Anthony de Mello

Anthony de Mello
Anthony de Mello

Anthony de Mello (1931-1987) was a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist. He is famous for his writings and spiritual conferences. Born in Bombay, India, he travelled to many countries to pursue his quest. Through his stories and lectures De Mello showed the way of authentic living. His spiritual wisdom and profound understanding of humanity was well reflected in his teachings, fetching him world wide recognition. Anthony de Mello served as the director of Sadhana Institute of Pastoral Counseling in Poona, India and was a member of the Jesuit province of Bombay.

In his meditation techniques Anthony de Mello combined Eastern religious thought, modern psychology and the spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit religious order. He strongly believed that most of the people are spiritually sleeping. They need to be awakened by making to know what is inside and outside them. Accordingly, human beings should be acquainted with their feelings, sensations, thoughts and, most importantly, their mind.

Anthony de Mello authored numerous spiritual books and conducted courses based upon his work. His first book “Sadhana – A way to God” was published in 1984 and for many years a bestseller in the English language. Sadhana has now been translated into more than 20 different foreign languages. Other books published during his lifetime include “The Song of the Bird”, “One Minute Wisdom” and “Wellsprings”. After his death were published “Contact with God”, “One Minute Nonsense” and “The Call to Love”.

Free copies of books float on the web but, unfortunately, not in reliable archives.  However, getting them almost for free is not that difficult given the many hard copies available. I found some decent used copies for less than a euro on Amazon, for instance. Click on the images below to see if you are lucky as well.

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Yoga

Yoga is a commonly known generic term for physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines which originated in ancient India. A Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.

Yoga is a typically Hindu reference in that it can be made to mean a variety of things. The term yoga stems from the Sanskrit yuj, “To join, to yoke oneself to” Not just a system of exercises, yoga means to join oneself to God through mental discipline. It is one of the major spiritual paths. The spiritual practices and disciplines that lead a seeker to evenness of mind, to the severing of the union with pain, and through detachment, to skill in action. Ultimately, the path of yoga leads to the constant experience of the Self.

There are many different kinds of yoga. The basic idea remains the same since in each of the kinds of yoga a series of poses is involved. Each kind of yoga has a particular focus however. Free spiritual books books on yoga a well as the websites differ with respect to their focus.

Some good sites for free spiritual books on yoga can be found at the websites of The Divine Life Society, Holybooks.com, Rate Yoga, and Real Ayurveda.

 

 

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Jiddhu Krishnamurti

Jiddhu Krishnamurti

Jiddhu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) was a world famous speaker and writer on philosophical and spiritual subjects, and was widely considered a spiritual teacher. He is a writer of many books and travelled throughout the world to spread his teachings on spiritual matters.

His emergence as a spiritual teacher is a story in itself. He was born in Madanapalle, a small town in the south of India. He and his brother were adopted in their youth by Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society. The society’s members held Krishnamurti as the world teacher whose coming they had predicted. They formed a world-wide organization called the Order of the Star in the East and the young Krishnamurti was made its head. However, in 1929 Krishnamurti renounced the role that he was expected to play. He  dissolved the Order with its huge following, and returned all the money and property that had been donated for this work.

Nevertheless, when Krishnamurti dissolved the Order, he was already famous as a spiritual teachers and able to attract massive audiences. For nearly sixty years until his death, he travelled throughout the world talking to large audiences and to individuals about the need for a radical change in mankind.

Krishnamurti is regarded globally as a major spiritual and religious teacher. He established nor expounded any philosophy or religion. Rather, he talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives. Some major themes he discussed in his work were the problems of living in modern society with its violence and corruption, the individual’s search for security and happiness, and the need for mankind to free itself from inner burdens of fear, anger, hurt, and sorrow. With great precision and clarity he illustrated the subtle workings of the human mind, pointing to the need for bringing to our daily life a deeply meditative and spiritual quality.

Jiddhu Krishnamurti wrote a number of great books. Several of these can be found on Holybooks.com.

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Free Christian Books

There is an impressive demand for free Christian books.  Luckily, there is also an impressive amount of free Christian books available on the web.

Bibles

The first anyone interested in free Christian books might look for are bibles. Bibles are often for free. Many of the most common versions of the bible can be found on the web.

