Masao Abe (1915-2006) was a disciple of both Hisamatsu Shin’ichi and Nishitani Keiji, and maintained a close contact with D. T. Suzuki during the last ten years of Suzuki’s life.

His essay “God, Emptiness, and the True Self” The Buddha Eye.

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Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia was a Sicilian Kabbalist born in Saragossa, Spain in 1240. He is considered one of the most important, but also most complex, figures in Jewish mysticism. In his thirties, he immersed himself in the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation) and began to teach a kind of Kabbalistic “Yoga” based upon the ontological value of Hebrew letters, numbers, and vowel points, as well as rigorous and moral ascesis or a practice of severe self-discipline or ascetism for spiritual reasons. He died sometime after 1291. Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia contributions can be found in the World Wisdom book, Pray Without Ceasing .

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Robert Aitken is one of the most widely respected Western teachers of Zen Buddhism. He first encountered Zen during World War II as a internee in a Japanese camp for enemy civilians in Kobe. Whilst in the camp he met and was much influenced by R.H. Blyth. Robert Aitken and his wife, Anne, founded the Diamond Sangha in Hawaii in 1959. Aitken-Roshi is the author of many articles and nine books, including Taking the Path of Zen (1985) and Original Dwelling Place: Zen Buddhist Essays (1996).

His contributions can be found in The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity edited by Harry Oldmeadow .

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His article “The Muslim World and Globalization: Modernity and the Roots of Conflict.” is featured in Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars

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Contributions from Shaykh Ahmad Al-‘Alawi can be found in the following World Wisdom books:

• The poem "Layla" in Music of the Sky: An Anthology of Spiritual Poetry
• "Treatise on the Invocation of The Divine Name" in Pray Without Ceasing: The Way of Invocation in World Religions

Ibn ‘Atâ’ Allâh Al-Iskandarî (1259-1309) was born in Alexandria. At age seventeen, he converted to tassawuf (Sufism), the mystical dimension of Islam. In 1287, he succeeded his master as head of Shâdhilî order. He devoted his life to teaching, spiritual direction, and writing. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom book, Pray Without Ceasing

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His article "Every Branch in Me" is included in World Wisdom's anthology Every Branch in Me: Essays on the Meaning of Man . This anthology, whose title is taken from Mr. Almqvist's article, is is featured in World Wisdom's Perennial Philosophy series.

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David Appelbaum is a Professor of Philosophy at State University of New York at New Paltz and is the author of several books on spiritual philosophy including Gathering Sparks: Interviews from Parabola Magazine and The Shock of Love. A graduate of Harvard, Professor Appelbaum is also a former senior editor of Parabola. Appelbaum wrote the Foreword to Messenger of the Heart .

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Karen Armstrong is the internationally-renowned auther of numerous works including, Through the Narrow Gate (1980), an autobiographical account of her seven years as a Roman Catholic nun; Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet (1992); A History of God (1993); Jerusalem: One City, Two Faiths (1996); The Battle for God ; and Buddha (2000). She teaches at the Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism, and in 1999 she received the Muslim Public Affairs Council Media Award.

Her article "Faith and Modernity" can be found in the The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual crisis of Modernity edited by Kenneth (Harry) Oldmeadow.

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Osman Bakar is a scholar, teacher and writer. Dr. Bakar has written a dozen books and more than 100 articles on various aspects of Islamic thought and civilization, both classical and contemporary. He is one of the founding members and has also served as President of the Islamic Academy of Science of Malaysia. Dr. Bakar is currently Visiting Professor and Malaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast Asia at Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. His essay "The Nature and Extent of Criticism of Evolutionary Theory" is included in the anthology Science and the Myth of Progress .

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Shojun Bando (1932-2004) was a Japanese scholar, author, translator, editor, and a revered Shin Buddhist priest. He was an influential figure, due in large part to his role in disseminating information on Shin Buddhism to the Western world. Rev. Bando taught for many years as Professor of Buddhism at Otani University in Kyoto, Japan. A prolific author on matters of Buddhism, he published many articles and books, including a contribution to the World Wisdom anthology on Shin Buddhism, Living in Amida’s Universal Vow: Essays in Shin Buddhism.

James Barr (1924-2006) was an author, seaman, navigator and practicing Buddhist whose article “Of Metaphysics and Polynesian Navigation” is included in Seeing God Everywhere. The article first appeared in Avaloka: A Journal of Traditional Religion and Culture.

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John Howard Benson was a noted graphic artist, calligrapher, stonecarver, author, and educator at the Rhode Island School of Design. With Arthur Graham Carey, he was the author of The Elements of Lettering. He died in 1956. Benson and Carey's essay, "The General Problem," is included in the anthology Every Man an Artist , edited by Brian Keeble .

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St. Bernardino of Siena, the “Apostle of Italy,” was born of noble parents at Massa, Italy, in 1380. He entered the Franciscan order in 1402 and became its vicar-general in 1437. He was the most famous preacher of his time and spoke in all parts of Italy with exceptional charisma. Three times he refused to become a bishop. He died in 1444. Six years later, he was canonized by Pope Nicholas V. Bernardino’s writings are, for the most part, formal treatises upon morality, asceticism, and mysticism. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom book, Pray without Ceasing .

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World Wisdom has included essays by Wendell Berry in the following publications:

• The "Foreword" in God and Work: Aspects of Art and Tradition
• "Christianity and the Survival of Creation" in Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred
• "Ignorance" in Science and the Myth of Progress
• "Two Economies" in Every Man An Artist: Readings In The Traditional Philosophy Of Art
• The "Foreword" in Of the Land and the Spirit: The Essential Lord Northbourne on Ecology and Religion

Rodney Blackhirst lives in Bendigo, Australia, where he has lectured in Philosophy and Religious Studies at La Trobe University for the past decade. Dr. Blackhirst is a regular contributor to journals such as Sacred Web. Dr. Blackhirst’s article "Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy and Tradition" can be found in The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual crisis of Modernity, edited by Harry Oldmeadow.

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Louis Brenner is Emeritus Professor of the History of Religion in Africa, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has published extensively on the history of Islam and of Muslim societies in West Africa, with special emphasis on the dynamics and transmission of Muslim thought and ideas, and on Sufism.

Brenner wrote the introduction to the World Wisdom title A Spirit of Tolerance: The Inspiring Life of Tierno Bokar by Amadou Hampâté Bâ. Dr. Brenner's book West African Sufi: The Religious Heritage and Spiritual Search of Cerno Bokar Saalif Tall is an excellent complement to A Spirit of Tolerance, providing much context, additional information, and insight on the life and teachings of Tierno Bokar.

