Books
by Mystics
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Abraham Isaac Kook:The Lights of Penitence, the Moral Principles, Lights of Holiness, Essays, Letters, and Poems - Abraham Isaac Kook 1978
Amazon Synopsis: "Precisely the dimension of our heritage that most needs to be recovered....I cannot imagine a more timely publishing venture." Huston Smith Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Syracuse University
ABRAHAM ISAAC KOOK-THE LIGHTS OF PENITENCE, LIGHTS OF HOLINESS, THE MORAL PRINCIPLES, ESSAYS, LETTERS, AND POEMS, translation and introduction by Ben Zion Bokser, preface by Rivka Schatz and Jacob Agus
Confirm me not in cages Of substance or of spirit I am lovesick. I thirst, I thirst for God. More than the deer for water brooks. I am bound to the world, to life, All creatures are my brothers. But how can I share with them my light? Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935)
A spiritual master of our own times, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook was the Chief Rabbi of Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. Rabbi Kook represents the most significant renewal of the Jewish mystical tradition in modern times. This volume presents to the English reader the major expressions of his thought, and a biographical sketch sums up his basic teachings. Ben Zion Bokser observes that, "Rabbi Kook's thought was dominated by two primary concepts, particularity and universality…Born into the restricted world of the Jewish ghetto in Eastern Europe, he was in constant rebellion against all that restricts and narrows the human spirit...In Rabbi Kook's world of thought, the love of God carried with it a love for all God's creatures, an openness to all ideas, and a continued passion to perfect life through reconciliation, harmony, and peace…" Rivka Schatz, Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Kabbalah at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and Rabbi Jacob Agus, author of eight books, including Banner of Jerusalem, have both contributed prefatory statements to this volume.
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage/The Sparkling Stone/ The Book of Supreme Truth - John of Ruysbroeck
Three writings by John of Ruysbroeck a fourteenth century Catholic mystic. John was a Flemish monk and mystic who spent most of his life studying and writing. Free PDF
Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom - Emanuel Swedenborg 2005
Amazon Synopsis: The atmospheres, which are called aethers and airs, are alike in both the spiritual and natural worlds, only that those in the spiritual world are spiritual, and those in the natural world are natural. The former are spiritual because they exist from the sun, which is the first proceeding of the divine love and divine wisdom of the Lord, and from Him receive in them divine fire which is love, and divine light which is wisdom... -from "Part III" Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18th-century inventor and man of science, experienced a spiritual epiphany at the age of 56, when he began to explore Christianity from a mystic standpoint, a stunning change of heart that has since intrigued and fascinated generations of rationalists and philosophers, from Immanuel Kant to Arthur Conan Doyle to C.G. Jung.
Did Swedenborg go mad, or is he a genuine prophet? Divine Love and Wisdom, first published in 1763, remains one of Swedenborg's most popular works, his discussion of the Creation of the universe and humanity; it forms the basis of his metaphysics and is an essential foundation for appreciating his other works. Read online or download free
Angelic Wisdom about Divine Providence - Emanuel Swedenborg 2008
Amazon Synopsis: This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
A Policy of Kindness – The Dalai Lama 1990
Amazon Synopsis: This book offers a comprehensive view of the Dalai Lama, both his personal life and his thoughts on issues of global concern. An engaging picture emerges of man whose goodwill, understanding and practically have brought him respect from world leaders and the acclaim of millions around the world.
Autobiography of a Yogi - Paramahansa Yogananda
Amazon Synopsis: Autobiography of a Yogi is at once a beautifully written account of an exceptional life and a profound introduction to the ancient science of Yoga and its time-honored tradition of meditation. This acclaimed autobiography presents a fascinating portrait of one of the great spiritual figures of our time.
With engaging candor, eloquence, and wit, Paramahansa Yogananda tells the inspiring chronicle of his life: the experiences of his remarkable childhood, encounter with many saints and sages during his youthful search throughout India for an illumined teacher, ten years of training in the hermitage of a revered yoga master, and the thirty years that he lived and taught in America. Also recorded here are his meetings with Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Luther Burbank, the Catholic stigmatist Therese Neumann, and other celebrated spiritual personalities of East and West.
