Authors
Philosophers, mystics and teachers, from Plato to the present, with their works and the essays that discuss them.
A
- AbhinavaguptaKashmiri philosopher, Tantric master and aesthetician, the great systematizer of non-dual Śaivism.
- Abraham AbulafiaFounder of prophetic, ecstatic Kabbalah, a discipline of meditation on the letters of the divine names.
- The Mother (Mirra Alfassa)Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual collaborator, who led his ashram and founded Auroville.
- Angelus SilesiusGerman poet whose rhymed couplets, The Cherubinic Wanderer, distil the mysticism of Eckhart into epigrams.
- Guru ArjanFifth Sikh Guru, compiler of the Adi Granth and first Sikh martyr.
- AsaṅgaCo-founder of the Yogācāra school of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
- Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭārPersian Sufi poet of Nishapur, author of The Conference of the Birds.
- Augustine of HippoBishop and theologian whose Confessions describe the soul’s restless search for God.
- Sri AurobindoIndian nationalist turned yogi and philosopher of spiritual evolution and the life divine.
B
- The Baal Shem TovCharismatic teacher in Podolia, regarded as the founder of Hasidism.
- Baḥya ibn PaqudaJewish moral philosopher of Muslim Spain, author of The Duties of the Heart, a classic of the inner life.
- Bāyazīd BisṭāmīPersian Sufi of Bisṭām, famed for his ecstatic sayings, the model of “intoxicated” mysticism.
- Jacob BoehmeGerman shoemaker and visionary who taught that God reveals himself through the play of opposites.
- BonaventureFranciscan theologian and mystic, whose Journey of the Mind into God maps the ascent through creatures to God.
- Martin BuberAustrian-born Jewish philosopher of dialogue and interpreter of Hasidism.
- The BuddhaThe teacher whose awakening and teaching founded Buddhism.
- BuddhaghosaThe great commentator of the Theravāda and author of the Visuddhimagga.
C
- CaitanyaBengali saint of ecstatic devotion to Krishna, inspirer of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism.
- John CassianMonk who brought the wisdom of the Egyptian desert to the Latin West in his Institutes and Conferences.
- Catherine of SienaItalian mystic and reformer whose Dialogue records the soul’s conversation with God on truth, love and the bridge of Christ.
- The author of The Cloud of UnknowingAnonymous English author of a classic guide to contemplative prayer.
- ConfuciusChinese teacher whose sayings, recorded in the Analects, founded the Confucian tradition.
- Moses CordoveroKabbalist of Safed who gave the Zohar’s teaching its most systematic form.
D
E
- Meister EckhartDominican theologian and preacher of the ground of the soul and the Godhead.
- Ralph Waldo EmersonAmerican essayist and lecturer, the leading voice of Transcendentalism and of the Over-Soul.
- EpictetusStoic teacher, born a slave, whose discourses teach freedom through the right use of judgment.
- Evagrius PonticusDesert monk who gave Christian contemplative practice its first systematic form: the eight thoughts, apatheia and pure prayer.
F
G
- GauḍapādaAuthor of the Kārikā on the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, the earliest surviving work of Advaita.
- al-GhazālīPersian theologian who turned from academic eminence to the Sufi path.
- Gregory of NyssaCappadocian Father and theologian of the soul’s endless ascent into God.
- Gregory PalamasAthonite monk and archbishop of Thessalonica who defended hesychasm.
- Mahendranath Gupta (“M.”)Calcutta schoolmaster and disciple of Ramakrishna, who recorded his conversations in the Kathāmṛta.
H
- ḤāfiẓPersian lyric poet of Shiraz, whose ghazals of wine and love are read as both worldly and mystical.
- Hakuin EkakuJapanese Zen master who revived the Rinzai school and its kōan training, painter and calligrapher.
- al-ḤallājPersian Sufi executed in Baghdad, famous for the saying “I am the Truth”.
- G. W. F. HegelGerman philosopher of the Absolute as spirit, coming to know itself through nature and history.
- HeraclitusGreek philosopher of Ephesus who taught the hidden unity of opposites, governed by the logos.
- Hildegard of BingenBenedictine abbess, visionary, composer and naturalist, who saw the cosmos and the body as the living work of God.
