'Clive James raged against the dying of the light, as you would expect from a man who had punched out prose like a prizefighter all his life; yet he also showed grace and gratitude at being allowed to stay in that light for a little while longer. He saw beauty in even the smallest things. Every moment was potentially precious, because there were so few left. As his daughter Claerwen said, for him "Everything was Extraordinary."' What if we could learn to live with such awareness long before the end? To appreciate every moment, and every encounter with another human or with the natural world around us? Might we, too, learn that everything is extraordinary? That we are interconnected and interdependent? Each encounter we have with another person is potentially meaningful because our very humanity depends on being connected with others. As Desmond Tutu says: 'I couldn't be a human being on my lonesome, I wouldn't know what to do.' In a set of lyrical meditations, award-winning writer and interviewer Cole Moreton takes us face-to-face with the famous, the infamous -- and others with insights to share -- from Scarlett Johansson, Tiger Woods and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to Zahra, a refugee who crossed the Channel on a tiny, overladen rubber boat. We meet all of them as equals and each fascinating story tells us something about the way we live, love and reach out to find each other, whoever we are. Everything Is Extraordinary builds into a mesmerising and lyrical meditation on the joy of being alive and open to the world. All we need to do is pay attention.

A profound and spiritual text focusing on the principles of universal love and forgiveness that have had a revelatory impact on people of many faiths, religious backgrounds and anyone seeking inner peace in today's complicated world. Includes in one volume the Text, the Workbook for Students, and the Manual for Teachers.

This amazing book chronicles sixty plus years of a modern mystic's experience of the subtle worlds of spirit. Taking the attitude of a field biologist David Spangler shares his rich experience and wisdom gleaned from encountering Angels, post-mortem realms, Spiritual Forces, Inner Mentors, Elementals, and other inhabitants of our natural "second ecology." He makes the case that for humanity to be healthy and whole and able to meet the global challenges before us, we need to appreciate and engage these rich and fascinating "energy" environments and the potential allies who live within them. The pages are chock full of interesting stories and anecdotes of the unseen Beings which share our planetary and spiritual life.

A collection of both philosophical and pragmatic musings divided into 28 prose poetry fables, The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran has become an emblem of spiritual awakening and inspiration for readers everywhere. Speaking to the multi-dimensional facets of everyday life, Gibran has managed to write a manifesto of human existence, tackling issues central to any reader.

AUTHOR, TEACHER AND SPIRITUAL MASTER Jed McKenna tells it like it's never been told before. A true American original, Jed succeeds where countless others have failed by reducing this highest of attainments - Spiritual Enlightenment - to the simplest of terms. Effectively demystifying the mystical, Jed astonishes the reader not by adding to the world's collected spiritual wisdom, but by taking the spirituality out of spiritual enlightenment. Never before has this elusive topic been treated in so engaging and accessible a manner. A masterpiece of illuminative writing, Spiritual Enlightenment is mandatory reading for anyone following a spiritual path. Part expose and part how-to manual, this is the first book to explain why failure seems to be the rule in the search for enlightenment - and how the rule can be broken. Says Jed: The truth is that enlightenment is neither remote nor unattainable. It is closer than your skin and more immediate than your next breath. If we wonder why so few seem able to find that which can never be lost, we might recall the child who was looking in the light for a coin he dropped in the dark because "the light is better over here." Mankind has spent ages looking in the light for a coin that awaits us not in light and not in dark, but beyond all opposites. That is the message of this book: Spiritual enlightenment, pure and simple.

Includes a brand new introduction to offer help during a pandemic

Why is 'being happy' such an imperative nowadays? What meaning do people give to happiness?

In this book Abbot Christopher turns to monastic wisdom to offer answers, and to explain that in essence, happiness is a gift, not an achievement, the fruit of giving and receiving blessings.

Abbot Christopher takes different aspects of happiness, examines them, tells us what monastic wisdom has to say about them, and offers us steps towards our own journey to finding happiness.

Yoga was created as a science for liberation, but in modern times it is used by many to improve physical and mental health, helping us become more productive at work, more caring in relationships, more responsible contributors to society, and better inhabitants of this planet. If yoga does accomplish all that--as many practitioners report--how exactly does yoga do it? How does yoga work? Believe it or not, the answers lie in how the human body and mind function. Eddie Stern's One Simple Thing: A New Look at the Science of Yoga and How It Can Transform Your Life explains from both a yogic and a scientific perspective how the human nervous system is wired. It describes the mechanics taking place beneath the surface of our bodies and shows how we can consciously use yogic practices to direct and change our lives in positive ways. Drawing on modern neuroscience, ancient wisdom, and decades of practice and teaching, Eddie Stern reveals how what we do--from diet to chanting, from postures to meditation, from ethical practices to breathing techniques--affects who we become, and how a steady routine of activities and attitudes can transform our bodies, our brain functions, our emotions, and our experience of life.

