Description
The Ecstasy Beyond Knowing
A Manual of Meditation
by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
The Ecstasy Beyond Knowing represents the distilled wisdom of Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan’s long lifetime of spiritual seeking and experiences. Meditation techniques are explained in detail along with the principles behind them, including practices with breath, light, energy, sound and mantram, inspired visualizations, and the Sufi dhikr.
The Sufi process and stages of transformation are interwoven with those of Hinduism, Buddhism, the Jewish Kabbalah, the glorification of the Christian Mass, and the alchemical process of self-transfiguration.
The height, depth, and breadth of mystical experiences are integrated with the insights of psychology and contemporary scientific discoveries, and the creativity inherent in all human nature is invoked to aid in transforming and beautifying the personality as well as the world.
Pir Vilayat reveals the way to develop a deep connection with the soul and spirit, and offers advice on maintaining the awareness and integrity of that connection through the joys and sorrows, challenges and adventures of everyday life.
Reviews for The Ecstasy Beyond Knowing:
“Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan’s Ecstasy Beyond Knowing is a unique and monumental guidebook, the fruit of a lifetime’s experience in teaching and guiding meditation for the most diverse audiences around the world. It is at once a comprehensive practical handbook for meditation, covering such basic subjects as working with the breath, sound, and levels of consciousness; a wide-ranging comparative study of interpretive and theoretical accounts of meditation in Sufi, Hindu, Buddhist, and Kabbalistic traditions; and an insightful, suggestive guide for the integration of one’s meditation practice in the wider processes and stages of individual spiritual growth.” – Professor James W. Morris, Boston College
“. . . a vast and unique wedding of mysticism, meditation, and inner science.” – Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart”
“This guide transmits the gifts of a master teacher, offered with clear and organized articulation, compassion, and understanding….Serious students of meditation will find detailed guidance in a wide variety of spiritual practices supported by the elucidation of their conceptual underpinnings. Those familiar with Sufi tradition will appreciate the breadth and depth of collected material, while meditators shaped by other traditions will find new perspectives to enrich their experiential work. Spiritual directors will particularly appreciate the vistas of interior landscape revealed in the suggested contemplative practices and the personal dedication to its skillful navigation that shines through the printed words.” – Amelia Stratton-Smith, in Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction, June 2015
“Pir Vilayat Khan’s last book is a very important summing up of a life and a movement. It is a wondrous and deeply impressive personal compendium of a Sufi master’s life of study and contemplative experience. No one can discuss Yoga, Zen, Tantric Buddhism, and Kabbalah from the inside with such a cultured worldview of art and science as well as Pir Vilayat Khan, whose teachings of universalism are precisely what we all need now in our contemporary world.” – William Irwin Thompson, author of The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light
