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Eckhart Tolle was educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge, and at the age of 29 experienced what he considered a spiritual transformation that marked the beginning of his life as a counselor and spiritual teacher. He is author of The Power of Now and Oprah's Book Club selection A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. Also available as an audio CD. Also see articles by Eckhart Tolle.

Robert Alter. Canon and Creativity : Modern Writing and the Authority of Scripture "Alter begins with a brief essay on the history of the canon of the Hebrew Bible; his subsequent readings of Kafka, Joyce, and the Russian poet Bialik (who wrote in Hebrew) concentrate on the ways in which each writer's creative strengths were enabled by their reference to the biblical canon. "Together, the four essays present a compact, understated argument against the idea that canon is merely 'a vehicle for theological truths' and praising 'the perennial liveliness of the old canonical texts as a resource for imagination and moral reflection."' [Amazon.com review by Michael Joseph Gross]

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"Women on spiritual paths today must look beyond models of the past for inspiration. Stories of heroic women from Biblical times, wise women from ancient Tibet, and idealized saints are no longer adequate. What we need are stories from spiritually mature women in our time and culture who are demonstrating the sacred in today's world."      Sherry Ruth Anderson, Ph.D.  *book: The Feminine Face of God: The Unfolding of the Sacred in Women

Christopher Martin Bache, Stanislav Grof  Dark Night, Early Dawn: Steps to a Deep Ecology of Mind  (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology)

Anne Bancroft  Weavers of Wisdom : Women Mystics of the Twentieth Century [amazon.com synopsis:] "Traditionally most gurus, philosophers, and religious leaders have been men. But in this fascinating and thought-provoking book, Bancroft provides the feminine approach to mysticism by examining the methods and teachings of fifteen women who have developed their own insights into what the author calls the "truth that goes beyond the ordinary."

Stephen Batchelor. Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening

Hal Zina Bennett. Write From the Heart: Unleashing the Power of Creativity  "If you take your journey as a writer seriously, the end product is going to be much more than a published book, poem, article, story, or a lifetime of personal journals. The path will take you beyond the surface of everyday life, toward the inner space of human experience, where you cannot escape the awareness of creative sources far greater than any single one of us. You will discover, somewhere in the infinitude of that seemingly-private universe, heavenly bodies that every one of us sees if we have the courage to look. When we're at our most impactful as writers, those bright stars of inner space shine through, inspiring awe and uplifting our hearts."

Joan Borysenko  A Woman's Journey to God: Finding the Feminine Path    'Initially, Borysenko speaks to healing one's relationship with a seemingly judgmental or exclusive God. She then moves beyond how religion may or may not have failed individual women, into how the feminine collective tends to know and touch God. Not surprisingly, Borysenko speaks to women's intuition and creativity as surefire lifelines to God. Women rely on relationships as a means to spiritual growth, explains Borysenko, whether it be with lovers, friends, or children. She also examines women's icons--from the gentle and nurturing "Our Lady of Guadeloupe" to the fiery goddess Kali..'

Janice Brewi, Anne Brennan Passion for Life: Lifelong Psychological and Spiritual Growth
"With the doubling of life expectancy since the beginning of the twentieth century, men and women are challenged to become "architects of their own aging." The second half of life has now become an arena for soul making. Continued growth and development can unspool through inner work, service... Brennan and Brewi present lively illustrative material and ample quotations from such artisans of long life as Martha Graham, Erik and Joan Erikson, Bessie and Sadie Delany, Betty Friedan, Jimmy Carter, Florida Scott-Maxwell, and others... [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Spiritual Literacy : Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life

Eric Butterworth.  The Creative Life : 7 Keys to Your Inner Genius
[Publishers Weekly:] God is creative, and we are creative. That's the premise of Unity minister Butterworth's straightforward and inspiring guide to living a creative life. ... Butterworth draws on teachings both Transcendentalist and New Age ... On the first day of creation, God said, "Let there be light," and Butterworth claims that seeking the inner light is likewise the first step in developing a creative self.

