Where to start with non-duality
If you want the shortest way in
Ramana Maharshi’s Who Am I?, a few pages of questions and answers.
If you want it in plain modern English
Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now (1997), or Rupert Spira’s You Are the Happiness You Seek (2022).
If you want the Christian version
Meister Eckhart’s Selected Writings, then Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward (2011).
If you want someone to explain the whole map
Alan Watts’s The Way of Zen (1957), then Huxley’s The Perennial Philosophy (1945).
The traditions at a glance
Advaita Vedanta and the direct path
The Indian school whose name means “not two”, and the teachers who carried it into the West.
01
Adi Shankara
Indian · c. 700–750 CE in most scholars’ view
He set out Advaita Vedanta in commentaries on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras he argued that the self is not different from Brahman, the one reality.
Start withUpadesa Sahasri (A Thousand Teachings) (tr. 1949)
Every book by Adi Shankara →
02
Ramana Maharshi
Indian · 1879–1950
He lived at the foot of Arunachala from 1896 until his death and reduced the whole teaching to a single question, asked until the one asking is no longer found.
Start withWho Am I? (Nān Yār?) (1923)
Every book by Ramana Maharshi →
03
Nisargadatta Maharaj
Indian · taught in Mumbai
His talks, translated from Marathi by Maurice Frydman, became the most widely read book of modern Advaita.
Start withI Am That (1973)
Every book by Nisargadatta Maharaj →
04
Jean Klein
French · 1912–1998
A musicologist and physician who became one of the most eloquent Western teachers of Advaita; his books are edited records of question-and-answer meetings.
Start withI Am (1989)
Every book by Jean Klein →
05
Francis Lucille
Teacher of non-duality
A teacher in the line of Jean Klein, whom he met in 1975, and in turn the teacher of Rupert Spira.
Start withEternity Now (2006)
Every book by Francis Lucille →
06
Rupert Spira
Teacher of the Direct Path
A potter for some thirty years before he taught the “Direct Path”: the view that all experience is known by, and made of, a single awareness.
Start withYou Are the Happiness You Seek (2022)
Every book by Rupert Spira →
07
Mooji
Born in Jamaica, 1954
He teaches self-inquiry in the line of Ramana Maharshi and Papaji, through satsangs and retreats led from his ashram, Monte Sahaja, in Portugal.
Start withVaster Than Sky, Greater Than Space (2016)
Every book by Mooji →
08
Gangaji
American
An American teacher in the line of Ramana Maharshi and Papaji, who has taught self-inquiry for more than three decades.
Start withThe Diamond in Your Pocket (2005)
Every book by Gangaji →
Modern teachers outside any one tradition
Writers who arrived at the same place without, or after leaving, a school.
09
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Indian · 1895–1986
Raised by the Theosophical Society to be a “World Teacher”, he dissolved the order built around him in 1929 and spent his life refusing to give anyone a method, teaching what he called choiceless awareness.
Start withFreedom from the Known (1969)
Every book by Jiddu Krishnamurti →
10
Eckhart Tolle
German-born · b. 1948
His account of the ego as a thought you keep having reached a mass readership; A New Earth (2005) was an Oprah’s Book Club pick.
Start withThe Power of Now (1997)
Every book by Eckhart Tolle →
11
Tony Parsons
British
Known for “the open secret”, an uncompromising message that there is no separate self, no path and nothing to attain.
Start withThe Open Secret (1995)
Every book by Tony Parsons →
12
Adyashanti
American
He teaches awakening in plain, jargon-free language that grew out of fourteen years of Zen practice, and writes unusually frankly about what comes after it.
Start withFalling into Grace (2011)
Every book by Adyashanti →
13
Joan Tollifson
Writer
Plain, personal writing about non-duality and being present, drawn from her own life and years of Zen practice.
Start withDeath: The End of Self-Improvement (2019)
Every book by Joan Tollifson →
Buddhism and Zen
Emptiness, no-self and “just sitting”: the Buddhist versions of not-two.
14
Nagarjuna
Indian · c. 150–250 CE
Founder of the Madhyamaka, or Middle Way, school, which argues that nothing has a fixed nature of its own because everything arises in dependence on other things.
