JOAN'S ANNOTATED RECOMMENDED READING LIST

I'm not endorsing every single word spoken or written by the authors listed below. There are many different ways of pointing to truth or liberation; hence, some of the authors listed below may appear to contradict each other. Some eschew all practices and insist that there is nothing to do other than what is happening. Others offer some kind of apparent process or method for seeing through illusion and waking up to what is, a process that may involve bringing attention to the present moment, questioning stories and beliefs, seeing through thoughts, discerning the difference between concepts and perceptions, and/or being aware of awareness. Some authors say the whole world and everything in it (including you and your spiritual journey) is all a dream-like illusion, while others appear to take the phenomenal manifestation (and spiritual practice) very seriously. Some say awakening takes resolve, willingness, honesty, vigilance, and attention, while others say it requires nothing at all. Some say you have the power of choice, and others say there is no you and no choice. Who has it right? Whom should you believe? As soon as you open your mouth, you go astray. No words or concepts can capture reality. Each approach or non-approach or way of pointing to the truth has different strengths and pitfalls. Take what resonates and leave the rest behind. Finally, leave all the words and pointers behind. Above all, look for yourself and don't believe anything. This isn't about belief. And no one owns truth.

JOAN TOLLIFSON: Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is (2003) and Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life (1996)  -- Of course I recommend my own two books! Both of them explore the nature of reality, and both invite the reader to investigate for themselves without dogmas or beliefs. Both books include material from my own life -- experiences with disability, depression, anger, addiction and compulsion, noisy neighbors, stolen cars, relationships -- all the usual human stuff, so that the abstract teachings are brought down to earth, and the reader can see directly that form and emptiness, or nirvana and samsara are "not two." Both books are written from the perspective that the separate self is a mental fiction, and that none of our apparent problems or mistakes are personal. Bare-Bones is about present moment awareness and waking up from conceptual stories. Heartland is a journey into radical nonduality and the absolute simplicity of what is. Readers have expressed appreciation for the honesty, frankness and humor in both books. More here.

ALAN WATTS: The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are and The Wisdom of Insecurity -- These two books are absolutely excellent and very highly recommended. If you haven't read Alan Watts in a long time, he's definitely worth exploring anew, and if you've never read him before, by all means do. Simple, clear, direct, right on the mark, and always with a light and playful touch. Watts was a one-time Christian minister who left the ministry and turned to Vedanta and Zen, both of which he came to understand deeply, to the root. Alan Watts was a renegade and not a fan of organized religion with its institutions, practices, rituals, and dogmas. He went for and communicated the essence, the bare-bones heart of the matter, and he did so with great lucidity. He was right on target. Watts was perhaps the single person most responsible for introducing Zen and eastern spirituality to America. Excellent! Very highly recommended. There are many other wonderful books and several fine audio collections available as well. More here.

ECKHART TOLLE: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose; Stillness Speaks; The Power of Now; and Practicing the Power of Now -- Eckhart Tolle is a contemporary teacher whose insight and expression is exceptionally clear and refreshingly free of conventional religious or dogmatic trappings. Eckhart speaks out of silence and presence, his words transmit and invite stillness and open listening, and he teaches at many levels simultaneously -- from the most basic and practical to the ultimate truth. If you're all tied up in mental knots trying to think your way to enlightenment, Eckhart is excellent at waking you up from this conceptual morass. He shifts attention out of the mental trance of concepts, beliefs and ideas, and into the open, spacious aliveness of presence. His focus is always on here and now (the timeless, spaceless totality). Eckhart illuminates the workings of the egoic mind with exceptional clarity and offers an intelligent approach to working with difficult emotions, compulsions and neurotic patterns (what he calls the pain-body). There is tremendous depth and subtlety in all of Eckhart's books and tapes, and I recommend all of them very highly. A New Earth is his most comprehensive and recent book, and the one I would most recommend. Stillness Speaks is a highly distilled jewel that offers the essence of his message in sutra-like form -- very beautiful and clear. The Power of Now and Practicing the Power of Now are also great. Audio and video I especially recommend: Freeing Yourself from Identification with Your Mind (a remarkably clear talk given at Inner Directions Gathering 2000 that is now available on a CD called Through the Open Door that includes another excellent talk as well); Beneath the World Drama There Is Peace (a set of 8 extraordinary talks from a retreat that happened a few days after the 9/11 attacks); The Art of Presence; Finding Your Life's Purpose; The Essence of Now (Asia '02); A Guide for the Spiritual Teacher and Health Practitioner (excellent talks from a retreat for teachers, therapists, and others who work with people); and Findhorn Retreat: Stillness Admidst the World. Very highly recommended. More here.

TONI PACKER: The Silent Question; The Wonder of Presence; The Light of Discovery; Seeing Without Knowing / What Is Meditative Inquiry?; and The Work of This Moment -- Toni was my main teacher for many years, and I am still finding new depth in her work. She is passionately interested in listening and looking without answers or formulas, and without relying on the authority of the past. Toni was a Zen teacher who left the rituals and dogmas behind, a kindred spirit to J. Krishnamurti. Toni is exceptionally good at clarifying the difference between awareness and thinking, or between direct perception and conceptual overlay. She is wonderful at waking you up to the wonder, simplicity and immediacy of present awareness, the nondual absolute: the wind in the trees, the swaying grasses, the chirp of a bird, the hum of the air conditioner. Toni works without dogma or tradition, questioning all systems and beliefs, even the very subtle and supposedly liberating ones. The mind habitually wants comforting, feel-good answers; Toni provides none, pointing instead to the open wonder of not knowing, and to seeing directly. There is a delicate subtlety and a spaciousness in her work that I love, as well as an ability to slice through all forms of self-deception. She sees through the illusory thought-constructed self with exceptional clarity and discernment; she speaks from listening presence and not from thought and belief; she is open to questioning everything anew. Her overall approach, which she calls "the work of this moment" or "meditative inquiry," is about attending to what is, seeing through the deceptions of thought, questioning and investigating directly -- not by thinking and analyzing, but by looking and listening with open awareness, and discovering directly the undivided wholeness and immediacy that is here and now. "No matter what state dawns at this moment, can there be just that?" Toni asks. "Not a movement away, an escape into something that will provide what this state does not provide, or doesn't seem to provide: energy, zest, inspiration, joy, happiness, whatever. Just completely, unconditionally listening to what's here now, is that possible?" Toni looks closely at human suffering (anger, fear, compulsion, and so forth) and suggests meeting whatever is here with open interest and non-judgmental curiosity. She is no stranger to human pain and suffering -- Toni grew up half-Jewish in Nazi Germany, and in recent years, has been living with severe chronic pain and increasing disability. She now sees the roles of "teacher" and "student" as a divisive hindrance to the freedom of open inquiry, and regards herself instead as a friend and fellow-explorer. Toni and friends founded Springwater Center, a lovely 200 acre retreat center in rural northwestern NY where she (and now several others as well) meet with people and offer silent retreats. Springwater is utterly unique in its open, undogmatic, bare-bones approach of simple awareness and unsystematic meditative inquiry. I recommend Toni and Springwater and the others who are now offering retreats there as well (Richard Witteman, Wayne Coger, Sandra Gonzalez, and Stew Glick). Audio tapes and CDs, videotapes and DVDs, a newsletter, and books (including my first book, Bare-Bones Meditation) are available here.

