Using everyday language to explain difficult theological concepts, Teresa of Avila compares the contemplative life to a castle with seven chambers. Tracing the passage of the soul through each successive chamber, she draws a powerful picture of the path toward spiritual perfection. It is the most sublime and mature of Teresa's works, offering profound and inspiring reflections on such subjects as self-knowledge, humility, detachment, and suffering.One of the most celebrated works on mystical theology in existence, as timely today as when St. Teresa of Avila wrote it centuries ago, this is a treasury of unforgettable maxims on self-knowledge and fulfillment.

    Based on 25 years of groundbreaking work as a spiritual teacher and the editor-in-chief of the award-winning EnlightenNext magazine, Cohen has synthesized an original path, practice, and philosophy focused entirely on aligning yourself with what he calls * the evolutionary impulse.* His message is simple, yet profound: Life is evolution, and enlightenment is about waking up to this fundamentally creative impulse as your own deepest, most authentic self* so that you can play an active role in creating the future. EMBRACING CHANGE AS YOUR SPIRITUAL PRACTICE Change is a constant in today* 's world. Technology is accelerating, globalization is making the world more and more complex, and the pace of life seems to be speeding up every day. While many popular forms of contemporary spirituality offer ways to feel better in the face of overwhelming change* to discover greater equanimity, detachment, or compassion* Andrew Cohen says that change is not something to be avoided, or merely tolerated, but an essential aspect of reality that needs to be consciously embraced. Through his five fundamental tenets for living an enlightened life, Cohen empowers you to wholeheartedly participate in the process of change as your own spiritual practice. In doing so, he not only makes deep sense of life today; he shows you how to play an active role in shaping the world of tomorrow.

    Titles in the original Tibetan "The Sanglingma Life Story," it was recorded by the dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, concealed in the ninth century at Sanglingma (Copper Temple) in Samye, and revealed by Nyang Ral Nyima Oser in the twelfth century. In addition to narrating the legendary story of a unique spiritual personality, the book contains oral instructions and advice that he left for the benefit of future generations. Also included are "A Clarification of the Life of Padmasambhava" by Tsele Natsok Rangdröl, an extensive glossary and index, and a bibliography of Tibetan and English sources.

    Sarah Bessey was in her sweet spot: a popular author, sought-after speaker and preacher, and an active and engaged mother of four, married to the love of her life. Raised within the Word of Faith and prosperity movements, which declared that obedience to God led to untold blessings, her life seemed to prove the preachers of her childhood were right. Then she was in a car accident with life-shattering consequences, and everything she thought she knew about God and faith was upended.Weaving together theology and memoir in her trademark narrative style, Sarah tells us the whole story of the car accident that changed her body and ultimately changed her life. The road of healing leads to Rome where she met the Pope (it’s complicated) and encountered the Holy Spirit in the last place she expected. She writes about her miraculous healing, learning to live with chronic pain, and the ways God unexpectedly makes us whole in the midst of suffering. She invites us to a path of knowing God that is filled with ordinary miracles, hope in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, surprising holiness, and other completely reasonable things.Insightful, profound, and unexpected, Miracles and Other Reasonable Things is a wild spirit-filled story of what it means to live with both grief and faith in our hands as we wrestle with God.

    In telling the story of one master’s training and evolution in the Himalayas and his subsequent mission to his countrymen, the author enlightens you on the essence of India’s culture, philosophy and religion. His story will surely educate you, inspire you, and broaden your horizons of the meaning of life.The Swami spent five years in the Himalayas under the tutelage of two incredible Masters of live, as different as day and night. Although both were scholars of the scriptures, their manifestation was unique. One was an incredible streak of light and energy who traveled India teaching, then created a huge ashram center to serve all of humanity. The other was a quiet contemplative recluse who sang inspirational songs and taught only a few students.Swami Chinmayananda appeared on the scene at an appropriate time in Indian history. The British had just left the country with no one trained to take the helm of State. The British had taken all the top government positions. In addition, they had curtailed any industrial development; the Empire was about having consumers for British products. The Indians had lost their moorings: economically, spiritually and personally. To these countrymen, beaten down by 150 years of British rule, repression and slavery, the Swami gave a message of hope. He worked relentlessly for about 40 years to bring about a spiritual revival in India and abroad. His unique style and logical approach was appreciated by everyone from college students to bankers to priests—both Hindu and Christian.By teaching directly the wisdom of their ancient scriptures, he gave the listeners confidence and inspiration to move forward in business and in creating charitable endeavors for the uplifting of the downtrodden of the country. Through 200 centers in India, his devotees have built and operate schools, hospitals and clinics, nursing homes, retirement homes and training centers for nurses and teachers, as well as spiritual training centers.This story of the legacy of one of the most influential persons in the modern history of Hinduism is sure to surprise you, amaze you—and inspire you.

