchhiking across Europe and Asia before arriving, almost penniless, in India.

I immersed myself into India's ancient culture, living there for several years, thus opening myself up to a world of experiences that were simply unimaginable in relation to where I came from. And I began to consider the different ways we all view life.

I spent decades studying and practicing various disciplines under the direction of several yogis, mystics and enlightened preceptors. My books represent my attempts to share the selfless and harmonizing wisdom embodied in their teachings with other persons from my own culture.

In order to pave the way for some open-minded consideration of such, I first address the beliefs and perspectives we already have, and which we are naturally conditioned to uncritically accept as 'true,' and that form the ground for our particular values, goals, ways of interacting with others, and our overall experience of life.

After leaving India, I came to America, where I experienced the joys and challenges of two marriages, that produced four wonderful children between them, while I also navigated the arena of living a regular responsible material life.

I currently live in Austin, Texas, where I am at work on several more books, including the story of my adventures both traveling to and then living in India for over 3 years back in the late 1970's.

Having begun the practice of Bhakti-yoga in India 45 years ago, I regularly journey there on sacred pilgrimages and to receive further guidance and blessing from beloved masters in this tradition. Through workshops, speaking engagements and writing, I also try to share these teachings, along with the beautiful shared mantra-meditation practice known as 'kirtan' in such a way as to help others recognize the non-sectarian value of all such, and the profound guidance, joy and sense of purpose these offer their own lives.

I am also available as a guest speaker, especially in relation to Science, Philosophy & Spirituality; the non-sectarian universal teachings of bhakti-Vedanta; and also in regards to the different arenas of Relationship, namely with self, others and God.