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Elenita and Marina (Weatherly) Brown are the wife and eldest daughter respectively of noted scholar of American Indian spirituality, Joseph Epes Brown

Elentia is a renowned dancer, teacher and artist, and was married to Joseph Epes Brown for nearly 50 years. Marina is a professional artist and educator. She is also the author of several articles and is editing a forthcoming biography of the late Susie Walking Bear Yellowtail, the first American Indian Nurse and wife of the Crow Sun Dance chief Thomas Yellowtail .

They are the co-editors of The Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian: Commemorative Edition with Michael Fitzgerald

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Tantoo Cardinal is considered by many as the world's most widely recognized American Indian actress. Raised among the Cree, she turned her political activism into an acting career that has included roles as the knowing wife of the Medicine Man in "Dances With Wolves" (1990), the poignant childless companion of Rip Torn in "Where the Rivers Flow North" (1993) and the mother of Brad Pitt's wife in "Legends of the Fall" (1994).

Cardinal is the narrator of the World Wisdom documentary Native Spirit . Excerpts from an interview with her appear in Living in Two Worlds: The American Indian Experience.

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Arthur Graham Carey wrote extensively on the perennial understanding of art from a Roman Catholic perspective. Many of his lectures and essays appeared in the Catholic Art Quarterly (later Good Works); others were published as pamphlets. The publisher Sophia Perennis at Universalis of Ghent, NY, is currently preparing a collection of his works for publication. His article, "The General Problem," can be found in Every Man An Artist .

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Jane Fatima Casewit is a writer, translator, and educator who lives in Morocco. Her interests focus on comparative religion and traditionalist studies, particularly in the area of West African Islam and Sufism.

She has published several articles on gender in the light of tradition, including "Islamic Cosmological Concepts of Femininity," which can be found in The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity, edited by Kenneth (Harry) Oldmeadow. Mrs. Casewit also translated the French classic The Life and Teachings of Tierno Bokar by Amadou Hampaté Bâ for the World Wisdom edition, A Spirit of Tolerance: The Inspiring Life of Tierno Bokar.

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Cecil Collins, writer, teacher and artist explored many visions in his art. His major essay ‘The Vision of the Fool’ was first published in 1947. Mr. Collins had numerous exhibitions throughout his lifetime, including a major Retrospective Exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London in 1989. Another essay that he wrote, "Why does Art today lack inspiration?", is featured in Every Man An Artist .

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Brian Coman is a former research biologist who worked for the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in Victoria, Australia. As well as numerous scientific publications, he is the author of Tooth and Nail: The Story of the Rabbit in Australia (1999). He has also published a number of essays, mainly in Quadrant. Dr Coman is currently enrolled as a postgraduate research student at La Trobe University, Bendigo, where his doctoral thesis argues a defense of the Judeo-Christian tradition against the criticisms of contemporary ecological historians.

Dr Coman's article "Never say die ... without a cause" can be found in The Betrayal of Tradition , edited by Kenneth Oldmeadow.

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J. C. Cooper's writing is represented in “The Symbolism of the Taoist Garden” in Light from the East: Eastern Wisdom for the Modern West and “The Yin and the Yang in Nature” in Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred. World Wisdom will publish a collection of her essays, along with beautiful Taoist art, in An Illustrated Introduction to Taoism, in 2010.

Vincent Cornell is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1989. Throughout the next decade, he taught at a number of prominent universities before becoming a Professor of History and Director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas. His pre-modern interests cover the entire spectrum of Islamic thought from Sufism to philosophy and Islamic law. Mr. Cornell is the author of the foreword to The Path of Muhammad.

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His article "Towards a New Dreaming" can be found in The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity , edited by Harry Oldmeadow.

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For World Wisdom, Dr. Crithchlow has written the forewords to:

• Chartres and the Birth of the Cathedral (revised) (by Titus Burckhardt)
• The Foundations of Christian Art: Illustrated (by Titus Burckhardt, edited by Michael Fitzgerald)
• Art from the Sacred to the Profane: East and West (by Frithjof Schuon, edited by Catherine Schuon)

Stephen Cross is on the Academic Board of the Temenos Academy and writes and lectures on aspects of Indian and European thought. In 1976 he produced a widely seen television series, The Traditional World of Islam, working closely with Titus Burckhardt, S.H. Nasr and other perennialists. He is currently completing a study of Schopenhauer's philosphy in relation to Indian thought; earlier books include Elements of Hinduism and (as joint author) Inward Lies the Way: German Thought and the Nature of Mind.

Stephen Cross is the author of the article Coomaraswamy, St. Augustine, and the Perennial Philosophy, which appears in the World Wisdom title Crossing Religious Frontiers.

HH The Dalai Lama has contributed the following pieces to World Wisdom books (click here to read the articles below in our free online Library):

• "A Tibetan Buddhist Perspective on Spirit in Nature" in Seeing God Everywhere
• "A Wish for Harmony" in Light from the East
• The "Foreword" in Samdhong Rinpoche: Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World

Waleed El-Ansary is a scholar, researcher, and writer who focuses on Islamic and neoclassical economic theories and their implications for law and policy. He contributed the remarkable essay "The Economics of Terrorism: How bin Laden is Changing the Rules of the Game" in Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition.

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Peter C. Erb is a professor in the Religion & Culture department at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. He received his B.A. from Wilfrid Laurier, his M.S.L. from the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto University, and his Ph.D. from Toronto University. Dr. Erb contributed the foreword to The Quiet Way: Selections From The Letters of Gerhard Tersteegen .

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St. Jean Eudes (1601-1680) belonged to the “French School,” a movement for the renewal of religious life in the seventeenth century. Ordained in 1625, he founded the Order of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge in 1641 and the Congregation of Jesus and Mary in 1643. His major contribution to the Church as a whole was his foundation of public devotion to the Sacred Heart. Eudes composed the mass and office of the Sacred Heart in 1668-1669, and a feast of the Sacred Heart was first celebrated by Eudist communities on 1672. He was canonized in 1925. St. Jean Eudes contributions can be found in the World Wisdom book, Pray without Ceasing .

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Antoine Faivre is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and Chair of the History of Esoteric Currents in Modern and Contemporary Europe (Sorbonne). Professor Faivre’s books in English include Access to Western Esotericism, The Golden Fleece and Alchemy, The Eternal Hermes,and Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition; he is editor (with Jacob Needleman) of Modern Esoteric Spirituality.

