What is Sufism?


Martin Lings - 1975
    His explanation derives from a profound understanding of Sufism, and extends to many aspects which are usually neglected. His illuminating answer to 'What is Sufism?' gives a taste of the very subject matter itself. What do Sufis believe? What do they aim at? What do they do? Unlike other writers on the subject, Martin Lings treats all the three questions with equal justice. He is thus able to give a wealth of answers to the main question 'What is Sufism?', each answer being from a different angle but all going to the root of the matter. A reviewer wrote 'Should the book appear in paperback, I would use it for undergraduate and graduate courses on Islamic civilization', and in fact What is Sufism? has become a set book in colleges and universities on both sides of the Atlantic. It is now accepted as the authoritative statement on the subject of Sufism and it has been translated into French, German, Italian and Spanish. It has also been published in Sarajevo in Bosnian, and is available in Braille.

Getting to No: How to Break a Stubborn Habit


Erwin W. Lutzer - 1979
    We may even experience some short-term success. Yet almost inevitably, we fall back into that undesirable behavior and the frustrating process starts all over again. The experience can leave us feeling powerless to make changes in our lives.Popular author and pastor Erwin Lutzer believes it is possible to break the cycle of addictive behavior. Filled with biblical insight, Getting to No: How to Break a Stubborn Habit takes an honest look at the temptations lying beneath the surface of every bad habit. Lutzer examines tough issues-such as why temptation exists, what purpose it serves in our lives. and what happens when we fail again-and provides practical tools that will help you find freedom from bad habits for good.

The Sufi Book of Life: 99 Pathways of the Heart for the Modern Dervish


Neil Douglas-Klotz - 2005
    Unlike most books on Sufism, which are primarily collections of translated Sufi texts, this accessible guide is a handbook that explains how to apply Sufi principles to modern life. With inspirational commentary that connects each quality with contemporary concerns such as love, work, and success, as well as timeless wisdom from Sufi masters, both ancient and modern, such as Rumi, Hafiz, Shabistari, Rabia, Inayat Khan, Indries Shah, Irina Tweedie, Bawa Muhaiyadden, and more, The Sufi Book of Life is a dervish guide to life and love for the twenty-first century.On the web: http://sufibookoflife.com

The Greatest Secret of All: Moving Beyond Abundance to a Life of True Fulfillment


Marc Allen - 2007
    The Greatest Secret of All clearly explains this law of manifestation but then takes it a quantum leap further, revealing what is truly important in life. We have what we need within us to do what we love, to be the people we dream of being, and to become completely fulfilled along the way — to become, as Abraham Maslow put it, self-actualized. We also have the capability, here and now, to create a world that works for everyone. In these pages, you will find the secret to a life of happiness, inner peace, ease, and fulfillment, and the secret that lets each of us contribute to making the world a better place for all.

The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism (Revised)


Henry Corbin - 1971
    Suhrawradi, Semnani, Najm alDin Kubra and other Sufis.

Aging: The Fulfillment of Life


Henri J.M. Nouwen - 1974
    We are each a spoke on the great wheel of life, part of the ongoing cycle of growth. In Aging, Henri J.M. Nouwen and Walter J. Gaffney share some moving and inspirational thoughts on what aging means (and can mean) to all of us, whether we're in our youth, middle age, or later years.Enhanced by some eighty-five photographs depicting various scenes from life and nature, this book shows how to make the later years a source of hope rather than a time of loneliness -- a way out of darkness into the light. "Aging," the authors write, "is not a reason for despair, but a basis of hope, not a slow decaying, but a gradual maturing, not a fate to be undergone but a chance to be embraced." And they remind us of our responsibility to incorporate the aged into the fabric of our own lives -- helping them become teachers again so they may help us repair the fragmented connections between generations.Aging shows us all how to start fulfilling our lives by giving to others, "so that when we leave this world, we can be what we have given." It is a warm, beautiful, and caring book: a simple reaffirmation of the promise of Him, who by His aging and death brought new life to this world.

Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul: An Illustrated Biography


Claire Dunne - 2000
    Through over 150 full-color and black and white illustrations, including rare photographs and never-before-seen artwork by Jung himself, his life and work comes vividly to life. By combining Jung's voice with the impressions of his contemporaries, author Claire Dunne gives the reader a multi-dimensional view of this complex genius. A book that will deepen and expand the understanding of both novice and expert. "Claire Dunne's sensitivity of feeling for her subject allows us to meet Jung in all his diverse complexity, his contradictions and paradox, human failings and strength, his greatness and creativity. We meet a man at once transparent to transcendence but also earthy, practical, a craftsman of wood and stone as well as souls." From the introduction by Jean Houston.

Hardcore Zen Strikes Again


Brad Warner - 2012
    This is not that book! Hardcore Zen was a groundbreaking look at Zen Buddhism through the eyes of a Western punk rocker living in Japan who became an ordained monk while working for a company that made cheap monster movies. In this new sequel, Hardcore Zen Strikes Again, Brad returns to his roots and provides a glimpse into some of his early writings that formed the basis for that book. These essays, mostly from a long-defunct website Brad produced in the early 2000s, form a snapshot of the genesis of Brad’s first book. Brad has provided new introductions and afterwords to each essay as well as a complete chapter written for Hardcore Zen that did not make the final cut, plus an article about his experiences at the company he was working for when the book was written. Together they make an invaluable collection for anyone interested in Brad’s writing as well as those interested in his unique way of presenting the timeless truths of Zen in a contemporary idiom.

