Best of
Mysticism

1994

Consciousness and the Absolute : The Final Talks of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj


Nisargadatta Maharaj - 1994
    These talks, coming during the last days of his life, were the culmination of the rarest teachings he had to give us; they were the summit of the heights of his wisdom.

Wine of the Mystic: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: A Spiritual Interpretation


Omar Khayyám - 1994
    In this text, Yogananda re-interprets the spiritual message of the beloved Rubaiyat.

Archangel Michael


Rudolf Steiner - 1994
    According to this tradition, 1879 marked the return of the solar spirit Michael--the archangel of the Sun--to oversee earthly evolution. Steiner always placed his life and work in the service of Michael's evolutionary task. And he recognized that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, humanity emerged from the Kali Yuga--the Dark Age--and entered the Age of Light. Against this background, Steiner described the ascent of Michael as cosmic ruler, his battle with the "dragon" of the spirits of darkness, and his roles as the countenance of Christ and the guardian of cosmic intelligence. He also gave many profound indications of how Michael's evolutionary task depends on the free and independent collaboration of human coworkers. Speaking on behalf of Michael, Steiner laid out the essentials for a new Michaelic path to full humanity. Among the elements of this path are the development of selfless individuality; cosmopolitanism; the practice of the presence of Christ; fearlessness; the transformation of thinking and perception in a new synthesis of science, art, and religion; the spiritualization of space; and the separation of thought from language. The Archangel Michael gathers most of Steiner's statements on this subject, making it an important source for coming to terms with today's political, social, psychological, and spiritual crises.Read Bobby Matherne's review of this book

Our Children Forever: George Anderson's Message From Children on the Other Side


Joel Martin - 1994
    Reissue.

Jezebel Spirit


Francis Frangipane - 1994
    This study booklet consists of selected chapters from Francis Frangipane's book "The Three Battlegrounds."

Awakening Spirits


Tom Brown Jr. - 1994
    These techniques for finding inner peace and harmony with nature are based on the wisdom of his greatest teacher, a native American called Grandfather. Now all of us can learn these spiritual lessons of life through the earth around us--and deep within ourselves. "This book may challenge the very core of your belief systems and shake up your personal philosophy, but that is not my intent. What I set forth in this book is meant to enhance and magnify your beliefs. Simply, the techniques and skills can be easily integrated into all philosophies, religions, and belief systems. After all, Grandfather considered these techniques the common thread that runs through all things..." Tom Brown, Jr. Awakening Spirits includes advanced methods of relaxation, insight, healing, and communication with nature and spirits. Through the dynamic meditation called Sacred Silence, the reader can experience the joys of self-discovery--and the power of a personal Vision Quest.

Bridging Science and Spirit: Common Elements in David Bohm's Physics, the Perennial Philosophy and Seth