Bibles are often for free. This counts for instance for the text of the King James Version (KJV) of the Holy Bible (also called the Authorized Version (AV) by some). This version  is in the public domain. You may copy and publish it freely. It is available at Holybooks.com. The new international version (NIV) bible is also widely available. For instance, Turnback to God is a fine site for anyone interested in a free niv bible download. The catholic bible is also in high demand. Good copies of the Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV) can be obtained from Sacredbible.org.

Websites with free Christian books

There are zillions of websites with free Christian books. Not all of these are of a high quality and the seeker must beware of crappy websites with questionable content. It would be too demanding to list all the good sites here. Therefore, the following description is limited to some websites that are interesting for the Christian seeker of free ebooks.

One easy way to find Christian books is to visit this website’s theme page about websites with free spiritual books. Click some links that lead you to general free book websites with many bookshelves well-filled with high-quality spiritual and religious books such as Project Gutenberg, Open Library or The Online Books Page. Then browse for Christianity of Christian books in particular.

Another way is to go to some Christian wwebsites with many free books. For instance, like the name says, Turnback to God is a website for people who want to turn back to god. It is maintained by Georgy N. Joseph, who, as a former sinner, identifies himself with the The Prodigal Son in the Bible. After attending a few programs of Jesus Youth, he now finds that he is leading a much better and sin-free life. On his website he would like to share all the thoughts that attracted his attention during his life change. The site has a lot of famous free Christian books to download. Some of these contain debatable religious thoughts. I think it is interesting for people who, just like Georgy, just changed or are changing their lives towards adopting a Christian lifestyle.

Another interesting site is the NTS Library.com, an Online Christian Library of Virtual Theological Resources. This website grew out of a Christian online referral services library project offered by Northwestern Theological Seminary, for which the NTS stands for,  and the Northwestern Christian University. They refer to themselves as a leading worldwide Christian Internet community learning resource. Whatever they are, they have many interesting free Christian ebooks to download.

Another site to browse for free Christian books is Plough. An independent religious publisher with a wide array of offerings, The Plough Publishing House has been the literary mouthpiece of the Bruderhof, an international movement of Christian communities, since the 1920s. Plough is well known as the supplier of choice for churches, religious non-profits, and other organizations looking to purchase large quantities of low-priced books for distribution at retreats, workshops, conferences, prayer breakfasts, and the like.

Of interest for the protestant seeker of free Christian ebooks is the website Monergism.com. This is an Internet based non-profit resource ministry whose mission draws on the words of Martin Luther on Monergism in his Small Catechism: “I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith.” They have many interesting free Christian ebooks for download.

Finally, for the seeker of free Christian books, Holybooks.com is absolutely a great site. Like the name says, they have all kinds of holy books for free. this includes a substantial amount of classic Christian books.

Free Christian fiction books

Another category of possible interest are free Christian fiction books. These include free Christian novels, which are usually in high demand. Such books can be very inspiring for the sincere Christian seeker. Some of the aforementioned websites also offer such free Christian fiction books such as Plough and Turnback to God. Nevertheless, it is not easy to find such books since they are usually well hidden between the other categories of books. The best way to find these books is to browse high-quality websites with free ebooks such as Project Gutenberg, Open Library or The Online Books Page. And next to search for your author of choice. If you need names of famous authors of free christian ebooks, you might want to consult a wiki page or the Christy Awards website.

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5 Great Ways to Get Lots of Spiritual Ebooks for Free

In the making of this website I have followed 5 great ways to obtain spiritual ebooks for free. Using these ways will instantly yield you a load of free spiritual books too high to read in one lifetime.

1. Go to high-quality free ebook websites, such as Open Library, Project Gutenberg, or The Online Books Page and dig for their religion or philosophy sections.

2. Visit high-quality spiritual websites who have lots of free ebooks to download, such as BuddhaNet.

3. Visit Holybooks.com. They have looots of free spiritual books in all the categories you can imagine–all kinds of free ebooks from Advaita to Zen.

4. Enter the title of a book in Google or another search engine followed by the phrase “filetype:pdf.” Observing the search results, you may notice several links to pdf files. Sometimes this will direct you to a link that, when clicked, will immediately start a download of the ebook for free.