Julia Cameron.  The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

Julia Cameron  Heart Steps: Prayers and Declarations for a Creative Life
 

When we start out on a spiritual path we often have ideals we think we're supposed to live up to. We feel we're supposed to be better than we are in some way. But with this practice you take yourself completely as you are. Then ironically, taking in pain - breathing it in for yourself and all others in the same boat as you are - heightens your awareness of exactly where you're stuck.  Instead of feeling you need some magic makeover so you can suddenly become some great person, there's much more emotional honesty about where you're stuck.  Pema Chodron - from shambhala.org article: Pema Chodron & Alice Walker in conversation audiobook: Pema Chodron & Alice Walker : In Conversation on the Meaning of Suffering and the Mystery of Joy

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Viewing your choices from a spiritual perspective means asking the big questions: Who are you? Why are you here? What do you really want? How can you best serve? Although at first glance these questions may seem irrelevant to slowing the aging process, they are actually essential to renewal.  Shifting your internal reference point from an egocentric being, whose sense of worth depends upon the positions and possessions one has accumulated, to a network of conscious energy, woven from the threads of universal intelligence, has a profound effect on your mind and body. ... Shifting your perspective and making new choices provide you with powerful tools to change your life. book:*The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success  - by Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Carol P. Christ. Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality
Christ manages to combine heart and intellect in her latest work, melding personal experience with goddess studies and her scholarship. She discusses who the goddess is, what her history is, why there is resistance to her, and what she means. Christ is sensitive to different meanings of the goddess - e.g., transcendent, immanent, nature personified, and indwelling presence - and shares her own perceptions, informed and changed by recent experiences living in Greece. Christ finds the goddess especially in life-giving and life-affirming processes integral to existence. [Library Journal]

Terry Cole-Whittaker. Every Saint Has a Past, Every Sinner a Future : Seven Steps to the Spiritual and Material Riches of Life

Little Crow. The Sacred Hill Within: A Dakota/Lakota World View

Lama Surya Das.  Awakening to the Sacred : Creating a Spiritual Life from Scratch "...author is the most highly trained American lama in the Tibetan tradition. In this elegant, inspiring book, he integrates essential Buddhist practices with a variety of other spiritual philosophies and wisdom traditions, to show you how to create a personalized spiritual practice based on your own individual beliefs, aspirations, and needs. Through reflections on his own life quest, thoughtful essays, and entertaining stories, Surya Das examines the common themes at the heart of any spiritual path, including faith, doubt, love, compassion, creativity, self-inquiry, and transformation."
 

I came in at sunset after a full day's gardening and stood at the bathroom sink to wash my hands. I glanced at my face in the mirror and noticed for the first time that it was next to Mary's face on the varnished print. It looked like we were standing next to each other.  Mary wore a mysterious half-smile as her hand gently pointed to the red heart on her sky-blue dress; flames shot out the top (passion); a sword went right through it (pain); tears dripped down (sorrow); but beautiful pink roses made a ring around it, too (joy, celebration, beauty, grace, redemption). That heart told a story like a novel. It was just like life: complicated, changing, never the same.  And Mary was showing this to me. I started to weep and didn't know why. But I think it was from gratefulness. My heart wasn't feeling so cracked anymore. It was feeling like one of Mary's hearts: a sword had pierced it, but roses encircled it, too.   Beverly Donofrio - from her book:   Looking for Mary  // also author of Riding in Cars with Boys

 
Larry Dossey, M.D.  Recovering the Soul : A Scientific and Spiritual Approach

Wayne Dyer. Wisdom of the Ages
".. wisdom taught by the world's 'great teachers' (such as Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, Michelangelo, and Emily Dickinson) ... formatted into daily, quoted passages (around a page in length) from 60 of these teachers. After each quote, Dyer offers his own thoughts on how the "lesson" can be applied to contemporary life. After his essay, the author includes a list of exercises to put the teacher's advice to use. [Amazon.com summary]

 

There are times when the books fall oracle-like into my hands, quickly informing me of some unfathomed depth or possible road forkage.  Last night I found Matthew Fox. He was 'hidden' or resting in a room we hardly use and I could not put him down. Not the actor. The renegade theologian. ... Anyway he writes about things which pretty much insist on utter achtung baby kind of response. I'll probably have to go to the zoo tomorrow just to make sense of it. See what the red primates have to say about it all. Brett Butler- from February 13, 2002 Missive on her official website books by Matthew Fox: Original Blessing : A Primer in Creation Spirituality Presented in Four Paths, Twenty-Six Themees, and Two Questions  The Physics of Angels : Exploring the Realm Where Science and Spirit Meet

