Table of Contents
Preface to the Cornerstone Edition xiii
1 Introduction 1
Suspicions 1
What Is California? 3
The Loss Of The Cosmic 4
A Wider Sense Of Psychology 6
The Agonies Of Religious "Relevance" 9
The Sense Of Asian Teachings 11
Why Now? Why Here? 14
The Inclusion Of The Mind 15
The Return Of The Practical 17
The Modern Underestimation Of Man 19
Hinduism, Buddhism And Sufism 23
Hinduism 23
Buddhism 26
Sufism 30
The Occult 34
The Place Of California 36
2 Zen Center 39
The Embrace Of Zen Buddhism 39
"Just Sitting" 41
Drugs and "Extraordinary" Experience 45
Difficulties 48
Suzuki Roshi 52
What Is a Master? 52
The Uses of Ritual 56
The Place of the Intellect 57
The Question of Discipline 61
Tassajara 67
An American Zen Monastery 67
What It a Monk? 69
A Monastery in the Midst of Life 71
The Monastery as a Laboratory 76
3 Meher Baba 79
The Age Of The Avatar 79
Psyche And Cosmos 80
The Instrumentality Of Love 82
The Life And Work Of Meher Baba 84
The Silence 89
The Baba-Lovers 92
A Search For The Emotions 102
Love From The Point Of Failure 104
4 Subud 111
The Experience Of Latihan 111
An "Ordinary" Man 116
Energies 120
The Meaning Of Submission 124
The Energies Of Sex 129
Social Order And Self-Perfection 132
Understanding Death 135
5 Transcendental Meditation (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) 139
Promises 139
The Attracted Mind 144
The Theory Of The Mantra 149
"It's Easy!" 151
What Is A "Practical Method"? 154
6 A Note on Krishnamurti 157
Instantaneous Self-Observation 157
A New Understanding Of Freedom 159
Thought And Death 163
The Surface Of Krishnamurti 165
The Existence Of Psychological Help168
Relationship: An Example 171
Right Education 176
7 Tibet in America 181
The Appearance Of Tibet 181
The Compassion Of Reality 183
Why Are They Here? 186
Tarthang Tulku 190
The Vajrayana 192
Balanced Disillusionment 194
The Path To The Path 197
The "Accumulation Of Merit" 201
The Weight Of Tibet 205
8 The Hunger for Ideas 207
A More Fundamental World 207
Astrology 209
The Idea Of Influences 209
Reincarnation 212
Ideas Us Tools 212
The Sacred In Nature 215
The American Indian 216
The Silence Of Nature 218
Western Esotericism 220
Civilization in the Midst of the Cosmos 220
9 A Note about the Ideas of Gurdjieff 225
10 In Search of a Central Question 229
Other Groups And Teachings 229
Drugs And The Problem Of Work 232
Enthusiasm 234
Spiritual Effortlessness 235
The New Religions 238
11 Conclusion 245
References 253
Suggestions for Further Reading 259
Index 263
