Anyone writing about spiritual life runs the risk of seeming to claim an inner knowledge or a degree of understanding that the reader does not possess.

Please believe me when I say that I am making no such claim. Twenty five years ago I might have thought so, although even then I hope I wouldn’t have been so stupid as to say it. But a quarter of a century and a third of my "thinking life" on, I could not dream of it.

If I know and understand anything now, it is that I know next to nothing and understand still less.

What, you may then ask is the point of someone so ignorant offering a book to you that dares to talk about spiritual life? My excuse is that the book contains more questions than answers, and such answers as it does contain are ones that I accept for myself as being true, without any certainty that anyone else will agree.

Perhaps it is best to declare what the book is not. It has nothing to do with New Age beliefs, or Eastern cults. It is not an invitation to join anything or anyone. Perhaps I could compare it to a signpost containing a question mark. The notice pinned to it - this book - says "I think this is the way to go. But please take care."