Francesca Fremantle.  Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead
 "Space is emptiness and luminosity: luminous emptiness," Fremantle says. "Because it is empty, nothing exists, yet because it is luminous, everything arises from it." Though this description might seem elusive--and, indeed, it is this language that makes Eastern religions hard for many Western critics to grasp--it describes a state of spiritual bliss with abstract language that forces the reader to let go of a rational, linear thought process. A British scholar of Sanskrit and Tibetan, Fremantle helped translate the Tibetan Book of the Dead in the 1970s with her teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, to whom this book is dedicated. Fremantle is a student of Indian Buddhism--the purest form of which, according to her, is practiced in Tibet. ... Luminous Emptiness" provides interested seekers with a journey through the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Fremantle is an expert guide. [from review by Ruth Andrew Ellenson, LA Times, March 9 2002]

Suzi Gablik. The Reenchantment of Art   [Amazon.com/Kirkus Review:] 'Gablik's thesis is not original. "Since the Enlightenment, our view of what is real has been organized around the hegemony of a technological and materialist world view...we no longer have any sense of having a soul.'' Spirituality and ritual have been the first casualties of this attitude, but the most profound reordering, Gablick says, has occurred in the area of social relations, as the spread of individualistic philosophies has weakened or destroyed the cohesion of traditional communal structures -- leading to the modern artist understanding his or her vocation in terms of the objects created rather than the audience addressed. If the artist has any awareness of the audience at all, it is usually seen as a hostile force to be either ignored or shocked... What is needed, we are told, is an aesthetics of "interaction and connection,'' in which the artist works to restore the lost harmony between humanity and earth, and to override the alienation of race, sex, and class."'

Dennis Gersten, MD   Are You Getting Enlightened or Losing Your Mind: How to Master Everyday and Extraordinary Spiritual Experiences "..practical look at the interface between enlightenment and mental distress.. inspiring, authentic, and life-changing. I couldn't put it down. The deep understanding and healing that Dr. Gersten brings to his psychiatric patients is available, through this book, to each of us - regardless of our current state of health." Christiane Northrup, M.D., Author of "Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom"

Kahlil Gibran  The Prophet       [reader:] "...about a mysterious religious thinker who is about to leave for his native land. Before he goes, many people have just one question to ask him. In a very few words, he tells them his accumulated wisdom primarily in a nondenominational way. ... Many Eastern religions encourage one to become free of the conscious mind, and that sense of objectivity is captured nicely here. I have a feeling much like when meditating while I read The Prophet, because of its calming influence on my overreactive senses. I also think of this perspective like being on the Moon and observing the circumstances on Earth through a telescope. With such extreme distance should come detachment from the ego, to permit good thinking."

Alex Grey  Sacred Mirrors  "This unique series of paintings takes the viewer on a graphic, visionary journey through the physical and metaphysical anatomy of the self. In his exploration into the nature of man/woman, Alex Grey portrays the nervous, vascular, skeletal, and other bodily systems with a disarming, anatomically exact realism. He then passes to spiritual/energetic systems with images such as "Universal Mind Lattice," envisioning the sacred and esoteric symbolism of the body and the forces that define its living field of energy."

Alex Grey  The Mission of Art   "..Alex is taking a stunning stand: there is a God, there is Spirit, there is a transcendental Ground and Goal of human development and unfolding... And Alex has set himself the extraordinary task of depicting, in art, these higher truths. This is art in its original and highest meaning--the subjective revelation of Spirit. When an artist is alive to the spiritual domains, he or she can depict and convey those domains in artistic rendering, which wrestles Spirit into matter and attempts to speak through that medium. When great artists do so, the artwork then reminds us of our own higher possibilities, our own deepest nature.. The purpose of truly transcendent art is to express something you are not yet, but that you can become." [from foreword by Ken Wilber]

Ron Hansen. A Stay Against Confusion : Essays on Faith and Fiction

Andrew Harvey  The Direct Path : Creating a Journey to the Divine Through the World's Mystical Traditions
"All major mystical traditions have recognized that there is a paradox at the heart of the journey of return to Origin. Put simply, this is that we are already what we seek, and that what we are looking for on the Path with such an intensity of striving and passion and discipline is already within and around us at all moments."