STEVE HAGEN: Buddhism Is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom Beyond Beliefs; Meditation Now or Never; Buddhism Plain & Simple; and How the World Can Be the Way It Is: An Inquiry for the New Millennium into Science, Philosophy, and Perception. These are all outstanding and highly recommended books, especially Buddhism Is Not What You Think and Meditation Now or Never. Steve is probably the clearest and most articulate Zen teacher I've come across. I recommend him for his subtle understanding of emptiness, impermanence, nonduality and enlightenment, and also for his intelligent approach to meditation. Steve is excellent at clarifying the distinction between conceptual thinking and direct perceiving, and excellent at exposing conceptual reifications, especially the most subtle and ubiquitous ones, which are so easily mistaken for reality. He sheds light on the thinking mind's habitual tendency to try to grasp reality conceptually, and then to mistake the map for the territory. I especially appreciate how Steve talks about emptiness, not as a formless, nihilistic void or a big empty space, but rather, as thorough-going flux, the impermanence that "is so complete, so thorough, that nothing is formed in the first place to be impermanent." This is the Zen understanding of emptiness or no-self. Emptiness is everything, as it is -- the seamless wholeness in which there really are no separate, substantial, persisting, independent "things" to be found, except in conceptual thought, as ideas. Steve teaches formal Zen practice, albeit in a pretty bare, plain, stripped-down way, but it is still rigorous and ritualized. I'm not drawn to that kind of formal practice, so there are a few aspects of Steve's approach that don't resonate here, but the essence of what he says is absolutely outstanding. His book on meditation is superb, and it's not just about meditation, it's about life. (Again, I don't resonate with all the specific instructions on postures and hand positions and the insistence on certain forms as the "correct" or only way to do this, but if you can take that part lightly as simply suggestions and possibilities, then the essence of what he's saying about meditation and living life is right on the mark). Steve is a truly humble, down to earth person, articulate, bright and very awake. A Zen priest in the lineage of Dainin Katagiri and a former science researcher, Steve heads the Dharma Field Meditation and Learning Center in Minneapolis, and if you're looking for a Zen center, this is a truly wonderful place. Steve is certainly one of the clearest living Zen teachers, and his co-teacher Norm Randolph is also wonderful. Books, tapes, excellent classes on CD, a newsletter that frequently includes articles by Steve and Norm, talks on-line and more information here. Very, very highly recommended.

HUANG PO: The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind, transl. by John Blofeld -- Clear, direct, original Zen from one of the greatest masters. Huang Po cuts through all concepts and leaves you with nothing. Excellent! Very highly recommended.

NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ: I Am That (translated by Maurice Frydman) -- This is the Advaita classic (non-dualism, plain and simple). It is the most well-worn book in my collection, and I recommend it very highly -- an extraordinary book. Nisargadatta was an Indian guru in the 20th century -- a family man and a shopkeeper, living and teaching in the back lanes of Bombay, where he died in 1981. He is exceptionally clear, radical (to the root), and direct. I Am That is a jewel. Other very highly recommended books of Nisargadatta's teaching include: Consciousness and the Absolute; Prior to Consciousness; and Seeds of Consciousness (three excellent collections of dialogs edited by Jean Dunn); Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj (by Ramesh S. Balsekar); The Wisdom-Teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj: A Visual Journey (photos and text, edited by Matthew Greenblatt); and The Ultimate Medicine and The Experience of Nothingness (two collections of dialogs edited by Robert Powell). Stephen Wolinsky has produced two books (I Am That I Am and You Are Not) and a growing number of DVDs (including I Am That I Am, Nirvana Means Extinction, Prior to the I Am, and Consciousness and Beyond), all of them about Nisargadatta's teachings as interpreted (or perhaps sometimes misinterpreted) by Wolinsky, who throws in some very interesting quantum physics and neuroscience, some post-deconstruction philosophy, many (to me) tedious guided meditations, quite a bit of himself, and a dash of Nagarjuna, Avadhut Nityananda and others -- there's some excellent material in both books and in all of these DVDs, and all the DVDs include actual footage of Maharaj meeting with seekers, and those are all available here. There is an excellent video about Nisargadatta, Awaken to the Eternal: A Journey of Self-Discovery, which includes actual footage of Maharaj along with interviews with many people who spent time with him, including Jack Kornfield, Robert Powell and Jean Dunn, and that excellent video is available here.

RAMANA MAHARSHI: The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi: A Visual Journey (edited by Matthew Greenblatt) and Heart Is Thy Name, Oh Lord: Moments of Silence with Sri Ramana Maharshi (edited by Bharati Mirchandani) -- These two exquisite books are the best collections of Ramana's teaching I've seen. They both combine words (minimal, concise, distilled, essential gems from Ramana) with powerful photographs to transmit the teaching and the presence of Sri Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950), the deeply realized Indian sage who was mostly silent. His teaching was Advaita (nondualism). Very highly recommended. Other collections of Ramana's teachings that I've enjoyed are: Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi edited by David Godman; The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi (Shambhala edition; foreward by C. Jung); and Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi: On Realizing Abiding Peace & Happiness (Inner Directions). These books are all beautiful pointers to the ultimate truth of non-duality, but the two I mention first with the photos are the ones I'd most highly recommend. There are a number of video documentaries about Ramana, and my favorite by far is The Sage of Arunachala.

RUMI: The Illuminated Rumi (with translations & commentary by Coleman Barks and illuminations by Michael Green); The Essential Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks); and Rumi: Poet of the Heart (a video) -- Jelaluddin Rumi, who gave rise to the Sufi order of whirling dervishes, was a passionate 13th century mystical poet. He was born in what is now Afghanistan and lived most of his life in Konya, Turkey. His poetry is profound and beautiful, brimming with love and the ecstasy that embraces absolutely everything. Very highly recommended! The foremost translator of Rumi's work into English is the poet Coleman Barks, but there are many other translations and collections available. The Illuminated Rumi is an absolutely gorgeous book that weaves together Rumi's words, translated by Barks, with stunning visual images by the artist Michael Green. By all means buy a copy of this book and savor it over a lifetime. Michael Green has now come out with a "New Illuminated Rumi" called One Song, which is also beautiful, and it includes a CD of music by the Illumination Band blending Rumi with bluegrass, gospel and blues. The Essential Rumi, translated by Barks, is an excellent collection of Rumi's work. Rumi: Poet of the Heart is an exquisite video from Magnolia Films that features Coleman Barks, Robert Bly, Huston Smith, Hamza El Din, Jai Uttal, Deepak Chopra, Michael Meade and others, blending Rumi's poems in English and Persian with music, visual imagery, and rich commentary. An absolutely stunning and magnificent piece of work, very highly recommended. It is available here. Other favorite collections of mine include Rumi: the Book of Love, translation and commentary by Coleman Barks, and Open Secret, translated by John Moyne & Coleman Barks. There are many others. You can find links to Coleman Barks and Michael Green on my links page.

HAFIZ: I Heard God Laughing; The Gift; and The Subject Tonight Is Love -- three rich and delightful volumes of ecstatic and enlightening poetry by the 14th century Persian Sufi poet Hafiz, all beautifully rendered by Daniel Ladinsky. Superb! Highly recommended. More here.

LOVE POEMS FROM GOD: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, translated by Daniel Ladinsky -- exquisitely rendered poems by Rumi, Hafiz, Meister Eckhart, Mira, Rabia, Kabir, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis, and others. I love Ladinsky's introductory words and the spirit he brings to the work.

JEAN KLEIN: Transmission of the Flame; I AM; Living Truth and The Ease of Being -- Some of my favorite books by Jean Klein, a European teacher of Advaita (non-dualism) who lived and taught during the 20th century. Very clear and lucid, subtle, beautiful dialogues that emerge from stillness and presence, transcribed from his retreats. Jean was a medical doctor and musicologist with great sensitivity to both the body and the arts. He studied Advaita and yoga in India, and taught in Europe and the United States. There are several other books as well, all of them excellent, and you may be able to find audio and video tapes, as well as copies or reprints of the periodic journal Listening that was published when Jean was alive. Non-duality Press and Inner Directions are probably good sources. All of Jean's books are very highly recommended.

THICH NHAT HANH: The Sun My Heart -- This is my favorite of the many fine books by Thich Nhat Hanh, the gentle Vietnamese Zen Buddhist poet, monk and peace activist who can perhaps be thought of as the founder of socially engaged Buddhism. He is now living in exile in France, where he founded a monastery called Plum Village. This is profound nondual understanding coming from a man who has lived it under the most challenging of circumstances. Thich Nhat Hanh was a monk and social activist in Vietnam during the war and has held retreats in America for veterans of that war. He was nominated by Martin Luther King for the Nobel Peace Prize. I'm not into formal Buddhism or methodical practices in the same way Thich Nhat Hanh is, but his insight is profound and the essence of his teaching is right on. I have tremendous respect and appreciation for this man and his work. Very deep, subtle, nondual insight. This particular book, The Sun My Heart, is absolutely excellent, very very highly recommended. Other books of his I'd recommend highly are The Heart of Understanding and No Death, No Fear. For a basic book on meditation, you might also check out Miracle of Mindfulness. More here and here.

