What spiritual book(s) are you currently reading?

[kentauros]

As yet another similar thread was started in the Lounge, I thought we'd do it here. Plus, I posted there, but I know how "well-received" our topics are out in the rest of DU ;)

So, I picked up a copy of Denise Linn's "Sacred Space: Clearing and Enhancing the Energy of Your Home" and like it so far :) I find her writing style easier to read than some of them.

So, how about the rest of y'all? :D

[PADemD]

1. Not exactly spiritual, but

I just finished "City of Secrets" and "The Portal", both by Patrice Chaplin.

http://www.amazon.com/City-Secrets-Womans-True-life-Journey/dp/0835608719/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1288065802&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Portal-Initiates-Journey-Rennes-Chateau/dp/0835608883/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b


Next book will be the Mark Twain Autobiography, Vol 1.

[Shallah Kali]

2. Radical Acceptance: embracing your life with the heart of a Buddha by Tara Brach

http://books.google.com/books?id=ag3wy4Ej-8UC

For many of us, feelings of deficiency are right around the corner. It doesn't take much--just hearing of someone else's accomplishments, being criticized, getting into an argument, making a mistake at work--to make us feel that we are not okay. Beginning to understand how our lives have become ensnared in this trance of unworthiness is our first step toward reconnecting with who we really are and what it means to live fully. --from Radical Acceptance Radical Acceptance "Believing that something is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering," says Tara Brach at the start of this illuminating book. This suffering emerges in crippling self-judgments and conflicts in our relationships, in addictions and perfectionism, in loneliness and overwork--all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled. Radical Acceptance offers a path to freedom, including the day-to-day practical guidance developed over Dr. Brach's twenty years of work with therapy clients and Buddhist students. Writing with great warmth and clarity, Tara Brach brings her teachings alive through personal stories and case histories, fresh interpretations of Buddhist tales, and guided meditations. Step by step, she leads us to trust our innate goodness, showing how we can develop the balance of clear-sightedness and compassion that is the essence of Radical Acceptance.Radical Acceptance does not mean self-indulgence or passivity. Instead it empowers genuine change: healing fear and shame and helping to build loving, authentic relationships. When we stop being at war with ourselves, we are free to live fully every precious moment of our lives.

About the author (2003)
Tara Brach, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist as well as a Buddhist lay priest and popular teacher of mindfulness (vipassana) meditation. She is the founder of the Insight Meditation Community in Washington, D.C., and has conducted workshops at Spirit Rock Center, Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, and other retreat centers nationwide. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her teenaged son.

[bigmonkey]

3. Spontaneous Evolution by Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman

A really interesting combination of spirituality, hard (biological) science and humor.

[Delphinus]

4. Yes, yes, yes!

That's what I'm reading too! (One of them, anyway.)

[BanzaiBonnie]

5. Me too

Perhaps we should do a book club thing when we finish reading it.

Either of you want to discuss or even share anything of particular interest? What really excites you about the book?

[bigmonkey]

13. I'd love to discuss it when I'm done.

I've been reading it a little at a time, but I could put it on a schedule if I have a goal, like discussing it with other people. Any proposal?

[seabeyond]

6. what i found sounded interesting

but if it has the patriarchal evolutionary biology promoting it in a cult like fashion, not interested.

the pieces i got from this book didnt sound like that.

can you clue me in....

[bigmonkey]

9. I don't think it's in any way like patriarchal evolutionary biology.

I'm about halfway through, so I can't characterize the whole thing. Who is promoting it in a cult-like fashion?

[seabeyond]

10. cnn, mens groups, the net lol.

the whole battle of the masculine and feminine. the thing, years ago i went thru the bring one of the male/female in self then i watched the world explode into battle of the two..... and that is what i see now. so would seem appropriate for it to be fed in the battle of spiritual, though a decade ago it was the merging as one, balance. since it is so dominant now in society, i was curious if it is being fed into spiritual.

[bigmonkey]

12. I'm sorry I'm so ignorant about this term.

I actually don't know what you mean by patriarchal evolutionary biology. Can you give me a reference, either specific or an author or two, or a site that discusses it? I was assuming you meant something like the "survival of the fittest" perspective, but perhaps I'm wrong. They certainly argue against that.

[seabeyond]

20. i am very bad at googling. you will hear often, reason men behave.... is caveman day.