Andrew Harvey  The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi
Author Andrew Harvey acclaims Jalaludin Rumi as "the supreme mystic poet and prophet" - considering him a vital and needed guide to spiritual rebirth. Harvey writes, "He lived, I believe, everything you can live and was able, within the inevitable limitations of language limitations he knew intimately to express, with precision and glory, all the experiences of all the stages [of complete mystical life], and gesture, again and again, into the unknowable splendor beyond them... No poetry that the world has been given has this range of passion, agony and radiance. Rumi lived the entire terrible and glorious story of the human journey into divine Being, and every word he gave us has the scar of the divine Fire on it."

Kabir Helminski, Andrew Harvey (Introduction). The Rumi Collection

Kathleen Hirsch.  A Sabbath Life : A Woman's Search for Wholeness
[publisher:] A successful writer and a committed feminist, at forty, Kathleen Hirsch suddenly finds herself at odds with the life she has constructed, restless and longing for a nameless "something more." ... Her search gradually impels her to seek out a range of remarkable spiritually and socially attuned women who are consciously trying to live more balanced and integrated lives. They lead her to conclusions that will inspire many women who at midlife are seeking a deeper and more abiding wholeness.
 
 

Of course we believe in Jesus -- and we believe in Buddha, in Socrates, and we believe in Abraham Lincoln! We believe in every Wayshower.  And more than everything else, we believe in our own soul; the only immediate testimony you and I will ever have that we exist, or that God exists, or that Jesus showed us a way. Religious Science is not something I invented; I didn’t make it up. I added a few flourishes to it, but it is the outcome of the thought and the feeling of the ages and the great minds of many denominations and religions.

It embraces all of them. ... the affirmative part of all of them, and comes up with the idea that the universe is filled with God. Each one of us is an outlet to God and an inlet to God.   Ernest Holmes    from page on Science of Mind site   book: The Science of Mind

Patricia Hopkins, Sherry Ruth Anderson The Feminine Face of God : The Unfolding of the Sacred in Women
'Running the gamut from Anglicanism to Zen, psychologist Anderson and consultant Hopkins present an uncritical examination of uniquely feminine aspects of faith. Offering a complex, densely layered montage, based on extensive interviews with over one hundred women--each of whom has "found her own direct relationship with the divine or the real''- -the authors seek to extend studies positing a distinctly feminine moral development to a consideration of "the way women experience the sacred in their lives.'' Included are ministers, rabbis, priests, nuns, and former nuns (both Christian and Vedantic), spiritual healers, tribal elders, and contemplatives, working variously as therapists, teachers, writers, artists, and social activists, and all meeting a basic requirement of striving to "embody'' their beliefs "in everyday life.'''

Robert K. Johnston  Reel Spirituality : Theology and Film in Dialogue

Wassily Kandinsky, M. T. Sadler (Designer) Concerning the Spiritual in Art
[reader:] 'Kandinsky spent a lifetime painting in search of the spiritual. His body of work was his philosophical opus, provoked initially by the prodigious philosophical works of Madame Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, in which she introduced the Western world--and Kandinsky--to Eastern philosophies. Kandinsky believed that art had a duty to be spiritual in nature, an expression of "inner need," as he came to call it. He called "art for art's sake" a "vain squandering of artistic power." This book was both his call to artists to meet their obligation to humanity and his attempt to define and explain color and form in its relation to expressing the message of the soul."

Barbara Kerr. Letters to the Medicine Man: An Apprenticeship in Spiritual Intelligence

Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan Awakening: A Sufi Experience  'After four decades of teaching, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, head of the Sufi Order, has gifted us with a spiritual classic. Here in one volume of talks given at retreats, the wisdom of this mystic path shines in all of its kaleidoscopic beauty and truth. Pir Vilayat describes the process of awakening whereby "we see through the eyes of God." This entails a liberation from the prison of duality and a new vocation as "ambassadors of the universe."... In one of the most profound chapters, Pir Vilayat discusses how personal problems can become the catalysts for spiritual creativity.' [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Sidney D. Kirkpatrick  Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet
[excerpt:] "Edgar Cayce also had undergone a change: he had once again proven to himself that good might come from his special talents. He had taken one of his first apprehensive and faltering steps away from the refuge of his darkroom and a step closer to the moment he would, as he later said, "step out into the light" and turn himself over to what became known simply as "Cayce's work," or "the work." Foremost among his many challenges would be overcoming the fear and trepidation he experienced each and every time he went into trance: never knowing what might happen when he closed his eyes, what he might say while he was "under," and whether or not he would be able to open his eyes when the session ended.'

