Lessons from the Mountaintop: Ten Modern Mystics and Their Extraordinary Lives

by Lawrence Pintak

Lessons from the Mountaintop is an inspiring account of the experiences of modern-day spiritual explorers who have dedicated their lives to the mystic quest to find their own Truth. It is aimed at readers looking for answers in our complex and challenging world. Few of us will ever retreat to a mountaintop or spend decades in monastic silence. Some of the individuals profiled in Lessons from the Mountaintop have done exactly that. Others have spent their lives studying with spiritual masters of multiple traditions. A New York record company art director, a medical doctor from Australia, a formerly unhoused non-binary BIPOC Californian, and other once “ordinary” folk who have carved out their own unique spiritual paths. You will not find them on the best seller lists or the Spiritual 100 rankings. Most of them quietly pursue their spiritual quest far from the media spotlight. What prompted them to walk away from it all? What do they see that the rest of us do not? What lessons do they bring “back” from their spiritual journeys? What can we learn from them? Veteran journalist and author Lawrence Pintak introduces the reader to individuals of grace and profound spiritual experience who he has encountered in his decades reporting from around the globe, and others he sought out as he explored unfamiliar spiritual traditions. The result is a fascinating collection of profiles that offer deep insight into what has been called the “perennial wisdom” at the heart of the world’s religions. Lessons from the Mountaintop contains lessons for us all, whether we are religious, spiritual, or simply trying to navigate our complex and challenging world.

279 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2025

About the author

Lawrence Pintak has spent his life grounded in facts while fascinated by the ethereal. An award-winning former CBS News Middle East correspondent with a PhD in Islamic Studies, Pintak has been a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism for three decades and is an avid student of the perennial truths at the core of the world’s religions.
The author of seven books at the intersection of religion, media, and policy, his reporting and analysis on religion and international affairs has been published by The New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, and many of the world’s leading media organizations. He also wrote about Buddhism and Eastern traditions for Shambhala Sun/Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, Beliefnet.com and others before 9/11 drew his focus back to the Middle East. Pintak’s 2019 book, America & Islam, was a finalist for the Religion News Association award for Religion Reporting Excellence. A second edition, including the Gaza war, will be released in October.
Pintak served as founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University , dean of the Graduate School of Media and Communications at The Aga Khan University in East Africa, director of the Arab world’s leading media training center in the years leading up to the Arab Spring, and helped establish Pakistan’s Centre for Excellence in Journalism. He was named a Fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists in 2017 for “extraordinary service to the profession of journalism” around the world.