'SAILOR' BOB ADAMSON: Presence-Awareness: Just This and Nothing Else; One Essence Appearing as Everything; and What's Wrong with Right Now Unless You Think About It? -- Sailor Bob is a contemporary Australian who spent time with Nisargadatta Maharaj in the 1970's. Bob communicates non-dualism in a clear and simple way, drawing from Advaita, Dzogchen, and his own direct seeing. No compromises, no ego candy, no frills, no sidetracks, no guru-posturing, no carrots being dangled in front of you, no bullshit, no glossy fanfare, no Bob. Simple, direct, clean, clear. Bob shows you that there is always only presence-awareness, the undivided intelligence energy that vibrates into different patterns but is always only the One without a second from which no separation is ever possible. You already are what you seek; there will never be any more Oneness than there is now. Bob is a rare jewel -- a clear, unpretentious, sincere, ordinary, humble, down to earth guy whose great passion in life is this simple teaching. He doesn't set himself above those who come to him, and he dispels any notion that there is something bigger and better to find in the future. Very highly recommended. In addition to the books, there are now CDs and DVDs as well. There is also a book by James Braha called Living Reality: My Extraordinary Summer with "Sailor" Bob Adamson that contains transcripts of many wonderful dialogs between James and his friends and Bob -- you feel like you're right there in the room -- and I recommend that book for the dialogs. More on Bob here.

LEO HARTONG: Awakening to the Dream: The Gift of Lucid Living and From Self to Self -- Leo has an exceptional gift for clarity of perception and expression, and these two books are among the simplest, clearest, and most articulate expressions of radical nondualism available. Leo communicates the uncompromising understanding that everything is One, that all separation is conceptual or imaginary, that the apparent individual is a fiction, that there is no one to be bound or to have free will, and nothing real to be lost or found, that what is could not be otherwise, and that all practices are pointless because it is impossible to find or escape from what is. Leo also offers a wonderful on-line newsletter. His second book, From Self to Self, is a collection of writings from this newsletter. All very highly recommended. More here.

VERNON KITABU TURNER: Soul Sword: The Way and Mind of a Zen Warrior. Kitabu Roshi is an African-American marial artist, Zen master and writer. He is a truly remarkable man whose message is: "the great master is within you." This book is about cultivating "a mind like water," the enlightened mind. It includes a wonderful interview with Kitabu Roshi from WIE (What Is Enlightenment?) Magazine. More here.

GARY CROWLEY: From Here to Here: Turning Toward Enlightenment -- This short book is an elegantly simple, spare, straight-forward, crystal clear elucidation of our most fundamental human illusion and the root of all our suffering -- the sense of being a separate individual with an independent will. Gary exposes and deconstructs this illusion with such directness and simplicity, showing how everything we think, feel and do is the outcome and activity of conditioned neurology. He then invites the reader to discover what remains when this illusion is seen for what it is. What remains is enlightenment -- present awareness experiencing this-here-now. A wonderful book -- an arrow cleanly shot right to the bull's eye. Very highly recommended! More here.

CHUCK HILLIG: Looking for God: Seeing the Whole in One and The Enlightenment Trilogy (Enlightenment for Beginners: Discovering the Dance of the Divine; The Way IT Is; and Seeds for the Soul) -- Chuck has a wonderful sense of lightness and humor, and a fabulous ability to convey the essence with the utmost simplicity. Each of these books on non-duality can be read in less than an hour, but they say it all, in words and pictures. Very clear, delightful, and enlightening books. Highly recommended. More here and here.

JOSH BARAN: The Tao of Now (originally published as 365 nirvana here and now: living every moment in enlightenment) -- Josh Baran, a former Zen monk now working as a communications executive in NYC, has assembled a collection of short passages and quotations from a diverse group of sages that includes Jesus, Buddha, Walt Whitman, Kabir, Meher Baba, Krishnamurti, Tony Parsons, Joko Beck, Mary Oliver, Toni Packer, Osho, Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, Alan Ball, Steve Hagen, Gangaji, Eckhart Tolle, and others. Each gem-like passage is an arrow aimed at shifting attention to right now and popping all ideas about distant goals and future attainments. The author's introduction is beautiful, as is the mind-stopping conversation with him at the end (the latter is not included in the new edition, only in the original). This book is like my Bible -- open it anywhere and it stops the mind. Very highly recommended. More here.

ANTHONY deMELLO: Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality and The Way to Love -- deMello was a Catholic priest from India, and also a psychotherapist. His no-nonsense approach is one of simple awareness. He's funny, straightforward, clear, and wonderfully direct and to the point. Not a trace of mainstream Catholic dogma here. Excellent books, especially Awareness. Very highly recommended. More here and here.

J. KRISHNAMURTI: This Light in Oneself: True Meditation; Tradition and Revolution; Meeting Life; Choiceless Awareness: A Selection of Passages for the Study of the Teaching of J. Krishnamurti (spiral bound; published by KFA); On Freedom; Krishnamurti's Notebook; and Krishnamurti: Reflections on the Self (ed. by Raymond Martin) -- Some of my favorite of the many excellent books by J. Krishnamurti, who lived during the 20th Century. Krishnamurti questioned and saw through all the absurdities of organized religion with its priests and gurus, its dogmas and beliefs. His approach was one of direct observation and open awareness. He offers no prescriptions, practices or methods, insisting that any form of repetition or control is deadening and false. He had tremendous clarity, subtilty and depth, and he saw through the illusions of the mind with remarkable acuity. Very highly recommended. Videos, audios also available. More here.

DAVID BOHM: Thought As a System -- This excellent book, which I very highly recommend, is the transcript of a seminar with Bohm exploring thought, awareness, and dialogue. Bohm was a leading theoretical physicist, who dialogued extensively with J. Krishnamurti. This book is a remarkably clear and exquisitely subtle exploration of thought and its effects on the world, and it also explores Bohm's ideas about the importance of group dialogue as a form of meditative inquiry. Also recommended: Changing Consciousness: Exploring the Hidden Source of the Social, Political and Environmental Crises Facing our World by David Bohm & Mark Edwards, which explores the development of human culture, and how the mis-use of thought is the root source of the escalating global crisis. That book is a dialogue between the authors, both of whom were associated with Krishnamurti, alongside photographs taken by Mark Edwards all around the world. Both books are excellent and highly recommended, especially Thought As a System. Bohm has a number of other books that are accessible to a non-physicist, Unfolding Meaning and Wholeness and the Implicate Order. More on Bohm here.

GANGAJI: The Diamond in Your Pocket and You Are That! -- Gangaji is a contemporary American woman whose final teacher was H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji), a devotee of Ramana Maharshi. Gangaji has a truly remarkable ability to cut through the thinking mind and bring it to a stop, deconstructing all stories and revealing "the radiance at the core." I love her invitation to give up the search: "Self-inquiry is not a path that leads you somewhere," she says. "It is the path that stops you in your tracks." She draws from Advaita, Buddhism, Christianity, western psychology and other sources, but her teaching is not bound by any particular packaging. She directs you out of the mind and into the Heart. I find Gangaji clear, intelligent, insightful, radiant, lively, funny, honest, enlightening and heart-opening. Excellent CDs and DVDs are also available. Gangaji holds satsangs and retreats around the world and is currently based in Ashland, Oregon. Very highly recommended. More here.

ADYASHANTI: Emptiness Dancing; True Meditation, and The Impact of Awakening -- Adya is a contemporary American teacher who offers a unique blend of Zen and Advaita that he calls zen-satsang. He is clear, warm-hearted, authentic and original, and he skillfully guides his listeners to a directly experienced, felt-sense of what he is talking about, and not just a conceptual or mental understanding. He doesn't seem to get stuck on one side or the other of any imaginary conceptual dualistic divide (such as choice vs. no choice, or practice vs. no practice). I don't always resonate with the way he talks about awakening and liberation, but overall, I think he's a wonderful teacher. His guided meditations are very good. Excellent audio and video are available. All very highly recommended. More here.

MIKE SNIDER: Mike Snider is a teacher in the lineage of Adyashanti. A banjo player from Tennessee, Mike talks about nonduality in this delightfully down home way that is simple, direct, clear, and just lovely. If you can hear some clips, I highly recommend them. If you go to Adya's website, click on "sangha" and then "transmission," you will find Mike. I recommend him very highly.

NIRMALA: Nothing Personal: Seeing Beyond the Illusion of a Separate Self. This is an excellent book, clear and warm-hearted. Nirmala is a contemporary American teacher (a student of Neelam, Adyashanti, and A.H. Almaas) who lives in Arizona. He invites you to "say yes to the mystery of every moment," and to see that you are pure consciousness. There are many exquisite jewels in this book, such as the chapter called "The Movement of Awareness," in which Nirmala talks about the zoom function of consciousness. More here.

