17 June - A big breath day for me

It was 35 years ago tomorrow, that I met my first guru, who introduced me to my breath in a totally uplifting and inspiring way. No longer was it something that I just did automatically.

He taught that becoming aware of it could lift me to a new level of awareness - a plane that I had visited on LSD, mescalin and marijuana. Back from California, I could simply not handle the angst of taking drugs any more, after three years of constant use. So, to move on to a natural high that was wonderfully simple turned despair into hope.

The above is a picture of his arrival at London's Heathrow airport back in 1971; he was just 13 and I was 21. I was in the grips of post-hippie disillusionment, I was a lost boy; and he was Peter Pan.

Since then I have practised the meditation, called the Knowledge, on most days...

I am very grateful to him.