What are you reading?

[sean]

Hey, I got this idea from another forum I frequent. Whenever we start/finish a book somehow relevant to spiritual cultivation, we can post in this topic what the book title is with an optional snippet summary/review.

 

I'll start.

 

Right now I'm still plodding through Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery but loving it. I keep it on a little bookshelf next to my training mat area and flip through it and try a new visualization exercise. This is a dense one and probably one that I won't finish for awhile. And even then I will likely keep it on my training shelf for reference. I am so proud of this find, this book is a real gem.

 

A book I have in my little reading pile next to my bed is Calm Abiding and Special Insight : Achieving Spiritual Transformation Through Meditation which I read was an excellent introduction to Jhana cultivation within a Tibetan Buddhist context. It's very well written and alternates from author commentary to Q&A's with students which breaks things up nicely. But it's also dense in that the baroque cosmology of the Tibetan path is not shielded like in many of the pop books in this genre. There is some wading involved if you don't have intentions of saturating yourself in this system. (Shelved for now. Too dense with specific Tibetan terminology that I am not interested in at this point).

 

I recently finished The Inner Teachings of Taoism which I frankly found incomprensible. I just personally don't get anything at all out of these old Taoist texts wrapped so thick in what seems like inpenetrable layers of alchemical metaphor. The poetry itself doesn't even touch me in any wordless way. I think this text is probably a masterpiece but I humbly submit that it's way over my head.

 

The Truth Is, is in the mail from amazon. I can't wait. When you hear a review of a book in which the reviewer, a long time spiritual seeker, says she literally threw out all of her other spiritual books after she read it, and another reviewer said that it felt like she ate acid after she read it the world seemed so alive, it's probably one that I want to at least check out.

 

 

Cheers,

Sean.

[Cameron]

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker.

[hagar]

Sean, if you find the "Inner Teachings" incomprensible, try the "Understanding Reality", from which most of the text is compiled. Phew!

 

The problem with the text, which I threw away some years ago, is that it's difficult to know what becomes incomprehensible through lack of cultural and technical/experiential understanding, and what part of the metaphors used in the verses are meant to confuse and separate the "unworthy" from the "worthy" initiates.

 

I find Liu Ming's commentary on both books helpful, and I remember concluding that the reason why most of the text is difficult, is because the topic is. Until you get the empirical knowledge to support and reveal the hidden meanings, that is.

 

I remember taking a couple of retreats, and then rereading the "Understanding reality", and suddenly, about 3 % of the material magically became clear as crystal =)

 

Alchemy and meditation is probably something to really go heavily into before even trying to get anything meaningful out of the text. Another thing I remember my master said is that the texts were heavily influenced by the context they were written in. Like trying to detatch from the stigma of sexual yoga, hiding the transmission from unitiates and actually protecting those who embark in meditation without the proper foundation, looking for the "Gold Pill" in all the wrong places. He also said that following such a text is not really accurate these days because everything changes, like people, the culture, the chi and the possibility to withdraw from society for 40 years...

 

h

[Tenguzake]

Just finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Probably the best of the books so far and the ending wasn't unexpected.

 

Currently reading:

 

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell for work

Personal Financial Planning by Gitman for a side business project.

Advanced Stick Fighting by Masaaki Hatsumi for fun. Just came in the mail from Amazon yesterday.

 

Be Genki,

 

Tenguzake

[neimad]

Just finished CoEvolution - a book about a new zeleand guy abducted by 'aliens' for 10 days and taken to their planet. i actually found this book very challenging to my conditioned consciousness as i tried to read it as non-fiction and it came across very strange. a lot of interesting and relevant points about humans and their spirituality were raised in this book as well as a lot of bizarre yet interesting information about aspects of our solar system and other things outside of our linear timeline of recorded history. very interesting and i enjoyed it a lot.

 

halfway through reading a seperate reality by carlos castanada, for the second time. this time through though so much more of it is making sense to me and i am finding that the things don juan discusses are so similar to the things i have been learning, which doesn't suprise me of course, they are just explained in a different manner. this particular book deals with the art of seeing by which a person sees everything in it's truer form and that everything is equal in the world (i.e. all the same energies make up everything) and that the world is constantly in motion. the series by carlos castaneda is fantastic.

 

also reading a Kryon book called a new dispensation which is much less interesting than i was hoping. it is from a channelled being called 'kryon' a master of magentics who is channelled through someone called Lee Carroll. i was expecting a lot of technical or interesting information about magnetics and DNA and other stuff. instead it is mainly full of assurances that everything is going to be ok in the end, which is nice but just doesn't do anything for me.