Secular materialist thinkers have as deep a desire as anyone to understand the wellsprings of human nature. But they are much more restricted in where they can look. From the very beginning of the organized "human evolution" movement, starting with Darwin's publication of The Descent of Man, they have mined random findings from evolution for deep truths about human nature.

The first try was social Darwinism. It is best remembered as an attempt to co-opt science to justify existing policies such as colonialism and ruthless exploitation of labour - policies earlier developed for reasons unrelated to evolution. Such policies fell by the wayside during the 20th century, of course, but sociobiology blossomed in the 1970s. Sociobiologists tried to show, using insect colonies as the key model, that the human behaviour that puzzled them - such as altruism toward strangers - was governed in reality by "selfish genes" that seek to replicate themselves. Sociobiology never came up with convincing explanations of puzzling human behaviour and soon became embroiled in controversies over alleged racism.

^

Now, if this all sounds like the kvetching and venting in the "Relationships" section of your local newspaper - shallow truths, at best, never deep ones - that point was certainly not lost on thoughtful scientists and philosophers. But they were not sure what to do. Some, like neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran, tried parody, as in "Why Do Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?". But when a discipline is grounded in a speculative assumption (that behaviour that might have helped our Pleistocene ancestors survive is now embedded in our genes and therefore expressed unconsciously in our brains), the pace of speculation is hard to control, and the discipline becomes difficult to parody.

^

From its inception, evolutionary psychology had warned that behaviors that were evolutionarily advantageous 100,000 years ago (a sweet tooth, say) might be bad for survival today (causing obesity and thence infertility), so there was no point in measuring whether that trait makes people more evolutionarily fit today. Even if it doesn't, evolutionary psychologists argue, the trait might have been adaptive long ago and therefore still be our genetic legacy. An unfortunate one, perhaps, but still our legacy. Short of a time machine, the hypothesis was impossible to disprove. Game, set and match to evo psych.

^

As to why we rape, kill, and sleep around? Sharon Begley insists that "The fault, dear Darwin, lies not in our ancestors, but in ourselves." Or, put another way, if we create ecologies that reward a given behavior, we must deal with a lot more of it, whether we like it or not.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/dissecting_the_caveman_theory_of_psychology/

[bigmonkey]

22. I may be mistaken, but I believe they are arguing directly against the perspective you're describing

So far, I found the discussion of how Darwin's classism informed his own theoretical framework to be the most intriguing. The basic underlying framework for Spontaneous Evolution seems to be that life and consciousness is nearly infinitely adaptable. Even the genetics are adaptable, demonstrated by recent, repeated experiments. Hence, patriarchy, domination hierarchies (as opposed to functional ones), etc. are only some of the many possible patterns - no inevitability or natural dominance for them can be demonstrated.

[seabeyond]

24. thank you for taking the time to answer me. i appreciate it.

the post of yours, before this post, led me to believe what you are saying. in my personal experience, the evo behavior has to be invalid simply because of the inequality, imbalance. then further, many logical arguments impede that thought.

this is the battle??? i am experiencing now and need to read on. this book may be exactly what is calling to me. so i thank you for that too.

[kimmerspixelated]

16. I plan to order the Biology of Belief soon.

I haven't read it yet, and almost every book I read has it as a reference.

[seabeyond]

7. these are both old, but zukav seat of the soul came to me at a perfect time. 4 agreements

by ruiz? is an excellent book to get beyond ego and an easy read

[MorningGlow]

8. Just finished Spiritual Partnership, Gary Zukav's latest

It started out quite good, but ended up getting sort of repetitive, and sometimes stuff we all know took up whole chapters of explanation when no explanation was necessary. :shrug:

[seabeyond]

11. i like zukav

he was the beginning of my journey a decade ago. i swear i met the guy by chance in a burger joint outside of Abq, NM. such a comfortable person.

[OneGrassRoot]

14. I couldn't get into that book either...

I LOVE Gary Zukav. "Seat of the Soul" is one of the most powerful books I've ever read.

I agree...I really didn't glean anything new out of "Spiritual Partnership" and felt it was very repetitive. I ended up skimming over most of it.

:(

[Myrina]

15. "If the Buddha Dated"

Not necessarily spiritual but it's my personal handbook. Recommended by my therapist while working on ACOA issues. I carry a copy with me almost all the time.

