How things Exist Teachings on Emptiness by Lama Zope Rinpoche

How things Exist – Teachings on Emptiness by Lama Zope Rinpoche is a collection of five talks given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche in New York in 1990. The first two talks, given at Columbia University on September 6 and 7, were public talks aimed at a general audience. In the first talk, Rinpoche focuses on [...]

Thought is your Enemy – Mind-shattering Conversations with a Man called U.G

Thought is your Enemy – Mind-shattering Conversations with a Man called U.G. This quote caught my interest: “Is there any such thing as happiness? I would say, no. So, the quest for happiness is a cultural input, and that is the common desire that we know exists everywhere, in every part of the world. That [...]

New improvements on the site

The newsletter is now up and running every friday, for those of you who are not signed up, please do so here: http://www.holybooks.com/newsletter/ Another thing I am experimenting with is Google Friend Connect, please see the third column where it is possible to “Join this site”. Please try it out if you have a google-account.  

Freedom & Resolve – the living Edge of Surrender by Gangaji

Here is a another radical ebook from the Indian non-dual Advaita tradition, Freedom & Resolve – the living Edge of Surrender by Gangaji. From the intro: “You have played like this for aeon’s. Eventually a weariness arises in the play because the play is limited. For all of if its display, for all of its beauty, [...]

Life of inner Quality by Maha Boowa

Life of inner Quality is a guide for integrating Buddhist practice into daily life, drawn from talks which Acariya Maha Boowa has given over the past 25 years to various groups of people, those new to the practice and those more experienced. In each case he has adapted his style and strategy to suit the [...]

The Mystique of Enlightenment: The unrational ideas of a man called U.G.

The Mystique of Enlightenment: The unrational ideas of a man called U.G. is perhaps the most straightforward, no-nonsense book yet written about that truth which many ‘spiritual seekers’ are seeking – what most gurus call ‘enlightenment’, and what U.G. Krishnamurti calls the ‘natural state’. U.G. maintains, in this selection from his conversations, that ‘so-called enlightenment’ is [...]

Sleep as a State of Consciousness in Advaita Vedanta

Sleep as a State of Consciousness in Advaita Vedanta by Arvind Sharma. Advaita Vedanta is a widespread philosophical system of India. One of the well-known doctrines associated with Advaita Vedanta is that of avasthatraya, or of the three states of consciousness: waking (jagrat), dreaming (svapna), and deep sleep (susupti). Out of these three states of daily [...]

Introduction to Vedanta – Understanding the Fundamental Problem by Swami Dayananda

Introduction to Vedanta gives a overview of the teachings in the Upanishads. Vedanta asserts with breathtaking boldness that one’s true nature is completeness and limitlessness. Vedanta also promises that moksa, liberation from all forms of limitations that seem to bind a human being, is possible here and now. Swami Dayananda has conducted several intensive teacher-training courses in [...]

On Love. Freely adapted from the Tibetan by A. R. Orage

On Love. Freely adapted from the Tibetan by A. R. Orage was first published in The New Republic (New York) in December 1924, then as a 24 page book by The Unicorn Press in 1932, this has became Orage’s most anthologised essay. It is said that Orage wrote this text after a late night conversation [...]

Gadsby by Ernest Vincent Wright – 50.000 words without the letter “e”

This bizarre book, Gadsby, is a lipogram written in 1939 by the american Ernest Vincent Wright. The concept is the total absence of the letter “e” from all sentences on all pages. An article in the Oshkosh Daily in 1937 wrote that the manuscript was “amazingly smooth. No halting parts. A continuity of plot and almost classic clarity obtains.”  Wright [...]

Yoga in daily life by Swami Sivananda

Yoga in daily life by Swami Sivananda. From the intro: “This book is a message from the great Yogi of the Himalayas. This inspiring and soul-stirring little volume will, we venture to say, undoubtedly contribute its mite to the moral and spiritual perfection of the human race in general and the aspirants in particular. If [...]

Brutal Beginnings

The rebels of enlightenment over at the forum/blog RuthlessTruth.com have for some months worked with some new and radical approaches to free people from the veil of Samsara. Their work are truly impressive and fresh. Their main idea is to get people in a large scale to understand that there is no “I”, and seeing this fact is [...]

The Herald of Harmony by Rodney Collin

The Herald of Harmony by Rodney Collin, a short play accompanied with musical tracks on each page. from the book: “What is harmony? It is the order by which heaven is ruled, an order not yet manifest on earth. It is the order by which the sun and planets play their parts, infinitely repeating, combining, creating and destroying. [...]

Sri Aurobindo Vol 23- 24 The Synthesis of Yoga

The Synthesis of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo first appeared serially in the monthly review Arya between August 1914 and January 1921. The book is part 21 – 22 of the complete works of Sri Aurobindo. Each text was written immediately before its publication. Thework was left incomplete when the Arya was discontinued. SriAurobindo never attempted to [...]

Nisargadatta Maharaj – loads of short texts on non-dualism

Here is a mega-pack of short texts by Nisargadatta Maharaj the Indian Guru, spiritual teacher and one of the most appraised 20th century’s exponents of the school of Advaita Vedanta philosophy (non-dualism). If you are new to Advaita you might like to familiarize yourself with the main works of Nisargadatta Maharaj. Take a look at I am That, I am Unborn [...]