Becoming Real

A unique document, filled with practical wisdom teachings and featuring a number of the most significant spiritual teachers in Europe today:

THE LIFE AND WORK OF KARLFRIED GRAF DURCKHEIM by Gerhard Wehr

DURCKHEIM THE THERAPIST by Jean and Gisele Marchal

INCARNATION: THE BODY OF OUR CONVERSION by Bernard Rerolle

THE NOTION OF ESSENTIAL BEING by Pierre Erny

THE TRINITARIAN VISION OF REALITY by Willi Massa

ACCEPTING THE UNACCEPTABLE by Arnaud Desjardins

THE INNER CHRIST by Jean-Baptiste Lotz

THE PATH OF INITIATION AND THE MYSTICAL LIFE by Jacques Breton

THE JOURNEY OF THE "NOBLE MAN": MEISTER ECKHART AND GRAF DURCKHEIM by Jean-Yves Leloup

DURCKHEIM AND THE BIBLE by Alphonse Goettmann

THE AUTHORS OF BECOMING REAL GERHARD WEHR:writer, professor at Nuremberg, specialist in the history of religions, he has published several well known biographies, including those of C.G. Jung, Rudolf Steiner, and the primary biography of Karlfried Graf Durckheim.

JEAN AND GISELE MARCHAL: medical doctors, psychotherapists, students of Graf Durckheim.

BERNARD REROLLE: Catholic priest, professor of philosophy, member of the Forum-Vaugirard in Paris where he directs the studies of contemplative traditions and the encounter of Eastern and Western cultures and religions.

PIERRE ERNY: professor at the University of Human Sciences at Strasbourg.

WILLI MASSA: Orthodox priest, director of the Ecumenical Center "Exercitium Humanum" at Neumuhle.

ARNAUD DESJARDINS: Student of Hindu, Tibetan, Japanese and Sufi masters, he has written numerous works and heads an ashram at Vers-Pont-du-Gard.

JEAN-BAPTISTE LOTZ: German Jesuit, student of Heidegger, professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Munich and at the Gregorian University in Rome, author of many books.

JACQUES BRETON: Catholic priest, hermit at Carmel, student of Graf Durckheim. Related to a Zen Buddhist monastery in Japan, he directs the Assise Center at Saint-Gervais en-Vexin.

JEAN-YVES LELOUP: Orthodox priest, doctorate in psychology, philosophy and theology.

ALPHONSE GOETTMANN: Orthodox priest, director of Bethanie, a Center of Hesychast Meditation near Metz and the author of several books on Durckheim.

Excerpt

PREFACE

by Theodore J. Nottingham

There have been many teachers of life-giving wisdom down through the ages. Each has left his or her mark on humanity, touching the lives of individuals in search of meaning. They have discovered and shared an awareness of reality which is timeless and utterly transforming. Like rare gems, they have each reflected aspects of cosmic truth whose glow has changed forever our understanding of ourselves and of the universe.

From this blessed line of teachers has come forth in our time yet another master. Karlfried Graf Durckheim, who died at the age of 92 in December of 1988, is a beacon for humanity whose influence has only begun to be felt. Here is a man who brought together the vision of Meister Eckhart, C. G. Jung, Zen Buddhism, and the spirituality of early Christianity. Out of his experience and understanding, he has created a new language for the practical transformation of human consciousness.

He speaks to us of our two natures, the essential and the existential; of daily life as an exercise for the breakthrough of eternal Being; of the body as an expression of the invisible; of our becoming transparent to the Transcendent. This is not a philosophy or a religion or a new kind of psychology. Karlfried Graf Durckheim teaches us genuine, all consuming transformation, encompassing each moment of our lives. He uncovers the essence of religion as an encounter with the Holy and brings together the summits of Eastern and Western thought. The reader will find gathered in this book striking insights into Durckheim's wisdom from some of his closest students, people who are making their own mark on the spiritual evolution of humankind.