Were the secret rituals and processes of the ancient mystery schools hidden away in the Christian Bible? This book presents methods for exploring sacred literature and documents the personal journeys of both authors as they restudied these texts from this different world view. Can Christians be Saved? Yes, Christians and others can be saved by experiencing the world through non-duality or oneness. The reader is guided to use Gestalt processes to explore sacred literature as an initiatory pathway to personal truth. By this means, experience replaces dogma as the source of beliefs. The processes generate exciting and intense self-realizations. The authors were unexpectedly transformed by living through these processes. With this new mindset the divine is experienced within- an active internal personal experience. The dualistic world view of Western religions promotes separation, hatred and wars as well as guilt, suffering and punishment. The non-dualistic world view of oneness removes judgments and separation leading to love and peace. This process facilitates the evolution of human consciousness thus offers a way for humankind to save ourselves from civilization's current pursuit of self-destruction.

Until now, few primary texts on the Kabbalah have been available in English. Under the auspices of the Bronfman Library of Jewish Classics, this historic publicatin of Gates of Light allows readers to enter the hidden world of the Kabbalah and its profound and beautiful Biblical interpretation. This central text of Jewish mysticism was written in thirteenth-century Spain, where Kabbalah flourished. Considered to be the most articulate work on the mystical Kabbalah, Gates of Light provides a systematic and comprehensive explanation of the Names of God and their mystical applications. The Kabbalah presents a unique strategy for intimacy with the Creator and new insights into the Hebrew scriptures. In the Kabbalah, aspects of God emanate from the hierarchy of Ten Spheres interconnected by channels that may be disrupted or repaired through human activity.

Metaphysics deals with the energies that underlie and drive the world that we live in, and how these energies respond to what we think, say, and do, which helps to create the circumstances of our lives. There is no thought, word, or deed that the Universe does not respond to and so it behooves us to learn more about these energies and learn to use them consciously. In addition to explaining the principles of Metaphysics, this book is also a "How To" book. It suggests simple instructions and techniques that will help you to use these underlying energies in your own life in a very positive and uplifting way.

Kabbalah the secret is out! From Madonna's controversial conversion to the Dalai Lama's acknowledgment and support, this mystical tradition is gaining unprecedented recognition. But how do we put this powerful and esoteric worldview into practice? With The Ecstatic Kabbalah, Rabbi David Cooper author of God Is a Verb (100, 000 copies sold, Riverhead, 1958), and a renowned leader of the Jewish meditation movement provides practical exercises on the path toward mending the soul, the fundamental Jewish experience that brings union with the Divine. With meditation techniques for both beginning and advanced practitioners, The Ecstatic Kabbalah guides listeners into awareness of the presence of light with experiential practices for touching the four worlds of mystical Judaism;

THIS 60 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Mystic Way a Psychological Study in Christian Origins, by Evelyn Underhill. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 0766101754.

Sufism is a growing and global phenomenon, far from the declining relic it was once thought to be. This book brings together the work of fourteen leading experts to explore systematically the key themes of Sufism's new global presence, from Yemen to Senegal via Chicago and Sweden. The contributors look at the global spread and stance of such major actors as the Ba 'Alawiyya, the 'Afropolitan' Tijaniyya, and the Gu len Movement. They map global Sufi culture, from Rumi to rap, and ask how global Sufism accommodates different and contradictory gender practices. They examine the contested and shifting relationship between the Islamic and the universal: is Sufism the timeless and universal essence of all religions, the key to tolerance and co-existence between Muslims and non-Muslims? Or is it the purely Islamic heart of traditional and authentic practice and belief? Finally, the book turns to politics. States and political actors in the West and in the Muslim world are using the mantle and language of Sufism to promote their objectives, while Sufis are building alliances with them against common enemies. This raises the difficult question of whether Sufis are defending Islam against extremism, supporting despotism against democracy, or perhaps doing both.

