From Here to Reality: My Spiritual Teaching

Barry Long knew he was dying. He set about writing down his last words on the main themes of his spiritual teaching. He wanted to leave behind a full account of what he considered to be his original contribution to the evolving consciousness on Earth.

No one before him had been able to strip away spiritual traditions to reveal the universal truth with such boldness and practicality; with such contemporary relevance. No other teachers of his generation were quite so willing to take on the unhappiness of the human condition by dealing with personal intimate questions about relationships, and particularly sexual relations--all without losing sight of the divine. No other enlightened teacher or master had seen into the cosmic scheme of things and at the same time been able to bring universal principles down to earth with such power and immediacy.

Between the covers of this book you will find all he wanted us to hear about the human condition, the errors we make in ignorance of the truth of life; about love and its transcendent power to change us; about the dismantling of the selfish body of unhappiness we carry around with us; about the cosmic scheme of all our lives, the purpose of death, the purpose of love, the purpose of life itself.

Barry Long (1926-2003) was a writer and spiritual teacher with an original and challenging way of communicating age-old truths.

Born and raised in Australia he started out as a junior journalist and became the youngest-ever editor of a Sydney Sunday tabloid, somewhat prophetically called 'Truth'. At that time spiritual truth was far from his mind, but in his early 30s, the ambitious and successful family man began to question all his values. For some years his inner pain and suffering increased. Eventually, in 1965, he fled Australia and went to India. After many adventures, alone in the Himalayas he experienced what he called a 'mystic death', or the realization of immortality. This was the real beginning of his journey towards 'the unfathomable mystery of God or Life and that other divine mystery of true love between man and woman'.

He wrote of his insights and realizations and for thirty years gave talks and seminars in many countries. He inspired and guided many thousands of men and women without wanting to create a big organization or attract personal fame. He was concerned with the individual, not society. He taught that the way to truth and the reality of love is through direct experience, not belief or imagination; and that freedom comes from taking responsibility for one's own life. He was fulfilled by the prospect that one day someone might hear the truth from him and be able to live it. Evidently very many did. His legacy may be seen in their lives and in the work of some of those he inspired, including other teachers, notably Eckhart Tolle.