I am everything and I am nothing.
An Athiest today, Agnostic tomorrow.
Humanist
Buddhist
Skeptic
Universalist
Free-Thinker
Existentialist
I am all of these titles
I am none of these titles
I live without boundaries.
I live without titles
I live without fear
Love
Love is all I need
Exploring
Religous / Spiritual / Philosophical
Other
Recommended Spiritual Reading List
(prepared by Ron Gardner)
Highly Recommended
Ashtavakra Gita—Hari Prasad Shastri (tr.)
Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi—Sri Ramanasramam
Sri Ramana Gita—Ramana Maharshi
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi—Ramana Maharshi (a truly great spiritual book)
(Note: Sat-Darshana Bhashya, Sri Ramana Gita, and Talks With Ramana Maharshi are available at www.arunachala.org.)
Recommended
Be As You Are (The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi)—David Godman (best introductory book on the teachings of Ramana Maharshi)
I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj—Maurice Frydman
Vivekachudamani (Crest Jewel of Discrimination)—Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood
Highly Recommended
Some Saying of the Buddha—F.L.Woodward
Recommended
A Popular Dictionary of Buddhism—Christmas Humphreys (excellent dictionary)
Buddhism: An Outline of its Teachings and Schools—Hans Wolfgang Schuman Mindfulness in Plain English—Venerable Henepola Gunaratana (best introductory book on Insight meditation)
The Doctrine of Buddha: the Religion of Reason—George Grimm
The Heart of Buddhist Meditation –Nyaponika Thera (classic text on Insight meditation)
The Way of Non-Attachment—Dhiravamsa (unique, Krishnamurti-influenced book on Insight meditation)
Highly Recommended
A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission: A Commentary on The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena—Longchen Rabjam (a truly great book)
The Cycle of Day and Night—Namkhai Norbu (outstanding Dzogchen meditation manual)
The Precious Treasury of the Way of Abiding—Longchen Rabjam
The Supreme Source—Namkhai Norbu
Teaching of Tibetan Yoga—Gharma C.C. Chang (wonderful Mahamudra presentation)
Wonders of the Natural Mind—Tenzin Wangyal (the Essence of Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition of Tibet)
Recommended
Naked Awareness—Karma Chagme
Self Liberation Through Seeing With Naked Awareness—John Myrdhin Reynolds
The Golden Letters—John Myrdhin Reynolds
The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation—W.Y. Evans-Wentz
Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines—W.Y Evans-Wentz
Highly Recommended
The Zen Teaching of Huang Po—John Blofeld
Tracing Back the Radiance (Chinul’s Korean Way of Zen) —Robert E. Buswell, Jr.
Recommended
Kensho, The Heart of Zen—Thomas Cleary
Selected Sayings from the Perfection of Wisdom—Edward Conze
The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng—A.F. Price (tr.)
The Practice of Zen—Gharma C.C. Chang
The Way of Zen—Alan Watts (classic introductory text by the godfather of American Zen)
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind—Shunryu Suzuki
Highly Recommended
Meditations on the Tarot—Valentin Tomberg
Recommended
Jewish Meditation—Aryeh Kaplan
The Mystic Christ—Ethan Walker (excellent book for Christians)
The Secret Book of John—Steven Davies (translator)
The Sermon on the Mount According to Vedanta—Swami Prabhavananda
The Work of the Kabbalist—S’ev Shimon Halevi
Highly Recommended
Hridaya Rosary (Four Thorns of Heart-Instruction)—Adi Da (excellent technical devotional-meditation book)
The Dawn Horse Testament—Adi Da
The Knee of Listening—Adi Da (the best spiritual autobiography ever written)
The Method of the Siddhas (a truly great spiritual book)
Highly Recommended
The Bhagavad Gita, Translations of: Prabahvananda and Isherwood; Radakrishnan S.
The Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali—Swami Hariharanananda Aranya
The Yoga of Spiritual Devotion: A Modern Translation of the Narada Bhakti Sutras—Prem Prakesh
Recommended
Be Here Now—Baba Ram Dass (best introductory book on Eastern philosophy)
How to Know God—Prabhavananda and Isherwood (Best introduction to Patanjali)
The Essential Swami Ramdas—Swami Ramdas
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna—Swami Nikhilananda
The Synthesis of Yoga—Sri Aurobindo
The Upanishads, Translations of: Mascara; Prabhavananda and Isherwood
The Yoga Tradition—Georg Fuerstein (outstanding reference book on the history, literature, philosophy, and practice of yoga)
Highly Recommended
The Doctrine of Recognition—Jaideva Singh
The Doctrine of Vibration—Mark S.G. Dyczkowski
The Triadic Heart of Siva—Paul Eduardo Muller-Ortega
Recommended
Kundalini, Energy of the Depths—Lilian Silburn
Siva Sutras—Jaideva Singh
The Philosophy of Sadhana—Deba Brata SenSharma (good introductory book on Kashmir Shaivism)
Highly Recommended
First and Last Freedom—J. Krishnamurti
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology—Ayn Rand (must reading for all mystics)
Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand–Leonard Peikoff (must reading for all mystics)
Recommended
Alan Oken’s Complete Astrology—Alan Oken
Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing—Vasant Lad
Awaken Healing Energy Through the Tao—Mantak Chia
Return to the One: Plotinus’s Guide to God-Realization—Brian Hines
The Ayn Rand Lexicon—Harry Binswanger (Objectivism from A to Z)
The Perennial Philosophy—Aldous Huxley
The Way of Chuang Tzu—Thomas Merton
Highly Recommended
The Zen Teaching of Huang Po—John Blofeld
Tracing Back the Radiance (Chinul’s Korean Way of Zen) —Robert E. Buswell, Jr.
Recommended
Kensho, The Heart of Zen—Thomas Cleary
Selected Sayings from the Perfection of Wisdom—Edward Conze
The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui Neng—A.F. Price (tr.)
The Practice of Zen—Gharma C.C. Chang
The Way of Zen—Alan Watts (classic introductory text by the godfather of American Zen)
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind—Shunryu Suzuki
The Method of the Siddhas—Adi Da (a truly great spiritual book)
Keep a joke book by your bedside. Before turning out the lights at bedtime, sit silently for a few minutes breathing with awareness, watching any thoughts and emotions, and noticing how your body is feeling. Read the jokes for ten minutes or longer, keeping a smile on your face even if you are not lauging at all the jokes and maintain a mood of amusement and fun. Focus on the jokes, not thinking about anything else, only the jokes.
Simply by watching the disturbance of mind, body, and emotions, with non-judgment and acceptance, slowly, over time, the traffic of the mind begins to slow down, and we move from being controlled by the mind to connecting with the heart. This brings us more balance and clarity as it accesses our inner intelligence, dignity, and wisdom.
This is what happens in meditation. The meditator takes a journey from the outer realm to the inner, subjective world where she finds the parts of herself she often ignores, forgets about, or is disconnected from: her feelings, emotions, soul, her essential being.
It is not that meditation is against the mind; it is beyond the mind. The mind is our bridge from the subconscious to the conscious, our gateway of expression the outer world…. Don’t see it as an enemy, but as a friend.
As this friendship with the mind deepens, the mind will no longer disturb you during meditation. You are not fighting it; you are simply letting its thoughts pass by…..Whatever you are doing – walking, sitting eating, try to do it watchfully.
By making this a continuous inner process, you will be surprised how life can change its quality. Once we reach that place of watcher, or witness, we begin to see ourselves with more clarity and objectivity. We see the dramas in our lives with perspective and compassion, and insights and understandings will begin to arise naturally…… The mind and the ego will want to make it complicated, but it is not. Mind always wants to control. It is a technician. But watchfulness is beyond its control.