Prof. Faivre contributed the foreword to The Fullness of God: Frithjof Schuon on Christianity .

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John F. Finamore is Professor and Chair in the Department of Classics at the University of Iowa. His areas of research interest include Neoplatonic philosophy from Plotinus to Philoponus, Greek and Roman philosophy, and Roman poetry. His most recent publication is Iamblichus’ De Anima: Text, Translation, and Commentary (with J.M. Dillon). Dr. Finamore also serves as President of the U.S. Section of the International Society of Neoplatonic Studies and is Editor for book manuscripts in Neoplatonism for the Brill Press Series.

Prof. Finamore has written the foreword to The Golden Chain .

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Bishop Thomas C Fouhy was born in New Zealand in 1908 and was ordained in 1943. He worked in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and the United States. He is the author of The Challenge of Truth and contributed to The Destruction of the Christian Tradition .

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Rodney Frey is an educator and writer on world religions, but particularly on North American Indian traditions. Prof. Frey explains that his professional interests center on "the role and the significance of the oral traditions, particularly as those traditions influence a people's relationships with their ‘landscape’ and mediate the impact of Euro-American changes." He is Professor of American Indian Studies and Anthropology at the University of Idaho. Prof. Rodney Frey wrote the foreword for Paul Goble's Tipi: Home of the Nomadic Buffalo Hunters .

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Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in India in 1869. He attended law school in London. His early career took him to Southern Africa where he worked unceasingly to improve the rights of immigrant Indians. It was there that he developed his notion of non-violent resistance against injustice, and he was frequently jailed as a result of the protests he led.

His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom book, Pray without Ceasing .

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Prolific sculptor, writer and letter-cutter, Eric Gill, designed a classic typeface which is still in use today. He was also instrumental in the artistic revival of masonry and stone-cutting in the early years of the twentieth century. Mr. Gill wrote numerous books on art and beauty that continue to inspire present-day letter-cutters.

Mr. Gill's essays, "The Four Causes" and ”Of Beauty”, can be found in Every Man an Artist edited by Brian Keeble .

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Ernst Hoffman was born in Saxony in 1898. He studied architecture and philosophy at Freiburg University where he also developed his interests in painting and archaeology. In 1928 Hoffmann entered the Sangha and moved to the Island Hermitage in Ceylon where he took the name Anagarika Govinda. Several years later he committed himself to the Tibetan tradition and spent thirty years in the sub-continent before moving to the USA. Lama Govinda died in 1985. He was the author of many works on Tibetan Buddhism and of The Way of the White Clouds (1966) an account of his pilgrimage through central and Western Tibet.

Lama Govinda's article "The Fate of Tibet" can be found in The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity , edited by Kenneth (Harry) Oldmeadow.

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Gray Henry lectures and writes on the spirituality of the world's sacred traditions and has published in this field for many years. Founder and trustee of the Islamic Texts Society and former director of Quinta Essentia Publications, she currently directs Fons Vitae Press and is a consulting editor for Parabola. Recently, she produced the video “The Sacred Name and the Heart's Celestial Garden: The Universal Use of the Rosary”.

At the "Paths to the Heart" Conference held at the University of South Carolina, Ms. Henry presented a paper on “Beads of Faith: St Seraphim of Sarov in Sufic Perspective”, which can be found in Paths to the Heart .

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Gustie Herrigel spent many years in Japan with her husband Eugen Herrigel, the author of Zen in the Art of Archery — to which her own Zen in the Art of Flower Arrangement is a companion volume. Her article "The Substance of the Teaching" appears in Light From The East: Modern Western Encounters with Eastern Traditions .

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Victor Sogen Hori received his doctoral degree in philosophy from Stanford University in 1976 and that same year was ordained a Zen monk in Kyoto. After devoting the next thirteen years to training at monasteries in Japan, he returned to the academic life in 1990. He is currently professor of Japanese religions in the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University.

Professor Hori is also the author of several books on Buddhism as well as the foreword to Heinrich Dumoulin’s Zen Buddhism: A History; Japan Volume 2.

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Dr. Âke Hultkrantz was recognized as a major authority on Native American religions and shamanism. He was a professor of religion at the University of Stockholm, Sweden. During the years 1948 and 1958, Professor Hultrkrantz conducted field work at the Wind River reservation, which resulted in his ground-breaking book, Native American Religions of North America: The Power of Visions and Fertility.

He contributed the introduction to The Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian: Commemorative Edition With Letters While Living with Black Elk . Âke Hultkrantz died in October, 2006.

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Toshihiko Izutsu was Professor Emeritus at Keio University in Japan and an outstanding authority in the metaphysical and philosophical wisdom schools of Islamic Sufism, Hindu Advaita Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism (particularly Zen), and Philosophical Taoism.

Dr. Izutsu's essay "Creation According to Ibn ‘Arabî" is one of those included in the anthology Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred .

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Born in Scotland, in 1872, Edward Johnston abandoned his early studies in medicine at Edinburgh University in order to pursue an interest in calligraphy. He was appointed by W. R. Lethaby to teach Lettering and Illumination at the newly formed Central School of Arts and Crafts in London in 1898. Around this time he began his research into letter forms in early manuscripts in the British Museum. He published his Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering in 1906, a legendary manual that has not been out of print since. He almost single-handedly revived the use of the broad-edged pen and both inspired and taught most of the early twentieth-century calligraphers and letter designers at his classes at the Central School and later at the Royal College of Art in London. He designed the famous sans serif alphabet used on the London Underground system. He was awarded the CBE in 1939, and died in 1944.

Johnston's essay "Formal Penmanship Defined by the Thing" is included in Every Man An Artist .

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William Johnston was born in 1925. A Jesuit priest, Johnston has focused on building contemplative bridges between Buddhism and Christianity in both his pastoral teaching and his writings. His books, including Christian Zen and The Inner Eye of Love, refer to the universal vocation of mysticism. In later life, Professor Johnston was based at Sophia University in Tokyo, where he taught courses on mysticism and meditation. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom anthology, Pray Without Ceasing . Rev. William Johnston died in 2010.

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Master wood-engraver David Jones, was also a poet and essayist who produced some of the finest wood-engravings ever seen. His poem, In Parenthesis, was praised as one of the greatest English literary works produced after World War I. Mr. Jones also produced a magnificent series of colored inscriptions which were unique in lettering history that are still highly valued today. His article, "Art and Sacrament," can be found in Every Man an Artist .

