What exactly is spiritual development? Is it about being happy, becoming wise, finding yourself, finding the right religion, or discovering a deeper purpose? "Spiritual Development for Beginners" clarifies this complex idea and offers friendly guidance to anyone-religious or not-embarking on this great adventure. Emphasizing spiritual growth as a universal and personal process, the authors offer mystical insight and an array of practices-from a variety of spiritual traditions-to forge a unique path to spirituality. Techniques involving breath, light, sound, and visualization help seekers center their consciousness, refine their auras, open their hearts, master their emotions and impulses, alter their perspectives, and strengthen their connection with spiritual realms. This practical guide also shows how to use meditation, prayer, and dream interpretation as tools to transform consciousness and become a "whole person."
This is a book for those of us who are struggling to establish an effective prayer life. Written neither for monastics or scholars, A Beginner's Guide to Prayer speaks to the average man or woman on the street who desires a deeper relationship with God but is unsure how or where to begin. Drawing from nearly 2000 years of Orthodox spiritual wisdom, the author offers warm, practical, pastoral advice whose genius is to be found in its homespun simplicity and straightforward style.If you want to make prayer a meaningful and regular part of your life, A Beginner's Guide to Prayer will help set you on your way. But be careful! Prayer can be habit forming!
Unwrapping God's gifts - wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of Spirits, tongues and interpretation of tongues. Concentrating on the nine gifts that the apostle Paul listed together in 1 Corinthians 12, Dr. Sam Storms gives readers a biblical introduction to the spiritual gifts that God bestows on every generation of believers. He combines a solid biblical foundation and practical advice with first-hand illustrations of these gifts in action. Spiritual gifts are nothing less than God himself in us, energizing our souls, imparting revelation to our minds infusing power in our wills, and working his sovereign and gracious purposes through us.
#1 New York Times bestseller What would it be like to free yourself from limitations and soar beyond your boundaries? What can you do each day to discover inner peace and serenity? The Untethered Soul offers simple yet profound answers to these questions. Whether this is your first exploration of inner space, or you’ve devoted your life to the inward journey, this book will transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you. You’ll discover what you can do to put an end to the habitual thoughts and emotions that limit your consciousness. By tapping into traditions of meditation and mindfulness, author and spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and self-realization. Copublished with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) The Untethered Soul begins by walking you through your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, helping you uncover the source and fluctuations of your inner energy. It then delves into what you can do to free yourself from the habitual thoughts, emotions, and energy patterns that limit your consciousness. Finally, with perfect clarity, this book opens the door to a life lived in the freedom of your innermost being. The Untethered Soul has already touched the lives of more than a million readers, and is available in a special hardcover gift edition with ribbon bookmark—the perfect gift for yourself, a loved one, or anyone who wants a keepsake edition of this remarkable book. Visit www.untetheredsoul.com for more information.
In a world filled with beginner books, deeper explanations of the Pagan faith are rarely found. Picking up where their critically acclaimed first book Paganism left off, bestselling authors Joyce & River Higginbotham offer intermediate-level instruction with Pagan Spirituality. Respected members of their communities, the Higginbothams describe how to continue spiritual evolution though magick, communing, energy work, divination, and conscious creation in a pleasant, encouraging tone. Learn how to use journaling, thought development, visualization, and goal-setting to develop magickal techniques and to further cultivate spiritual growth. This book serves to expand the reader's spiritual knowledge base by providing a balanced approach of well-established therapies, extensive personal experience, and question-and-answer sessions that directly involve the reader in their spiritual journey.
Light and darkness. Up and down. In and out. Body and soul. One and all. But what if light is darkness, up is down, in is out, body is soul, and one is all? A Beginner’s Guide to Spirituality opens unique and deep scenarios on humanity’s timeless questions. Who are we? What is “we”? Is there a significance to existence? Scientists, philosophers, and even believers tried to find an answer to these inquiries, but, in their search for the truth, often sectioned and tore apart the concept of reality, missing what only a broader view, a gaze upon the unity of reality itself, could give them. Commonality between religion, science and spirituality. In general, they are considered separate entities, but is our lack of clarity on these subjects that makes them look different. This remarkable dissertation on the nature of all things contemplates on subjects as the essence of God, and the inexact, if not superstitious, notions that have always accompanied the human perception of this superior, holy entity. God didn’t just create everything that exists. God is everything that exists. So why are things such as evil, illnesses, and pain allowed to take place? To show the way towards a response, the author takes his readers’ hands to gently guide them along the path of self-consciousness, expressing the invite to explore both the inner and outer manifestations of life and to experience the daily passing of time as more than a simple materialistic, raw, and unaware survival. Abhishek Chaturbedi’s literary work is at the same time a philosophical essay and a guide that avoids hyperbolic intellectual discussions, theological doctrines and complex scientific theories, so that the readers can easily grasp the book’s message. A Beginner’s Guide to Spirituality will help all those souls that, still lost, are searching for the path towards inner peace. Dr. Abhishek Chaturbedi is a native of Nepal but considers himself a citizen of the world. He is fondly referred to by the nickname “Abhi”. He has spent significant numbers of years in the USA and India. He is a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist by profession. He is also a family man. His primary goal in life is to be a spiritual guide, then a good neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, and a family man. He denies being branded to any religion, race, or ideology. He wrote A Beginner’s Guide to Spirituality with the desire of helping humanity to understand life better and motivate people to be a Good Samaritan.
An essential, lively, and comprehensive guide to spiritual direction: how it works, how to get it, how it is life changing - for those who are interested in growing spiritually and for their spiritual directors.
Apophatic theology, or negative theology, attempts to describe God, the Divine Good, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God. It is a way of coming to an understanding of who God is, which has played a significant role across centuries of Christian tradition but is very often treated with suspicion by those engaging in theological study today. This book seeks to introduce students to this oft-misunderstood form of spirituality. Beginning by placing apophatic spirituality within its biblical roots, the book later considers the key pioneers of apophatic faith and a diverse range of thinkers, including C. S. Lewis and Keats, to inform us in our negative theological journey. A final section explores what difference a negative theological approach might make to our practice and our liturgy.
