Top spirituality books, mystic texts and religious books 2009
Ranked #9,200 in Culture & Society, #185,416 overall
Bestselling books on religion and spirituality
I have a website, a blog and a lot of lenses on squidoo about religion and spirituality. The ten books (and a few bonus offerings) you are about to see are the ones my readers loved enough to buy. This year Buddhism and Jiddu Krishnamurti dominate the list.
So, get inspired, learn about the relationship between science and religion and learn about living your best life.
So, get inspired, learn about the relationship between science and religion and learn about living your best life.
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching
Thich Nhat Hanh Bestseller
What should we think when on the one hand Buddhism tells us that life is suffering and on the other we are told to enjoy life's every moment? Loved around the world for his simple, straightforward explanations of Buddhism, Thich Nhat Hanh has finally turned his hand to the very core of Buddhism and conundrums such as this. In the traditional way, Thich Nhat Hanh takes up the core teachings one by one--the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Twelve Links of Interdependent Co-Arising--but his approach is as fresh as a soft breeze through a plum orchard. For illustration, he dips into the vast stores of Buddhist literature right alongside contemporary anecdotes, pointing out subtleties that can get glossed over in other popular introductions. He also includes three short but key sutras, essential source teachings from which all Buddhism flows. Studying the basics of Buddhism under Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is like learning basketball from Michael Jordan. --Brian Bruya
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation
Amazon Price: $8.21 (as of 02/13/2012)
Freedom from the Known
Jiddu Krishnamurti Bestseller
Krishnamurti shows how people can free themselves radically and immediately from the tyranny of the expected, no matter what their age--opening the door to transforming society and their relationships.
Freedom from the Known
Amazon Price: $7.85 (as of 02/13/2012)
Buddhism Plain and Simple
Steven Hagen Bestseller
You might want to digest this book slowly, a few pages at a time. Although Zen teacher Steve Hagen has a knack for putting the philosophy of Buddhism in a "plain and simple" package, it may take a while to sink in. There is so much there. Seeing reality, realizing the wisdom of the self, breaking free of dualistic thinking--this is pretty heady stuff. Thankfully, Hagen passes it along in the form of examples from life, psychological tidbits, and stories from Buddhist teachers past and present. And when it clicks in, it can be life-transforming. Hagen explains this shift in outlook and how the fundamental way we look at the world affects everything we do. As an outline, Hagen follows the basic teachings of the Buddha, and we see that, rather than dogmatic truths, they are reminders for us as we reconsider the life we have taken for granted for so long. As it turns out, Buddhism is life, plain and simple. --Brian Bruya
Buddhism Plain and Simple
Amazon Price: $5.94 (as of 02/13/2012)
Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Thich Nhat Hanh's writing is deceptive in its subtlety. He'll go on and on with stories about tree-hugging or metaphors involving raw potatoes; he'll tell you how to eat mindfully, even how to breathe and walk; he'll suggest looking closely at a flower and to see the sun as your heart. As the Zen teacher Richard Baker commented, however, Nhat Hanh is "a cross between a cloud, a snail, and piece of heavy machinery." Sooner or later, it begins to sink in that Nhat Hanh is conveying a depth of psychology and a world outlook that require nothing less than a complete paradigm shift. Through his cute stories and compassionate admonitions, he gradually builds up to his philosophy of interbeing, the notion that none of us is separately, but rather that we inter-are. The ramifications are explosive. How can we mindlessly and selfishly pursue our individual ends, when we are inextricably bound up with everyone and everything else? We see an enemy not as focus of anger but as a human with a complex history, who could be us if we had the same history. Suffice it to say, that after reading Peace Is Every Step, you'll never look at a plastic bag the same way again, and you may even develop a penchant for hugging trees. --Brian Bruya
Wisdom from Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (Charming Petites)
Amazon Price: $70.00 (as of 02/13/2012)
More Buddhism
Think on These Things
Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Perhaps we would have to go back to Gautama to find another teacher as convincingly austere, as rationally lucid and who, offering nothing but liberation from the self, yet can bring conviction to those who have so often been disappointed." -- "Dr. Gerald Heard""The material contained in this volume was originally presented in the form of talks to students, teachers and parents in India, but its keen penetration and lucid simplicity will be deeply meaningful to thoughtful people everywhere, of all ages, and in every walk of life. Krishnamurti examines with characteristic objectivity and insight the expressions of what we are pleased to call our culture, our education, religion, politics and tradition; and he throws much light on such basic emotions as ambition, greed and envy, the desire for security and the lust for power all of which he shows to be deteriorating factors in human society."-- "from the Editor's Note"-- "from the Editor's Note""Krishnamurti's observations and explorations of moderm man's estate are penetrating and profound, yet given with a disarming simplicity and directness. To listen to him or to read his thoughts is to face oneself and the world with an astonishing morning freshness."--" Anne Morrow Lindbergh"--" Anne Morrow Lindbergh"
Think on These Things
Amazon Price: $7.91 (as of 02/13/2012)
More Jiddu Krishnamurti
How to See Yourself As You Really Are
H.H. The Dalai Lama
According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we each possess the ability to achieve happiness and a meaningful life, but the key to realizing that goal is self-knowledge. In How to See Yourself As You Really Are, the world's foremost Buddhist leader and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize shows readers how to recognize and dispel misguided notions of self and embrace the world from a more realistic -- and loving -- perspective. Through illuminating explanations and step-by-step exercises, His Holiness helps readers to see the world as it actually exists, and explains how, through the interconnection of meditative concentration and love, true altruistic enlightenment is attained.
