He is both a fine Pali scholar, and seems to me to have grasped the heart of the meditation the Buddha taught, which is a rare combination. He gave substance and validation to my meditation process. I learned a lot sitting with him, and much of my discussion of Pali terms in my articles is due to his influence.

Jason brings a whole freshness to the idea of meditation: his instructions on how to meditate are minimal or even zero, and instead he encourages the meditator to reflect and report on their sitting, and to evolve from their own insights and understandings. He facilitates, rather than instructs or teaches, which if done well is paradoxically the best form of teaching.

If I pay attention to my present experience only, and nothing else, then I have not got a head! I am not looking out of two small eyes, but out of one large eye - a clear window on the world. I say a window, but on present evidence it is not even that - it is a clear nothingness; I am aware space, containing the world.

I cannot begin to do justice to what Douglas says (he has written many books) in two or three sentences. But on that flight, I got it. The world as I saw it was one (or One, I am not sure whether to use the upper case 'O' or not!), and my awareness of it was from nothing - literally no-thing, I was a void, but an aware and conscious void.

I describe myself as going to the heart of Gene's philosophy, but then stepping out from there in my own direction, into what I may call meditation, rather than Gene's own areas of therapy such as Focusing.

I have had several sessions with Gene privately, where I find his exacting and relentless touchstone of bodily feel as the sole (or at least, main) arbiter of conceptual thinking challenging and refreshing at the same time. And although I say 'bodily feel', he is at the same time one of the most rigorous, rational and intellectual thinkers I have known - a potent mix.

-- I spent two hours once talking to Leigh Brasington who was the first meditation teacher I had met who emphasised jhana, and I am grateful to him for that.

-- I never actually met Krishnamurti, although for the last few years of his life he and I lived only 10 miles apart. I have been very inspired by his writings since then, particularly his emphasis on no gurus, and his famous 'truth is a pathless land' has been a great influence, giving me the inspiration to stand on my own two feet.

-- I have been greatly helped by a series of phone conversations with Josiah Hincks, who has given me enough understanding of Focusing to see how I can use it in my meditation to great effect. The articles in my Focusing section were the outcome of these talks.

-- Will Johnson runs the Institute for Embodiment Training, Embodiment Training being 'a path of awakening that views the body as the doorway, not the obstacle, to personal growth and spiritual transformation'. I have had long phone conversations and email threads with him, and met him for a weekend at the New York Open Center, and I have found his ideas stimulating, particularly his books on body-based meditation (although he does not use that term) : Aligned, Relaxed, Resilient : The Physical Foundations of Mindfulness and Posture of Meditation.

-- Barefoot Doctor (real name Stephen Russell) has written several books on Taoism, and he writes in a very distinctive manner. I preferred his earlier books, such as Barefoot Doctor's Guide to the Tao : A Spiritual Handbook for the Urban Warrior and others in the 'Urban Warrior' series. Having explored Taoism mostly through rather dry and heavy-going books, I find his attitude towards Taoism very refreshing.

-- I have mentioned Rachel Swindle on this site elsewhere in connection with my learning Pilates with her, but she has also taught me much in the area of body-based meditation. Our lessons often start out as Pilates lessons, but end up with interesting Taoist-style perspectives on the breath and body.

-- Ramesh Bhardwaj is a traditional yoga teacher (from the Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute in Lonavla, India) who has taught me much. I was wary of anything Hindu, of course, after my thirty years with Maharaji (see paragraph below). But Ramesh has a unique style, and a deep understanding of traditional yoga. I had been doing some Hindu cleansing techniques (Jala Neti - nasal irrigation) for a while, but Ramesh fine-tuned my appreciation and practice of them, and taught me the importance of some of the yoga breaths. He also showed me how profound is the Savasana pose (corpse pose, where you lie flat on your back, like a 'corpse'). Of all the yoga positions, it looks the easiest (just lying on your back!), but he showed me how subtle it can be (it is often said to be the most difficult yoga asana). He also thinks it is the 'true' or best posture for meditation, and I use it as a meditation position sometimes.

-- Daoud Khashaba is another philosopher who deserves to be better known. Although I have not met him, I feel I know him well, probably because I have both had email threads with him, and have read everything he has written. He philosophizes from a strong Socratic and Platonic standpoint, but with a clarity and originality that I find missing from most interpretations. After understanding his distinctions, I am able to think from them with vigor and lucidity, and I now use Socrates and Plato very practically in my life, which is at least unusual if nothing else.

-- Julian Jaynes is considered a psychologist, but to me he is also an outstanding philosopher. His main work is 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind', which sounds a mouthful but belies a marvellously original book, riveting, full of erudite insights, and revolutionary in the best meaning of that word. The book in fact has at least four theses, all original, and has led me to think quite differently about my mind, its development, how I think with it, and its place in history. He died in 1997; I had not even heard of him until after his death.