JOAN'S ANNOTATED RECOMMENDED READING LIST

This is a list of recommended authors and books about nonduality or waking up to the aliveness and freedom that is present Here and Now. The list includes radical nondualists, Advaita gurus, Buddhist teachers, Sufi poets, Christians, Jews, people who are undefined by any tradition, and some who are writing and working in related fields. I'm not endorsing every single word spoken or written by any of these authors (including Joan Tollifson). Some of the authors listed below may appear to contradict each other, and at times, they may be pointing to different realizations. Some of these authors 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 on this list appear to take the phenomenal manifestation (and spiritual practice) very seriously. Some of the authors below insist that there is nothing to do other than exactly what is happening, and that there no one doing any of it, while others on this list offer some kind of apparent process, practice or method for waking up. Such practices may include bringing attention to the present moment, questioning stories and beliefs, and discerning the difference between concepts and awareness. Some authors on this list say you have the power of choice, and others say there is no you and no choice. Who has it right? Who 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 at this moment and leave the rest behind. Question authority. See for yourself. The book that wakes you up one day may lull you to sleep the next. Everything changes. Enjoy what feels alive to you here and now, and always be ready to see something new and unexpected.

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

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

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 -- an extraordinary book. 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 - Advaita means "not two" or nonduality, and it could be thought of as the Zen of Hinduism - radical, direct, nondual, bare-bones, not relying on scriptures, dogma or tradition. I Am That is a collection of dialogs that Nisargadatta had with seekers from all over the world. "Reality is what makes the present so vital," he 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." Nisargadatta is a rare jewel. Other excellent collections of his teachings include: Consciousness and the Absolute: The Final Talks of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj; Seeds of Consciousness; and Prior to Consciousness (all three edited by Jean Dunn and very highly recommended); Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj (paraphrases of Nisargadatta as remembered by Ramesh S. Balsekar); The Wisdom-Teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj: A Visual Journey (photos and text, edited by Matthew Greenblatt); and The Ultimate Medicine and The Experience of Nothingness (two collections of dialogs edited by Robert Powell). There is an excellent video about Nisargadatta, Awaken to the Eternal: A Journey of Self-Discovery, which includes actual footage of Nisargadatta along with interviews with many people who spent time with him (Jack Kornfield, Robert Powell, Jean Dunn, and others), and that video is available from Inner Directions. Stephen Wolinsky has produced two books (I Am That I Am and You Are Not) and a growing number of DVDs (including I Am That I Am, Nirvana Means Extinction, Prior to the I Am, and Consciousness and Beyond), all of them about Nisargadatta's teachings as interpreted by Wolinsky, who throws in some very interesting quantum physics and neuroscience, some post-deconstruction philosophy, many (to me) tedious guided meditations that he has designed, quite a bit of himself, and a dash of Nagarjuna and Nityananda. I very much like the selections from Nisargadatta that Wolinsky includes in the books, but I don't much care for Wolinsky's own material. There's some excellent material in all of the DVDs, including much of the material in Wolinsky's talks, and all the DVDs include actual footage of Nisargadatta holding satsang. Those are all available from NetiNeti Films. Neti Neti Films has also put out a DVD called Moments with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj that includes footage of the Bombay neighborhood where Maharaj lived and part of a satsang, however, the English subtitles on several occasions misunderstand the words of the Indian translator and then provide erroneous subtitles, so it is a good reminder that anything that has been translated may not always accurately reflect the original. Nisargadatta is one of the clearest and most radical nondual teachers that I have ever encountered, and I recommend him very, very highly, and I especially recommend I Am That.

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

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

LEO HARTONG: Awakening to the Dream: The Gift of Lucid Living and From Self to Self -- Leo has an exceptional gift for clarity of perception and expression, and these two books are among the simplest, clearest, and most articulate expressions I've seen of what I call radical nondualism. Beautiful in its simplicity and its absolute refusal to indulge our desire for fixes, radical nonduality is a description of what is, not a prescription for how to improve it. And ultimately, it is the dismantling of all descriptions, leaving only the vibrant aliveness of what is. Leo shows you that the apparent individual with free will is a fiction, that what is could not be otherwise than exactly how it is, that the One Reality is all there is, and that there is no one apart from the One Reality to find it or lose it. Leo's books are exceptionally clear and direct and I recommend them very highly. He also offers a wonderful on-line newsletter -- I'm not sure if he is still doing this, but you can find previous issues on his web site. His second book, From Self to Self, is a collection of writings from this newsletter. All 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. 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 nonduality 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, but last I heard, he's gone back to gardening. Several CDs are available as well. Very highly recommended. More here.