The liberation you feel once you realize that you are not the mind can be extraordinary. There is no more anxiety; you are at ease, in a deep let go. You know you can drop down beyond the mind to your inner haven of peace and stillness.
Observe the mind as you would a TV screen
Watch the different shows your mind flashes across the screen and remember you are the watcher, dis-identified, relaxed. You are the master, in control, calm, centered, viewing everything with objectivity and clarity.
As we practice watching the mind in meditation, we begin to observe our judgments. When they arise, we can accept them and let them go. Nonjudgment means accepting life the way it is, getting beyond the good/bad duality of the mind to a place of relaxation and inner stillness.
When we judge we cut ourselves off from the world around us; we lose our sensitivity, we shrink, and we close. Through the practice of watching, by and by a subtle awareness arises that keeps us open-minded for unknown possibilities to emerge. We become more available for life to happen through us. We become more loving.
Mind moves horizontally from on moment to the next, like a train with many compartments. It wants to put every person and situation into a compartment. When we suspend judgment, we can get off the train and participate in life; have a cup of tea, joke with the ticket collector, go for a bike ride, smell the flowers, and listen to the birds in the sky. Life is always original, new. It is vertical. Each moment can rise into height or fall into depth.
Techniques to try: At a store or museum or any place, try walking and notice how many judgments go through your head. Try not to judge yourself for judging. Simply observe how many judgments the mind keeps on making, nonstop, about what it sees. Then see if you can observe your surroundings without judging.
Judgment clouds our sight; it’s like looking at a view through a dirty window. This technique gets us comfortable with just looking at things without judgment, allowing us to be present with what is.
Try just looking at a flower or some other small thing for a few minutes. Don’t say “beautiful” or “ugly.” Don’t say anything. Don’t bring in words. Simply look. The mind will feel uncomfortable. It would like you to say something. Try to just ride through this feeling. Try to just look…. By opening your vision, your heart, and your mind in this way, you will find a greater flexibility, openness, and receptivity within yourself to the world at large.
Remember, just look, without judgment; just be present with what is.
Stage 1: Laughter
Stage 2: Crying or Anger or both
Stage 3: The watcher on the hills
Creating your own Practice
…..
Just as real seeds need particular conditions in which to germinate and ripen… so does karma: The results of our actions depend on certain conditions for fruition, and we cannot foresee when these conditions will take place. Sometimes the results are immediate. For example, if we share our lunch with a friend, we might experience appreciation.
The three refuges involve strengthening our intentions to let go of suffering and to cultivate happiness. Spend a few moments considering your intentions, and then take the refuges formally using the phrases:
The key to walking and movement meditation is to focus on the movement of your body as you are performing the act. For walking this would be to focus thought on the action of walking (lifting foot, shifting weight, moving leg….). In addition, this could include walking by counting steps to 10 and then resetting. One of the keys of this and other forms of meditation is to be aware and cultivate mindfulness, if you begin to focus on seeing something, label it as seeing or hearing or thoughts, then focus your attention back to walking.
Begin to notice your thoughts, and for one week keep a journal of the kinds of thoughts that predominate. Notice the qualities associated with your thoughts. Do they bring a sense of well being? Of tension, anger, doubt, desire, contraction, or opening? Do they bring you into connection with life, or do they separate you further in the little box you are already struggling to free yourself?
Notice any physical qualities associated with your thoughts. Can you feel contraction, tension, and pressure? See if you would like to let go of unskillful thoughts and cultivate skillful ones in one particular area of your life. Write down the kinds of thoughts you would like to cultivate and the ones you would like to let go of. Keep reminding yourself of the intention.
Begin to notice the patterns of when you make an effort in your life and when you do not. What are the results? Practice one particular of the four efforts (guarding, abandoning, nourishing, and maintaining – each week for four weeks.
Take two weeks to practice each foundation of mindfulness. Start with the first foundation – the body. Focus on specific practices such as bending and stretching, eating, or bathing. Each night write down when you remembered that foundation and how it felt to you. Also, begin to notice if any patterns arise as you work through the foundations. Take a foundation and think about it before you meditate.
