Spiritual (again)

My holiday explorations

I’ve become interested in spirituality again.

But this time it’s different. I’m older, certainly. Wiser, maybe. Sceptical, definitely. I intend to keep my feet on the ground, my mind engaged, and my body nourished this time around.

Image courtesy of DALL-E: “Nietzsche in a lotus position, meditating, with a crown chakra or a mandala above his head”

Over my summer holiday I have been reading about some of the ancient Indian spiritual and philosophical traditions, especially what was happening in the Kashmir valley about a thousand years ago. That is - the origins of Yoga, the evolution of Shaivism into classical Tantra, and related spiritual, practical and religious ideas and practices.

I won’t go into detail here - the book that has helped me the most has been Christopher Wallis’s Tantra Illuminated - a great (but very academic) study of the philosophy and theology of those traditions.

The insights and practices offered by these traditions, something I have always been deeply sceptical ab…