JEFF FOSTER: The Revelation of Oneness; An Extraordinary Absence; Life Without a Centre; and Beyond Awakening -- A graduate in astrophysics from Cambridge University, Jeff Foster is a lovely young man in the UK who writes and talks about what he refers to as "the utterly, utterly obvious." This is uncompromising, absolute, radical nonduality. Jeff points so beautifully 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. Jeff is a very genuine, open, down to earth, loving guy. Audio and video is also available, and Jeff is presently holding meetings in the UK and elsewhere. Very highly recommended. More here.

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

'SAILOR' BOB ADAMSON: Presence-Awareness: Just This and Nothing Else; One Essence Appearing as Everything; and What's Wrong with Right Now Unless You Think About It? -- Sailor Bob is a contemporary Australian who spent time with Nisargadatta Maharaj in the 1970's. Bob communicates uncompromising, radical nondualism in a clear and simple way, drawing from Advaita, Dzogchen, and his own direct seeing. No compromises, no ego candy, no frills, no sidetracks, no guru-posturing, no carrots being dangled in front of you, no bullshit, no glossy fanfare, no Bob. Simple, direct, clean, clear. Bob shows you that there is always only presence-awareness, the undivided intelligence energy that vibrates into different patterns but is always the One without a second from which no separation is ever possible. You already are what you seek; there will never be any more Oneness than there is now. Bob is a rare jewel -- a clear, unpretentious, sincere, ordinary, humble, down to earth guy whose great passion in life is 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 very genuine and wonderful. Very highly recommended. In addition to the books, there are now CDs and DVDs as well. More on Bob here.

TONY PARSONS: The Open Secret; All There Is; Nothing Being Everything (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 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. 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. More here.

DARRYL BAILEY: Dismantling the Fantasy and Essence. Darryl Bailey writes very beautifully and with tremendous clarity and simplicity, bound by no tradition or dogma, inviting open exploration and discovery. He shows you that in reality there is no separation or solidity, that the separate self with individual free will is an illusion, 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 find Darryl's writing refreshingly clean, crystal clear, unpretentious, simple, radical (to the root), and poetic. These are two of the finest books on nonduality I have come across. Dismantling the Fantasy is my favorite. 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 also mentions Ramesh Balsekar in his acknowledgments. 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 at the wesite of the yoga center where he holds his meetings, here and here. Nonduality Press is planning to publish both Dismantling the Fantasy and Essence in 2010, perhaps with some editing and revision, or, if you don't want to wait, you can usually find the current editions of Darryl's books at AbeBooks. They are well worth tracking down or waiting for. 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. Very clear and lucid, subtle, beautiful dialogues that emerge from stillness and presence, transcribed from his retreats. Jean was a medical doctor and musicologist with great sensitivity to both the body and the arts. He studied Advaita and yoga in India, and taught in Europe and the United States. There are several other books as well, all of them excellent. 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.

RUPERT SPIRA: The Transparency of Things: Contemplating the Nature of Experience -- A brilliant contemporary British ceramic artist and student of Francis Lucille, Rupert is now holding meetings on non-duality. This extraordinary book is beautifully written and exceptionally clear. Simple and direct, it leads the reader through a series of "contemplations" designed to explore and illuminate our actual experience here and now. This book is a rare jewel, definitely one of the very best books on nonduality I have ever come across, and I recommend it very highly. There is also a beautiful 2-DVD set available with the same title as the book, with Chris Hebard interviewing Rupert in depth, and I very highly recommend these two DVDs in addition to the book. In both the book and the DVDs, Rupert's insight and expression is crystal clear, subtle, nuanced, intelligent, and rooted in presence. The words come directly from the boundlessness to which they point. Rupert avoids so many pitfalls that I see many other teachers fall into, pitfalls such as turning themselves into special people, making enlightenment into a coveted future attainment, getting stuck on one side of an apparent duality like choice or no choice, falling into new belief systems, or withdrawing into a kind of detached transcendance that regards the world as merely an illusion. You can also see two very fine interviews with Rupert on Conscious TV. And you can find more about Rupert here. Very highly recommended.

