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The U.S. Baba pages have better images and include an interesting account of the writing of Meher Baba's major book, God Speaks. But the Norwegian site of this spiritual teacher contains generous samples of his powerful writing, loads quickly, and is the best place to start.

Baba's work emphasizes the importance of the surrendering of ego and ego-centrism that defines true spiritual paths.

"True spirituality requires the surrenderance of the ego-centered outlook and attitude. The ego-centred consciousness looks upon everything and the entire world as a possible field for its own enjoyment and appropriation. It tries to glean the meaning of everything that exists or comes within the ken of its experience from its own point of view. A thing is good or bad according to how it affects that particular ego-centered being. If it does not, in any way, affect that being or "I," it has no meaning at all. This mode of gleaning meaning from life is disastrously false and misleading. The query is vitiated by wrong assumptions from its very starting point."

The highlight of this site is really the long work "The Spiritual Path" at
http://home.sn.no/home/erics/path.html

MB's authority as a spiritual teacher is obvious throughout and he makes a fine touchstone for the modern skeptic who has a problem with belief structures. There are a few here, but the skeptic can usually substitute a more modern or scientific concept (such as "genetics" for "past lives") and continue on without a hitch in meaning or sense.

Although shorn of images, this site is very well put together and extremely easy to use, earning it a 5.0 in the area of presentation.

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URL: http://home.sn.no/home/erics/index.html

The "fourth way" is to be taken literally. The other three ways are 1) Way of the Fakir (power over the body) , 2) Way of the Monk (faith), 3) Way of the Yogi (mind). The Fourth Way involves work on the three centers - physical, emotional, mental, all at once.

This excellent site presents all aspects of one of the more significant spiritual schools, founded by G. I. Gurdjieff, with the assistance of P. D. Ouspensky. The most valuable contribution of the Fourth Way is its focus on self-knowledge, self-remembering and presence, or seeing yourself as you really are --

"One of the aims of this work is to change our level of being and in order to do this the first aim in this work is self-knowledge. Without self-knowledge you cannot make aims about yourself in relation to changing your being. Real self-knowledge is different from imaginary ideas and pictures of the kind of people we are and what we think we are able to do and can only come from a lot of personal self-observation. This means we must see how we speak, act, when we have negative emotions, when and what we are most identified with, when we lie and our particular forms of imagination. In other words we have to observe the things that keep us asleep and prevent us from awakening."

For moderns, one of the problematic aspects of the school is its cosmology, which amounts to a belief system that could use some ventilation and up-dating. While it's useful to remember how much of the "accepted" scientific cosmology is still predicated on belief, there is still too much hokum in Gurdjieff's mystical cosmological ramblings (not all of which got to the Web site) for this reviewer. It does make interesting reading.

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URL: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/1236/

This is a huge site filled with thought-provoking reading. It contains the entire text of six books, including the Mystique of Enlightenment, The Sage and the Housewife, Mind is a Myth, Thought is Your Enemy, No Way Out, and Courage to Stand Alone. There are literally hundreds of additional pages of excerpts, biographical accounts of Krishnamurti, and memoirs by students and others.

There is an interesting article on the relationship of science and spirituality as this relates to the teachings of U.G. Krishnamurti, entitled Any Points of Contact? at http://www.well.com/user/jct/science.html

Krishnamurti (called U.G. by his followers and not to be confused with Jiddi Krishnamurti) was 77 in 1997 and lives in Southern California. He seeks to live his life by the five senses (which, he cautions, doesn't mean sensuality) and to realize his true nature by letting go of cultural influences, both Eastern and Western.

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URL: http://www.well.com/user/jct/

Ken Wilber's path is intellectual and descriptive, rather than therapeutic, but his spectrum theory of consciousness and spiritual evolution is of great interest here. Wilber's cosmology is a stimulating and useful model that helps to explain how the diverse spiritual schools relate to one another and why (for example) Zen Buddhists and Born Again Christians can't communicate (they are literally on "different wavelengths" in the spectrum of consciousness.)

