Why am I passionate about this?

Until my early 50s, I detested all things spiritual. These books showed up practically on their own, without dogma or jargon, mainly to convince me that the divine existed. They’re easy to read and open to interpretation. They tricked me into a spiritual life by making it seem logical and simply a place to explore at my leisure. I try to write things that are clear and simple, and these books persuaded me that the ineffable isn’t so hard to write about. Also, I could return to these books years later, and they still speak to me. Each is capable of opening something new to me later in life.


I wrote

Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic

By Neal Allen,

Book cover of Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic

What is my book about?

My book offers a radically new method to get that snarky or belittling voice out of your head. The book’s…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing

Neal Allen Why did I love this book?

This guy tells rip-roaring stories while skewering all the spiritual hucksters you’re likely to meet. I was locked into a spiritual mystery school when a member of the group recommended McKenna as the real thing.

Most spiritual books are boastful; this guy comes off as completely ordinary, except he happens to have freed himself from emotional suffering. Most of the time. The rest of the time, he’s making fun of the bliss bunnies, chanters, philosophizers, charlatans, and sheeplike followers who populate the New Age landscape.

By Jed McKenna,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Spiritual Enlightenment as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From a spiritual master unlike any,
a spiritual masterpiece like no other.

AUTHOR, TEACHER AND SPIRITUAL MASTER Jed McKenna tells it like it's never been told before. A true American original, Jed succeeds where countless others have failed by reducing this highest of attainments — Spiritual Enlightenment — to the simplest of terms.

Effectively demystifying the mystical, Jed astonishes the reader not by adding to the world's collected spiritual wisdom, but by taking the spirituality out of spiritual enlightenment. Never before has this elusive topic been treated in so engaging and accessible a manner.

A masterpiece of illuminative writing, Spiritual…


Book cover of The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment

Neal Allen Why did I love this book?

Adyashanti is a firestarter, and he got my spiritual adventure going at the beginning. I entered a one-day retreat he gave at a nearby spiritual center as an atheist, a rationalist, a relatively happy corporate executive, a non-meditator, and a scorner of spirituality.

I believed all religions to be ridiculous superstitions with some nice life lessons mixed in. I came out of the one-day session fascinated by the idea of spirituality as a world of its own that could be explored scientifically.

That’s what Adya does, with plain language and easy-to-believe examples: He encourages people, me included, to become aware of the possibility of greater awareness. 

By Adyashanti,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The End of Your World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

More and more people are "waking up" spiritually. And for most of them, the question becomes: now what? "Information about life after awakening is usually not made public," explains Adyashanti. "It's most often shared only between teachers and their students." The End of Your World is his response to a growing need for direction on the spiritual path. Consider the book you hold in your hands Adyashanti's personal welcome to "a new world, a state of oneness."

Adyashanti begins by describing the "I got it/I lost it" phenomenon that perplexes so many of his students-the fluctuation between what he calls…


Book cover of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

Neal Allen Why did I love this book?

OK, so this guy’s work appears on everybody’s spiritual book list. Well, there’s a reason.

In my case, I was encouraged by a therapist to read a page of this book. After reading the page, I turned back to the book’s first page and read the breezy book in a sitting. That works for me, a spiritual book that can be read straight through with ease.

Entering the book, I had thought I was a relatively happy human. Tolle let me know that I was suffering all the time under ridiculous notions of damage and fear, and the next thing I knew, I was off to see Adyashanti and then find neo-Buddhists who could help with the suffering side of life.

By Eckhart Tolle,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked A New Earth as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

LOVED THE POWER OF NOW? DISCOVER THE LIFE-CHANGING FOLLOW-UP FROM THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER

'A wake-up call for the entire planet. A New Earth helps us to stop creating our own suffering and obsessing over the past and what the future might be and to put ourselves in the now' OPRAH WINFREY

'My No. 1 guru will always be Eckhart Tolle' CHRIS EVANS

THE BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE CHART-TOPPING PODCAST OPRAH & ECKHART TOLLE: A NEW EARTH
_________

Are you ready to change your life?

In Eckhart Tolle's ground-breaking book, he gives you the spiritual framework to:
- Understand yourself…


Book cover of Tao Te Ching

Neal Allen Why did I love this book?

Most ancient wisdom texts require a lot of effort. I love the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Buddhist Discourses, Dogen, Plato, Krishnamurti, and so on. But to read them, I have to take some time out of my day.

This book is a scroll of 81 aphorisms. I can pick any one, spend a little time with it, and get on with my day.

Plus, it starts with a bang: “The Way that you hear about is not the real Way.” I am invited to be confused! That takes all the pressure off me to figure it out. 

By Lao Tzu, Gia-fu Geng (translator), Jane English (translator) , Toinette Lippe (translator)

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Tao Te Ching as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For nearly two generations, this bestselling translation of the Tao Te Ching has been the standard for those seeking access to the wisdom of Taoist thought. Now Jane English and her long-time editor, Toinette Lippe, have refreshed and revised the translation, so that it more faithfully reflects the Classical Chinese in which it was first written, while taking into account changes in our own language and eliminating any lingering infelicities. This beautiful oversized edition features over a hundred new photographs by Jane English that help express the vast spirit of the Tao. Also included is an introduction by the well-known…


Book cover of Four Quartets

Neal Allen Why did I love this book?

Poetry is supposed to be difficult, right? The erudite poets like Milton, Shakespeare, Yeats, and Dickinson blend insight, psychology, philosophy, wisdom, meter, and magic sauce into a puzzle to suss out. Eliot is like that most of the time, but not in this book, where he is so direct, plain and simple, amazed and amazing, that I am not once tempted to apply critical theory.

If there is a possibility of divine inspiration, this has always felt like Exhibit 1 to me. Every time I think I might have to figure out what he’s saying, he says, “Don’t bother,” by taking me into a picture that is so concrete and full of the everyday that it paradoxically shines the divine out at me. This book can be opened anywhere, started anywhere, and it will bring me comfort and joy. 

By T.S. Eliot,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Four Quartets as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Four Quartets is the culminating achievement of T.S. Eliot's career as a poet. While containing some of the most musical and unforgettable passages in twentieth-century poetry, its four parts, 'Burnt Norton', 'East Coker', 'The Dry Salvages' and 'Little Gidding', present a rigorous meditation on the spiritual, philosophical and personal themes which preoccupied the author. It was the way in which a private voice was heard to speak for the concerns of an entire generation, in the midst of war and doubt, that confirmed it as an enduring masterpiece.


Explore my book 😀

Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic

By Neal Allen,

Book cover of Better Days: Tame Your Inner Critic

What is my book about?

My book offers a radically new method to get that snarky or belittling voice out of your head. The book’s practical, simple approach can work for anyone who worries too much, gets hemmed in by bad thoughts, procrastinates out of fear, or generally gets down on themselves a little or a lot. 

The method is simple: First, you meet your inner critic. Then, you talk to it. Then, you speak up whenever it pokes in. Eventually, it gets the picture that you don’t need it, and it shuts up. That’s the gist, but there’s a lot more, including a dozen specific techniques anyone can use to reduce their overall anxiety. 

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in spirituality, Tao Te Ching, and Buddhism?

Spirituality 313 books
Tao Te Ching 11 books
Buddhism 289 books