Leonard Koren. Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers
from Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat / spiritualityhealth.com :
We were introduced to wabi-sabi years ago when we had the great good fortune to spend a night at Kyoto's oldest and most famous inn, the 300-year-old Tawaraya. The rooms were simple, elegant, and beautiful with objects showing the wear of time but still exuding a sturdy presence that demanded respect. One of the principles of this establishment is that no one object or element should stand out above any other. According to Leonard Koren, creator of an avant garde magazine and an inveterate chronicler of Japanese culture, this approach fits right in with wabi-sabi, which he calls "a beauty of all things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional." ... Wabi-sabi is light years away from the Western concepts of beauty which usually salute things lasting or spectacular. Instead, it emphasizes ìthe minor and the hidden, the tentative and the ephemeral: things so subtle and evanescent they are invisible to vulgar eyes." ... The wabi-sabi objects in our lives are spiritual teachers opening our eyes to beauty in unexpected places.

Jack Kornfield.  After the Ecstasy, the Laundry : How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path
[from introduction:] "The true task of spiritual life is not found in faraway places or unusual states of consciousness. It is here in the present. It asks of us a welcoming spirit to greet all that life presents to us with a wise, respectful, and kindly heart. We can bow to both beauty and suffering, to our entanglements and confusion, to our fears and to the injustices of the world. Honoring the truth in this way is the path to freedom. To bow to what *is* rather than some ideal is not necessarily easy, but however difficult, it is one of the most useful and honorable practices."

Michal Levin. Meditation: Path to the Deepest Self

Gregg Levoy  Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life   "This book, then, is about putting on a lens through which we can see our lives as a process of calls and responses rather than, as I heard a character on television remark recently, just a bunch of stuff that happens. Also, in the sense of religion that psychologist William James meant when he described it as the attempt to be in harmony with an unseen order of things, this book is also about religion in the original sense of the word -- re-ligare, to re-connect. To re-member what has been dis-membered: our own selves, the deep life within us that is a strong religious impulse despite whatever outward waywardness our lives may exhibit. To remember what we already know. When my daughter was seven years old, says artist Howard Ikemoto, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college, that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, 'You mean they forget?' Yes, we forget. And this book is also about remembering our vocations, again in the true sense of the word -- callings -- whether they're vocations in the arenas of work, relationship, lifestyle or service."

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Toinette Lippe. Nothing Left Over: A Plain and Simple Life Lippe.. offers her ruminations on "how to live so that supply does not exceed demand or consumption." Although she provides sound advice for living without the unnecessary and suggestions for traveling light, spring cleaning, and shopping and eating mindfully, Lippe's real focus is "not so much about what needs to take place at the physical level... as about what goes on in the mind."  A one-time philosophy student and a devoted meditator and yoga practitioner, she calls on Buddhism and other Eastern religions, Judaism and the Bible to teach lessons in nonattachment to ownership or expectations, trust in the universe, present-moment living, openness and acceptance of what is.  [from Publishers Weekly review]

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Silence has many dimensions. It can be a regression and an escape, a loss of self, or it can be presence, awareness, unification, self-discovery.  Negative silence blurs and confuses our identity and we lapse into daydreams or diffuse anxieties. Positive silence pulls us together and makes us realize who we are, who we might be, and the distance between these two.  Hence, positive silence implies a disciplined choice, and what Paul Tillich called the "courage to be."  Thomas Merton - from article Creative Silence  (Monastic Interreligious Dialog, August 2001) *book: **Thoughts in Solitude

 
Judith Miller, PhD  Direct Connection  [review by Yvonne Kason, M.D.:] "Dr. Judith Miller displays exceptional courage and vision as a traditionally trained clinical psychologist, in sharing this evocative and thought-provoking story of the spiritually transformative experiences which have highlighted her and her clients lives. This open sharing of her personal journey along the Mystical Path is an inspiration to readers and challenges them to expand their own view of reality to include the possibility of every persons potential for experiences of direct connection to the Higher Power. Well done!"