In April 1997, the site included the first chapter from his new book, the Eye of the Spirit, Wilber's latest position on the "fallen" master Adi Da (who has proclaimed himself "the most enlightened man in the world"), an online discussion group, and a glimpse at this great integrator's most ambitious intellectual project yet, the book The Integration of Science and Religion, due to be published in 1998. This site is a directory on the Shambhala Web site of the Boulder, Colorado-based organization that publishes his recent books.

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URL: http://www.shambhala.com/wilber/

Shambhala Training is a meditative practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The path of study and practice is Shambhala "warriorship"--the tradition of human bravery, not being afraid of who you are. This path shows how to take the challenges of daily life in modern society as opportunities for contemplative practice:

"A basic truth of the Shambhala teachings is that we all want to lead sane, dignified and confident lives, and that this is possible. If we look directly at our own experience, we can discover a continuity of wakefulness underlying all the changing conditions. This wholesome, wakeful presence enables us to experience our lives fully and directly. In Shambhala Training, this is referred to as 'basic goodness.'"

A fine site with a lot of information on the Shambhala practice and the founder of the center, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The network of Shambhala Centers is based in Boulder, Colorado.

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URL: http://www.shambhala.org

Shambhala Sun

The Shambhala Sun is a magazine about waking up. It celebrates the spirit of wakefulness wherever it appears - in the arts, relationships, politics, livelihood, popular culture, and all the challenges of modern life.

Short excerpts are provided from the current issue.  The site's real strength are the complete articles archived from past issues.  A search engine is provided to help readers find topics of interest. You could spend months here.

Also features links to all active Shambhala Meditation Centers in the U.S. and Canada.

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URL: http://www.shambhalasun.com

The neural surfer is David Christian Lane, a body surfer and professor of philosophy (at Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, California) who critiques cultural manifestations of spiritual schools and philosophies and is not adverse to posting others' criticisms of his own ideas. He's a good anecdote for cults and spiritual materialism. His reviews of some of Depak Chopra's popular works are telling, for example. Though he professes admiration for Ken Wilber, Lane has been highly critical of some of Wilber's leaps of synthesis and his tendency to equate theories with reality (such as Wilber's tendency to treat Piaget's useful but still theoretical stages of childhood development as fact).

Lane's Web massive site focuses on "Shabd Yoga, Eckankar, MSIA, Da Free John, Cults, Consciousness studies, Ken Wilber, Deepak Chopra, Sathya Sai Baba, Mysticism, the Development of New Religious Movements in North America, Indian and American Gurus, Eastern and Western Philosophy, Neuroscience, Quantum Mechanics, Ethics, Theosophy, and Radhasoami."

It also contains access to Lane's course outlines in Major World Religions, Sociology, and Philosophy. Finally, this is the home of "the most comprehensive bodysurfing website on the Net," entitled Kaha Nalu: The Body That Surfs.

Lane has recently "transformed" his site, providing a new version with fewer graphics, except for tedious "drain-hole" animations. Despite those, this is a great and amusing site.

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URL: http://vclass.mtsac.edu:940/dlane/

"Doing Something
by Yourself" &

"What is Your Purpose?"

This venerable old Web page could use some up-dating (instead of just a new server--which happens about every 6 months), but it's still an excellent and indispensable source of literature on Zen Buddhism. Contents include General Resources, texts of Zen Koans, Zen People and Their Lives, 20th Century Zen Buddhism Teachings, Documents and Writings, Electronic Newsletters, Organizations and Institutions, and Directories of Practice Centers. Links to two pertinent articles on Zen are highlighted on the green ramp at the left.

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URL: http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-Buddhism.html   

This is one of the more popular Web sites, perhaps because of the links to online copies of the I-Ching.

Contents include Introductions to Taoism, The Lao-tzu Tao Te Ching, The Chuang-tzu, The I Ching, The Sun-tzu Art of War, Resources on Confucianism and Buddhism, Links to materials on Chinese philosophy, Taoism and Alchemy, Taoism and Martial Arts, Taoism and Modernity, and Commercial organizations identified with Taoism.

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URL: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/taoism

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