The way of passion : a celebration of Rumi

Englishman Andrew Harvey was born in South India, where be lived until the age of nine when he was sent to England to be educated. He attended Oxford, and at age twenty-one received England's highest academic honor, becoming the youngest Fellow of All Soul's College in its history. A prolific writer, Harvey is the author of over ten books, including Journey to Ladakh (1983) He collaborated with Sogyal Rinpoche on the bestselling Tibetan Book of Living and Dying (1991), which presents the Tibetan Buddhist view of death and the nature of the mind Despite his success as a scholar, educator, writer, and poet, Harvey experienced intense dissatisfaction at the disparities and inequities of the patriarchal, rationalist Western tradition and longed for the spiritual richness of his boyhood in India. In 1977 he returned to India and immersed himself in its culture, philosophy, and spirituality, studying at the ashram of the Bengali mystic Sri Aurobindo The next year Harvey traveled to Pondicherry to meet Kamala Reddy (Mother Meera), an Indian woman then only seventeen years old who her followers believe is an avatar, a living incarnation of the Divine Presence. With Mother Meera Harvey underwent a series of profound mystical experiences, but remained reticent to commit to her as his spiritual mentor. He returned to the West and taught in the United States for the next seven years while continuing to make regular pilgrimages to India. There, Harvey studied with the Tibetan Buddhist Master Thuksey Rinpoche. In 1986 he presented himself to Mother Meera and lived for a year at her home in Germany His critically acclaimed Hidden Journey: A Spiritual Awakening (1991) describes his work with the Divine Mother, and brought international attenion to master and disciple. Based now in Paris, Harvey is the subject of a 1993 documentary, The Making of a Mystic The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi follows Harvey's Love's Fire (1988) and Speaking Flame (1989), two re-creations of the