Sure Ways to Self Realization

Like every book I have picked up by the Bihar School of Yoga publishers, it is sensational. Extremely readable and absolutely packed with information. In essence it is a history/discussion of meditation in all its forms, through history and all over the world. The questions of using biofeedback and psychedelics, and even sensory deprivation tanks, are addressed in a balanced way. A large section then covers various forms of yogic meditation. The final section summarizes meditation methods and origins in essentially every world tradition: shamanism, the druids, neo-Platonists, Hinduism, many schools of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and so on. The author is a yogi, however, so the more rationally-minded will have to take discussion of chakras, nadis, and so on with a grain of salt. That said, this kind of dogma is very minimal in the book and does not detract from its value or clarity. Parallels (alleged) are pointed out, but no strenuous effort is made to cram all forms of meditation into a yogic framework or philosophy. It is an introduction of course, each technique is glossed over fairly superficially, but then that's the idea. An incredible introduction and source book to lead you onto many further studies. I can't recommend it enough.

The book presents a wonderful spectrum of spiritual knowledge. It would have been greater to go deeper on each of the paths (but then the book would have been, like 5000 pages) Many of the practices also need a living guide / teacher