    The question he tackles in What Good Is God? concerns the practical value of belief in God. His search for the answer to this question took him to some amazing settings around the world: Mumbai, India when the firing started during the terrorist attacks; at the motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated; on the Virginia Tech campus soon after the massacre; an AA convention; and even to a conference for women in prostitution. At each of the ten places he visited, his preparation for the visit and exactly what he said to the people he met each provided evidence that faith really does work when what we believe is severely tested. What Good Is God? tells the story of Philip's journey -- the background, the preparation, the presentations themselves. Here is a story of grace for armchair travelers, spiritual seekers, and those in desperate need of assurance that their faith really matters.

    Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan, bestselling authors of Wild and Free, walk you through the gift of truly knowing who you are in Christ in Always Enough , Never Too Much: 100 Devotions to Quit Comparing, Stop Hiding, and Start Living Wild and Free.   We’ve all been there. We know that sneaking, small voice in our heads all too well—you’re too loud. Too quiet. Too young. Too old. Too unimportant. Too ugly. Too silly. Too serious. You’re not as successful as she is—look at her perfect family, look at her high-powered job, look at her great hair and size 4 skinny jeans. Why can’t you be more like her—be more in general? Why do you expect so much from everyone? Why can’t you take up less space? Ask for less? Be less? The lies track well-worn paths in our minds and our hearts, wearing us down and making us question our role in God’s kingdom.Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan, founders of the Influence Network and bestselling authors of Wild and Free,reject those lies, and you can too with Always Enough, Never Too Much: 100 Devotions to Quit Comparing, Stop Hiding, and Start Living Wild and Free. Through the Scripture and the devotions, find the tools you need to claim the fullness of Jesus in your own life and soak in the encouragement of two girls who will never stop cheering you on!With a unique flip-book design, these 100 devotions are topical, so you can choose what you need most every time you open the pages. This book is designed for you, the woman who feels like she can be both too much and not enough—sometimes on the same day.Always Enough, Never Too Much is the daily marching orders after the anthem cry of Wild and Free. Join Jess and Hayley on a journey toward freedom with this beautiful new devotional.

    This book and its illuminating truth pushed my restart button! Best page-turning read of the year!” —Jennifer Skiff, author of God Stories: Inspiring Encounters with the Divine and The Divinity of Dogs“Heaven is hot right now—not in temperature, but in public interest. Everyone who longs to get a glimpse of the afterlife will be grateful for this gripping first-person account by Peter Panagore, who dies on a cold mountainside after a heart-pounding ice climb in the Canadian wilderness. There he meets the God who made him and knows him—the God who is loving, all-powerful and real. This book will give hope and confidence to all who wonder about what lies beyond our earthly existence.” —Henry G. Brinton, senior pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Virginia and author of The Welcoming Congregation: Roots and Fruits of Christian HospitalityWhen Peter Baldwin Panagore died on the side of a mountain, his life was forever changed. Decades later, the intense spiritual journey continues, with a story that combines the thrills of a wilderness adventure with the awe-inspiring elements of a paranormal novel.In March of 1980, college senior Peter Panagore went ice climbing on the world-famous Lower Weeping Wall, along the Ice Fields Parkway in Alberta, Canada. His climbing partner was an experienced ice climber, but Panagore was a novice. On their descent, they became trapped on the side of the mountain. As the sun set, he was overcome by exhaustion and hypothermia. He died on the side of that mountain. And in those minutes on the other side, he experienced hell, forgiveness, and unconditional love. Heaven was beautiful.Panagore’s death experience changed his life and resulted in an intense spiritual journey that has continued for decades. It impelled him to pursue a master’s degree at Yale Divinity School, focusing on systematic theology and Christian mysticism. His educational background coupled with 30 years of meditative practice and 20 years of professional work with the dying and grieving has given him unique insight, language, and perspective on heaven, God, death, life, love, beauty, and hope.I have told my story to audiences large and small for a decade now.... My story touches people’s hearts; every time I tell it the audience is gripped and silent…. This book is about hope. It is meant to give real hope to the dying, hope to the fearful, hope to the hopeless, hope to the grieving.—from the book

    They went to the streets with a single intention: to be as present as possible to everyone we met, offering them sustained and nonjudgmental attention. Such attention is the heart of compassion. This book chronicles their streets experiences. It will thrust you out the door of your comfortable life, straight into the unknown. It will force you to confront what might happen to you, and who you might become, if suddenly you had no home. The meditative narrative is accompanied by pinhole photographs shot by James using cameras he constructed from trash. This is the third edition of the book, lightly edited. Though recounting events that occurred in 1999, The Emptiness of Our Hands remains as relevant today as ever. An "eye-opening" and "life-changing" read! Read this book on its own or in the company of Practicing Presence: Insights from the Streets, which Phyllis wrote on the tenth anniversary of her time on the streets. Take your reading slow, perhaps one chapter per day, so you can absorb and reflect. If you happen to be Christian, you might consider using this book and Practicing Presence as companion resources during Lent and Holy Week, which served as a backdrop for Phyllis and James's experience. But you don’t need to be a Christian to take this stumbling journey into practicing mindfulness on the streets. Just allow these forty-seven days to be for you what they were for Phyllis and James: a deep embrace of core values that human beings around the world have held in common for millennia. These values might best be articulated as questions: How do we treat others as we would have them treat us? How do we love our neighbors, including those who seem “alien” and “other?” How do we extend hospitality to strangers, allowing them an honored place among us? These age-old questions have no simple answers. We must seek to answer them daily with our lives. Get your free sampler of Phyllis's work when you join her mailing list at http://subscribe.phylliscoledai.com/. It includes music, poetry, spiritual nonfiction and historical fiction. You can also join her mailing list at http://www.phylliscoledai.com. CATEGORIES FOR THIS BOOK: --spirituality --memoir --mindfulness --homelessness --Lent & Holy Week --social conscience --engaged Buddhism

    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.

