What it is: A really easy introduction to how to more effectively communicate and experience your life.

Description: this easy to read and easy to approach book offers the reader some no nonesense coaching on the meaning of your words and actions, and how to live more powerfully in agreement with them.

What I Got out of it: The book showed me that we are all unique, and yet there are some basic agreements we all share. I may eat, play, and view the world in my own way, but I share some fundamental understanding of things with everyone. Things like what integrity is and what it means to give my word, these are things that are universally understood.

Reading this book affirmed my choices in ways that centered and grounded me.

Learn more about The 4 Agreements

Nisargadatta Maharaj was born in 1897 with the name “Maruti”, and lived a simple uneducated life, as a husband and shopkeeper in the slums of Bombay, until he died in 1981. He is considered by some however to have attained the supreme state of “moksha” (Sanskrit for “enlightenment” or “liberation”), and to be one of the deepest modern masters of the Hindu school of Advaita Vedanta (emphasizing direct nondualistic realization of truth).

In the words of Advaita scholar Dr. Robert Powell, “Like the Zen masters of old, Nisargadatta’s style is abrupt, provocative, and immensely profound — cutting to the core and wasting little effort on inessentials. His terse but potent sayings are known for their ability to trigger shifts in consciousness, just by hearing, or even reading them.”

Description: If you really want to not just understand the concept, but actually learn how it feels to disidentify with yourself as a finite human being, and to instead experience yourself as an expressive action of the entire universe, then this is your book. Nisargadatta’s teachings are relentlessly confrontational and cosmically and mind-blowing. They take every preconceived notion that you have, and blow them out of the water, stretching you much wider open than you even could have conceived possible. This book is IT, the end point of the whole journey.

Anecdote: The philosopher Ken Wilber points out that many of the modern enlightened masters may have been spiritually liberated but were not fully integrated, i.e. were unhealthy in certain areas of their life besides spirituality. Nisargadatta is an example of this – from his state of enlightenment and his role as part-time role as a guru to many, he also ran a store that mostly sold leaf-rolled cigarettes, chain smoked, and died of throat cancer.

Potential Turn-Offs: If you are new to spiritual practice, this is probably not the book for you – I recommend building up to it with some other books, teachers, and experiences first. First off, a lot of what Nisargadatta teaches in the book is difficult to conceptually comprehend – it’s anything but common sense. Also, I’ve heard it said that the reason why we aren’t all directly in touch with the deep enlightened spiritual truth of life here and now is that it can be so terrifyingly raw. Reading this book may leave you a believer of that theory.

What I Got out of it: Reading I Am That had me finally understand the mystical experience, not as a concept, but, from the inside, what it actually feels like. I can only handle the intensity of the book in three to fifteen page doses, but, after such a reading, I feel immense, clear, transcendent, and unstainable. It doesn’t get any realer. KABOOM, bitches.

Learn more about I Am That, by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Description: The book starts with Dan getting it all right at Stanford. He’s on the gymnastics team, and he’s good. He gets lots of attention from girls, and is pretty much breezing by. Then he meets Socrates, an unlikely gas station attendant who turns his world upside down. Socrates immediately intrigued Dan when he managed to appear on the roof, seemingly by flying. After that, Socrates leads Dan on a journey of self-discovery and challenge that shakes Dan’s assumptions about the world to the ground. Dan goes through periods of cleansing/fasting, meditation, and seemingly magical journeys when Socrates touches his temples.

Anecdote: The book was an easy read. I took it on my commute (by train) and it was easy to pick up and put down. I did find myself looking for lessons in the book, tips, tricks, keys to the kingdom of heaven. Alas, it was just a good story, albeit an inspiring one.

Potential Turn-Offs: Well, there’s a bunch of stuff that seems pretty unlikely unless you already have experience doing energy work, reiki, and reading auras. Dan takes a few trips that are like lucid dreams that Socrates activates just by touching his temple. Frankly, I’m down with reiki, and fine fine, you’ve got an aura, but the Vulcan mind meld is a bit much even for me.

What I Got out of it: While I didn’t start a meditation practice the next day, I did get a chance to be more mindful of my state, my reactions, the way I eat, what I eat, etc. I’d say I got a glimpse of being more intentional and that felt good.

Buy th book: Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman

Growth Potential: 1) When we confuse magical or mythical forms of spirituality with trans-rational and experiential understandings of consciousness, we will often delude ourselves into thinking we are deepening our spiritual development when we are really deepening our delusion and fooling ourselves. By learning to differentiate between them, we can both recognize truly deep spiritual teaching and let go of pre-rational myths that hamper our spiritual growth. 2) We can learn to work with understand the responses that people at different levels of development will predictably exhibit, giving us greater ease and power in our social relations. 3) We can use these ideas to understand how seemingly disparate ideas and theorists actually compliment one another in describing the whole human condition. This synthesis allows us to integrate all of human knowledge into a coherent whole, even when the various teachers claim that they have the one and only or most important truths.

Pop Potential: Ken Wilber is transforming the academic and cultural landscape, bringing together many of the worlds most prestigious and prodigious teachers to his Integral Institute, including actors, politicians, entertainers, and authors. His work will be a central part of the new foundation for the future social and international organizations of the 21st century.