The author clearly explains the subtle but definite laws behind both the ordinary events of everyday life and the extraordinary events commonly termed miracles. His absorbing life story becomes the background for a penetrating and unforgettable look at the ultimate mysteries of human existence. Selected as One of the 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Twentieth Century, Autobiography of a Yogi has been translated into 20 languages, and is regarded worldwide as a classic of religious literature. Several million copies have been sold, and it continues to appear on best-seller lists after more than sixty consecutive years in print. Profoundly inspiring, it is at the same time vastly entertaining, warmly humorous and filled with extraordinary personages.
Catherine of Siena : The Dialogue - Catherine of Siena, Suzanne Noffke & Guiliana Cavallini 1980
Amazon Synopsis: Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), mystic and Doctor of the Church, wrote The Dialogue, her crowning spiritual work for "the instruction and encouragement of all those whose spiritual welfare was her concern."
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The Cloud of Unknowing – Anonymous monk Amazon Synopsis: Written by an anonymous English monk during the late fourteenth century, The Cloud of Unknowing holds an important place in the history of both Western literature and spirituality. |
Dark Night of the Soul - St. John of the Cross 2003
Amazon Synopsis: A 16th-century mystic, St. John of the Cross was also a Carmelite monk who helped reform the Order. In this book, he addresses pride, avarice, envy, and other human imperfections. He also provides an extended explanation of Divine love, and describes methods of conversion through prayer, submission, and purification.
Emanuel Swedenborg: The Universal Human and Soul-Body Interaction - Emanuel Swedenborg 1984
Amazon Synopsis: Writing in his Religious History of the American People Sydney E. Ahlstrom comments on the impact that Emanuel Swedenborg had on nineteenth-century America: "His influence was everywhere: in Transcendentalism and at Brook Farm, in spiritualism and the free love movement, in the craze for communitarian experiments, in faith healing, mesmerism, and a half-dozen medical cults; among great intellectuals, crude charlatans, and innumerable frontier quacks."
Swedenborg was the son of a well-known Swedish theologian and had an outstanding career as a scientist and as assessor of his country's Board of Mines. His expertise encompasses the disciplines of geology, anatomy, astronomy, and physics. At age fifty-seven he underwent a religious experience that initiated him in his role of prophet and revealer of a system of thought that was destined to become one of the most important elements in the modern Christian esoteric tradition.
This volume contains new translations by George F. Dole of "The Universal Human" from Arcana Coelestia (1747-1753) and the complete text of Soul-Body Interaction (1769).
Essential Rumi - Rumi, Coleman Barks 2004
Goodreads Synopsis: From the premier interpreter of Rumi comes the first definitive one-volume collection of the enduringly popular spiritual poetry by the extraordinary thirteenth-century Sufi mystic.
Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ - Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon 1981
Amazon Synopsis: One of the most influential spiritual books ever penned, even secular historians acknowledge the great impact Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ has had in Christian history. Madame Guyon is generally credited, even by her enemies, as being one of the best-known women in church history. Will Durant, in his 11-volume Story of Civilization, recounts the impact of Jeanne Guyon's life and writings on French history.
At one time this book was publicly burned in France and yet it has also been received by seeking Christians as one of the most helpful and powerful Christian books ever written. Penned by one of Christianity's most famous saints, Jeanne Guyon, it has played a major part in the lives of more famous Christians than perhaps any other Christian book. Here is the very first edition written in modern English.
Watchman Nee saw that this book was translated into Chinese, and made available to every new convert of The Little Flock. Fenelon, Count Zinzenforf, John Wesley, the early Quakers, Jessie Penn-Lewis and Hudson Taylor all highly recommended it to the believers of their day.
This book will introduce you to a whole new-and deeper-relationship to Jesus Christ.
Francis De Sales, Jane De Chantal: Letters of Spiritual Direction - Saint Francis de Sales 1988
Amazon Synopsis: Offered here in fresh translation are the letters of spiritual direction of two seventeenth century mystical writers, Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal. These letters show us the daily attempts of laity, clergy, cloistered religious, bishops, and obscure windows to live in the authentic spirit of Jesus, and will speak not only to the historian of the period, but to all contemporary readers.
This collection is unique, since many of these letters, which are treasures of lived Salesian teaching, are translated for the first time into the English language. It is also the first time that the letters have been presented together, and that a scholarly and comprehensive introduction to the Salesian spiritual tradition, as embodied in the lives and writings of both Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal, has been attempted.
The Gist of Swedenborg by Emanuel Swedenborg
Hildegard of Bingen: Mystical Writings - Hildegard of Bingen 1990
Amazon Synopsis: The astonishing freshness and variety of this selection from the work of Hildegard of Bingen demonstrates triumphantly why this twelfth-century Benedictine mystic has come to be recognized as one of the most remarkable and versatile women of the middle ages.
