After my father died when I was eleven years old, I started asking those deeper spiritual questions. This started me on a journey both personally and academically to find needed answers to my queries. I became fascinated with mystical experiences and how seekers navigated their way through the vicissitudes of the spiritual journey. With this interest as a focal point, I received a doctorate in theology, attended retreats, and received guidance from Sufi, Buddhist, and Christian teachers. I taught mysticism and world religions at Ithaca College and co-founded Light on the Hill Retreat Center in 1991, where I still guide people of any or no faith on their spiritual journeys.
I wrote...
Dance of Light: Christian, Sufi and Zen Wisdom for Today’s Spiritual Seeker
McDowell writes about the spiritual life as a captivating dance. In a clear and compelling voice, she guides the reader through the steps of the dance as indicated by mystics of ancient traditions, contemporary spiritual teachers, and her own experiences. Dance of Light offers practical wisdom for today’s seeker. Whether beginner or advanced, readers will receive guidance on the dynamics of the spiritual path, learn how to further develop their inner life, and find ways to move forward when unmotivated, stuck, or lost. The teachings of the mystics will inspire readers to stay true to their calling. Instructive tales and humorous stories from each tradition add lightness and insight to the teachings.
In addition to Zen meditation instructions, this book contains numerous first-hand accounts of individual experiences during the quest for satori/enlightenment. Not only does the book show the variety of possible experiences on the journey but also how a guide can aid the seeker through the intricacies of the path. The supplemental section contains the Ten Oxherding Pictures which depict the stages of the spiritual journey. I used this set of pictures as one of the foundational structures for my book. Three Pillars is a compelling read with much Zen wisdom packed into its pages.
In this classic work of spiritual guidance, the founder of the Rochester Zen Center presents a comprehensive overview of Zen Buddhism. Exploring the three pillars of Zen—teaching, practice, and enlightenment—Roshi Philip Kapleau, the man who founded one of the oldest and most influential Zen centers in the United States, presents a personal account of his own experiences as a student and teacher, and in so doing gives readers invaluable advice on how to develop their own practices. Revised and updated, this 35th anniversary edition features new illustrations and photographs, as well as a new afterword by Sensei Bodhin Kjolhede, who…
From the Russian Orthodox tradition comes the story of a man who loses his wife and all his possessions in a fire. He stops into a church one day and hears the words of St. Paul to pray unceasingly (I Thess 5:17). This sets him on a journey during which he discovers instruction on the repetition of the Jesus Prayer. I was captivated by the experiences he encounters, the people he meets, the challenges he overcomes, and the lessons he learns. The reader is introduced to the Philokalia—a collection of texts in the mystical Eastern Orthodox tradition, which offers instruction and guidance for monks practicing the contemplative life.
This enduring work of Russian spirituality has charmed countless people with its tale of a nineteenth-century peasant's quest for the secret of prayer. Readers follow this anonymous pilgrim as he treks over the Steppes in search of the answer to the one compelling question: How does one pray constantly? Through his journeys, and under the tutelage of a spiritual father, he becomes gradually more open to the promptings of God, and sees joy and plenty wherever he goes. Ultimately, he discovers the different meanings and methods of prayer as he travels to his ultimate destination, Jerusalem.
This engrossing and inspiring book portrays the author’s wondrous encounters with Sufi master, Hazrat Inayat Kahn, first as a beginning student and then as his assistant. He witnesses the experiences of this sage as he moves through the stages of illumination, dark night of the soul, and unitary consciousness. Interspersed throughout the book are the essential teachings of Sufism as taught by Inayat Khan, its message of love, harmony, and beauty, the Ten Sufi Thoughts, meditation, and the workings of the inner life. Memories of a Sufi Sage is a great introduction to Sufism and one of its great mystics.
Representing modern Shamanism, Plotkin offers a descriptive model of five stages of The Journey of Soul Initiation based on the accounts of well-known seekers like Carl Jung and lesser-known individuals who attend the Animus Valley Institute. The latter group’s experiences occurred during treks into wild places, vision fasting, dream work, and active imagination. Plotkin illustrates each stage with extensive examples and unlike many other descriptions of inner processes, his account thoroughly addresses the difficulties and dangers of the journey. Using a very different induction process, Plotkin’s stages are striking similar to those models developed in classical Christian mysticism and the Ten Oxherding Pictures, which I use in my own book.
Soul initiation is an essential spiritual adventure that most of the world has forgotten — or not yet discovered. Here, visionary ecopsychologist Bill Plotkin maps this journey, one that has not been previously illuminated in the contemporary Western world and yet is vital for the future of our species and our planet. Based on the experiences of thousands of people, this book provides phase-by-phase guidance for the descent to soul — the dissolution of current identity; the encounter with the mythopoetic mysteries of soul; and the metamorphosis of the ego into a cocreator of life-enhancing culture. Plotkin illustrates each phase…
Although trained in Zen, Adyashanti has gone beyond any traditional perspective and is simply a seeker of truth. In his down-to-earth style, he teaches aspirants of all faiths and those who are spiritual but not religious. All of his books are excellent but I chose this one because it cogently and clearly explains the types of experiences, obstacles, and pitfalls more seasoned seekers encounter. These include the difference between abiding (or full) awakening and non-abiding (or intermittent) awakening, the disorientation that can occur after an awakening, the obstacles and pitfalls the seeker may face at this stage of the journey, and awakening in the head, heart, and gut. The End of Your Worldis an excellent and unique guide for those experiencing the more advanced stages of the journey.
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…
I’m a professional historian and life-long lover of early American history. My fascination with the American Revolution began during the bicentennial in 1976, when my family traveled across the country for celebrations in Williamsburg and Philadelphia. That history, though, seemed disconnected to the place I grew up—Arkansas—so when I went to graduate school in history, I researched in French and Spanish archives to learn about their eighteenth-century interactions with Arkansas’s Native nations, the Osages and Quapaws. Now I teach early American history and Native American history at UNC-Chapel Hill and have written several books on how Native American, European, and African people interacted across North America.
A magisterial history of Indigenous North America that places the power of Native nations at its center, telling their story from the rise of ancient cities more than a thousand years ago to fights for sovereignty that continue today
Long before the colonization of North America, Indigenous Americans built diverse civilizations and adapted to a changing world in ways that reverberated globally. And, as award-winning historian Kathleen DuVal vividly recounts, when Europeans did arrive, no civilization came to a halt because of a few wandering explorers, even when the strangers came well armed.
A millennium ago, North American cities rivaled urban centers around the world in size. Then, following a period of climate change and instability, numerous smaller nations emerged, moving away from rather than toward urbanization. From this urban past, egalitarian government structures, diplomacy, and complex economies spread…
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