Acharya Mangalananda
Mangalananda is a direct disciple of Anandamayee and for many years lived in one of her ashrams as a monk. He is one of the few Westerners initiated by her. There he learned the traditional village style of chanting kirtan which he now offers regularly at different locations in the San Francisco Bay area, in addition to being a featured musician at summer kirtan festivals. In additions to CDs featuring his music, Mangalanda has written an excellent introduction to the life and work of Anandamayee titled: “A Goddess Among Us.”
Listen to one of the kirtan Om Ma Sharanam, a homage to the Divine Mother: https://youtu.be/6-B_1NBS4SE
Here is a link to his interview: “My Time with Anandamayi Ma”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Xde86mwvI
His website is: www.masharanam.org
Mangalananda’s kirtan is very inspired, pure and ‘sattvic’, and very traditional, done as a sacred offering free from the ‘performance’ and personality aspects of many contemporary kirtan practitioners.
Currently Magalanda hosts regular Satsang meetings with Kirtan online (every third Sunday): for more information contact him at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Avery Solomon
Avery was a close student of Anthony Damiani, Paul Brunton, and also of Raphael and is a long-standing member of Wisdom’s Goldenrod. He regularly offers workshops and teachings there as well as annually in Sweden. Avery brings his training as a mathematician into his spiritual work, demonstrating the syntony between modern science with perennial wisdom traditions and showing how they can be integrated and harmonized.
For more information, including Avery’s papers and writings: www.averysolomon.com
Humberto Lemgruber
Humberto is a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and a life-long student of philosophical and spiritual topics. These interests are reflected in his Portuguese language website “Pedra no Lago – Inspirando o Bem” (A Ripple in the Lake-Inspirations of the Good), launched in 2020, containing material from Paul Brunton, Jose Trigueirinho, Eckhart Tolle, The Mother, Sri Aurobindo and others, articles by Humberto himself, as well as philosophical texts, poetry, prayers, inspirational sharing of experiences, information about humanitarian aid programs and links to charities meant to inspire the good in us (www.pedranolago.com.br).
In addition to his website, Humberto was an active contributor to the Portuguese language Paul Brunton website, and a volunteer in the Figueira Community, Minas Gerais, Brazil, where he helped to coordinate the team that developed the website of the Fraternity International Humanitarian Federation, also helping to develop the cooperative agreement with the Federation and the United Nations High Committee on Refugees (UNHCR) which provides guidelines for the assistance of refugees from Venezuelan who have emigrated to the State of Roraima, in the north of Brazil.
Finally Humberto is a volunteer counselor at the “Sabiah – Diálogos que Conectam” (Sabiah – Dialogues that Connect), an on-line project that was developed to assist lonely individuals who struggled during the Covid epidemic and to provide guidance on issues relating to family, children, career, and other topics.
Mahmud Burton – Society for Turkish Classical Music
Mahmud is a musician in the Turkish Sufi tradition who plays the ney and other instruments. Rumi said: “Fire is the voice of the ney—not wind…the fire of love has fallen into the ney.” The Society, which he helped found, offers training in classical Turkish music under the tutelage of the celebrated Turkish musician Timuçin Çevikoğlu, who has been visiting the U.S. on a regular basis to train a group of students who are learning his tradition and to offer lectures, concerts and recitals.
Mahmud has offered workshops in Mt. Shasta where we have also had the pleasure of hosting his teacher Timuçin along with dervishes in the Mevlana Sufi tradition.
For more information: www.turkishclassicalmusic.org
Pedro Elias
Pedro, born in Portugal, is the designer of this website. In addition to his web-design, he is an author, musician, writer and student of sacred traditions.
Learn more about Pedro, his blog, music, and his writing at: www.pedroelias.org/blog/en
Realidade Fantastica (Extraordinary Reality)
Realidade Fantastica is a Brazilian Portuguese-language You-Tube channel and website which features resources and information on spiritual teachers, esotericism and occultism, and Eastern and Western traditional philosophy. It offers weekly You-Tube postings and has over 130,000 followers. This includes an excellent biographical video about Paul Brunton (with English subtitles) and other material of interest to The Path of Philosophy.