BYRON KATIE: Loving What Is: Four Questions that Can Change Your Life (written with her husband, Stephen Mitchell); A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are (also written with Stephen Mitchell); I Need Your Love -- Is That True? How to Stop Seeking Love, Approval, and Appreciation and Start Finding Them Instead (written with Michael Katz); and Losing the Moon: Byron Katie Dialogues on Non-Duality, Truth and Other Illusions (edited by Ellen Mack and now out of print) -- Katie is a refreshingly unique contemporary teacher who has come up with a simple method for seeing through the mental mirage. I'm not usually an enthusiast for methods and techniques, but I find "The Work" (as she calls it) definitely worth exploring. Every belief, story, and projection is exposed and deconstructed by putting it on paper and investigating it. At first glance, this might look like self-improvement, but it's truly about self-realization. Just reading these books can be eye-opening and enlightening. Instead of encouraging us to try to be spiritual, Katie instead invites us to be as petty and unspiritual as possible -- bring out all our worst, most judgmental, most unenlightened, most spiritually incorrect thoughts -- and then investigate them by asking 4 simple questions. This questioning is done not on a purely cognitive level, but by feeling deeply into the answers. This simple process can definitely be a wake up from the thought-created mirage that is our human suffering. Loving What Is is probably the clearest and best introduction to The Work, although her earlier (now out of print) book, Losing the Moon, offers a much more raw and extreme rendition of her teaching and is worth tracking down. Katie's newest book, A Thousand Names for Joy, is my personal favorite and the one I would most highly recommend. It is a kind of living portrait of the awakened mind in action in daily life. In the words of Katie's husband, Stephen Mitchell, A Thousand Names for Joy is "a portrait of a woman who is imperturbably joyous, whether she is dancing with her infant granddaughter or finds that her house has been emptied out by burglars, whether she stands before a man about to kill her or...learns that she is going blind...it doesn't merely describe the awakened mind; it lets you see it, feel it, in action." This personal account offers you a whole new way of looking at life, and just reading it can be liberating. I find her books and her questions enlightening and well worth exploring. Audio, video, and more information on The Work here.

FRANCIS LUCILLE: Eternity Now: Dialogues on Awareness -- A contemporary teacher of Advaita originally from France, Francis currently lives in California and offers retreats worldwide. He has a background in science and mathematics, is exceptionally intelligent and clear, and there is a subtlety and depth to his work that I appreciate greatly. Like his teacher Jean Klein, Francis incorporates subtle somatic movement and awareness work into his retreats. He has several other books now as well, which I haven't read, but I'm sure they're good, and there are also many excellent DVDs and CDs available. More here.

STEVEN HARRISON: The Love of Uncertainty; What's Next After Now? Post-Spirituality & the Creative Life; The Question to Life's Answers: Spirituality Beyond Belief; and Getting to Where You Are: The Life of Meditation -- Steven calls himself "post-spiritual," arguing that the whole construction of spirituality is bankrupt: "As a conditioned expression of our sense of lack, [spirituality] is caught in its own promise of fulfillment." Steven rejects all forms of spirituality that are rooted in narcissism and self-deception and that seek security, certainty, pain relief, extraordinary experiences, ego-enhancement, self-improvement, or comfort. He dismisses "being in the now," mindfulness meditation, non-duality, Advaita, New Age self-improvement programs, psychotherapy -- all the popular answers on the spiritual scene today. Instead, he invites the reader into what he describes as a life of open inquiry, "a life of discovery without reliance on any system or philosophy," a life beyond the known. Steven suggests that radical transformation is possible only through direct contact with actuality, and if you think you know what actuality is, that isn't it. If you're ready to question all your ideas about spirituality and nonduality, these books will at the very least raise some excellent questions and challenge your beliefs. I greatly appreciate the way Steven questions and deconstructs all the prevailing answers, his honesty and inquiring spirit, and the way he attempts to live his investigation rather than just think and talk about it. He has co-founded a community and an alternative school in Colorado, a publishing venture, and a nonprofit organization that provides assistance to people in Asia and Africa. I recommend him highly. Audio and video, plus several other books, and information about Steven's projects and events is available here.

SHUNRYU SUZUKI: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (edited by Trudy Dixon); and Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen (edited by Ed Brown) -- two superb collections of talks by Shunryu Suzuki, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center. "Buddha's teaching is everywhere," he said. "Today it is raining. This is Buddha's teaching." He also said, "For Zen students, a weed is a treasure," and "We should find perfection in imperfection." There are also two enlightening books about Suzuki Roshi: Crooked Cucumber (a very wonderful and rich biography by David Chadwick), and To Shine One Corner of the World (a collection of brief stories about him told by his students and edited by David Chadwick), both of which beautifully convey the heart of Suzuki's teaching. I'm not into formal Zen practice in exactly the way he taught it, but I love these books, and I have great respect and fondness for the San Francisco Zen Center and for Suzuki Roshi. All these books are very highly recommended. More about Shunryu Suzuki and his lineage here.

BERNIE GLASSMAN: Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen -- Aerospace engineer turned Zen teacher, long-time activist for peace and social justice, founder of the Zen Community of New York and the Zen Peacemaker Order, Bernie Glassman is deeply committed to "Not Knowing" ("giving up fixed ideas about myself and the universe") and "Bearing Witness to the joy and suffering of the world." He speaks of taking action in the world with no idea of a cure, and of practicing Zen not in order to become enlightened, but because we are enlightened. This book is rich with subtlety as it explores such points as "form is precisely emptiness, emptiness precisely form," and "not one, not two." Glassman's varied activities over the years include holding retreats on the streets of New York City where participants are homeless for a week, holding interfaith bearing witness retreats at Auschwitz, creating Zen business ventures and social service projects, clowning (he created the Order of Dis-Order), and working for peace in the Middle East. Bernie Glassman loves what he calls "plunges" -- "taking you out of that space of knowing and dropping you into a place of not knowing." I'm not particularly drawn to formal Zen, and I'm not much of a social activist anymore, but I do find Glassman's work very intriguing, and I always appreciate the Zen understanding of nonduality, which to my eye and ear, is subtle, profound and inclusive. Glassman has several other books, but Infinite Circle is the one I recommend most highly. More here.

NAGARJUNA: Mulamadhyamakakarika (The Middle Way) -- Nagarjuna lived in India in the second century C.E. and is considered one of the most important and seminal figures in Buddhism, perhaps second only to the Buddha himself. Nagarjuna was noted for deconstructing the conceptual mirage of solidity and permanence, and questioning the mind's tendency to grasp, fixate and reify. He points out the fallacy in every way by which we try to conceptualize reality, but without ever offering us an alternative (as in, the right way of conceptualizing it). We want that, but Nagarjuna doesn't offer it, because concepts can't ever be the truth (the map isn't ever the territory). Steve Hagen (see above) has a whole course about Nagarjuna available on CD that is excellent and very highly recommended. Good translations of Nagarjuna include those by David J. Kalupahana and Jay L. Garfield. It's not easy material, but very highly recommended. Stephen Batchelor has done a very free and poetic rendering of the Mulamadhyamakakarika, calling it Verses from the Center -- the introduction is great and highly recommended, but the translation itself takes considerable liberty with the original, adding personal pronouns, for example, which Nagarjuna did not use, as he was in fact exposing the presumed antecedent as non-existent, so I would not recommend that translation. Another text attributed to Nargarjuna is the Seventy Stanzas on Emptiness.

HSIN HSIN MING by Sengtsan, translated by Richard B. Clark. This poem by the Third Zen Patriarch is a beautiful expression of true non-duality. Clark has continued to refine his translation over the years, and there are several versions floating around.

DOGEN: Genjo Koan (variously translated as "Actualizing the Fundamental Point" or "Manifesting Absolute Reality" or "The Realization of Ultimate Reality") and all of his other writings -- Eihei Dogen was a 13th century Zen master and the founder of Soto Zen. His burning question as a young monk was, If everything already has (or is) Buddha Nature, why do we need to practice? His response is that to regard practice as the means by which we attain enlightenment is to miss the point completely. Practice is the expression of enlightenment. This is nondual understanding that includes oneness and multiplicity, relative and absolute: "The Buddha Way is, basically, leaping clear of the many and the one," Dogen writes. His writing is subtle, poetic, profound. A piece like Genjo Koan can be read over and over, and with each reading, you may find new dimensions emerging that you hadn't seen or understood before. Read it again and again over many years, soak in it, absorb it. Very highly recommended. There are numerous translations and collections of Dogen's writings that include Genjo Koan and many of his other fine texts, and there are some wonderful commentaries on Dogen as well. Several collections that I recommend are Moon in a Dewdrop and Enlightenment Unfolds, both edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi, and Sounds of Valley Streams, edited by Francis H. Cook. Uchiyama also has some wonderful translations and commentaries.

