Best spiritual self-help books according to redditors
We found 38 Reddit comments discussing the best spiritual self-help books. We ranked the 12 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
10. Middle Passage, The (STUDIES IN JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY BY JUNGIAN ANALYSTS)
1 mention
Inner City Books
It seems to me, reading your post, that you are facing some mental blocks of your own creation. You say you are a 'spiritual dipshit' with 'disillusions of grandeur'. You also convey much fear, over and over, about various aspects of your spiritual practice, and your relations with others.
I would suggest, that while you have obviously had genuine spiritual experiences, what you lack is a context of a guiding philosophy to make sense of it all.
You are not a dipshit; you are made in the Image and Likeness of the Divine - and with that comes power and responsibility. Power to control your thoughts and experiences, and responcibility to do so wisely.
As to the fear - this is an illusion, created by your own ego. Fear can manifest results in your experience, but these are only the shadows of your bloated nothingness; the reflections of your fear itself. A healthy respect, and patience is essential, but nothing will block you in this or any other venture more so than fear.
I believe it is time that you set aside the development of spiritual phenomena until you have formed, to your own satisfaction, a working philosophy of the Spiritual, Divine nature of things and your relationship with IT. From this standpoint, you will have more success. I have found great wisdom in these writings:
Words to the Wise: Manly Hall
Lectures on Ancient Philosophy: Manly Hall
The Kyballion: Three Initiates
Hi, @PM_ME_WEALTH_ADVICE
Thanks, sounds like you know of what you speak.
This is an excellent question, thanks.
So, 95% of me thinks that if you didn't like the fictional reading, you probably won't like the rest of the book. On that basis, you shouldn't read or buy it. The rest of the book is non-fiction but the writing style is similar, and if that doesn't interest you, I doubt it's worth your investing the money or time.
The other 5% of me thinks, even given the above, give it a whirl. For these reasons:
Cheers for taking an interest in RESET, @PM_ME_WEALTH_ADVICE.
Best, Dave
Did you read my post with the two books i recommend? IF NOT THEN READ THIS POST.
Working directly with moving energy while stimulating yourself is not really effective if you don't sense energy deeply enough in the first place.If you do sense it deeply enough you can just stimulate yourself to a 9 then take the pleasure in your genitals and move it in the MCO until you feel in your genitals you're at around a 4 or 5..then begin stimulating yourself again to a 9 and move the pleasure again in the orbit.Don't waste you time with using kegels at PONR...even if you manage to get some orgasm it's weak and some ejaculate gets into your bladder...so it's not that effective to restrain from ejaculating if you're just going to have some of it go into the bladder.
You need to understand that energy orgasms are not about using kegels when you're close to ejaculating...it's about circulating enough arousal and building it up to a point that orgasms just appear as a side effect and you do that without kegeling . You can use mula bandha to shoot energy up your spine...but that presumes you have enough sensitivity to energy in the first place to be able to do it.Otherwise just doing mula bandha for hundreds of repetitions is just going to trigger at some point ejaculations. You use mula bandha not like you use kegels...you use it as a pump for energy....but again it's useless if t you don't feel it well enough to direct it thru your intention+mula bandha.
I just feel like most here try to use a broom without a handle or a handle without having attached the "brush"(I don't know what's it called,English is not my native tongue).
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AND THE MOST IMPORTANT TIP OF ALL...FOCUS ONLY ON ENJOYING THE PLEASURE YOU FEEL MOMENT BY MOMENT(EVEN IF IT'S NOT MUCH)...IF YOU DO THAT HIGHER INTENSITY OF PLEASURE CAN APPEAR WITH PRACTICE...IF YOU FOCUS ON ORGASMING...OR WANTING TO ORGASM...YOU WILL SABOTAGE YOURSELF AND KEEP YOUR PLEASURE CAPACITY STRAINED AND INFERIOR.