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Kabīr was an Indian mystic born around 1440. He is widely recognized as a saint among Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. According to hagiographic accounts, his mother became pregnant after visiting a Hindu shrine. Upon delivery the child was given up for adoption and Kabîr was raised among a Muslim community of weavers. His spiritual perspective belongs to bhakti, the devotional longing for union with God. This perspective can be found expressed in his fresh, accessible poetry, the greatest of which is collected in the work, Bijak. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom anthology, Pray Without Ceasing .

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Ibrahim Kalin is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at the College of the Holy Cross where he teaches courses on Islam, Islamic philosophy and theology, Sufism, Islam and the West, and Islam in the modern world. He is a recipient of the Center for Theology and Natural Sciences (CTNS) Science and Religion Course Program Award, 2002. His publications include articles on Islamic philosophy, Islamic science, and Western perceptions of Islam, and he has translated a number of Islamic philosophical texts from Arabic into English.

Kalin contributed the article "Roots of Misconception: Euro-American Perceptions of Islam Before and After September 11" to the World Wisdom anthology Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars .

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Philip Kapleau was, until his death in 2004, one of the West’s most authoritative teachers of Zen. He underwent thirteen years of training in Japan before establishing the Rochester Zen Centre in upstate New York. He wrote many influential books on Zen practice, including The Three Pillars of Zen and Zen: Dawn in the West. His article "The Private Encounter with the Master" appears in Light From The East: Modern Western Encounters with Eastern Traditions .

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Bernard Philip Kelly (1907–1958) was an English Catholic author whose thinking has been regarded as neo-scholastic and traditionalist (i.e. in the current of René Guénon). Kelly’s writings were especially concerned with the recalling of contemporary Christian thought to Thomism, and with the provision of a traditional and scholastic critique of the modern world. He also endeavored to prepare the ground for a sound Christian approach to the Eastern religions and in this regard corresponded regularly with perennialist author Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. Kelly contributed to Religion of the Heart, edited by S.H. Nasr and William Stoddart . Another article by Bernard Philip Kelly, "A Christian Approach to the Non-Christian Religions," appears in Ye Shall Know the Truth , published by World Wisdom.

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Peter Kingsley is an internationally renowned expert on the philosophical and mystical roots of the Western tradition, especially in Parmenides and Empedocles. Kingsley works with the sacred tradition that gave birth to the western world. His revolutionary understanding of the history as well as the destiny of western civilization has changed many people on the deepest level — transforming their awareness not only of who they are but also of their purpose in the modern world. He works closely with Native American elders as well as representatives of other spiritual traditions, and is an honorary professor at both Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and the University of New Mexico. He lives with his wife Maria in North Carolina. For further information visit www.peterkingsley.org.

Kingsley contributed the artcile "The Path of the Ancients: A Sacred Tradition Between East and West" to the forthcoming World Wisdom book, Crossing Religious Frontiers.

Kenneth Kraft is Professor of Religion Studies at Lehigh University, specializing in Japanese Zen and the new field of engaged Buddhist studies. In 1984–85, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. At Lehigh, he has served as Chair of the Religion Studies department and as director of the College Seminar Program. Kraft has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, and the Stanford University Japan Center in Kyoto.

Prof. Kraft has written a new foreword to John C.H. Wu's classic work, The Golden Age of Zen: Zen Masters of the T'ang Dynasty .

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Henri Le Saux (Swami Abhishiktananda), 1910-1973, was a French Benedictine monk, author, and a "bridge between Hindu and Christian spirituality." In 1948 he moved to India and assisted in establishing a Christian ashram in southern India. He was later associated with Father Bede Griffiths at Saccidananda Ashram. Abhishiktananda spent the later years of his life as a wandering monk, eventually founding a hermitage on the banks of the Ganges in the Himalayas.

Books containing Le Saux's work include:

• A Christian Pilgrim in India: The Spiritual Journey of Swami Abhishiktananda, by Harry Oldmeadow
• "The Prayer of the Name" in Pray Without Ceasing, edited by Patrick Laude
• "Awareness and Return" in Not of This World: Treasures of Christian Mysticism, edited by James Cutsinger
• "Sannyasa" in Light from the East: Eastern Wisdom for the Modern West, edited by Harry Oldmeadow
• "The Depth Dimension" in Crossing Religous Frontiers

Leach contributed his essay, "Integration", for the book Every Man An Artist .

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Lev Gillet (pseudonym “a monk of the Eastern Church”) was a monk of both the Western Church’s Benedictine order and of the Eastern Church. Born in 1893, in Isère, France, his early life included service in World War I and university study of philosophy and psychology. Later in life, his work as a priest and scholar would take him across Europe and to the Near East. After entering the Orthodox Church, he was rector of the first French language Orthodox parish in Paris. Lev Gillet was also considered a pioneer of ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue. He died in 1980. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom anthology, Pray Without Ceasing .

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C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast, Ireland on November 29, 1898. He was attending Oxford college in 1917 when he joined the British army to fight in World War One. In 1925, he became Fellow of Language and Literature at Oxford. Author of the famous Narnia chronicles, as well as numerous books about Christianity, his writings have been some of the most read books of all time. Lewis became a Professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature at Cambridge University. He died in 1963. Among his works, Lewis contributed to Ye Shall Know the Truth , published by World Wisdom.

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Arvol Looking Horse was born on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. At the age of 12, he was given the responsibility of becoming the 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, the sacred pipe of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nations. He is widely recognized as a chief and the spiritual leader of all three branches of the Sioux tribe.

Arvol Looking Horse is the author of White Buffalo Teachings and a guest columnist for Indian Country Today. A tireless advocate of maintaining traditional spiritual practices, Chief Looking Horse is the founder of the Big Foot Riders, a group which memorializes the massacre of Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee. He lives on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota.

Film interviews with Arvol Looking Horse on spirituality, tribal history, and advice for American Indian youth are a featured part of the documentary film and DVD on the Sun Dance entitled Native Spirit: The Sun Dance Way . An illustrated book, Native Spirit: The Sun Dance Way, by Thomas Yellowtail, also features the words of Arvol Looking Horse.

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An essay from Oren Lyons, "Our Mother Earth," is included in Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred .

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Dr. Shaykh Abdul Mabud is the Director General of the Islamic Academy in Cambridge, England. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, Dr. Mabud also has a Masters degree from the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. He is the editor of Muslim Education Quarterly, and has written several books. He is the director of a major research project on curriculum and textbooks at the primary and secondary levels in Bangladesh and has also worked with other Muslim organizations both in England and abroad. Dr. Mabud lives in Cambridge.