ECKHART TOLLE: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose; Stillness Speaks; The Power of Now andPracticing the Power of Now -- Eckhart is a contemporary teacher, German by birth, now living in Canada. His focus is on Here and Now (timeless, spaceless, nondual being) and on illuminating whatever seems to obscure this. I find his expression for the most part exceptionally clear and refreshingly free of conventional religious or dogmatic trappings. It seems to me that he teaches at many different levels, moving between relative and absolute perspectives, addressing psychological concerns in one moment and then expressing subtle nondual truth in the next. He once described his teaching as being somewhat like a marriage of Ramana Maharshi and J. Krishnamurti, and that feels pretty accurate to me. Many radical nondualists dismiss Eckhart as "dualistic" because he talks about "being here now" as a practice and he talks about "the Now" as a particular state of consciousness, but I think he is actually very clear and can be helpful to many people. If you're all tied up in mental knots trying to think your way to enlightenment, Eckhart can be very good at waking you up from the mental trance of thoughts, concepts, beliefs and ideas, and bringing you into the open, spacious aliveness of presence. 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). 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. Eckhart's words are saturated in silence, and his words and presence transmit a kind of listening stillness, an openness that is subtle, delicate and alive. He does occasionally say things that I don't entirely resonate with, but for the most part, I find his expression very clear. 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. Audio and video I especially recommend: "Freeing Yourself from Identification with Your Mind" (a remarkably clear talk given at Inner Directions Gathering 2000 that is now available on a CD called "Through the Open Door" that includes another excellent talk as well); "Finding Your Life's Purpose"; "Beneath the World Drama There Is Peace" (a set of 8 extraordinary talks from a retreat that happened a few days after the 9/11 attacks); "The Art of Presence"; "The Essence of Now" (Asia '02); "A Guide for the Spiritual Teacher and Health Practitioner" (excellent talks from a retreat for teachers, therapists, and others who work with people); and "Findhorn Retreat: Stillness Admidst the World". And there are many available that I haven't heard, and I'm sure they're probably excellent too. All very highly recommended. 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 for many years, 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 for this alone, I would highly recommend her. Toni was a Zen teacher who left the rituals and dogmas behind, a kindred spirit to J. Krishnamurti. Toni is exceptionally good at clarifying the difference between awareness and thinking, or between direct perception and 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, undogmatic, bare-bones approach of simple awareness and unsystematic meditative inquiry. 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.

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

STEVE HAGEN: Buddhism Is Not What You Think: Finding Freedom Beyond Beliefs; Meditation Now or Never; Buddhism Plain & Simple; and How the World Can Be the Way It Is: An Inquiry for the New Millennium into Science, Philosophy, and Perception. These are all outstanding and very highly recommended books, especially Buddhism Is Not What You Think. Steve is one of the clearest and most articulate living Zen teachers I've come across. I recommend him for his subtle understanding of emptiness, impermanence, and true nonduality, and also for his intelligent approach to meditation and "practice." Steve is excellent at clarifying the distinction between conceptual thought and direct perception or awareness. He is excellent at exposing conceptual reifications, especially the most subtle and ubiquitous ones, which are so easily mistaken for reality. He sheds light on the thinking mind's habitual tendency to try to grasp reality conceptually, and then to mistake the map for the territory. I especially appreciate how Steve talks about emptiness, not as a formless, nihilistic void or a big empty space, but rather, as thorough-going flux, the impermanence that "is so complete, so thorough, that nothing is formed in the first place to be impermanent." This is the Zen understanding of emptiness or no-self. Emptiness is everything, as it is -- the seamless wholeness in which there really are no separate, substantial, persisting, independent "things" to be found, except as ideas in conceptual thought. Steve teaches formal Zen practice in a pretty bare, plain, stripped-down way, but it is still rigorous and ritualized. I'm not drawn anymore to this kind of strict, formal Zen practice, so some aspects of Steve's approach don't resonate here, but the essencial core of what he says is outstanding. His book on meditation, Meditation Now or Never, has some chapters in it that are absolutely superb, and it's not just about meditation, it's about life. (Again, I don't resonate with the insistence on formal practice or with the necessity of certain forms, postures and hand positions, but if you can take that part lightly as simply suggestions and possibilities, then the essence of what he's saying about meditation and living life is right on the mark -- see especially chapters 17, 28, 33, 34, 10 and 2 in this book -- beautiful!). Steve is truly humble, down to earth, articulate, bright and very awake. A Zen priest in the lineage of Dainin Katagiri and a former science researcher, Steve heads the Dharma Field Meditation and Learning Center in Minneapolis, and if you're looking for a Zen center, this is a truly wonderful place. Norm Randolph, who also teaches there, is also wonderful. Books, tapes, excellent classes on CD, a newsletter that frequently includes articles by Steve and Norm, talks on-line and more information here. Very highly recommended.

