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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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 Oren 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:

• 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)

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

Lynna Dhanani holds a Master of Arts degree in South Asian and comparative religions from the University of Virginia. Her main areas of interest are Jainism, Indian philosophy and aesthetics, and comparative Hindu/Islamic philosophy and mysticism. She is studying Sanskrit and Persian, and contributed an article to Dossiers H: Frithjof Schuon. Her article, "An Introduction to Jainism" appears in Light From The East: Modern Western Encounters with Eastern Traditions .

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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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Raymond Gawronski, S.J. specializes in dogmatic theology with a focus on eschatology, and on the mystical, particularly as articulated in the work of Hans Urs von Balthasa and is an Associate Professor at Marquette University. The author of over thirty articles on various themes, largely touching culture and spirituality have appeared in publications such as Communio, New Oxford Review and America, along with the chapter “Redemptor Hominis” in The Thought of John Paul II.

Father Gawronski is the author of An Ignatian Retreat, (Our Sunday Visitor Press, 2003) and has contributed a foreword to For God’s Greater Glory: Gems of Jesuit Spirituality .

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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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Jean Hani is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Amiens in France, where he has specialized in Greek literature and philosophy. He has written several books including Le Symbolisme du temple chrétien, Mythes, rites et symbols: Les Chemins de l'invisible and La Vierge noire et le mystère marial. Among his numerous books, he also contributed to Ye Shall Know the Truth .

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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. Professor Johnston is based at Sophia University in Tokyo, where he has taught courses on mysticism and meditation. His contributions can be found in the World Wisdom anthology, Pray Without Ceasing .

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