This book discusses inner peace from an Islamic theological and spiritual perspective, the writings of Said Nursi, a twentieth century Muslim scholar. Inner peace is a topic of great interest in the world at present. While happiness and mental health have been extensively discussed from a psychological and sociological perspective, and while inner peace has been written about from various religious viewpoints, there is very little scholarly work on inner peace from an Islamic theological and spiritual perspective. This book addresses this significant gap. With Islam being the second largest religion in the world, this book provides an important contribution to the literature on a faith tradition which is followed by so many. In addressing the intersection between Islam, spirituality and psychology, this book makes an original contribution to the literature on modern Islamic thinkers like Nursi, and to the broader fields of Islamic studies, and theology, philosophy and well-being studies.

This book traces the spiritual journey of Satish Kumar--child monk, peace pilgrim, ecological activist, and educator. In it he traces the sources of inspiration that formed his understanding of the world as a network of multiple and diverse relationships. You Are, Therefore, I Am is in four parts. The first describes the author's memories of conversations with his mother, his teacher, and his guru, all of whom were deeply religious. The second part recounts his discussions with the Indian sage Vinoba Bhave, J. Krishnamurti, Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King, and E. F. Schumacher. These five great activists and thinkers inspired him to engage with social, ecological, and political issues. In the third part Satish narrates his travels in India, which have continued to nourish his mind and reconnect him with his roots. The fourth part brings together his worldview, which is based in relationships and the connections between all things, rather than the philosophy of dualism, division, and separation that are found in Rene Descartes' famous maxim "I think, therefore, I am." Satish Kumar holds an emergent worldview encapsulated in a fundamental Sanskrit dictum, So Hum, well known in India but not in the West, which can be translated as "You are, therefore, I am." This mantra underpins all the experiences brought together in this book.

"Dr. Thind teaches his students to maintain "God Center ness" in the face of all external circumstances. It is the intensity of life that is important, for the richer the accomplishment the greater the joy.December 9, 1964

The New Resurrection is an autobiographical account of an astonishing miracle experienced by author Ryuho Okawa in 2004. This event was adapted into the feature-length film Immortal Hero, released in Japan, the United States and Canada during the Fall of 2019. Chapter 1 recounts the incredible story of Ryuho Okawa's resurrection from physical death. At the age of 47, Okawa suffered a severe episode of chest pain and was rushed to a local hospital. Upon intake, attending physicians remarked "you should be dead ..." as the medical examination revealed that Okawa's heart had stopped. Unbelievably, during the onset of cardiac arrest, he was fully conscious and responsive, witnessing the startling diagnosis unfold by a team of respected physicians at a prestigious Tokyo hospital. Chapter 2 is a transcription of a live Q&A session from the 2019 lecture "The New Resurrection" in Tokyo, Japan, where Okawa candidly recounts how his life has changed post miracle. In chapter 3, Okawa publishes 15 select poems, out of 108, that he composed from his hospital bed amidst a modest recovery. For the first time, Okawa shares sincere thoughts and contemplations as he faced and overcame death. Today, Okawa lives each day with the readiness to die for the Truth and has dedicated his life to selflessly guide faith seekers towards spiritual development and happiness. In testament to Okawa's earnest resolve, the appendix showcases a myriad of accomplishments by Okawa, chronicled after his miraculous resurrection.

New York Times Bestseller The renowned and beloved New York Times bestselling author of An Altar in the World and Learning to Walk in the Dark recounts her moving discoveries of finding the sacred in unexpected places while teaching the world's religions to undergraduates in rural Georgia, revealing how God delights in confounding our expectations. Barbara Brown Taylor continues her spiritual journey begun in Leaving Church of finding out what the world looks like after taking off her clergy collar. In Holy Envy, she contemplates the myriad ways other people and traditions encounter the Transcendent, both by digging deeper into those traditions herself and by seeing them through her students' eyes as she sets off with them on field trips to monasteries, temples, and mosques. Troubled and inspired by what she learns, Taylor returns to her own tradition for guidance, finding new meaning in old teachings that have too often been used to exclude religious strangers instead of embracing the divine challenges they present. Re-imagining some central stories from the religion she knows best, she takes heart in how often God chooses outsiders to teach insiders how out-of-bounds God really is. Throughout Holy Envy, Taylor weaves together stories from the classroom with reflections on how her own spiritual journey has been complicated and renewed by connecting with people of other traditions--even those whose truths are quite different from hers. The one constant in her odyssey is the sense that God is the one calling her to disown her version of God--a change that ultimately enriches her faith in other human beings and in God.

How does one traverse the spiritual landscape to move beyond suffering to experience the peace and love of God, to transcend illusion and realize the state of enlightenment? In this collection of inspiring passages from David R. Hawkins's work, the reader is reminded of the illusory nature of the personal self (identification of the ego/mind) and the direct pathways to transcend the ego/mind's trappings. Once we have moved beyond these divisions, many of the illusions that surround us collapse. David R. Hawkins has been one of the leading voices of New Thought for decades and this book is an excellent selection of his thoughts on a key subject. This pocket edition is designed especially for today's spiritual student on the go, to inspire contemplation and reflection in whatever environment one finds oneself. Dissolving the Ego, Realizing the Self is a reliable companion on the aspirant's quest toward higher truth.

