The teachers we learn from

Three Awakenings is a non-profit school in Asheville, North Carolina, led by Christopher Murphy. Christopher trained for about twenty years with Taoist, Buddhist, Sufi, and Yogic teachers, and he has studied Plato his whole life. He calls his approach Rational Spirituality, meaning practice that holds up to careful thought and to your own experience.

The teaching covers three areas that are practiced side by side. Mind covers philosophy, self-inquiry, and meditation. Energy covers breath work and building up the body's vital force. Deity covers prayer and devotion.

Christopher has said he doesn't want to be anyone's guru. He would rather students learn to judge a practice for themselves. The teachings are free, and the school is funded by donations.

Primordial Alchemist is the home of the KUNLUN System, taught by Max and Diana Christensen. KUNLUN comes from what they call the water path of Daoism, and it combines internal alchemy, meditation, and energy work (nei gung). The school keeps it separate from fire-based practices such as Kundalini.

Max started training at age six with the Wudang master Wu Xiao Deng, and he has studied for more than twenty years with a teacher from the Shang-ching Daoist tradition. He has also trained in Tibetan Buddhism and Mongolian shamanism. Diana is a lineage holder of the system and has worked with students for over twenty years.

Most classes are for members, and membership is by invitation. Their book and a few introductory courses are open to anyone, and their new-student guide says many people practice from the book for years before meeting Max and Diana in person.

Open Alchemy is Daniel Murphy's site on internal alchemy, which he describes as training breath, awareness, and body together. He traces the practice to the Himalayan region, where it developed into Daoist neidan, yoga, and Tibetan tsa lung (a system of breath and channel practice).

Daniel began martial arts and meditation at five with a Zen teacher. Over the following years he studied Hinduism, Hermeticism, Taoism, and Yoga, received initiations in several of them, and lived near his Tibetan teacher while helping translate practice texts. He then stepped away from teaching for ten years before starting Open Alchemy.

He wrote the site's practice manual for people who aren't sure where to begin, and he gives it away for free. He says plainly that a book doesn't replace a teacher, and offers the manual as support until you find one.