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SECOND TIP...SMALL AND MORE SIGNIFICANT TRAUMAS DESENSITIZE YOUR BODY'S CAPACITY FOR PLEASURE...MEANING YOUR PLEASURE IS "BLOCKED"/"CAPPED" AT A SMALL "BANDWIDTH". THAT'S' WHY NEOTANTRA TEACHERS KEEP REPEATING TO JUST STAY WITH PAINFUL MEMORIES OR SENSATIONS AND RELAX INTO THEM,INITIALLY IT DOESN'T SEEM TO WORK BUT WITH TIME YOU CAN SEE PAINFUL EMOTIONS LOOSE THEIR UNPLEASANT CHARGE AND SOME TIMES IT CHANGES FROM UNPLEASANT TO PLEASANT AND CATHARTIC. YOU'LL GET THE MOST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK BY PRACTICING FEELING YOUR UNPLEASANT FEELINGS DEEPLY AND EMBRACING THEM...JUST AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE TO EMBRACE PLEASANT FEELINGS...BECAUSE THEY ARE PLEASURABLE TO FEEL. YOU CAN READ THIS BOOK TO GET STARTED WITH WORKING WITH EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL PAIN https://www.amazon.com/Break-Through-Pain-Step-Step/dp/B001CB6A0A
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~MEDITATION MASTERY~MEDITATION IS WHAT BUILDS YOUR AWARENESS AND ATTENTION SKILLS...THE BETTER THEY ARE THE BETTER YOU CAN FEEL PLEASURE.
FOR WORKING WITH SHINZEN'S THOROUGH MEDITATION SYSTEM HERE IS A MANUAL THAT'S QUITE CHALLENGING BUT ABSOLUTELY WORH IT. http://www.shinzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/FiveWaystoKnowYourself_ver1.6.pdf
Currently, by far the best book for learning to meditate in the Vipassana/Mindfulness tradition is The Mind Illuminated, by Culadasa (John Yates). This massive tome takes you one step at a time through a system of 10 stages—based on your level of concentration.
This book also offers an entire brain-based theory of meditation—catnip for the neuroscience junkies among us (although it’s also problematic as theory) —as well as expert advice on deeper levels of meditation, many additional meditation techniques, and a method of analytical meditation. Furthermore, Culadasa has a whole appendix section that makes sense of the “jhana wars” (my term, not his) by adding a dimension of depth to the usual dimension of the jhana numbers. This is a huge step forward.
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BUILDING YOUR ATTENTION IN A PLEASURABLE WAY THAT DOES NOT INVOLVE STRAINING/TENSING YOU CAN FIND IN THE BOOK BELOW:
https://www.amazon.com/Path-Nibbana-Mindfulness-Loving-Kindness-Progresses-ebook/dp/B06WRPZZQF
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FOR WORKING WITH ENERGY YOU NEED THE PREREQUISITES(WHAT NEOTANTRA AND CHIA DOESN'T REALLY TEACH PROPERLY)-
https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Work-Secrets-Spiritual-Development-ebook/dp/B005EXYB4O
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THIRD TIP...USE VOWELS AND TONE THEM INTO YOUR CHAKRA LOCATIONS FOR 10 MINUTES/PER CHAKRA...UNTIL YOU FEEL THE TISSUE IN THE CHAKRA LOCATIONS VIBRATING,TINGLING. CHOOSE ONE VOWEL AND TONE IT 10 MINUTES AT EVERY CHAKRA LOCATION. THEN CHOOSE ANOTHER VOWEL AND USE IT IN THE SAME DAY OR THE NEXT DAY. A,E,I,O,U and HA( Key Sound Multiple Orgasm Trigger ) ETC. don't use actual sanskrit mantras because you're invoking those deities into you.Stick to just vowels alone or the HA sound as describe in it's modern form " Key Sound Multiple Orgasm Trigger ".
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FORTH TIP-
A) WHILE STIMULATING YOURSELF BREATH VERY SLOWLY INTO YOUR LOWER ABDOMEN...SUPER LONG INBREATHS AND SUPER LONG OUTBREATHS INTO YOUR LOWER BELLY.INBREATHS AND OUTBREATHS STAY EQUAL IN DURATION.
