Born Steven Gray in California, Adyashanti trained for fifteen years in the Soto Zen tradition under Arvis Joen Justi before being asked to teach on his own. His teaching draws from Zen, Advaita Vedanta, and Christian mysticism, delivered without denominational attachment.
His central insistence: awakening is not an experience; it is a shift in what one identifies as — from a separate self to awareness itself. Books and talks: The End of Your World, Falling into Grace, Emptiness Dancing.