5. Enter an author’s name of choice in Google or another search engine, again followed by “filetype:pdf.” Observing the search results, you may notice several links to pdf files. Clicking these will sometimes immediately start a download of a desired ebook for free. But even better, study the URLs of these links. They may direct you to websites where more ebooks of you favorite author can be downloaded free.

 

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Douglas Harding

Douglas Harding

Douglas Harding (1909–2007) was an English mystic, philosopher, author and spiritual teacher. He was born in Lowestoft in the county of Suffolk and raised in the Exclusive Plymouth Brethren, a Christian sect. When Harding was 21 he left.

Douglas Harding was known as a remarkably sincere, gracious man whose interest was helping people help themselves to Reality, Satori, their true Self, the Absolute, Enlightenment, God, Everythingness and Nothingness, Nirvana, or whatever you want to call your true nature. He called this state Headlessness: “The best day of my life—my rebirthday, so to speak—was when I found I had no head. This is not a literary gambit, a witticism designed to arouse interest at any cost. I mean it in all seriousness: I have no head.”

To claim to have no head is quite a statement, but Harding was deadly serious. What is more, he devised a method to experience this, which makes up the core of his teaching. His teachings are currently known as The Headless Way. The Headless Way offers a contemporary and practical method of investigating this perennial question for yourself. At the heart of it are a series of experiments anyone can do for him or herself. These simple experiments allow one to literally see that they are an empty Awareness that simultaneously contains, and is, everything.

These experiments are quite effective, provided one has worked long enough to rid oneself of two common obstacles. The first is the belief that someone else, whether society, parents or authority, know better than him. He must come to trust his own seeing. The second is whether she has lost the need to assert herself as knowing everything already. Knowing how to listen, rather than argue, is essential. Our own direct perception is easily attacked by the over-active ego, and soon lost. Hardings experiments are effective only if practiced, not read. The most common mistake is to read them only, and thus miss the point. Also, if we have not done the psychological ground work necessary to become conscious of and separate from our personality and the affects of our past on our present, the experiments can be less effective and even become traps.

I recommend anyone to visit the website dedicated to the works of Douglas Harding before reading anything of this spiritual teacher. This website is currently maintained by one of his students, Richard Lang, and has much to offer for the seeker. Among other stuff, there are the experiments that can be done to experience headlessness.

Douglas Harding has written a series of books. These books not only make sense to read while doing the experiments. They can speak deeply to anyone interested in the true nature of oneself. I did not find any book of Douglas Harding for free on the web, but I think this is compensated by the many free materials on his website. Nevertheless, it is easy to obtain a neat hard copy of his book, so why not give it a try by clicking on the icons below.

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Mindfulness in Plain English

Mindfulness in Plain English is a book written by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, who is a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk. The focus of the book is on Vipassana meditation practice, to which the concept of mindfulness is central.

According to the book cover, with his distinctive clarity and wit, “Bhante G” takes us step by step through the myths, realities, and benefits of meditation and the practice of mindfulness. We already have the foundation we need to live a more productive and peaceful life — Bhante simply points to each tool of meditation, tells us what it does, and how to make it work.

Rather than an academic book, it is a meditation manual, a nuts-and-bolts, step-by-step guide to insight meditation. Hence it is meant to be practically immersed in the concept of mindfulness (which I think is the only way to get a feel for it).

I encountered this book some time ago, when I started my meditation practice. I found it very helpful to get a feel for the practice of mindfulness. I even think it helped me to set some important baby steps towards the Dharma. And even today, being fully immersed in my own meditation practice, I still find it worth the read. I think it is particularly helpful nowadays since the idea of mindfulness is increasingly being corrupted by its hype. So when you would like to go back to the roots of the idea of mindfulness, this is a must read.

The book can be downloaded from the website of UrbanDhrama.org, an American Buddhist organization, which has, by the way, much more free ebooks to offer.

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The Mystique of Enlightenment

The Mystique of Enlightenment is an underground spiritual classic. It is written by the story of one of the most unusual individuals in contemporary spirituality, Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti (1918-2007, not related to the other Krishnamurti).

U. G. Krishnamurti was an Indian thinker who questioned enlightenment. Although necessary for day to day functioning of the individual, in terms of the Ultimate Reality or Truth he rejected the very basis of “thought” and in doing so negated all systems of thought and knowledge in reference to It.

