This book--at once simple and powerful--stands as a monument to the lifelong spiritual struggles of Edward Salim Michael, struggles that he heroically surmounted on his path to enlightenment. Due to the circumstances of his birth, Michael had no education, no mother tongue, and no book learning when he was drafted at the age of 19 into the British Royal Air Force during World War II. After learning to read and write he became an accomplished classical composer in France. In 1949, after seeing a statue of a Buddha for the first time, he experienced a powerful awakening of his innate Buddha Nature, which inspired him to begin a sustained and extremely disciplined meditation practice. Michael abandoned his career as a composer and went to India, the home of his maternal grandmother, where he lived for seven years fully focused on his spiritual awakening. Michael’s spiritual teachings reveal techniques of yoga and meditation that can open the door to one’s higher nature and to directly experience the after-death state. Nada yoga (meditation on the inner sound) is one of the core techniques for this realization. There is a vast luminous consciousness already within us, but it is obscured by the clouds of our incessant thoughts. With sincerity, moral integrity, and inner vigilance, which, when embodied, implies that we have internalized the basic tenets of the law of attention, we can move beyond the promptings of our lower nature and break through the clouds of our ordinary mind to realize our own divine nature. Emphasizing inner attention and an awareness of attitude, Michael’s practices can help aspirants make direct contact with the divine source each of us unknowingly carries deep within.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Ajahn Sumedho Preface Introduction 1 Birth and Self-Forgetfulness 2 The Attention and Its Importance 3 The Body and Self-Recollectedness 4 The Aspirant’s Attitude When Alone 5 The Slavery of Wrong Personal Consideration 6 Inner Work in Outer Life Conditions 7 Sva-Vani-Sravana Yoga, Yoga of Listening to the Sound of One’s Voice 8 Efforts and Sincerity 9 The Mysterious Role of Suffering 10 Nada Yoga, Yoga of the Inner Sound (Part One) 11 Nada Yoga, Yoga of the Inner Sound (Part Two) 12 Nada Yoga, Yoga of the Inner Sound (Part Three) 13 Nada Yoga, Yoga of the Inner Sound (Part Four) 14 Nada Yoga, Yoga of the Inner Sound (Part Five) 15 The Practice of Concentration While Walking Outside 16 Hidden Tendencies and the Meaning of Renunciation 17 Tapas (Self-Denials) and Their True Significance 18 Earthly Existence as Indispensable Means for Transformation 19 Yoga of the Void 20 Problems in Meditation and Their Equivalent When Dying 21 Hatha Yoga (Part One) 22 Hatha Yoga (Part Two) 23 Hatha Yoga (Part Three) 24 Time and Eternity 25 Meditation and the After-Death State 26 The Importance of Cyclic Recurrence in the Universe 27 Meditation with Slow Walking and Breathing (Part One) 28 Meditation with Slow Walking and Breathing (Part Two) 29 Meditation with Slow Walking and Breathing (Part Three) 30 Meditation with Slow Walking and Breathing (Part Four) 31 The Interaction of Forces in the Universe and Life 32 The Power of Hidden Influences Emanating from Beings and Things 33 Actions and Their Consequences in the World 34 The Trace That Thoughts, Words, and Deeds Leave 35 The Human Being Thinks Himself into What He Is 36 Accidental Forces and Their Effect on a Person’s Being 37 Seeing and Hearing 38 Exercise with the Sacred Syllable OM 39 Sadhana and Enlightenment (Part One) 40 Sadhana and Enlightenment (Part Two) 41 Sadhana and Enlightenment (Part Three) 42 The Further Understanding of Right Effort 43 The Price of Enlightenment 44 Mother and Child 45 Man and Woman 46 Food and the Human Being 47 The Spectator and the Spectacle 48 Conclusion and Summary (with Some Final Advice and Reminders) Afterword Index About the Author