The quest for happiness and fulfilment lies at the very heart of human life, but for Ibn 'Arabi there is a realm beyond our ordinary understanding of happiness, where the human stands truly fulfilled, in vision of Reality. This is a goal within the potential of every person. In this first English translation of a core chapter from the famous Meccan Illuminations (al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya), Ibn 'Arabi comprehensively summarises all his major teachings on human perfectibility and true happiness. Using the imagery of alchemy and ascension, he gives the reader an extraordinary insight into the spiritual journey by contrasting two ways of acquiring knowledge: the rational and the mystical. With an introduction to Islamic alchemy, the Hermetic tradition and the mysterious elixir, this is an important text for anyone interested in Sufism, Islamic spirituality or alchemy.

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Recorded talks and sayings by Inayat Khan in their unedited and most authentic version.

This book brings together the perspectives of apocalypticism and early Jewish mysticism to illuminate aspects of New Testament theology. The first part begins with a consideration of the mystical character of apocalypticism and then uses the Book of Revelation and the development of views about the heavenly mediator figure of Enoch to explore the importance of apocalypticism in the Gospels and Acts, the Pauline Letters and finally the key theological themes in the later books of the New Testament. The second and third parts explore the character of early Jewish mysticism by taking important themes in the early Jewish mystical texts such as the Temple and the Divine Body to demonstrate the relevance of this material to New Testament interpretation.

Every culture makes a distinction between what it perceives as `true religion' and `magic'. These essays explore the history of this tradition in Judaism and Christianity.

Angels take any form they wish in the physical world. As crystal water takes the form of the cup in which it is poured, angels can take the form of any creation which they visit. They do not retain their full original form of light when they are sent to human beings: "Say: If there were in the earth angels walking secure, We had sent down for them from heaven an angel without change] as messenger" (17:95). Angels can come as birds, as human beings, or as a form of light like a rainbow adorning the sky. They have a mind and a heart, but no will and no desire other than to serve and obey God. They are never too proud to obey Him. Angels worship day and night without fatigue. They do not need to sleep, as their eyes never tire. They know no heedlessness. Their attention never wavers. Their food is glorification of God, their drink is to sanctify and to magnify Him. Their intimacy is in calling their Lord through hymning and singing His praise. Their enjoyment is to serve Him. They are devoid of any and all physiological restraints. They suffer no mood-changes. Angels inhabit Paradise and the seven heavens. They worship more than human beings because they came before them and they have greater and more powerful faculties than they. They are more pious than human beings because they are innocent and unable to fall into mistakes or wrongdoings. They never ask forgiveness for themselves but always for human beings. This shows us how much they care for us and to what extent God created them to look after us. God made them our guardians because a guardian is more perfect than the one he guards. Angels are more knowledgeable than human beings. The teacher, again, is better than the student. Their knowledge is of two kinds: intellectual and traditional. "Intellectual" means here: "of the essence of reality" or "of the heart." "Traditional" means: "revealed and translated down from above."

The tree of life is an important element of the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbala. This chart gives a clear representation of the tree with its 10 sefirah and 32 paths and presents the different readings associated to this universal structure. The tree of life can indeed be an intelligent representation of many fields: from the cosmos to the body, from the Hebrew alphabet to the tarot, the angels, the worlds of evil, human development...Although this double chart can only be an introduction to this very complex subject, it is extremely rich and will remain a practical guide for further study.

Pistis Sophia is an important Gnostic text. It relates the Gnostic teachings of the transfigured Jesus to the assembled disciples including his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Martha. Pisti Sophia recounts that Jesus remained on earth after the resurrection for 11 years. In it the complex structures and hierarchies of heaven familiar in Gnostic teachings are revealed.