CHARLOTTE JOKO BECK: Everyday Zen: Love & Work and Nothing Special: Living Zen -- Joko is an exceptionally clear, sharp, down-to-earth, no-nonsense, modern day Zen teacher. Her approach is practice-oriented, and the practice is awareness in the midst of ordinary life. As she puts it, "All practice can be summed up as observing the mental process and experiencing present bodily sensations; no more and no less." Joko raised her children as a single working mother and is well-versed in the challenges of ordinary life. From her perspective, the messier the circumstances and the bigger the disappointments, the richer the opportunities. Joko taught at Zen Center of San Diego and created the Ordinary Mind Zen School. Now heading into her 90's, she has recently retired to Arizona where she continues working with students. You can read some of her talks here on the website of one of her successors. There is a wonderful video that I highly recommend called "Nothing Special" about Joko that beautifully transmits the essence of her teachings as well as her remarkable spirit; it is available here. Joko says: "Practice is not about having nice feelings, happy feelings. It's not about changing, or getting somewhere. That in itself is the basic fallacy. But observing this desire begins to clarify it. We begin to comprehend that our frantic desire to get better, to 'get somewhere,' is illusion itself, and the source of suffering." Joko's approach is stricter and more practice-oriented than mine, but the essence of her teaching is excellent.

HUBERT BENOIT: Zen and the Psychology of Transformation: The Supreme Doctrine (originally published as The Supreme Doctrine) -- Joko Beck describes this book as "her main teacher" and says that "it may be the best book on Zen ever written." The author was a French surgeon (and later psychiatrist) who was severely wounded during a bombing in World War II that left him unable to move for many years. The book is a brilliant exposition of our essential human problem and its resolution. The book is unfortunately not easy to read, but worth the effort. It was translated from the French by Benoit's friend Wei Wu Wei. Highly recommended.

WEI WU WEI: All Else Is Bondage; Open Secret; and Ask the Awakened -- Three of the many fine books on non-dualism by a 20th century Irishman, now deceased, who called himself Wei Wu Wei. The perspective is essentially that of true Advaita, Taoism, and Zen. Wei Wu Wei goes right for the root; he takes away everything and leaves nothing; then he takes that away. Exceptionally clear and to the root. More here.

RAMESH S. BALSEKAR: Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj; A Net of Jewels; The Wisdom of Balsekar; Consciousness Speaks; Your Head in the Tiger's Mouth; From Consciousness to Consciousness; The Final Truth; and Experiencing the Teaching -- Ramesh S. Balsekar is a retired bank president who was a close disciple and translator of Nisargadatta. Last I heard, Ramesh is still teaching in India. He hammers away relentlessly at the root illusion of a separate, autonomous individual with free will. This is uncompromising, non-dual Advaita with a strong emphasis on the non-existence of personal volition. More here and here.

WAYNE LIQUORMAN: Never Mind: A Journey Into Non-Duality and Acceptance of What Is: A Book About Nothing -- Former businessman, alcoholic and drug addict, Wayne is an American disciple of Ramesh Balsekar. Irreverent, funny, articulate, hard-hitting and without spiritual veneer, Wayne communicates radical, non-dual Advaita with a strong emphasis on the non-existence of individual volition and authorship. He points to "the divine nature of everything that exists, no matter how hurtful or painful it might be." Everything is Consciousness, he says, and everything that everybody is doing is the functioning of Consciousness (or Totality). For seeing through the illusion of free will and personal responsibility, Wayne is a great one to read or hear, and his message can greatly relieve guilt and blame. He points to the all-inclusive, non-dual Totality that is not limited to (or absent from) any particular experience or state: "The teaching I offer to you is about this--this present moment--which is all-inclusive. When I say it's all-inclusive, I mean simply that it includes everything....The experience of oneness and the experience of fear are both...overlays onto What Is....The ultimate state of Understanding encompasses both and absorbs both, but is neither to the exclusion of the other." There is also a wonderful book of satirical poems, NO WAY for the Spiritually "Advanced,", written under Wayne's pen name, Ram Tzu. Audio and video of Wayne's meetings are available (I would especially recommend newer material, what he calls "The Living Teaching"), and there are live webcasts and an email newsletter that always includes a lovely letter from Wayne. Keep your eyes out for a new book -- I'm guessing it will be the best one yet. I've watched his teaching develop over the years, and his expression gets ever clearer and more alive. More here.

ALEXANDER SMIT: Consciousness: Talks About That Which Never Changes -- Alexander Smit (1948-1998) was a teacher of Advaita from the Netherlands. Smit met and came in contact with many teachers, including J. Krishnamurti, Jean Klein, and Douglas Harding, and his final teacher was Nisargadatta Maharaj. This excellent collection of dialogues is powerful and on the mark. I recommend it very highly. Available from the publisher here or from Amazon.

TONY PARSONS: As It Is; All There Is; and Nothing Being Everything -- Tony's direct and uncompromising message is that there is only Being and everything is the Beloved, whether it appears as a flower garden, as dog shit, or as the holocaust. Tony is a delightfully funny, playful, ordinary, unorthodox and irreverent Englishman who points to the unreality of the illusory seeker who imagines that he or she can do (or not do) anything other than exactly what is, as it is: "Everything about you is totally absolutely perfectly appropriate," Tony says. "All the things you think are wrong with you are absolutely right." Practices of any kind are utterly pointless because there is no way in or out of Being. Tony describes what he does as an "outrageous, irreverent, non-spiritual, crazy outpouring." His childlike wonder and irreverent humor are great correctives to grueling spiritual practices based in a sense of unworthiness and an obsession with purification and self-improvement. Tony sees the awakened life not as a life of detachment, but rather as a juicy love affair, unfiltered full-on aliveness. I love his direct pointing to "just this," his irreverent humor, and the absence of any kind of spiritual veneer or posturing. He can get rather dogmatic about his particular way of expressing the inexpressible, and he doesn't seem to really hear some of the teachers he writes off as dualistic, but overall, I find him wonderfully liberating and recommend him highly. There are different UK and US versions of some of Tony's books, often containing different material -- the titles I mention are the ones I have read. His CDs and audio tapes are better at conveying his irreverent humor than his writing (of the ones I've heard, I especially recommend the Dublin August 2003 tapes and a CD set called "The Gift, London Autumn 2006"). DVDs are available as well. Tony offers meetings and retreats in Europe. More here.

NATHAN GILL: Already Awake and Being: The Bottom Line -- Nathan points to what is always already here. He never wavers from the insistence that absolutely nothing needs to be done (or not done). "It's always already it, always," he says, no matter what is appearing. Nathan was offering meetings in England, but last I heard, he's gone back to gardening. He is refreshingly unpretentious, uncompromising, direct and clear. He never tries to set himself above those who come to him, he dangles no subtle carrots in front of you, and he dispels any lingering fantasy that there is some bigger and better awakening to find in the future. Instead, Nathan shows you over and over that this is it, right here, right now, exactly as it is. This is radical, direct, uncompromising, bottomline non-duality from a very lovely, open, ordinary, down to earth guy. Very highly recommended. Several CDs are available as well. More here.

KARL RENZ: The Myth of Enlightenment: Seeing Through the Illusion of Separation -- Karl is a contemporary German painter, musician, and communicator of absolute, nondual Advaita. He's a funny, fast-talking guy with a love for playing with words. Irreverent and without spiritual veneer, Karl points to "that which is prior to any kind of peace or conflict, prior to every sensation, perception, or concept." Of this, he writes: "There's no 'closer' to it, 'more advanced,' 'less advanced,' ...there are no sleeping or awakened ones anymore, no more hocus-pocus of trying to get anywhere and have special experiences." And he goes on to say, "Every personal awakening is a joke, a fart in the wind. A person can never wake up because the Self is always awake." Karl seems to embody and transmit a kind of care-less-ness, as he puts it, and he often says that he is talking to death the mind that wants to be in control. He offers no methods or practices, pointing out that the search for a solution only gives credence to the reality of the imaginary problem, and he happily declares that he is "useless and irrelevant." Karl is ruthless, and can sometimes come across as mean-spirited, putting down others teachers and so on, so if you're looking for loving-kindness, look elsewhere. I find his message very liberating. DVDs and MP3s are available and a second book is apparently in the works. (For DVDs in English, I'd recommend The Neverending I or the '04 Summer Retreat in Mallorca, and for audio in English, the San Diego talks from his 2007 North American tour). More here.

