JOAN'S ANNOTATED RECOMMENDED READING LIST

This list of recommended authors and books about nonduality and waking up is based on my own tastes and resonances and is in no way intended to be a comprehensive, definitive or authoritative list of nondual books or of all important books on spirituality. I'm not endorsing every single word spoken or written by any of these authors (including Joan Tollifson). The list includes a variety of different perspectives (Advaita, Buddhism, radical nonduality, Taoism, and so on). Some of the books and authors listed below may appear to contradict each other. Some of them say that the entire movie of waking life (including you and your whole spiritual journey) is all nothing but a dream-like illusion, while others appear to take the phenomenal manifestation (and spiritual practice) very seriously. Some insist that there is nothing to do other than exactly what is happening, while others offer some kind of apparent process, practice or method for waking up. Some seem to suggest that "you" have the power of choice, while others say there is no "you" and that everything is the result of infinite causes and conditions over which no one has any control whatsoever. Who has it right? What should you believe? As soon as you open your mouth, you go astray. No words or concepts can capture reality. Maps are useful, but they can only point to the territory itself. Take what resonates and leave the rest behind. Don't believe anything you read. Question and look and see for yourself. The book that wakes you up one day may lull you to sleep the next. Everything changes. Always be ready to see something new and unexpected.

These recommendations are periodically updated or revised. If you've been here before, refresh or reload the page to be sure you are getting the most current version.

JOAN TOLLIFSON: Painting the Sidewalk with Water: Talks and Dialogs about Nonduality (2010); 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 books! All of them are about waking up from the imaginary mirage-world created by thinking, conceptualizing and story-telling, and all of them are about discovering the aliveness that is Here / Now. They all invite the reader to investigate directly for themselves rather than adopting new beliefs or concepts. My books all come from the understanding that the separate self is a mirage-like fiction, and at the same time, they all include material from my own life -- experiences with depression, anger, addiction, difficult relationships -- all the usual human stuff, so that the abstract "teachings" are brought down to earth and the reader can see directly that the relative and the absolute are "not two." Bare-Bones and Heartland include more of my own story than Sidewalk, which is primarily a collection of talks and dialogs about nonduality. Two more books are slated for publication in 2012. All my books emphasize present moment awareness rather than conceptual knowledge. Readers have expressed appreciation for the honesty, clear insight, frankness and humor in all of these books. More here.

TONI PACKER: The Wonder of Presence; The Light of Discovery; Seeing Without Knowing / What Is Meditative Inquiry?; The Silent Question: Meditating in the Stillness of Not-Knowing; and The Work of This Moment − Toni was my main teacher, and I am still learning from her and 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. This is a rare quality, and Toni is one of a kind. She 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 the conceptual overlay. She is wonderful at illuminating the most subtle workings of the thinking mind, and waking you up to the wonder, simplicity and immediacy of present moment awareness, the nondual absolute: the wind in the trees, the swaying grasses, the chirp of a bird, the hum of the air conditioner, the listening silence being and beholding it all. 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 and discovering 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 and the illusion of individual free will 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 coming upon the undivided and unconditioned wholeness and immediacy that is the very essence of 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. Since she left the Zen tradition behind, Toni has seen the roles of "teacher" and "student" as a divisive hindrance to the freedom of open inquiry, and she 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 and undogmatic approach. If you're looking for a place to do meditation, meditative inquiry or silent retreats free of religious tradition, authority, ritual or dogma, Springwater is a great place. The atmosphere is open and spacious, inviting you to look and listen and find your own way. I very highly recommend Toni and Springwater and the others who are now offering retreats there as well (Wayne Coger, Sandra Gonzalez and Richard Witteman). Audio tapes and CDs, videotapes and DVDs, a newsletter, and books (including my first book, Bare-Bones Meditation) are available here.

DARRYL BAILEY: Dismantling the Fantasy and Essence Revisited − Darryl's books are the clearest, simplest, most unencumbered descriptions of what is that I have come across. Darryl's writing is spare, direct, unpretentious, poetic, refreshingly original, and free of dogma, jargon or excess baggage of any kind. Uncompromising in its bare simplicity and its refusal to indulge our desire for self-improvement, this radical message is a description of what is, not a prescription for how to fix it. And ultimately, it is the dismantling of all descriptions, leaving only the vibrant aliveness of what is. Darryl shows you that in reality there is no solid or enduring form and no separate self with individual free will, that this unformed happening is literally inconceivable, and that everything is as it is and could not be otherwise: "Whatever we are now, whatever we're doing now, is an inexplicable movement accomplishing itself. Nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken away from it." I can't recommend these books highly enough. They are excellent! Darryl's background includes many years of Vipassana meditation and other awareness and concentration practices, along with Western psychology, recurring contact with J. Krishnamurti, and a significant connection with the Advaita sage Robert Adams. Darryl has an earlier book, Buddhessence, that beautifully distills and clarifies the essential, core teachings of the Buddha, and I highly recommend this book as well. Darryl currently lives in Winnipeg, Canada and offers "explorations" at a local yoga center. He has worked as an ice fisherman, bus driver, suit salesman, childcare worker, carpenter and maintenance man among other things. You can learn more about Darryl, read some of his writings, see video and hear some talks and responses to questions here. Very highly recommended.

ALAN WATTS: The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are and The Wisdom of Insecurity − These two books are absolutely excellent! I recommend them both very highly. 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. Clear, direct, right on the mark, and always easy and enjoyable to read. Watts was a one-time Christian minister with a doctorate in theology who left the church and turned to Vedanta and Zen, both of which he came to understand deeply and experientially, to the core and the root. Alan Watts was a renegade and not a fan of organized religion with its institutions, practices and dogmas. He went instead for the bare-bones heart of the matter, and he communicated this with great lucidity and always with a sense of humor and play. He was right on target. Watts was perhaps the single person most responsible for introducing Zen and eastern spirituality to America. There are many other wonderful books and several fine audio collections available as well, and you can find Alan Watts on YouTube now as well. Very highly recommended. More here.

ECKHART TOLLE: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose; Stillness Speaks; The Power of Now andPracticing the Power of Now -- Eckhart is an exceptionally clear contemporary teacher whose focus is on Here and Now (timeless, spaceless, nondual being) and on illuminating whatever seems to obscure this. His approach is practice-oriented (bringing attention to the present moment). If you're looking for a bare-bones, nondual approach to meditation and present moment living, Eckhart is great. He distills the essence of intelligent meditation practices, stripping away the excess structure and form, until what remains is a very simple and direct way of exploring the present moment and waking up from thought-created entrancement. He once described his teaching as being like a marriage of Ramana Maharshi and J. Krishnamurti, and that feels on the mark to me. Eckhart's presence transmits a listening stillness and an openness that is subtle, delicate, vibrant, dynamic and alive. If you're all tied up in mental knots trying to think your way to enlightenment, Eckhart is excellent at waking you up from the mental trance of thoughts, concepts, beliefs and ideas, and bringing you into the open, spacious aliveness of presence. He teaches from both relative and absolute perspectives, addressing practical and psychological concerns in one moment, and then expressing the most radical and absolute nondual truth in the next. Eckhart illuminates the workings of the egoic mind with exceptional clarity and offers an intelligent way of working with difficult emotions, compulsions and neurotic patterns (what he calls the pain-body). His expression is refreshingly free of conventional religious or dogmatic trappings. He can sound somewhat New Agey at times with titles like "finding your life's purpose" or "manifesting abundance in your life," but when you really listen to what he's saying on these topics, he always brings it back to the utter simplicity of Here / Now. German by birth, Eckhart now lives in western Canada. There is tremendous depth 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 for getting his complete teaching. Stillness Speaks is a highly distilled jewel that offers the essence of his message in sutra-like form -- exquisitely clear and simple. The Power of Now was Eckhart's first book, and it is excellent. Practicing the Power of Now is a short book that distills some of the key material in The Power of Now along with some new material, also very good. There is a great deal of audio and video also available. Some of my favorites have been discontinued, but some excellent DVDs that I believe are still available include: Finding Your Life's Purpose and The Art of Presence. Some excellent CDs I enjoyed include: Through the Open Door and Stillness Admidst the World. And there are many others available that I haven't seen or heard, with new ones being added all the time, and I'm sure they're all probably excellent too. Very highly recommended. More here.

NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ: I Am That (translated by Maurice Frydman). This is the most well-worn book in my collection, and I recommend it very highly. It is a rare jewel. Nisargadatta was an exceptionally clear 20th century Indian guru − a family man and a shopkeeper, living and teaching in the back lanes of Bombay, where he died in 1981. His teaching is Advaita Vedanta, a form of Hinduism. Advaita, which means "not two," is a radical, direct, nontheistic, nondual teaching that does not rely on scriptures, dogma or tradition. "Reality is what makes the present so vital," Nisargadatta says, "so different from the past and future, which are merely mental. If you need time to achieve something, it must be false." Elsewhere he says: "Just as the dream state is untrue, the waking state is also an appearance. Both happen spontaneously. Our talk is also taking place in a dream." I Am That is a collections of dialogs that Nisargadatta had with seekers from all over the world. I also very highly recommend Consciousness and the Absolute: The Final Talks of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Maharaj's final and perhaps most radical teachings, edited by Jean Dunn) and Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj (paraphrases of Nisargadatta as remembered by Ramesh Balsekar). Other fine collections of Nisargadatta's teachings include: Seeds of Consciousness and Prior to Consciousness (edited by Jean Dunn) and The Wisdom-Teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj: A Visual Journey (photos and text edited by Matthew Greenblatt). Robert Powell also edited serveral collections of dialogs including The Ultimate Medicine and The Experience of Nothingness. In addition, there are now several excellent DVDs about Nisargadatta and his teaching that I would very highly recommend. Awaken to the Eternal: A Journey of Self-Discovery, made by Bertram Salzman and Matthew Greenblatt, is available from Inner Directions, and it includes actual footage of Nisargadatta along with interviews with many people who spent time with him (Jack Kornfield, Robert Powell, Jean Dunn, and others). NetiNeti Films (Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo in collaboration with Stephen Wolinsky) have produced a number of excellent DVDs about Nisargadatta and his teachings, as interpreted by Wolinsky, who throws in some quantum physics and neuroscience, along with many (to me, tedious) guided meditations that he (Wolinsky) has devised. I'm a bit leery of the way Wolinsky sets himself up as “a direct disciple of Nisargadatta Maharaj” and an authority on Maharaj’s teachings, but that aside, I resonate with much of what Wolinsky has to say, and there is some excellent material in all these NetiNeti DVDs, including some actual footage of Nisargadatta. Nisargadatta is one of the clearest and most radical nondual teachers that I have ever encountered. I recommend him very highly, and especially I Am That.

