Beyond Religion: Meditations on Our True Nature

Trained originally as a chemist, Robert Powell now devotes his time to the spiritual life and to writing on Advaita philosophy. The writing is, however, as he makes clear, secondary to the life in that the essence of what he has to say is beyond concepts and indeed beyond the activity of the mind itself. This book is divided into three parts – essays, reflections and public talks. The first part has essays touching on some of the key spiritual figures of our time including Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a number of whose books Robert has edited. For me the heart of the book is his aphoristic reflections which provide a distillation of its content. Here are just two: 'There is no future in the ego – death sees to that: why then do we go in investing everything we have into it?' And 'The purpose of individual existence is to break down the barriers of separateness – which create the "individuality" – and to become one with Pure Being'. As Robert observes, 'realisation means the end of conceptualisation', so I had better stop there!