- HōnenJapanese founder of the Jōdo school, who taught the exclusive recitation of Amida’s name.
- HuinengThe Sixth Patriarch of Chan, and the figure of the Platform Sūtra.
- Aldous HuxleyEnglish writer whose anthology The Perennial Philosophy shaped modern comparative mysticism.
I
- Ibn ʿArabīAndalusian Sufi metaphysician, known as “the Greatest Master”.
- Ibn SīnāPersian philosopher and physician, the most influential of the Islamic philosophers.
- Muhammad IqbalPoet and philosopher of the self (khudi), who sought to reconstruct Islamic thought in dialogue with modern philosophy.
- ĪśvarakṛṣṇaAuthor of the Sāṃkhyakārikā, the classical text of the Sāṃkhya school.
J
- William JamesAmerican philosopher and psychologist who studied religious experience.
- Jigme LingpaTibetan Dzogchen master and revealer of the Longchen Nyingtik, the most widely practised Dzogchen cycle.
- JñāneśvarMarathi poet-saint and philosopher, author of the Jñāneśvarī, a commentary on the Bhagavad Gītā.
- John of the CrossSpanish Carmelite poet and theologian of the dark night.
- Julian of NorwichEnglish anchoress and author of the Revelations of Divine Love.
- Junayd of BaghdadMaster of the Baghdad school of Sufism, the teacher of “sober” mysticism and its doctrine of return.
K
- KabīrWeaver-poet of Varanasi who rejected the outward forms of every religion.
- J. KrishnamurtiIndian teacher who rejected all authority and method, and taught choiceless awareness of what is.
- KundakundaDigambara Jain philosopher of the soul’s pure nature, revered as the greatest Jain teacher after Mahāvīra.
L
- Lal DedKashmiri poet-saint whose sayings join Śaiva yoga and devotion.
- LaoziTraditional author of the Daodejing, the classic of the Way and its power.
- Brother LawrenceCarmelite lay brother whose practice of the presence of God in the kitchen became a classic of everyday prayer.
- Moses de LeónCastilian Kabbalist, generally regarded as the main author of the Zohar.
- LinjiChinese Chan master famous for his shouts and blows, founder of the Linji (Rinzai) school.
- LongchenpaTibetan master who gave the Dzogchen teaching its classic systematic form.
- Isaac LuriaKabbalist of Safed whose teaching of creation, exile and repair reshaped Jewish mysticism.
M
- MadhvaFounder of Dvaita Vedānta, which holds God, selves and matter eternally distinct.
- MahāvīraThe twenty-fourth tīrthaṅkara of Jainism, its last great teacher in this age.
- MaimonidesJewish philosopher, legal scholar and physician, author of the Guide of the Perplexed.
- Marcus AureliusRoman emperor and Stoic, whose private notebook, the Meditations, is one of the classics of spiritual writing.
- Maximus the ConfessorByzantine monk and theologian of deification, for whom the reasons of all things are gathered in the divine Logos.
- MenciusConfucian philosopher who taught that human nature is good.
- Thomas MertonAmerican Trappist monk and writer on contemplation, who opened Christian monasticism to the wisdom of Asia.
- MilarepaTibetan yogin and poet, the great example of transformation through devotion, hardship and solitary practice.
- MīrābāīRajput princess and poet-saint of devotion to Krishna.
- Mullā ṢadrāPersian philosopher who joined philosophy, illumination and Sufi metaphysics.
- Friedrich Max MüllerGerman-born Oxford scholar of Sanskrit and founder of the science of religion.
N
- NāgārjunaFounder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy.
- Naḥman of BratslavHasidic master and storyteller, great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, who taught secluded prayer and joy amid despair.
- Guru NānakFounder of the Sikh tradition and first of the ten Gurus.
- Nicholas of CusaCardinal and philosopher of learned ignorance and of God as the coincidence of opposites.
O
P
- ParmenidesGreek philosopher of Elea who argued that being is one, whole and unchanging.
- PatañjaliCompiler of the Yoga Sūtras, the classical text of the Yoga school.
- Philo of AlexandriaJewish philosopher of Alexandria who read the Torah through Greek philosophy, and first described the Logos as mediator between God and the world.
