Book picks similar to
Dharma: Decoding the Epics for a Meaningful Life by Amish Tripathi
non-fiction
mythology
indian-author
amish
Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion
Alain de Botton - 2011
Religion for Atheists suggests that rather than mocking religions, agnostics and atheists should instead steal from them – because they're packed with good ideas on how we might live and arrange our societies. Blending deep respect with total impiety, Alain (a non-believer himself) proposes that we should look to religions for insights into, among other concerns, how to:- build a sense of community- make our relationships last- overcome feelings of envy and inadequacy- escape the twenty-four hour media- go travelling- get more out of art, architecture and music- and create new businesses designed to address our emotional needs.For too long non-believers have faced a stark choice between either swallowing lots of peculiar doctrines or doing away with a range of consoling and beautiful rituals and ideas. At last, in Religion for Atheists, Alain has fashioned a far more interesting and truly helpful alternative.
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Elizabeth Gilbert - 2015
Gilbert offers insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.
Wings of Forgiveness: Working with the Angels to Release, Heal and Transform
Kyle Gray - 2015
Kyle has found through his personal psychic practice and work with the angels that when people are experiencing difficulties, there is one topic that helps click everything else into place – forgiveness. Forgiveness is not an easy subject, but it is a necessary focus in spirituality and personal growth. In this book, the reader is taken on a journey – not outside of themselves, but within. Drawing on many spiritual texts, including A Course in Miracles and The Gnostic Gospels, Kyle shows that we truly are all held and cherished by the divine, and makes these sacred concepts more accessible for his 21st-century readers. Together with the angels, he will show you how to call in the power of heaven to help you forgive, release all that no longer serves you and experience joy and peace.
The Yoga of Max's Discontent
Karan Bajaj - 2015
1 bestseller in India—a young American travels to India and finds himself tested physically, emotionally, and spiritually.Max Pzoras is the poster child for the American Dream. The child of Greek immigrants who grew up in a dangerous New York housing project, he triumphed over his upbringing and became a successful Wall Street analyst. Yet on the frigid December night he’s involved in a violent street scuffle, Max begins to confront questions about suffering and mortality that have dogged him since his mother’s death.His search takes him to the farthest reaches of India, where he encounters a mysterious night market, almost freezes to death on a hike up the Himalayas, and finds himself in an ashram in a drought-stricken village in South India. As Max seeks answers to questions that have bedeviled him—can yogis walk on water and live for 200 years without aging? Can a flesh-and-blood man ever achieve nirvana?—he struggles to overcome his skepticism and the pull of family tugging him home. In an ultimate bid for answers, he embarks on a dangerous solitary meditation in a freezing Himalayan cave, where his physical and spiritual endurance is put to its most extreme test.By turns a gripping adventure story and a journey of tremendous inner transformation, The Yoga of Max's Discontent is a contemporary take on man's classic quest for transcendence.
The Gita
Anant Pai - 1999
The setting is the start of the great war between cousins, the Kauravas and Pandavas. Arjuna, the Pandava hero, finds himself facing his close kin, elders and teachers. The thought of piercing them by his arrows deeply disturbs Arjuna. Distraught, he breaks down, throws away his bow and declares he will not fight. It is Krishna's task to counsel his friend about life as well as his duty as a warrior so that he can fight the war with full moral conviction.
Designing Destiny
Kamlesh D. Patel - 2019
Every choice leads us in a certain direction--either toward or away from our life's purpose. We can learn to become purposeful architects of our fate with the practices and lifestyle changes described by Kamlesh D. Patel, founder of the Heartfulness Institute and fourth spiritual guide of this global movement. In Designing Destiny, you will discover:1. A practical approach to the fundamental principles of destiny2. The four core practices of Heartfulness--relaxation, meditation, cleaning, and prayer--that will expand your consciousness from mundane to divine3. The lifestyle changes that lead to true happiness4. How to transform your relationships and raise the vibration of our communities5. How to progress through the levels of evolution through spiritual practiceHeartfulness offers a simple, scientific approach to expand our consciousness, realize our full human potential, and live a purposeful life. As our lifestyle evolves, our ability to design our own destiny--and that of the world--becomes natural and effortless.
