books we recommend

 

Jiddu Krishnamurti was the most lucid of speakers and spent his long life trying, perhaps quixotically, to talk others into enlightenment. He is iconoclastic and his freshness and life-affirming approach are inspiring. One of these poetic volumes is worth more than ten dry tomes on Yoga postures. The following titles are a good introduction:

 

Freedom from the Known

 

The Krishnamurti Reader

 

Alan Watts, English bon viveur and one-time Episcopalean priest, was the most lucid writer on Taoism and Zen. Some critics say that Watts did not practise enough and was too fond of the bottle. It seems true that his English upbringing made it hard for him to truely relax. But maybe we should thank Watts for telling us how easy it is to be beguiled by the attractions of asceticism (as surely are his critics) and cajoling us to come to some self-acceptance. Read Watts and let your practice be playful, joyful and the more profound for that!

 

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

 

The Wisdom of Insecurity

 

Chogyam Trungpa In the later phase of his teaching, Tibetan Meditation master Trungpa developed a clarity and sharpness that is simply merciless towards the would-be seeker's pretensions and expectations. He speaks straight to the heart of our post-modern condition, to our alienation within the supermarket crammed with spiritual "bargains". But his books are all the better for that. The book recommended here is a must, whether you have been tempted to settle or not.

 

Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism

 

Osho formerly Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was in his life a spectacularly controversial teacher who attracted hoards of disciples and was at the centre of a scandal in the USA which resulted in his deportation. Maybe, just maybe, he had a screw loose. Nevertheless, he could sometimes talk very good sense. The title recommended here is a commentary on the 112 methods of meditation found in the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. This text also inspires Zen Flesh, Zen Bones also recommended here. Osho brings out the simplicity, directness and effortlessness of these approaches.

 

The Book of Secrets

 

G.I. Gurdjieff wrote the most impenetrable book on matters spiritual of all times. The title recommended here takes a lot of effort and care to read and most people give up. It is written in long, convoluted sentences and littered with Gurdjieff's own peculiar terminology. For all that, it is a masterpiece. If you can read this and digest it, then you can do anything. This is no small thing! The two follow-up books (Meetings with Remarkable Men, Life is only Real then When I am) are easy and entertaining, but Gurdjieff insists that the series is read in order or else the reader will go mad!

 

Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson

 

Idries Shah wrote on Sufism in English for many years. Everything he has written repays close study. The Sufi teaching stories he has collected from far and wide are entertaining, humourous yet at the same time effective in giving the reader something nourishing to digest. These stories simply soak into the bone-marrow and work away there for years. If words can help, then these are the ones.

 

The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin

 

Caravan of Dreams

 

 

Stephen Batchelor's poetic rendering of Nagarjuna's Madhyamarkakarika is simply wonderful. Nagarjuna does not attempt to say what cannot be said, what suchness is like, rather, he attempts to show it. He does this by cutting away our conceptualisations of self, liberation, change, existence and more. But this is not mere negation: that is cut away too. He is merciless and that is his compassion. Do not be without this book! Good explanatory introduction too.

 

Verses from the Center - Stephen Batchelor