An overview of Celtic spirituality and its implications for us today.

    These are tales of transformation and spiritual growth. They delight and challenge as they express different facets of the Buddhist path to liberation in familiar, yet fresh and engaging, ways. These stories can be reread often, each time supporting new reflec- tions on the spiritual life and the possibility of each person awakening to the kindness, clarity and insight available to all of us. A Monastery Within points to how each person can build an inner home for the awakened life.

    A concise, and delightful introduction to Vedanta, the philosophical backbone of Hinduism.Written with verve and charm by a Western nun for a Western audience, this brief book gives a comprehensive overview of Vedanta philosophy while emphasizing its practical Western application.

    Ideal for individuals and spiritual friends to use alone or with one another, "Inviting Silence" is a thoughtful primer on finding silence and a practical manual on meditation for seekers of every persuasion.

    Focusing on gender symbolism, Sachiko Murata shows that Muslim authors frequently analyze the divine reality and its connections with the cosmic and human domains with a view toward a complementarity or polarity of principles that is analogous to the Chinese idea of yin/yang.Murata believes that the unity of Islamic thought is found, not so much in the ideas discussed, as in the types of relationships that are set up among realities. She pays particular attention to the views of various figures commonly known as "Sufis" and "philosophers," since they approach these topics with a flexibility and subtlety not found in other schools of thought. She translates several hundred pages, most for the first time, from more than thirty important Muslims including the Ikhwan al-Safa', Avicenna, and Ibn al-'Arabi.

    Reflecting both private devotional love and the attempt to attain union with God and become absorbed into the Divine, many poems in this edition are imbued with the symbols and metaphors that develop many of the central ideas of Sufism: the Lover, the Beloved, the Wine, and the Tavern; while others are more personal and echo the poet's battle to leave earthly love behind.These translations capture the passion of the original poetry and are accompanied by an introduction on Sufism and the common themes apparent in the works. This edition also includes suggested further reading.

    Here he presents ancient Sufi teaching stories rooted in the Islamic tradition. With common sense and insightful wit, he addresses questions and problems of contemporary life and awakens our attention to the often overlooked moments that give importance and meaning to our lives. Through the re-telling of classical stories and his own commentary, a pattern unfolds that helps to distinguish knowledge from information, reality from imagination, and makes what seems to lie beyond our perception - understanding and brief - accessible. Our spiritual potential as human beings is realised in "When You Hear Hoofbeats Think of a Zebra".

    He was a Sufi mystic who travelled widely in the Middle East and Transoxiana. The Kashf al-Maḥjūb was probably written in Lahore, where he is buried, not long before his death in about 1074. One of the oldest Sufi works in Persian, it is a substantial treatise aiming to set forth a complete system of Sufism. This is achieved partly by the discussion of acts and saying of the great figures of the past, partly by discussion of features of doctrine and practice and the examination of the different views adopted by different Sufi schools. It is enlivened by episodes from the author's own experiences. Originally published in 1911, and reprinted in 1959 and 2000, this paperback edition was prepared in 2014.

    Once again Ladinsky reveals his talent for creating profound and playful renditions of classic poems for a modern audience. Rumi's joyous, ecstatic love poems; St. Francis's loving observations of nature through the eyes of Catholicism; Kabir's wild, freeing humor that synthesizes Hindu, Muslim, and Christian beliefs; St. Teresa's sensual verse; and the mystical, healing words of Sufi poet Hafiz—these along with inspiring works by Rabia, Meister Eckhart, St. Thomas Aquinas, Mira, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Tukaram are all “love poems by God,” from writers considered to be "conduits of the divine." A spiritual treasure to cherish always.

    

    She then focuses on those Arab societies that played a key role in elaborating the dominant Islamic discourses about women and gender: Arabia during the period in which Islam was founded; Iraq during the classical age, when the prescriptive core of legal and religious discourse on women was formulated; and Egypt during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when exposure to Western societies led to dramatic social change and to the emergence of new discourses on women. Throughout, Ahmed not only considers the Islamic texts in which central ideologies about women and gender developed or were debated but also places this discourse in its social and historical context. Her book is thus a fascinating survey of Islamic debates and ideologies about women and the historical circumstances of their position in society, the first such discussion using the analytic tools of contemporary gender studies.