“Get Real” Potential: Many of the people whose work he both integrates and criticizes find his analysis arrogant and dominating. Ken is a very intellectual guy, and many suggest that he privileges thinking over feeling and intuition. Since his work is conceptual and covers pretty much the whole of the Human knowledge project, it is often so abstract that people accuse him of missing the trees for the forest. He himself admits this, and points out that the map he is creating is not the territory – and that if you remember it is a map, it is an incredibly valuable one.

What I Got out of it: This book gave words and structure to a whole series of experiences around consciousness and mind that had been a source of deep internal conflict. As I learned and applied his distinctions to my experience, the various pieces settled into place and my mind cleared, giving me powerful insights. My work, my relationships, my internal experience became simpler, while my capacity to impact others increased dramatically. Most of all, it made my experiences of consciousness, rationality, and emotions work together as a coherent whole.

Learn more about Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality by Ken Wilber
Buy the book, “Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality,” on Amazon

This particular style of Vipassina only has one teacher in the world at any given time, so the instruction was delivered via a pre-recorded video. I expected this to be a big turn-off, and it ended up feeling very natural.

Growth Potential: Vipassana meditation is designed to change the habits of one’s mind. Instead of living in constant reaction to the world and in constant slavery to craving and aversion, the Vipassana mind moves through the world with balance, equanimity, compassion, and power. After the course you might sit straighter, move more intentionally, and think a little more clearly without all the usual clutter that you probably don’t even realize you have.

Pop Potential: The food is yummy. Super tasty, clean, real vegetarian food prepared with love.

It’s affordable: the course is by donation only, and the organization prefers a donation of service (make yummy food for the next course!) to a donation of money.

“Get Real” Potential: The technique is a secular and potentially even non-spiritual practice, and that’s one of its merits. Anyone of any belief can practice and benefit from it. But in the teaching of the technique, a little Buddhist dogma (talk of karma and reincarnation) sneaks in.

What I Got out of it: I sharpened my mind, connected it with my body in deep ways, had some intense experiences of having my corporeal self disintegrate, and effectively changed my consciousness (for the better, I think). I’ve had a few difficult conversations since my retreat, and noticed that it was much easier and faster for me to clear my head and find resolution than I feel I’ve done in previous tough talks. So far, I’m still practicing Vipassana, and I plan to keep it up.

Learn more about California Vipassana Center

Growth Potential: I find that tarot cards offer new ways to see what is happening in my and others’ lives. The images on the card are symbols that seem to inspire people to deep reflection about themselves. Because these particular ones are round, a good reader can interpret the nuances of the angle of the card in a way that sheds lights on surprising aspects of a person’s life.

Pop Potential: “I don’t believe it, but…” is a phrase I’m getting used to the more out-of-the-closet I become about being someone who digs the tarot. In fact, I brought the cards to a party the other day, and I was pleasantly surprised at how many people shyly asked if I’d pull them a card. Way cool! I got to have the most intimate conversations with strangers I’d ever had, and bizarrely, people trusted me. Maybe it’s because I tell them, “I don’t believe in it either, but it sure is fun, and at minimum you and I will have had a kick butt conversation all about you!” Surprise, surprise…people get really into that! (Or, it could just be the gorgeous sketches of naked, strong, sexy, vulnerable women that make them so appealing.)

“Get Real” Potential: At the beginning of the book, Karen Vogel (the co-designer and author) suggests that these card allow you to access wisdom directly from the goddess. I know other people think of tarot as a means of divination, during which the teller can actually read the future. I don’t buy that at all…and yet it freaks me out when I pull the EXACTLY RIGHT card (like the time my friend’s dog died, and she pulled the “death” card; or the time my other friend told her boyfriend she wanted to get engaged, and he freaked out, and she pulled the card that essentially said, “someone loves you but is not ready right now.”)

What I Got out of it: Aside from the obvious popularity that comes with being the tarot reader at parties, I find that the cards are a wonderful way to reflect on my day, or my week. I’ve started giving myself a full reading once a month, and although I rarely remember what the cards “said,” I highly value the ritual of reflecting regularly on my life, posing a question, and then listening deeply to my own answers. Mostly, though, I really appreciate the opportunity to get to know my friends more deeply by giving them a reading when they’re in a particularly tough place…the weird thing is, I can ask them hard questions they would NEVER be willing to hear/answer if we didn’t have the cards as a neutral mediator. As a tool for making and deepening friendships, these cards rock!

Get your own MotherPeace Tarot Cards

Growth Potential: I was a failure as a meditator. Satsang with Pamela was my entree to accessing the peaceful core beyond the mind’s chatter.

Pop Potential: Pam’s students run the gamut from teenagers to homemakers to people who have spent many years in sincere spiritual study. Her approach to nondualism is so simple, one need never read a single Vedic text to experience the state the rishis spoke of. If you think Vedic is something you hope not to catch, and rishis sound like something delicious, you’re still in great shape to find peace with Pamela.

“Get Real” Potential: Pam’s very sweet, giggly-girl personality could be off-putting to some (it isn’t to me).

What I Got out of it: Ultimately satsang was not “mental” enough for me, and I went on to a more hands-on inquiry practice, but I would not have gotten there without the tacit encouragement of this gentle teacher, who lovingly showed me that I needn’t believe everything I think.

Learn more about Satsang with Pamela Wilson