The Early Church Fathers of the Western Christian Tradition are widely known, but the Early Desert Fathers of the Orthodox Church (The Writers of the Philokalia) are not as widely known or understood. What makes them unique is their unusual asceticism. Most of them became hermits and lived in the caves of Egypt to uncover the deepest secrets of the inner soul of man. It was in this profound aloneness and heightened dispassion, that these Early Desert Fathers found God.

Drawing on his experiences as a former priest, Watts skillfully explains how the intuition of Eastern religion—Zen Buddhism, in particular—can be incorporated into the doctrines of Western Christianity, offering a timeless argument for the place of mystical religion in today’s world.

The Bhagavad Gita, "The Song of the Lord", is the best known of all the Indian scriptures, and Easwaran's reliable and accessible version has consistently been the best-selling translation. Easwaran's introduction places the Gita in its historical setting and brings out the universality and timelessness of its teachings. Chapter introductions give clear explanations of key concepts in that chapter.

What is the nature of God? How can we recapture a real sense of God's majesty and truly live in the Spirit? This beloved book, a modern classic of Christian testimony and devotion, addresses these and other vital questions, showing us how we can rejuvenate our prayer life, meditate more reverently, understand God more deeply, and experience God's presence in our daily lives.

During a train trip from Chicago to Texas in the late 1940s, A.W. Tozer began to write The Pursuit of God. He wrote all night, and when the train arrived at his destination, the rough draft was done. The depth of this book has made it an enduring favorite.

To have found God and still to pursue Him is a paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religious person, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux stated this holy paradox in a musical four-line poem.

The Interior Castle, also titled The Mansions, is a classic work of Christian mysticism by St. Teresa of Ávila. Published in 1588, the text serves as a practical guide for those who wish to achieve mystical union with the divine. Teresa viewed the soul as a “castle made of a single diamond”, which contains seven mansions or dwelling places. The concept of the immanence of God - who dwells in the seventh mansion - was central to her spirituality.

In the Upanishads, illumined sages share flashes of insight, the results of their investigation into consciousness itself. In extraordinary visions, they experience directly a transcendent Reality which is the essence, or Self, of each created being. They teach that each of us, each Self, is eternal, deathless, one with the power that created the universe.

Here is your key to a better life. James Allen's All These Things Added is a short work of immense power. This brilliant meditation reveals how to live out the Biblical precept: Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all things shall be added unto you. Allen expands this one passage into a complete philosophy of self-development and inner fulfillment. If you pursue holiness in the ordinary hours of life, he writes, you will experience untold joy and an end to personal desperation and self-doubt.

Stephen Mitchell brings to life his acclaimed translation of these most famous and revered Hindu scriptures - the timeless story of the paths of knowledge, devotion, action, and meditation.

This universe of ours, the universe of the senses, the rational, the intellectual, is bounded on both sides by the illimitable, the unknowable, the ever unknown. Herein is the search, herein are the inquiries, here are the facts; from this comes the light which is known to the world as religion. Essentially, however, religion belongs to the supersensuous and not to the sense plane. It is beyond all reasoning and is not on the plane of intellect. It is a vision, an inspiration, a plunge into the unknown and unknowable, making the unknowable more than known,for it can never be known.

Just as undertaking a journey into an unfamiliar land or climbing a mountain requires an experienced and knowledgeable guide, so also an experienced and trusted spiritual guide, a mystagogue, is needed for the spiritual journey, to ascend Mount Sinai and encounter the mysterious God in its darkness, and to climb Mount Tabor and behold the mystery of the transfigured Lord, and to be initiated into the mysteries of the Jerusalem above, our Mother, the Church. The Orthodox Way is such a guide, a book that takes the listener into the very mystery of God, and now speaks to us.

Although written at the turn of the century its themes are still current. From Poverty to Power is a concise and informative guide to the development of the human spirit. These two books in one: "The Path to Prosperity" and "The Way of Peace," are both inspirational and motivational!

Meister Eckhart, who has been called the "Father of German Thought", was a Dominican monk and one of the most profound thinkers of the Middle Ages. He was born about 1260 AD in Thuringia and died at Cologne 1327 AD. In 1295, he was Prior of the Dominicans at Erfurt and Vicar-General of Thuringia. In 1300, he was sent to the University of Paris, where he studied Aristotle and the Platonists and received the degree of Master of Arts.

With great wit and stunning intellect - drawing on a diverse array of faiths, including Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christian mysticism, and Islam - Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains how they are united by a common human yearning to experience the divine. The Perennial Philosophy includes selections from Meister Eckhart, Rumi, and Lao Tzu, as well as the Bhagavad Gita, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Diamond Sutra, and Upanishads, among many others.