STEVE HAGEN: Buddhism Is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom Beyond Beliefs; Meditation Now or Never and Buddhism Plain & Simple -- These are all excellent, outstanding books that I very highly recommend. Steve is one of the clearest, most awake and most articulate living Zen teachers I've come across, and he has been a very important teacher for me. This is genuine Buddhism, the radical kind that offers no answers and no beliefs, the kind that is about waking up now. Steve conveys a direct seeing of emptiness, impermanence and nonduality that is so subtle that it instantly dissolves anything that we try to grasp onto, leaving only the vibrant immediacy of what is, as it is. Steve is excellent at clarifying the distinction between Reality and our ideas about Reality, between conceptual thought and direct perception. He goes right to the heart of what creates human suffering, exposing the habitual tendency to grasp life and to mistake the map for the territory. I especially appreciate how Steve talks about emptiness, not as a big empty space that contains all the forms, but rather, as the impermanence that "is so complete, so thorough, that nothing is formed in the first place to be impermanent." He completely erases any dualistic divide between form and emptiness. Steve teaches Zen practice in a pretty bare-bones, stripped-down way, without much ritual or fanfare, but it is still rigorous and formal. I'm not drawn anymore to this kind of strict, formal Zen practice, so when he talks about certain forms, postures and hand positions, I don't resonate with all that, but the essencial core of what he says about life (and about meditation) is right on the mark. Steve has an earlier book, more scientific in nature, called How the World Can Be the Way It Is: An Inquiry for the New Millennium into Science, Philosophy, and Perception that is also definitely worth reading as well, and I suspect more books may be forthcoming. I have found Steve to be truly humble, down to earth, articulate, bright and very awake. He is a Zen priest in the lineage of Dainin Katagiri and a former science researcher. Steve teaches at the Dharma Field Meditation and Learning Center in Minneapolis, a Zen center I would very highly recommend to anyone who feels drawn to formal Zen practice. The other teachers there are also excellent. (You can read some wonderful writing by Bev Forsman, the woman Steve has named to succeed him as Head Teacher at Dharma Field, here). Books, tapes, excellent classes on CD, talks on-line and more information about Steve and Dharma Field here. All 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. Then he takes that away. Excellent! Very highly recommended

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. I went on several retreats with him toward the end of his life and was deeply touched by him. These books are clear, lucid, subtle, beautiful dialogs, transcribed from his retreats, that evoke and transmit the stillness and presence from which they emerged. 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. Some of Jean's books may be out of print, although Non-duality Press has been bringing many of them back into print. The periodic journal Listening that was published when Jean was alive has now been made into a book, and you can find that and several of Jean's other books and a DVD at Non-duality Press. All of Jean's books are very highly recommended.

LEO HARTONG: Awakening to the Dream: The Gift of Lucid Living and From Self to Self − Leo sees and writes with great clarity. These two books are among the most articulate expressions of what I call radical nondualism that I've come across. Radical nondualism is the uncompromising message that unicity is all there is − there is no one apart from the One Reality to find it or lose it, and any notion of being a separate, independent person with an autonomous free will is a mirage-like illusion. Radical nondualism does not offer prescriptions for how to improve this phantom self or get somewhere better within the dream-like movie of waking life. Instead, radical nonduality reveals that this-here-now is all there is. There is no way to become what you already are, and there is nothing to do (or not do) that will achieve any more unicity than there already is. Thus, in radical nonduality, there is no path, no practice, no one to "be here now," and no way not to be here now. Leo's books are exceptionally clear and direct, and I recommend them very highly. For a long time he put out a wonderful newsletter − he doesn't seem to be doing this anymore, but you can find an archive of these newsletters on his website. His second book, From Self to Self, is a collection of writings from this newsletter. Both of Leo's books and his newsletter are very highly recommended. More here.

'SAILOR' BOB ADAMSON: Presence-Awareness: Just This and Nothing Else; What's Wrong with Right Now Unless You Think About It? and One Essence Appearing as Everything -- Sailor Bob is a contemporary Australian who spent time with Nisargadatta Maharaj in the 1970's. Bob communicates uncompromising, radical nondualism in a clear and simple way, drawing from Advaita, Dzogchen, and his own direct seeing. With Bob, there are 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 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, genuine, sincere, ordinary, down to earth guy whose great passion in life is sharing this simple and profound realization of what is always already the case. 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. I met him in person in Chicago and really enjoyed being with him. I found him to be a very generous, kind, wonderful, awake being. In addition to his own books, there are two books written about him that I would also recommend: Only That: The Life and Teaching of Sailor Bob Adamson (by Kalyani Lawry), and Living Reality: My Extraordinary Summer with Sailor Bob Adamson (by James Braha). You can learn more about Bob and find video and audio at his web site here. Very highly recommended.

J. JENNIFER MATTHEWS: Radically Condensed Instructions for Being Just As You Are -- This is a wonderfully clear, succinct, lucid, intelligent and wise book, with a sense of humor to boot, that explores how we create dissatisfaction and confusion by "abandoning what we actually see, hear, and feel (which is always dissolving, always falling apart) in favor of concepts, which hold together nicely, but which are mere conventions." The book points to being awake now to the unbounded openness of awareness and actual present moment experiencing. "There is clarity: luminous, still and silent clarity. It is with you and in you. It is you. It always exists. No it never takes a break; no it never goes out for just one cigarette. It is the wholeness you can never fall out of. Not in your drunkest, sorriest, most hysterical moments, not even then can you fall out of this clear and sacred perfection. You know that." You can get this short book for an unbelievably low price on Amazon and it is money well spent. The author has degrees in philosophy and theology and works with homeless people in Massachusetts. Excellent book! Very highly recommended.

J.C. AMBERCHELE: The Almighty Mackerel and His Holy Bootstraps: Waking Up to Who You Really Are and The Light That I Am: Notes from the Ground of Being − J.C. Amberchele is the pen name of a man who was born in Philadelphia in 1940 and who is currently incarcerated in prison, where he has been for some three decades, and where he may spend the rest of his life. While in prison, he discovered "Who I Really Am" − the "Luminous Awareness" or "Awake Capacity" that is boundless, ever-present and "filled to the brim with all that presents itself." Amberchele describes being awake as "being in love with everything," and elsewhere as "a love affair of immense proportions, bursting from No-thing, vanishing into No-thing." His writing brings this realization totally alive for the reader in a simple and direct way, with an immediacy and a clarity that is both enlightening and full of love. Amberchele participates in a Tibetan Buddhist group in the prison, and he describes himself as a "reluctant Buddhist," but he seems very free of any traditional Buddhist baggage. He has read many spiritual books from a wide range of perspectives (Nisargadatta, Ramesh Balsekar, Hafiz, Rumi, Gurdjieff, Byron Katie, Tony Parsons, the Christian mystics, and so on), but it was the message of Douglas Harding that really woke him up. A number of Harding's "Headless Way" experiments (designed to help people experience Emptiness / Fullness directly) are included in Amberchele's books. I'm not personally drawn to these experiments, but I'm sure they are helpful to many people, as they obviously were to Amberchele, and you can take them or leave them − there is plenty of other material in these books besides the experiments. What I love in these books is Amberchele's own expression, which I find very clear and liberating. He comes across as a person who has grappled in a very deep and honest way with his criminal past, not using any kind of nondual philosophy in some glib way to avoid dealing with it, but also seeing deeply the perfection of everything. He seems to be someone with real humility and compassion for himself and others. The Light That I Am contains more personal material drawn from his own life, and The Almighty Mackerel is a collection of wonderful writings about nonduality followed by dialogs with other prisoners. These books are both excellent − beautiful, clear, vibrant, wise, and right on the mark − both very highly recommended.

RAMANA MAHARSHI: Heart Is Thy Name, Oh Lord: Moments of Silence with Sri Ramana Maharshi (edited by Bharati Mirchandani) and The Essential Teachings of Ramana Maharshi: A Visual Journey (edited by Matthew Greenblatt) -- 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. More here.