 

 

yes i like to read weird books. no i don't believe everything i read. i don't disbelieve either.

 

oh i got a good example of the attitude i am trying to cultivate. was talking about the first book with my mum and dad and mentioned that in it he says the venus is actually new to our solar system, only a few thousand years or something. and that this is backed up by ancient cultures having no record of venus in their masses of information about the stars, i mean you would think they would record the brightest planet in the sky huh!?

anyways my dad had a real problem with this and got very angry with me for believing "such nonsense" (which i find a very weird attitude for a more than 20 year practicing dedicated buddhist)and went on to say that astronomers had all kinds of information about venus and we had sent a probe to it and so forth and that i shouldn't just believe what i read somewhere.

but wait.

i have no direct experience of venus! i don't know what venus is, i know nothing about it apart from it's something big in the sky far away from here... and even that i am not entirely sure about. how can i form any real opinion about venus if i have no direct experience of it? i can't and so i choose not to and go with the option that sounds more fun and exciting just for the hell of it. actually it is of little concern to me whether venus was formed with our solar system or entered it on it's own sometime later. same goes for all other obscure information. i choose to go with it cos it sounds exciting.... but i could care less if it's true or not, i don't believe in anything but one truth anyways and if you know that truth it will negate everything else you may have believed to be true.

the same goes for my father or for anyone else who wants to dispute wierd knowledge presented by 'nutters'. if you have no direct experience of something, rather you are only told about it by other people..... even though they may be the mainstream and it may be the accepted hypothesis (cos it's all hypothesis, nothing is fact, nothing is exact) what gives you the neccessary knowledge to be able to dismiss anothers opinion? how is it possible to dismiss an opinion, any opinion, any theory, any whatever, unless you TRULY know yourself?

 

this is a concept i have been coming to terms a lot with lately.... and i am beginning to see the cracks in reality forming, and it's quite exciting i'm just waiting for the walls to crumble and reality to come tumbling down (in an entirely controlled manner on my part of course) and then to be free of this silly little box of a matrix we call our reality.

[BobD]

Just started Shamanic Spirit by Kenneth Meadows, but literally just started, so no comments yet!

 

Most recently finished When the Shoe Fits by Osho, another great book from him.

 

Also finished Running with the Demon by Terry Brooks, and will have to buy the sequels.

[sean]

Forgot about some other books. I do this thing where I have books in different places so I can pick something up to read almost wherever I am. Book at work, book or two by my bed, books near my training, books near computer, book in the bathroom.

 

Two more:

 

The Easy Way to Stop Smoking

Interesting book to decondition what the author feels is behind smoking addiction; a form of brainwash. The cool thing is he says you can't quit until you are done the book so I am reading like a half page a day.

 

Initiation into Hermetics

Great book. Very complementary to Taoist practices and it's nice to see a Western perspective. I've been flipping through this one and playing with the practices I come across for awhile now.

[DanC]

Choosing Life...Guidelines to Avoiding Extinction by Michael Frost

 

This has to be the best book I have purchased on Taoist health practices, there are some really great insights in this book and a meditation called the "Gate of Life Meditation" which I have never seen before, this book is taking me to a new level in my practice.

 

Here is the website for more info.

 

http://choosinglife.com/

 

Daniel

[GrandTrinity]

Amen Danc!

 

Right now I am working on embodying the book "flying without wings" and then helping my friends do the same..

[sean]

I think I am inadvertantly going to reveal a book addiction via this thread. I couldn't resist, I picked up Come To Your Senses at a bookstore this weekend. I didn't mean to buy it. It's just that I picked it up and started reading it and I was in a crappy mood but within a few pages and trying out the meditation it recommended it put me in a much better state. I've been playing around with the very simple techniques and flipping through it more. I'll let you know if it's worth picking up.

 

Uhhh.... and so yeah, I also ordered Out In the Open: The Complete Male Pelvis (came highly recommended by a very knowledgeable friend) to facilitate a deeper understanding/healing of the whole LTT region plus bring my aneros meditations to the next level.

 

Also I forgot about The Conscious Heart that Lezlie and I are reading together because she keeps it in her bag. We read it to each other when driving around or waiting for a film to start or wherever. Fantastic book wether you are in a consistent sexual relationship with a partner or not. Our lives are based on relationships. Why not integrate them into our path.

 

PS - Hagar, thanks for the run down on the "Inner Teachings" and "Understanding Reality" texts. I think you are right. I feel like a newborn child in the realm of alchemy and much of the cryptic advanced poetry goes way over my head.

