After training as a painter and a sculptor, he became a yoga student of Sri Aurobindo and lived for many years in Puducherry, where he was a founding member of Auroville.[1] In India, he discovered the works of the French Egyptologist and esotericist, R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, which led him to explore the principles and practices of ancient sacred science.[3]
Between 1965 and 1968, Robert met his wife, Deborah Lawlor. In 1972, they left Auroville for a year so Robert could study sacred geometry and read Sri Aurobindo. They came back to Auroville in 1973 until 1975.[1]
Symbol and the Symbolic: Ancient Egypt, Science, and the Evolution of Consciousness, R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz (translated by Robert and Deborah Lawlor), 1978, ISBN 0-89281-022-X
Mathematics useful for understanding Plato, Theon of Smyrna, Platonic Philosopher, translated from the 1892 Greek/French edition of J. Dupuis by Robert and Deborah Lawlor, Secret Doctrine Reference Series, Wizards Bookshelf, San Diego, 1979
Lindisfarne Letter 10: Geometry and Architecture, 1980
Lindisfarne Letter 12: The Lindisfarne Chapel, 1981
Lindisfarne Letter 14: Homage to Pythagoras, 1982, ASIN B000H06P2U
Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and practice, Thames & Hudson, 1989 (1st edition 1979, 1980, or 1982), ISBN 0-500-81030-3[5]
Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal dreamtime, Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, Ltd., 1991, ISBN 0-89281-355-5
Homage to Pythagoras: Rediscovering Sacred Science, Christopher Bamford, 1994, ISBN 0-940262-63-0 (features 2 of Lawlor's essays, Ancient Temple Architecture and Pythagorean Number as Form, Color, and Light from the early 1980s Lindisfarne Letters)
The Geometry of the End of Time, Robert Lawlor (2015), ISBN 0646936573
^ abcA forecomer looks back https://auroville.org/page/bob-lawlor Archived 2012-02-07 at the Wayback Machine, Deborah Lawlor, Auroville Today, March 2003
^ ab"Robert Lawlor (1938–2022)". Inner Traditions. Retrieved 30 September 2023.