Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Ph.D., is a sheikh in the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi Sufi order. Born in London in 1953, he has followed this Sufi path since he was nineteen. In 1991 he became the successor of Irina Tweedie, who brought this particular Indian branch of Sufism to the West and is the author of Daughter of Fire: A Diary of a Spiritual Training with a Sufi Master. He then moved to Northern California and founded The Golden Sufi Center.

The author of over thirty books, the focus of his writings and teaching is to make the Naqshbandi Sufi path accessible to the Western seeker, as well as exploring the emerging subject of Spiritual Ecology. In late 2018, after thirty years, he gave his final lectures and stepped back from public teaching. Finding solace in the beauty of nature he wrote what may be his final works, much of which has been published in the podcast series, "Stories for a Living Future," exploring what he calls "a deep ecology of consciousness," returning our consciousness to the living Earth.

Foundational to all his work is his experience of how divine love is the primary energy within creation, underlying all that exists. He experienced how every cell, every leaf, and every star is part of an outpouring of love's living unity, and how every human being, each soul, is a unique expression of this love, which they are able to realize as Truth within the heart.

His son, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, is his fully authorized successor and a sheikh in the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi order, continuing his father's work today.