Thomas Moore  Original Self: Living With Paradox and Authenticity

Thomas Moore.**The Soul's Religion: Cultivating a Profoundly Spiritual Way of Life

Caroline Myss, PhD.  Anatomy of the Spirit

Stephen Nachmanovitch  Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art   [excerpt:] "In my own life, music taught me to listen, not just to sound, but to who I am. I discovered the relevance of our many mystical or esoteric traditions to the practical life of art-making. "Mysticism" does not refer to cloudy belief systems or to hocus pocus; it refers to direct and personal spiritual experience, as distinct from organized religion in which one is expected to believe second-hand experiences passed on in sacred books or by teachers or authorities. It is the mystics who bring creativity into religion. The mystic or visionary attitude expands and concretizes art, science and daily life as well."

Kent Nerburn Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis   "We are not saints, we are not heroes. Our lives are lived in the quiet corners of the ordinary. We build tiny hearth fires, sometimes barely strong enough to give off warmth. But to the person lost in the darkness, our tinyflame may be the road to safety, the path to salvation. It is not given us to know who is lost in the darkness that surrounds us or even if our light is seen. We can only know that against even the smallest of lights, darkness cannot stand. A sailor lost at sea can be guided home by a single candle. A person lost in a wood can be led to safety by a flickering flame. It is not an issue of quality or intensity or purity. It is simply an issue of the presenceof light."

Kent Nerburn.  Native American Wisdom

Kent Nerburn.  The Wisdom of the Native Americans

Kathleen D. Noble  Riding the Windhorse: Spiritual Intelligence and the Growth of the Self

Judith Orloff, MD  Second Sight  Orloff is a psychiatrist who uses her psychic abilities in her medical practice [also see interview]

Elisa Davy Pearmain  Doorways to the Soul : 52 Wisdom Tales from Around the World "I have collected stories from many spiritual and cultural traditions. Although their form may reflect the cultural and religious idiosyncrasies of their time and place, their messages are remarkably universal. In my research I repeatedly encountered in every culture the same principles basic to spiritual development: Do no harm, practice generosity andloving-kindness, know thyself and follow your highest thought, be aware of the effects of your actions, practice gratitude and forgiveness, enter intodirect relationship with the source of life through prayer or meditation(silence). I have chosen stories to which my heart responded with a resounding "Aha!", stories that speak to these principles and other aspectsof being a human being on a spiritual journey."

M. Scott Peck.  Further Along the Road Less Traveled : The Unending Journey Toward Spiritual Growth
 [excerpt:] But while consciousness is the whole cause of pain, it is also the cause of our salvation,
because salvation is the process of becoming increasingly conscious. When we become increasingly conscious,
we go further and further into the desert instead of burrowing into a hole like the people who choose not to grow up.
And as we travel onward, we bear more and more pain -- because of our very consciousness. ... the word salvation
means "healing." It comes from the same word as salve, which you put on your skin in order to heal an area of
irritation or infection. Salvation is the process of healing and the process of becoming whole. And health, wholeness,
and holiness are all derived from the same root. They all mean virtually the same thing.

Sidney Poitier  The Measure of a Man : A Spiritual Autobiography   [Booklist:] "In [this book], Poitier attempts to unravel for himself his own remarkable life story, looking at early life experiences, his family, and various themes that he believes have contributed to his success... Poitier is an excellent storyteller, and the book is anecdotally rich. Calling this autobiography 'spiritual' may be somewhat misleading. Religion is a minor part of the story. Instead, Poitier's tale is an affirmation of the value of morality and personal integrity in leading a successful, fulfilling life."

