Historical Masters
The great teachers whose wisdom shaped the contemplative traditions.
42 masters
Buddhist
Seng T'san (Jianzhi Sengcan, d. 606) was the Third Patriarch of Chan Buddhism and author of the 'Xinxin Ming' (Faith in…
Padmasambhava, known as Guru Rinpoche, was an eighth-century Indian tantric master credited with establishing Buddhism…
Baizhang Huaihai (720–814) was a Chinese Chan master who established the first independent Chan monastic code,…
Tilopa (988–1069) was an Indian tantric practitioner and mahasiddha who is considered the human source of the Kagyu…
Naropa (1016–1100) was an Indian Buddhist scholar and mahasiddha who left his position as abbot of Nalanda University…
Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157) was a Chinese Chan master of the Caodong (Soto) lineage who articulated the practice of…
Longchenpa (1308–1364) was a Tibetan Buddhist master and scholar regarded as one of the most brilliant minds in the…
Bassui Tokushō (1327–1387) was a Japanese Rinzai Zen master known for his relentless inquiry into the nature of mind…
Ryōkan Taigu (1758–1831) was a Japanese Soto Zen monk and poet beloved for his simplicity, playfulness, and tender…
Lama Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol (1781–1851) was a Tibetan yogi, poet, and wandering practitioner in the tradition of…
Patrul Rinpoche (1808–1887) was a wandering Tibetan Buddhist master of the Nyingma tradition known for his humility,…
Ayu Khandro Dorje Paldrön (1838–1953) was a Tibetan yogini and Dzogchen practitioner who reportedly lived to the age of…
Dudjom Rinpoche (1904–1987) was the first supreme head of the Nyingma lineage in exile and one of the most accomplished…
Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971) was a Soto Zen monk and teacher who founded the San Francisco Zen Center in 1962, one of the…
Ajahn Lee Dhammadharo (1907–1961) was a Thai forest tradition monk and a student of Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta. He was a…
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–1991) was one of the last great masters to receive the full scope of Tibetan Buddhist…
Ajahn Chah (1918–1992) was a Thai forest tradition monk whose direct, humorous teaching style made the Dhamma…
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1920–1996) was a Tibetan Buddhist master renowned for his ability to transmit the direct…
Ayya Khema (1923–1997) was a German-born Theravada Buddhist nun who became one of the most prominent female Buddhist…
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926–2022) was a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, peace activist, and one of the most influential…
Bernie Glassman (1939–2018) was a Zen teacher and social activist who founded the Zen Peacemakers order. He received…
Jack Engler is a clinical psychologist and vipassana meditation teacher. He is a contributing editor and teacher at the…
Daniel P. Brown (1948–2022) was a clinical psychologist at Harvard Medical School and a meditation teacher specializing…
Rob Burbea (1965–2020) was a meditation teacher who served as resident teacher at Gaia House in Devon, England. He was…
Christian Contemplative
Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328) was a German Dominican theologian, philosopher, and mystic whose sermons on detachment,…
St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582) was a Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic, and Doctor of the Church whose 'Interior Castle'…
Father Thomas Keating (1923–2018) was a Trappist monk and priest who was one of the principal architects of the…
Islamic Contemplative
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–1273) was a Persian poet, Islamic scholar, and Sufi mystic whose ecstatic poetry of…
Khwaja Shams-ud-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi, known simply as Hafiz, is one of the most beloved poets in the…
Hazrat Inayat Khan was an Indian musician and Sufi teacher who brought the Sufi message to the West in 1910. He founded…
Modern Secular
Ilie Cioara (1916–2004) was a Romanian mystic and author who experienced a spontaneous awakening and spent the…
Vedic-Yogic
Patanjali is the sage traditionally credited with compiling the Yoga Sutras, the foundational text of Classical Yoga.…
Swami Vivekananda was the chief disciple of Ramakrishna and a key figure in bringing Vedanta and Yoga to the Western…
Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) was an Indian sage who attained self-realization at age sixteen and spent the rest of his…
Swami Sivananda Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a prolific author of over 200 books on yoga, Vedanta, and a…
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya is widely regarded as the father of modern yoga. A scholar of Sanskrit, Ayurveda, and…
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) was an Indian spiritual teacher of Advaita Vedanta who lived and taught in a small…
Annamalai Swami (1906–1995) was a direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi who served as the construction supervisor at Sri…
Jean Klein (1912–1998) was a French-born Advaita Vedanta teacher who studied in India with Pandit Veeraraghavachar and…
Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar was one of the foremost yoga teachers of the twentieth century. A student of…
Ram Dass (1931–2019), born Richard Alpert, was an American spiritual teacher and author. A former Harvard psychology…
Sally Kempton (Swami Durgananda) was an American meditation teacher and writer known for her work on Kashmir Shaivism…