Keter is a close reading of fifty relatively brief Jewish texts, tracing the motif of divine coronation from Jewish esoteric writings of late antiquity to the Zohar, written in thirteenth-century Spain. In the course of this investigation Arthur Green draws a wide arc including Talmudic, Midrashic, liturgical, Merkavah, German Hasidic, and Kabbalistic works, showing through this single theme the spectrum of devotional, mystical, and magical views held by various circles of Jews over the course of a millennium or more. The first portion of the work deals with late antiquity, emphasizing the close relationship between texts of what is often depicted as "normative" Judaism and their mystical/magical analogues. The mythic imagination of ancient Judaism, he suggests, is shared across this spectrum. The latter portion of the work turns to the medieval Jews who inherited this ancient tradition and its evolution into Kabbalah, where keter plays a key role as the first of the ten divine emanations or sefirot. The nature of these sefirot as symbols and the emergence of a structured and hierarchical symbolism out of the mythic imagery of the past are key themes in these later chapters. As a whole, Keter takes the reader on an exciting tour of the interior landscapes of the Jewish imagination, offering some remarkable insights into the nature of mystical and symbolic thinking in the Jewish tradition. Originally published in 1997. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The translation, notes, and commentary of Imam al-Harith al-Muhasibi s Risala al-Mustarshidin (Treatise For The Seekers Of Guidance) by Zaid Shakir is intended to serve as a layman s guide to Islamic spirituality. Al - Muhasibi presents most of the major ideas that would both serve as the basis for a full program of spiritual development and comprise an insightful overview of a system of Islamic moral psychology. He examines in great depth and penetrating insight the psychological motivations and justifications for moral thought and action and correspondingly the associated bases of immorality. In so doing, he has provided a road map that any person can follow to overcome the guiles of his fundamental enemies: the world, the ego, the whims of the soul, and Satan.

"Stairway to Heaven "is an incredibly broad ranging new study that stretches from ancient Egypt and Babylon to Jewish and Christian Kabbalists, Chinese Daoists, Hindu Tantra and Haitian Vodun and finally to 19th and 20th century European occult societies, uncovering a hitherto unrecognized common myth that has been employed the world over in roughly the same form since the earliest recorded texts. Beginning with the oldest form of Jewish mysticism and extending this search through the dead sea scrolls, Levenda reveals a consistent emphasis on the number seven and its association with heavenly themes, including those of a chariot, a Throne, a Temple and a divine Being. The author then examines the myths and rituals of egypt, sumer and Babylon to locate the origin of this myth and comes up with some surprising results in the ascent rituals of the middle east. Shifting to the far east, Levenda demonstrates how the mystical practices of China and India display important similarities to these rituals, most notably in the practices of the Chinese alchemists who used a map of seven stars as their ladder to heaven.
Reinforced by visits to the Buddhist shrine of Borobudur in indonesia, Levenda concludes that there was a myth common to peoples across the ancient world that an ascent to the heavens was possible using a ladder of seven stars, a process running parallel to the alchemical idea of the perfection of metals and the perfectibility of the soul.
This concept was enshrined in the rituals of the Western secret societies of the 19th and 20th centuries such as the golden dawn and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, and influenced the development of new age occultism. exhaustive in scope and revealing in its scholarship, "Stairway to Heaven "casts a fascinating new multidisciplinary perspective on the mystical practices of heavenly ascent.

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. There is a vast body of imaginal literature in Bengali that introduces fictional Sufi saints into the complex mythological world of Hindu gods and goddesses. Dating to the sixteenth century, the stories-pir katha-are still widely read and performed today. The events that play out rival the fabulations of the Arabian Nights, which has led them to be dismissed as simplistic folktales, yet the work of these stories is profound: they provide fascinating insight into how Islam habituated itself into the cultural life of the Bangla-speaking world. In Witness to Marvels, Tony K. Stewart unearths the dazzling tales of Sufi saints to signal a bold new perspective on the subtle ways Islam assumed its distinctive form in Bengal.

In Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, Joseph Dan, one of the world's leading authorities on Jewish mysticism, offers a concise and highly accurate look at the history and character of the various systems developed by the adherents of the Kabbalah. Dan sheds light on the many misconceptions about what Kabbalah is and isn't-including its connections to magic, astronomy, alchemy, and numerology-and he illuminates the relationship between Kaballah and Christianity on the one hand and New Age religion on the other. The book provides fascinating historical background, ranging from the mystical groups that flourished in ancient Judaism in the East, and the medieval schools of Kabbalah in Northern Spain and Southern France, to the widening growth of Kabbalah through the school of Isaac Luria of Safed in the sixteenth century, to the most potent and influential modern Jewish religious movement, Hasidism, and its use of kabbalistic language in its preaching. The book examines the key ancient texts of this tradition, including the Sefer Yezira or "Book of Creation," The Book of Bahir, and the Zohar. Dan explains Midrash, the classical Jewish exegesis of scriptures, which assumes an infinity of meanings for every biblical verse, and he concludes with a brief survey of scholarship in the field and a list of books for further reading. Embraced by celebrities and integrated in many contemporary spiritual phenomena, Kabbalah has reaped a wealth of attention in the press. But many critics argue that the form of Kabbalah practiced in Hollywood is more New Age pabulum than authentic tradition. Can there be a positive role for the Kabbalah in the contemporary quest for spirituality? In Kabbalah, Joseph Dan debunks the myths surrounding modern Kabbalistic practice, offering an engaging and dependable account of this traditional Jewish religious phenomenon and its impact outside of Judaism. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The Interlinear Torah: Hebrew/English Now available for the first time in an Interlinear Torah: Hebrew/English edition with the acclaimed first JPS translation of the Torah, and the masoretic hebrew texts.

Offered here for the first time in English translation, Hasidism as Mysticism is a classic in its field. Using the tools of phenomenology, Rivka Schatz Uffenheimer places Hasidism squarely in the context of religious studies. Hasidism's theoretical texts have been largely ignored by historians of the movement, but Schatz Uffenheimer analyzes these materials fully, disclosing the mystical, quietistic tendencies that existed alongside Hasidism's more activist, popular elements. The author carefully reviewed this translation of her work; it includes a revised introduction with much new material, two new chapters, and an appendix containing a translation, history, and literary analysis of one of the few extant texts attributed to the Baal Shem Tov. Schatz Uffenheimer's inquiry covers the full gamut of Hasidic life and thought, embracing such topics as the emphasis on joy and the concomitant ban on sadness and regret in Hasidism, the focus on contemplative rather than petitionary prayer, the subordination of the mizvot (commandments) to the spiritualistic goal of devequt (attachment to God), and the anarchic elements of Hasidism's approach to life within society. Also discussed are the problematic role of Torah study resulting from this spiritualistic emphasis, the movement's neutralization or internalization of the traditional concept of a historical messiah, and the transformation within Hasidism of traditional concepts borrowed from Kabbalah. The author's illuminating hints as to the affinity between Hasidism and Christian Quietism should be of particular interest to scholars in the field. Rivka Schatz Uffenheimer (1927-1992) was the Edmonton Community Professor of Jewish Mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. One of the outstanding students of Gershom Scholem, she forged her own path in the world of scholarship. Her research encompassed a wide range of areas: Zohar and Lurianic Kabbalah, Sabbatianism, Hasidism, and the typology of Jewish messianism. In addition, she was deeply involved in the ongoing discussion concerning the major spiritual and existential issues confronting contemporary Judaism and the State of Israel. Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A breathtaking account of six years of research into consciousness that begins with an exploration of "other dimensions" and ends with an entire Theory of Consciousness, something long-sought in the world of science. As the story unfolds, it reveals the multi-dimensional structure of the psyche and illuminates the nature of reality in entirely new ways, leading to startling conclusions involving death, hidden powers, and the evolution of the human being toward full potential. The story itself is a stunning account of the new form of consciousness research combining vigorous third-person investigation with equally vigorous first-person investigation. The result is a profound blending of science and consciousness that leads to a shift in understanding of our reality and how we come to exist here.