He was an almost unknown Romanian mystic who lived much of his life under Soviet occupation.  As a result, his practice was solitary and hidden.  He began his spiritual life as a Christian mystic, but at some point, switched over to mantra meditation. After two decades of disciplined practice he came face-to-no-face with Reality in 1971, he shared his vision for the next 30 plus years.  Much of that was stowed away prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990.  He taught quietly from that time until his death in 2004. 

His writings in 16 books describe the experience of meditation and enlightenment, as well as the practice of “Self-knowing” using all-encompassing Attention. Like Ramana Maharshi, Krishnamurti, Ekhart Tolle, his is a simple message of discovering our inner divine nature through the silence of the mind.

Even with many great teachers to learn from – can we stop things from falling apart? 2024 has been dominated with wars burning in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine and peacemaking in crisis. Worldwide, diplomatic efforts to end fighting are failing. More leaders are pursuing their ends militarily. More believe they can get away with it. 

War has been on the rise since about 2012, after a decline in the 1990s and early 2000s. First came conflicts in Libya, Syria and Yemen, triggered by the 2011 Arab uprisings. Libya’s instability spilled south, helping set off a protracted crisis in the Sahel region. A fresh wave of major combat followed: the 2020 Azerbaijani-Armenian war over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, horrific fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region that began weeks later, the conflict prompted by the Myanmar army’s 2021 power grab and Russia’s 2022 assault on Ukraine. Add to those 2023’s devastation in Sudan and Gaza. Around the globe, more people are dying in fighting, being forced from their homes or in need of life-saving aid than in decades. 

The Emily Dahl Foundation