Simple Taoism: A Guide to Living in Balance


C. Alexander Simpkins - 1999
    Divided into three parts, the book outlines:A clear explanation of Taoism and how to apply its best aspects to your daily life.Simple instructions for exercises to lead a fuller life—meditation, breathing, chi kung, and tai chi chuan.An informative discussion of key Taoist concepts, including wu-wei (nonaction), yin and yang, and Te (power virtue, life).

The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross


John of the Cross - 1618
    John of the Cross inspired this revised edition of the English translation of his writings. The result is an edition that preserves the true meaning of the great mystic's writings, presents them as clearly as possible, and at the same time gives the reader the doctrinal and historical information that will lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the teachings of the Mystical Doctor. Included in The Collected Works are St. John's poetry, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night, The Spiritual Canticle, and The Living Flame of Love, as well as his letters and other counsels. There is a general introduction for the entire work and brief, enlightening introductions for each specific work, explaining theme and structure. Enhancing these are the new footnotes, glossary of terms, and index.

Yoga, Power, and Spirit: Patanjali the Shaman


Alberto Villoldo - 2007
    Written more than 2,000 years ago, this work is a map to the fast track to enlightenment. They derive from an ancient oral tradition, when Devi, the Divine feminine, was worshiped. Yet, today, the Yoga Sutra is taught by priests and scholars from a masculine Hindu tradition that obscures the simple wisdom in it. Yoga, Power, and Spirit shows us that the Sutra is pre-Hindu, and that the power of Devi and enlightenment are available to us at all times, without guru, temple, or decades of study.       Yoga is the direct path to enlightenment. Patanjali taught that all knowledge was acquired directly from the Source. This book reveals how the power of Devi can guide the practitioner of yoga to sure and inevitable self-realization. Alberto Villoldo is a shaman who has practiced Yoga for 25 years, and embraced the way of the Divine feminine. He has traveled to the source of India's holy rivers in the Himalayas to rediscover the wisdom of the Sadhu, India’s ancient shamans. He brings to life the spiritual teachings of yoga in a pure, practical, and irreverent way—stripped of dogma and brimming with poetry and spirit.

Buddhism: Beginner's Guide: Bring Peace and Happiness to Your Everyday Life


Ian Tuhovsky - 2014
    In this book I will show you what happened and how it was. No matter if you are totally green when it comes to Buddha's teachings or maybe you have already heard something about them - this book will help you systematize your knowledge and will inspire you to learn more and to take steps to make your life positively better! I invite you to take this beatiful journey into the graceful and meaningful world of Buddhism with me today! In This Book I Will Tell You About: -Why Would You Want To Incorporate Buddha's Teachings Into Your Life? -What Buddhism Is And What it Definitely Is Not? -What is the Essence of Buddhism? -Three Main Branches of Buddhism -Buddha's Life and Teachings -Basics of Buddhism (Five Basic Buddha's Principles) -How to Cease Your Suffering -Karma, Rebirth and Reincarnation; Difference between Rebirth and Reincarnation -What Happens After Death According to Buddhism? -Where and How to Start? -The Art of Meditation -Benefits of practicing Buddhism in Everyday Life+ My Personal Experiences! -Further Resources to Continue Your Journey!

Animals and the Afterlife: True Stories of Our Best Friends' Journey Beyond Death


Kim Sheridan - 2003
    Each time she faced the death of a beloved pet, along with the pain came the same questions, to which she could find no answers. Then, mysterious things began to happen that she couldn’t explain, which led her on an incredible journey to uncover the truth. Along with her own extraordinary experiences, she compiled heartwarming and meaningful true stories of everyday people around the world, and discovered compelling evidence that forever erased her own doubts about an afterlife for animals.      This book provides enormous comfort and reassurance to anyone who has ever cherished a pet, and food for thought for anyone who has ever questioned the place of these beloved creatures in the larger scheme of things, both here on Earth and beyond.

