The Price of a Remarkable Destiny: The Life and Spiritual Journey of Edward Salim Michael

From music to a spiritual quest: a whole destiny will play out between these two poles. First, a childhood marked by poverty, followed by the trauma of the Second World War and a passion for music. Then, one day, everything changes. London, 1949: for the first time in his life, Edward Salim Michael, 28 years old, at the time a composer and solo violinist, sees a statue of Buddha. He is transfixed. That evening, he feels an irresistible urge to replicate the Buddha's posture and to concentrate on a sound he hears within his ears and head, without even knowing that what he is doing is called meditation. A few months later, he arrives in Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger. Here, he meets with great difficulties both in surviving and in getting his music played. The ardor with which he throws himself into an inner quest quickly enables him to experience beatific states which encourage him. After five years of sustained efforts of concentration, he has a powerful experience of awakening to what one might call his Buddha Nature or the Infinite within himself. His quest is now pursued on another level. The years he spends in India will offer him the opportunity of intensifying his practice even more. While he continues an untiring inner questioning, accepting no belief nor any dogma, he comes to sense the enigma of time and to make contact with after-death states and other levels of consciousness not ordinarily accessible. This biography, written in simple, direct prose, leads us in the footsteps of an extraordinary being. We follow his inner journey, his efforts, his errors, the way he overcomes the obstacles he encounters both before and after his enlightenment. Over the course of this spellbinding tale, we are offered glimpses of his spiritual experiences, allowing us to penetrate more deeply the mystery of existence.