THICH NHAT HANH: The Sun My Heart; The Heart of Understanding and You Are Here -- Thich Nhat Hanh's clear insight into emptiness, nonduality, or what he calls "interbeing," is profound and subtle, and it is for this that I highly recommend his books. The Sun My Heart is my favorite of all his books and the one I would recommend first and foremost. The Heart of Understanding is a slender book that offers his commentary on the Heart Sutra, a profound Buddhist sutra about nonduality. "Form is emptiness and emptiness is form," the sutra says, or as Thich Nhat Hanh puts it, “Form is the wave and emptiness is the water.” You Are Here conveys the essential core of Buddhism (impermanence, non-self, going beyond all concepts) and lays out a practice for realizing the truth directly and freeing ourselves from suffering. I don't resonate with every suggestion the book offers, but You Are Here is very beautiful and wise overall and contains many jewels. Thich Nhat Hanh is a poet and his writing is not only exceptionally beautiful and clear, but the words are saturated with silence and mindful presence and seem to transmit the deep ground from which they come. "We are imprisoned by our ideas of good and evil," he writes. "We want to be only good, and we want to remove all evil. But that is because we forget that good is made of non-good elements....You cannot be good alone. You cannot hope to remove evil, because thanks to evil, good exists, and vice versa." I'm not into formal Buddhist practice anymore, so I don't resonate with all the specific practices that Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, and there are parts of his books that I read around or ignore completely, but there is some truly excellent material here. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk and peace activist who can perhaps be thought of as the founder of socially engaged Buddhism. He 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. He encourages people to treat our anger, our depression, our addiction, and all of ourselves with tenderness, not with violence. Thich Nhat Hanh is now living in exile in France, where he founded a monastery called Plum Village. I have tremendous respect and appreciation for this man and his work. He certainly walks his talk, as they say. His books offer subtle insight into nonduality as well as wonderful guidance from a Buddhist perspective on living fully here and now. Other favorites include No Death, No Fear; Cultivating the Mind of Love; The Diamond that Cuts Through Illusion; Call Me By My True Names and Beyond the Self. For a basic book on meditation, you might also check out The Miracle of Mindfulness. More here and here. Very highly recommended.

ANAM THUBTEN: No Self, No Problem -- Anam is a wonderful contemporary Tibetan Buddhist teacher from the Nyingma lineage. He comes across as very open and unbound by tradition or dogma. He is like clear water and seems to embody pure awareness and boundless love. Anam has a delightful sense of humor and always seems to have a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. Simple and direct, he invites us to see through the mirage-world of stories and concepts and to wake up to our True Nature. His expression is open, clear, honest, and full of heart. Here are some samples from the book: "All of the problems we fight against do not really exist....When we don't believe in our thoughts we are always awakened. When we believe in our thoughts we are unawakened....Love is the ability to see every circumstance and every being as perfect just as they are...It is the total acceptance of all things....In every moment we are absolutely perfect....It's okay to fail and to fail continuously, time after time. In fact, every time we fail we should give ourselves a chocolate as a reward....Awareness is like a fire because it burns down all illusions right there on the spot....When we start inquiring into what is holding us back from realizing the truth, we come to the realization that there is really nothing there. There are no obstacles. Nothing is holding us back from awakening...We are the one who imprisons and we are the one who liberates. When we accept that responsibility we have finally gained spiritual maturity." Anam was born in Tibet and has been living and teaching in the West for a number of years now. He is currently the head teacher at the Dharmata Foundation based in the California Bay Area. He gives talks and holds retreats all over the United States. Excellent audio and video is also available and very much recommended. I love this guy! A second book is forthcoming. Very highly recommended. More here.

ANTHONY deMELLO: Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality -- deMello was a Jesuit priest from India, and also a psychotherapist, who was influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism as well as by Christianity. His utterly undogmatic, no-nonsense approach is one of simple awareness. Not a trace of Catholic dogma here, in fact, deMello was condemned by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). Anthony deMello is funny, straightforward, clear, and wonderfully direct. This is an excellent book, very highly recommended. Other books, audio and video also available. More on deMello here.

RUPERT SPIRA: The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience and Presence (Volume I - The Art of Peace and Happiness and Volume II - The Intimacy of All Experience) − These are exceptionally clear books on nonduality, and I recommend all of them very highly. Rupert is a brilliant contemporary British ceramic artist and a long-time student of Francis Lucille. These books lead the reader through a series of contemplations or explorations of our actual experience in this moment, explorations that bring the reader to a direct, experiential realization of the openness and immediacy that is always Here / Now. These books beautifully reveal "the identity of Consciousness and Reality, the discovery that the fundamental nature of each one of us is identical with the fundamental nature of the universe." Rupert says at the beginning of one book: "There is some reluctance to commit to the form of a finished book something whose nature does not lend itself readily to the written word. I would prefer the form of music, which dissolves as soon as it is uttered, leaving its true content as a formless perfume in the listener's heart." Rupert's words do just that -- they come out of presence and dissolve into presence. Rupert uses language in an exquisitely subtle and nuanced way, and his words are as "transparent, open, empty and luminous" as the "open Unknowingness" that they reveal. Rupert avoids falling into a number of traps that I see some other teachers falling into, such as making enlightenment into a coveted future attainment or presenting himself as a special "enlightened person," and he never seems to get dogmatically stuck or fixated on one side of any apparent duality (such as free will vs determinism, or practice vs no practice, or relative and absolute). He comes across as a deeply intelligent, highly sensitive, very genuine human being. There are also some beautiful sets of DVDs available, "The Transparency of Things" and "Love: The Underground River," both with Chris Hebard interviewing Rupert in depth, and I very highly recommend both of these DVD sets in addition to the books. You can also see two very fine interviews with Rupert on Conscious TV. And you can read, see and learn more about Rupert at his website here. Very highly recommended.

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 essential message of nondualism with the utmost simplicity and clarity, in plain language. His books use words and pictures, and in one case even a hole in the center of the book, to point to the heart of the matter directly and to offer a resounding YES to everything. Chuck also has a wonderful DVD called "Living in the WOW!" that I very highly recommend, and there is other audio and video on his website. Whatever Chuck does, it is always fun, wise, and completely liberating. Very highly recommended. More here.

NATHAN GILL: Already Awake and Being: The Bottom Line -- Nathan points to what is always already here, never wavering 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. If you're caught up in looking for some kind of explosive future transformation or final event, Nathan is a great one to read. He dispels any notion that there is something bigger and better to find and keeps pointing to this, right here, right now, exactly as it is. "Whatever happens, there is only Being," he writes. "You can't put a foot wrong, because nothing and no one is going anywhere. 'You' are not a character on a journey to self-realisation. It's all a play of appearances." Nathan is refreshingly unpretentious, uncompromising, simple and direct. He never tries to set himself above those who come to him, he dangles no subtle carrots in front of you, and his expression of radical nondualism is one of the clearest and cleanest I have come across. I really love Nathan and recommend him very highly. He's a very lovely, open, ordinary, down to earth guy. Nathan was offering meetings in England for awhile, but he's gone back to gardening. Several CDs are available as well. More here.

ROBERT ADAMS: Silence of the Heart: Dialogues with Robert Adams -- Robert Adams was an American teacher and a disciple of 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 although he was regarded as a guru, people who knew him have described him to me as a very unassuming and ordinary guy. I've heard a few recordings of his talks, and whenever I hear these tapes or read his words in this book, I feel a profound silence, presence, joy and freedom. Robert says: "Awaken, be free, be yourself. You are the joy of the world. The light that shines in darkness. You are a blessing to the universe. Love yourself always. When you love yourself, you love God....You are total freedom, right this instsnt, right this minute....Everything that you can ever imagine, that you want to be, you already are....Everything is unfolding as it should....Feel the Presence within yourself. Feel the happiness and the joy that you really are. Feel it! You can feel it....Everything is unfolding the way it should....There are no mistakes....Trust the Power that knows the way....You came out of it. So you're That also. You are that Power yourself....There's nothing to fix in your life. Nothing to change. Nothing to accomplish. Nothing to do. Except to abide in the Power that knows the way....Only the Self exists." I recommend this book very highly, but I recommend looking for a used copy of the original older edition. I suspect the "New Authentic 2011 Edition" (which I haven't seen) may have been revised in ways I would not like. Even in the older 1999 edition that I have, some of the introductory material seemed out of step with Robert. The Robert Adams Infinity Institute, who publish his books and tapes, seem to have drifted farther and farther away from the aspects of Robert that appeal to me. They have turned him into "The Internationally Revered Illuminated Master Teacher," they've re-done the originally plain and simple recordings of his talks so that the words are now overlaid with obnoxious background music, and they seem to have built up a whole fancy program around his teachings, as they interpret them. For those reasons, I do not resonate with or recommend their website. But I did love, and do recommend the 1999 edition of Silence of the Heart. Skip the introductory material and just read Robert.

JOHN TARRANT: Bring Me the Rhinoceros -- This book is a tiny and explosive jewel. Written by a contemporary Zen teacher, it has this amazing ability to flip you in your tracks and enlighten everything. This is a book that can unlock your heart and bring a rhinoceros into your life. John Tarrant wakes you up again and again to the absolute perfection of your life exactly as it is. This is without doubt one of the very best Zen books I have ever read. Beautiful, imaginative, outside the box, full of love -- this book is a work of art that opens your eyes to the beauty and wonder that is everywhere. John Tarrant is originally from Tasmania and he now lives in Northern California and directs the Pacific Zen Institute. He has such a wonderful sense of humor and play along with a deep feeling for both the darkness and the joy in life. Very highly recommended. More here.