Hugh Prather  The Little Book of Letting Go  'Many self-help writers have pinpointed these obstacles to our experience of wholeness but Prather also presents a very concrete 30-day program filled with exercises, down-to-earth suggestions, and spiritual practices. "A mind that learns to let go gradually returns to its inherent wholeness, happiness, and simplicity." Prather writes cogently about letting go of mental pollutants, emotional fixation, misery, prediction and control, relationship battles, and the ego mind. The chapter on "Letting Go of Spiritual Specialness" is especially poignant. Here Prather writes: "It's ironic that individuals with strong spiritual beliefs often have larger egos, are more rigid, are more unconsciously judgmental, and are more uncomfortable to be around than people who have little interest in pursuing mystical, religious, or metaphysical teachings." That is why those of us on a spiritual path must be constantly vigilant to the ways in which ego tries to take credit for everything we do. Prather delivers on the promise of his subtitle. This is indeed a "revolutionary 30 day program to cleanse your mind, lift your spirit, and replenish your soul.'" [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Mary Reath.  Public Lives, Private Prayers
'...actors, authors, world leaders and other well-known public figures share pearls of wisdom, lend earnest advice, and provide instruments to enliven one's religious and spiritual life. ... people as diverse as Matthew McConaughey and Senator Bill Bradley find similar spiritual common ground in [this book]. ... More than 130 people -- including Anna Quindlen, Queen Noor, Sister Helen Prejean, Pete Seeger, Margaret Thatcher, Robert Pinsky, ... contributed to Reath's collection of prayers and poems...'   [Amazon.com review]

M. J. Ryan  The Fabric of the Future: Women Visionaries Illuminate the Path to Tomorrow  "..collection of essays by 40 of the world's leading thinkers... a quotation by Native American writer Jamie Sams best conveys the thrust of the book: "How we see ourselves and our effectiveness in the world is totally dependent upon our abilities of imagination and determination. . . . We are asked to see the metaphor for the changes occurring in the natural world as simple reflections of the empowered feminine aspect within humankind. We are collectively giving birth to the intuitive, receptive, transformative, and enduring nature of our human potential." ... Editor M. J. Ryan has done a fine job orchestrating the large chorus of women's spirituality with voices from Judaic, Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, Native American, Wiccan, African, Asian, Hispanic, and Western traditions. Among the contributors are Jean Houston, Joan Borysenko, Carol Flinders, China Galland, Sylvia Boorstein, Marianne Williamson, Nancy Mairs, and many others." [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions www.spiritualrx.com]

Sue Shellenbarger  Work & Family : Essays from Column of the Wall Street Journal
".. a family that I find to be interesting, creative, close-knit or a model of some sort [almost always has] some kind of significant spiritual life." [Sue Shellenbarger, from article: "Family and Work", Magical Blend, Nov.99]

Marsha Sinetar  Spiritual Intelligence: What We Can Learn from the Early Awakening Child "Children's spirituality thrives on playfulness. It demands respect. And it overflows into the lives of others bringing gifts and abundant riches. In this buoyant book, Marsha Sinetar ("The Mentor's Spirit") celebrates the spiritual intelligence of children. She defines this quality as inspired thought and "intuition, a firm moral compass, power or inner authority, the ability to discern right from wrong, and wisdom." Using illustrative material from her own childhood and the youth of César Chávez, Louise Nevelson, May Sarton, John Muir, Helen Keller, Malcolm X, Mahatma Gandhi, Georgia O'Keeffe, and others, Sinetar demonstrates the various ways in which "early awakeners" flourish in the face of challenges and demonstrate an ability to transcend difficulty in order to "walk in truth." Many of these gifted children are little "old souls" who make the most of wholesome autonomy, positive rebellion, and intuitive prowess. Spiritual intelligence enables these boys and girls to move into life with brightness and virtue. Near the end of this optimistic volume, Sinetar lists some of the character traits of parents who serve as good facilitators for their offsprings' spiritual intelligence." [review: Frederic Brussat spiritualrx.com]

Rudolf Steiner, et al. The Fourth Dimension : Sacred Geometry, Alchemy, and Mathematics

Shunryu Suzuki.  Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Ekhart Tolle  The Power of Now : A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Neale Donald Walsch.   Conversations With God : An Uncommon Dialogue

John Welwood.  Ordinary Magic: Everyday Life as Spiritual Path

John Welwood Toward a Psychology of Awakening : Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path Of Personal and Spiritual Transformation
"As a psychotherapist and meditation practitioner, I am continually faced with questions about the relationship between psychological and spiritual work... Over the course of thirty years of considering these questions, I have gone back and forth between two different perspectives — sometimes regarding the psychological inquiry into self as diametrically opposed, even antagonistic, to the spiritual aim of going beyond self, and at other times seeing it as an extremely useful complement to spiritual work. .. Starting in the 1970s I began to perceive... a widespread tendency to use spiritual practice to bypass or avoid dealing with certain personal or emotional 'unfinished business.' This desire to find release from the earthly structures that seem to entrap us—the structures of karma, conditioning, body, form, matter, personality—has been a central
motive in the spiritual search for thousands of years. So there is often a tendency to use spiritual practice to try to rise above our emotional and personal issues—all those messy, unresolved matters that weigh us down. I call this tendency to avoid or prematurely transcend basic human needs, feelings, and developmental tasks spiritual bypassing."
 