Dr. Mabud wrote the foreword to The Path Of Muhammad: A Book On Islamic Morals And Ethics , by Imam Birgivi interpreted by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak .

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Angus Macnab was a gifted translator of Latin and Greek poetry, but as a profession he chose teaching. Mr. Macnab’s interest in Spain began in 1936, and after World War II he learned Spanish and decided to make Spain his home. In 1938, under the influence of G.K Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, Angus Macnab embraced neo-scholasticism and traditional Catholicism.

Angus Macnab's article, "The Monk and the Caliph," appears in Ye Shall Know the Truth: Christianity and the Perennial Philosophy, and two chapters of his fascinating book Spain under the Crescent Moon are included in Sufism: Love and Wisdom.

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Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in West Bengal, India in 1486. Although he was also known as a scholar, he is chiefly remembered for having revitalized the bhakti movement (path of love) in India by gathering thousands of devotees together to play musical instruments and chant the names of Krishna. He is also said to have defeated Buddhist scholars by the strength of his arguments. Mahaprabhu died at the age of forty-eight. He left eight verses, known as the Shikshashtaka, which summarize his teachings.

His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom book, Pray Without Ceasing .

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Ramana Maharshi was born in 1879 near Madurai in Southern India. In the summer of 1896, upon a sudden outburst of fear of death, he experienced a spiritual awakening that made him realize that he was none other than Atman. Soon thereafter, he left for the sacred mountain of Arunachala, in the vicinity of which he spent ten years living in temples and caves, meditating and pursuing spiritual purification, and maintaining the disciplines of silence and non-attachment. Ramana laid emphasis on the method of inquiry into the nature of the Self, best expressed by the question, “who am I?” He developed cancer and died in April 1950. His life is the subject of Timeless in Time: Sri Ramana Maharshi. Sri Ramana Maharshi's article "Advaita and Japa" in Pray Without Ceasing: The Way Of The Invocation In World Religions .

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Rebecca Manring (Ph.D., University of Washington) is an Assistant Professor of India Studies and Religious Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. A researcher of religious groups in northeastern India, Dr. Manring 's Reconstructing Tradition: Advaita Acarya and Gaudiya Vaisnavism at the Cusp of the Twentieth Century has been published by Columbia University Press. She has also completed the preservation and cataloguing of the private literary manuscript collection of the late Sukumar Sen (1900-1992), who was an outstanding linguist and Bengali literary scholar. Professor Manring’s next project will focus on sectarian Sanskrit grammars.

Dr. Manring has contributed the foreword to World Wisdom’s The Essential Swami Ramdas .

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Vandana Mataji is a nun who heads the Christian ashram Jiva Dhara, in Rishikesh, at the foothills of the Himalayas. She studied history, politics, and Indian classical music, but her main objective as a teacher in Bombay is to promote an integration of Hinduism into Christian spirituality. She regularly spends six months of the year in the Himalayas for her spiritual exercises and has emphasized the role of japa-yoga as a spiritual bridge between Hinduism and Christianity. Her contributions can be found in the World Wisdom anthology, Pray Without Ceasing.

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Donald McLeod Matheson (1896-1979) was a translator of Traditionalist/Perennialist works. He is best known for his translations, from the original French to English, of some books of Frithjof Schuon and Titus Burkhardt. Matheson also wrote several essays for the influential journal Studies in Comparative Religion. His article “Knowledge and KNOWLEDGE” appears in Science and the Myth of Progress.

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Bishop Robert McKenna was initially a Dominican monk who objected to the changes in the beliefs and practice of the Church that were introduced by Vatican II and its aftermath. He was associated with the Orthodox Roman Catholic Movement – a group of 14 priests who shared similar attitudes, from its inception. Due to his refusal to say the new mass or Novus Ordo Missai, he was forced to leave the Dominican monastery. McKenna then established himself in Monroe, Connecticut and was consecrated a Bishop by Gerard de Laurier. McKenna has also ordained several priests who left the Novus Ordo Church and functions as a parish priest in Connecticut.

His foreword can be found in The Destruction of the Christian Tradition .

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John R. McRae is a Professor of East Asian Buddhism and the author of Seeing Through Zen and The Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch'an Buddhism (Studies in East Asian Buddhism, No 3). He has taught at both Indiana and Cornell Universities, and is currently a lecturer at Komazawa University in Tokyo. Professor McRae wrote the introduction for Zen Buddhism: A History; India and China Volume I .

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Dr. Joe Medicine Crow (1913-2016) was the Crow Tribal Historian and the oldest living man of the Crow tribe. In 1939, he was the first member of the Crow tribe to obtain a master’s degree. Dr. Medicine Crow was a guest speaker at Little Bighorn College, the Custer Battlefield Museum, and several other colleges throughout the nation. Joe Medicine Crow received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, on August 12, 2009. He lived on the Crow Reservation in Lodge Grass, Montana, until his death on April 3, 2016.

His books include, A Handbook of Crow Indian Laws and Treaties, and From the Heart of the Crow Country. Dr. Medicine Crow's contributions to World Wisdom books include:

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The writings of Thomas Merton can be found in the following World Wisdom books:

• "The Buddha Figures at Polonnaruwa" and "Gandhi and the One-Eyed Giant" in Light from the East
• The "Introduction" to The Golden Age of Zen
• Correspondence with Lord Northbourne in Of the Land and the Spirit

Mary Midgley was Professor of Philosophy at Newcastle University and is the author of numerous works exploring the history and philosophy of modern science. Her special interests include the development of moral principles concerned with the welfare of non-human species.

Her article "Putting Nature in Her Place" can be found in the anthology, The Betrayal of Tradition: Essays on the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity , edited by Harry Oldmeadow It comes from one her best known works, Science as Salvation (1992). Her most recent work is Science and Poetry.

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Giovanni Monastra is the Managing Director of INRAN which is the National Research Institute for Food and Nutrition in Italy. Prior to this, he did research work in the laboratories of a pharmaceutical company, carrying out scientific studies mainly in the field of immunological drugs. He is the author of many articles and two books, one on the origin of life (Le origini della vita, 2000), with several criticisms of Darwinism, and the second on transgenic food, in which he presents arguments against genetic engineering (Maschera e volto degli OGM, 2002).

Giovanni Monastra is the author of the foreword to Science and the Myth of Progress , edited by Merhahd Zarandi .

