New Being Project understands itself as arising from some of the most ancient spiritual currents known to humanity—currents that trace back approximately 26,000 years to regions historically associated with ancient Persia, sometimes referred to as Tazig, and that later found mature expression through the Sufi tradition of the Middle East and the Bön Shamanic tradition of the Himalayan regions. Within this context, religion is understood not as belief alone, but as a way or path through which human beings discover their true origin and innate nature. We recognize the present era as the Aquarian Age, a time emphasizing direct knowing, collective responsibility, and the emergence of enlightened human qualities.
The Sufi Way, as received and practiced within New Being Project, is a path of remembrance—remembrance of primordial states and qualities of being that live in continual divine communion and are expressed through the human heart. This tradition emphasizes love, beauty, service, and intimacy with the Divine as lived realities. Our lineage of blessing and inspiration is acknowledged as flowing through Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan, Murshid Samuel Lewis, Sheikh Hassan, Jesus the Christ, Mary Magdalene, and Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī, whose lives and teachings exemplify devotion, realization, and service.
The Bön Shamanic Tradition is honored as one of humanity’s most ancient wisdom paths and as the original source of Dzogchen, or the path of self-liberation. Its teachings include yogic practices working with tsa (subtle channels), lung(vital wind or prana), and tigle (bliss-awareness), whose purpose is first to settle the mind and nervous system and then to recognize, maintain, and stabilize the Natural State of awareness. This is understood as a Bodhisattva path—a path of service rooted in wisdom and compassion, dedicated to alleviating suffering and supporting the awakening of all sentient beings. Across centuries, these teachings have traveled and expressed themselves through many yogic and Buddhist traditions. The lineage of blessing informing this stream within New Being Project is recognized through figures including Guru Nanak, Bhagwan Sri Chand, Yogi Bhajan, Bhagwan Nityananda, the Mother of Auroville, Sri Anandamayi Ma, Dr. Il Bung Seo, Swami Rudrananda, Gangteng Tulku Rinpoche, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, Ayang Rinpoche, Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, and the poet-saint Kabir.
The teachings and practices that have emerged through the gathering around this aim are collectively known as Rudra Yoga. Rudra Yoga integrates contemplative insight with embodied responsibility and emphasizes awakening as something to be lived, stabilized, and expressed through service. Its core materials—including the Rudra Yoga Description, Four Prime Directives, Six Transformational Sutras, Yamas and Niyamas, The Truth About Love, You Are Responsible Training, the Rudra Yoga Program, and the New Being Project Manual—support practitioners in cultivating wakefulness, ethical responsibility, and stewardship of light and life.
Key teachings of the Aquarian Age Sufi and Bön schools informing New Being Project are reflected in a broad body of religious, philosophical, and literary works. These include the poetry of Kabir and Rumi; The Theory of Eternal Life by Rodney Collin; The Joy of Sacrifice and Secret Talks with Mr. G by E.J. Gold; Spiritual Cannibalism by Swami Rudrananda; Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche; and Heartdrops of the Dharmakaya by Lopön Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche. Complementary works of spiritual and speculative literature—such as Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, Son of Man by Robert Silverberg, More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon, The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe by Glenn Clark, and You Can’t Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought by Peter McWilliams—are also recognized for their role in exploring human potential, responsibility, and awakened consciousness.
The practical elaboration of Rudra Yoga is offered through the Rudra Yoga Program, a five-year course of study and practice comprised of twenty courses. These are offered as both residential and online intensives, traditionally aligned with the solstices and equinoxes. Foundational and integrative practices draw upon five yogic traditions—Hatha, Kundalini, Taoist, Tibetan, and Bön—as well as the paths of Sufism and Tantra. Together, these support the stabilization of awakened awareness through waking life, dreaming, dreamless sleep, and death, and cultivate the capacity for conscious participation in life and creation.
New Being Project, originally formed in 1974 as Circle of Friends, understands itself as a living, evolving spiritual body—responsive to changing times while remaining rooted in perennial truth. The teachings shared within this circle reflect precepts common to all major spiritual traditions and are offered in service of individual realization and universal wholeness.