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Welcome to our Featured Books area. Books can be helpful and intimate companions as you travel the way of the spirit. Here's a place where you can glimpse some of the best new works available. We've also added a sprinkling of first-rate selections that have proved the test of time.
Finding Time For The Timeless
by John McQuiston II
Skylight Paths Publishing, 2004
An eloquent reply to the modern mantra "I don't have time for spiritual practices," McQuiston presents—in minimalist fashion—42 vignettes describing people who find some way in their ordinary day to spend time with the Divine. Interspersed between stories about how Jack, Alice, Nabil and others live out their faith are McQuiston's own journal-style entries expressing his Christian mysticism. McQuiston, a Memphis attorney and author of Always We Begin Again, includes practices from a wide range of faith traditions. His subjects talk about the spiritual aspects of fishing, singing, meditation, walking and giving away their wealth. They also speak from the heart about prayer. Bhaskar, a Hindu surgeon, couldn't answer McQuiston's question about how his lifelong practice of prayer had shaped him "because there was no way to imagine the kind of person he would have been without prayer." Following the vignettes and personal reflections are two practical chapters—a suggested "menu" of practices and McQuiston's recommended reading list. Crystalline in focus and written in a style so straightforward that reading it slowly and meditatively over time could easily become part of one's spiritual practice, this small book is a precious gift that busy people, considering new ways of being with God, will likely want to carry around with them for inspiration.Buy This Book
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The Mystic Hours
by Wayne Teasdale
New World Library, 2004
Teasdale, a lay monk and spiritual teacher, offers 365 insights on mysticism in this useful quote book that draws from all of the world’s major religions. The format is traditional; first, Teasdale offers up a quote from a sacred text or major religious thinker, such as St. Augustine, Thomas Merton, Baha’u’llah, Rumi, Pema Chodron and, of course, the mystic guru Meister Eckhart. (Other choices, such as Mel Gibson, are less predictable.) Teasdale then reflects on the quote in particular and its theme more generally, drawing connections between religions and pointing to the goal of every mystic: to achieve union with the divine. Some of this succinct spiritual commentary is wonderfully cogent and a fine tool on the path to personal transformation. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
Let Go…Letting Miracles Happen
by Kathy Cordova
Red Wheel/Weiser, 2003
In Let Go, Let Miracles Happen, Cordova illustrates the four different types of spiritual surrender and how, when faced with adversity, we can grow and heal, and experience miracles. (Red Wheel/Weiser)
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The Year Ahead 2004
by Susan Miller
Barnes & Noble, 2003
The bestselling series gets updated for a new year. What does the cosmos predict for you in 2004--for your love life, your health, or your finances? Join Susan Miller, accredited astrologer and creator of the award-winning site Astrologyzone.com, as she explores the planetary cycles the will affect your world in the 12 months to come. Featuring detailed predictions for each of the 12 signs, The Year Ahead 2004 reveals what you can expect in romance, family, career, and well-being, as well as the dates that are of special significance for your sign. Each entry begins with "the big picture" for the year, and then hones in on what should be the luckiest periods, the likeliest moments for passion to flourish, the challenges you'll face, and the opportunities that will open up. With special sections explaining the meaning behind all the houses, the planets, the sun, and the moon, this astrological "crystal ball" is the ideal way to prepare for the possibilities awaiting you. (Barnes & Noble) Buy This Book
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Rational Mysticism
by John Horgan
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003
John Horgan has two all-consuming problems: (1) he worries about his death; (2) he actually likes Iron Butterfly's ''In-a-Gadda-da-Vida.'' There's not much to be done about the second problem. For the first, we would suggest that he explore the meaning of life and death by embarking on a spiritual journey, visiting religious leaders, postmodern theologians, neurotheologians, bodhisattvas and drug gurus.
As it turns out, he already has, and he's written a marvelous book about the experience. In Rational Mysticism, Horgan, a former senior writer for Scientific American, sets out to find how trances, visions, satori and other mystical experiences work. The early civilizations that invented science also used religion as an intertwining path to the truth, and Horgan follows in this tradition. He is a seeker as well as a journalist, and his mission is personal as well as professional. It's The Varieties of Religious Experience meets Siddhartha. (New York Times)
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The Power of Stillness
by Tobin Blake
New World Library, 2003
Many people who are interested in meditation don't know what kind of meditation to attempt or where to start. This book begins with a basic introduction to meditation, or "mind training" - what it is, how to do it, its numerous benefits, and the various ways it is practiced. In the second part of the book, the author offers a theme for each day, complete with a brief description of such things as mantras, breathing, chakras, movement and meditation, chanting, and stilling the mind. Each day's session concludes with a step-by-step explanation of how to use this knowledge to spend a few minutes in meditation. By the end of the 30 days, readers will have developed a daily habit and will have all of the tools they need to continue with their new practice. (New World Library)
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Simple Acts of Moving Forward
by Vinita Hampton Wright
WaterBrook Press, 2003
We all get “stuck” at times. You may be creatively blocked, spiritually burned out, or in some other way stalled, paralyzed, or simply bored. The good news is, there is always something you can do to move forward. In this thoughtful book, Vinita Hampton Wright offers sixty practical and possible suggestions and meditations to help propel you out of gridlock and into a richer life. (Amazon.com)
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Taming Your Gremlin
by Richard D. Carson
New York: Harper Perennial, 1986
Here is a more creative yet practical approach to solving life's problems. Through the powerful metaphor of the gremlin, presented so imaginatively by Richard Carson's writing and Novle Rogers's artwork, you will find ways to identify and banish the tenacious, self-defeating aspects of your personality. (Amazon.com)
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Yoga from the Inside Out
by Christine Sell
Hohm Press, 2003
"There are dozens of books that tell you where to place your heel when you do yoga, where to place your arm when you
do yoga, where to bend your waist when you do yoga," Sell says. "This is a book about where to place your heart when you do yoga." (Religion Bookline-Publishers Weekly)
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Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions
by Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney.