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Fuad S. Naeem is a Pakistani scholar now residing in the U.S. where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Islamic Studies program at Duke University. He has an M.A. in Hinduism and Islam from the George Washington University and is a specialist in the Islamic intellectual trends of the Indian subcontinent. His fields of interest include later Islamic philosophy and Sufism, and the encounter between Islam and modernity.

Naeem's article "A Traditional Islamic Response to the Rise of Modernism" appears in the anthology Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars .

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Born in Arthamur, Andhra Pradesh, India, Professor M. Narasimhachary earned his Ph.D. in Sanskrit from the University of Madras, under the guidance of Dr V. Raghavan. His PhD thesis was entitled Contribution of Sri Yamunacharya to Visishtadvaita. He was Assistant Professor of Sanskrit and Research Director at Vivekananda College, Madras, then Reader in Sanskrit at the University of Madras, Chennai, and then he founded and chaired the Department of Vaishnavism at the University of Madras. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, and at Mercyhurst College, Erie, Pennsylvania, and a Visiting Academic at the Centre for Hindu Studies, Oxford University, UK, as well as a Visiting Fellow at the School of Indological Studies at Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Moka, Mauritius.

Prof. Narasimhachary wrote the foreword to the upcoming World Wisdom title, The Power of the Sacred Name.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is the best-known saint of nineteenth century India. Ramakrishna took on ritual and mythical roles, identifying with the gods from Indian holy books. His intuition of the validity of different approaches to the worship of God and the religious paths led him to practice both Christianity and Islam during periods of his life. He died in 1886. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom anthology, Pray Without Ceasing .

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John Paraskevopoulos is an executive officer with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra. He studied philosophy at the University of Melbourne before receiving ordination in the Pure Land tradition of Mahayana Buddhism in Kyoto in 1994. He is the author of several articles on Shin Buddhism and a contributor to Sacred Web. His article, "The Absolute in the Mahayana and the Pure Land Way" appears in >Light from the East: Eastern Wisdom for the Modern West .

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Dr. Pease's contributions to World Wisdom projects include:

• The “Introduction” in The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa)
• The “Foreword” in The Spirit of Indian Women
• Comments in the section "Conversations With Native Elders" in Native Spirit: The Sun Dance Way
• Videotaped interviews in Native Spirit and The Sun Dance Way (2-disc DVD set)

Barbara Perry's (1923-2015) introduction to Art from the Sacred to the Profane: East and West , is a reflection of her years of association with the major Perennialist figure Frithjof Schuon, and displays her in-depth knowledge of his influences, his writings, and his own paintings. Mrs. Perry, along with her late husband Whitall Perry, was also acquainted with the great early Traditionalist thinker on arts, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, with René Guénon, and with almost all of the other central figures from the formative years of this school of thought. Barbara Perry helped interpret Perennialist ideas to many people all over the world for over half a century.

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According to Harry Oldmeadow , Whitall Perry (1920 – 2005) was "the most authoritative traditionalist of American background." Many researchers, editors, and authors whose works delve into the fields of comparative religion, philosophy, metaphysics, or spirituality have used Whitall Perry's A Treasury Of Traditional Wisdom as an essential reference tool since its publication in 1971. It is a magisterial compendium of spiritual doctrine spanning ail history and every spiritual tradition. Perry also contributed to the book, Ye Shall Know the Truth .

Whitall Perry's early intellectual interests included Platonism and Vedanta, and he traveled extensively in the Middle and Far East both before and after World War II with a brief interlude of study at Harvard University. He was one of several Harvard students who came under Ananda Coomaraswamy's influence in the 1940s.

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Doctor, humanist and scholar, Duke Alberto Denti di Pirajno, worked in Italy's former North African colonies as described in his books A Cure for Serpents and Ippolita. He died in 1968. He contributed to Ye Shall Know the Truth .

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Kathleen Raine (1908-2003) was an internationally recognized English poet, critic, and scholar specializing in the poets William Blake and W. B. Yeats. She was the founder of the Temenos Academy, an organization that advocates the primacy of the Imagination and which promulgates a traditional view of the arts and crafts in Britain. In addition to her many seminal works on the Romantic poet William Blake (such as Blake and Antiquity, 1979; Golgonooza, City of the Imagination: Last Studies in William Blake, 1991; Blake and Tradition, 2002), other of her more representative publications include Defending Ancient Springs (1985) and Yeats the Initiate (1986).

Kathleen Raine's contributions to World Wisdom books include:

• "The Underlying Order: Nature and the Imagination" in Seeing God Everywhere
• "India and the Modern World" in The Betrayal of Tradition
• "The Vertical Dimension" in Every Man An Artist

Feisal Abdul Rauf is the Imam of Masjid al-Farah in New York City and founder of the American Sufi Muslim Association (ASMA) Society. He is also a co-founder of the Cordoba Initiative, a multi-faith effort to help heal the relationship between the Muslim world and America. He is the author of the best selling book, What’s Right with Islam: A New Vision for Muslims and the West, and often appears in print and broadcast media as an authentic interpreter of Islam. Fiesal Abdul Rauf wrote the foreword to upcoming World Wisdom book The Universal Spirit of Islam .

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Vincent Rossi is Director of Education for the American Exarchate of the Jerusalem Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church. He also serves as the U.S. Director of the U.K.-centered Religious Education and Environment Programme. Author of two books and nearly a hundred articles on theology, spirituality, and the environment, he was the founder and for twelve years the editor of the journal Epiphany.

World Wisdom has published his article "Presence, Participation, Performance: The Remembrance of God in the Early Hesychast Fathers" presented at the "Paths to the Heart" Conference held at the University of South Carolina on October. This article appeared in Paths to the Heart .

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Theodore Roszak is a philosopher, social commentator, novelist and teacher who held positions at Stanford, San Francisco State and California State Universities. He is currently Professor of History and Director of the Ecopsychology Institute at California State University, Hayward. Among his many well-known works are The Making of a Counter Culture (1969), Where the Wasteland Ends (1972), The Cult of Information (1994) and Ecopsychology (1995).

Roszak's article "Descartes' Angel" can be found in the World Wisdom book, The Betrayal of Tradition , edited by Harry Oldmeadow.

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Father Lorenzo Sales, born in 1892, was an Italian missionary priest. During the African colonial war (1915-1918), Sales served as a military chaplain to Kenyan indigenous troops. He wrote several books on Canon Alllamano, the founder of the Consolata missionary societies. However, he is best known for having served as the spiritual director of Sister Maria Consolata of the Convent of the Sacred Heart of Moriondo Moncalieri. He died in 1972. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom anthology, Pray Without Ceasing .