Enlivened by personal anecdotes and intimate accounts of the Dalai Lama's own life experiences, How to See Yourself As You Really Are is an inspirational and empowering guide that can be read and enjoyed by anyone seeking spiritual fulfillment.
Enlivened by personal anecdotes and intimate accounts of the Dalai Lama's own life experiences, How to See Yourself As You Really Are is an inspirational and empowering guide that can be read and enjoyed by anyone seeking spiritual fulfillment.
How to See Yourself As You Really Are
Amazon Price: $6.60 (as of 02/13/2012)
Buy in the UK and Europe (amazon.co.uk)
Also available on Kindle
More books about buddhism
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The Science of Yoga
By Patanjali. Commentary by I.K. Taimni
It remains surprising that so few Westerners have translated or commented on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which play a significant role in the transition from a more primitive Hinduism to a mature Vedantaism. Translations are not difficult (these sutras are one-line aphorisms) but capturing the essence and understanding the context is essential. Of existing translations with commentary, Taimni's has the virtue of scholarship, even objectivity. He understands the highest achievements of his author and of the Vedanta tradition. Still, it is a large, even ponderous book, written in big block paragraphs that run to wordiness and repetition. There is no historical or bibliographical apparatus, and the novice will be quickly put off. But Patanjali is important enough to pursue, and this is, with all its shortcomings, the best available version.
The Science of Yoga: The Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali in Sanskrit
Amazon Price: $39.23 (as of 02/13/2012)
My book review of 'A Science of Yoga'
As One Is: To Free the Mind from All Conditioning
A series of 8 lectures, given in Ojai, California in 1955, from one of the 20th century's greatest philosophers and teachers. Krishnamurti confronts the typical grasping and confused mind which lies at the root of all violence and suffering. Though offered over fifty years ago, the ideas in these talks are fresh, relevant and offer an enduring message for today as Krishnamurti discusses a world in which booming productivity and scientific advancement should promise a happy future, but don't. He points also to the ongoing escalation of war, competition, envy and territoriality despite gains in education, religious ecumenism and the technologies of self-improvement. He asks his listeners to consider that all apparent progress is simply another illusion. In their brilliantly clear essays, his focus is singular, with no glib answers to eternal questions. To read this book is to venture into the unexplored assumptions that govern our lives. The workings of the mind are so simple and obvious in J. Krishnamurti's explanations, yet so enormously challenging to confront. Like other classic texts, such as religious scriptures, the words ring true. Issues addressed include: the nature of violence; the problem of change; the conditioning of the mind; how to achieve "peace"; the nature of worship and spiritual practice; how to really listen.
As One Is: To Free the Mind from All Conditioning
Amazon Price: $8.98 (as of 02/13/2012)
Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing
The Sufi mystic Rumi has sold more than half a million volumes of his poetry-no small feat, considering that he lived in the 13th century. In this collection, poet Coleman Barks offers a funny, iconoclastic preface in which he attempts to tease out the reasons for Rumi's contemporary renaissance. He also warns readers that what follows will not be a pretty, happy book of love poetry: "This is not Norman Vincent Peale urging cheerfulness, conventional morality, and soft-focus, white-light, feel-good...New Age tantric energy exchange. This is giving your life to the one within that you know as LORD, which is a totally private matter." Rumi, he writes, is not the stuff of greeting cards. The poetry, accessibly translated and arranged by Barks, is organized by loose themes such as love's discipline, the new life with the beloved, "sudden wholeness," and love's excess.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing
Amazon Price: $14.04 (as of 02/13/2012)
More Rumi
The Prophet, by Khalil Gibran
A great timeless classic
In a distant, timeless place, a mysterious prophet walks the sands. At the moment of his departure, he wishes to offer the people gifts but possesses nothing. The people gather round, each asks a question of the heart, and the man's wisdom is his gift. It is Gibran's gift to us, as well, for Gibran's prophet is rivaled in his wisdom only by the founders of the world's great religions. On the most basic topics--marriage, children, friendship, work, pleasure--his words have a power and lucidity that in another era would surely have provoked the description "divinely inspired." Free of dogma, free of power structures and metaphysics, consider these poetic, moving aphorisms a 20th-century supplement to all sacred traditions--as millions of other readers already have. --Brian Bruya --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
More Khalil Gibran
Spiritual and religious books on ebay
Reader suggestions
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61) by Eckhart Tolle
The highly anticipated follow-up to the 2,000,000 copy more...0 points
What books did I forget?
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JadeMitchell
Aug 29, 2011 @ 10:19 pm | delete
- It is said that a person who has reached the highest level of Buddhism is already at self-actualization. Amazing, indeed!
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KatieRyan
May 25, 2011 @ 10:14 pm | delete
- Doing some yoga with these books will surely result into something really positive. Great list of books!
yoga for high blood pressure
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Petra van Goor
Oct 8, 2009 @ 3:03 am | delete
- Maybe a little simple for some, but what about Eckhart Tolle. 'A New Earth' made a few things clear to me that helped me understand other more complex books. (who is the dance and who is the dancer)
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Mark
Oct 2, 2009 @ 9:46 am | delete
- Thanks Katinka! I'm going out to the book store now. :)
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alteredkat
May 15, 2009 @ 11:19 am | delete
- Interesting selection...I may consider reading 1 or 2 of your selections.
p.s. Thanks for my recent blessings - it's appreciated!
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