Entering The Sacred Mountain

the long version

A student of mysticism for over thirty years, David Cooper has engaged in an intense spiritual journey for the last fourteen that has led him from a secluded mountain hut in New Mexico to the Sinai Desert, from chanting Sufi dhikr and going on extended retreats with Buddhist masters, to studying Kabbalah and esoteric Judaism in the Old City of Jerusalem. Abandoning his career as a political consultant in Washington, D.C., Cooper and his wife lived for eight years in the Orthodox community in Jerusalem, while spending each summer engaged in contemplative practice, particularly Buddhist Vipassana (Insight) Meditation. In the early nineties the Coopers returned to the United States to establish a small retreat facility in the mountains of Colorado. Cooper is comfortable in the spiritual language of many world traditions. Ordained as a rabbi in 1992, he continues to emphasize the universal nature of the mystical experience, which he feels is available to everyone. Entering the Sacred Mountain is the fascinating and inspiring chronicle of Cooper's search for truth and how this has strengthened the union between his wife and himself. It is one of the most perceptive accounts of meditation practice ever written and a wonderful complement to his two earlier books, Silence, Simplicity, and Solitude: A Guide for Spiritual Retreat and The Heart of Stillness: The Elements of Spiritual Practice.