For increasing concentration, when you notice your mind wandering while you are in the middle of an activity, try making an effort to come back to what is happening and to remain focused on the activity as long as you are doing it. See if you can make a determination to remember more each day.
You can strengthen your capacity to be mindful in your daily life by choosing some specific prompts. Pick one simple everyday action, and use this one action in particular eto try to train yourself to remember what you are doing. It might be walking upstairs, which can bring you back to yourself through feeling the effort of thigh muscles lifting the body. It might be turning the knob to the bedroom door. It might be opening the car door. Write yourself a note in your diary, and give yourself cues that you can easily see. Write a cue on your cubicle wall. When you feel that, you have become very mindful of that action (opening a door for instance), expand that practice to one more action (closing the door or starting the car for instance), and continue adding to the exercise.
First I follow the cardinal rule of organization: I have a place for everything and keep everything in its place except when ‘m using it. Second, I keep my desk clear of everything except a vase of flowers and the materials that relate to the project I am currently working on. In addition, I ALWAYS take five minutes at the end of my work time to neaten it up for the next morning. Anything related to any other project is kept in a flower in a file drawer immediately at hand, but not tn the desk.
To make this workable, I batch my work as much as possible. For example, I write in the morning, with the papers I need spread over my desk. When my writing time is over for the day, I straighten everything up. Then I pick up my messages and handle phone calls, deal with faxes or email, or work on an editing project. Any notes or material I need for these tasks are kept in a folder in my file drawer immediately at hand. This way papers related to phone calls don’t get commingled with papers related to my writing projects or get misplaced. When I’m finished with them, they go right back into the folder or file drawer.
This section reiterates that it is a good idea to clean up your desk at the end of the day, even if your in the middle of a project. It sends a signal to the brain that you are finished for the day. Then take a couple of minutes to figure out what tasks you want to start in on in the morning. Prioritize these and put them on a note to yourself, which you can leave in the center of your cleared desk so you can’t miss it when you sit down to work again.
Section 40 Put your subconscious mind to work for you
Here is a simple process you can use every night of the week to assist you tapping into that subconscious part of you that sees the greater purpose in your life:
Realize that there is no end to the different kind of help you can get from the source and that the more you use it, the better it gets. You can ask specific questions to which you will receive specific answers. You can request that you get a resolution to a relationship issue or insight to a heath problem. You can get guidance on how to begin a project.
ALSO SEE Henriette Anne Klauser’s book, Write It Down, Make It Happen (Scribner, 2000)
We often complicate our work lives by holding on to outdate belief systems or clinging to beliefs that never had much validity…. Often, as we’ve seen, we allow the culture or our workplace to shape our beliefs…
For example, you may believe that you have to work sixty hours a week in order to be successful…. There are man people who’ve achieved tremendous success working forty hours a week or les.
You may believe that it would be impossible for you to support yourself doing what you love…May people have arranged their lives so they can earn a living doing work they love.
Specific Books
List Of Authors to read
List Of Subjects to Search to read
I welcome myself back to wordpress and this project I started a long time ago. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately and just need to get it all out.
So have how have I been doing? I’ve been reading a lot of meditation and mindfulness books lately. Practicing meditation mostly unsuccesfully – but thats more operator error. However, while meditation has been going well, my mindfulness has. I’ve had several days now that have gone extremely well. Its been a bit like a roller coaster in this regard the last couple of weeks. It seems that my mindfulness is very high on the weekend or when I’m away from work, and then it goes downhill from there. I think this is because I have the most trouble with the eightfold path when I’m at work. I just dont feel that I have the control like I do when I’m at home. That and the stress of office politics.
When I’m at home, I’m for the most part surrounded by love, peace, and positivity/youthfulness. Especially Jewels, she may be whiny, but she is an eternal optimist (Princess too for that matter – she’s just more moody like me).