:hi:

[I Have A Dream]

23. Oh, I need to check out that book.

:D

[Myrina]

25. Most libraries carry it ... also, you can get used from amazon...

... for about $3.

It's helped me A TON.


:hi:

[SheilaT]

17. Not sure if it counts,

but I'm reading "The Search for Bridey Murphy" in the original edition.

I'm old enough to remember when the book came out and the incredibly controversy it stirred up. There's a lot more to the book than simply the past-life regression. The first half of it is the author's own journey with hypnotism and the very idea of reincarnation itself, which he was VERY opposed to in the beginning.

[kentauros]

18. What "counts" is pretty much any topic we cover here

:)

While my reading ability is far slower than most people, I do still like to see us share what we are reading, as someone will get something positive out of it, or be inspired to read something similar :D

I liked the Delores Cannon books, or what little I could read of them before I had to send them off to my past-wife. I haven't bought copies for myself, but I did enjoy what I was able to read. If you're not familiar with them, they are in the same vein for not only past- but alternative- and future-life regressions. There's some weird stuff going on out there...

:hi:

[japple]

19. The Ghost of Milagro Creek by Melanie Sumner. It's for my

book group, and the author will be there for the discussion.

From amazon:

"Ignacia Vigil Romero, a tough Jicarilla Apache medicine woman raising her grandson, Mister, uses charms and spells to aid in her motherly duties and to help her neighbors..."

http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Milagro-Creek-Algonquin-Round/dp/1565129172/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288185651&sr=1-1

[I Have A Dream]

21. "Shine Forth: The Soul's Magical Destiny" by William A. Meader

Very slowly, though, since I'm having a difficult time focusing lately.

I'd also like to read this book:

"Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom" by Rick Hanson. Hopefully, that will be next.

[get the red out]

26. It's not presented as a spiritual book, but it IS:

Paws & Effect: The Healing Power of Dogs, by Sharon Sakson

It talks about the amazing, loving abilities dogs have to help us humans. And they are so willing to use them. :loveya:

[findrskeep]

27. I just finished The Barn Dance by James Twyman...

It was a fast read and VERY good. It's supposed to be a true story too.

[NJCher]

28. about the Voynich Manuscript

The manuscript has a coded text enhanced by hundreds of illustrations depicting exotic plants, astronomical phenomena and strange "strings of tiny naked women cavorting in a variety of fountains, waterfalls, and pools." Various experts have attributed the manuscript to Bacon—but as it has kept its secrets from some of the world's greatest cryptanalysts, including some in the CIA and England's MI-8, as well as the largest supercomputers in the world, the attribution remains speculative.


The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World: Lawrence Goldstone, Nancy Goldstone




Cher

[kentauros]

30. Have you ever seen the "Codex Seraphinianus" book?

It's kind of like the Voynich manuscript, only in being untranslatable and filled with weird illustrations. However, it was created by an architect (I think that's what he was) and not meant as some mysterious and possible reality. Here's a copy of it online if you want to have a look:

http://issuu.com/dylan_k/docs/luigi.serafini.-.codex.seraphinianus

A friend of mine had the actual book, and it's pretty damn weird. Reminds me, too, of the movie "Fantastic Planet" :)

[NJCher]

32. wow, thanks!

I didn't know about it. It is next on my reading list!


Cher

[kentauros]

33. Let us all know if you can actually read it!

:P

It's really more about looking at the pretty pictures, or being a collector's item if you have the book.

[GliderGuider]

29. "The End of Your World" by Adyashanti

I just finished Jed McKenna's book "Spiritual Enlightenment, The Damndest Thing" and it really resonated with me. I read "Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment" a couple of years ago, and I think McKenna rocks...

[kentauros]

31. Although Greg Mortenson's second book "Stones into Schools" just arrived,

I think I may order this one next:

The End of Materialism - How Evidence of the Paranormal is Bringing Science and Spirit Together
By Charles T. Tart, Ph.D.

I don't see Dr. Tart mentioned much around DU and I'm kind of surprised by that. I've known about him for a long time, either through reading the old esoteric magazine "Gnosis" or him getting mentioned in publications by The Monroe Institute and others. This book sounds fascinating, and I would think many here would be similarly interested :)