Tales Of A Mad Yogi

A fascinating biography of Drukpa Kunley, a Tibetan Buddhist master and crazy yogi. The fifteenth-century Himalayan saint Drukpa Kunley is a beloved figure throughout Tibet, Bhutan, and Nepal, known both for his profound mastery of Buddhist practice as well as his highly unconventional and often humorous behavior. Ever the proverbial trickster and “crazy wisdom” yogi, his outward appearance and conduct of carousing, philandering, and breaking social norms is understood to be a means to rouse ordinary people out of habitual ways of thinking and lead them toward spiritual awakening. Elizabeth L. Monson has spent decades traveling throughout the Himalayas, retracing Drukpa Kunley’s steps and translating his works. In this creative telling, direct translations of his teachings are woven into a life story based on historical accounts, autobiographical sketches, folktales, and first-hand ethnographic research. The result, with flourishes of magical encounters and references to his superhuman capacities, is a poignant narrative of Kunley’s life, revealing to the reader the quintessential example of the capacity of Buddhism to skillfully bring people to liberation.

On the day the Beatles Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, is released in June 1967 - Raphael falls off his motorbike and momentarily dies. In a vision, he sees Shiva, the father of Yoga, and is altered in a way he cannot understand. Diary of a Mad Yogi is a wild ride of spiritual adventuring, through wisdom traditions stretching from the Druids in the north to the Dreamtime in the south. Raf is thrown into the vortex of one overwhelming question: what does it take to know who you are? Simon Hollington’s ecstatic, voluptuous and witty prose takes us through a holographic universe as Raf finds his centre, in the place beyond all his imaginings.

DIARY OF A YOGI – A BOOK OF AWAKENING Based on the life of Altair Shyam A mystical tale of revelations and transformation. A book of beauty and presence that transforms the way you love and opens your heart to the miracles of this precious lifetime through the power of pure intention. “This is it. Diary of a Yogi – a True Story is more than a book. It is a journey you take that will profoundly impact your life. This is your chance to go into the forest and emerge transformed.” Jane Tara

The Three Levels of Spiritual Perception is a revised edition of the classic guide to the Lamdre, a key system of meditation of the Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Written by one of the first Tibetan masters to live and teach in the United States, it is rendered in a lyrical style that entertains, inspires, and motivates the reader. A key work for all those who are eager to develop and deepen their meditation practice.

This is not an ordinary biography. It is as much an inner story as an outer one. And someone who has an inner life as rich as Yogi does, naturally provides teachings through the telling of the outer biography. Yogi has dedicated his life to a deep and enthusiastic pursuit of the ancient path of Yoga and Tantra. Unlike many Western interpretations that trivialise these topics, Yogi presents a profound and illuminating journey through this mystical terrain. Yogi Matsyendranath is the Western world's spiritual leader of the Nath Yoga tradition. Born in Bryansk in the USSR, he graduated from Youngdong University in South Korea and trained in Shri Vidya and Shakta Tantra of Nepal. As well as the Nath tradition, he is an expert in Tantric Puja and Hatha Yoga practice. Author Keith Simons embarked on a personal and interpersonal journey with Yogi in a collaborative creative process. He asked, how did someone born and raised in communist Soviet Union become a leader of Nath Yoga, one of India's oldest spiritual traditions? How did Yogi Matsyendranath become a resident in Australia? After-all, growing up in the atheistic environment of the Soviet Union wasn't exactly conducive to a deep interest and practice of any spiritual path. And Australia is a long way from Russia. I soon began to realise how unusual Yogi's life story was. Interspersed between his life in Russia and becoming a resident of Australia, there were years in other countries, mainly India and South Korea. Yogi is not only an authentic spiritual teacher but also a cosmopolitan citizen in the truest sense. The impressive authenticity and gentle kindness of his character embedded themselves into my daily rhythms of working with him. He was always natural, easygoing and relaxed about how and when we would next meet and so we met as many times as felt necessary to capture the main features of his life story and teachings. I'd never before worked on a draft in this way. There were many challenges in crafting a story in the first person, but on the other hand, the natural empathy I experienced with Yogi helped me to forge ahead with confidence. His aura of fine spiritual qualities never diminished. He was consistently conveying and manifesting authenticity, integrity, wisdom and compassion, and often a delightful childlike humour. His words were penetrating in their simplicity but he could also share difficult and subtle areas of teaching. Such an uprightness and noble persona did Yogi emanate that others often felt in awe of him. His presence naturally and without intention drew attention. This book is dedicated to the spirit of open-minded spiritual research and practice. It is also an example of following one's heart. It is one person's story but in many ways our story too, ordinary and extraordinary at the same time.

How did an ancient Indian spiritual discipline turn into a GBP 20 billion-a-year mainstay of the global wellness industry? This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time. From arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through muscular Christianity and the British Raj, to the Indian nationalist movement and the arrival of yoga in the twentieth-century West, we discover how the practice reached its present-day ubiquity and how it became embedded in powerful social currents shaping the world's future, such as digital media, celebrity culture, the stress pandemic and the quest for an authentic identity in the face of unprecedented change.

What happens when an average person takes up the practice of yoga and begins to experience the siddhis - the paranormal abilities of yogi legend? These are true stories of a modern western yogi's light-hearted personal journey into the realms of magic and mysticism. The path to cosmic consciousness sometimes winds through a maze of extraordinary phenomena: mischievous ghosts, astral projection, devas and geniis, materialization, psychokinesis, astrology and remote viewing, to name a few. Guided by a recalcitrant guru and driven by his own insatiable curiosity, adjusting to living with siddhis results in some eye-opening and often humorous moments.