BYRON KATIE: A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are and Loving What Is: Four Questions that Can Change Your Life -- Katie is a refreshingly unique contemporary teacher who has come up with a simple method for seeing through the mirage world created by thoughts, beliefs and story-telling. I'm not usually an enthusiast for methods and techniques, but I find "The Work" (as she calls it) truly liberating and definitely worth exploring. Every belief, story, and projection is exposed and deconstructed by putting it out and investigating it. 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, and while this whole process might, at first glance, look like another self-improvement project, it's truly about Self-realization. Loving What Is is probably the clearest and best introduction to The Work. A Thousand Names for Joy, my personal favorite, is a kind of living portrait of the awakened mind in action in daily life. In the words of Katie's husband, Stephen Mitchell, this book 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 a whole new way of looking at life. Katie has several other books I haven't read including Who Would You Be Without Your Story? and I Need Your Love -- Is That True? How to Stop Seeking Love, Approval, and Appreciation and Start Finding Them Instead. There were also a few earlier books, probably all out of print now, including Losing the Moon: Byron Katie Dialogues on Non-Duality, Truth and Other Illusions, a much rawer and more unvarnished rendition of her teaching that I liked a lot. I find Katie's work very helpful whenever I find myself caught up in anger, resentment, self-pity, or other forms of upset and entrancement. With this simple form of inquiry, every upset becomes a doorway to waking up. Just reading these books can be eye-opening and enlightening. Very highly recommended. Audio, video, and more information on The Work here.

HSIN HSIN MING by Sengtsan -- This poem by the Third Zen Patriarch is a beautiful expression of true non-duality. "Do not seek for the truth," the text says, "Only cease to cherish opinions." There are a number of English translations out there. One of the most well-known is by Richard B. Clarke, who was one of my college professors back in the Sixties. He taught a class on Vedanta and Zen, which I took, and ran a small Zen sitting group, which I occasionally attended. I still have a very tattered copy of one of his earliest translations of the Hsin Hsin Ming that he handed out in class. He is now a Zen teacher and has continued to refine his translation over the years, and there are several published versions floating around from White Pine Press. Another version I like, translated by Zen teacher Steve Hagen, is available on the Dharma Field website. Right now, there are actually two different versions on the website (I'm guessing that might change). The version I like best is under "Courses," then "Hsin Hsin Ming," then "Trusting the Heartmind." Another (I suspect older) version is posted under "Texts Online," then "Dharma Field Chant Book," then "Trusting the Heartmind."

DOGEN: Moon in a Dewdrop, edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi -- This excellent collection includes many works by Eihei Dogen, a 13th century Zen master and the founder of Soto Zen. My favorite piece in the collection, and the one I especially recommend, is "Genjo Koan" (variously translated as "Actualizing the Fundamental Point," "Manifesting Absolute Reality," "The Koan of the Present Moment," "The Paradox of Just This, As It Is," "The Spiritual Question As It Manifests Before Your Eyes," or "The Realization of Ultimate Reality"). Like all of Dogen's work, this piece can be read over and over, and with each reading, you will find new dimensions emerging that you hadn't seen or understood before. Dogen's understanding of nonduality is subtle, nuanced and all-inclusive -- so all-inclusive that it even includes duality: "The Buddha Way is leaping clear of the many and the one." Dogen asks: "Is it that there are various ways of seeing one object, or is it that we have mistaken various images for one object?" For Dogen, there is nothing that is not spiritual. "Walls, tiles, and pebbles are mind," he writes. In this radical view, even the map is the territory: "Neither the dharma world nor empty space is anything other than the painting of a picture....The moon and the pointing finger are a single reality." Dogen's burning question as a young monk was, if everything already has (or is) Buddha Nature, then why do we need to practice? His response is that to regard practice as the means by which we attain enlightenment in the future is to miss the point completely. Practice is the expression of enlightenment here and now. "If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind." Enlightenment is simply seeing through delusion: "Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas; those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings." Dogen is poetic and infinitely subtle and profound. There are numerous translations and collections of Dogen's writings and there are some wonderful commentaries on Dogen as well. Several collections that I recommend besides Moon in a Dewdrop are Enlightenment Unfolds, also edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi, and Sounds of Valley Streams, edited by Francis H. Cook. Zen teacher Uchiyama also has some wonderful translations and commentaries including How to Cook Your Life and The Wholehearted Way. Shohaku Okumura has a book called Realizing Genjokoan. Steve Hagen (see listing on him above) has some excellent classes on Dogen available on CD, and Norman Fischer and Daido Loori also offer excellent commentaries. The writings of Dogen are very highly recommended.

J. KRISHNAMURTI: This Light in Oneself: True Meditation; Krishnamurti's Notebook; Meeting Life; Choiceless Awareness: A Selection of Passages for the Study of the Teaching of J. Krishnamurti (spiral bound; published by KFA); On Freedom; and As One Is -- Some of my favorite of the many excellent books by J. Krishnamurti, who lived during the 20th Century. Krishnamurti spent his life looking into the human mind with awareness, seeing through the deceptions of conceptual thought and conditioning, and coming in touch with the unconditioned aliveness and the freedom that is beyond thought. Krishnamurti's 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, subtlety, sensitivity and depth, and he saw through the illusions of the thinking mind with remarkable acuity. Krishnamurti's Notebook is pure poetry in prose -- exquisite. Krishnamurti questioned and saw through all the absurdities of organized religion with its priests and gurus, dogmas and beliefs. Reading him and truly hearing him requires a high level of participatory looking and listening. No quick or comforting fixes on offer here. His personality and his intensity can come across at times as abrasive or irritating, but he was a truly remarkable man. Videos, audios also available. Very highly recommended. More here.

SHUNRYU SUZUKI: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (edited by Trudy Dixon); and Not Always So (edited by Ed Brown) -- two superb collections of talks by Shunryu Suzuki (1904-1971), the Soto Zen Roshi who was the founder of San Francisco Zen Center. (Not to be confused with D.T. Suzuki, the Zen scholar and author who also helped to bring Zen to America). I arrived at SFZC too late to meet Suzuki Roshi in person, but I spent a number of years practicing Zen in his lineage, and so he has been a very important teacher for me. I have read Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind countless times over the years, and with each new reading, I hear it more deeply and see more in it. Truly, an amazing book. "Buddha's teaching is everywhere," Suzuki Roshi 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 very wonderful books about Suzuki Roshi: Crooked Cucumber (a biography by David Chadwick that I very highly recommend) and Zen Is Right Here (previously titled To Shine One Corner of the World -- a collection of brief stories about Suzuki Roshi told by his students and edited by David Chadwick), and both of these books beautifully convey the heart of Suzuki Roshi's teaching. There is a collection of Suzuki Roshi's talks on the Sandokai, Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness (edited by Mel Weitsman and Michael Wenger), and you can now find a few clips of Suzuki Roshi on YouTube. I'm no longer into the kind of rigorous, formal Zen practice that Suzuki Roshi taught, but I love these books, especially Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and Not Always So, and I have great respect and fondness for the San Francisco Zen Center and for Shunryu Suzuki and his lineage. All these books are very highly recommended. More about Shunryu Suzuki and his teaching here and here.

CHARLOTTE JOKO BECK: Everyday Zen: Love & Work and Nothing Special: Living Zen − Joko was an exceptionally clear, sharp, down-to-earth, no-nonsense, no frills, modern day Zen teacher. She died in 2011 in Arizona, but her books live on. Her approach is practice-oriented, and the practice is awareness in the midst of ordinary life. As she put 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 was well-versed in the challenges of ordinary life. From her perspective, the messier the circumstances and the bigger the disappointments, the richer the opportunities. She wasn't seducible − she brought everything back to ordinary everyday life. If you tried to talk about your big enlightenment experience, she might say (as if dismissing a bothersome fly), that's nice, and how is your relationship with your partner these days? Joko taught at Zen Center of San Diego for many years and created the Ordinary Mind Zen School. She was an important teacher for me. She liked to try different things to wake people up. For example, on her sesshins, we had an hour of bowing practice every day, and every day she gave us a different thing to bow to − these were full bows, to the floor − and with each bow, we were to allow a different example of the thing in question to come to mind and then bow to it. One day, it was bow to all your disappointments; another day, it was bow to everything you think is other than you. With each new bow, it was fascinating to see what came up, and then very enlightening to bow to it. 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. You can see a clip from it on YouTube. An excellent CD of some of Joko's talks, which I very highly recommend, has been produced by Sounds True and is available from them or from Amazon.com. Joko said: "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." She also said, "When we maintain awareness, whether we know it or not, healing is taking place...When we can sit with a simple mind, not being caught by our own thoughts, something slowly dawns, and a door that has been shut begins to open. For that to occur, we have to work with our anger, our upset, our judgments, our self-pity, our ideas that the past determines the present. As the door opens, we see that the present is absolute and that, in a sense, the whole universe begins right now, in each second. And the healing of life is in that second of simple awareness...Healing is always just being here, with a simple mind." Joko's approach was stricter and more formal and practice-oriented than mine, but the essence of her teaching is excellent. This is very clear, no bullshit, bare-bones Zen. Very highly recommended.