The hosts and founders of Realidade Fantastica are:
Jamil Salloum Jr., a Journalist with expertise in Transpersonal Psychology, Communication and Culture, who has a master’s degree in Philosophy. He has been a researcher of Esoterism, Occultism, Parapsychology and Eastern Philosophy for over 30 years, and he has given lectures and courses on these topics in throughout Brazil since 1987.
For two years Jamil worked as Designer of the spiritualist TV program “Fourth Dimension” and for eleven years as host of the “Presence and Harmony” program of the Rosacrucian Order (AMORC), also serving during this time as the AMORC Communication Advisor. Jamil has worked as a university professor at the graduate level for 13 years and as a Complementary Medicine Therapist for two years.
Marcos Roberto Kusnick, a professional Astrologer who graduated in History and who has a master’s degree in Education. As a teacher he has worked at all levels of education, from elementary to undergraduate. He also has experience as a technician and consultant in Information Technology, from prior to the advent of Windows and Internet up to the present. Marcos has been interested in Esoterism since childhood. He has found in Astrology a form of professional expression which combines his teaching experience with his ability to guide people through the great topics of life.
Márcio Pereira Slompo, who has over 25 years of professional experience in Journalism with experience in television, newspapers, radio, and magazines, in addition to working for many years in the field of Communication. Márcio has always been attracted to Esoterism as a means of acquiring more knowledge about himself and about the purpose of life. One of his significant life experiences is his participation in a traditional and world renowned mystical and philosophical Fraternity, an experience which has had a profound impact on his career and personal life.
Currently on the Realidade Fantastica You-Tube channel are three video’s with English subtitles, developed in collaboration with The Path of Philosophy. First, an excellent biography of Paul Brunton, second, an interview with Micha-El and Gran about their work of diffusion of spiritual teachings, and third, a second interview with Micha-El and Gran about the life and teachings of Paul Brunton.
Paul Brunton biography:
Interview with Gran and Micha-El: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMWWZRfK15E
The Wisdom of Paul Brunton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LAG3uEqEuE
For access to the Realidade Fantastica video’s books and other material go to: www.realidadefantastica.com.br
Rochester Folk Art Guild
The Rochester Folk Art Guild (RFAG) is an intentional community located in Middlesex, N.Y. founded by Ms. Louise March – formerly the personal secretary of G.I. Gurdjieff – in which the production of crafts is used as a form of spiritual practice. The RFAG offers classes, internships, and teachings and also has a gallery and website in which the ‘folk art’ creations of its members are sold.
The activities and history of the Guild are described in a recently published book:
East Hill Farm: A Different World, Another Way of Living by Peter Gillian, available from the Guild’s website (below).
For more information go to: www.folkartguild.org.
Tibetan Nuns Project
One of the many, many accomplishments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been to introduce into the training of Tibetan nuns the philosophical and debate studies that have been standard for monks for centuries. Through this he was able to demonstrate to other high lamas and tulkus that nuns are equally qualified to study for the 16 year Geshe degree, the highest level of training in Tibetan Buddhism. As a result nuns are now allowed for the Geshema degree and in 2019 the first group of nuns passed a set of rigorous examinations and became Geshema’s.
Central to the hosting of nuns who have escaped from Tibet and others who have sought to enter into a monastic life, the Tibetan Nuns Project (TNP) has supported nuns and nunneries in India from the different branches of Tibetan Buddhism.
More about the TNP and their important work is available at: www.tnp.org
We have been blessed to be able to support two nuns who are currently studying to be Geshema’s, and to visit them at their nunnery, Dolma Ling, in Dharamsala, where we were able to attend talks of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the environment of his Monastery and the many Tibetans who gathered around him for his blessing.
Timothy Smith
Timothy was a close student of Anthony Damiani and was chosen by Paul Brunton to be the co-editor of his Notebooks with the task of preparing them for publication, now available in sixteen volumes from www.larsonpublications.org. More recently he has coordinated a project to digitize all of Paul Brunton’s unpublished material, including letters, essays, unpublished material from the “Ideas” series, and writings that were not included in his first ten books. All of this material will soon be available from the Cornell University Department of Manuscripts and Archives (we will provide a link as soon as we have one.). Tim is also an excellent astrologer who is able to use the horoscope to evaluate challenges and issues from a spiritual perspective. He has an extensive website filled with material on sacred traditions, photos, and his translations of texts.
For more information: www.timsmith7.com