Jerry Wennstrom. The Inspired Heart : An Artist's Journey of Transformation I tell mostly stories here. ... The particular point of view from which the stories are told and lived is that of a spiritual seeker and artist. However detached I may have become from the label "artist," I never lost sight of art's essential heartland, and I held a creative vision throughout my journey.  My detachment from any particular religious affiliation did not preclude the essential spirituality of the journey. I hold true that the path lived attentively is a sacred path, and that the fundamental spirit of art is alive, well, and deeply esoteric.  As does any spiritual path, art has the potential to deliver us into our own true becoming, which is identical to our world's becoming. Art expresses and defines the deep and collective spirit of our time.....Jerry Wennstrom   ~ ~ from Foreword by Thomas Moore:   While Jerry's stories will remain with me for a long time as lessons in being open to life's paradoxes, I am also taking note of powerful phrases that conjure up ancient wisdom: "Seasoning sanctifies. Insanity, that too is God. ... Form is death. I have to leave this perfection. ... Enlightenment is surrender." Jerry's experience shows that simply by being receptive to deep intuition and living intelligently from the heart, you can achieve a degree of holiness....

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..rmore quotes and video on Wennstrom on related page:..spirituality

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John White. The Meeting of Science and Spirit

John White. What Is Enlightenment? : Exploring the Goal of the Spiritual Path
Embracing the warrior within is part of becoming spiritually functional and creating a stable foundation for your ascent in
consciousness. ... dojo, the Japanese word for a martial art training center, means "place to practice the way of enlightenment."

Ken Wilber  Integral Psychology : Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy

Marion Woodman, Elinor Dickson Dancing in the Flames : The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness "Earthy and immensely powerful, the Black Goddess has been a key force in world history, manifested in images as diverse as the Indian goddess Kali and the Black Madonnas of medieval Europe. But images of her have been conspicuously missing from the Western world for centuries--until now. Here, the authors explain the psychological significance of the divine feminine in the lives of modern women and men."

His given name was Jesus; his honorific title was "Christ." In his little human body called Jesus was born the vast Christ Consciousness, the omniscient Intelligence of God omnipresent in every part and particle of creation. ...Paramahansa Yogananda. .The Second Coming of Christ : The Resurrection of the Christ Within You painting : Madonna Benois - by Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1475-1478

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Science of Being and Art of Living: Transcendental Meditation

Philip Zaleski, Thomas Moore(Introduction) The Best Spiritual Writing 2000     'Zaleski offers a bonus in the latest edition--he assembled a panel of judges that came up with the 100 best spiritual books of the 20th century, a diverse list that includes "Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres" by Henry Adams and "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda. There are some surprises here too. M. Scott Peck's "The Road Less Traveled" pops up between P.D. Ouspensky's "In Search of the Miraculous" and Walker Percy's "Lost in the Cosmos." And Zaleski designates his own top 10, which includes Black Elk's "Black Elk Speaks," Martin Buber's "I and Thou," T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets" and Simone Weil's "Waiting for God."

Danah Zohar.  Sq : Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence  "According to the English authors of "The Quantum Self" and "The Quantum Society," spiritual intelligence revolves around meaning and value, imagination and ethics. 'It facilitates a dialogue between reason and emotion, between mind and body. It provides a fulcrum for growth and transformation.' In addition, it provides a unifying center for the self and integrates all the other intelligences... Zohar and Marshall explain the neurology and the physics of consciousness in a heady chapter titled "The 'God Spot' in the Brain." [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]
 
 

The purpose of our journey on this precious Earth is now to align our personalities with our souls. It is to create harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life.  It is to grow spiritually. This is our new evolutionary pathway. The old pathway - pursuing the ability to manipulate and control - no longer works. It now produces only violence and destruction.              Gary Zukav**The Seat of the Soul

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