BENTINHO MASSARO: Insights Into Awareness -- Articles and Dialogs -- Bentinho is a beaming and joyous young man from the Netherlands who seems to be made of pure light. Friends of mine who have been with him in person tell me he is one of the clearest and most freeing teachers they have ever experienced. I've read parts of his books and watched several of his videos, and although I was initially put off by the way he exudes non-stop bliss, after listening for while, I had to agree that Bentinho is a very clear and wonderfully liberating teacher. He points to what is already free Here / Now, and offers the barest possible form of practice. He speaks in plain language − no spiritual baggage from Advaita or Buddhism. He seems very down to earth − he doesn't talk about his own awakening story or come across as a superior being or an authority figure. He radiates happiness and freedom, and he seems to have both confidence and humility. His message is challenging and yet delivered with such delight and love that it instantly disarms the egoic mind and invites you to open up: “If you recognize right now that your nature is free from whatever situation you are in, and that the situation doesn't have to change…but that the very nature of the experience is freedom itself, then the human reaction to that is bliss,” he says. “When you realize the indestructibility of what you are, then in that very recognition, everything that seemed so compelling at first, so serious, so threatening – then your own seriousness becomes one big joke and the mind starts to laugh, slowly at first, because it doesn't want to admit that it's been serious for no reason all this time.” Once I got over my aversion to the word bliss, he had me laughing! It is beautiful to watch how Bentinho interacts with people in meetings. He never buys into their problem or their story, however convincing it might be. He always speaks to (and from) the place that is always already free and whole. His two books are available for free download on his website, where many video and audio clips are also available, and many video clips are now posted here on YouTube as well. Bentinho believes that there is truly no obstacle to anyone and everyone being able to realize freedom, and he has a number of big plans – creating a "Globalization Project" for world peace, an "academy" to share his teachings, a retreat center and a community – and some of this may come across as a bit idealistic and grandiose, but I don't doubt his sincerity or his genuinely good-hearted intentions in all of this, and with his clarity and youthful energy, who knows what will happen. He comes across to me as very awake, very clear, and for the most part, very much on the mark, and it will be interesting to see how his teaching unfolds. He's only been at it a very short time. For someone in his early twenties, Bentinho is really quite amazing, and actually, for someone of any age, he is quite amazing. Very highly recommended. More here.

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. 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. Very highly recommended!

KARL RENZ: May It Be As It Is: The Embrace of Helplessness; If You Wake Up, Don't Take It Personally: Dialogues in the Presence of Arunachala; and The Myth of Enlightenment: Seeing Through the Illusion of Separation − Karl is a contemporary German painter and musician who now travels the world talking about radical nonduality or Advaita. He calls his talks "Self-entertainment," and he functions as a kind of iconoclastic trickster, destroying all your attempts to make something out of nothing. "You are in Self-entertainment only when you have no result coming out of it," he says. "You are in spite, not because of your doing or not doing." Karl speaks from the Self to the Self: "What you are existed before this body was born," he says. "You are the infinite eye, which looks from infinite angles into what you are. You are the infinite perception, which perceives only Self-information." Karl ridicules all spiritual experiences and achievements: "Nobody's enlightened or unenlightened," he says, "Any idea of awakening disappears. There are no sleeping or awakened ones anymore, no more hocus-pocus of trying to get anywhere and have special experiences." Irreverent and without spiritual veneer, Karl is a fast-talking guy who loves to joke and play with words, and words seem to pour out of him with complete abandon. He transmits a liberating absence of concern, a care-less-ness or freedom that seeks nothing and has no problem with anything. "I'm always pointing to that Absolute you are, which is total helplessness," he says. "Everything is a totality of controllessness and freedom...And that freedom you cannot lose and you cannot gain...Total helplessness itself − that is freedom." He talks about being "released from the idea that you have to be released," and says, "that's the biggest release...that you never can be released from what you are." Karl 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." Whatever you hold onto, Karl will gleefully demolish. He can be ruthless in this, and some people have experienced him as insensitive, insulting, hurtful or offensive, but I have found him wonderfully liberating and quite loving. However, if you are looking for loving-kindness in the usual sense, you should probably look elsewhere. But if you're looking for total destruction, in the best sense, then I would very highly recommend Karl. This is the total demolition and total acceptance of everything. You can read an interview with Karl here, and you can learn more at Karl's website here. Much excellent audio and video is available. For DVDs in English, you might try "The Neverending I" or the "2004 Summer Retreat in Mallorca," and for audio in English, I'd suggest the San Diego talks from his 2007 North American tour. I love Karl, but he won't be for everyone. As a friend of mine said, Karl is like a rare cheese -- some love it, some do not.

GARY CROWLEY: From Here to Here: Turning Toward Enlightenment − This short, concise book, written in plain language, is an arrow shot cleanly right to the bull's eye. It is an elegantly simple, spare, accessible, direct, straight-forward and crystal clear deconstruction of our most fundamental human illusion − the sense of being a separate individual with an independent free will. Gary shows how everything we think, feel and do is the outcome and activity of conditioned neurology. He then invites the reader to discover the freedom and delight of being what we always already are: the ever-present awareness experiencing this-here-now. This is an absolutely wonderful and liberating book. Very highly recommended. Gary has another book, Pass the Jelly: Tales of Ordinary Enlightenment, a humorous collection of stories drawn from his own life to illustrate his central themes that "people do what they do" and that "if you fight the play of opposites that make up life, you suffer." I enjoyed this book overall, although I was somewhat put off by the way Gary seemed to take pleasure in deliberately pushing people's buttons and then relishing their upset − but other than that, I liked it, and it's definitely worth a read (if nothing else, you'll find a wonderful new way to use meditation benches). But above all, I am recommending From Here to Here, which I totally loved. That book is a real jewel. Gary works as a rolfer and lives in California. More here.

TONY PARSONS: Nothing Being Everything; All There Is; and The Open Secret (all UK editions); and also As It Is and Invitation to Awaken (US editions) -- Tony is an irreverent, unorthodox, iconoclastic Englishman with a wonderful sense of humor who communicates uncompromising radical nonduality. For Tony, everything is the Beloved, whether it appears as a flower garden, as dog shit, or as the holocaust. "Everything about you is totally absolutely perfectly appropriate," Tony says. "All the things you think are wrong with you are absolutely right." 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. He sees the awakened life not as one of transcendent detachment, but rather as a juicy love affair, unfiltered full-on aliveness. He pulls the rug out from under any attempt to create a progressive path toward a future goal. "Life is not a task," he writes, "There is absolutely nothing to attain except the realisation that there is absolutely nothing to attain." He erases any imaginary dualistic divide between awareness and the content of awareness, always emphasizing the undivided immediacy of being. Tony insists that his uncompromisingly absolute way of expressing nonduality is the only true way, an assertion I would question, but on the other hand, his refusal to compromise his absolute position in any way whatsoever is part of what I love about his message. Overall, I find Tony's expression very vibrant and rich. I love his juiciness, his direct pointing to "just this," his irreverent humor, and the absence of any kind of spiritual veneer. Meeting him some years back was very liberating for me. There are different UK and US versions of some of Tony's books, often containing different material, all good, but I especially recommend the UK versions. 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. Very highly recommended. More here.

JON BERNIE: Ordinary Freedom -- Beautiful book, very clear! Jon Bernie lives and teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was asked to teach by Adyashanti. Before being with Adya, Jon had practiced Zen and Theravada Buddhism, had been an ordained Zen monk, had also been with Advaita teachers Jean Klein, Papaji and Robert Adams, and had spent time with Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk. Jon is also a counselor in private practice and in the past has been both a concert violinist and a teacher of the Alexander Technique. He talks about being present as awareness, dropping out of conceptual thought into a process of exploration and discovery that is sensory and energetic, allowing whatever is showing up to be as it is and to move through. Jon speaks with a voice that feels authentic, original, unpretentious, alive to the unknown and grounded in presence. An excellent book. Very highly recommended. More 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 was an important teacher for me. I find her very clear, intelligent, insightful, radiant, lively, funny, honest, warm, enlightening and heart-opening. She always points you to what is most intimate and already present. 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.

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 beautiful subtlety and depth to his work that I appreciate greatly. Like his teacher Jean Klein, Francis incorporates 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 probably excellent, and there are many very fine DVDs and CDs available. Very highly recommended. More here.

BERNIE GLASSMAN: Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen -- This is an excellent book that I very highly recommend. It elucidates the Zen understanding of nondualism by exploring two wonderful Buddhist texts, The Heart Sutra and The Identity of Relative and Absolute. Bernie Glassman is a fascinating man who strikes me as very alive and awake. An 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, 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 explores the nondual understanding that "form is precisely emptiness, emptiness precisely form," and that ultimate reality is "not one, not two." Glassman's writing is very clear. His 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 into formal Zen anymore, and I'm not a social activist anymore either, but I do find Glassman's work immensely intriguing, and I deeply appreciate the Zen understanding of nondualism, which to my eye and ear, is especially subtle and profound. Glassman has several other books, and I would also recommend one called Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life that Matters, a book he co-authored with Rick Fields that talks about business, right livelihood, social change and community from a Zen perspective. But above all, I very highly recommend Infinite Circle. More here.