Written by award-winning radio personality Dick Staub, this compelling book is filled with anecdotes from the "Star Wars" films that serve as a launching pad into rediscovering authentic Christianity. "Christian Wisdom of the Jedi Masters" also contains quotes from revered "Jedi Christians" such as Thomas Merton, Teresa of Avila, the Apostle Paul, G. K. Chesterton, and other theologians, mystics, writers, and philosophers. The author sheds new light on the struggles and challenges of living faithfully in postmodern life and offers a reintroduction to what C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien called the "one true myth," Christianity.

This book brings together a collection of articles from eminent scholars and practitioners from India, Europe, the USA, and Australia and investigates the applicability of spiritually inspired business models in Indian and Western contexts. This book is a tribute to the revered Indian management scholar and philosopher Professor S. K. Chakraborty, a pioneer of human values and Indian ethos in management. It explores the potentials and pitfalls of spiritual-based leadership and provides directions for renewing business education to embrace human values and spirituality. The forty contributions in the book are divided into seven sections-introduction; business ethics and management; developing new organizational models and processes; potentials and pitfalls of spirituality-based leadership; leaders and their world; education, spirituality, and society; ways to go-to bring out different aspects of the spirituality in business model endorsed by Chakraborty. The book is a treasure trove for researchers of not only business ethics, but also of leadership and strategy studies, in addition to the organization professionals and the general reader for expert insights on the topic.

Toward a Meaningful Life is a spiritual road map for living based on the teachings of one of the foremost religious leaders of our time: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Head of the Lubavitcher movement for forty-four years and recognized throughout the world simply as "the Rebbe," Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who passed away in June 1994, was a sage and a visionary of the highest order. Toward a Meaningful Life gives people of all backgrounds fresh perspectives on every aspect of their lives--from birth to death, youth to old age; marriage, love, intimacy, and family; the persistent issues of career, health, pain, and suffering; and education, faith, science, and government. We learn to bridge the divisions between accelerated technology and decelerated morality, between unprecedented worldwide unity and unparalleled personal disunity. Although the Rebbe's teachings are firmly anchored in more than three thousand years of scholarship, the urgent relevance of these old-age truths to contemporary life has never been more manifest. At the threshold of a new world where matter and spirit converge, the Rebbe proposes spiritual principles that unite people as opposed to the materialism that divides them. In doing so, he continues to lead us toward personal and universal redemption, toward a meaningful life, and toward God.

Inspired by the neoliberal paradigm that transposes religious behaviors into a religious marketplace framed by consumerist and capitalist models, this volume draws on ethnographic fieldwork to discuss the assemblage between the well-being trope and the rise of new spiritualities, as well as their deep permeation within mainstream culture. Building on previous literature that addresses the relationship between spirituality, healing and well-being, this text discusses the religious roots of mind-body practices. The contributions offer a critical perspective on the scope, limits and impacts of the current celebration of spiritualities. Part I provides theoretical insights for thinking about ways in which the prevalent ethics of well-being reframes subjectivities within the margins of neoliberal order. Part II demonstrates how spiritual economies are promoted, shaped and regulated by institutional forces such as States, law and the labor market. In part III, contributors describe in detail how spiritual economies unfold in specific cultural and social settings. The text appeals to students and researchers working on the spirituality and sociology of religion.

Collected here are all four of Florence Scovel Shinn's landmark books. Her wisdom and advice are timeless. In these four books you will discover the power of the spoken word and how to invoke the Law of Attraction. In the Game of Life and How to Play It, Florence Scovel Shinn gives us the rules to the game of life. But more importantly she also gives us a manual that instructs us on how to win the game. A wonderful and simple-to-follow book on the power of right thinking. Your Word is Your Wand is a book of affirmations. These affirmations will help you invite the things that you want into your life and to banish those things you do not want. There is power in words, and this book helps you unlock that power. Within each of us there is a door to success. The difference between people who succeed and people who do not is the knowledge of how to succeed. Let Florence Scovel Shinn's classic book The Secret Door to Success show you how to find and unlock the door to the secret knowledge of success. Success can and will be yours In the Power of the Spoken Word you will learn that our words have the power to change our lives. By paying more attention to how we speak, and hence how we think, we can change our circumstances for the better. The Power of the Spoken Word will help you make the positive changes that you've always wanted to make.

The Secret Teachings of All Ages is perhaps the most comprehensive and complete esoteric encyclopedia ever written. The sheer scope and ambition of this book are stunning. In this book Manly P. Hall has successfully distilled the essence of more arcane subjects than one would think possible. He covers Rosicrucianism and other secret societies, alchemy, cryptology, Kabbalah, Tarot, pyramids, the Zodiac, Pythagorean philosophy, Masonry, gemology, Nicholas Flammel, the identity of William Shakespeare, The Life and Teachings of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, The Qabbalah, The Hiramic Legend, The Tree of the Sephiroth, and Mystic Christianity. There are more than 200 illustrations included here (and in the trade paperback edition) many of which have been omitted from other publisher's editions of this book. This is essential reading for anyone wishing to explore esoteric knowledge.