JOHN TARRANT: Bring Me the Rhinoceros -- This book is a tiny and explosive jewel. Written by a Zen Master and poet, 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 a contemporary Zen teacher originally from Tasmania who now lives in Northern California and directs the Pacific Zen Institute. Very highly recommended. 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. "Everything is Consciousness" and what is could not be otherwise. Individual agency is an illusion. There is also a wonderful book of satirical poems, NO WAY for the Spiritually "Advanced," written under Wayne's pen name, Ram Tzu. Audio and video of Wayne's meetings are available 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. I love the all-inclusive understanding that Wayne so beautifully expresses in one of his poems: "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." Everything is included and nothing is left out! This message is wonderfully liberating when you really see it. I find that Wayne's insight has gotten clearer over the years, and that his expression has softened and gotten more alive and fluid. He does a great job of showing people that their "freely made choices" are actually the result of infinite causes and conditions, which is a very liberating realization. My only quibble with Wayne is that the way he talks about enlightenment, it can sound like a one-time, final event that happens on a particular day in time, in which the illusion of individual authorship is lost forever, never to return. My sense is that this kind of "line in the sand" description easily sets people up to seek a final, permanent event in the future, which is a great way to overlook enlightenment here and now. Wayne does say over and over that it isn't "the person" that gets enlightened, and clearly he is intending to point out the impossibility of ever being in any way separate from Totality. But, if you read Wayne and then find yourself thinking that you're 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." Mostly, I really appreciate Wayne and highly recommend him. More here.

RAMESH S. BALSEKAR: Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj; A Net of Jewels; The Wisdom of Balsekar; Consciousness Speaks; Your Head in the Tiger's Mouth; From Consciousness to Consciousness; The Final Truth; and Experiencing the Teaching -- Ramesh S. Balsekar 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. He can tend to be rather dry and heady and conceptual, and you may find yourself getting tangled up in thought 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 one entry 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. These short selections are a great way to start the day! More here and here.

ROBERT ADAMS: Silence of the Heart: Dialogues with Robert Adams (Vols. I & II). Robert Adams was an American guru and a disciple of the great Advaita sage, Ramana Maharshi. Robert grew up in the Bronx, where (so the story goes) he had a spontaneous awakening as a teenager while taking a math test. He later spent several years in India with Ramana. At the end of his life, Robert lived in Sedona, Arizona, where he died of Parkinson's disease in 1997. Robert had a unique and often humorous way of talking about ultimate reality, and I find there is silence radiating from his words. I recommend these books very highly. You can find them and more about Robert 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. It is available here. Other favorite collections of mine include Rumi: the Book of Love, translation and commentary by Coleman Barks, and Open Secret, translated by John Moyne & Coleman Barks. There are many others. You can find links to Coleman Barks and Michael Green on my links page.

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

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

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

GUY SMITH: This Is Unimaginable and Unavoidable: Irresponsible Writings on Non-duality -- This is a fabulous book -- lean, clear, delightful. Guy Smith is a young man in England who communicates uncompromising, absolute, radical non-dualism in a unique, provocative and unconventional way. Tony Parsons wrote the foreword and describes the book as "intimately openhanded and wonderfully without any sense of order or progression." Guy hits the nail right on the head, pointing only to the absolute unicity that has no other. You might find that this book dislodges many tired old ideas as it sweeps along on its merry and irreverent way. Last I heard, Guy was writing fiction and studying to become a psychotherapist. You can see him in person in the wonderful film Who's Driving the DreamBus? (see my recommended movie page for details) -- I found him quite delightful in this movie.

