Barry Long
Encyclopedia
Barry Long was an Australia
n spiritual teacher and writer.
Barry Long was born and raised in Australia and had little formal education. In his twenties he became editor of a Sunday newspaper and later press secretary
in the New South Wales Parliament. At this time he was married with two children. In his early thirties he began to experience a disillusionment with his material life and in 1964 he abandoned everything, including his family, to go to India. There he experienced a spiritual crisis culminating in a self ascribed " mystic death," which he called his "realisation of immortality," followed four years later by a "transcendental realisation"; a contact with a depth of consciousness
from which he stated his knowledge of universal reality ultimately derived.
Leaving India he moved to London, living in Highgate and working as a sub-editor in Fleet Street until he was able to support himself from teaching and publishing. In 1986 he returned to his native Australia, living on Mount Tamborine QLD with his wife Kathy and young stepson, Simon, then in Burleigh Heads QLD when they divorced, and finally moving to Crabbes Creek NSW where he lived until his death from prostate cancer in December 2003.
Long stated that he was a tantric master and that unhappiness arises because man and woman have forgotten how to love each other. In 1984 he recorded a double audio cassette Making Love: Sexual Love the Divine Way, later published as a book and CD.
He started his public teaching in England and later went on to teach in Australia and New Zealand, Europe, the USA and Canada. His last public seminar was the tenth annual 14 day Master Session held in Queensland, Australia in late October 2002.
In his last year he wrote on his website about the approach of death. Fourteen of his books are in print His autobiography and last works are yet to be published. His works continue to be published by the Barry Long Foundation International, based in NSW, Australia.
The sexual aspects of his teaching gained great notoriety, assuming a greater prominence in the public mind than Long wished. He maintained the relationship between man and woman caused the greatest unhappiness in the post-industrial West. He taught and wrote in detail about sexual love between man and woman and its use to purify them both, ridding them of what he called 'personal, human love.', He responded to controversy by pointing out that getting one's life right in all its aspects, and prolonged selfless giving were more important. He suggested that a person practicing this would naturally attract a loving sexual partner. In response to an article by Andrew Cohen he wrote "One notion I would like to correct is where you say that in my teaching "the primary spiritual practice is making love rightly." The primary spiritual practice... is self-denial, giving and honesty practiced over a long period out of an inner perception of rightness and goodness."
Long also wrote about many other aspects of "Love, Life, Truth, God and Death". In The Origins of Man and the Universe he presents his cosmology
. Speaking of this book he stated, There's so much in this book ....it's like a base which my whole teaching goes back to, or extends from. My current teaching might be more refined, but is always consistent with it. He taught and spoke about family life and the importance of raising children from birth in justice and truth not just love. In response to the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA, an extract on terrorism from his Origins book written in 1983 was published separately as well as a new book 'A Prayer for Life: The Cause and Cure of Terrorism, War and Human Suffering'.
He recommended an abandonment of religious tradition in favour of direct experience and asked his audience not to believe anything he said, but to look for the 'ring of truth' in it.
He himself had an influence on a number of other teachers, writers and therapists. The most prominent of these is Eckhart Tolle
, best-selling author of The Power of Now
, who is on record as saying he loved Barry Long's teaching.
For about 3 years in the 1990s he openly had a relationship with five women which he spoke about in connection with his tantric teachings.
His marital and relationship history was described by Clive Tempest in his foreword to "Making Love: Sexual Love The Divine Way" as such: "All this time Barry Long's love of woman has remained constant. She is always by his side. Through deep and lasting partnerships he has made his realizations of love real in the midst of everyday living."
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n spiritual teacher and writer.
Barry Long was born and raised in Australia and had little formal education. In his twenties he became editor of a Sunday newspaper and later press secretary
Press secretary
A press secretary or press officer is a senior advisor who provides advice on how to deal with the news media and, using news management techniques, helps their employer to maintain a positive public image and avoid negative media coverage....
in the New South Wales Parliament. At this time he was married with two children. In his early thirties he began to experience a disillusionment with his material life and in 1964 he abandoned everything, including his family, to go to India. There he experienced a spiritual crisis culminating in a self ascribed " mystic death," which he called his "realisation of immortality," followed four years later by a "transcendental realisation"; a contact with a depth of consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
from which he stated his knowledge of universal reality ultimately derived.
Leaving India he moved to London, living in Highgate and working as a sub-editor in Fleet Street until he was able to support himself from teaching and publishing. In 1986 he returned to his native Australia, living on Mount Tamborine QLD with his wife Kathy and young stepson, Simon, then in Burleigh Heads QLD when they divorced, and finally moving to Crabbes Creek NSW where he lived until his death from prostate cancer in December 2003.
Long stated that he was a tantric master and that unhappiness arises because man and woman have forgotten how to love each other. In 1984 he recorded a double audio cassette Making Love: Sexual Love the Divine Way, later published as a book and CD.
He started his public teaching in England and later went on to teach in Australia and New Zealand, Europe, the USA and Canada. His last public seminar was the tenth annual 14 day Master Session held in Queensland, Australia in late October 2002.
In his last year he wrote on his website about the approach of death. Fourteen of his books are in print His autobiography and last works are yet to be published. His works continue to be published by the Barry Long Foundation International, based in NSW, Australia.
Barry Long's teaching
Long's teaching focuses on freeing the individual from unhappiness which he defined as 'happy today, unhappy tomorrow'. He stated that this fluctuating condition is set in motion and maintained by an addiction to thoughts and the emotions they create. These emotions encourage other thoughts and so a vicious cycle is initiated. We are trapped in this cycle, he suggested, until we follow "the way of truth". It includes:- constant vigilance in observation of one's thoughts, emotions and actions;
- meditation to still the mind and connect with life within i.e. what "I" call "me"; "feeling the well-being in the body";
- being, without thought; the next step on from meditation;
- getting your life right, taking action in those areas of your life which disturb you because something is wrong.
