= Andrew_Harvey_(religious

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= Andrew_Harvey_(religious_writer) =
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Introduction
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Andrew Harvey (born June 9, 1952) is a British author, religious
scholar and teacher of mystic traditions, known primarily for his
popular nonfiction books on spiritual or mystical themes, beginning
with his 1983 'A Journey in Ladakh'. He is the author of over 30
books, including, 'The Hope, A Guide to Sacred Activism', 'The Direct
Path', the critically acclaimed 'Way of Passion: A Celebration of
Rumi', 'The Return of the Mother' and 'Son of Man'. He was the subject
of the 1993 BBC documentary "The Making of a Modern Mystic" and is the
founder of the Sacred Activism movement.

Harvey lives in Chicago, Illinois, where he continues to write when he
is not lecturing. Harvey conducts workshops on Sacred Activism, the
teachings of Rumi, yoga and practices that will lead to deeper
spiritual awareness. Harvey travels with students to sacred sites in
India, Australia and South Africa, and offers personal spiritual
direction. Harvey was listed as number 33 in the Watkins' Mind Body
Spirit magazine as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living
People in 2012. In 2012, he was nominated for the Templeton Prize,
which was awarded to the Dalai Lama.

Early life and education
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Harvey was born in Coimbatore, India in 1952 and lived there until he
was nine years old. He was educated at English boarding schools and
then the University of Oxford, where he later taught Shakespeare and
French literature until 1977. He wrote his dissertation on madness in
Shakespeare and Erasmus.

Career
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At 21 in the early 1970s, Harvey became a fellow of All Souls College,
Oxford. By 1977 he had become disillusioned with life at Oxford and
returned to India, where a series of mystical experiences initiated
his spiritual journey. Over the next thirty years he plunged into
different mystical traditions to learn their secrets and practices. In
1978 he met a succession of Indian saints and sages and began his
study and practice of Hinduism. In 1983, in Ladakh, he met a Tibetan
adept, Thuksey Rinpoche, and undertook with him the Mahayana Buddhist
bodhisattva vows; later, in 1990, he would collaborate with Sogyal
Rinpoche and Patrick Gaffney in the writing of 'The Tibetan Book of
Living and Dying'. In 1984, Harvey began a ten-year-long exploration
and explication of Rumi and Sufi mysticism in Paris with a group of
French Sufis under the guidance of Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, the
translator of Rumi into French. In 1992, he met Father Bede Griffiths
in his ashram in south India near where Harvey had been born. It was
this meeting that helped him synthesize the whole of his mystical
explorations and reconcile Eastern with Western mysticism.

While in India, Harvey encountered Mother Meera, who became his guru
and the subject of his book 'Hidden Journey'. His memoir, 'The Sun at
Midnight', describes their subsequent break and his disillusionment
with gurus.

For the last 30 years, Harvey has travelled widely, living in India,
London, Paris, New York and San Francisco, studying, teaching at
university level and in seminars and workshops. A prolific writer,
Harvey has authored or co-authored over 30 books. His focus since 2005
has been the advocacy of what he terms "Sacred Activism". He is the
founder and director of the Institute of Sacred Activism, which trains
leaders and social justice advocates.

Teachings
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Harvey is a scholar of mystic traditions. He envisions true
spirituality to be the divinisation of earthly life through spiritual
practice. These practices can take many forms and can be taken from
religious traditions.
Harvey sees six poets and religious figures as having universal
appeal:
:*Shakyamuni Buddha as portrayed in the 'Dhammapada'
:*Jesus as portrayed in the 'Gospel of Thomas'
:*Rumi, a 13th century Sufi poet.
:*Kabir, a 15th century Indian poet
:*Ramakrishna, a 19th century Hindu sadhu
:*Aurobindo, a 20th century Hindu philosopher-sage

Harvey also emphasises the Divine Feminine, as expressed in the Virgin
Mary, Kali, the Black Madonna, and Mother Earth.

Since 2005, Andrew Harvey's work has focused on teaching Sacred
Activism around the globe. Harvey describes sacred activism as "the
product of the union of a profound spiritual and mystical knowledge,
understanding, and compassion, peace and energy, with focused, wise,
radical action in the world."

Bibliography
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* 'Hidden Journey: A Spiritual Awakening', 1991
* 'The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: A New Spiritual Classic from
One of the Foremost Interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism to the West'
(co-editor), 1992
* 'The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi'. North Atlantic
Books/Frog, 1994.
* 'The Divine Feminine: Exploring the Feminine Face of God Throughout
the World', 1996
* 'Light upon light: inspirations from Rumi'. North Atlantic Books,
1996.
* 'Mary's Vineyard: Daily Meditations, Readings, and Revelations'.
with Eryk Hanut. Quest Books, 1996.
* 'The Essential Mystics: The Soul's Journey into Truth'. Castle
Books, 1998
* 'The Essential Gay Mystics', 1998 (cloth),
* 'Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ', J.P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1998
*
'[https://books.google.com/books?id=JfRcWr3ajLUC&dq=Andrew+Harvey+writer&pg=PT1
Perfume of the Desert: Inspirations from Sufi Wisdom]', with Eryk
Hanut. Quest Books, 1999.
* 'The Return of the Mother', 2000
* 'A Journey in Ladakh: Encounters with Buddhism', 2000. Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt, 2000.
* 'The Direct Path: Creating a Personal Journey to the Divine Through
the World's Traditions', 2001
* 'The Sun at Midnight: A Memoir of the Dark Night', 2002
* 'A Walk With Four Spiritual Guides: Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, And
Ramakrishna'. SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2005.
* 'The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism', Hay House, 2009.
* 'Heart Yoga: The Sacred Marriage of Yoga and Mysticism', North
Atlantic Books. 2010.
* 'Radical passion : sacred love and wisdom in action'. North Atlantic
Books. 2012.

External links
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* [http://www.andrewharvey.net/ Andrew Harvey official site]
*
[http://www.beliefnet.com/Holistic-Living/2009/11/Sacred-Activist.aspx
10 Ways to Become a Sacred Activist by Andrew Harvey]

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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Harvey_(religious_writer)