A Time To Advance: Understanding the Significance of the Hebrew


Chuck D. Pierce - 2011
    As you identify your tribe and divinely align in time with God's calendar, you will discover how to find your position in God's Kingdom, how to war effectively for your inheritance, and then walk in His blessings.A Time to Advance: Understanding the Significance of the Hebrew Tribes and Months will help you understand how God is developing His whole conquering army for today. You will also understand how each part moves together, and the redemptive quality of God's covenant plan for Israel. This will help ground you on how we are grafted into a movement in days ahead.As you learn how to think like God thinks and study the Hebrew tribes and months, you will receive prophetic understanding of how the Lord orders your steps throughout the year. You will also see your place in God's next Triumphant Reserve that is rising in the Earth today!

Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory


Bruno Bettelheim - 1982
    Argues that mistranslation has distorted Freud's work in English and led students to see a system intended to cooperate flexibly with individual needs as a set of rigid rules to be applied by external authority.

Schizophrenic God?: Finding Reality in Conflict, Confusion, and Contradiction


Steve C. Shank - 2012
    Schizophrenic God? is a close look at fate and free will. Has God predetermined everything that happens in your life, or do your own free-will decisions help determine your destiny? You will be challenged to rethink the assumptions you have made about God, which brings comfort and empowerment in the truths of a good God, human choice, and the prayer of faith that changes things.                Rest assured—you do not serve a schizophrenic Father.

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine


Matthew Fox - 2008
    From war to ecological collapse, most of the world’s critical problems stem from a distorted masculinity out of control. Yet our culture rewards the very dysfunctions responsible for those problems.To Matthew Fox, our crucial task is to open our minds to a deeper understanding of the healthy masculine than we receive from our media, culture, and religions. Popular religion forces the punitive imagery of fundamentalism on us, pushing most men away from their natural yearning for spirituality and toward intolerance and domination. Meanwhile, many men, particularly young men, are looking for images of healthy masculinity to emulate and finding nothing.To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature, to the Grandfatherly Heart to the Spiritual Warrior. He explores archetypes of sacred marriage, showing how partnership becomes the ultimate expression of healthy masculinity. By stirring our natural yearning for healthy spirituality, Fox argues, these timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to reinvent the world.

Thomas Aquinas: A Life from Beginning to End


Hourly History - 2020
    He is celebrated for his words of wisdom as well as the alleged miracles that he performed while he was still alive. Yet as large as his acclaim may be, Aquinas has also had his fair share of detractors both during his lifetime and long thereafter.In the twentieth century, for example, esteemed British philosopher and writer Bertrand Russel went so far in his criticism as to say that he believed that Thomas Aquinas was not a philosopher in the classical sense of the word but rather that he relied more on dogmatic Catholic faith than any sense of inquiry or inductive reasoning. There are of course those that would vehemently argue the opinions of Bertrand Russel. While it is not the purpose of this book to take one side or the other, these arguments and criticisms will be examined as we delve into the history of this great thinker.Casting all accolades and critiques aside, in this book you will find the raw bare bones of the man who Thomas Aquinas came to be. Thomas Aquinas had an exceptional life of both major accomplishments and upsetting setbacks—here, we explore them in full.

I Am Wind, You Are Fire: The Life and Work of Rumi


Annemarie Schimmel - 1992
    Rumi lived the quiet life of a religious teacher in Anatolia until the age of thirty-seven, when he came under the influence of a whirling dervish, Shams Tabriz, and was moved to a state of mystical ecstasy. One of the results of this ecstasy was a prodigious output of poems about the search for the lost Divine Beloved, whom Rumi identified with Shams. To symbolize this search, Rumi also invented the famous whirling dance of the Melevi dervishes, which are performed accompanied by the chanting of Rumi's poems. Professor Schimmel illuminates the symbolism and significance of Rumi's vast output and offers her own translations of some of his most famous poems.

The Daniel Cure: The Daniel Fast Way to Vibrant Health


Susan Gregory - 2013
    This fast is similar to a 'purified' vegan diet; in addition to the exclusion of all animal products, no additives, preservatives, sweeteners, caffeine, alcohol, white flour, or processed foods are allowed. With the Daniel Fast people can eat as much Daniel-Fast-friendly food as they would like. Though most people begin the Daniel Fast for a spiritual purpose, many are amazed by the physical transformation that takes place. Many with high cholesterol experience a drop to healthy levels; people who have wrestled with weight issues are suddenly able to lose the pounds. The vast majority of participants following the Daniel Fast report a general sense of well-being and increased energy. Recent published scientific studies of the Daniel Fast have confirmed these findings, with additional benefits, such as a reduction in systemic inflammation, a reduction in blood pressure, and an improvement in antioxidant defenses.The Daniel Cure will help readers take the next step by focusing on the health benefits of the Daniel Fast. By following the advice in this book, readers will convert the Daniel Fast from a once-a-year spiritual discipline into a new way of life that can begin any time of the year. In a nation suffering an epidemic of obesity and its resulting ills, The Daniel Cure may be just what the Great Physician ordered.The Daniel Cure includes a 21-Day Daniel Cure Devotional, four chapters detailing the lifestyle diseases of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and inflammation, eleven chapters of recipes and meal planning advice, a recipe index, complete nutritional guidance, and an appendix detailing 'The Science behind the Daniel Fast.'