KARL RENZ: Eight Days in Tiruvannamalai 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 trickster, destroying all your attempts to make something out of nothing. Karl speaks from the Heart to the Heart. This is the radical message that everything perceivable and conceivable -- including all experiences, states, awakenings, and even consciousness itself -- is all a dream-like unfolding of the Absolute Self (or the Heart). "You are prior to the sensation of birth and death. What you are existed before this body was born," Karl 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, "in fact, 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 he defies all images of a spiritual person. Something seems to happen at his meetings that is beyond the words. He transmits a wonderfully freeing care-less-ness that has no problem with anything and that holds on to nothing. "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 happily demolish. He can be ruthless in this, and some people have experienced him as angry, insensitive or offensive, but I find him to be quite loving and delightfully liberating. 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 highly recommend Karl. This is the total demolition and total acceptance of everything. Eight Days in Tiruvannamalai is a new book, and a much less edited and more lively reflection of being with Karl than his first book, and it is forthcoming from a publisher in India but can also be downloaded from his website. Much excellent audio and video is also 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 really love and enjoy Karl, but he won't be for everyone. More here.

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

THICH NHAT HANH: The Sun My Heart; You Are Here; No Death, No Fear; and The Heart of Understanding -- Thich Nhat Hanh's clear insight into emptiness, or nonduality, or what he calls "interbeing," is profound and subtle, and for this alone I would highly recommend his books. Radical nondualists may be put off by the Buddhist practices he suggests and by what could be seen as dualistic language, but I would encourage readers to listen openly and look more deeply. I'm not into formal Buddhist practice, and I don't resonate with all the specifics and particulars that Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, and there are parts of his books that I read around or ignore completely, but the essence and spirit of what he is suggesting I find very beautiful and right on the mark. I love the way Thich Nhat Hanh talks about meditation: "Practice should be enjoyable and pleasant," he writes. "It should be full of joy." He encourages us to treat our anger, our depression, our addiction, and all of ourself with tenderness, not with violence. Thich Nhat Hanh is a poet and his writing is not only exceptionally beautiful and clear, but the words are saturated with presence and seem to transmit the deep ground from which they come. 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. 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. His books offer deep, subtle, nondual insight as well as wonderful guidance on living fully here and now. The Sun My Heart is my top favorite of all his books and the one I would recommend first and foremost and most highly. You Are Here is very beautiful overall and has some truly wonderful sections. The Heart of Understanding is his commentary on the Heart Sutra, a profound Buddhist sutra about nonduality ("form is emptiness and emptiness is form"). Thich Nhat Hanh has many other books as well, including Anger; Being Peace; 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 check out Miracle of Mindfulness. More here and here. Very highly recommended.

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

DOGEN: 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. Zen teacher 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.

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 above) has a whole course about Nagarjuna available on CD that is excellent and very highly recommended. Good translations of Nagarjuna include those by David J. Kalupahana and Jay L. Garfield. It's not easy material, but very highly recommended.

J. KRISHNAMURTI: This Light in Oneself: True Meditation; Meeting Life; Choiceless Awareness: A Selection of Passages for the Study of the Teaching of J. Krishnamurti (spiral bound; published by KFA); On Freedom; Krishnamurti's Notebook; and 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. He questioned and saw through all the absurdities of organized religion with its priests and gurus, its dogmas and beliefs. 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 and depth, and he saw through the illusions of the thinking mind with remarkable acuity. Reading him and really hearing him is not easy, and it 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. Very highly recommended. Videos, audios also available. 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. 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.

MOOJI: Before I Am: The Direct Recognition of Our Original Self -- This is an excellent collection 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. You can hear audio, see video, read dialogues, order the book, and learn more at his website here. Highly recommended.