WAYNE LIQUORMAN: Enlightenment Is Not What You Think; 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 and without spiritual veneer, Wayne communicates radical nondual Advaita with a strong emphasis on seeing through the illusion that you are a separate, autonomous person who is freely choosing your thoughts and actions. He calls this illusion the false sense of personal authorship, and he does a great job of showing people that all our "freely made choices" are actually the result of infinite causes and conditions, and that everything that happens could not be otherwise than exactly how it is. He invites the discovery that Consciousness (God, Totality, the One Self) is all there is, and that everything, just as it is, including the false sense of personal authorship, is nothing other than Consciousness. Wayne pulls the rug out from under the usual understanding of spirituality: "It's a very common misconception," he says, "that the experiential state of oneness is somehow different in its fundamental character from the experience of fear and separation. Both are experiences in phenomenality, both are overlays onto What Is. The What Is, in fact, has no separate quality of either fear or bliss. The ultimate state of Understanding encompasses both and absorbs both, but is neither to the exclusion of the other." This all-inclusive understanding is the most liberating realization when it is really seen, and Wayne expresses it so beautifully: "As you walk the spiritual path, it widens, not narrows, until one day it broadens to a point where there is no path left at all." Wayne always emphasizes that he is not offering a belief system, but rather, that he is inviting people to look for themselves and see directly. The only aspect of Wayne's expression that I find somewhat misleading is his description of enlightenment as a one-time event in which the false sense of individual authorship permanently disappears, never to return. That's how Wayne describes his own experience, but to my ear, talking about enlightenment in that way sets people up to chase after a final event in the future. Wayne does say over and over that no conceptual description is ever the truth, and he is careful to stress that it isn't "the person" (or "the meat") that gets enlightened, and he always points to the impossibility of ever being in any way separate from Totality: "There is nothing to become," he says, "We are all already That." But if you hear his occasional description of a final event and then find yourself thinking that "you" are not enlightened yet, see if you can find the one who is not enlightened. As Wayne says: "Enlightenment is not what you think but rather the ultimate, unimaginable dissolution into all that IS." As I hear him, when he talks about enlightenment, he is pointing to the "What Is" that belongs to no one and that is equally present as every experience. This "What Is" is not a particular experience that begins and ends (or that goes on forever), and the "me" who seems to be going back and forth between expanded experiences and contracted experiences is a kind of mirage that never actually exists. And as Wayne says: "When we talk about Enlightenment or Oneness it is much ado about Nothing!" Overall, I resonate with Wayne's expression and recommend him very highly. There is also an excellent book of pithy satirical poems, NO WAY for the Spiritually "Advanced," written under Wayne's pen name, Ram Tzu, which I also very highly recommend. Audio and video of Wayne's meetings are available, and I especially recommend the newer material that he has been calling the Living Teaching. There are also live webcasts in which you can participate. More here.

RAMESH S. BALSEKAR: A Net of Jewels; Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj; Consciousness Speaks; Your Head in the Tiger's Mouth; From Consciousness to Consciousness; The Final Truth; Experiencing the Teaching; A Duet of One; and The Wisdom of Balsekar -- Ramesh S. Balsekar was a bank president who became a close disciple and translator of Nisargadatta and then a teacher in his own right. Ramesh died in 2009. This is uncompromising, non-dual Advaita with a strong emphasis on the non-existence of personal volition. Ramesh hammers away relentlessly at the root illusion of a separate, autonomous individual with free will. His writing can sometimes be quite dense and heady, and you may find yourself getting tangled up in mental confusion when you read him, in which case, I recommend putting the book down. A Net of Jewels is a beautiful collection of essential gems organized so that you read two very brief selections every day, and in this format, the words tend to be received more meditiatively and are perhaps less likely to get the thinking mind spinning itself into knotts. More here and here.

WES "SCOOP" NISKER: Buddha's Nature: A Practical Guide to Discovering Your Place in the Cosmos; Essential Crazy Wisdom; Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again, and The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom: The Spiritual Experiments of My Generation -- Wes Nisker is an insight meditation teacher, author, performer, former radio newscaster, and co-founder and co-editor of the excellent Buddhist journal "Inquiring Mind." Years ago in San Francisco, in the early 1970's, I remember "Scoop" Nisker would always end his newscast by saying, "And remember, if you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own." He is a very wise, insightful, honest human being with a great sense of humor who puts together science and Buddhism in an original mix that I very highly recommend. His book The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom had me laughing out loud, and I found his insights and reflections on our (boomer) moment in history profoundly healing. And Buddha's Nature is a great dharma book. Wes Nisker is so refreshingly real and open. Here is somebody who admits he doesn't know how everything works, who has no final answer, who isn't telling you that he is a totally enlightened person beyond all error or confusion. Here is someone who is open to new discoveries and who offers a very practical, down-to-earth path rooted in awareness, scientific curiosity and an ability to laugh. There is also a wonderful DVD available of one of his live performances, and you'll find much more at his website here. Very highly recommended!

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. More on Kabat-Zinn here.

DAVID STEINDL-RAST: A Listening Heart: The Spirituality of Sacred Sensuousness and Gratefulness: the Heart of Prayer -- Brother David is a Benedictine monk who has worked closely with various Zen communities. He has a wonderfully open mind and heart and a beautiful and deep sense of the sacred in the present moment. His books are a great joy to read. You can feel the depth of his presence and his heart. "Love wholeheartedly," he writes, "be surprised, give thanks and praise -- then you will discover the fullness of your life." Brother David was born in Vienna but has lived for many years in the United States. He has lectured worldwide and has also lived as a hermit. I love these books. Very highly recommended. More here.

PEMA CHODRON: Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears -- This book is a tiny jewel that I have found exceptionally clear and helpful. Pema is an American woman (divorced, with grown children) who was a student of Chogyam Trungpa. She became a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and now heads Genpo Abbey in Nova Scotia. This little book is all about learning how to be with the itch of our fundamental discomfort, fear, restlessness and anger without scratching the itch and making it worse. It is about learning to be present and awake without running away and without expecting perfection. As in all her other books, 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 she offers a clear, intelligent, practice-oriented teaching with wisdom and heart. Pema suggests that we view the apparent problems and setbacks in our lives as opportunities rather than as obstacles or signs of failure. Some of her other wonderful titles include The Wisdom of No Escape; The Places that Scare You; When Things Fall Apart and Start Where You Are. Very highly recommended. More here.

CHOGYAM TRUNGPA: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism and The Myth of Freedom -- These two books point to groundlessness and non-dwelling -- the dropping of all reference points and conceptual constructs: "Then it is possible to experience the uniqueness and vividness of phenomena directly." Chogyam Trungpa was an important 20th Century Buddhist teacher who brought Tibetan Buddhism to the West. He fled Tibet as a young monk, lived for awhile in India and Scotland and eventually settled in the USA, where he gave up being a monk and became a lay teacher instead. Trungpa was an immensely creative man who founded Vajradhatu, the Naropa Institute and Shambhala. He was also a controversial character who drank heavily and slept with female students, but whatever you think of all that, these books have some excellent material in them. I'm not endorsing or recommending all the whistles and bells and practices of Tibetan Buddhism, unless you happen to be drawn to them, but Trungpa comes across in these books as very down to earth and direct. "Enlightenment is the ultimate and final disappointment," he writes. "Treading the spiritual path is painful. It is a constant unmasking, peeling off layer after layer of masks. It involves insult after insult." Highly recommended. 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. Audio and video, plus several other books, and information about Steven's projects and events is available 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 fallacies of every way in which we try to conceptualize reality, and he does this 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 listing above) has a whole course about Nagarjuna available on CD that is excellent and very highly recommended -- well worth the price. Good translations of Nagarjuna include those by David J. Kalupahana and Jay L. Garfield. It's not easy material, but highly recommended.

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.

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. Highly recommended. More here.

MOOJI: Breath of the Absolute: The Manifest and Unmanifest Are One and Before I Am: The Direct Recognition of Our Original Self -- Two excellent collections of dialogues with Mooji, a contemporary teacher of Advaita whom I highly recommend. Mooji, or Anthony Paul Moo-Young, was born in Jamaica in 1954. He 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. I met him once in Chicago and found him to be a very warm, loving and awake being whose presence was very powerful. "Do not remind the world it is bound or suffering," he writes, "Remind the world it is beautiful and free." You can hear audio, see video, read dialogues, and learn more at his website here. Very highly recommended.

NIRMALA: Nothing Personal: Seeing Beyond the Illusion of a Separate Self. This is an excellent book, clear and warm-hearted. Nirmala is a wonderful 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. Very highly recommended. More here.

ADYASHANTI: Emptiness Dancing and True Meditation -- Adya is a contemporary American teacher who offers a unique blend of Zen and Advaita that he calls zen-satsang. 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 get stuck on one side or the other of any conceptual divide (such as practice vs. no practice), and he moves freely between relative and absolute perspectives, all of which I greatly appreciate. He points to the Truth that is ever-present Here / Now, and he also talks in great depth about an evolutionary journey from initial glimpses of this Truth to fully embodied liberation, and he urges people to go all the way. I appreciate many of his insights about this journey, but I'm not a big fan of mapping out a progressive path or suggesting that there is a final destination. Also, some of the ways he talks about people "choosing" to suffer don't completely resonate with me, although I do understand what he is trying to convey. Adya does always caution his listeners to hold his formulations lightly, and I very much appreciate the way he encourages people not to give away their own authority, but rather to question and look for themselves. I attended a one-day retreat with him many years ago and he was very helpful to me. I found him down-to-earth, clear and genuine. He writes: "There is more reality and sacredness in a blade of grass than in all our thoughts and ideas about reality. When we perceive from an undivided consciousness, we will find the sacred in every expression of life...in our teacup, in the breeze, in the brushing of our teeth, in each and every moment of living and dying. Therefore we must leave the entire collection of conditioned thought behind and let ourselves be led by the inner thread of silence into the unknown, beyond where all paths end, to that place where we go innocently or not at all--not once but continually." Beautiful! He has several other books -- The Impact of Awakening, The End of Your World and Falling into Grace -- all of which have some good material in them, but parts of those books didn't appeal as much to me. The books of his that I would most recommend are Emptiness Dancing and True Meditation. There is excellent audio and video of his satsangs (and some interviews) available. One set of CDs I would especially recommend is Life Without a Center: Teachings on Centerless Living and Meditation from a weekend at Spirit Rock in 2009. Highly recommended. More here.

