Volume One of Lewis Thompson's journals takes us into the everyday world of India's sub-continent in the 1930's and 40's through the prism of a fierce spiritual aspirant and intellect. "The whole in this atmosphere," he writes, "suggests a superhuman discipline and dignity, a passion, a sensuality, for what is prior to Being and Non-being-astringent like the taste of iron." We share his meetings with Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramana Maharshi, J. Krishnamurti, Anandamayi Ma and Sri Krishna Menon.. We experience his attempts to integrate a Western heritage-Christ, Blake, Yeats, Rimbaud, Pascal-with the exigencies of Indian gnosis. We marvel at his self-invented writing yoga, whose bold vocabulary juxtaposes many levels of consciousness - waking, dreaming, visionary, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, tantra and vedanta. This is a jewel of a book for those interested in "the power which consecrates us beyond ourselves". For the intimate context these journals provide, this book is a must for readers of Thompson's aphorisms (Mirror to the Light) and poetry (Black Sun). Edited with an introduction and commentary by Richard Lannoy. Foreword by Dr. Harry Oldmeadow, LaTrobe University.