With perfect precision, the author guides the reader along a path of awakening which leads to liberation from the pain and limitations of the past into the joyful and unlimited world of Now. This book reveals, in the simplest way, how to still the mind and become fully present and awake in the truth of life. Perhaps the most important aspect of this book is the author's unique insight into the nature of the mind and ego. He describes in detail how the ego's resistance to Presence is the primary obstacle to awakening and how we can overcome that resistance in a simple and effective way. Each page of this book reveals a part of the mystery. There are hidden keys to awakening on every page. It is like a road map home.
This powerful book reveals the basic tenets of Leonard Jacobson's approach to spiritual awakening and enlightenment. Each page is a lyrically beautiful expression of an essential truth. Zen-like in its simplicity, it communicates directly with the heart and soul of the reader, gently inviting a response from the deepest levels of Being. This book is best read cover to cover, and then picked up again from time to time, choosing passages at random. Each reading will elicit different responses from the reader, sometimes challenging, sometimes provocative, sometimes deeply reassuring and affirming. This book is suitable for newcomers as well as experienced seekers on the spiritual path.
M. Robert Mulholland Jr. fleshes out a carefully worded definition of spiritual formation that encompasses the dynamics of a vital Christian life and counters our culture's tendency to trivialize, methodize and privatize spirituality. Now revised and expanded by Ruth Haley Barton with a new foreword, practices and study guide.
The original The Road Less Travelledspent more than ten years on the bestseller lists and is one of the biggest-selling self-help books of all time. In this wonderfully wise and accessible sequel M. Scott Peck delves more deeply into the issues that confront and challenge all of us in the modern world: blame and forgiveness; sexuality and spirituality; death and the meaning of life; families and relationships; accepting responsibility and growing up. Writing throughout with insight and sensitivity, he draws on his own extensive experience -- both professional and personal -- to challenge false assumptions, suggest a way forward and demonstrate that personal change is always possible, no matter how difficult and complex the journey.
Winner of the Janey Loves 2022 Platinum Award Popular meditation leader and poet John Siddique draws on more than 40 years of practice to offer this uniquely helpful road map to the spiritual journey, highlighting the changes that show us we’re making progress and the obstacles that will certainly come up. This book is a guide to the spiritual path that clearly reveals the signposts of success on the journey, as well as the blockages and traps that hold us back from a life of presence, meaning and enlightenment. By laying out the signs and blockages clearly and honestly and with a lot of love and humour, the book offers a wonderful resource for growth. Whatever level of freedom the reader feels drawn to – basic human freedom, or the great goal of the spiritual life of enlightenment – this roadmap will guide readers to tread the path of their ordinary life and receive the benefit in the here and now. From Signpost 1, The Arising of Questions to, finally, Signpost 16, Giving Everything to Love, the book explores all the indications of progress those who embark on a spiritual journey will encounter, offering reassurance as well as highlighting blocks such as the painbody, object consciousness, spiritual bypassing, the cult of individualism and dualistic thinking, and hard-to-spot cultural, religious and spiritual influences. In addition to sharing encouraging real-life stories, the books also offers a huge range of tools and practices, from using writing and drawing to explore our own teachability to self-reflections designed to expand awareness and let go of ego, to instructions for effective, safe, meditative practices little known in the West.
