John Siddique

John Siddique is a British poet, author and meditation teacher whose spiritual work grew alongside a long literary career. He started meditating at thirteen, was teaching by his early twenties, and was initiated as a yogi under Sri Swami Satchidananda. After a near-death experience in 2014 he stepped away from formal labels and lineages, and his teaching since then has centred on plain awareness, honesty with oneself and kindness in daily life rather than any belief system. On the writing side he holds an MA in creative writing from Manchester, served as Poet Laureate of Canterbury and was a British Council poet in residence in Los Angeles.

His best-known spiritual book is Signposts of the Spiritual Journey, published by Watkins in 2021, which sits beside several poetry collections. Most of his teaching now happens online through The Open Space, a membership community with a monthly live satsang, recorded video talks and a yearly retreat, and through a free monthly open meditation on Zoom. He also takes on a small number of one-to-one students. On Insight Timer, where his guided meditations have been played millions of times, he offers short sits, yoga nidra and two audio courses, and his YouTube channel mixes walking meditations, short talks and poetry readings.