A Thousand Seeds of Joy: Teachings of Lakshmi and Saraswati (Ascended Goddesses Series Book 1)
Ananda Karunesh - 2018
Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Saraswati promise nothing short of a grand transformation of humanity with the birthing of a new joy-centered consciousness on Earth at this time. They take us on a grand spiritual journey by weaving new insights into ancient teachings, correcting what has been altered in scriptures by their "male" authors, and revealing new secrets about Buddhas, and Gods and Goddesses who have walked on Earth. Whether it is Eve's original sin or the closing of magnificent Goddess Temples or Sita's Fire Test or Mary Magdalene's depiction as a prostitute, "enlightened women" have been portrayed as sinners by numerous kings, emperors, writers, popes, and other religious heads for millennia. The messages of Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati correct many misconceptions and misrepresentations about the "patriarchal" stories from Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism. These profound messages by the two ascended Goddesses will delight you, surprise you, transform you, and even enlighten you. Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati also reveal new information and intimate secrets about their many incarnations on Earth with Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and other divine beings. They reveal how the transformation of many souls from their ancient tribe created two of the major world religions known as Hinduism and Buddhism. This book is not only about spirituality, but also about history, philosophy, religion, and psychology. Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Saraswati provide new insights on mind, body, soul, chakras, elements, contrast, time, destiny, karma, sensuality, tantra, higher self, heavenly realms, expanding levels of enlightenment, ascension, and of course the author’s favorite – a new way of experiencing the “divine feminine” within oneself. This is the first book in the Ascended Goddesses Series. Future books in this series will have conversations with Goddesses Parvati, Mother Mary, Kuan Yin and Tara, among others. JOIN OUR TEAM OF VOLUNTEERS The Path of Joy Organization is donating 5,000 copies of this book to uplift disempowered girls, women, and mothers, elderly living in old age homes, handicapped people, young adults with challenges, patients in hospitals, and numerous NGOs all over the world. Send an email to join our team of volunteers to distribute the 5000 copies. The author recently signed an MOU with RENEW (Respect, Educate, Nurture, and Empower Women - http://renew.org.bt/) to donate 600 copies of this book to their 600 active volunteers, who provide help to the disempowered girls and women in Bhutan. Another 100 copies of this book were sent to the volunteers and interns of Apne Aap Women Worldwide (http://apneaap.org/), an organization that saves girls and women from sex trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Even a Buddhist "nunnery" in Punakha founded by the Queen Mother of Bhutan took 120 copies for their 120 resident nuns. The many stories of enlightenment of Eve, Sita, Radha, Yasodhara, Yeshe Tsogyal and other women help in undoing the widely-held Buddhist belief that incarnating as a woman is inferior to incarnating as a man for spiritual attainment.
Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth's Lost Civilization
Graham Hancock - 2015
Twenty years on, Hancock returns with the sequel to his seminal work filled with completely new, scientific and archaeological evidence, which has only recently come to light...Near the end of the last Ice Age 12,800 years ago, a giant comet that had entered the solar system from deep space thousands of years earlier, broke into multiple fragments. Some of these struck the Earth causing a global cataclysm on a scale unseen since the extinction of the dinosaurs. At least eight of the fragments hit the North American ice cap, while further fragments hit the northern European ice cap. The impacts, from comet fragments a mile wide approaching at more than 60,000 miles an hour, generated huge amounts of heat which instantly liquidized millions of square kilometers of ice, destabilizing the Earth's crust and causing the global Deluge that is remembered in myths all around the world. A second series of impacts, equally devastating, causing further cataclysmic flooding, occurred 11,600 years ago, the exact date that Plato gives for the destruction and submergence of Atlantis.The evidence revealed in this book shows beyond reasonable doubt that an advanced civilization that flourished during the Ice Age was destroyed in the global cataclysms between 12,800 and 11,600 years ago. But there were survivors - known to later cultures by names such as 'the Sages', 'the Magicians', 'the Shining Ones', and 'the Mystery Teachers of Heaven'. They travelled the world in their great ships doing all in their power to keep the spark of civilization burning. They settled at key locations - Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, Baalbek in the Lebanon, Giza in Egypt, ancient Sumer, Mexico, Peru and across the Pacific where a huge pyramid has recently been discovered in Indonesia. Everywhere they went these 'Magicians of the Gods' brought with them the memory of a time when mankind had fallen out of harmony with the universe and paid a heavy price. A memory and a warning to the future...For the comet that wrought such destruction between 12,800 and 11,600 years may not be done with us yet. Astronomers believe that a 20-mile wide 'dark' fragment of the original giant comet remains hidden within its debris stream and threatens the Earth. An astronomical message encoded at Gobekli Tepe, and in the Sphinx and the pyramids of Egypt,warns that the 'Great Return' will occur in our time...
A Gradual Awakening
Stephen Levine - 1978
Filled with practical guidance and advice--as well as extensive personal recollections--A Gradual Awakening explains the value of meditation as a means of attaining awareness, and provides readers with extensive advice on how establish a practice. Drawing on his own personal experiences with and insights into vipassana meditation, Levine has crafted an inspiring book for anyone interested in deep personal growth.