Penguin Arkana, 1999
Have you ever heard names like Kabbalah, Jung, Gnosticism, or Wicca and wondered what they mean? You can find out in this introduction to the various mystical and esoteric traditions of Western civilization. It’s for general readers and serious seekers alike.
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Essential Spirituality
by Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999
If you’re interested in making spiritual practice a part of your daily life, this is an excellent book to start with. Transpersonal psychologist Roger Walsh has digested essential practices from many world religions and presented them in a way that modern people can make use of. You’ll probably learn at least one or two practices here that you’ll find yourself continuing for the rest of your life.
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Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood
Edited by Mary Strong.
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991
This is one of those books that you should keep handy for times when you’re feeling lonely or down. It’s a collection of letters written by anonymous authors to a spiritual magazine in the 1940s. Since its publication, it has been an inspirational mainstay for many. You will almost certainly derive strength and courage from it every time you open its pages.
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A Course in Miracles
New York: Viking, 1975
Twenty-five years after its publication, A Course in Miracles remains a phenomenon. It’s a powerful, mysterious "channeled" text: that is, the person who wrote it down, a New York psychiatrist named Helen Schucman, did not claim to be the author but said she was receiving it from an inner voice that claimed to be that of Jesus Christ. As wild as this claim may sound, the Course remains a classic of spiritual transformation; it has touched — and changed — the lives of innumerable people by suggesting to them that forgiveness is the central lesson we have to learn in life. If you put the teachings of this book fully into practice, you would be a saint. It’s as simple as that.
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Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines into Your Everyday Life
by Denise Linn
New York: Ballantine, 1997
Altars, Linn says, are spaces consciously arranged with a spiritual--and, for her, a psychological--intent. In cultures in which spirituality is less circumscribed, less divorced from mundane life, people create altars naturally in the home and the workplace. Some of this altar-building is unconscious, but that it is altar-building becomes obvious when, for instance, one changes the arrangement of family photos on a coworker's desk, much to that person's discomfort. Linn urges us to make altars deliberately, whether they be ancestor altars for recalling the beloved dead, creativity altars for encourage visitation by the muse, or love altars to attract and encourage relationships. She offers numerous suggestions of artifacts for and arrangements of altars, so that this is not a cookbook of the spirit but a resource list meant to spur thoughtful construction. Lavishly and beautifully illustrated, Altars should prove quite popular with New Age readers. (Booklist)
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The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
by Alan Watts
New York: Vintage, 1966
Modern Western culture and technology is inextricably tied to the belief in the existence of a self as a separate ego, separated from and in conflict with the rest of the world. In this classic book, Watts provides a lucid and simple presentation of an alternative view based on Hindi and Vedantic philosophy. (Amazon.com)
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Imagine a Woman in Love with Herself
by Patricia Lynn Reilly
Berkeley, Calif.: Conari Press, 1999
Vanquishing once and for all the tired biblical theory of woman as the cause of man's fall from grace, Imagine a Woman in Love with Herself empowers women to move from self-loathing to self-love, from self-criticism to self-celebration. (Amazon.com)
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The Knitting Sutra
by Susan Gordon Lydon
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997
This small, quite wonderful book shows all that knitting and meditation have in common--and it's more than some might suspect. In short essays, Lydon, a longtime knitter and dabbler in spiritual disciplines, winds her way through spiritual quests, physical problems, and, of course, yarn. (Booklist)
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Listen With Your Heart
by Eileen Flanagan
New York: Warner Books, 1998
Drawing on original interviews, this book shows how loneliness and fear offer opportunities for spiritual growth, how listening to one's inner voice can bring peace and clarity, and how romance can be a path to transcendence. (Ingram)
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A Little Book on Love
by Jacob Needleman
New York: Doubleday, 1996
This philosophical examination of love asks the meaning of sustained love and the source and intention of love in the world. Enjoy a spirited and detailed examination of the nature of love which examines fundamentals and experiences alike, centering on the major debates about love. (Midwest Book Review)
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Prescriptions for Living
by Bernie S. Siegel, M.D.
New York: HarperCollins, 1998
As a physician who has cared for and counseled innumerable patients, Bernie S. Siegel embraces a philosophy that is at the forefront of a society grappling with medical ethics and spiritual issues. (Amazon.com)
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The Spiral Dance
by Starhawk
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1989
Lucid, appealing. . . a broad philosophy of harmony with nature, of human concord, sexual liberation, creativity, and healthy pleasure, as expressed and celebrated in a freewheeling worship of the universe. (Kirkus Review)
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