- PlatoAthenian philosopher whose dialogues founded the Western philosophical tradition.
- PlotinusFounder of Neoplatonism and philosopher of the One.
- ProclusHead of the Platonic school in Athens and the great systematizer of late Neoplatonism.
Q
R
- Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyyaEarly Sufi woman of Basra, remembered for teaching the pure love of God.
- RamakrishnaBengali mystic whose teaching emphasized the many paths to God.
- Ramana MaharshiSouth Indian sage who taught self-enquiry: “Who am I?”
- RāmānujaTeacher of Viśiṣṭādvaita, the Vedānta of a real world and a personal God.
- Jalāl al-Dīn RūmīPersian poet and Sufi teacher, author of the Masnavi.
- Jan van RuusbroecFlemish mystic who described union with God as a rest and a flowing-out at once.
S
- SaichōJapanese monk who founded the Tendai school on Mount Hiei.
- ŚaṅkaraSystematizer of Advaita Vedānta, the non-dual reading of the Upaniṣads.
- ŚāntidevaAuthor of the Bodhicaryāvatāra, the classic guide to the bodhisattva path.
- F. W. J. SchellingGerman philosopher of nature and of the Absolute identity of subject and object.
- Arthur SchopenhauerGerman philosopher of the will, the first major Western philosopher to engage Indian thought.
- ShinranDisciple of Hōnen and founder of the Jōdo Shinshū, who taught that even faith is the gift of Amida.
- Aḥmad SirhindīIndian Naqshbandī Sufi who taught the “unity of witnessing” against Ibn ʿArabī’s “unity of being”.
- Baruch SpinozaDutch philosopher who identified God with the one infinite substance.
- W. T. StaceBritish philosopher whose Mysticism and Philosophy proposed a common core of mysticism.
- SuhrawardīPersian philosopher, founder of the philosophy of illumination.
T
- Rabindranath TagoreBengali poet, philosopher and educator, the first non-European Nobel laureate in literature.
- Johannes TaulerDominican preacher of Strasbourg who carried Eckhart’s teaching into the practice of the inner life.
- Teresa of ÁvilaSpanish Carmelite reformer and author of The Interior Castle.
- Thomas à KempisCanon of the Devotio Moderna and the most probable author of The Imitation of Christ, the most widely read Christian book after the Bible.
- Henry David ThoreauAmerican writer and naturalist, whose Walden describes a life of simplicity and attention in nature.
- TsongkhapaFounder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism and author of the Lamrim Chenmo.
- TukārāmThe most beloved of the Marathi poet-saints, whose abhaṅgas sing devotion to Viṭhobā in the language of ordinary life.
U
V
- Vācaspati MiśraCommentator who expounded nearly every school of Indian philosophy, including Sāṃkhya and Advaita.
- VasubandhuAuthor of the Abhidharmakośa and of the classic short treatises of Yogācāra.
- Vedānta DeśikaPoet and philosopher who defended and systematized Rāmānuja’s Vedānta.
- Swami VivekanandaDisciple of Ramakrishna who presented Vedānta to Western audiences.
- VyāsatīrthaDvaita philosopher and royal teacher whose critique of Advaita set its terms for a century.
W
- Wang BiProdigy of the “Learning of the Mysterious” and the classic commentator on Laozi.
- Wang ChongyangFounder of Quanzhen Daoism, who taught inner alchemy and the unity of the three teachings.
- Wang YangmingMing dynasty philosopher and statesman who taught the unity of knowledge and action.
- Simone WeilFrench philosopher and mystic of attention, affliction and the decreation of the self.
Z
- R. C. ZaehnerOxford scholar of religions who argued, against Huxley, that mystical experiences are of different kinds.
- ZhiyiFounder of the Tiantai school, who systematized Chinese Buddhism around the Lotus Sūtra and the threefold truth.
- Zhu XiThe great synthesizer of Neo-Confucianism, whose commentaries became Chinese orthodoxy.
- ZhuangziDaoist philosopher of freedom, perspective and spontaneity.
- ZongmiHuayan patriarch and Chan master who sought to unite Buddhist doctrine and meditation.