The sexual aspects of his teaching gained great notoriety, assuming a greater prominence in the public mind than Long wished. He maintained the relationship between man and woman caused the greatest unhappiness in the post-industrial West. He taught and wrote in detail about sexual love between man and woman and its use to purify them both, ridding them of what he called 'personal, human love.', He responded to controversy by pointing out that getting one's life right in all its aspects, and prolonged selfless giving were more important. He suggested that a person practicing this would naturally attract a loving sexual partner. In response to an article by Andrew Cohen he wrote "One notion I would like to correct is where you say that in my teaching "the primary spiritual practice is making love rightly." The primary spiritual practice... is self-denial, giving and honesty practiced over a long period out of an inner perception of rightness and goodness."
Long also wrote about many other aspects of "Love, Life, Truth, God and Death". In The Origins of Man and the Universe he presents his cosmology
Esoteric cosmology
Esoteric cosmology is cosmology that is an intrinsic part of an esoteric or occult system of thought. It almost always deals with at least some of the following themes: emanation, involution, spiritual evolution, epigenesis, planes of existence or higher worlds , hierarchies of spiritual beings,...
. Speaking of this book he stated, There's so much in this book ....it's like a base which my whole teaching goes back to, or extends from. My current teaching might be more refined, but is always consistent with it. He taught and spoke about family life and the importance of raising children from birth in justice and truth not just love. In response to the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA, an extract on terrorism from his Origins book written in 1983 was published separately as well as a new book 'A Prayer for Life: The Cause and Cure of Terrorism, War and Human Suffering'.
Influences
Barry Long acknowledged his respect for J Krishnamurti and his teachings. His teaching also owes a lot to the practicality of the Gurdjieff Work, nonetheless he considered himself to be an original teacher.He recommended an abandonment of religious tradition in favour of direct experience and asked his audience not to believe anything he said, but to look for the 'ring of truth' in it.
He himself had an influence on a number of other teachers, writers and therapists. The most prominent of these is Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle
Eckhart Tolle is a German-born Canadian resident, best known as the author of the The Power of Now and A New Earth, which were written in English. In 2011, he was listed by the Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world...
, best-selling author of The Power of Now
The Power of Now
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment is a book by Eckhart Tolle. He says the book "represents the essence of my work, as far as it can be conveyed in words", and that it "can be seen as a restatement for our time of that one timeless spiritual teaching, the essence of all...
, who is on record as saying he loved Barry Long's teaching.
Marital and relationship history
Long married or lived monogamously with five women; Betty, his first wife; Julie, whom he married in England and lived with for 13 years until her death from cancer; Kathy with whom he moved to Australia with his stepson Simon; Jade who was his partner when he was travelling the world and then Sara, who was with him when he died.For about 3 years in the 1990s he openly had a relationship with five women which he spoke about in connection with his tantric teachings.
His marital and relationship history was described by Clive Tempest in his foreword to "Making Love: Sexual Love The Divine Way" as such: "All this time Barry Long's love of woman has remained constant. She is always by his side. Through deep and lasting partnerships he has made his realizations of love real in the midst of everyday living."
Partial bibliography
- The Origins of Man and the Universe (1st edition RoutledgeRoutledgeRoutledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
& Kegan Paul 1984) ISBN 0-7102-0337-3 (Barry Long Books, revised edition 1998) ISBN 1-899324-12-7, (excerpts) - Meditation: A Foundation Course, (The Barry Long Foundation, 1996) ISBN 1-899324-00-3
- Stillness Is the Way (Barry Long Books, 1996) ISBN 0-9508050-4-1
- Knowing Yourself: The True in the False (Barry Long Books, 1996) ISBN 1-899324-03-8 (excerpt)
- Only Fear Dies (Barry Long Books, 1996) ISBN 0-9508050-7-6 (excerpt)
- To Woman in Love: A Book of Letters (Barry Long Books, 1996) ISBN 0-9508050-8-4
- Making Love: Sexual Love the Divine Way (Barry Long Books, revised edition 1998) ISBN 1-899324-14-3 (excerpt)
- Raising Children in Love, Justice and Truth (Barry Long Books, 1998) ISBN 1-899324-13-5
- To Man in Truth: Enlightening Letters (Barry Long Books, 1999) ISBN 1-899324-15-1 (excerpt)
- The Way In: A Book of Self-Discovery (Barry Long Books, 2000) ISBN 0-9508050-5-X (excerpt)
- A Prayer for Life: The Cause and Cure of Terrorism, War and Human Suffering, (Barry Long Books, 2002) ISBN 1-899324-17-8
- Where the Spirit Speaks to its Own: - The Passion of Spiritual Awakening, (Barry Long Books, 2003) ISBN 1-899324-16-X (excerpts)
- Start Meditating Now, How to stop thinking (audiobook - Barry Long Books 2007) ISBN 1-899324-20-8
- A Journey in Consciousness, Exploring the truth behind existence (audiobook - Barry Long Books 2007) ISBN 1-899324-21-6
- Seeing through Death, Facing the fact without fear (audiobook - Barry Long Books 2007) ISBN 1-899324-22-4
- Making Love, Sexual love the divine way (audiobook - Barry Long Books 2007) ISBN 1-899324-23-2
- How to Live Joyously, Being true to the law of life (audiobook - Barry Long Books 2007) ISBN 1-899324-24-0
- Behind Life and Death; The Boundless Reality, (The Barry Long Foundation 2008) ISBN 978-1-899324-18-7 (excerpt)
External links
- The Barry Long Foundation International
- Quotes by Barry Long (wikiquote)