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Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) was an Anglo-Irish novelist, playwright, critic and theological commentator. As well as achieving popularity with novels, detective stories and plays she was widely respected for her translations of Tristan, The Divine Comedy and The Song of Roland. Throughout her life she took a close interest in ecclesiastical and theological developments and was a sharp and perceptive critic of many contemporary follies.

Dorothy Sayers' article "Why Work?", originally given as a lecture in Eastbourne, April 1942 can be found in the anthology, The Betrayal of Tradition .

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Professor Annemarie Schimmel wrote several pieces that have appeared in World Wisdom books:

• The "Foreword" in Understanding Islam, a classic book by Frithjof Schuon
• The "Foreword" in Frithjof Schuon's books of poetry

Click here to go to Prof. Annemarie Schimmel's writing on Frithjof Schuon's poetry.

E. F. Schumacher worked as an economic advisor to the British Control Commission charged with rebuilding the German economy after World War II. Later, he held other prestigious positions as an economic planner and consultant. It was E. F. Schumacher who developed many of the principles that have since come to be known as "appropriate technology": earth- and user-friendly technology matched to the scale of community life. Schumacher's famous book Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered (1973) reflects these insights and has guided many people to re-examine societal, and personal, choices regarding modern life.

From the E. F. Schumacher book Small is Beautiful World Wisdom has included the "Epilogue" in our collection Science and the Myth of Progress .

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• "The Logic of Mystery and the Necessity of Faith" in The Betrayal of Tradition
• "Withdrawal, Extinction, and Creation: Christ’s Kenosis in Light of the Judaic Doctrine of Tsimtsum and the Islamic Doctrine of Fana" in The Essential Sophia.
• "'Made in the Image': Schuon’s Theomorphic Anthropology" in Sacred Web 20

The World Wisdom publication Seeing God Everywhere includes the beautiful piece "O Hanami: Flower Viewing" by Hari Prasad Shastri.

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Philip Sherrard was an English author and scholar educated at Cambridge. Among the works for which he is best known is his collaboration in the complete translation of the Philokalia. The combination of his interests in metaphysics, theology, art and aesthetics led to his participation in the review Temenos, of which he was one of the founders in 1980. He was also recognized as a leading voice in situating modern attitudes and behaviors regarding the environment within a Christian framework. He passed away in 1995.

His essay "Christianity and the Religious Thought of C. G. Jung" is included in the anthology Science and the Myth of Progress . His article "Epilogue" can be found in the anthology, The Betrayal of Tradition .

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Gôjun Shichiri was born in 1836. He lived at Hakata, in southwestern Japan. Shichiri was a very influential and popular propagator of the Tariki way (the way of the “Other”) of Amidism. D.T. Suzuki tells the story of Shichiri’s house being burgled: the thief, upon being arrested, later converted because of the deep impression left upon him by the saintly man. Shichiri was also a scholar and a prolific writer. He died in 1900. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom anthology, Pray Without Ceasing .

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Shinran (1173-1262) was the chief disciple of Hônen and the founder of the School of the True Pure Land (Jôdo-Shin-Shû) form of Buddhism in Japan. The Pure Land School encourages its practitioners to rely on the vow of the Buddha Amida to save all beings from suffering. For Shinran, the blessing of nembutsu can and should be experienced here and now and not in a posthumous state of bliss in Amida’s Pure Land. His teachings are the focus of The Essential Shinran (World Wisdom, 2007). His contributions can also be found in the World Wisdom anthology, Pray Without Ceasing .

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Jeff Shore is Professor of International Zen at Hanazono University, Kyoto, Japan, where he has taught for over a decade and a half. He received his MA in Comparative Philosophy from the University of Hawaii in 1978, focusing on Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism, and thereafter performed postgraduate work in the Department of Religion at Temple University, before he moved to Japan in 1981.

Prof. Shore contributed a foreword to the World Wisdom book, The Laughing Buddha of Tofukuji , by Ishwar C. Harris .

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Dr. Wolfgang Smith's essays appear in the following World Wisdom books:

• "The Plague of Scientistic Belief" in Science and the Myth of Progress
• "'Progress' in Retrospect" in The Betrayal of Tradition
• "Science and Myth: The Hidden Connection" in The Essential Sophia

Gary Snyder is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, environmentalist and teacher. Snyder was a major figure in the Beat movement and, after spending many years in a Japanese monastery, helped to make Zen more widely known in the West. His many books include Turtle Island, Earth House Hold, A Place in Space, The Real Work, and The Practice of the Wild. His article, "On the Path, Off the Trail," appears in Light From The East: Modern Western Encounters with Eastern Traditions .

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Joan Stambaugh is Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York. She is the author of several works dealing with Buddhist and Existentialist topics, including Impermanence is Buddha-Nature: Dogen’s Understanding of Temporality (1990), The Other Nietzsche (1994), and The Formless Self (1999). She also contributed a foreword to The Buddha Eye: An Anthology of the Kyoto School and its Contemporaries edited by Frederick Franck .

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Mark Stone is an artist, art teacher and student of religion and philosophy who lives in Victoria, Australia. His research focuses mainly upon traditional theories of art and comparative mysticism. Stone contributed the article "Dweller on the Threshold" to the forthcoming World Wisdom title, Crossing Religious Frontiers.

Clark Strand is a former Zen Buddhist monk and the author of Seeds From A Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey and The Wooden Bowl: Simple Meditation for Everyday Life. In 1996 he left his position as senior editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review to write and teach full time. He now lives in Woodstock, NY, where he leads the Koans of the Bible Study Group. Mr. Strand wrote the foreword to Honen The Buddhist Saint: Essential Writings And Official Biography .

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Articles by D. T. Suzuki in World Wisdom books include:

A member of the Mescalero Apache tribe, Inés M. Talamantez is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A graduate of Dartmouth College, Professor Talamantez is the author of Teaching Religion and Healing and has contributed articles to Native Religions and Cultures of North America: Anthropology of the Sacred and Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives.

Film interviews with Professor Talamantez on American Indian spirituality and advice for American Indian youth are a featured part of the documentary film and DVD on the Crow Shoshone Sun Dance entitled, Native Spirit: The Sun Dance Way .