B) THIS IS MORE ADVANCED BUT YOU CAN IMAGINE YOUR BREATH IS YOUR LOVER THAT CARESSES YOUR BODY,YOUR ORGANS,YOUR EVERY CELL...YOU IMAGINE THIS NOT VISUALLY BUT IN A TACTILE WAY.AVOID TO USE YOUR VISUAL FACULTIES,USE ONLY YOUR TOUCH/TACTILE SENSE OF IMAGINING THE BREATH TOUCHING ON AN INTO YOUR BODY. IT ACTS JUST LIKE A FEATHER ACTS WHILE YOU GENTLY MOVE IT OVER YOUR SKIN.
India is definitely the place for that! I am born in the US but visited India in my college years when I was getting interested in spirituality. I am blessed that I had some strong experiences in the US and had a few in India. You can take that as confirmation that you are on the right path. You are right, they will just happen when you least expect it. Sometimes I get experiences like deja-vu, but I just take it as a confirmation that I am where I am supposed to be. I had a few amazing ones that really pushed me into spiritual life as well.
When I was getting interested in spirituality I was a big fan of Paramahamsa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi. A classic from earlier in this century. This is maybe off topic, but when I was visiting Kurukshetra I had a sadhu stop me on the road and wanted to show me things and then asked for money. He actually changed a rock into some sugar candy in front of me. I thought "OK whatever, he did some slight of hand". Then he had me pick up a rock in my own hand, close his hand over mine, then chanted a mantra and it turned into sugar rock candy within my closed fist. I ate it. I had read about those things in the Paramahamsa Yogananda book and it was happening. He then asked for money and wasn't happy with how much I gave. He opened his shirt and showed me scars and said he had been doing a lot of austerities!
An interesting experience. I eventually read more of Shrila Prabhupada's books and settled in as a Hare Krishna devotee. Shrila Prabhupada and even Paramahamsa Yogananda explained that those sort of mystic powers are not the end goal of self-realization.
This is also a great book, this person is still alive and has written an amazing tale of his travels from the US around the world in search of God. How he ends up in Himalayas living amongst the yogis and then meets his guru.
The Journey Home
The authors site: http://www.thejourneyhomebook.com/
A weekend retreat can be a wonderful thing, I hope you do get one soon.
First off, check out Shinzen Young's Break Through Pain for starters. Shinzen has a nice formula:
>Suffering = Pain x Resistance
When we resist pain, it causes a whole lot more of it. So his approach is to notice pain with great sensory clarity and equanimity, thus eliminating the resistance and eliminating the suffering. This can definitely work, even with extreme chronic pain, I've noticed this myself especially on retreats. This can also be a helpful way to get pain relief and practice time together, a two-for-one.
That said, this is not the only approach. Pain itself is caused by the nervous system, and in many ways is similar to emotions like fear and anxiety. Just as people can be anxious about things that aren't dangerous, such as talking on the phone or petting a dog, or even develop chronic anxiety in totally safe situations, pain can occur when there is no tissue damage at all going on, or become chronic even when the body is perfectly fine. See this article Pain is Weird.
It's now the case that many doctors won't do scans when people come in with nonspecific back pain, because if they see a disc problem they will assume their pain is valid and need spinal surgery, whereas there is no correlation at all between back pain and spine issues. Some people have severe structural problems with their spine and no pain, whereas others have perfect spines and lots of pain. And spinal surgery is in many cases no better than placebo (sham surgery), see this excellent article about that issue.
So there are techniques which can change the pain itself, not simply the resistance to the pain, at least in many cases. So far I've not found anything which works 100% of the time, but I have one or two methods that pretty much always reduce the pain or bring it to 0 in the first session with a client. Sometimes that's all that is needed, and the pain doesn't return. Other times it takes regular practice.