    In it, you will find no creed of belief to which you must subscribe to be a Unitarian Universalist, no statement of doctrine. Unitarian Universalists value the individual spiritual journey and believe that there is no one right way to lead a religious life. For us, religion is ultimately not about what you think. Religion is about how you live. Ours is a faith of deeds, not creeds.”—from the PrefaceUpdated with a new preface by UUA President William Sinkford, the fourth edition of the UU Pocket Guide continues to be a foundational tool in our rich liberal religious tradition. Here is the perfect book for visitors, newcomers and anyone else who wants to learn more about UU faith heritage.Also available in Spanish, Guía Unitaria Universalista de bolsillo is an essential resource for congregations in Latino/a communities.For more information contact skinnerhouse @ uua.org.

    a longing to find meaning to life ... a yearning to discover a sanctuary of serenity and peace ... a hunger to have your heart and soul touched by that Divine love that brings comfort to life ... a passionate desire to have a closer relationship with your creator, then the Tao Te Ching is for you. The Tao Te Ching provides an intuitive insight into the art of living an authentic life, and introduces you to the laws of nature on how to live in this world in peace and joy. With a knowing of the Tao Te Ching, you will see resistance and opposition fade away. Conflict and stress will become distant memories. The issues of life become irrelevant or will simply disappear once you start living your authentic self with the Tao. The Tao shows how to transcend all those insurmountable obstacles that the ego has created. The Tao contains the power to liberate you from the ego-imposed prison of the dualistic world. Living in the Tao can bring a deep inner peace and a reconnection to the divine source. The wisdom of the Tao is in a practical sense, a way to live life with the clarity of knowing the universal truth. The Tao is an ancient philosophy of living in the natural world. It shows the way of how to get back to being your Authentic Self, your Spiritual Self. The Tao has the power to help you reclaim your life from the temporal ego identity that is imprisoning you. With the Tao you can discover your Authentic Identity. You can get back to the being-ness and oneness of living in the Divine Consciousness by learning the truths of the Tao Te Ching. Through discovering these truths you can become the creators of your own universe instead of being the passive observer that you have been. You can learn to live a fuller life in the infinity of the moment verses living in the clutches of the Ego. The Tao can show you how to grow detached from the ego identity by becoming in direct contact with your true intent and motives that was meant for you. When you do, you begin to see yourself as you truly are. It is being authentic that you become reconnected to the divine source.The Tao Te Ching will show you how to develop a more rewarding spiritual experience and obtain a higher sense of awareness through connecting with the Divine Source, and help you realize that the Power is within you to achieve this. It makes no difference what your religious background or beliefs are, the teachings of the Tao Te Ching are universal and available to everyone. Following the way of the Tao Te Ching is a spiritual path to finding true joy and ecstasy.For those who wish to learn more, may I suggest my book, "The Way of the Tao, Living an Authentic Life" This book has several essays on the deeper meaning of the Tao including modern day examples to demostrate the timelessness of the Tao.

    Now, in his first book written for a wide audience, he offers a marvelous biography of the Prophet Muhammad, one that highlights the spiritual and ethical teachings of one of the most influential figures in human history.In the Footsteps of the Prophet is a fresh and perceptive look at Muhammad, capturing a life that was often eventful, gripping, and highly charged. Ramadan provides both an intimate portrait of a man who was shy, kind, but determined, as well as a dramatic chronicle of a leader who launched a great religion and inspired a vast empire. More important, Ramadan presents the main events of the Prophet's life in a way that highlights his spiritual and ethical teachings. The book underscores the significance of the Prophet's example for some of today's most controversial issues, such as the treatment of the poor, the role of women, Islamic criminal punishments, war, racism, and relations with other religions. Selecting those facts and stories from which we can draw a profound and vivid spiritual picture, the author asks how can the Prophet's life remain -- or become again -- an example, a model, and an inspiration? And how can Muslims move from formalism -- a fixation on ritual -- toward a committed spiritual and social presence?In this thoughtful and engaging biography, Ramadan offers Muslims a new understanding of Muhammad's life and he introduces non-Muslims not just to the story of the Prophet, but to the spiritual and ethical riches of Islam.

    Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word “God” functions in the world’s great theistic faiths.Ranging broadly across Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Vedantic and Bhaktic Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, Hart explores how these great intellectual traditions treat humanity’s knowledge of the divine mysteries. Constructing his argument around three principal metaphysical “moments”—being, consciousness, and bliss—the author demonstrates an essential continuity between our fundamental experience of reality and the ultimate reality to which that experience inevitably points.Thoroughly dismissing such blatant misconceptions as the deists' concept of God, as well as the fundamentalist view of the Bible as an objective historical record, Hart provides a welcome antidote to simplistic manifestoes. In doing so, he plumbs the depths of humanity’s experience of the world as powerful evidence for the reality of God and captures the beauty and poetry of traditional reflection upon the divine.