Awakening the Paths


Book Description

Awakening the Paths is the Third Volume in the Inner Chamber Series. These books are meant to serve as a glimpse into the cornerstones of a well-structured magickal practice. Volume Three gives the reader an overview of the Qabalistic Tree of Life through the lens of the Western Mystery Tradition with focus on the 22-Paths that serve as connection of synthesis between the spheres. It is the companion to Volume Two: Poetry of the Spheres and when used together as a course of study will expand upon the reader's knowledge of the Tree of Life and its opportunities for application in daily practice. Part One provides an introduction to the core concepts and structure of the Qabalistic Tree. This section can be referenced as you move through each of the Paths. Part Two gives insight into the energies of each of the specific Paths. Each chapter is dedicated to a single Path and includes the Tarot Key, Planetary and Elemental Correspondence, and the Hebrew Letter of the Path.




Writing as a Path to Awakening


Book Description

The best writers say their work seems to come from a source beyond the thinking mind. But how do we access that source? “We must first look inside ourselves and be willing to touch that raw emotional core at the heart of a deeper creativity,” writes Albert Flynn DeSilver. In Writing as a Path to Awakening, this renowned poet, writer, and teacher shows you how to use meditation to cultivate true depth in your own writing—so your words reveal layers of profound insight that inspire and move your readers. Constructed as a year-long exploration with a new focus for each month and season, Writing as a Path to Awakening includes: • How to approach writing and reading with a greater level of presence and immersion • Engaging curiosity, playfulness, and spontaneity to keep your regular practice fresh • Meditating with poetry to deeply embody the power of language • How you can spark your imagination by connecting to the groundless source of creation • The meditative approach to storytelling—how not being trapped in your story liberates your capacity to create • Editing, rewriting, and the path of spiritual transformation “Writing and meditation practice are a powerful pair, a dynamic duo,” Albert Flynn DeSilver teaches. “Together they nourish and push, trigger and define, inform and inspire, enable, and energize. To engage in both practices fully is to activate a more complete, creative, and spiritual self.” With a mixture of engaging storytelling and practical exercises, Writing as a Path to Awakening invites you on a yearlong journey of growth and discovery—to enhance your writing through the practice of meditation while using the creative process to accelerate your spiritual evolution.




Gender and the Path to Awakening


Book Description

"In this book Seeger lays out the nuances and varying conceptions of female renunciation in modern Thai Buddhism. Centered on long-term textual and ethnographic research on six remarkable female practitioners, Seeger considers trends and changes over the last 140 years in the practices of female renunciants and their devotees. He also investigates understandings of female sainthood in Thai Buddhism, its expressions in material culture, and the importance of orality and memory in Thai Buddhist epistemology. Supported by interviews and careful study of sermons, hagiographies, and hitherto untranslated and rare Thai sources, this book examines the social backgrounds, modes of expression, veneration, and historical contexts of Thai women pursuing the Buddhist ideal. Rich in ethnographic detail and with additional grounding in foundational Indian Buddhist texts, this book offers new insights into the complexities of female renunciation and gender relations in modern Thai Buddhism."--Publisher's description




Toward a Psychology of Awakening


Book Description

A guide to understanding the relationship between Western psychology and the contemplative sprituality of the East—and how one’s spiritual journey can be enriched by both How can we connect the spiritual realizations of Buddhism with the psychological insights of the West? In Toward a Psychology of Awakening John Welwood addresses this question with comprehensiveness and depth, building on his innovative psychospiritual approach to health, healing, and spirituality. He covers the following topics: • What can the spiritual methodologies of the East teach us about psychological health? • What issues arise when the recognition of our larger nature challenges our very conception of individual self ? • What new directions become possible when psychological work is undertaken in a spiritual context? • How does Western psychological understanding affect our approach to spirituality? Welwood's psychology of awakening brings together three major dimensions of human existence: personal, interpersonal, and suprapersonal in one overall framework of understanding and practice.




Paths to God


Book Description

For centuries, readers have turned to the Bhagavad Gita for inspiration and guidance as they chart their own spiritual paths. As profound and powerful as this classic text has been for generations of seekers, integrating its lessons into the ordinary patterns of our lives can ultimately seem beyond our reach. Now, in a fascinating series of reflections, anecdotes, stories, and exercises, Ram Dass gives us a unique and accessible road map for experiencing divinity in everyday life. In the engaging, conversational style that has made his teachings so popular for decades, Ram Dass traces our journey of consciousness as it is reflected in one of Hinduism’s most sacred texts. The Gita teaches a system of yogas, or “paths for coming to union with God.” In Paths to God, Ram Dass brings the heart of that system to light for a Western audience and translates the Gita’s principles into the manual for living the yoga of contemporary life. While being a guide to the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, Paths to God is also a template for expanding our definition of ourselves and allowing us to appreciate a new level of meaning in our lives.




