spiritual books

Have you ever checked out a library book, taken it home, started to read it—and then, felling silly for having taken it home in the first place, ended up finishing it in under twenty minutes? That recently happened to me when reading Neil Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants. It also happened with a little book by Maya Angelou called A Brave and Startling Truth.

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Though the month (and the decade!) is nearly done, it’s never too late to brush up on your spiritual literacy. How do you do this, you might ask? The first step might be reading up on your own religion. If you haven’t read your religion’s main doctrines from cover to cover, you might want to do so—especially if you want to be sure that your religion is truly for you.

If you don’t subscribe to any particular faith, you’ve exhausted the texts in your own, or you’re simply interested in other faiths, this is a perfect opportunity to truly study different religions. Where I come from, most people think that Buddhists “worship Buddha,” and with so many green “JESUS” signs around, I always think it would be pretty cool to put up a big green “BUDDHA, “KALI,” or “THOR” sign—not exactly for spiritual reasons, I suppose, but to at least acknowledge that there’s a lot more diversity out there.

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If there’s any spiritual concept we could all really learn—or re-learn—these days, it’s the interconnectivity of the planet and its inhabitants. Rather than revolving our lives around the seasons, we are mildly inconvenienced by them; instead of giving thanks for rain, we curse it; and we shoo away wild animals, passing legislation to cut their numbers instead of recognizing them as fellow beings in this experience we all share on Earth.

In All I See is Part of Me, a young boy realizes that the entire universe is part of him—and he, part of it. One day he decides to ask the sun, “Who are you?” To his astonishment, the sun replies, “We are one.” And so the boy embarks on a beautiful journey of discovery in which he learns that the sky, the stars, and everything on Earth are all connected to him.

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Like Julia Cameron’s other works, Walking in This World is the kick in the seat of the pants that many artists need to keep coming back to the page every day and really be artists. While not as earth shaking and revelation-causing as The Artist’s Way, this second tome in the Artist’s Way series still focuses on Cameron’s three main tools—morning pages, artist dates and walking—to encourage people to become better artists.

In Walking, Cameron stresses on the need to simply begin, wherever you are. Whether you think you’re suffering from writer’s block, you haven’t painted in twelve years, you’re a former concert pianist turned homemaker—whatever—you can start right now, this moment, and embrace your own art. Just show up to the page, and let God handle the quality while you produce the quantity, advises Julia.

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If you’re a fan of Dr. Richard Carlson’s Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff series and workbooks, you’ll probably be interested in his Easier Than You Think.

Published in 2005, it is similar to the Small Stuff series in size and design, and covers the same kinds of tips and topics—ways to enhance your life and general well-being through simplicity and living in the now.

I think a lot of Carlson’s advice in this book can probably be found in the Small Stuff series as well—though perhaps worded differently. Instead of focusing on what not to sweat, for example, the series contains thirty-nine things to actually make an effort to do.

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It’s definitely no secret that I’m a huge Julia Cameron fan. Cameron’s books have helped carry me through so many tides when no raft ever seemed to be in sight. I attribute The Artist’s Way as the thing that saved me from utter insanity and despair after losing a job, and have simply devoured many of her texts since.

That’s why I was a little surprised when I read Letters to a Young Artist. Cameron’s normally supportive yet firm voice seemed to be much firmer than normal, which left me feeling a little displaced. In the book, Cameron addresses a young artist (the reader) who is hypothetically sending her letters. She offers the artist advice, disrupts his/her complaints and excuses, and basically tells him/her to get to that page, already!

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Our last spiritual book review covered something you can do every day in order to make a difference in the world. Today I’d like to share another simple but meaningful edition that offers another daily dose of spirituality and simplicity.

365 Ways to Live a Simple and Spiritual Life by Madonna Gauding provides a daily dose of a broad range of spirituality. Gauding shares that this book depicts her own spiritual journey, and covers a wide range of topics, from spirituality to a healthy home environment, debt reduction to alternative gift-giving, preventative health care to free (or nearly so) entertainment. Gauding says of our hectic world, “Somewhere along the line we have confused standard of living with quality of life. And clearly they are not the same.”

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The title of this small book grabbed me as soon as I saw it, and I’m very glad that I decided to check it out. Eknath Easwaran’s Your Life is Your Message: Finding Harmony with Yourself, Others and the Earth is a thin, seemingly plain book that’s filled with bite-sized morsels of spirituality that will seep into your veins like waves of nirvana.

Easwaran, who was friends with Mahatma Gandhi, shares lessons he’s picked up throughout his life from Gandhi, his own grandmother, and many other sources. He delivers a very simple message: in order to change the world—whether we want to stop wars, help the environment, or solve hunger—we must always first start with ourselves. In fact, he maintains, we can change the world just by changing ourselves. He offers short anecdotes and spiritual lessons throughout the book to help us do just that.

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It is quite a humbling experience to imagine the advice of the dead. To imagine, for example, a spirit’s urging to live an authentic, meaningful life--a life he had not lived and now regrets.  Marlo Morgan, author of Mutant Messge Down Under, experienced such a heeding--only, instead of ghostly, sorrowful wisps, she received hers first-hand from a group who not only had no regrets, but lived each day with full hearts.

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