The Open Secret


Tony Parsons - 1998
    One day that possibility became a reality, and it was simple and ordinary, magnificent and revolutionary. It is the open secret that reveals itself in every part of our lives. But realisation does not emerge through our attempts to change our lives, it comes as a direct rediscovery of who it is that lives. "The Open Secret" is a singular and radical work which speaks of the fundamental liberation that is absolutely beyond effort, path, process or belief.

God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism


Abraham Joshua Heschel - 1955
    God in Search of Man combines scholarship with lucidity, reverence, and compassion as Dr. Heschel discusses not man's search for God but God's for man--the notion of a Chosen People, an idea which, he writes, "signifies not a quality inherent in the people but a relationship between the people and God." It is an extraordinary description of the nature of Biblical thought, and how that thought becomes faith.

Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers


Anne Lamott - 2012
    And in her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow, she has coalesced everything she knows about prayer to these fundamentals.It is these three prayers – asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating what we have that is good, and feeling awe at the world around us – that can get us through the day and can show us the way forward. In Help, Thanks, Wow, Lamott recounts how she came to these insights, explains what they mean to her and how they have helped, and explores how others have embraced these same ideas.

The Complete Works


Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
    The real identity of the person who chose to write under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite is unknown. Even the exact dates of his writings have never been determined. Moreover the texts themselves, though relatively short, are at points seemingly impenetrable and have mystified readers over the centuries. Yet the influence of this shadowy figure on broad range of mystical writers from the early middle ages on is readily discernible. His formulation of a method of negative theology that stresses the impotence of humans' attempt to penetrate the "cloud of unknowing" is famous as is his meditation on the divine names.Despite his influence, relatively few attempts have been made to translate the entire corpus of his written into English. Here in one volume are collected all of the Pseudo-Dionysius' works. Each has been translated from the Migne edition, with reference to the forthcoming Göttingen critical edition of A.M. Ritter, G. Heil, and B. Suchla.To present these works to the English-speaking public, an outstanding team of six research scholars has been assembled. The lucid translation of Colm Luibheid has been augmented by Paul Rorem's notes and textual collaboration. The reader is presented a rich and varied examination of the main themes of Dionysian spirituality by René Roques, an incisive discussion of the original questions of the authenticity and alleged heresies in the Dionysian corpus by Jaroslav Pelikan, a comprehensive tracing Dionysius' influence on medieval authors by Jean Leclercq, and a survey by Karlfried Froehlich of the reception given the corpus by Humanists and sixteenth-century Reformers.

Light on Prãnãyãma: The Yogic Art of Breathing


B.K.S. Iyengar - 1981
    B. K. S. Iyengar is a legend who has practiced yoga in a unique way, and today "Iyengar Yoga" is taught around the world by certified instructors.

Live Loved: Experiencing God's Presence in Everyday Life


Max Lucado - 2011
    Each of the 150 devotions include a prayer and Scripture verses that nurture your spiritual life by helping you to live in God’s presence. Live Loved is a wonderful self-purchase for men and women wanting to deepen their relationship with God with a daily devotional. This beautiful 150-day devotional makes a great gift for loved ones needing inspiration or encouragement, birthdays, and holiday gift giving.  Each day includes:A ScriptureA timely devotional excerpted from the collection of Max’s worksA thoughtful prayer to bring you closer to HimMax Lucado is a trusted voice and provides his readers easy-to-understand insight on how you can live the way God intended. You can live loved.

The Most Holy Trinosophia of the Comte de St. Germain


Comte de Saint-Germain - 1980
    Germain is one of the most baffling personalities of modern history. His activities are traceable for more than one hundred: years between 1710 and 1822, leading Frederick the Great to refer to him as "the man who does not die." An outstanding scholar and linguist, a great musician and painter, as well as a chemist with skill so profound he could change base metals into gold, he was also enormously wealthy and was on intimate terms with the crowned heads of Europe. Nothing is known about the source of St. Germain's occult knowledge; he merely admitted he was obeying the orders of a power higher than himself, saying that his father was the Secret Doctrine and his mother the Mysteries.

Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life That Matters


Bernie Glassman - 2002
    That's the premise of this book: how to cook what Zen Buddhists call "the supreme meal"—life. It has to be nourishing, and it has to be shared. And we can use only the ingredients at hand. Inspired by the thirteenth-century manual of the same name by Dogen, the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen tradition, this book teaches us how we can "enlarge the family we're feeding" if we just use some imagination. Bernie Glassman founded Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York, in 1982 to employ those whom other companies deem unemployable—the homeless, ex-cons, recovering addicts, low-skill individuals—with the belief that investing in people, and not just products, does pay. He was right. Greyston has evolved into an $8 million-a-year business with clients all over New York City. It is the sole supplier of brownies to Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, and has even sold cakes to the White House. But financial profit is only one of two bottom lines that Greyston is committed to. The other one is social impact, and this goal is certainly being met. The bakery enterprise has led to the creation of the Greyston Foundation, an integrated network of organizations that provide affordable housing, child care, counseling services, and health care to families in the community. Using entrepreneurship to solve the problems of the inner city, Greyston has become a national model for comprehensive community development. Its giving back is more than just sloughing off a percentage of its profits and donating it to charity; it's about working with the community's needs right from the beginning—bringing them from the margins to the core. As its company motto goes, "We don't hire people to bake brownies. We bake brownies to hire people." This book is as much a self-manual as a business manual, addressing such concepts as    • Beginner's mind    • The Middle Way of Sustainability    • The "hungry ghosts" of Buddhism as a picture of all humanity    • Working with our faults    • Indra's Net and the interconnectedness of life    • Leaving no trace

Passionate Presence: Experiencing the Seven Qualities of Awakened Awareness


Catherine Ingram - 2003
     "Usually people associate a sense of unbound presence with epiphanies in life-being present at a birth, or a death. People lose themselves in sexual union, in nature, or in the presence of a heart-wrenching beauty. In those moments they forget to keep up the story about the one having the experience, and all that is left is the actual experience." In Passionate Presence, internationally acclaimed spiritual teacher Catherine Ingram shares her insights and wisdom for connecting more intimately to the experience of our daily worlds. Through her popular interactive Dharma Dialogues (dharma meaning truth, or "the way"), she has helped thousands of spiritual seekers everywhere in their quest for awakening by encouraging them to give up the quest. Now she brings nearly thirty years of experience to a book that shows us how to recognize these everyday miracles, and become more cognizant of life's greatest gift: our own passionate presence. Based on "non-dual" teachings that rely on direct experience, with numerous stories illustrating her points, Ingram takes readers on an eye-opening journey that will help them to: o Know the seven traits of passionate presence: silence, tenderness, discernment, embodiment, genuineness, delight, and wonder o Relax in simple presence to dissolve barriers between people, foster better communication, and create inner peace and harmony o Discover why true aloneness can never be lonely o See how tender mercies can purge intense feelings of anger and much more. Filled with illuminating anecdotes and personal reflections, Passionate Presence reveals our true natures and opens the doorway to the divine in all of us. Inspiring and profound, it is certain to gain a wide and devoted readership.

Introducing Hinduism: A Graphic Guide


Vinay Lal - 2001
    Yet the word 'Hindu' is of foreign 18th-century origin. Hinduism is defined as a polytheistic religion, but Mahatma Gandhi famously declared that one can be a Hindu without believing in any god. Hinduism appears to accommodate endless contradictions. It is a religion at least as much of myth as of history - it has no historical founder, no single authoritative book, and few central doctrines." Introducing Hinduism offers a guide to this extraordinarily diverse faith. It untangles the complexities of Hinduism's gods and goddesses, its caste system and its views on sex, everyday life and asceticism. Why do Hindus revere the cow? Must Hindus be vegetarian? Introducing Hinduism explores the links with and differences from Buddhism, Jainism and other religions, and describes the resurgence of Hindu extremism, the phenomenon of Bollywood and the overseas Hindu diaspora.