This complete guide to enlightenment presents the wisdom of the ancient science of self-inquiry, a time-tested means for achieving spiritual freedom. The author convincingly refutes the popular view that enlightenment is a unique state of consciousness and debunks a host of other myths. In his straightforward style he reveals proven methods for purifying the mind, and takes the reader from the beginning to the end of the spiritual path, patiently unfolding the logic of self-inquiry.
Have you read shelves full of books about self-help and spirituality and are now asking, How can I go deeper? The Easy Way to Enlightenment: 7 Lessons to Give Your Soul the Adventure of Your Life redefines and demystifies enlightenment, putting it well within reach for todays modern spiritual practitioner. The lessons and practices in this book will help you honor your past achievements and discover how to harness the creative forces of your soul, your connection to spirit and Mother Earth, and your creative magic to live a brighter, richer, and more satisfying life. The Easy Way to Enlightenment gets you off the bench and puts you into the exciting game of applied spiritual living, teaching you how to access higher forms of guidance and contribute your unique gifts to planet earth.
Enlightenment—is it a myth or is it real? Across time and culture, inner explorers have discovered that the liberated state is a natural experience, as real as the sensations you are having right now. Few teachers achieve clarity with the application of scientific inquiry to these states of consciousness like Shinzen Young. Now in paperback, The Science of Enlightenment makes Young’s essential insights available to readers everywhere. The Science of Enlightenment merges scientific precision, Young’s grasp of the source-language teachings of many spiritual traditions, and his rare gift for sparking insight upon insight through original analogies and illustrations. The result: an uncommonly lucid "Aha, now I get it!" guide to mindfulness meditation—how it works and how to use it to enhance our cognitive capacities, compassion, and experience of happiness independent of conditions. For meditators of all levels and lineages, this multifaceted wisdom gem will be sure to surprise, provoke, illuminate, and inspire.
Love is so confusing. What does it mean? Is it an emotion? Who should we love? How and How Much? When and Where? What is the relationship between romantic love, impersonal cosmic love, sister love, evolutionary love, and outrageous love? How do love, sex and eros relate to each other? Why is a right understanding and experience of love the core of education, medicine, sex, business, politics and just about everything else. Read this book and let your love life be expanded and transformed forever. Fall in love all the way! May Marc Gafni's Loving Your Way to Enlightenment blow your mind, heart and body open; may you experience the force of his teaching as profoundly as we have experienced it in the Circle at Venwoude. These teachings read as if Marc Gafni is talking to you personally and transmits his wisdom and brilliant worldview right into your Being. mauk pieper, director of ciw europe and author of humanity's second shock and your unique self It is very rare that one comes across a teacher or a book that is 'changing the game'. My friend, Dr. Marc Gafni is such a teacher. He is a rare combination of brilliance, depth and heart. michael murphy, founder of the esalen institute, ca. usa
An investigative reporter explores an infamous case where an obsessive and unorthodox search for enlightenment went terribly wrong. When thirty-eight-year-old Ian Thorson died from dehydration and dysentery on a remote Arizona mountaintop in 2012, The New York Times reported the story under the headline: "Mysterious Buddhist Retreat in the Desert Ends in a Grisly Death." Scott Carney, a journalist and anthropologist who lived in India for six years, was struck by how Thorson’s death echoed other incidents that reflected the little-talked-about connection between intensive meditation and mental instability. Using these tragedies as a springboard, Carney explores how those who go to extremes to achieve divine revelations—and undertake it in illusory ways—can tangle with madness. He also delves into the unorthodox interpretation of Tibetan Buddhism that attracted Thorson and the bizarre teachings of its chief evangelists: Thorson’s wife, Lama Christie McNally, and her previous husband, Geshe Michael Roach, the supreme spiritual leader of Diamond Mountain University, where Thorson died. Carney unravels how the cultlike practices of McNally and Roach and the questionable circumstances surrounding Thorson’s death illuminate a uniquely American tendency to mix and match eastern religious traditions like LEGO pieces in a quest to reach an enlightened, perfected state, no matter the cost. Aided by Thorson’s private papers, along with cutting-edge neurological research that reveals the profound impact of intensive meditation on the brain and stories of miracles and black magic, sexualized rituals, and tantric rites from former Diamond Mountain acolytes, A Death on Diamond Mountain is a gripping work of investigative journalism that reveals how the path to enlightenment can be riddled with danger.
Thaddeus Golas is a lazy man. Laziness keeps him from believing that enlightenment demands effort, discipline, strict diet, non-smoking and other evidences of virtue. He found a way to enlighten himself - and you - with two sentences. The first is We are equal beings and the universe is our relations with each other. The second? The universe is made of one kind of entity; each one is alive, each determines the course of his own existence. If you remember this, that's all you really need to know to understand this book. Originally published in 1972, and in print for 15 years, THE LAZY MAN'S GUIDE TO ENLIGHTNMENT teaches you, amongst other things, how to feel good.
Mark Aspa's core teaching is that we are already the perfect Self, we have been this perfect Self from birth and will be until death and beyond. We simply have to realise it! As we follow the path of Self-enlightenment, a journey of unsurpassed joy unfolds. The awareness of the temporarily hidden, but ever-present inner dimension of peace and joy reveals itself to our heart. To aid this realisation, you will find many practical lessons to help you feel at peace and kindle your joy. You will be inspired to think and feel and act in new ways, as you discover the sweetness of the fountain of love within. You simply have to follow the directions and watch as a new world of understanding takes birth in you. The book portrays the five steps to attain the highest aim in life, which is to know who we really are. You will come to know the answers to these often neglected questions: What is my true self? What is the meaning of life? What is my life purpose? Why is this universe here? 'I can guarantee that in time you will find the answers and know your peaceful Self, because I and many others have done so - and I know that you are Divine. With inspiring teaching, advice how to pray and meditate, positive thinking and visualisation exercises, scientific research and humourous anecdotes, make Five Steps to Enlightenment your guide to a happier, more peaceful and confident you!'
