Historical Masters
The great teachers whose wisdom shaped the contemplative traditions.
53 masters
Buddhist
Seng T'san (Jianzhi Sengcan, d. 606) was the Third Patriarch of Chan Buddhism and author of the 'Xinxin Ming' (Faith in Mind), one of the earliest and most…
Padmasambhava, known as Guru Rinpoche, was an eighth-century Indian tantric master credited with establishing Buddhism in Tibet. He subdued local deities and…
Baizhang Huaihai (720–814) was a Chinese Chan master who established the first independent Chan monastic code, separating Chan communities from the Indian…
Tilopa (988–1069) was an Indian tantric practitioner and mahasiddha who is considered the human source of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He received…
Naropa (1016–1100) was an Indian Buddhist scholar and mahasiddha who left his position as abbot of Nalanda University to seek his teacher Tilopa. After years…
Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157) was a Chinese Chan master of the Caodong (Soto) lineage who articulated the practice of silent illumination (mozhao), a form of…
Longchenpa (1308–1364) was a Tibetan Buddhist master and scholar regarded as one of the most brilliant minds in the Nyingma tradition. His masterwork, the…
Bassui Tokushō (1327–1387) was a Japanese Rinzai Zen master known for his relentless inquiry into the nature of mind and his question 'Who is the master?' He…
Lama Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol (1781–1851) was a Tibetan yogi, poet, and wandering practitioner in the tradition of Milarepa. His autobiography, one of the…
Patrul Rinpoche (1808–1887) was a wandering Tibetan Buddhist master of the Nyingma tradition known for his humility, fierce compassion, and brilliant writing.…
Ayu Khandro Dorje Paldrön (1838–1953) was a Tibetan yogini and Dzogchen practitioner who reportedly lived to the age of 115. She spent over fifty years in…
Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta (1870–1949) was a Thai Theravada monk who revived the forest-dwelling ascetic tradition in Southeast Asia and founded the Thai Forest…
Hakuun Yasutani Roshi (1885–1973) was a Japanese Zen master in the Soto and Rinzai traditions. He founded the Sanbo Kyodan school, which became a major vehicle…
Dudjom Rinpoche (1904–1987) was the first supreme head of the Nyingma lineage in exile and one of the most accomplished Tibetan Buddhist masters of the…
Mahasi Sayadaw (1904–1982) was a Burmese Theravada monk and one of the most influential meditation teachers of the twentieth century. He systematized the…
Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971) was a Soto Zen monk and teacher who founded the San Francisco Zen Center in 1962, one of the first Zen monasteries outside Asia. He…
Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo (1907–1961) was a Thai forest tradition monk and a student of Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta. He was a pioneer in teaching breath meditation…
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–1991) was one of the last great masters to receive the full scope of Tibetan Buddhist training in Tibet before the Chinese…
Anagarika Munindra (1915–2003) was a Bengali lay Buddhist teacher who studied in Burma under Mahasi Sayadaw and became one of the principal transmitters of…
Ajahn Chah (1918–1992) was a Thai forest tradition monk whose direct, humorous teaching style made the Dhamma accessible to both Thai laypeople and Western…
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920–1996) was a Tibetan Buddhist master renowned for his ability to transmit the direct experience of the nature of mind with…
Ayya Khema (1923–1997) was a German-born Theravada Buddhist nun who became one of the most prominent female Buddhist teachers in the West. She was the first…
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926–2022) was a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, peace activist, and one of the most influential spiritual leaders of the modern era. He was a…
John Daido Loori (1931–2009) was an American Zen master who founded the Mountains and Rivers Order and Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York. He…
Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931–1995) was a Japanese Zen master who became one of the most influential figures in bringing Zen to the West. He founded the Zen…
Bernie Glassman (1939–2018) was a Zen teacher and social activist who founded the Zen Peacemakers order. He received dharma transmission from Taizan Maezumi…
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939–1987) was a Tibetan Buddhist master in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages who became one of the most influential figures in bringing…
Jack Engler is a clinical psychologist and vipassana meditation teacher. He is a contributing editor and teacher at the Insight Meditation Society and has…
Daniel P. Brown (1948–2022) was a clinical psychologist at Harvard Medical School and a meditation teacher specializing in the Mahamudra and Dzogchen…
Rob Burbea (1965–2020) was a meditation teacher who served as resident teacher at Gaia House in Devon, England. He was known for his innovative and deep…
Christian Contemplative
Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328) was a German Dominican theologian, philosopher, and mystic whose sermons on detachment, the birth of the Word in the soul, and…
St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) was a Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic, and Doctor of the Church whose 'Interior Castle' mapped the stages of contemplative prayer…
Thomas Merton (1915–1968) was an American Trappist monk, theologian, and writer at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. One of the most influential Catholic…
Father Thomas Keating (1923–2018) was a Trappist monk and priest who was one of the principal architects of the Centering Prayer movement. He served as abbot…
Anthony de Mello was an Indian Jesuit priest, psychotherapist, and spiritual teacher whose retreats and writings synthesized Christian mysticism, Zen, Sufism,…
Islamic Contemplative
Hazrat Inayat Khan was an Indian musician and Sufi teacher who brought the Sufi message to the West in 1910. He founded the International Sufi Movement and the…
Modern Secular
Ilie Cioara (1916–2004) was a Romanian mystic and author who experienced a spontaneous awakening and spent the remainder of his life exploring and writing…
Vedic-Yogic
Patanjali is the sage traditionally credited with compiling the Yoga Sutras, the foundational text of Classical Yoga. Writing around the second century BCE, he…
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886) was a Bengali Hindu mystic and saint whose direct experience of the divine across multiple traditions — Vaishnavism,…
Swami Vivekananda was the chief disciple of Ramakrishna and a key figure in bringing Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world. His address at the 1893 Parliament…
Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) was an Indian sage who attained self-realization at age sixteen and spent the rest of his life at Arunachala hill in…
Swami Sivananda Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a prolific author of over 200 books on yoga, Vedanta, and a wide range of spiritual subjects. A…
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya is widely regarded as the father of modern yoga. A scholar of Sanskrit, Ayurveda, and multiple philosophical systems, he developed…
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) was an Indian spiritual teacher of Advaita Vedanta who lived and taught in a small apartment in the back streets of Mumbai. A…
Annamalai Swami (1906–1995) was a direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi who served as the construction supervisor at Sri Ramanasramam before undertaking a life of…
Hariwansh Lal Poonja (1910–1997), universally known as Papaji, was a direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi and one of the most influential Advaita Vedanta…
Jean Klein (1912–1998) was a French-born Advaita Vedanta teacher who studied in India with Pandit Veeraraghavachar and a Kashmiri yoga master. He brought a…
Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar was one of the foremost yoga teachers of the twentieth century. A student of T. Krishnamacharya, he developed Iyengar…
Sally Kempton (Swami Durgananda) was an American meditation teacher and writer known for her work on Kashmir Shaivism and the yoga of inner transformation. A…