 

Sean.

[Lozen]

I just finished Harry Potter the other day, and I'm reading Rosemary Gladstar's herb book whenever I can, and still finishing up On Combat. I am also rereading 98.6 Degrees: the Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive.

 

I don't read as much as I used to.

[hagar]

I just finished Harry Potter the other day, and I'm reading Rosemary Gladstar's herb book whenever I can, and still finishing up On Combat. I am also rereading 98.6 Degrees: the Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive.

 

I don't read as much as I used to.

6974[/snapback]

 

Lezlie, I have still to find your Buddha book, so I'm ordering it on Amazon.

I am reading Harry P. myself, inbetween all my school stuff, and it comes as a relief. Reading all day is taxing actually.

 

This summer I finished "Path with Heart" and "After the ecstacy, the laundry" by Jack Kornfield. I highly reccomend them both. A must-read for all spiritual aspirants.

 

By the bedside I've got Inner Chapters by Chuang Tzu, and "Understanding Reality", which is getting wierder as time goes by.

 

Another book I'm rereading is "Shambala, the path of the warrior" by Trungpa Rimpoche. Every line is sublime.

 

h

[lezlie]

i'm reading "Eating Right for Your (blood) Type" and "The Santanic Bible"

[thelerner]

I finished 'Coming to Your Senses' a few months ago. I liked it, valuable tools on cutting through the minds constant chatter.

 

Lately I've been reading biographies. Ploughed through long ones on Kissinger and T. E. Lawrence. Moving onto contemporary writers biographies, finished Stephen Kings, 'On Writing', almost done w/ Amy Tan's 'The Opposite of Fate'. (They're in a rock band together!) Both very good.

 

Just reread 'Diary of The Way' stories and photo essays on 3 mellow masters, high ranking KI-Aikidoist, Herbalist chigungist, Taoist Martial artist. Very good, fast reading.

 

Peace

 

Michael

[TwoTrees]

Hey, Michael, who is the author of "Coming to Your Senses" ??

That sounds exactly like the kind of books that I like to read while on lunch at work. I do not sit and eat and jabber, I like to find a corner or go out to my car and just delve into a book, it really breaks up the day and I really get a sense that I actually got a "break" from work. It's one of my real treats, kinda like the godiva chocolate bar for the sweet finatics, only my sweettooth has never been a large one.

 

Right now I treat myself to "Thinking and Destiny" by Harold Wallace Perceival. A few years back there was a guy in our department who was highly intelligent and amazingly outgoing and totally dedicated worker and husband/daddy that knew this professor and I saw him reading it one day on lunch and I quickly asked him about it, so he could get back to his reading (I know how aggrivating it can be sometimes when someone is talking at you when they can clearly see the book in front of you) he showed me the contents page and I could hardly believe what I was looking at...so many deep subjects! Some of them are the ones that most people avoid talking and writing about because there is so much controversy about them. And I asked him where he got it...and he said Hey! I'll sell ya one. I bought one.

I think it is a very good guide to critical thinking and some very good points on the behavior and patterns of mankinds impact on the universe. He uses such amazing universal language...it is very simple and easy to understand, yet the implications lying just under the surface has incredible detail and a volume of underlying meanings...it kinda leaves me more self-realized everytime I dive into it for 30-60 minutes.

Well! That was kind of a review I guess, but I'm not quite finished with it yet. It's very dense in a way that I can read 10 pages and feel as if I have actually read through 100 of them.

 

Long days and pleasant nights,

Michelle

[neimad]

Choosing Life...Guidelines to Avoiding Extinction by Michael Frost

 

This has to be the best book I have purchased on Taoist health practices, there are some really great insights in this book and a  meditation called the "Gate of Life Meditation" which I have never seen before, this book is taking me to a new level in my practice.

 

Here is the website for more info.

 

http://choosinglife.com/

 

Daniel

6922[/snapback]

 

what is the part on male sexuality like in this book?

i have had a hard time finding someone who has detailed it in a simple and easy to follow manner.

chia is too...... hmmmm..... too intense i guess, or confusing. his books are quite scattered and reccomend so many things, there is no natural progression.

dr lin is good but too in depth scientifically wise.

 

from the two i have a pretty good outline of the practices involved, but would like something that puts it all together simply and coherently.

[DaoWaDiddy]

Like Sean, I tend to have several books going at once.

 

The books that I think go along with this site are:

 

The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment

My friend Scott gave me a copy of this book back in the early seventies - that was back when the author was self-publishing. Scott ran into this guy on the street in San Francisco and ended up passing on the book to me after he had read it.