Hildegard of Bingen: Scivias - Hildegard of Bingen, translated by Mother Columba Hart, Jane Bishop and Caroline Walker Bynum 1990
Amazon Synopsis: Hildegard of Bingen, twelfth-century German nun, mystic, prophet and political moralist, was widely consulted as an oracle and wrote prolifically on doctrinal matters, as well as on secular matters like medicine, She publicly preached monastic reform, founded two nunneries, and was embroiled in the politics surrounding popes and anti-popes.
Scivias, her major religious work, consists of twenty-six visions, which are first set down literally as she saw them, and are then explained exegetically. A few of the topic covered in the visions are the charity of Christ, the nature of the universe, the kingdom of God, the fall of man, sanctification, and the end of the world. Special emphasis is given to the sacraments of marriage and the Eucharist, in response to the Cathar heresy. As a group the visions form a theological summa of Christian doctrine. At the end of the Scivias are hymns of praise and a short play, probably an early draft of Ordo virtutum, the first known morality play. Hildegard is remarkable for being able to unite " vision with doctrine, religion with science, charismatic jubilation with prophetic indignation, and longing for social order with quest for social justice." This volume elucidates the life of medieval women, and is a striking example of a special form of Christian spirituality.
Ignatius of Loyola: Spiritual Exercises and Selected Works - Saint Ignatius of Loyola 1991
Amazon Synopsis: September 27, 1990 marks the 450th anniversary of the foundation of the Society of Jesus in 1540, and the year 1991 brings the 500th anniversary of the birth of its founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola. In these circumstances the present volume will contribute to the study of Ignatius' charism and of the ministries he initiated-in Christian education, foreign missions, and other fields. It presents his four major writings: the Autobiography and Spiritual Exercises in their entirety, and his Spiritual Diary and Constitutions of the Society of Jesus in selections so chosen as to give an overview of each work. It also offers ten samples of his almost 7,000 letters. Ample explanations are given in the introductions and commentaries by way of notes.
The General Introduction is an intellectual and spiritual biography that sketches the fascinating steps by which, largely through mystical favors from God, Ignatius reached his inspiring worldview, with everything in it ordered to the greater glory of God. In his Exercises we find a synthesis of his chief spiritual principles, and in his Constitutions an example of his organizational ability. The Autobiography tells of his mystical illuminations and gifts, and the Spiritual Diary lets us peer deeply into his heart in his most intimate dealings with God. His writing reveals many facets of the warm personality of this influential saint.
The Imitation of Christ - Thomas à Kempis 1426
Amazon Synopsis: The spiritual classic by à Kempis, the second most widely read spiritual book after the Bible, has had an astonishing impact on the spiritual lives of countless saints, peasants, and popes for centuries. Even today, the soul-searching words of the fifteenth-century cleric Thomas à Kempis continue to resonate, unbounded by time or geography. Drawing on the Bible, the Fathers of the early Church and medieval mysticism, his four-part treatise shrugs off the allure of the material world, blending beauty and bluntness in a supremely spiritual call-to-arms. This beautiful translation by Ronald Knox and Michael Oakley is considered by many teachers, writers, and readers to be the best English translation ever, and one that greatly enhances the life-changing insights of Thomas à Kempis.
Introduction to the Devout Life - Francis De Sales 1972
Amazon Synopsis: Francis de Sales’s Introduction to the Devout Life has remained a uniquely accessible and relevant treasure of devotion for nearly four hundred years. As Bishop of Geneva in the first quarter of the seventeenth century, Francis de Sales saw to the spiritual needs of everyone from the poorest peasants to court ladies. The desire to be closer to God that he found in people from all levels of society led him to compile these instructions on how to live in Christ. Francis’s compassionate Introduction leads the reader through practical ways of attaining a devout life without renouncing the world and offers prayers and meditations to strengthen devotion in the face of temptation and hardship.
The Interior Castle – Teresa of Avila 2009
Amazon Synopsis: Deeply spiritual and profoundly human, this 16th-century masterpiece is the work of a revered saint. Teresa of Avila visualized the soul as a many-faceted diamond, with the ecstasy of divine communion at its center. Her insights into prayer and meditation as the keys to fulfillment have inspired generations of readers.
