Pilgrims to Openness

In nearly 70 heart- and mind-opening teachings, Pilgrims to Openness lays bare the compelling world view of Kashmir Shaivism (direct realization Tantra) and offers the reader powerful guidance for embodying greater freedom and fulfillment in human life. Shambhavi Sarasvati is a gifted teacher who is deeply engaged in the practice and study of traditional Tantra and Dzogchen. With compassion, wry humor, and insight, she leads the reader to understand precisely how our everyday lives can function as spiritual practice-eating, sleeping, moving, working and relating to other people. "We don't have to concoct, contrive or conceptualize a 'spiritual' life. The life-process is the process of awakening, and it is already underway." To read the book is to enter into a transformative conversation with wisdom, world, and Self.


Shambhavi presents the view of traditional Tantra in ways that speak to the lives of contemporary people. At the heart of this view is uncontrived naturalness: the profound relaxation of body, energy, self-concept, and mind. Such relaxation leads inevitably to a life filled with freshness and wonder. Pilgrims to Openness is alive with personal anecdotes and encounters. Along the way, no subject is off limits, from difficult emotions, such as loneliness, to love relationships, death, kundalini, chakras, boredom, and how to wake up in the morning and for all time. The final pages offer detailed instructions for three key practices aimed at beginners and more seasoned practitioners alike.


Pilgrims to Openness is the winner of a 2010 national Independent Publisher Book Award (an IPPY) in the category of best new books about religion.