JEFF FOSTER: The Wonder of Being: Awakening to an Intimacy Beyond Words (this is a combined and revised edition of Jeff's first two books, Life Without a Centre and Beyond Awakening); An Extraordinary Absence: Liberation in the Midst of a Very Ordinary Life; and The Revelation of Oneness -- A graduate in astrophysics from Cambridge University, Jeff Foster writes and talks about what he refers to as "the utterly, utterly obvious" -- this moment, just as it is. Jeff points so beautifully and uncompromising to the simplicity of whatever is showing up in this moment without any interpretive overlay, without analysis or judgment, and without any attempt to improve upon it or fix it. He speaks to and from "the extraordinary absence" being and beholding everything, and points to the aliveness and the bare actuality of Here and Now, just as it is. Jeff conveys a sense of love and gratitude for everything that shows up and a sense that all of it is the One Reality appearing as everything. He is a very genuine, bright, open, clear, down to earth, loving guy who communicates radical nonduality in a very ordinary and unpretentious way that I appreciate deeply. Audio and video is also available. Jeff is presently holding meetings in the UK and around the world. Very highly recommended. More 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 is a truly wonderful book -- open it anywhere and it stops the mind. Very highly recommended. More here.

RYOKAN: One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of Ryokan, translated by John Stevens -- Ryokan, known as the "Great Fool," was a Zen poet, monk and hermit in late 18th and early 19th century Japan. In the words of John Stevens, Ryokan "slept when he wanted to, drank freely, and frequently joined the dancing parties held in summer. He acquired his simple needs by mendicancy, and if he had anything extra he gave it away. He never preached or exhorted, but his life radiated purity and joy; he was a living sermon...Often he spent the entire day playing with the children or picking flowers." His haiku poems transmit the essence of Zen with exquisite simplicity and beauty. Very highly recommended.

TIMELESS SPRING: A Soto Zen Anthology, edited and translated by Thomas Cleary -- an excellent collection of Zen writings that includes such classics as "Merging of Difference and Unity" and "Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi." I especially recommend a piece in this collection called "Hongzhi said." Highly recommended.

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, many people in the Insight Meditation community, and many others who are now teaching). I find Papaji's teaching rather uneven -- some of it is wonderfully direct, clear and full of heart, and then some of it strikes me as rather confused and murky. I do 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.

DOUGLAS HARDING: Open to the Source: Selected Teachings of Douglas E. Harding; Face to No-Face: Rediscovering Our Original Nature; On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious and Look For Yourself: The Science and Art of Self-Realization -- Douglas Harding (1909-2007) was a British architect who woke up to the unencapsulated boundlessness of Here / Now, the emptiness in which everything is appearing. In other words, he discovered that "I" am nothing at all, and that "I" am absolutely everything. He called this discovery "having no head," and he went on to write many books on the Headless Way. He also devised a number of simple experiments people can do to help them see the obvious, and he gave workshops on the Headless Way right up to the end of his life. The experiments never appealed to me, although I'm guessing they are probably helpful to many people, but I did greatly enjoy Harding's writing. He has a beautiful way of pointing to what is so clear and obvious that it is easily overlooked. Very highly recommended. More about his work here.

KEN WILBER: "The Ultimate State of Consciousness" -- This is the last chapter in Wilber's book Eye to Eye and it also appears in John White's book called What Is Enlightenment? This is a great, short piece of writing on nonduality that I very highly recommend. Crystal clear. Ken Wilber is a contemporary author and founder of Integral Institute. In his books, he provides a brilliant synthesis of different disciplines and an interesting critique of contemporary spirituality and culture, all from what I would describe as a nondual, evolutionary perspective, strongly influenced by Eastern spirituality, Western psychology, and postmodernism. Other books by Wilber that I enjoyed parts of include A Brief History of Everything; The Simple Feeling of Being; and Boomeritis. Definitely a very brilliant mind. And this one piece, "The Ultimate State of Consciousness," is an excellent description of nondualism that I very highly recommend. More on Ken Wilber here.

GREG GOODE: Standing As Awareness: The Direct Path -- Greg Goode has a doctorate in philosophy, has studied psychology, and also has a background in both Advaita and Zen. He mentions Jean Klein, Francis Lucille, and Sri Atmananda (Krishna Menon) as important influences. I found this book very clear, insightful, simple, direct and intelligent. It does a wonderful job of unpacking enlightenment and clarifying the difference between experiences of spaciousness and the ever-present space of awareness from which nothing stands apart. Greg is based in New York City, and you can learn more about him 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, homegrown, self-declared, fictional "enlightened guy" (as he calls himself) from Iowa. Jed demolishes one sacred cow after another as he distinguishes between true enlightenment and such things as mystical experiences, mindfulness practices, evolutionary consciousness, human adulthood, and spiritual self-improvement programs, all of which are still part of the dream world. This book may pull a few cherished rugs out from under you, push you to keep going "further" in the spiritual demolition process, and it may leave you with some great questions. Jed never tells you what Truth is, but instead, he invites you to see through and discard whatever you think it is. He shows you that the self at the center of your whole spiritual adventure isn't real. Jed's version of enlightenment is not something warm and fuzzy that can be turned into a mainstream stress reduction program or a lucrative coaching career. He's all about the death of the self and taking away all the life-preservers you reach out for in order to stay afloat in the dream world. And if you go looking for Jed McKenna instead of for Truth itself, you won't find anybody -- this is fiction. That's one of the great jokes about this book -- the "enlightened guy" who supposedly wrote it doesn't even exist. All of the above is what I love and greatly appreciate about this book, and it's why I include it on this list. The book hits the nail on the head beautifully in so many ways. But there are things about it that have always felt questionable to me. Jed seems rather full of himself, makes exaggerated claims about his success as a teacher, and often seems to treat other people with a mixture of condescension and disdain. "I possess selfless awareness and you don't," he tells a woman who is interviewing him for a magazine. And although he says that "enlightenment is neither remote nor unattainable," that it is "closer than your skin and more immediate than your next breath," he also insists that it can only be the culmination of an epic struggle, "a slow and agonizing process of self-annihilation." Jed refers to "Spiritual Autolysis" (the path to enlightenment that he offers) as "an intellectual endeavor," and he sums up his teaching as, "Think for yourself and figure out what's true." That sounds more like philosophy than genuine enlightenment. Jed's favorite authors include channeled entities like Seth and Abraham, whose work on manifesting desires he finds "very useful." In short, while there was much in this book that I greatly loved, I found the book somewhat uneven. "Jed" has two more books after this one, neither of which I liked very much, but they continue on with the same themes. I wouldn't recommend either of those. But the first book is definitely an entertaining read with some genuine insight and some truly wonderful moments. More here.

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 Buddhist 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. While that kind of formal Buddhist practice isn't my way, I nonetheless found something very beautiful and moving in this book, and I have great respect for this man. More here.

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.

AJAHN SUMEDHO: Don't Take Your Life Personally -- This book points to immediate intuitive awareness, seeing things the way that they actually are rather than the way that we want them to be or think they should be ("Right now, it's like this" and "Everything belongs"). Although Ajahn Sumedho is a monk in a very strict Buddhist monastic order in the Thai Forest Tradition, he seems completely undogmatic, nonsectarian, nonauthoritarian and open in his approach. His teaching is very direct, simple, clear, down to earth, and always expressed in a kind, humorous, and loving way. He does use Buddhist terms occasionally, but he always translates them into everyday language, and he avoids philosophy, metaphysics and other intellectual abstractions. Instead, he encourages being awareness here and now. I greatly appreciate his unpretentious honesty and willingness to expose his own human foibles. Born in the United States, Ajahn Sumedho studied Buddhism in Thailand, and has lived for many years in England where he founded several Buddhist monasteries. This is one of the very best books on the heart of Buddhism that I've come across, but you don't need to be a Buddhist or have anything to do with Buddhism to appreciate it. You can listen to some of his talks here.

S.N. GOENKA: The Discourse Summaries of S.N. Goenka and Beyond the Breath: Extraordinary Mindfulness Through Whole-Body Vipassana Meditation by Marshall Glickman -- S.N. Goenka is a retired businessman from Burma who initially took up Buddhist meditation to help him deal with severe pain. He ended up becoming a lay teacher and founding centers worldwide. Goenka has developed a style of Vipassana meditation that is an experiential, scientific, sensation-based, awareness practice, through which one can observe the constantly changing nature of the mind and body at the deepest level. I haven't done a retreat in this tradition, but from what I understand, they explore bodily sensation in great depth along with embracing a strong ethical commitment to Buddhist precepts. The Discourse Summaries offers a condensed version of the talks Goenka gives during these retreats as guidelines to the practice. The practice is what counts. Goenka emphsizes that, "Liberation can be gained only by practice, never by mere discussion." He also says, "The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal." This is not about philosopy, religious ritual or dogma, or idolizing a teacher. This is about looking within and finding your own way to liberation. Before reading Goenka's discourses, I would actually very highly recommend starting with Beyond the Breath: Extraordinary Mindfulness Through Whole-Body Vipassana Meditation by Marshall Glickman. This is an excellent book by one of Goenka's American students. Glickman puts Goenka's approach into language that I suspect will resonate more easily and deeply with contemporary Westerners. Glickman's book is excellent and I recommend it highly to everyone, not just those interested in Vipassana. Ten-day retreats in Goenka's style are available in many places around the world, all run on a donation basis. You can find retreats in your area and learn more about Goenka and this style of Vipassana here. This type of meditation has been brought into a number of prisons, including a maximum-security prison in Alabama, and there is a powerful documentary about that called The Dhamma Brothers, which you can learn more about here. Many people find Goenka's approach extremely transformative, and you can witness its effects on the men in this documentary.

DAININ KATAGIRI: 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. I'm not recommending the kind of rigorous formal Zen practice that Katagiri practiced and taught (unless you happen to be drawn to it), but there is some truly wonderful insight and wisdom in these books.

