I come from a missionary family - I grew up in China - and in my case, my religious upbringing was positive. Of course, not everyone has this experience. I know many of my students are what I have come to think of as wounded Christians or wounded Jews. What came through to them was dogmatism and moralism, and it rubbed them the wrong way.

...like a magnetic compass turning north, I always tried to head in the direction of the better, which is the direction to God. ...the directions that appeared to lead away from Christianity led me deeper into it.

...primal people see the objects of this world not (or not only) as solid but as open windows to their divine source.

I am profoundly moved and persuaded by the near-death experience.

It would be good if we bore one another's burdens.

...the single destination of sanctity could admit of so many different avenues leading to it.

Swami Ashokananda was a brilliant and accomplished spiritual teacher in the West.