BYRON KATIE: Loving What Is: Four Questions that Can Change Your Life (written with her husband, Stephen Mitchell); A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are (also written with Stephen Mitchell); I Need Your Love -- Is That True? How to Stop Seeking Love, Approval, and Appreciation and Start Finding Them Instead (written with Michael Katz); and Losing the Moon: Byron Katie Dialogues on Non-Duality, Truth and Other Illusions (a much more raw and extreme rendition of her teaching edited by Ellen Mack and now out of print) -- Katie is a refreshingly unique contemporary teacher who has come up with a simple method for seeing through the 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 on paper and investigating it. At first glance, this might look like self-improvement, but it's truly about self-realization. Instead of encouraging us to try to be spiritual, Katie instead invites us to be as petty and unspiritual as possible -- bring out all our worst, most judgmental, most unenlightened, most spiritually incorrect thoughts -- and then investigate them by asking 4 simple questions. This questioning is done not on a purely cognitive level, but by feeling deeply into the answers. This simple process can definitely be a wake up from the thought-created mirage that is our human suffering. Loving What Is is probably the clearest and best introduction to The Work. 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, although I confess to wishing she had acknowledged at least one tiny moment of upset. She has a new book that I haven't read called Who Would You Be Without Your Story? I have found Katie's work very helpful and her questions enlightening and well worth exploring. Just reading these books can be eye-opening and enlightening. Highly recommended. Audio, video, and more information on The Work here.

ANAM THUBTEN: No Self, No Problem -- Anam is a Tibetan Buddhist, but his teaching is very open. I find him very clear, simple, direct -- kind of like Toni Packer, Advaita, and Tibetan Buddhism all wrapped into one. "What is transcendent wisdom?" he asks. "It is a direct momentary process of dissolving all illusion right now, in this very moment." He says, "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." Anam was born in Tibet, began Buddhist training at a young age, has been living and teaching in the West for a number of years now, and is currently the head teacher at the Dharmata Foundation based in the California Bay Area. He gives talks and holds retreats around the United States. More 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!

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. Very highly recommended.

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, fictional and self-declared Advaita-Taoist-Zen master from Iowa who demolishes one sacred cow after another as he distinguishes between his version of true enlightenment and such things as mystical experiences, mindfulness practices, evolutionary consciousness, human adulthood, and spiritual self-improvement programs, all of which, according to Jed, are still part of the dream world. The book has some truly fine moments. It may pull a few cherished rugs out from under you, it may push you to keep going "further" in the spiritual demolition process, and it may leave you with some great questions, all of which is why I include it on the list. In my opinion, it misses the mark in some ways, so please don't take it as gospel, and if you go looking for Jed McKenna instead of for the truth itself, you won't find anybody -- this is fiction. But it's a good read and in some ways it hits the nail on the head beautifully. "Jed" has two more books after this one, both of which I found cumbersome and far less enlightening, but they both continue on with the same themes. More here.

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 very popular 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 choice vs. no choice, or practice vs. no practice), and he moves freely within both the relative and the absolute, all of which I appreciate. Adya points to the Truth that is Here Now, but he also talks frequently and at great length about an evolutionary journey from what he calls "nonabiding awakening" to what he calls "full liberation" or "embodiment," always urging people to go all the way. While I do appreciate some of Adya's insights into the common occurrences, fixations and pitfalls that may arise on the "pathless path," this mapping out of a progressive journey seems to easily focus people either on past experiences or on the search for future results. To his credit, Adya does caution people to hold his formulations lightly, and I do appreciate the way he encourages people not to give away their own authority, but rather to question and look for themselves. Adya was very helpful to me at one point, and overall, I appreciate him deeply. 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 two other books that I did not like as much, The End of Your World and The Impact of Awakening, and there is also some 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. More here.

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

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

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

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

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

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. More here.

PETER FRANCIS DZIUBAN: Consciousness Is All: Now Life Is Completely New -- This book explains that Consciousness is all there is, that there is nothing outside the Present, and that Consciousness has no owner -- that it is the infinite, boundless One. For anyone who is struggling to understand what these statements mean, this book might be very helpful. I didn't read it cover to cover, but the parts I did read seemed clear and on the mark. More here.