JEFF FOSTER: Beyond Awakening: The End of the Spiritual Search -- A graduate in astrophysics from Cambridge University, Jeff Foster is a lovely young man in the UK who communicates uncompromising, absolute nonduality - what he calls "the utterly, utterly obvious." He points to what is, just as it is, and offers no wiggle room for the mind that wants to figure it all out or get to something better. Jeff is now offering meetings in the UK and elsewhere. More here.

ROBERT ADAMS: Silence of the Heart: Dialogues with Robert Adams (Vols. I & II). Robert Adams was an American guru and a disciple of the great Advaita sage, Ramana Maharshi. Robert grew up in the Bronx, where (so the story goes) he had a spontaneous awakening as a teenager while taking a math test. He later spent several years in India with Ramana. At the end of his life, Robert lived in Sedona, Arizona, where he died of Parkinson's disease in 1997. Robert had a unique and often humorous way of talking about ultimate reality, and there is silence radiating from his words.

H.W.L. POONJA: This: Prose and Poetry of Dancing Emptiness and Wake Up & Roar -- H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji) was an Indian guru who lived during the 20th Century. He attracted many westerners (including Gangaji, Catherine Ingram, Isaac Shapiro, Mooji, and many others who are now teaching). I find much of Papaji's teaching very direct and clear, and I highly recommend these two books. This is an abridged version of a much longer book called Truth Is. Stick with the distilled version; it's a real jewel. Wake Up & Roar is a collection of sasang dialogs that was originally published in two volumes and is now available in a new combined edition with photos. More here.

MOOJI: Mooji is a contemporary teacher of Advaita. He was born in Jamaica but has lived most of his life in the UK where he was an artist and a teacher before his spiritual journey took him to India. There he met H.W.L. Poonja (Papaji), a devotee of Ramana Maharshi. Mooji now offers retreats and satsangs around the world, and you can hear audio, see video, and read dialogues at his website here. I recommend him very highly.

JON KABAT-ZINN: Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness -- Kabat-Zinn founded the pioneering Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. His work began by bringing simple mindfulness meditation (paying attention to the present moment) to patients working with severe chronic pain. From there the concept expanded to working with people in other kinds of stressful situations: prison inmates, people with low incomes, corporate executives, dying people, etc. This is basic insight meditation (present moment awareness) stripped of all the religious and spiritual trappings. Practical, down to earth, intelligent. For those who struggle with the apparent contradiction between so-called relative practices, such as meditation, and the absolute truth that there is nothing to attain and no one to attain it, Kabat-Zinn does an interesting job of reconciling these apparently opposite views in the chapters in this book called "Two Ways to Think About Meditation" and "Why Even Bother? The Importance of Motivation." His meditation and body scan tapes are excellent if you're looking for a simple, basic, awareness meditation. He is also the author of Full Catastrophe Living and several other fine books, and he is the co-author of a book called The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness, which I very highly recommend to anyone struggling with depression (see below). More on Kabat-Zinn here.

THE MINDFUL WAY THROUGH DEPRESSION: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn (book comes with an audio CD of guided meditation practices) -- This is a wonderful book that explains the mechanisms of depression and offers a way out based in mindfulness ("the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to things as they are."). Highly recommended!

MARY O'MALLEY: The Gift of Our Compulsions -- This book offers a gentle approach to working with compulsions, which can be anything from alcohol and drug abuse to overworking, overeating, fingerbiting, obsessive worrying, or whatever it might be. Instead of applying will-power, Mary O'Malley suggests curiousity, compassion, mindfulness, and awareness. She sees our compulsions not as shameful imperfections but rather as gifts that can lead us home. More here.

STEPHEN LEVINE: Unattended Sorrow: Recovering from Loss and Reviving the Heart; and Who Dies? -- With his wife Ondrea, Stephen has spent his life working with people who are terminally ill, as well as with war veterans, concentration camp survivors, survivors of sexual abuse, and people suffering from "the loss of dignity due to racial and religious prejudice, or the multitude of finely wrought cultural humiliations suffered by women, the aged, children, the infirm, and the less than 'beautiful.'" His own history included drugs and prison years ago. His approach is Buddhist-oriented but eclectic and open-minded. This is a gentle and tender teaching that can soften your belly, open your heart, and invite loving-kindness to others and to yourself. More here.

DAVID LOY: Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy -- David Loy is a professor and a long-time Zen student. I recommend this book to anyone who is struggling to reconcile (or differentiate) Advaita and Buddhism, or to anyone who is clinging dogmatically to one position or the other, or to anyone who wants a deeper and more subtle understanding of nonduality. The book compares and contrasts the Advaita notion of Self (Immutable Reality) with the Buddhist understanding of no self (impermanence, thorough-going flux, no-thing-ness). Loy explores concepts such as time and space, substance, causality, freedom, and spiritual path from a nondual perspective, drawing not only on Advaita and Buddhism, but also on Taoism and Western philosophy. The book takes an intellectual, philosophical approach, but Loy has spent decades practicing Zen, so his understanding is not merely coming from the intellect. The book is definitely well worth reading. He has two other books, Lack and Transcendence and The Great Awakening: A Buddhist Social Theory, which I have not yet read, and he is also the author of numerous articles. Loy co-authored a wonderful piece on time ("Consuming Time") in an excellent Buddhist anthology called Hooked, edited by Stephanie Kaza.

WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? Exploring the Goal of the Spiritual Path edited by John White. This book is a collection of articles by different authors, and in particular, I recommend the following 3 pieces from it: The Ultimate State of Consciousness by Ken Wilber; This Is It by Alan Watts; and The Mood of Enlightenment by Da Avabhasa.

LAO TZU: Tao Te Ching -- Beautiful, simple, and clear. There are any number of fine translations of this ancient Taoist classic, and each different translation conveys different flavors and shades of meaning for each verse. I especially recommend the translation by Stephen Mitchell, and the one by Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English. There's also a lovely version by Brian Walker, who also translated the less well-known Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu, which I also recommend.

CHOGYAM TRUNGPA: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism and The Myth of Freedom -- Chogyam Trungpa was a twentieth century Tibetan teacher who brought Tibetan Buddhism to the West. He founded Vajradhatu, the Naropa Institute and Shambhala. These two books point to groundlessness and non-dwelling -- the dropping of all reference points and concepts. "Then it is possible to experience the uniqueness and vividness of phenomena directly." I'm not into all the dogmas and forms of Tibetan Buddhism, but there's some great material in these books. More here.

PEMA CHODRON: The Places that Scare You; When Things Fall Apart; Start Where You Are; and The Wisdom of No Escape. Pema is an American woman (divorced, with grown children) who became a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and now heads Genpo Abbey in Nova Scotia. She was a student of Chogyam Trungpa. Pema embraces the darkness, the chaos, the difficulty, and the messiness of everyday life with love, humor, and warmth. She is honest, shares her own foibles openly, and offers a clear, Buddhist, practice-oriented, teaching with wisdom and heart. More here.

OSHO: Osho on Zen (based on material originally published as Zen: The Path of Paradox) -- I loved this book! Born in India in 1931, Osho (aka Rajneesh) was a colorful and controversial 20th Century guru. Sometimes called "Zorba the Buddha," Osho was a paradoxical character, often remembered for his 93 Rolls Royces, his orange-clad followers, the scandal in Oregon, and his subsequent imprisonment and deportation by the US government (Reagan administration). Whatever you think of him, he had some wonderful and enlightening things to say. Other books I enjoyed parts of are Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic; Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously; and Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within. I'm not recommending the man himself nor any institution he created or left behind, only these books. More here.

RANJIT MAHARAJ: Illusion Vs. Reality (Vol. I & II) -- Two collections of dialogues with Ranjit, a 20th century Indian guru and teacher of Advaita who was a contemporary of Nisargadatta Maharaj -- they shared the same guru, Siddharameshwar Maharaj. This is bottomline Advaita that sees everything as an appearance in consciousness with no substance or reality: "If you understand that all this is not true, then all problems are solved." More here. You can also find some of Ranjit's teachings here, and the book can be ordered here.