Heroic Living: Discover Your Purpose and Change the World
Chris Lowney - 2009
Each of us has a special purpose in life—do you know what yours is? In Heroic Living, best-selling author and former investment banker Chris Lowney combines the proven practices of Ignatian spirituality with his business expertise to help each of us discover our mighty purpose in life and develop a personal life strategy to achieve it.By merging Ignatian Spirituality with astute business knowledge, Lowney provides the tools and strategies needed to make practical, long-term life changes that move us away from our fractured, compartmentalized lives and toward the satisfaction and wholeness that each of us desires so deeply.
The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
M. Scott Peck - 1978
"Psychotherapy is all things to all people in this mega-selling pop-psychology watershed, which features a new introduction by the author in this 25th anniversary edition. His agenda in this tome, which was first published in 1978 but didn't become a bestseller until 1983, is to reconcile the psychoanalytic tradition with the conflicting cultural currents roiling the 70s. In the spirit of Me-Decade individualism and libertinism, he celebrates self-actualization as life's highest purpose and flirts with the notions of open marriage and therapeutic sex between patient and analyst. But because he is attuned to the nascent conservative backlash against the therapeutic worldview, Peck also cites Gospel passages, recruits psychotherapy to the cause of traditional religion (he even convinces a patient to sign up for divinity school) and insists that problems must be overcome through suffering, discipline and hard work (with a therapist.) Often departing from the cerebral and rationalistic bent of Freudian discourse for a mystical, Jungian tone more compatible with New Age spirituality, Peck writes of psychotherapy as an exercise in "love" and "spiritual growth," asserts that "our unconscious is God" and affirms his belief in miracles, reincarnation and telepathy. Peck's synthesis of such clashing elements (he even throws in a little thermodynamics) is held together by a warm and lucid discussion of psychiatric principles and moving accounts of his own patients' struggles and breakthroughs. Harmonizing psychoanalysis and spirituality, Christ and Buddha, Calvinist work ethic and interminable talking cures, this book is a touchstone of our contemporary religio-therapeutic culture." -- Publishers WeeklyKeywords: MIND & BODY PSYCHOLOGY SOCIOLOGY RELIGION
Vedic Physics: Scientific Origin of Hinduism
Raja Ram Mohan Roy - 1999
We do not know much about the scientific achievements of our ancestors. Is it possible that there were highly advanced civilizations in past, whose technological achievements have been completely forgotten? Now there can be an objective verification, because Rigveda has been remarkably well preserved. Ancient Indians went to extreme lengths to preserve the Vedas. They are in the same form today, that they have been several thousand years earlier. The question is why? Why did generations of Indians go through so much trouble to preserve the Vedas, while the apparent meaning seems to be so mundane. The reason is that Vedas are coded, and once you understand that code, it has such a powerful message that is going to transform your perception of humanity. This book describes the scientific meaning of Vedas and other Hindu scriptures and compares them with currently accepted scientific wisdom.
Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man
U.R. Ananthamurthy - 1965
As a religious novel about a decaying brahmin colony in the south Indian village ofKarnataka, Samskara serves as an allegory rich in realistic detail, a contemporary reworking of ancient Hindu themes and myths, and a serious, poetic study of a religious man living in a community of priests gone to seed. A death which stands as the central event in the plot brings in its wake aplague, many more deaths, live questions with only dead answers, moral chaos, and the rebirth of one man. The volume provides a useful glossary of Hindu myths, customs, Indian names, flora, and other terms. Notes and an afterword enhance the self-contained, faithful, and yet readabletranslation.
Mindfulness for Beginners
Jon Kabat-Zinn - 2006
What if paying attention on purpose (and nonjudgmentally) could improve your health? Again, according to Dr. Kabat-Zinn--it can.On Mindfulness for Beginners, this internationally known scientist, bestselling author, and teacher who brought mindfulness meditation into the mainstream of medicine and society gives you immediate access to a practice that can potentially add years to your life, and will certainly enhance the quality of your moments and your years.Join Dr. Kabat-Zinn to:Explore five guided meditations that lead you breath-by-breath into the essence of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a program offered in medical clinics and hospitals around the world- Cultivate the Seven Key Attitudinal Factors of MBSR--qualities of heart and mind that lay the foundation for mindfulness practice and for seeing and accepting things as they are as a first step to working wisely and compassionately with stress, pain, illness, and sorrow as well as life's joys and pleasures- Free yourself from limiting perspectives, and become more intimate with your own boundless awarenessYou're already in the perfect moment for inhabiting this liberating awareness, which is always available, teaches Jon Kabat-Zinn. With Mindfulness for Beginners, he invites you to cultivate mindfulness as if your life depended on it, which it surely does, and experience the magnitude and beauty of who you already are.Course objectives: Apply an understanding of the concept of mindfulness- Utilize simple guided meditations led by Kabat-Zinn- List the ethical and attitudinal foundations necessary to cultivating mindfulness- Assess how we can choose where to focus our awareness- Plan to use mindfulness to help us develop compassion and insight into our true nature