 

Unwinding the Belly

This is a very accessable introduction to Chi Nei Tsang - I am working my way through the exercises and finding it useful and fascinating.

 

Regards,

Charlie

[DanC]

Neimad,

Get a copy he really has a simple perspective on things and does not get too overcomplicated, Im really taking my time reading this book so that I can absorb it all.

 

DC

[DustWalker]

Right now I'm reading some books I picked up some books from the university library "The Shambhala Guide to Sufism" by Carl W. Ernst Ph.D.

"The Meditative Mind - The Varieties of Meditative Experience" by Daniel Goleman and "The Taoist Body" by Kristofer Schipper

 

The taoist body seems to be one of the better books about authentic taoism according to the celestial masters lineage that Schipper became initiated into during his stay in Taiwan during the late sixties & seventies.. haven't read more than the first chapter or so.. interesting it seems but probably only as interesting as religious taoism goes.

 

Shambhala guide to Sufism may seems maybe a bit to general but seems to be very well written and have a great preface chapter.. Have an easygoing style that is lacking in most academic works on Sufism.

 

"The meditative mind" compares different spiritual traditions meditition teachings with eachother and tries to find similarities and differences and also comparing the different stages of meditation with eachother. Perhaps not easy but he's seems do do quite fine. Bill Bodri's book is probably better than this one but this is a good book for getting a clear and quick overview of different paths. Hindu, Christian, Sufi, Gurdieff, Zen, Vajrayama and TM are some of the paths mentioned and compared.

 

Not my favourite choices atm. but I have to read something most of the time. And since I can't afford ordering any books on my wishlist these will do right now.

[GrandTrinity]

Yes Neimad, I would recommend Frost's book for you. You will find it very enlightening, I enjoy the "lung expansion set" and the "gate of life" meditation an the "keep fit" and mostly the self massage in there is very very good. This dude knows his science.

 

His insights into healing-love are gold and very rare, I would say this dude is perhaps the coolest taoist I ever found.

[GrandTrinity]

Everyone here should look at the art/read the work of Alex Grey! It is really amazing alchemical, visionary healing art!

 

I started an awesome book today called "Planet Medicine" by Grossinger.

[peter falk]

damn! we're a well-read bunch. i'll have to go back thru this in more detail as i catch up with things here.

 

i'm reading "the last of the blue water hunters" by carlos eyles. great book about guys who spearfish while freediving. no scuba at all, just breath holding. some of them go as deep as 100 feet to spear and catch fish. they take fish over 400 lbs! while holdin gtheir breath! jesus christ!

 

but there is also a deep spiritual side to the book that empowers all this adventure. it involves surrendering to the ocean and seeing it as provider rather tahn doing battle with it. it involves quietude, communication with nature, the spirit of adventrue and letting go of limitations. kind of an underwater tom brown book.

 

the wrting style isn't really that good, but the content is compelling. eyles wrote it while dropping out of the rat race and living off the sea on catalina island.

[MatthewQi]

Wow, did I miss a lot in High School English...

 

I am reading "The Shamans Secret: The Lost Resurrection Teachings of the Ancient Maya".

 

In it is a DH Lawrence qoute form "No Joy in Life"

 

"Never, my young men,

you who complain you know no joy in your lives,

never will you know any joy in your lives

till you ask for the lightning instead of love

til you pray to the right gods, for the

thunder-bolt instead of pity..."

 

Wow!

 

This book is excellent. Wouldn't recommend personally to those who do not know firsthand what DH is eluding to though as it will cause more confusion than it is worth as the mayans took conquering fear to the extreme. There are some excellent comparitive discourse of various traditions and the universal Divine experience that I have not seen so well stated before.

 

Matt

[Trunk]

i'm reading "the last of the blue water hunters" by carlos eyles.  great book about guys who spearfish while freediving.  no scuba at all, just breath holding.  some of them go as deep as 100 feet to spear and catch fish.  they take fish over 400 lbs! while holdin gtheir breath!  jesus christ!

 

but there is also a deep spiritual side ..

Wow. Sounds good.

There's a similar movie that came out in the 80's called The Big Blue, that is about that - and is excellent.

[Trunk]

Uhhh.... and so yeah, I also ordered Out In the Open: The Complete Male Pelvis (came highly recommended by a very knowledgeable friend) to facilitate a deeper understanding/healing of the whole LTT region

How's the book? Had a chance to read it some? Learn anything interesting?