# Appendix. My Resources and Teachers
The following resources are the ones that I have found most valuable on my spiritual journey. They are only a few out of the thousands that are available. The comments about them are my own and are purely subjective.
By far, the two teachers who have influenced me most are the jnanis, Ramesh Balsekar and Wei Wu Wei. Ramesh’s latest books, A Personal Religion of Your Own (2006), (which I think is one of his best), The Relationship Between ‘I’ and ‘Me’ (2006), Let Life Flow (2006), Seeking Enlightenment, Why? (2005), Nuggets of Wisdom (2005), The One in the Mirror (2004), The Seeking (2004), Peace and Harmony in Daily Living (2003), The Ultimate Understanding (2002), Sin and Guilt — Monstrosity of Mind (2000) and Who Cares? (1999) are good, readable summaries of his current teaching. Another one, A Net of Jewels (1996), consists of meditations from his earlier books, two for each day of a year. Of the earlier books, I highly recommend two: 1) a metaphysical one, The Final Truth (1989); and 2) a translation of, and commentary on, the Ashtavakra Gita entitled A Duet of One (1989).[1] Ramesh’s books and tapes, and information about his satsangs, are available from Wayne Liquorman’s website, Advaita Fellowship. Wayne was one of Ramesh’s first students to awaken, and was later instructed by Ramesh to teach also.
An excellent website devoted to Wei Wu Wei and run by Matthew Errey can be found at The Wei Wu Wei Archives. Many of Wei Wu Wei’s books are newly in print and available from Sentient Publications. Eight of them are offered there for a bundled price (The Wei Wu Wei Collection). All of these books are excellent — but my favourite is Posthumous Pieces.
The teacher next most influential to me has been Francis Lucille, whose schedule can be found at Francis Lucille. Francis cannot easily be categorised as either bhakta or jnani. I consider him to be an excellent teacher because of his powerful intellect and the clarity of his answers to questions. He has written three clear and lucid books, Eternity Now (1996), The Perfume of Silence and Truth Love Beauty (2006), which are available from his website.
In his books, As It Is (2000), All There Is (2003) and Invitation to Awakening (2004), Tony Parsons gives a clear and profound description of what life after awakening is like. His website is at [https://www.theopensecret.com/](The Open Secret), which also contains instructions for obtaining his books.
Even though I warn in Section 17.1 against the dangers of misinterpreting the scriptures, I highly recommend the works of Ramana Maharshi, who is considered by many to be the greatest Indian saint of the twentieth century. His Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi is a modern scriptural classic (first published in 1955, it has been reprinted ten times and is still in print). A website at Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi is devoted to his works, most of which can be downloaded for free. Particularly helpful is Ramesh Balsekar’s book, Pointers From Ramana Maharshi (2008) because it is consists of a few selected talks with Ramesh’s interpretations, the teaching of a saint as brought to us by a sage. Also, a nicely organised condensation of the talks themselves is given by David Godman in Be As You Are (1985).
The best known book containing the dialogues of Ramesh’s guru, Nisargadatta Maharaj, is I Am That (1984), which can be freely downloaded from Vedanta Spiritual Library. Another book, Pointers From Nisargadatta (1982), written by Ramesh, combines the enlightened teaching of Nisargdatta with the enlightened writing of Ramesh in a concise, readable book of short chapters.
An excellent summary of the basic teaching of the Buddha in its purest form, without the sometimes spurious additions and erroneous embellishments of later commentators, can be found in What the Buddha Taught (1974) by Walpola Rahula. Another excellent book, Dancing With Life (2008) by well-known Buddhist meditation teacher Phillip Moffitt[2] is a handbook for experiencing the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha.
B. Alan Wallace is a renowned Western Tibetan Buddhism teacher. His book, Genuine Happiness (2005) is an excellent introduction to the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. His website is located at Alan Wallace — Author, teacher, lecturer.
Ajahn Sumedho, senior monk at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in Hertfordshire, England is the author of the insightful and practical free downloadable book Intuitive Awareness (2001), which can be found at BuddhaNet - Worldwide Buddhist Information and Education Network. He is the only spiritual teacher I know of who advocates simply trusting Awareness as the basis of all spiritual practice.
Candice O’Denver is a modern sage of non-duality who teaches Awareness/Presence on her website at Great Freedom — Short Moments of Clarity, Repeated Many Times and in her book The Basic State at The Basic State.
Rupert Spira,[3] a student of Francis Lucille, excels in the non-dual expression of the heart. His book, The Transparency of Things (2008) is a masterpiece in its investigation of the nature of experience.
Greg Goode is unexcelled in philosophical understanding among non-dual teachers. He is the author of Standing in Awareness (2009), a short, exceptionally clear book of pointers and exercises in non-dual understanding; and Non-dualism in Western Philosophy (2007), a series of pointers to how Western non-dualism can assist with one’s self-inquiry. Both are available from Nondualism in Western Philosophy — Greg Goode.
# Footnotes
Another highly regarded translation, without commentary, of the Ashtavakra Gita called The Heart of Awareness (1990), by John Richards, is available at Ashtavakra Gita translated by John Richards ↩︎
Non Duality Contemplation and Teachings with Rupert Spira ↩︎