Live a life of peace, love, and happiness through spiritual awakening In Wake Up Now, author Stephan Bodian--nationally recognized expert on meditation and spirituality and former editor-in-chief of Yoga Journal--reveals that spiritual awakening is not some faraway dream, or overly complicated to achieve, but an ever-present reality that is always available here and now. Based on his own experience and over 30 years of teaching the direct approach to spiritual awakening, Bodian has broken down the awakening process into five overlapping, loosely sequential stages: seeking, awakening, deepening and clarifying, embodying, and living the awakened life. Wake Up Now guides you through every stage of the journey, from the process of seeking through the often prolonged and challenging process of integrating the awakening into everyday life. "This book is one of the most concise guides to spiritual awakening I have read. Both profound and practical, it guides the reader through the intricacies of awakening as only someone who has walked the walk themselves can do. The clarity and compassion this book offers the sincere spiritual seeker is both rare and welcome." --Adyashanti, renowned spiritual teacher and author of The Impact of Awakening and Emptiness Dancing Topics include: Entering the Gateless Gate; Seeking without a Seeker; Freedom from the Known; The Practice of Presence; Who is Experiencing this Moment Right now; Spontaneous Awakening; In the Wake of Awakening; Embodying the Light; Freeing the Dark Inside the Light; The Awakened Life
Suffering is part of the human experience, and everyone in the world is seeking relief. But there is something greater, something that we all share, indeed something that we all are, that can alleviate that pain: it is the formless presence—the loving, boundless awareness—at the heart of all experience. This book cuts through the esotericism surrounding spiritual awakening to help you realize your true nature and show you how to integrate that realization into everyday life. In life, there is turmoil and inevitable pain. There is war, hunger, failure, heartbreak, and trauma. We struggle in relationships and with our attachments, thoughts, feelings, and memories, trapped in the prison of psychological self-consciousness. Most of us have been conditioned to believe that we are all separate individuals to whom uncomfortable or upsetting things happen. We feel alone and isolated from the world, and convince ourselves that the beauty, truth, and goodness we long for are out of our reach. Really, it’s this imaginary division that causes us to suffer. Boundless Awareness seeks to relieve this suffering by drawing attention to the beautiful, encompassing, cohesive nature of awareness itself, as found in your direct experience. Using practical, contemplative exercises and brief meditations, the author guides you along a broad path of spiritual awakening, deconstructing your delusions of self and separation and integrating a concept of existence that is free from the suffering of individual selfhood, but which acknowledges the attachments, traumatic experiences, and emotional pain of being human. With this book, you’ll come to realize your innate perfection as the uncreated light of boundless awareness, and soften into the open, spacious, and unconditionally loving essence of existence. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of pain and attachments, and learn to meet these experiences with a new resilience. Most importantly, you’ll find guidance on how to embody and express this awakening as love, joy, service, and creativity in your daily life.
The first modern, comprehensive resource on spiritual awakenings, this pragmatic, clear guide covers everything from the first step on a spiritual journey to enlightenment, and the different types of spiritual awakenings, from mild to dramatic, we may go through. Using the concept of the twelve layers that cover an awakened state Mary Mueller Shutan addresses every step of the spiritual journey, starting with the Self and showing how family, ancestral, past lives, karmic, archetypal, and other larger layers such as societal, cultural, global, and cosmic energies condition us to sleep and obscure our realization of an awakened state. Instructions for how to navigate through each of these layers and how to recognize where we are in our spiritual journey are included each step of the way along with common physical, emotional, and spiritual symptoms that may be experienced. By addressing post-awakening states, oneness, dark nights of the soul, ego death, near-death and severe illness, psychic abilities, addictions, dietary changes, the God self, personal and collective shadow, and psychosis vs. awakening we understand the experiences we may go through while struggling with spiritual awakenings. This practical book opens new understandings of how to live in the world while going through an awakening process, and offers the revolutionary idea that we are meant to be humans, to have a physical body with physical, sensate experiences and emotions. We are meant to live in the world and be a part of it even as fully awakened individuals. This guide proposes a look at the possibility of leading a grounded, earth-bound life of work, family, friends, and other experiences in an awakened state.
Are you looking for inner peace? Do you seek a deeper understanding of yourself and the spiritual world? Have you followed the popular prescriptions for enlightenment and still found yourself unsatisfied? Return to The Sacred is a fascinating guide that will help you understand the importance of spiritual practice and the great diversity of paths that are available to you. This is a book that does more than provide philosophy and inspiration; it gives you the freedom to find a path that works for you and the knowledge to experience the answers for yourself. You’ll learn about the time-tested tools of spiritual growth that will help you discover extraordinary depths of wisdom, power, and peace. Return to The Sacred will introduce you to the 12 Master Paths and Practices that have transformed the lives of countless saints, mystics, masters, and sages since the beginning of history. In this book, you’ll find what you need to discover your spiritual personality and choose the path that will lead you toward the realization of boundless joy and a lifelong journey of meaning. Jonathan Ellerby, Ph.D., weaves threads of personal growth and comparative religion into captivating true tales of spiritual adventures with teachers and healers around the world. Through colorful stories and clear reflections, he presents a perspective that reveals the rewards of spiritual practice, and a realistic understanding of the deep commitments and challenging steps along the way. Return to The Sacred is an inspiring journey around the globe and into the furthest reaches of Spirit.
Find the practice that’s right for you with this exploration of the many paths of meditation—from mantra, prayer, singing, visualizations, and “just sitting” to movement meditations such as tai chi “Everyone has experienced a moment of pure awareness. A moment without thinking ‘I am aware’ or ‘that is a tree.’ Such moments bring a sense of rightness, of clarity, of being at one. Such moments are the essence of meditation.”—Ram Dass Ram Dass is an American psychologist and spiritual teacher who has studied and practiced meditation for many years. Here he shares his understanding and suggests how you can find methods suitable for you. He illuminates the stages and benefits of meditative practice, and provides wise and often humorous advice on overcoming difficulties along the way.
