The Book of One

One cannot help agreeing with Alan Jacobs, the author and chairman of the Ramana Maharshi Foundation that this is a 'masterful and profoundly insightful survey of the Advaita teaching and the contemporary scene.' This is an update of the first edition that I reviewed in 2004, with a substantial addition of new material, including the glossary, Internet links, organisations and recommended reading. Interest in Advaita has grown substantially over the last fifty years, beginning with Arthur Osborne's books on Ramana Maharshi. Bede Griffiths added to this interest in the final years of his life while Robert Powell has made the work of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj better known and the works of Ramesh Balsekar are becoming more widely read. Here Dennis Waite provides a magisterial survey of the field in three parts: The Unreal, The Spiritual Path and The Real. He treats all our mental and spiritual faculties as well as the principal themes and practices of the spiritual path, with many references to and extracts from texts and teachers. A book that belongs on the shelves of any serious student of perennial philosophy and non-duality.