Start withThe Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (tr. 1995)
Every book by Nagarjuna →
15
Dōgen
Japanese · 1200–1253
He founded Sōtō Zen in Japan and wrote the Shōbōgenzō, the essays that made seated meditation the heart of practice.
Start withMoon in a Dewdrop (1985)
Every book by Dōgen →
16
D. T. Suzuki
Japanese · 1870–1966
More than anyone, he put Zen into English, teaching it through koans and the sudden seeing called satori.
Start withAn Introduction to Zen Buddhism (1934)
Every book by D. T. Suzuki →
17
Shunryu Suzuki
Japanese · 1904–1971
He brought Sōtō Zen practice to American students in the 1960s and founded San Francisco Zen Center; his one book is about posture, breathing and not knowing.
Start withZen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (1970)
Every book by Shunryu Suzuki →
18
Thich Nhat Hanh
Vietnamese · d. 2022
He taught mindfulness as something done in daily life rather than apart from it, and founded the engaged Buddhism movement that joins meditation to social action.
Start withThe Miracle of Mindfulness (1975)
Every book by Thich Nhat Hanh →
19
Chögyam Trungpa
Tibetan · 1939–1987
He brought Tibetan Buddhism to Western readers and founded Naropa University and Shambhala Training.
Start withCutting Through Spiritual Materialism (1973)
Every book by Chögyam Trungpa →
20
Pema Chödrön
American · b. 1936
A student of Trungpa whose books teach staying with pain and fear instead of running from them.
Start withWhen Things Fall Apart (1996)
Every book by Pema Chödrön →
21
Stephen Batchelor
British · b. 1953
The leading voice of secular Buddhism, the view that the Buddha’s teaching can be practised without belief in rebirth.
Start withBuddhism Without Beliefs (1997)
Every book by Stephen Batchelor →
22
Tenzin Palmo
British-born · b. 1943
A Tibetan Buddhist nun who spent twelve years in a Himalayan cave and later founded a nunnery for women in India.
Start withReflections on a Mountain Lake (2002)
Every book by Tenzin Palmo →
Taoism
The oldest Chinese statements of a way that cannot be named or divided.
23
Lao Tzu
Chinese · traditional author of the Tao Te Ching
Eighty-one short chapters on a way that cannot be named, in which opposites define and produce each other.
Start withTao Te Ching, Ursula K. Le Guin’s version (1997)
Every book by Lao Tzu →
24
Chuang Tzu
Chinese · traditional author of the Zhuangzi
Stories and jokes rather than doctrine, including the famous dream of the butterfly that leaves the dreamer unsure which of the two he is.
Start withThe Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, tr. Burton Watson (1968)
Every book by Chuang Tzu →
Christian mysticism
God beyond names, the soul “annihilated” in love, and the dark night.
25
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Greek · c. 500 CE, author unknown
Treatises written under the name of a disciple of St Paul describe a God beyond being and knowledge, reached by negation, unknowing and “divine darkness”.
Start withPseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, tr. Colm Luibheid (1987)
Every book by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite →
26
Meister Eckhart
German · c. 1260–1328
He preached in German about detachment, the emptiness of the self and God born in the soul, in sermons daring enough to be investigated for heresy.
Start withSelected Writings (1994)
Every book by Meister Eckhart →
27
Marguerite Porete
Beguine mystic · d. 1310
The Mirror of Simple Souls describes the soul’s “annihilation” in God through love; she was executed for heresy in Paris in 1310.
Start withThe Mirror of Simple Souls, tr. Ellen Babinsky (1993)
Every book by Marguerite Porete →
28
Julian of Norwich
English · c. 1343–after 1416
Revelations of Divine Love, the earliest surviving book in English attributed to a woman, pictures God as love and as mother.
Start withRevelations of Divine Love (Penguin, 1998)
Every book by Julian of Norwich →
29
John of the Cross
Spanish · 1542–1591
He turned his own love poems into detailed guides to the inner life and gave the world the phrase “the dark night of the soul”.