JED McKENNA: Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing -- This novel disguised as a memoir tells the story of a few days in the life of Jed McKenna, an unconventional, iconoclastic, fictional, self-declared Advaita-Taoist-Zen master from Iowa who demolishes one sacred cow after another as he distinguishes between his version of true enlightenment and such things as mystical experiences, mindfulness practices, evolutionary consciousness, human adulthood, and spiritual self-improvement programs, all of which, according to Jed, are still part of the dream world. The book has some truly fine moments. It may pull a few cherished rugs out from under you, it may push you to keep going "farther" in the spiritual demolition process, and it may leave you with some great questions, all of which is why I include it on the list. But please don't take it as gospel, and if you go looking for Jed McKenna instead of for the truth itself, you won't find anybody. This is fiction. Jed has two other books that followed this one, Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment and Spiritual Warfare, neither of which I finished reading. I found them less enlightening and not nearly as entertaining as the first book, but they both continue on with the same themes. More here.

THE ZEN OF CREATIVITY: Cultivating Your Artistic Life by John Daido Loori -- Daido Loori is a Zen teacher and a photographer, and this book is an absolute jewel. I recommend it very highly, not only to people interested in the arts, but to anyone interested in living a full life.

CHERI HUBER: The Key: And the Name of the Key Is Willingness -- A very simple, clear, handwritten book, illustrated with drawings, and full of wonderful insight. Cheri is a Zen teacher in California who runs what I hear is a pretty strict Zen monastery. Her books, however, convey a kind of gentle wisdom. She has written a number of them, many dealing with common psychological issues such as self-hatred and depression, and in that realm, she is excellent at hitting the nail on the head. Some of her many wonderful titles include When You're Falling, Dive; How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything; There Is Nothing Wrong with You: Going Beyond Self-Hate; The Depression Book: Depression As An Opportunity for Spiritual Growth; The Fear Book: Facing Fear Once & for All; Nothing Happens Next; Sex and Money...are dirty, aren't they?; Suffering Is Optional; That Which You Are Seeking Is Causing You to Seek; and How To Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be. More here.

STEPHEN BATCHELOR: Buddhism Without Beliefs (a wonderful book), The Faith to Doubt, Living with the Devil, and "Intuitions of the Sublime" (Batchelor's lengthy introduction to Verses from the Center, his poetic but rather inaccurate rendering of Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika -- the introduction is an excellent piece of writing on the true understanding of emptiness, but I don't recommend the rest of the book). Born in Scotland, Batchelor is a Buddhist teacher who has lived in England and France, trained in both the Tibetan and Zen traditions. He points beyond tradition, belief and grasping at answers, to a spaciousness that is alive, open, and free of dogma -- what he calls "deep agnosticism." He writes: "The penetration of this mystery requires that one not foreclose it by substituting an answer, be it a metaphysical proposition or a religious belief. One has to learn how to suspend the habit of reaching for a word or phrase with which to fill the emptiness opened by the question." Beautiful! There is a subtle intelligence and sensitivity in his writing, alive to the delicate ambiguities, paradoxes, and mysteries of life. More here.

DAININ KATAGIRI: Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time; You Have to Say Something: Manifesting Zen Insight; and Returning to Silence: Zen Practice in Daily Life -- Katagiri was a Zen priest who lived during the 20th Century. He came to the U.S. from Japan in 1963 and later founded the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. He died in 1990. Each Moment Is the Universe and You Have to Say Something were published posthumously from transcriptions, and it is these two collections that I would most recommend, especially Each Moment Is the Universe. There's some wonderful material here.

SUSAN MURPHY: Upside-Down Zen: Finding the Marvelous in the Ordinary -- Susan Murphy is an Australian Zen teacher (also a filmmaker, writer and mother) who writes exquisitely. She so beautifully transmits the sensuality of Zen practice, the marriage of playfulness and rigor, and the transcendent boundlessness that is inseparable from the bones and breath of each new moment. Murphy draws not only from Zen, but also from the earthiness of indigenous cultures, from great art, and from her own life. Subtle, passionate, wise. This excellent book is very highly recommended (although I am not recommending formal Zen practice unless you happen to be drawn to it). More here.

MY GRANDFATHER'S BLESSINGS and KITCHEN TABLE WISDOM -- two books by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., a former pediatrician who now counsels people facing chronic and life-threatening illnesses. Remen herself has lived with Crohn's disease for many years. Both books are collections of stories from her life and practice. This woman has incredible soul, heart, wisdom, and love, and these are two of the most beautiful books I've ever read. Deeply touching material. Very highly recommended.

WALTER TRUETT ANDERSON: The Next Enlightenment: Integrating East and West in a New Vision of Human Evolution -- A very interesting book by the author of Reality Isn't What It Used to Be (another wonderful book which I greatly enjoyed). The Next Enlightenment takes a look at East and West from Buddhism to evolution, brain science and new physics in search of truth without dogmatism. Anderson writes (and sees) with intelligence, humor, and a secular perspective that is refreshingly unattached to any particular system of thought. More here.

ORDINARY MAGIC: Everyday Life as Spiritual Path edited by John Welwood -- A collection of writings by a variety of spiritual teachers, artists, activists, and healers including Joko Beck, Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chodron, Krishnamurti, A.H. Almaas, Allen Ginsberg, Natalie Goldberg, Ram Dass, Stephen Levine, Joanna Macy, Deena Metzger, Eugen Herrigel, Frederick Franck, and many others.

A.H. ALMAAS: The Freedom to Be (Diamond Heart, Book 2) -- A.H. Almaas is a contemporary teacher based in California who founded the Ridhwan school and The Diamond Approach. He's written a number of books, and this just happens to be the only one I've read. I really enjoyed it. It is about awareness, being fully alive in the present moment, seeing through illusions, discovering true happiness here and now, and living fully. More here.

STEVEN PINKER: How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature -- Pinker is a leading contemporary psychologist in the field of cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology. He has taught at both MIT and Harvard, and he writes in a very accessible and lucid way. These two readable and fascinating books both offer genetic and biological insights into human behavior and call into question some of our most cherished myths, such as the blank slate, the noble savage, and the ghost in the machine. In The Blank Slate, Pinker exposes and critiques the ways in which political ideology from both the right and the left has corrupted clear thinking. Two excellent books by a brilliant scientist and astute observer of contemporary human culture. You may not agree with everything he says, but I suspect he'll have you questioning some of your assumptions and seeing many things in a new light. Highly recommended.

CLAUDE ANSHIN THOMAS: At Hell's Gate: A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace -- Thomas is an American Zen monk, teacher and peace activist. As a young man, he fought in the Vietnam War. He won numerous medals, killed hundreds of people, witnessed unimaginable cruelty and suffering, and narrowly escaped death. He returned home with severe post traumatic stress and fell into drug and alcohol addiction, isolation and homelessness. He eventually attended a retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh for Vietnam veterans and that started him on the Buddhist path. Later ordained by Bernie Glassman, Thomas now teaches Zen and has taken vows as a mendicant. This book is honest, real, and direct. It shows the way through suffering, not abstractly, but through the eyes and example of someone who is living that journey, breath by breath. Thomas writes: "Our culture operates with the idea that healing means the absence of pain, but I've come to understand that healing doesn't mean that our pain and suffering go away. Healing is learning to live in a different relationship with our pain and suffering so it does not control us. The only way in which I can heal my wounds, the only way in which I can awaken, is to live in the present moment in mindfulness, breathing in and breathing out." Thomas teaches a grounded, committed, embodied, practice-oriented approach to Buddhism. My own approach is less formal and less methodical, but the essential message here is right on, and I respect this man immensely and was very moved by his book. Very highly recommended. More here.

