Encyclopedia of Spirituality

A Wise person once told me. "Religion is another group of people's way to God; Spirituality is your way to God." Ever since then, though I respect many religious traditions, and being Initiated and Ordained as a Santeria Priest of Orisha Ochun. This book is really beautiful, full of bright pictures, meditations and the belief systems from every corner of the globe. This book has it all, Christianity, Hinduism, Paganism, African Spirituality, Zen and Shamanism. Various forms of Spiritual beliefs which really enforce the ancient saying. "All Roads lead to God." A beautiful book to be kept in your coffee table as it will defiantly spawn many interesting conversations with guests. Also a good book for those who are just starting out on their road in Spirituality, this book has excellent Meditation exercises, as well as so much basic information, that it will open your yearning for wanting to learn more. The book ends with an awesome "further reading section." that has an excellent resource on other really good books.

Particularly helfuly as an introduction to spirituality on a broad scale. This book is writen in four parts. Part one Spirtual traditions, Part two Spiritual practices, Part three Spiritual teaching and part four has a glossary, and further reading list, etc. The first part deals broadly with Shamanism, hinduism, christianity, Psychedelic drugs, Zen, Islam etc. The second part introduces you to the actual practices from prayer to communing with nature to Devotion to Ritual and so on.Part three as the book says is a study of the timeless teachings to be found at the heart of all spiritual traditions, and how we can use them to enrich our lives, explaining concepts such as suffering, forgiveness, grace and effort, fear, love and mystical union and so on. This book realy helped me see the falsehood in the claim that only one religion, practice or belief is correct and the rest simple misguided, this book lets you see what feels right for you personaly. Another important book is prometheus rising by Robert Anton Wilson, it can help you break out of your reality tunel and start seeing that the map of New York is not New York.