Words I Wish I Wrote: A Collection of Writing That Inspired My Ideas


Robert Fulghum - 1997
    During the past four decades he's reviewed and revised the basic principles of his philosophy many times, sometimes as an exercise in personal growth, but more often in response to individual crisis. Then at fifty, seeking a simplicity to counter the complex thinking of his college years, Fulghum wrote a summary essay professing that all he really needed to know he learned in kindergarten. As he approached his sixtieth year, Fulghum became curious about what in his outlook had changed and what had endured. On review, Fulghum explains, everything he has ever said and thought and written is transparent to him now. As hard as he has tried to speak in his own voice, much of what he's said is neither original nor unique. The best ideas are often old and are continually being revived, recycled, renewed. Wherever his search took him, Fulghum found that someone else has been there before. And more often than not, that person has chosen words Fulghum wishes he had written, using language he can't improve upon. To Fulghum, however, this isn't a discouraging realization. It's a recognition n of companionship, which is an affirming consolation.The confirming statements, quotes, and credos that Fulghum recorded in his journals for years are collected here, representing the most important ideas underlying his living and thinking. They are organized thematically into such chapters as Companions, God, Bene-Dictions, Contra-Dictions, Simplify, and Believe. Each begins with Fulghum's own insightful, introductory words, followed by inspiring passages drawn from a diverse group of sources, from Jerry Garcia to Albert Camus, Dylan Thomas to Franz Kafka. At the end of each chapter, Fulghum offers readers his own personal commentary on the sources--where he was introduced to their words, why he returns to them again and again, and how they may change you.

The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead


Timothy Leary - 1964
    The authors also make an important contribution to the interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. They show that it is concerned not with the dead, but with the living. The last section of the manual provides instructions for an actual psychedelic session, under adequate safeguards.The authors were engaged in a program of experiments with LSD and other psychedelic drugs at Harvard University until sensational national publicity unfairly concentrating on student interest in the drugs, led to the suspension of the experiments. Since then, the authors have continued their work without academic auspices.

The Afterdeath Journal of an American Philosopher; The World View of William James


Jane Roberts - 2001
    Book by Roberts, Jane

Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love


Sarah Blondin - 2020
    In our noisy, noisy world, it can seem nearly impossible to find ways to turn off our busy minds, which so often flood us with worry and unending lists of tasks. So how do you find your way off the negativity treadmill? When you feel overwhelmed and afraid, how can you return to a place of groundedness and connection? “When we turn toward our hearts, we arrive like a bolt of lightning in the present moment, and all our arguments against ourselves and life go quiet,” teaches Sarah Blondin. “No matter where you are, no matter what you are doing, you can touch this place in yourself to feel free and alive.” With poetic brilliance and skillful instruction, this renowned teacher brings you a treasury of meditations and spiritual teachings to help you detach from your busy mind and tune into your feeling heart. As the students of her popular online trainings can attest, these simple and powerful practices can instantly bring you into a deeper connection with yourself and others. And you can go back to these meditations whenever you feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or afraid.Read Heart Minded from front to back for a full course in living a life guided by the wise heart—or open to any page for a reminder that, beneath your burdens and troubles, you are fundamentally whole and free. This book includes links to free guided meditations on audio, presented by Sarah Blondin.

Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources


Martin Lings - 1983
    Based on the sira, the eighth- and ninth-century Arabic biographies that recount numerous events in the prophet’s life, it contains original English translations of many important passages that reveal the words of men and women who heard Muhammad speak and witnessed the events of his life.Scrupulous and exhaustive in its fidelity to its sources, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources is presented in a narrative style that is easily comprehensible, yet authentic and inspiring in its use of language, reflecting both the simplicity and grandeur of the story it tells. This revised edition includes new sections detailing the prophet’s expanding influence and his spreading of the message of Islam into Syria and its neighboring states. It represents the final updates made to the text before the author’s death in 2005. The book has been published in 12 languages and has received numerous awards, including acknowledgment as best biography of the prophet in English at the National Seerate Conference in Islamabad.

A Course in Miracles


Foundation for Inner Peace - 1976
    __________'I love it. Will make you see the world differently' - 5* reader review'This book can and will change your life' - 5* reader review 'Anyone who has ever sensed that pull against the ego for a greater understanding and meaning to life, will feel blessed to have discovered this great work.' - 5* reader review

The Tao of Happiness


Derek Lin - 2015
    He was the sage who stood apart from all others in Chinese history. He was a unique presence, a great mind like no one before or since. Chuang Tzu quickly distinguished himself and became well known for his deep understanding and sense of humor. His mastery was such that he could explain the Tao with simple stories, and his humor was such that he could see the joy in ordinary things. He taught his students about “carefree wandering”—the path of moving through life with a free and happy heart, regardless of how turbulent the journey might be. It is time for modern readers to join in on the fun. Chuang Tzu’s wisdom is not just for Eastern culture, but for all of humanity. We may not have the instability or the clash of massive armies indicative of Chuang Tzu’s time, but we have a lot of stress and tension in our modern world. Many of us find ourselves fighting little battles on the personal front just to get through the day. We can benefit greatly from Chuang Tzu’s teachings. These parables are presented throughout this book and juxtaposed with the charming and intelligent prose of modern-day Taoist teacher and author Derek Lin. Together, Chuang Tzu and Lin will present you with simple lessons that will have a lasting impact on your life.