JESUS: I have always felt a deep resonance with Jesus, and I consider him a truly radical teacher. Organized religion often seems to go far afield from the original message of the founder, and this has certainly been the case with so much of organized Christianity. But there are some truly fine churches and some wonderful Christian authors. And in recent years, I have found the teachings of Jesus being transmitted with fresh clarity by three of my favorite nondual teachers: Gangaji, Adyashanti and Eckhart Tolle. Gangaji has a wonderful CD that I highly recommend called The Heart Broken Open: Reflections on the Life and Teachings of Jesus. Adyashanti has a CD called The Nondual Teachings of Jesus. And Eckhart Tolle often draws on the teachings of Jesus and the powerful metaphors of Christianity, such as the crucifixion and resurrection, shedding new light on them. Eckhart Tolle, Gangaji, and Adyashanti all embody the presence and the freedom that I feel is at the very heart of what Jesus was all about. The two "Illuminated Rumi" books put together by Michael Green and Coleman Barks (see above under the Rumi listing) also convey the spirit of Jesus in many of the poems and illuminations. Stephen Mitchell has a book, The Gospel According to Jesus, that is worth reading. For Christian authors, I highly recommend Anthony DeMello (see listing above) or Thomas Merton. (Two of my favorite books by Merton are Raids on the Unspeakable and a little jewel called Day of a Stranger, and there are many others). For some historical perspective and a new vision of Jesus, you might try Marcus J. Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, and John Shelby Spong, Jesus for the Non-Religious. (More on Spong here). It seems to me that Jesus taught and embodied a spirituality of love and radical inclusiveness that is engaged with the world and practiced in community. Although I don't think of myself as a Christian (or a Buddhist or anything else), I've joined a very progressive, non-dogmatic, open-minded church here in Ashland, First Congregational UCC, a church with great spirit and soul, full of love. Two other churches that have touched my life in the past: Lake Street Church of Evanston (near Chicago), and First Unitarian Church of Oakland.

SAM HARRIS: The End of Faith -- Sam Harris is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University who has studied both Eastern and Western religious traditions, along with a variety of spiritual disciplines, for twenty years. He is working on a doctorate in neuroscience, studying the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty. This book is a stunning history and critique of the dangers of religious belief and faith-based dogma, not only the fundamentalist variety, but the liberal variety as well. It fully encourages the exploration of consciousness, not just with science, but also with direct meditative approaches, stripped of religious trappings and belief systems. Harris has clearly engaged in such meditative explorations himself, and he has written elsewhere of seeing through the me-illusion, a falling away of illusion that he describes as a very ordinary and commonplace event. He has a second book, Letter to a Christian Nation, that is also excellent, but more narrowly focused on answering Christian challenges to his first book. I've heard that his next book will be more from the perspective of neuroscience, and will be focused on questioning and debunking the illusion of free will, so keep an eye out for new arrivals. His writing is strident and uncompromising and will certainly offend many, but I was delighted to hear someone articulate the obvious so clearly and unflinchingly. More here.

THE GURU PAPERS: Masks of Authoritarian Power by Joel Kramer & Diana Alstad -- This is an excellent book that explores the dangers of authoritarian structures. The authors look at the rise of fundamentalism and the need for certainty, they examine issues such as control, surrender, and addiction in fresh and interesting ways, and they critique cherished spiritual ideas like enlightenment, oneness, and unconditional love. You may not agree with everything they say, but I encourage people to read this book. It raises many valuable questions. More here.

RAMI SHAPIRO: Open Secrets -- Rami Shapiro is an unconventional rabbi who has studied and practiced Zen, and this wonderful little book is a fictional correspondence between Rami's great grandfather, Aaron Hershel, and Aaron Hershel's rabbi, Yerachmiel ben Yisrael on such perennial questions as the nature of God, the purpose of Creation, and the existence of evil. Rami Shapiro blends east and west, Torah and Zen, in a beautiful and simple way. More on Rami here.

KEN WILBER: A Brief History of Everything; Eye to Eye; The Simple Feeling of Being; Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World; and Boomeritis -- Ken Wilber is a contemporary author and founder of Integral Institute. His work has involved investigating all the world's great spiritual, psychological, scientific, and philosophical systems from an evolutionary perspective and then developing a comprehensive map of human consciousness and an integral approach to spiritual development. His writing is mental and heady and can be easily off-putting, but I think some of his material is worth reading. You may not agree with everything he says (I don't), but he provides an interesting and at times valuable critique of contemporary spirituality and culture, identifying where it may be really missing the mark. He brings together the wisdom of different disciplines and has what I would describe as a nondual, evolutionary perspective, strongly influenced by Eastern spirituality, Western psychology, and postmodernism. More here.

KOSHO UCHIYAMA: Opening the Hand of Thought; Refining Your Life; and The Whole-Hearted Way -- Uchiyama was a Japanese Zen priest who lived from 1912 until 1999. He wrote over twenty books on Zen including several translations of Dogen with excellent commentary. He writes: "When we let go of our conceptions, there is no other possible reality than what is right now. This undeniable reality is the reality of life fundamentally connected to everything in the universe. Right now is all-important. Dwelling here and now, in this reality, letting go of all the accidental things that arise in our minds, is what I mean by 'opening the hand of thought.'" Clear, simple, straight-forward Zen teaching.

JAN KERSSCHOT: This Is It: The Nature of Oneness -- Jan is a medical doctor in Belgium who communicates bottomline, radical nonduality in a simple, non-hierarchical way. This Is It includes interviews Jan did with Tony Parsons, Nathan Gill, Wayne Liquorman, Chuck Hillig, Eckhart Tolle, Francis Lucille, and others, and it is mostly for the interviews that I'm recommending the book. More here.

ADI DA: Drifted in the Deeper Land and The Method of the Siddhas -- I recommend these books with a large caveat. Adi Da (originally Franklin Jones, a.k.a. Da Free John, Da Love-Ananda, Da Avabhasa, and a host of other names) is a contemporary American guru who calls himself "the promised God-man," the most enlightened being ever. With his multiple wives, ever-changing names, pompous verbosity, and grandiose claims, he is arguably a megalomaniacal madman or a shrewd poseur. But, in fact, he really does have some profound and insightful things to say (along with a lot of pretentious garbage). So, you may find aspects of his behavior and teaching highly questionable or outright repugnant, but you may also find some surprisingly worthwhile material in these (and other) books of his. I am definitely not recommending the man himself, nor the religion of Adidam that he founded, nor the path of guru devotion to him, nor his every word. But if you can separate the wheat from the chaff, you may find some enlightening material in these books. More here.

Addiction Recovery: Occasionally, people ask me for suggestions regarding addiction recovery. There are many approaches to working with addiction. The best path for another may not be the best path for you, and what looks like failure may be the perfect unfolding. The most effective thing I know of is awareness -- nonjudgmental attention without seeking an outcome or a result. For that kind of approach, you might check out a number of the authors listed above (e.g., Eckhart Tolle, Toni Packer, Gangaji, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mary O'Malley, Stephen Levine, Byron Katie, Pema Chodron, Cheri Huber, Joko Beck), who work explicitly and intelligently with psychological issues such as addiction, primarily through utilizing present moment awareness or inquiry. Of course, I'd also highly recommend my own books to anyone who is concerned about addiction, compulsion, or apparent imperfection, as these are major themes in my writing. You might also check out Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, a workbook authored by psychologist Steven C. Hayes, exploring what he calls "The New Acceptance & Commitment Therapy" (ACT), an intelligent, mindfulness-based, cognitive-type therapy (more about the ACT approach here); One Breath at a Time: Buddhism & the 12 Steps by Kevin Griffin (more here); Rational Recovery by Jack Trimpey (more here); and Smart Recovery (more here). Any kind of somatic awareness work such as Feldenkrais (more here) may also be helpful.

MARY OLIVER: New & Selected Poems (Vols. I and II); American Primitive; House of Light; Dream Work; Twelve Moons; The Leaf & the Cloud -- Mary Oliver is a contemporary American poet who celebrates the natural world and whose poetry exquisitely captures the extraordinary in the ordinary and the transcendent in the earth and eros of life. There are other collections as well, and all of her work is very highly recommended.

TED KOOSER: Delights & Shadows -- Kooser, the Poet Laureate of the United States, is a retired life insurance executive living in Nebraska who has written many books of poetry including this Pulitzer Prize winning collection. Reviewers have said of his work: "There is a deep stillness at its center, a sense of quiet amazement, everything is illuminated, he has a genius for making the ordinary sacramental, nothing escapes him." Very highly recommended.

THE SOUL IS HERE FOR ITS OWN JOY: Sacred Poems from Many Cultures, edited by Robert Bly -- Wonderful collection of spiritual poems, including work by Rumi, Kabir, Lalla, Rilke, Silesius, Mirabai, Dickinson, Oliver, Transtromer, and many others. Pure celebration of the Divine: "There the bee of the heart stays deep inside the flower, and cares for no other thing."

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