Different Faiths Reading List

Hinduism

Diana L. Eck. Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
This short book is an eloquent and profound examination into the role of seeing in Hindu worship.

Stephen P. Huyler. Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
Huyler spends a part of every year in India, and his wonderful photographs give a vibrant sense of the color, texture, and variety of Hindu worship.

Priya Hemenway. Hindu Gods: The Spirit of the Divine (Spiritual Journeys)San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2003. This small book uses classic Hindu paintings to introduce the reader to the different characters of the Hindu pantheon.

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. Loving Ganesa: Hinduism's Endering Elephant Faced GodKapaa, Hawaii: Himalayan Academy, 2000. This book contains many useful reference materials, including detailed descriptions of how to worship, lists of the many different forms of Ganesha, pictures of the different objects that Ganesha may hold in his hands and their meanings, and an extensive glossary of Hindu terminology. This book and others published by Himalayan Academy can be read online.

Yoga

Georg Feuerstein. Shambhala Guide to Yoga: An Essential Introduction to the Principles and Practice of an Ancient Tradition. Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1996. This is a good introduction for those who would like to understand yoga as a complete discipline.

B.K.S. Iyengar. Light on Yoga: The Bible of Modern Yoga. New York: Schocken Books, 1979.
A guide to the asanas, or yoga postures, by the developer of the Iyengar method and probably the most famous yoga teacher in the world.

Swami Satchidananda, trans. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: Commentary on the Raja Yoga Sutras by Sri Swami SatchidanandaYogaville, VA: Integral Yoga Publications, 1999.
The ancient text that is the “Bible” of the study of yoga.

Zen Meditation

Shunryu Suzuki. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Shambhala Library). New York: Weatherhill, 1970. A classic introduction to Zen by a Japanese master who was a leader in bringing Zen to the West.

Thich Nhat Hahn. The Miracle of Mindfulness Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1976.
An introduction to the practice of mindfulness, a way of bringing our meditation into our daily lives, by the Vietnamese Zen master who was nominated by Martin Luther King for the Nobel Prize for his work in the peace movement during the Vietnam war.

Jack Kornfield. A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life New York: Bantam, 1993. This book covers the subject of meditation in a very multi-faceted way, addressing a wide range of issues and is especially helpful in its discussion of how to experience emotions more fully.

Stephen Mitchell, ed. Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn New York, Grove, 1976. Seung Sahn was a Korean Zen master who taught using koans, or kong-ans in the Korean tradition, the mysterious Zen sayings that lead us beyond regular thought into “don’t know mind.”

Charlotte Joko Beck. Everyday Zen: Love & Work. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1989.
This book by an American Zen master addresses the question of how to make our life our practice.

Chogyam Trungpa. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1987. This Tibetan master studied at Oxford and writes very beautifully. He founded the Shambhala Centers that continue to provide excellent meditation training.

Qigong and Energy Work

Kenneth Cohen. The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing. New York: Ballantine Books, 1997. A good introduction to this ancient form of Chinese energy work.

John Mann and Lar Short. Body of Light. Boston: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1990. This book examines the tradition of the “subtle body” or intuitive energy body in Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist and other traditions and discusses how to develop the sense of the subtle body.

Wendy Palmer. The Intuitive Body: Aikido as a Clairsentient Practice Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1999. A fascinating book by an aikido master on how to use bodywork to develop the intuitive faculties.

Christianity

Richard Rohr. Falling Upwards: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. Jossey-Bass, 2011.

The Franciscan priest Richard Rohr explores how our failings can help us to enter a more mature spirituality in the second half of life.

Christopher Morse. Not Every Spirit: A Dogmatics of Christian Disbelief Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International, 1994.
This book lays out the theology of orthodox Christianity and is useful for anyone with Christian beliefs who is struggling to decide what he or she believes. Particularly valuable is the section on tests of doctrinal faithfulness, which provides ten criteria for examining statements of belief.

Thomas Merton. The Wisdom of the Desert. New York: New Directions, 1960.
The Desert Fathers and Mothers were fourth century Christian hermits who lived in the deserts of the Near East. In this book, the great spiritual writer and Trappist monk has collected his favorites from their stories and sayings.

Simone Weil. Waiting for God (Perennial Classics)New York: Harper & Row, 1951.
These brilliant essays are by an intriguing twentieth century figure who was born into a comfortable family of Jewish descent and converted to Christianity yet remained outside the church.

Parker J. Palmer. Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
A beautiful book on how to find one’s true calling. Palmer discusses how we must listen to our call or we will hurt ourselves and others.

Donald W. Musser and Joseph L. Price. A New Handbook of Christian Theology. Nashville TN: Abingdon Press, 1992.
This helpful handbook has essays on many different theological subjects, arranged alphabetically and written by major theologians.

Elizabeth A. Johnson. She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. New York: Crossroad Herder, 1999.
This excellent book helps us to find language to speak about God without leaving the feminine out of the picture, yet remains rooted in classical Christian theology.

William Johnston, ed. The Cloud of Unknowing. New York: Image Books, 1996.
By an anonymous author from the fourteenth century, this book is one of the great classics of Christian contemplative wordless prayer.

Meister Eckhart. Meister Eckhart, from Whom God Hid Nothing. Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1996.
An introduction to the work of the great fourteenth century writer, preacher, and mystic.

More books on Christian prayer

Judeo-Christian Tradition

Ellen F. Davis. Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament. Cowley, 2001.

An excellent book of essays about how to read the Old Testament in a spiritually engaged way.

Stephen Mitchell. A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew. Harper Perennial, 1994. The well-known poet and translator Stephen Mitchell takes a very free approach in this beautiful adaptation of the Psalms.

More books on the Psalms

Interfaith Connections

Diana L. Eck. Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.
An excellent introduction to religious pluralism and the relationship between different faiths. Eck combines a clear, scholarly approach with descriptions of her own experiences with Christianity and Hinduism.

Rodger Kamenetz. The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1994.
In 1990, a group of Jewish rabbis and scholars traveled to Dharamsala, India to advise the Dalai Lama on the secret of Jewish spiritual survival in exile as he struggled to protect his own Tibetan tradition. This book describes their historic dialogue.

Thich Nhat Hanh. Living Buddha, Living Christ. New York: Riverhead Books, 1995.
The great Vietnamese Zen master explores the points of intersection between Christianity and Buddhism.

Beatrice Bruteau, ed. The Other Half of My Soul: Bede Griffiths and the Hindu-Christian Dialogue. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1996.
This collection of essays by theologians and thinkers such as Thomas Keating, Matthew Fox, Rupert Sheldrake, Wayne Teasdale, and Paul Knitter introduces the reader to the thought of Bede Griffiths, a Benedictine monk who lived in an ashram in India and was a pioneer in Hindu-Christian dialogue.

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