One Blade of Grass


Book Description

"If you've ever wondered how a messed up kid like you or me might master the wisdom of Zen, One Blade of Grass is the adventure for you. It's great company—and after reading it, you might recognize that you're further along than you imagined." —David Hinton, editor and translator of The Four Chinese Classics and author of The Wilds of Poetry One Blade of Grass tells the story of how meditation practice helped Henry Shukman to recover from the depression, anxiety, and chronic eczema he had had since childhood and to integrate a sudden spiritual awakening into his life. By turns humorous and moving, this beautifully written memoir demystifies Zen training, casting its profound insights in simple, lucid language, and takes the reader on a journey of their own, into the hidden treasures of life that contemplative practice can reveal to any of us. "This heartfelt and beautifully written memoir provides one of the most insightful, informative, and honest accounts of Zen practice yet to appear in English." —Stephen Batchelor, author of After Buddhism




The Path to Awakening


Book Description

Mind Training is a comprehensive practice that is suitable for all types of students. It contains the entire path and does not depend on a person's background. Mind Training nurses and cultivates the Buddha Nature that pure seed of awakening that is at the very heart of every sentient being. It has the power to transform even egotistical self-clinging into self-lessons. Put into practice diligently, it is enough to lead all the way to awakening. In The Path to Awakening, Shamar Rinpoche gives his own detailed commentary on Chekawa Ye-shes-rdo-rje's Seven Points of mind Training, a text that has been used as a basis for transformative practice in Tibetan Buddhism for close to a thousand years. Clear accessible, and yet profound, this book is filled with practical wisdom, philosophy, and meditation instructions. -- Amazon.com.




Sacred Commerce


Book Description

In this timely book, authors Matthew and Terces Engelhart present the idea that love before appearances is the antidote to our spiritual, environmental, and social degradation. Exploring topics such as mission statements, manager as coach, human resources as a sacred culture, and inspirational meetings, they offer a manual for building a spiritual community at the workplace—a vital concept in an age when work consumes the bulk of most adults’ time. Business, the authors explain, is all about providing a service, product, or experience the market wants, and no business can succeed by failing to understand this point. However, integrating the concept of “Sacred Commerce” into business can provide both financial success and spiritual satisfaction. Stressing that every business is an opportunity to make a lasting impact on the lives of both clients and employees, the Engelharts share the tools they’ve learned in their own enterprises to fulfill this vision. Sacred Commerce is the ideal mix of the personal and the practical—a guidebook written by people who have felt success, not just spent it. Dissatisfaction with work is at record levels, and the Engelharts show that you don’t have to suffer personally—or give up your humanity—to pay the mortgage.




The Path of Awakening: A Healing Journey


Book Description

A Journey of Healing and Awakening - The path to higher consciousness can present many challenges and lessons in our lives. Are we attracting the situations or are we meant to experience them to help others? Grief, depression, toxic relationships, old belief systems and religious dogmas can all cause us to spiral down a funnel of despair. Regardless of the challenge, we can make the choice to rise up. By going inward to find our light, to walk our spiritual journey we can, like the phoenix rising out of the ashes, gain the courage to embrace new insights, greater faith and rise up. Each author in The Path of Awakening - A Healing Journey has presented a story of hope to guide you to your creative essence, your soul purpose and to heal your life.




Old Paths, New Power


Book Description

From a recovering “leadershipaholic": our best model is the first one. With all our sleek ministry models, it’s a wonder our churches are declining—until we read Acts 6:4, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word.” After a long, sometimes trying ministry journey, Daniel Henderson was relieved to discover what the apostles knew from the start: The main thing must stay the main thing. It worked in their pagan times, and it will in ours. Old Paths, New Power: Reviving Our Churches through Prayer and the Ministry of the Word calls us back to the tried-and-true: pray and proclaim the word. Henderson, who leads a growing church revival ministry, guides you through the essentials of sparking a spiritual renaissance: Be a leader who walks with the Lord Develop a strong prayer culture in your life and ministry Preach with unction, dependence, and integrity Equip every saint for the work of the ministry Embrace the sufficiency of the gospel Our churches don’t need fresh models and fancy things; they need the Holy Spirit, and He rains down when we pray and proclaim the word. Read Old Paths, New Power and follow God’s master plan.