Jacob Boehme: The Way to Christ - Jakob Böhme 1977
Amazon Synopsis: Boehme was the son of a farmer who lived the first part of his life as a shepherd and later became a shoemaker. He claimed that his writings reflect only what he was taught through the direct experience of God.
A truly giant figure in the spiritual tradition, he has greatly influenced Angelus Silesius, William Blake, John Milton, Isaac Newton, William Law and many others.
As the editor of this volume, Peter Erb, says, "The Way to Christ provides the best introduction to his thought and spirituality. A collection of nine separate treatises, its parts were written late in his career and reflect his final theological position, a position established not aside from his earlier work, but on it...The book was intended to serve as a meditation guide. Boehme believed that his writing had come from the Spirit. It was intended to direct his fellow-believers back to the Spirit as he had been directed."
Jacopone da Todi: The Lauds - da Todi Jacopone 1981
Amazon Synopsis: Jacopone da Todi c. (1230-1306) entered the Order of Friars Minor during the last quarter of the thirteenth century when the conflict between the Franciscan Conventuals and Spirituals was raging. His lauds, which long have had an established place in the history of Italian poetry, sing the praises of poverty, insist on the supremacy of the love of God above all other loves, and inveigh against the worldliness of the Church under the reign of Pope Boniface VIII. In this volume, Serge and Elizabeth Hughes have given us a fresh, highly-readable rendition of Jacopone's poetry. Writing in the introduction to this book, Professor Serge Hughes describes Jacopone's significance for today: " We continue to turn to this work after seven centuries…because of the intensities of Jacopone-his descent into the self and his search for and struggle with God."
John of the Cross: Selected Writings - Saint John of the Cross 1988
Amazon Synopsis: There are few works on the spiritual life in the West that can match the insight and sheer beauty of those of the sixteenth-century Spanish Carmelite, St. John of the Cross. A collaborator with St. Teresa of Avila in the reform movement that attempted to forge a new style of religious life, dedicated to recollection yet distinct from both the enthusiasm of the alumbrados and the sterility of the conventual Carmelites, John was no stranger to suffering. As he so memorable wrote in The Ascent of Mount Carmel, summing up his doctrine of detachment, "nothing (nada), nothing, nothing, and even on the Mountain nothing."
Yet the harshness of his teaching that emerges in the context of his commentaries on his poetry is balance by the poetry itself-a poetry that breathes the warmth and sweetness of the tender love of God that made John one of the greatest mystical writers of all time and earned him the title, Doctor of the Church.
Here, under one cover, are selections from his major works in a revised translation by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. Taken as a whole, this volume represents the essential St. John of the Cross and will serve well both the newcomer and the expert.
Julian of Norwich: Showings - Julian of Norwich, translated by Edmund Colledge and James Walsh1977
Amazon Synopsis: Julian, an anchoress who lived in solitude in Norwich, England in the late 14th century, received the 16 "showings" or revelations of God's love in a series of experienced visions. The first version was a short text. The second, longer version was apparently written some years after the first, when she had had time to pray and reflect about the teachings God had given her.
In the light of their thirteen years of work on the critical edition of Showings, Colledge and Walsh give us this first modern English rendering from the place of Julian's teaching in Catholic Spirituality. The editors present Julian as a skilled theologian and master of rhetorical style. Jean Leclercz, the noted monk, writer, and medievalist, in his preface addresses himself to the question, "Why is this an important work today?"
Showings reveals a Julian who experienced God directly and not self-consciously as "our mother." Her revelations of the feminine side of God represent a significant contribution to the tradition. Her graphic visions of the humanity of Christ are marked by vivid imagery and detail. But the special appeal of Julian lies in her theology of the all- embracing fullness of divine love. Julian is certainly a warm and approachable companion for the mystical journey.
Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises and Defense - Meister Eckhart, Edmund Colledge, Bernard McGinn and Houston Smith 1981
Amazon Synopsis: The thought of Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327), Dominican philosopher and spiritual master, is among the most daring and difficult in the history of Western mysticism.
Thoroughly grounded in the Scholastic method of his day and steadfastly loyal to the Church, Eckhart's love of speculation, paradox, and the apophatic way, nevertheless, resulted in the controversial condemnation of certain of his teachings by papal bull in 1329. His doctrines of detachment, the return of the soul to God, and the birth of the Son in the soul have continued to perplex his critics and nourish his disciples through the ages.