Start withThe Dark Night (1584–85)
Every book by John of the Cross →
30
Thomas Merton
American · d. 1968
A Trappist monk whose autobiography became a bestseller, and who later wrote on contemplation and in dialogue with Zen.
Start withThe Seven Storey Mountain (1948)
Every book by Thomas Merton →
31
Richard Rohr
American · b. 1943
A Franciscan who teaches contemplative, explicitly non-dual Christianity to a readership far beyond the Catholic Church.
Start withFalling Upward (2011)
Every book by Richard Rohr →
32
Cynthia Bourgeault
American
She teaches Centering Prayer and presents Christianity as a Wisdom tradition, with Jesus as a teacher of inner transformation.
Start withThe Wisdom Jesus (2008)
Every book by Cynthia Bourgeault →
Sufism and devotional poetry
Union with the Beloved, in Persian, Arabic and Hindi verse.
33
Rumi
Persian · 1207–1273
The Persian Sufi poet of longing for God, whose Masnavi is one of the central works of Persian literature.
Start withThe Essential Rumi, tr. Coleman Barks (1995)
Every book by Rumi →
34
Attar of Nishapur
Persian · c. 1145–c. 1221
He turned the soul’s journey towards God into a story of birds who discover that what they were seeking is themselves; Rumi looked up to him as a master.
Start withThe Conference of the Birds, tr. Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis (1984)
Every book by Attar of Nishapur →
35
Ibn Arabi
Andalusian · 1165–1240
The Sufi philosopher whose teaching that all things exist only through God’s being was later called wahdat al-wujud, the unity of being.
Start withThe Bezels of Wisdom (tr. 1980)
Every book by Ibn Arabi →
36
Hafiz
Persian · c. 1315–1390
The master of the Persian ghazal, whose poems of wine and love are read in Iran as both earthly and mystical.
Start withFaces of Love, tr. Dick Davis (2012)
Every book by Hafiz →
37
Kabir
Indian · 15th–16th century
Short, sharp songs that mock the rituals of Hindus and Muslims alike and look for God within; both traditions claim him.
Start withSongs of Kabir, tr. Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (2011)
Every book by Kabir →
38
Al-Ghazali
Theologian · d. 1111
A leading theologian who left his post to follow the Sufi path, and wrote the account of that turn himself.
Start withDeliverance from Error (tr. 2000)
Every book by Al-Ghazali →
Philosophers of the One
Western and Japanese philosophers whose systems end in a single, undivided reality.
39
Heraclitus
Greek · c. 500 BCE
Riddling fragments, surviving only as quotations, which argue that the world is held together by change and by the unity of opposites.
Start withThe Fragments (c. 500 BCE)
Every book by Heraclitus →
40
Parmenides
Greek · 5th century BCE
One poem argues that what truly is cannot change, and is one, whole and complete. He was not a non-dualist in the modern sense, but he is read alongside them.
Start withOn Nature (5th c. BCE)
Every book by Parmenides →
41
Plotinus
Born in Egypt · c. 204–270
The founder of Neoplatonism, built around the One, from which everything flows and to which the soul can return.
Start withThe Enneads, tr. Stephen MacKenna (1991 ed.)
Every book by Plotinus →
42
Baruch Spinoza
Dutch · d. 1677
In the Ethics he set out, as geometric proofs, that God and nature are one substance: Deus sive Natura.
Start withTheological-Political Treatise (1670)
Every book by Baruch Spinoza →
43
Arthur Schopenhauer
German · 1788–1860
One of the first Western philosophers to engage seriously with Indian thought: he read the Upanishads in Latin and said his ethics agreed with them.
Start withParerga and Paralipomena (1851)
Every book by Arthur Schopenhauer →
44
Nishida Kitarō
Japanese · d. 1945
After years of Zen practice he founded modern Japanese philosophy, the Kyoto School, by rethinking Western philosophy in terms of pure experience and absolute nothingness.
Start withAn Inquiry into the Good (1911)
Every book by Nishida Kitarō →
Bridge-builders
The writers who carried these traditions to Western readers, and tried to fit them together.
45
Aldous Huxley
British · 1894–1963
After Brave New World he turned to Vedanta and argued that the mystics of every tradition describe the same ground of being.
