As a young adult growing up in the UK, I was troubled by the lack of meaning in the limiting zeitgeist of modern life that seemed to lie ahead of me. I was drawn to eastern philosophy from an early age. My father was a modern architect, so I also loved modern inventiveness and scientific precision. But it was the answers to the big questions about the purpose of life that Eastern wisdom introduced to me, which excited me the most. They provided another order of meaning to existence.
I skipped university and travelled several times overland to India, through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. I had the rare opportunity to meet and study with several enlightened masters of different traditions. On my return to the UK, I studied psychology and worked as a social worker, counselor, and then as a psychotherapist. But the desire to find a radically different way of life eventually led me to join a spiritual community. This took me on an adventure that lasted almost thirty years.