This volume, based on the critical Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft edition of Eckhart's works, represents the first time that his technical Latin writings and more popular German sermons and treatises have appeared together in English.
Meister Eckhart: Teacher and Preacher - Meister Eckhart 1986
Amazon Synopsis: Here are the texts that illustrate the diversity of one of the most enigmatic and influential mystics of the Western Christian tradition. Eckhart the teacher is represented by the Commentary on Exodus and by selections from six other commentaries, including the Commentary on Wisdom 7:14, the Commentary on Ecclesiasticus 24:29, and the Commentary on John 14:8.
Eckhart's ministry as a preacher was an equally important part of the man, and thus his sermons, from both the Latin and the Middle High German manuscripts, are included. What emerges is a comprehensive picture of the works of this great speculative theologian. Together with Meister Eckhart: The Essential Sermons, Commentaries and Treatises, this work form the most extensive corpus of Eckhart's writings in English.
Mystic's Musings - Jaggi Vasudev 2003
Amazon Synopsis: In this intriguing look into the twilight's of truth that lie at the core of existence, the mystic, yogi and realized master shares realities from his own life. Mystic's Musings keeps us teetering on the edge of logic as it enthralls us with esoteric and scientific explanations of life, death, rebirth, suffering, karma and the journey of the Self. The book provokes readers to delve into spaces that are not for the faint-hearted, yet deftly guides us with answers about reality that transcend our fears, angers, hopes, and struggles.
New Seeds of Contemplation - Thomas Merton 2007
Amazon Synopsis: New Seeds of Contemplation is one of Thomas Merton's most widely read and best-loved books. Christians and non-Christians alike have joined in praising it as a notable successor in the meditative tradition of St. John of the Cross, The Cloud of Unknowing, and the medieval mystics, while others have compared Merton's reflections with those of Thoreau. New Seeds of Contemplation seeks to awaken the dormant inner depths of the spirit so long neglected by Western man, to nurture a deeply contemplative and mystical dimension in our lives. For Merton, "Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the soil of freedom, spontaneity and love."
No Man Is an Island - Thomas Merton 2002
Amazon Synopsis: A recapitulation of his earlier work Seeds of Contemplation, this collection of sixteen essays plumbs aspects of human spirituality. Merton addresses those in search of enduring values, fulfillment, and salvation in prose that is, as always, inspiring and compassionate. “A stimulating series of spiritual reflections which will prove helpful for all struggling to...live the richest, fullest and noblest life”
The Practice of the Presence of God - Frère Laurent (Brother Lawrence) 1992
Amazon Synopsis: This work contains letters, ways and spiritual principles of Brother Lawrence, the 17th-century French monk who in his monastery kitchen discovered an overwhelming delight in God's presence.
Read online or download free
Revelations of Divine Love - Julian of Norwich 2006
Amazon Synopsis: One of medieval mysticism's most original works, this book was written by a 14th-century anchoress whose fervent prayers triggered intense visions. Her message of God's love — written in immediate, compelling terms — continues to influence modern Christian thought. This edition features both the short text and a later, more complex rendering.
Spiritual Life and the Word of God by Emanuel Swedenborg 2005
Amazon Synopsis: Who at this day can believe that the delight of adultery is hell in man, and that the delight of marriage is heaven in him, consequently so far as he is in the one delight he is not in the other, since so far as man is in hell he is not in heaven? -from "VI: The Sixth Commandment" Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18th-century inventor and man of science, experienced a spiritual epiphany at the age of 56, when he began to explore Christianity from a mystic standpoint, a stunning change of heart that has since intrigued and fascinated generations of rationalists and philosophers, from Immanuel Kant to Arthur Conan Doyle to C.G. Jung.
Did Swedenborg go
mad, or is he a genuine prophet? In this work, an extract from Swedenborg's
1757 Apocalypse Explained, he explores the meaning of each of the 10
commandments and discusses good, truth, and what it means to live a righteous
life. Swedish scientist and philosopher EMANUEL SWEDENBORG (1688-1772) made
notable contributions in the fields of biology, geology, and astronomy before
embarking upon his Scriptural commentary. His religious writings include The Divine
Love and Wisdom, The Apocalypse Revealed, The True Christian Religion, and The
Last Judgment. Read
online or download free
The Way of Perfection - Santa Teresa de Jesús (Avila) 1583
Saint Teresa wrote The Way of Perfection for her nuns. It has much to say about a life of contemplation and about prayer. Read online or download
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