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Sir John Tavener (1944–2013) was a world renowned composer, conductor and musical celebrity. Inspired by the writings of Frithjof Schuon, Sir John incorporated Hindu, Sufi, Jewish and North American Indian ideas into his compositions. His article, “Towards the Musica Perennis,” is found in the World Wisdom anthology Every Man An Artist .

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Br. Wayne Teasdale wrote the foreword for the new edition of A Buddhist Spectrum , by Marco Pallis .

Gordon Tootoosis, a veteran of over 40 films, has appeared in such movies as Reindeer Games (2000) and Legends of the Fall (1994). He is a member of the Cree tribe. Mr. Tootoosis is the voice of Thomas Yellowtail in Native Spirit: The Sun Dance Way .

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Duncan Townson is a professional historian and the author of the Penguin Dictionary of Modern History, 1789-1945 (1994), Muslim Spain (1973) and Illustrated Atlas of the Modern World (1981). He also contributed to World Wisdom’s, Ye Shall Know the Truth: Christianity and the Perennial Philosophy .

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James Trosper is a respected voice on traditional Plains Indian spirituality. He is Medicine Man and Sun Dance chief of the Shoshone Tribe in Fort Washakie, Wyoming. Mr. Trosper is a direct descendant of the great Eastern Shoshone chief, Washakie. Mr. Trosper has traveled throughout America, assisting in the continuation of American Indian religious traditions, and explaining the Sun Dance religion of the Plains and Indian spirituality to Indian and white audiences. James Trosper has contributed the following to World Wisdom projects:

• The "Foreword" in Living in Two Worlds: The American Indian Experience, by Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa)
• The "Foreword" in Indian Spirit (revised and enlarged edition)
• Comments in the section "Conversations With Native Elders" in Native Spirit: The Sun Dance Way (book)
• Videotaped interview in the section "Conversations With Native Elders" in Native Spirit and The Sun Dance Way (2-disc DVD set)

Tulsîdās was a medieval Hindi poet and philosopher, born in Rajapur, India in 1532. He is said to have written the Hindi version of the Rāmāyana, the famous epic devoted to Lord Rāma, under the direction of Hanumān. Tulsīdās is regarded as an incarnation of Vālmīki, the author of the classic Sanskrit Rāmāyana. He wrote twelve other books and is often regarded as the most famous Hindi poet. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom book, Pray without Ceasing .

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Dr. Taitetsu Unno is considered by many to be America's foremost authority on Pure Land Buddhism as developed by Honen and Shinran in thirteenth-century Japan.

Having retired from Smith College in December 1998, Taitetsu Unno is now the Jill Ker Conway Professor Emeritus of Religion. He taught Buddhism and Japanese aesthetics at that institution since 1971. Dr. Unno is an ordained Shin Buddhist minister, and the founder and Sensei of the Northampton Shin Buddhist Sangha.

Dr. Taitestsu Unno is the author of the introduction to World Wisdom's Living in Amida’s Universal Vow: Essays on Shin Buddhism, a collection of articles on Shin Buddhism edited by Alfred Bloom. Dr. Unno also contributed the essay “The Practice of Jodo-shinshu” to Living in Amida’s Universal Vow.

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Rev. Tetsuo Unno studied at U.C. Berkeley, Ryukoku University (Kyoto), Tokyo University, and UCLA. He served as Minister at Buddhist Churches of America's Seattle and Senshin (L.A.) Buddhist Churches. He has taught Religious Studies at California State University, Northridge and Long Beach.

Rev. Unno is the author of the foreword in Naturalness: A Classic of Shin Buddhim by Kenryo Kanamatsu

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Mir Valiuddin was a professor of philosophy at the Osmania University in Hyderabad, India, for many years, specializing in Sufism. His work has contributed to demonstrating the extent to which this heritage has shaped Muslim thought and civilization through the centuries. One of the foremost academic scholars of Sufism in the East, he is the author of Quranic Sufism, Contemplative Disciplines in Sufism, and Love of God: A Sufic Approach. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom anthology, Pray Without Ceasing .

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Arthur Versluis is a professor of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University, where he teaches writing and literature. He is the author of numerous books and articles on traditional religion and cosmology, esoterism and mysticism, and nature and the sacred. His writings are noted for their focus on a revivification of effective Christian esoterism and also on spirituality in America, inlcuding the American Indian spiritual traditions.

Professor Versluis has contributed an essay, "Hierophanic Nature," to the World Wisdom collection of essays Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred .

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Benedicta Ward is a sister of the community of Sisters of the Love of God, based in Oxford, England. She is Reader in the History of Christian Spirituality at the University of Oxford and an honorary lecturer at Harris Manchester College. She has written a number of books on early monasticism and on the Middle Ages and is one of the world’s most knowledgeable writers on the legacy of the Desert Fathers and Mothers.

Benedicta Ward contributed a fascinating foreword to the book In the Heart of the Desert, Revised: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers by John Chryssavgis.

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Metropolitan Kallistos has contributed the following to World Wisdom's books:

• The "Foreword" in In the Heart of the Desert, Revised: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
• "How Do We Enter the Heart?" in Paths to the Heart: Sufism and the Christian East
• "The Power of the Name: The Jesus Prayer in Orthodox Spirituality" in Ye Shall Know The Truth

Ian Watson lectured in religious studies at La Trobe University, Melbourne. He translated and edited many of René Guénon’s articles, was joint editor of Religious Traditions and a contributor to Studies in Comparative Religion. His article, "Hindu Cosmology and Modern Science," appears in Light From The East: Modern Western Encounters with Eastern Traditions .

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Dr. Wilson wrote the foreword to The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa).

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T. J. Winter is the Sheikh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Divinity School, University of Cambridge, and the Director of the Muslim Academic Trust. He studied for many years in the Middle East and has published several translations of Arabic texts, especially several by the great Sufi thinker Abû Hâmid al-Ghazâlî.

T. J. Winter's essay "The Poverty of Fanaticism" appears as the epilogue to the book Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition: Essays by Western Muslim Scholars .

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Mr. Zaleski's insightful remarks can be found in the forewords to the following World Wisdom books:

• Seeing God Everywhere: Seeing God Everywhere: Essays on Nature and the Sacred
• Prayer Fashions Man
• A Christian Woman's Secret: A Modern Day Journey to God

Alireza K. Ziarani was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1972. He studied mathematics at McGill University, Canada, and later engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada, where he received a Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering in 2002. A tenured faculty member at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, he taught courses in engineering and science before leaving for the private sector in 2009. He currently resides with his wife in Bloomington, Indiana.