The Balanced Path

Contemplative practice. Ancient wisdom. Direct experience.

Writing and practice from forty years on the cushion.


New here? Start with one of these.

If you meditate and want to know what forty years of daily practice actually looks like, start with What 40 Years of Meditation Changes (and What It Doesn’t).

If you’re curious about Vedānta or Dzogchen and how they relate, read Dzogchen vs Advaita Vedānta: What a Dual Practitioner Has Learned.

If you’re just getting started with meditation and want practical advice without the jargon, try How to Start a Meditation Practice.

If you want to know who’s writing this, the About page has the longer version.


Read the preface free

“I Had Never Seen the Ocean” — the opening of Nothing in the Way, a memoir of forty years of contemplative practice across Advaita Vedānta and Nyingma Dzogchen.

Subscribe and receive the preface as a PDF, plus occasional reflections on practice.


Recent writing

Dzogchen vs Advaita Vedānta: What a Dual Practitioner Has Learned

They are not the same path. But after forty years, they may point to the same ground.

How to Practice Self-Inquiry Meditation: A Step-by-Step Guide

Self-inquiry is not a technique you perform. It’s a turning of attention back to its source.

The Best Books on Advaita Vedānta: A Practitioner’s Reading List

Not a comprehensive bibliography. The handful of books that have mattered most across four decades.

What a Daily Meditation Practice Actually Looks Like After Forty Years

Not the idealized version. The ordinary, sometimes-difficult-to-sit-down-for version.

Can You Practice Dzogchen Without a Teacher?

The traditional answer is no. The real answer is more complicated.

How to Start a Meditation Practice: Lessons from Four Decades

The practice itself is simple. What makes it difficult is everything you bring to it.

Browse by topic: Advaita Vedānta · Dzogchen · Meditation · Practice


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Nothing in the Way

A Memoir

Rahul Bhaskar

Amazon #1 New Release

Hindu Theology · Eastern Philosophy

What happens when forty years of sitting in silence meets one of the most luminous texts in the Indian philosophical tradition?

A practitioner’s journey across Advaita Vedānta and Nyingma Dzogchen, paired with Śaṅkara’s Aparokṣānubhūti — a teaching on direct experience.

“I’ve read a lot of books in this space and most of them talk around the experience. This one talks from inside it. Forty years of practice and you can feel it on every page.”

— Amazon reader


About

Rahul Bhaskar has practiced meditation for over forty years, beginning in the Advaita Vedānta tradition and later engaging deeply with Nyingma Dzogchen. His practice is not theoretical. It is the daily ground from which this book was written.

More about Rahul →