    This Missing Pieces: Real Hope When Life Doesn't Make Sense - Bible Study Book provides a personal study experience for this video-driven women's Bible study. Explore these and other questions in this realistic look at the messy, mysterious uncertainties of faith. God's ways don't always make sense, but He is trustworthy. Come close to Him. Trust Him more than your feelings. God will reveal Himself and fill in your missing pieces.Participants who take this study will:Experience unexpected peace in spite of unexpected heartacheHang on to God's answers when you feel you are at the end of your ropeMove forward when you feel stuck in your circumstancesHave a greater sense of peace through every storm you faceStrengthen your faith when you feel beat down by lifeSurvive unexpected storms knowing God is in your boatExperience stability when tidal waves of emotion hitTrust God more than your feelings

    The boy was beckoning me to join him on a voyage through the harrowing straits of memory. He was gambling that if we survived the passage, we might discover an ocean where the past would become the wind at our back rather than a driving gale to the nose of our boat. This book is the record of that voyage."When he was sixteen years old, Ian Morgan Cron was told about his father's clandestine work with the CIA. This astonishing revelation, coupled with his father's dark struggles with chronic alcoholism and depression, upended the world of a boy struggling to become a man. Decades later, as he faces his own personal demons, Ian realizes the only way to find peace is to voyage back through a painful childhood marked by extremes--privilege and poverty, violence and tenderness, truth and deceit--that he's spent years trying to escape.In this surprisingly funny and forgiving memoir, Ian reminds us that no matter how different the pieces may be, in the end we are all cut from the same cloth, stitched by faith into an exquisite quilt of grace.

    A fairly common experience among men nearing the age of fifty, midlife crises are usually manifested in the form of sports cars and younger women; not so for this Baptist turned Eastern Orthodox. Cairns had a realization that as the advancement of his spiritual life was moving at a snail's pace, time was running out, and his crisis emerged in the form of a desperate need to seek out prayer. Told with wit and exquisite prose, Slow Pilgrim is the story of Scott's spiritual journey to the mystical island of Mt. Athos. With twenty monasteries and thirteen sketes scattered across its sloping terrain, the Holy Mountain was the perfect place for Scott to seek out a prayer father and to discover the stillness of the true prayer life. His narrative takes the reader from a beach in Virginia to the most holy Orthodox monasteries in the world to a monastery in Arizona and back again as Scott struggles to find his prayer path. His story includes accounts of the relationships he forges with several different monks and priests along the way, as well as life-long friendships he makes with other pilgrims.

    For many people, their daily lives are a dark place with an even darker future, and John Edward shares how his belief in the power of prayer alone can help to illuminate a path for each individual to follow… using God’s gift of free will to chart our own course. Although he is quick to suggest this is not the fix to ‘find happiness’ in a material sense, the promise of living a more abundant life in general can be achieved. This book is divided into three sections. Section I deals with John’s overview of the process of prayer, his thoughts about writing on this subject matter, and the history of the rosary as authorized by the Catholic Church.   Section II is how he has utilized the power of prayer through the use of the rosary, and Section III is an audio CD that goes over the process of using the techniques of practical praying.  Includes a FREE BONUS Meditation CD!

    As she shares her story, coauthor Rabbi Jason Sobel, a messianic Jewish rabbi, provides fascinating background details that make the story of the New Testament come alive. Kathie Lee and Rabbi Sobel will take you and your group beyond the typical "Sunday school" teaching to examine the true texts of the Bible.Something profound happens when we follow along the ancient paths in the actual places where Jesus taught, healed, lived, died, was resurrected, and ascended into heaven. As Kathie Lee and Rabbi Sobel reveal in this study, Jesus is indeed the Rock and the Rabbi whom we follow along this Road in life. And when we are introduced to the mysteries of the Word by teachers who are trained in the ancient rabbinical way, radical transformation begins to renew our hearts and minds.The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi Study Guide includes video discussion questions, Bible exploration, and personal study and reflection materials for in-between sessions.Sessions include:Bethlehem: Where It All BeganNazareth: The Early YearsCapernaum: Ministry HeadquartersGalilee: Ministry GroundsMount of Olives: The Triumphal EntryJerusalem: Crucifixion and ResurrectionDesigned for use with The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi Video Study 9780310095033 (sold separately).