NORMAN FISCHER: Norman is a Zen priest and former abbot of San Francisco Zen Center, founder of The Everyday Zen Foundation, meditation teacher at Google, poet, husband and father, former school teacher, and leader of Jewish retreats. What I especially recommend are the many talks and articles you can hear or read on his website. I have greatly enjoyed some of them. I find that Norman has a very subtle intelligence, a truly open inquiring mind, a sensitivity to nuances, and a very down-to-earth humanity. He has written a number of books, including Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up, but it is the material on the "Teachings" page of his website that I recommend. You'll find that here.

SUSAN MURPHY: Upside-Down Zen: A Direct Path into Reality -- Susan Murphy is a Zen teacher (also a filmmaker, writer, and mother) in Australia. She writes exquisitely, and this book brings true Zen practice and insight vividly and richly to life (but you don't have to be into formal Zen to appreciate and delight in her writing). She so beautifully captures the marriage of play and rigor, of commitment and letting go, of boundless eternity and the bones and breath of each unique and embodied moment. Subtle, passionate, wise, direct, and right to the heart of the matter. More 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 was born in Vienna but who has lived for many years in the United States. He has lectured worldwide and has also lived as a hermit. Brother David has worked closely with various Zen communities and he has a wonderfully open mind and heart. He has a beautiful and deep sense of the sacred, and his books are a great joy to read. Very highly recommended. More 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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

STUART SCHWARTZ: The Great Undoing: Dissolving the me into the infinite -- Stuart Schwartz, who was a student of Robert Adams, currently lives in Florida and Arizona and offers satsang around the world. This book is a collection of short verses that express the fundamental insights of Advaita with fresh clarity. I greatly appreciate the economy of words and the silence that permeates these pages, and I would highly recommend this book. Learn more about Stuart here.

MIKE SNIDER: Mike is a truly delightful banjo player from Gleason, Tennessee who is one of the people Adyashanti has asked to teach. Mike's website is all about his music and performing. But if you poke around on Adyashanti's website, you can find some talks and clips from talks by Mike and they are jewels. 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, open your heart, and invite loving-kindness to others and to yourself. More here.

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

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

PEMA CHODRON: Taking the Leap; The Places that Scare You; When Things Fall Apart; Start Where You Are; and The Wisdom of No Escape. Pema is an American woman (divorced, with grown children) who became a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and now heads Genpo Abbey in Nova Scotia. She was a student of Chogyam Trungpa. Pema embraces the darkness, the chaos, the difficulty, and the messiness of everyday life with love, humor, and warmth. She is honest, shares her own foibles openly, and offers a clear, Buddhist, practice-oriented, teaching with wisdom and heart. She suggests that we view the stuck places in our lives as opportunities rather than as obstacles or signs of failure. I'm not into Tibetan Buddhism, and I'm not recommending that, but there is some wonderful material in Pema's books. Very highly recommended. 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.

KOSHO UCHIYAMA: Opening the Hand of Thought -- Uchiyama was a Japanese Zen priest who lived from 1912 until 1999. He wrote over twenty books on Zen including several translations of Dogen with excellent commentary. He writes: "The only true enlightenment is awareness of the vivid reality of life, moment by moment. So we practice enlightenment right now, right here, in every moment....Enlightenment is not like a sudden realization of something mysterious. Enlightenment is nothing but awakening from illusions and returning to the reality of life." Clear, simple, bare-bones, straight-forward Zen teaching. I'm not recommending the kind of rigorous formal Zen practice that Uchiyama advocates, but there is some great material in his books. Other excellent books of his include Refining Your Life and The Whole-Hearted Way, both of which are commentaries on Dogen texts. Very highly recommended.

DAININ KATAGIRI: You Have to Say Something: Manifesting Zen Insight; Each Moment Is the Universe: Zen and the Way of Being Time; 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 especially recommend You Have to Say Something, which was edited by Steve Hagen, one of Katagiri's students and successors. I'm not recommending the kind of rigorous formal Zen practice that Katagiri practiced and taught, but there is some wonderful insight and wisdom in these books. Highly recommended.