Critiquing current spirituality, The Mystique of Enlightenment reminded me of the Jed McKenna series. In a world overflowing by spiritual techniques, teachers, concepts, and organizations, U. G. is very clear about his rejection of it all: “I am only interested in describing this state, in clearing away the occultation and mystification in which those people in the ‘holy business’ have shrouded the whole thing. Maybe I can convince you not to waste a lot of time and energy looking for a state that does not exist except in your imagination… The natural state is acausal: it just happens.”

Krishnamurti does not equate the natural state with enlightenment, which he describes as an illusion created by our culture. He states emphatically that one can do nothing to attain the natural state. In fact, any movement towards it separates one from it: “The so called self-realization is the discovery for yourself and by yourself that there is no self to discover. That will be a very shocking thing because it’s going to blast every nerve, every cell, even the cells in the marrow of your bones.”

The Mystique of Enlightenment contains the following explicit phrase of U. G. Krishnamurti: “My teaching, if that is the word you want to use, has no copyright. You are free to reproduce, distribute, interpret, misinterpret, distort, garble, do what you like, even claim authorship, without my consent or the permission of anybody.”  Consequently, the book can be easily obtained for free on the web. Holybooks.com is a reliable source.

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Adyashanti

Adyashanti

Adyashanti (born 1962) is an American-born spiritual teacher from the San Francisco Bay Area. His given name is Stephen Gray. As a teenager he had a passion for racing bicycles and worked in a bike-repair shop. At the age of nineteen, he came across the idea of enlightenment in a book. That reading ignited a desire to experience that ineffable state. He built a hut in his parents’ backyard. There he practiced meditation with all the vigor of a competitive athlete.

Adyashanti  studied Zen for 14 years under the guidance of his Zen teacher. Adyashanti was regularly sent to Zen retreats. At age 25 he began experiencing a series of spiritual awakenings.training under the guidance of his Zen teacher. When he was twenty-five, he experienced an awakening, which he describes as “a realization of the underlying connectedness and oneness of all beings.”

He gives regular satsangs in the United States and also teaches abroad. His background is primarily Zen Buddhism. But he would not describe his teachings as such. He is primarily devoted to serving the awakening of all beings. It does not matter to him whether he uses Buddhist, Christian or Hindu vocabulary. Any vocabulary will do.

He is the founder of Open Gate Sangha. This is a non-profit organization that supports and makes available his teachings. The organization hosts events throughout the United States and in Europe, publishes books, CDs and DVDs. It also provides access to the teachings online. Although his website is full of wisdom, his books are not available for free online. Decent used copies may be found easily on the web. Give it a try by clicking on the icons below.

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Byron Katie

Byron Katie

Byron Katie (born 1942) is an American speaker and author who teaches a method of self-inquiry known as “The Work of Byron Katie” or simply as “The Work.” According to her bio, she has one job: to teach people how to stop suffering.

In 1986, at the bottom of a ten-year fall into depression, anger, and addiction, Byron Katie woke up one morning and realized that all suffering comes from believing our thoughts: “I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment.” Based on these premises, she developed a simple but powerful method of inquiry called The Work.

The work centers on four questions intended to help people identify stressful thoughts and to inquire into them. This may help finding their own truth and understanding of their own situation. The questions asked of a thought are: 1) Is it true?, 2) Can you absolutely know that it’s true?, 3) How do you react when you believe that thought?, and 4) Who would you be without the thought? The follow-up step to these four questions is called “turnarounds” in which various opposites of the original thought are experienced. The Work is a simple and very powerful method of inquiry. Working with this process can reveal a radically new, often surprising and refreshing perspective. Problems that seem to have been around all one’s life may transform in unexpected and surprising ways, or disappear altogether. Stressful emotions can transform, even within minutes, into openness, curiosity and joy. One may experience happiness in situations that previously seemed hopeless. Simple solutions and new possibilities are revealed.

For some reason I like The Work very much. Maybe because it is very much akin to Zen doctrine as is expressed in this pivotal saying of her: “The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want.” What I also like is that her method, including a couple of course materials and books, is freely available on-line on her website called The Work of Byron Katie.

Besides her method, Byron Katie has written six books, including the bestselling Loving What Is, I Need Your Love—Is That True?, and A Thousand Names for Joy. Unfortunately, these books cannot be downloaded for free. But used copies go for a reasonable price on the web. Do not forget the children’s book.

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