Norman Friedman - 1994
    In the resultant confusion scientists, philosophers and theologians have pondered and argued; yet the separation remains. Norman Friedman correlates the quantum physics of David Bohm with the Perennial Philosophy described by Aldous Huxley and the spiritual insights of the channeled entity known as Seth to show how a single reality emerges from seemingly contradictory perspectives; a brilliant synthesis. BOOK REVIEWS I think Bridging Science and Spirit is one of the most insightful, comprehensive, and brilliant expressions of knowledge. I shall certainly use it as a reference guide. Many abstract ideas that I was not comfortable with are now more meaningful. Deepak Chopra, M.D., author of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind; The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success; The Way of the Wizard Bridging Science and Spirit accomplishes a formidable task. This book will be a valuable research document for many years to come for those concerned with a perspective that honors both science and spirituality. Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D.; author of Taking the Quantum Leap; Parallel Universes; The Physics of the Soul Bridging Science and Spirit correctly asks, 'How does matter originate from consciousness?' This is the fundamental question of a growing body of literature regarding the new paradigm of an idealist, consciousness-based science. Norman Friedman has made an important and thoughtful contribution to this new science. Amit Goswami, Ph.D., Professor of Physics, University of Oregon; author of The Self-Aware Universe An insightful synthesis of the outer frontiers of theoretical physics with the deep revelations of mystical insight, throwing important light on the reality we live in. Peter Russell, author of The Global Brain; The White Hole in Time; The Global Brain Awakens A masterful job of bringing innate psychic understanding and scientific knowledge together, brilliantly showing us how all is one and one is all. Robert F. Butts - Husband of Jane Roberts, Channel for Seth Few have understood both science and metaphysics well enough to remove our blinders to their underlying similarities and universal truths. Kudos to Norman Friedman for proving to be a master bridge builder. Lynda Madden Dahl, Co-founder, Seth Network International; author of eight Seth-based books, including the Living a Safe Universe Series Some future historian will, I feel confident, identify the 'Great Debate' of the twentieth century around the question: 'What is science going to do about consciousness?' I would surmise that Norman Friedman's book Bridging Science and Spirit will turn out to be a benchmark in that inquiry. No one can read it without gaining some clarity on their own nature. Willis Harman, Ph.D., President, Institute of Noetic Sciences; author of Global Mind Change A brilliant synthesis of ageless wisdom and modern science. Friedman's writing provides pictures for our minds so we can 'see' reality Jacquelyn Small, MSSW, President, Eupsychia, Inc.; author of Awakening in Time; Transformers, the Artists of Self-Creation I responded to this book with both admiration and appreciation for the task Norman Friedman set out to do and accomplished so successfully. He has paved the way toward a deeper understanding of the role of consciousness in the creation and structure of matter. Montague Ullman, Ph.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, N.Y."

I Ching Wisdom: Guidance from the Book of Changes


Wu Wei - 1994
    In this book, author wu wei has brillantly excerpted some of the I Ching's greatest wisdom and has added to it his own enlightened comments that render the wisdom exuberantly alive, and a Chinese ink drawing in the Zen fashion.

Travelling the Path of Love: Sayings of Sufi Masters


Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee - 1994
    Resonant with devotion, the writings describe the spiritual path with simplicity, directness, humor, and wisdom.

Loving Search for God: Contemplative Prayer and The Cloud of Unknowing


William A. Meninger - 1994
    "A powerful, even stunning job of explaining contmeplative prayer...an excellent guide for anyone interested in deepening his or her Christian prayer life." - Publishers Weekly

That Which Transpires Behind That Which Appears: The Experience of Sufism


Hazrat Inayat Khan - 1994
    "Discover yourself by becoming, by doing. The retreat situation marks a halt in which we step out of our normal mode of existence in order to reflect upon our lives and gain more clarity and, ultimately, become more aware of what our real objective is in life. A retreat is an opportunity for a lot of reflection, a time to explore those skills which will open up faculties that we are not using and insights of which we are not aware."

Honey and Salt: Selected Spiritual Writings


Bernard of Clairvaux - 1994
    His writings reveal a mystical theology that Thomas Merton, a monastic heir to Bernard’s Cistercian reform, says "explains what it means to be united to God in Christ but (also) shows the meaning of the whole economy of our redemption in Christ." Critical of the monastic opulence of his times, Bernard exhorted his monks to consider that "Salt with hunger is seasoning enough for a man living soberly and wisely." Martin Luther believed that Bernard was "the best monk that ever lived, whom I admire beyond all the rest put together."Bernard's zeal and charisma led to the reform of Christian life in medieval Europe. Today it is reported that Pope Benedict XVI keeps Bernard's treatise Advice to a Pope close at hand for spiritual support. Honey and Salt is an original selection for the general reader of Bernard’s sermons, treatises, and letters.

Dialogues with a Modern Mystic


Andrew Harvey - 1994
    The result is a spiritual quest that goes into the art of seeing--ultimately becoming a discourse of mystical depth and beauty. New York Times Magazine feature interview. Documentary specials with Sky Television.

