Saul Diamond
Born in upstate N.Y., I was very fortunate to have the second Zen Center in the United States open just a few blocks from my home in the 1960’s. As a teen I had developed a deep appreciation of Buddhist teachings and when I was in junior high school I became a regular attendee at the weekend meditation and dharma talks given at the Rochester Zen Center.
In my college years I continued my Zen practice but also developed a keen interest in Theosophical authors such as HPB, Leadbeater, Hodson, Jinarajadasa, Mabel Collins and others. In my junior undergrad year I encountered a fellow waiting for a bus in Ann Arbor, who was carrying a book called “Three Pillars of Zen,” one of the books written by Roshi Phillip Kapleau who founded the Zen Center in my hometown. A conversation ensued as we waited for the bus and this fellow enthusiastically introduced me to a new teaching… the writings of A.A.B, amenuensis of the adept Djwahl Kuhl. These writings were unlike any I had yet encountered, and struck a very deep chord within. Needless to say much, or most, of the writing was over my head, but there was a light in these teachings that deeply resonated. Later in the 70s l lived for almost a year in an intentional spiritual community called S.O.L.A.R., or School of Light and Realization, in the Traverse City area of Michigan. It was a community of about 40 individuals, largely based on the AAB teachings.
While still living in Ann Arbor in the early 70’s I was a frequent browser at a small esoteric bookstore called Circle Books. It was in those years that I first happened across the Agni Yoga series of books in this store, which I continue to read to this day. Each time I re-read one of these books its like a brand new teaching. This may be due to my ‘creeping senility’ but I’d like to think its also due to the great depth of the teaching in the books.
Fast forward . . . graduating with a PharmD. degree from University of the Pacific, and a new career as a pharmacist. I served as a pharmacist for 30 years in northern California until retirement several years ago. Over the decades I’ve been in a number of esoteric study groups both in Michigan and here in Northern California. This included a small group meeting twice a month in my home between 1995 and 2005. In recent years we had a small group studying D.K’s book “Light of the Soul” – a study of Patanjali’s Yoga sutras.