Start withThe Perennial Philosophy (1945)
Every book by Aldous Huxley →
46
Alan Watts
British-born · 1915–1973
He explained Zen, Taoism and Vedanta to Western readers and listeners in plain language, and argued that the separate self is an illusion.
Start withThe Way of Zen (1957)
Every book by Alan Watts →
47
Huston Smith
Born in China, 1919
He introduced millions of readers to the world’s religions as their own believers understand them.
Start withThe World’s Religions (1958)
Every book by Huston Smith →
48
Ken Wilber
American · b. 1949
Known for integral theory, his attempt to bring psychology and Eastern and Western philosophy into one map, with non-duality at the top of it.
Start withA Brief History of Everything (1996)
Every book by Ken Wilber →
49
A. H. Almaas
Born in Kuwait, 1944
Founder of the Diamond Approach, which combines Western depth psychology with mystical traditions.
Start withEssence (1986)
Every book by A. H. Almaas →
Physics and consciousness
Scientists who found their questions about matter and mind turning into this one.
50
Erwin Schrödinger
Austrian · d. 1961
The physicist of the wave equation, who met the Upanishads through Schopenhauer and wrote in sympathy with the Vedanta idea that individual minds are not separate.
Start withWhat Is Life? (1944)
Every book by Erwin Schrödinger →
51
David Bohm
Physicist
A quantum physicist who proposed an “implicate order” beneath the visible world and held long recorded conversations with Krishnamurti.
Start withOn Dialogue (1996)
Every book by David Bohm →
52
Carlo Rovelli
Italian · b. 1956
A quantum-gravity physicist whose relational reading of quantum theory, that things exist only in relation to other things, leads him in Helgoland to Nagarjuna.
Start withSeven Brief Lessons on Physics (2014)
Every book by Carlo Rovelli →
53
Bernardo Kastrup
Dutch
Known for analytic idealism, the view that consciousness, not matter, is the foundation of reality.
Start withAnalytic Idealism in a Nutshell (2024)
Every book by Bernardo Kastrup →
54
Evan Thompson
Philosopher · b. 1962
He brings cognitive science, phenomenology and Indian and Buddhist philosophy into one conversation about mind and self.
Start withWaking, Dreaming, Being (2014)
Every book by Evan Thompson →
Frequently asked questions about non-duality authors
What is non-duality?
Non-duality is the idea that the self and the world, or the one who knows and what is known, are not two separate things. Advaita Vedanta, whose name means “not two”, is its best-known form, but versions of it appear in Buddhism, Taoism, Christian mysticism, Sufism and Greek philosophy.
Who are the most important authors on non-duality?
In the classical traditions: Adi Shankara and Ramana Maharshi in Advaita Vedanta, Nagarjuna and Dōgen in Buddhism, Meister Eckhart in Christian mysticism, and Rumi and Ibn Arabi in Sufism. Among modern writers, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle and Rupert Spira are the most widely read. This page lists 54 in nine traditions.
What is the best book on non-duality for beginners?
Most readers start with Nisargadatta Maharaj’s I Am That (1973) or Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now (1997). For something very short, Ramana Maharshi’s Who Am I? is a few pages long.
Is non-duality the same as Advaita Vedanta?
Not quite. Advaita Vedanta is one Indian school of non-duality, set out by Adi Shankara. Buddhist, Taoist, Christian and Sufi writers describe something similar in their own terms, and modern teachers such as Tony Parsons and Jiddu Krishnamurti belong to no school at all.
Are there Christian authors on non-duality?
Yes. Pseudo-Dionysius, Meister Eckhart, Marguerite Porete, Julian of Norwich and John of the Cross wrote about union with a God beyond names, and today Richard Rohr and Cynthia Bourgeault teach a contemplative Christianity they describe in non-dual terms.
Do scientists write about non-duality?
Some do. Erwin Schrödinger wrote in sympathy with Vedanta, David Bohm held long conversations with Krishnamurti, Carlo Rovelli connects his relational physics to Nagarjuna, and Bernardo Kastrup argues that consciousness, not matter, is fundamental. These are their own philosophical positions, not settled science.
Footnotes