Mystical Languages of Unsaying


Michael A. Sells - 1994
    which literally means "speaking away." Sometimes translated as "negative theology," apophatic discourse embraces the impossibility of naming something that is ineffable by continually turning back upon its own propositions and names. In this close study of apophasis in Greek, Christian, and Islamic texts, Michael Sells offers a sustained, critical account of how apophatic language works, the conventions, logic, and paradoxes it employs, and the dilemmas encountered in any attempt to analyze it.This book includes readings of the most rigorously apophatic texts of Plotinus, John the Scot Eriugena, Ibn Arabi, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart, with comparative reference to important apophatic writers in the Jewish tradition, such as Abraham Abulafia and Moses de Leon. Sells reveals essential common features in the writings of these authors, despite theirwide-ranging differences in era, tradition, and theology.By showing how apophasis works as a mode of discourse rather than as a negative theology, this work opens a rich heritage to reevaluation. Sells demonstrates that the more radical claims of apophatic writers—claims that critics have often dismissed as hyperbolic or condemned as pantheistic or nihilistic—are vital to an adequate account of the mystical languages of unsaying. This work also has important implications for the relationship of classical apophasis to contemporary languages of the unsayable. Sells challenges many widely circulated characterizations of apophasis among deconstructionists as well as a number of common notions about medieval thought and gender relations in medieval mysticism.

The Empty Chair: Finding Hope and Joy Timeless Wisdom from a Hasidic Master, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov


Nachman of Breslov - 1994
    To others, his teachings shed light on some of the deepest mysteries. Here, is timeless wisdom, adapted by disciplines living in Jerusalem today, reaches out to us all: Never lose hope. Find joy and cause for happiness in everything that happens to you.

Light in my Darkness


Helen Keller - 1994
    Writing that her first reading of Emanuel Swedenborg at age fourteen gave her truths that were "to my faculties what light, color and music are to the eye and ear," she explains how Swedenborg's works sustained her throughout her life.This new edition includes a foreword by Dorothy Herrmann, author of the acclaimed Helen Keller: A Life, and a new chapter, "Epilogue: My Luminous Universe."

Resurfacing: Techniques for Exploring Consciousness


Harry Palmer - 1994
    It is a process of revealing your self to yourself. The reward is discovering why your life works—or why it doesn't.Without a doubt, you will be surprised and amazed to discover the source called "You."

Franklin Merrell-Wolff's Experience and Philosophy: A Personal Record of Transformation and a Discussion of Transcendental Consciousness: Containing His Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object and His Pathways Through to Space


Franklin Merrell-Wolff - 1994
    Merrell-Wolff experienced enlightenment, became established in the state, and wrote clearly about the value and nature of the knowledge he attained. This is a record of transformation in consciousness written during the actual process itself, supplying an unusually intimate view.The author faces the epistemological problem directly--the problem of demonstrating the reality and value of knowledge springing from mystical roots. He gives serious attention to the philosophical and psychological criticism, writing with an eye to the pitfalls indicated by such criticism. He did not write only for those who believe easily.

The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi


Richard John Lynn - 1994
    The first translation ever to appear in English that includes one of the major Chinese philosophical commentaries, the Columbia I Ching presents the classic book of changes for the world today.Richard Lynn's introduction to this new translation explains the organization of The Classic of Changes through the history of its various parts, and describes how the text was and still is used as a manual of divination with both the stalk and coin methods. For the fortune-telling novice, he provides a chart of trigrams and hexagrams; an index of terms, names, and concepts; and a glossary and bibliography.Lynn presents for the first time in English the fascinating commentary on the I Ching written by Wang Bi (226-249), who was the main interpreter of the work for some seven hundred years. Wang Bi interpreted the I Ching as a book of moral and political wisdom, arguing that the text should not be read literally, but rather as an expression of abstract ideas. Lynn places Wang Bi's commentary in historical context.