TAIZAN MAEZUMI: Appreciate Your Life: The Essence of Zen Practice -- A wonderful collection of talks by the Japanese-born Zen teacher who came to the United States in 1956 and eventually founded the Zen Center of Los Angeles and the White Plum Sangha. He was a teacher to Bernie Glassman, Joko Beck, and many others. These talks point to nondual realization and to appreciating your life here and now. "We do not see that our life right here, right now is nirvana," Maezumi says. "Maybe we think that nirvana is a place where there are no problems, no more delusions....We always think that nirvana is something very different from our own life. But we must really understand that nirvana is right here, right now." I'm not recommending formal, traditional Zen practice, unless you are drawn to it, but the message conveyed in these talks is right on the mark. The book ends with translations of several Zen texts including Dogen's Genjo Koan. Maezumi Roshi died in 1995. More on him and his lineage here and here. Very highly recommended.

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 (as he likes to say), open your heart, and invite loving-kindness to others and to yourself. 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. There's some excellent material in this collection of dialogues. Available from the publisher here or from Amazon.

RANJIT MAHARAJ: Illusion Vs. Reality: Dialogues with Shri Ranjit Maharaj -- Originally published in two separate volumes, this collection of dialogues is now available as one book. Ranjit was a 20th century Indian guru and teacher of Advaita. He 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." The emphasis here is on zero. More here.

THE HEART OF AWARENESS: A Translation of the Ashtavakra Gita, translated by Thomas Byrom -- This beautiful translation of a classic and radical text in Advaita Vedanta is elegantly spare, simple and crystal clear. The translator, Thomas Byrom, seems to have deep spiritual insight combined with a poet's feeling for language, and his rendering is exquisite. In his introduction to the book, Byrom writes, "Ashtavakra's words begin after almost everything else has been said. They barely touch the page. They are often on the point of vanishing. They are the first melting of the snow, high in the mountains, a clear stream flowing over smooth and shining pebbles." Byrom says of the Ashtavakra Gita, "All its beauty is in the transparency, its enraptured and flawless purity." Byrom sums up the essential message of the Ashtavakra Gita as: "We are all one Self. The Self is pure awareness. This Self, this flawless awareness is God. There is only God." I very highly recommend this book.

SRI ATMANANDA (KRISHNA MENON): Atma Darshan (At the Ultimate) and Atma Nirvriti (Freedom & Felicity in the Self) -- Atmananda was an Indian guru in the 20th Century who taught Advaita. In addition to being a guru, he also had a law degree, worked as a police inspector, and was a family man with a wife and three children. He was an important influence on Jean Klein, Francis Lucille and Greg Goode.

VERNON KITABU TURNER: Soul Sword: The Way and Mind of a Zen Warrior and Soul to Soul: Harnessing the Power of Your Mind -- Kitabu Turner is an African-American martial arts master and Zen Roshi with roots in Christianity. Famous for his ability to knock over skilled opponents by using only one finger, Kitabu Roshi has dedicated his life to bringing forth the True Mind, the Mind of Christ, the Mind of Zen. In an interview with W.I.E. Magazine, he said: "Enlightenment is first of all coming to understand that there is no self in the conventional sense...and it's in the process of letting go of that notion that one experiences what one truly is in the universal sense. That's when enlightenment comes -- when you realize that you are not in control. And because of that, you are very much in control." The entire interview is included in his book Soul Sword, and you can also read it on-line here. More on Kitabu Roshi at his web site here.

EZRA BAYDA: Beyond Happiness and Being Zen -- Ezra Bayda is a very clear, no-nonsense, contemporary Zen teacher who teaches at Zen Center San Diego. He writes about being present in the midst of everyday life, and he offers a number of very simple practices that one can draw on in the midst of difficulties and challenging circumstances. He avoids getting lost in metaphysics and philosophy, and focuses instead on the nitty-gritty stuff of daily life and on being present in this moment, just as it is. True happiness, Ezra says, is about "being present, being awake, being open." This is very clear, practical, down to earth, practice-oriented Zen teaching through the lens of everyday life. Ezra has several other books as well that I haven't read and I'm sure they're probably all good. Very highly recommended if you're looking for a practice-oriented approach. 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 written several other books that I haven't read. Loy co-authored a wonderful piece on time ("Consuming Time") in an excellent Buddhist anthology called Hooked, edited by Stephanie Kaza.

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. Bohm says: "I would say that in my scientific and philosophical work, my main concern has been with understanding the nature of reality in general and of consciousness in particular as a coherent whole, which is never static or complete but which is an unending process of movement and unfoldment." This particular 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 these books are excellent and highly recommended, especially Thought As a System. Bohm has a number of other books I've read that are accessible to a non-physicist, Unfolding Meaning and Wholeness and the Implicate Order. More on Bohm here.

RACHEL NAOMI REMEN: My Grandfather's Blessings and Kitchen Table Wisdom -- Rachel Naomi Remen M.D. is a former pediatrician who now counsels people facing chronic and life-threatening illnesses. Remen herself has lived with Crohn's disease for many years. These two magnificent 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. More here.

JILL BOLTE TAYLOR: My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey -- When this neuroanatomist suffers a stroke that disables the left hemisphere of her brain, she gets an unexpected opportunity to study, explore and observe the brain from the inside out. The two hemispheres of the human brain are each responsible for very different functions. The hemisphere that was damaged in Jill's stroke was the one associated with attention to details, rational thinking, linear sequencing, language and mathematics. What she is left with is the part of the brain that sees only seamless fluidity, wholeness, and the present moment (she calls it nirvana). She can't even figure out how to dial the phone to call for help. But luckily, she does get help, and over a period of some eight years, Jill is able to recover the left brain function that had been lost in the stroke. In the process, she learns about her own power to consciously choose and shift from left brain to right brain. This is a fascinating book on so many levels, one that I very highly recommend! It offers an exploration of awareness and consciousness through the lenses of both brain science and direct observation (the latter refreshingly free from any spiritual road maps or preconceptions that would filter or obstruct the view). In addition, this book is an excellent guide for how to treat people who are having or recovering from strokes. More here.

INCOGNITO: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman -- published in 2011, this fascinating book, written by a neuroscientist, presents the brain as a "team of rivals" with no central executive (no single "me") in command. The book looks into how our perception of reality is constructed, and it explores the question of free will and whether there is anyone to blame for an action, or if blame is perhaps the wrong question. Eagleman considers the moral and legal implications of what we are learning about the brain, comparing the impact of these recent discoveries to that of the earlier discovery that the earth was not the center of the universe. Very highly recommended. More here and here.

OUTLIERS: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell -- This is a fascinating book about all the random factors that go into making someone a success. Why is it that not everyone with talent and ambition who works hard actually ends up achieving their dreams? Why do some countries produce more students who excel at math or flight crews that are more or less likely to crash the plane they are flying? If you believe that all it takes for success is hard work, talent, and positive thinking, this book will make you think again. Gladwell, a journalist and author, has two previous books, The Tipping Point and Blink, both very interesting as well. 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.

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 (I don't), but I encourage people to read this book. It raises many valuable questions. More here.

EVERYWHERE A GUEST, NOWHERE AT HOME: A New Vision of Israel and Palestine by Kim Chernin – This slender little book is about how we come to believe certain things and take on certain identities and how we can begin to question our assumptions and positions. The author is a Jewish writer and psychotherapist with deep insight who went from being an avid Zionist and apologist for Israel to recognizing the plight of the Palestinian people. From there she begins to question how people who had survived a genocide could end up behaving as oppressors to another group of people. Although this is not a book about nonduality or spirituality in the usual sense, I include it on this reading list because the conflict between Israel and Palestine is exemplary of the forces within each of us that drive us alternately toward peace or war (inwardly and outwardly). The very mention of Palestine or Israel can trigger instant emotional reactions and deeply-held beliefs in many of us. Kim offers a vision of peace that is based on listening openly and questioning our beliefs. The book weaves her own personal journey together with various historical and journalistic accounts of the long struggle in this troubled part of the world. She appreciates the truth on both sides, and she remains open to the complexities, nuances and ambiguities of the situation. This is not a black and white political diatribe, but rather an invitation to all of us to listen openly and to be willing to question our most deeply-held assumptions and narratives. This book is beautifully written, very insightful and well worth reading, especially for those who take an interest in global politics and conflict resolution. More here.

GONEBOY: A Walkabout by Gregory Gibson -- This is not a spiritual book or a book about nonduality, but I recommend it because of the way it shows again and again how things are not what we think they are. In 1992, Gregory Gibson's eighteen-year-old son was shot and killed by a fellow student in a shooting rampage at Simon's Rock College that left two dead and several more injured. The book is a true story about the author's journey toward understanding and coming to grips with the murder of his son. Gibson takes us with him on this "walkabout" as he meets with school officials, gun dealers, lawyers, psychiatrists, friends of the shooter, and finally the parents of the shooter. I couldn't put the book down. It's an honest and insightful page-turner and an extraordinary story.

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.

WABI-SABI: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers by Leonard Koren -- This book of text and photos is about "a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete...things modest and humble...things unconventional." Wabi-sabi could be described as the quintessential Japanese or Zen aesthetic. The author was trained as an architect but never built anything except an eccentric Japanese tea house. Instead he produced books and magazines. More about the author and the book here.

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. She says in a recent interview, "I consider myself kind of a reporter—one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography." In the same interview, she says, "You have to be in the world to understand what the spiritual is about, and you have to be spiritual in order to truly be able to accept what the world is about....I think about the spiritual a great deal. I like to think of myself as a praise poet." There are other collections of her work as well, and all of them are 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." Another wonderful collection by Robert Bly is The Winged Energy of Delight, which includes poems by Transtromer, Kabir, Rilke, Jimenez, Basho, Issa, Rumi, Lorca, and many others.

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