TIMOTHY FREKE: How Long Is Now? and The Laughing Jesus (co-authored with Peter Gandy) -- Timothy Freke describes himself as a stand-up philosopher, an author and a performer, and a passionate and entertaining voice for what he calls our collective awakening. He is clear, down-to-earth, not into being a guru, and not stuck to either side of any imaginary conceptual divide, such as free will or no free will, relative or absolute. The Laughing Jesus, subtitled Religious Lies and Gnostic Wisdom, offers a scathing critique of fundamentalist or literalist religion (especially the Abrahamic variety), and then explores Gnostic wisdom and a very different possibility. How Long Is Now? is subtitled A Journey to Enlightenment...and Beyond, and it explores what Tim calls lucid living, oneness, big love, being deep awake, and valuing both the impersonal and the personal, the absolute and the relative, the Now and the world of time. Tim seems to be genuinely looking and listening, exploring and sharing with an open mind and an open heart, and this I find very refreshing. He lives in the UK, and you can learn 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. That kind of Buddhist practice isn't what I'm into, but I nonetheless found something very beautiful and moving in this book, and I have great respect for this man. More here.

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

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.

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

KEN WILBER: "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 collection called What Is Enlightenment? (see listing above). This is a great, short piece of writing on nonduality. Other books by Wilber that I enjoyed parts of include A Brief History of Everything; The Simple Feeling of Being; and Boomeritis -- Ken Wilber is a contemporary author and founder of Integral Institute. He has a brilliant mind and his work has involved investigating all the world's great spiritual, psychological, scientific, and philosophical systems from an evolutionary perspective and then developing a comprehensive map of human consciousness and an integral approach to spiritual development. Wilber's writing is often mental and heady and can be easily off-putting, but I've found some of his material worth reading. You may not agree with everything he says (I don't), but he provides an interesting critique of contemporary spirituality and culture, identifying where it may be really missing the mark. He brings together the wisdom of different disciplines and has what I would describe as a nondual, evolutionary perspective, strongly influenced by Eastern spirituality, Western psychology, and postmodernism. Definitely, a very brilliant mind, sometimes a lot of hot air, but often very much worth a read. More here.

Addiction Recovery: Occasionally, people ask me for suggestions regarding addiction recovery. There are many approaches to working with addiction. The best path for another may not be the best path for you, and what looks like failure may be the perfect unfolding. The most effective thing I know of is awareness -- nonjudgmental attention without seeking an outcome or a result. For that kind of approach, you might check out both of my books and also a number of the other authors on this recommended list (e.g., Eckhart Tolle, Toni Packer, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Gangaji, Joko Beck, Pema Chodron, Thich Nhat Hanh, Mary O'Malley). I'd highly recommend my own two books to anyone who is concerned about addiction, compulsion, or apparent imperfection, as these are major themes in my writing. I also recommend the chapter on addiction in The Guru Papers (see listing below). You might also check out One Breath at a Time: Buddhism & the 12 Steps by Kevin Griffin; AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and other 12-Step programs; Rational Recovery; Smart Recovery; and Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, a workbook authored by psychologist Steven C. Hayes, exploring what he calls "The New Acceptance & Commitment Therapy", an intelligent, mindfulness-based, cognitive-type therapy. Any kind of somatic awareness work such as Feldenkrais may also be helpful. Finally, it is liberating to realize that addiction and freedom from addiction are not personal faults or achievements, and that whatever is showing up in the movie of waking life could not be otherwise in this moment than exactly how it is. For that ultimate understanding, I recommend my own books and also Wayne Liquorman, Leo Hartong, Darryl Bailey, Nathan Gill, Tony Parsons, Gary Crowley, Chuck Hillig, Karl Renz, and others on this list.

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

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

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.

WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? Exploring the Goal of the Spiritual Path edited by John White. This book is a collection of articles by different authors, and in particular, I very highly recommend the chapter by Ken Wilber entitled The Ultimate State of Consciousness. This is a wonderful piece of writing on nonduality. Also worth reading are This Is It by Alan Watts; and, with some reservations, The Mood of Enlightenment by Da Avabhasa.

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.

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

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 911. 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, but in the process, she has learned 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! This is an exploration of awareness and consciousness through the lens of brain science and direct observation (without spiritual road maps or preconceptions to filter or obstruct the view). In addition, it is an excellent guide for how to treat people who are having or recovering from strokes. More here.

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

back to top of page