ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 is an autoethnography focusing on the author’s own experiences of coming to know about, study, research and practice Nondual Śaivism. In the first part of the chapter, the author details his experiences in Varanasi, India, with Mark Dyczkowski, Bettina Bäumer and some of their students. In the second part of the chapter, he recounts his initiation into Neelakantha Meditation with Paul Muller-Ortega in Hawaii. The objective for this fieldwork was for the author to practice contemporary Nondual Śaiva Theosophy (NŚT), and report on his experiences as an “insider” of the new tradition. In this way, he endeavored to think within the conceptual framework of NŚT, not merely to think about it as a disinterested scholar. In this attempt the author believes he was only partially successful. Nevertheless, he maintains that his effort illuminates aspects of the tradition and its contemporary practice which might otherwise have remained unexplored.
