On Books to Read

Rebecca Watters, modified 10 Years ago at 8/23/13 6:59 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 8/23/13 6:58 PM

On Books to Read

Post: 1 Join Date: 8/23/13 Recent Posts
Anything by David R. Hawkins. I was drawn to "Letting Go, The Pathway to Surrender" (you can guess why)... and the rest is history. Currently on "Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, The Stairway to Enlightenment" as well as "Dissolving The Ego, Realizing The Self"
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Bruno Loff, modified 10 Years ago at 8/26/13 4:57 AM
Created 10 Years ago at 8/26/13 4:56 AM

RE: On Books to Read

Posts: 1094 Join Date: 8/30/09 Recent Posts
On a completely different thread of spirituality, I am currently reading Thanissaro Bhikkhu's "Wings to Awakening", and I consider it perhaps thee best exposition of the buddhist path as a whole, that I have ever read.

It's technical as hell, and hardcore, and illuminatingly clear. And aside from the whole reincarnation crapola — which I don't buy and don't think I ever will — it is bullshit-free in the extreme.

And it is free to download in pdf, epub or html format emoticon
Jigme Sengye, modified 10 Years ago at 8/26/13 1:31 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 8/26/13 1:31 PM

RE: On Books to Read

Posts: 188 Join Date: 8/22/09 Recent Posts
Rebecca Watters:
Anything by David R. Hawkins. I was drawn to "Letting Go, The Pathway to Surrender" (you can guess why)... and the rest is history. Currently on "Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, The Stairway to Enlightenment" as well as "Dissolving The Ego, Realizing The Self"


How would you say these books have affected your practice? What techniques do they present and what details of those techniques have you found useful? Would you care to describe any interesting results you've gotten from following the instructions in those books?

Thanks in advance.
Mike L, modified 10 Years ago at 8/26/13 3:19 PM
Created 10 Years ago at 8/26/13 3:17 PM

RE: On Books to Read

Posts: 75 Join Date: 5/13/09 Recent Posts
Thanissaro Bikkhu is great. No other teacher I've read speaks more clearly and directly on such a high technical level, and yet still very practical and useful, about the task and techniques for awakening while being solidly grounded in the canon. As for his books, the best for me so far, in increasing order of depth:

With Each and Every Breath: A Guide to Meditation -- Don't skip the introductory material! :-)

The Paradox of Becoming -- Eight years of reading, and I don't think I once came across the concept of bhava (at least not laid out so clearly).

The Shape of Suffering: A Study of Dependent Co-Arising -- Brilliant exposition of the process and means to collapse it.

I don't think you could go wrong picking whatever struck your fancy at www.dhammatalks.org

One caveat, he likes to quote the canon quite a lot (a good thing), but it is possible to skim or even skip a lot of that and still get good value just from his commentary. Ymmv, but I find the repetitiveness of the the canon a bit of a chore. That said, it's nice that he backs up thoughts without you having to flip to footnotes or consult your own copy, and in some of the books he elides the repetitive bits for you.
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Oren Lor, modified 10 Years ago at 9/4/13 7:20 AM
Created 10 Years ago at 9/4/13 7:20 AM

RE: On Books to Read

Post: 1 Join Date: 9/4/13 Recent Posts
"Wings to Awakening" is really an amazing book. The language is little technical but it was very nice to read about it.
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