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia


Elizabeth Gilbert - 2006
    Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be. To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world—all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way—unexpectedly. An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society’s ideals. It is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.

Death by Living: Life Is Meant to Be Spent


N.D. Wilson - 2013
    D. Wilson reminds each of us that to truly live we must recognize that we are dying. Every second we create more of our past—more decisions, more breathing, more love and more loathing, all of it slides by into the gone as we race to grab at more moments, at more memories made and already fading.We are all authors, creators of our own pasts, of the books that will be our lives. We stare at the future or obsess about the present, but only the past has been set in stone, and we are the ones setting it. When we race across the wet concrete of time without purpose, without goals, without laughter and love and sacrifice, then we fail in our mortal moment. We race toward our inevitable ends without artistry and without beauty.All of us must pause and breathe. See the past, see your life as the fruit of providence and thousands of personal narratives. What led to you? You did not choose where to set your feet in time. You choose where to set them next.Then, we must see the future, not just to stare into the fog of distant years but to see the crystal choices as they race toward us in this sharp foreground we call the present. We stand in the now. God says create. Live. Choose. Shape the past. Etch your life in stone, and what you make will be forever.

Never Argue with a Dead Person: True and Unbelievable Stories from the Other Side


Thomas John - 2015
    Now he shares what he's seen and heard on the Other Side.In this book, John shares with us fifteen fascinating stories of what happens when clients ask him to contact their dead friends and relatives. Included here are the story of a 30-something New Yorker who was unable to stop fantasizing about suicide until he conveys healing words from her dead fiancé; an account of an encounter with a grieving young woman in a drugstore--and the message he conveys from her dead six-year-old son; and a disturbing story of an unsolved murder case solved by information he received from the other side.Above all, this is a book filled with comfort, love, forgiveness, and hope. For Thomas John, death is not the end, it is just the beginning. Our friends and relatives are still with us. They care for us. They watch over us. And, in times of particular need, they offer us their help.

The Faithful Gardener: A Wise Tale About That Which Can Never Die


Clarissa Pinkola Estés - 1992
    Estes's uncle, a war-ravaged Hungarian peasant farmer and refugee, a faithful gardener, and a storehouse of stories who was one of the "dancing fools, wise old crows, grumpy sages, and 'almost saints' who made up the old people" in Estés's childhood.Told with graceful simplicity, deep feeling, generous humor, and profound optimism, The Faithful Gardener is, at its captivating core, the story of an open-hearted child who listened well to her old-country elders and who grew up to remember, to bear witness, and, as one of the premier storytellers of our times, to remind readers and listeners of all ages of "that magisterial life force within all things that strengthens us in times of turmoil or transition, that faithful force which can never die."

Believing Christ: The Parable of the Bicycle and Other Good News


Stephen E. Robinson - 1992
    “Mortals have finite liabilities,” he explains, “and Jesus has unlimited assets.” By merging the two, exaltation can come. As long as we progress in some degree, the Lord will be pleased and will bless us. We must not only believe in Christ but also believe him — believe that he has the power to exalt us, that he can do what he claims. People will better understand the doctrines of mercy, justification, and salvation by grace after reading this book.

Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine


Alan Lightman - 2018
    Even as a teenager, experimenting in his own laboratory, he was impressed by the logic and materiality of the universe, which is governed by a small number of disembodied forces and laws. Those laws decree that all things in the world are material and impermanent. But one summer evening, while looking at the stars from a small boat at sea, Lightman was overcome by the overwhelming sensation that he was merging with something larger than himself--a grand and eternal unity, a hint of something absolute and immaterial. Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine is the result of these seemingly contradictory impulses, written as an extended meditation on an island in Maine, where Lightman and his wife spend their summers. Framing the dialogue between religion and science as a contrast between absolutes and relatives, Lightman explores our human quest for truth and meaning and the different methods of religion and science in that quest. Along the way, he draws from sources ranging from St. Augustine's conception of absolute truth to Einstein's relativity, from a belief in the divine and eternal nature of stars to their discovered materiality and mortality, from the unity of the once indivisible atom to the multiplicity of subatomic particles and the recent notion of multiple universes. What emerges is not only an understanding of the encounter between science and religion but also a profound exploration of the complexity of human existence.

The One-Straw Revolution


Masanobu Fukuoka - 1975
    He joins the healing of the land to the process of purifying the human spirit and proposes a way of life and a way of farming in which such healing can take place.

The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember


Fred Rogers - 2003
    There are few personalities who evoke such universal feelings of warmth as Fred Rogers. An enduring presence in American homes for over 30 years, his plainspoken wisdom continues to guide and comfort many. The World According to Mister Rogers distills the legacy and singular worldview of this beloved American figure. An inspiring collection of stories, anecdotes, and insights -- with sections devoted to love, friendship, respect, individuality, and honesty, The World According to Mister Rogers reminds us that there is much more in life that unites us than divides us. Culled from Fred Rogers' speeches, program transcripts, books, letters, and interviews, along with some of his never-before-published writings, The World According to Mister Rogers is a testament to the legacy of a man who served and continues to serve as a role model to millions.