With all that said, here is the method I myself have developed for pain. I actually created it for anxiety first, then taught it at a hypnosis conference and someone in the class said it seemed like something he uses for hypnotic pain control, and then he used it for some knee pain and it was gone. That got me interested, so I started using it with lots of clients and found pretty good results. These steps might not make sense on your own until you've had it facilitated once or twice, but if they are sensible try it and see what you think. Or you could get in touch and we could do a Skype session sometime. You can use the same method for emotional stresses too.
Best of luck!
Amazing. Pain is clearly amplified by resistance to it. I guess people suffering from long-term pain created a big resistance in them - they "trained" themselves for a long time to resist pain, becoming more sensitive to it, and they should try to "un-train" it.
You may be interested in this: https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Pain-Relief-Dissolve-Mindfulness/dp/1604070889 or https://www.amazon.com/Break-Through-Pain-Step-Step/dp/B001CB6A0A
I really like Do It Yourself Life Plan Astrology
https://www.amazon.com/Yourself-Life-Plan-Astrology-Planetary/dp/1862047332
I have found the enneagram to be orthogonal to any other personality theory out there. I'm a 4, myself, though I've known a lot of ENFPs who are other numbers, and a lot of 4's who are other MBTI types.
As a way of understanding myself, I have found the enneagram to be much more effective than the MBTI or any other personality typology. It was developed by Sufi mystics as a way of helping people find God, so it's going to be a little different from personality typologies that are looking to deconstruct a person's central tendencies in a scientific way. My understanding of the enneagram comes from Fr. Richard Rohr's [Discovering the Enneagram] (http://smile.amazon.com/Discovering-Enneagram-Ancient-Spiritual-Journey/dp/0824511859/), for whatever that's worth.
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i started with this
Yes. It probably won't make the pain go away but it will change your relationship with the pain dramatically. There won't be nearly as much suffering with pain if that makes any sense. A teacher I really love that works a lot with this is Shinzen Young. He has a book as well as some audio on meditating with chronic pain, and he does one on one training over the phone and internet with students frequently.
Consider a SIPP if you really can lock the money away long term, as that gives you a bonus too. This book explains S&S ISAs and SIPPs as part of a broader strategy to saving: https://www.amazon.co.uk/RESET-Restart-Unconventional-Retirement-Careerists/dp/1916412416 (you can trial Kindle Unlimited for free for a month if you really want to save money!). I don’t love the writing style of the book, but have found much of the advice helpful and cohesive.
Consider incrementally adding your money into such products rather than sticking the whole lump sum in - see ‘dollar cost averaging’.
I recently bought this one, it seems to be the most complete one and includes all the pictures, intros, new outros and other material.
You're not wrong, but it could also be considered rude and childish to leave a potentially offensive religious text in someone's hotel room, as if to say, "You're on the way to hell, better read this." How would people react if a hotel insisted on a copy of, say, the Koran, or better, the Principia Discordia in every room?
there is plenty of material discussing the liability of proceeding in exactly that fashion.
There are plenty of organizations that essentially do nothing even thought they get donations and handouts.
The ultimate intention is to delivery the results promised.
I would suggest order something like Self Analysis from Amazon, and go through all of the questions just once, in the privacy of your own home.
Then you would have a better basis to make some sort of a judgment.
although a lot could be done through the philosophical materials alone.
Hey! This is a great topic to explore! I highly recommend these books as they talk about this, in depth, and from different points of view:
The Starseed Transmissions
The Universe is a Dream
The Dissapearance of the Universe
Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon
Modern Magick: Donald Kraig
The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic by Eliphas Levi
Words to the wise by Manly Hall
That should keep you busy for a while.
I would recommend reading this book: https://www.amazon.com/Words-Wise-Practical-Esoteric-Sciences/dp/0893148148
Words To The Wise
Manly P. Hall
Welcome to an early onset midlife crisis. This isn't finance related, it's discovering yourself. One book I read that helped was The Middle Passage (Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0919123600/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_eLKMzbW902MVD