Recommended reading list (condensed)
To begin a struggle to find out who or what the ´I´ really is (and is not), books and reading material can provide crucial incentives. Books can be good mirrors to reflect the mind upon, provide new challenges, and the realization that one is not alone in trying to discover what this whole existence/reality/consciousness thing is about (even though the journey on the inside can only be done alone). The internet is full of interesting free information when wisely used. There is also an overload of ´superficial books´ available, an overkill of low quality information on the internet, and a general ´mcdonaldaziation´ of many books being published nowadays. The search for what reality is, or what the ´I´, is, is intense, so we need good tools: a more or less healthy physical body, a strong energy to focus, and the means to reflect our thoughts in a mirror. Books can help us with this, so hereby a condensed reading list of some of the best books I encountered. These books require serious focus, dedication, and create or amplify the tension necessary to keep digging deeper in oneself.
Philosophy, Inner development Consciousness, Spirituality:
The Albigen Papers: Richard Rose (and his other books)
Spiritual Enlightenment: the damnedest thing – Jed Mckenna (and his other books, enlightenment trilogy, the dreamstate triology and the jed talks trilogy)
Mud And water – A collection of talks by the Zen master Bassui
The conquest of illusion – J. J. Van der Leeuw
The zen teachings of Huang Po: on transmission of mind – John Blofield
Electrical Chrisitanity: L Ron gardner (have a look at his exceptional recommended reading list)
I am that – Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Skeletons – Ikkyu
Sri Ramana Gita _ Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi
Meditations – Marcus Aurelius
On the taboo against knowing who you are – Alan Watts
Bernado Kastrup – many books
Kapil Gupta – Direct Truth (and other books)
Eating healthy organic food helps the physical body to stay more or less chemically balanced, which is useful when the body and mind are subjected to the tension and stress to find out who one really is. How to grow a lot of healthy food for free with little work can be achieved in any garden.
No-effort gardening and farming:
The one straw revolution – Masanobu Fukuoka
Creating a Forest Garden – Marten Crawford
Sepp Holzer´s Permaculture
The secret life of plants and secrets of the soil – Peter Tompkins
To become sensitive to bodily energy, and learning how to balance it in an easy and quick way, prevents serious physical and energetic side effects.
Energy, learn how to feel energy:
Awakening healing energy through the Tao – Mantak Chia (and his many other books)
To break through the ´ego (´I´-perspective´) to direct realization (permanent stabilization in consciousness that everything is nothing), we need to generate tremendous power to create the necessary tension to ´break through to the other side´. Instead of years of deprivation or mental struggle, accumulated sexual energy can provide this power much quicker. It is the battery of our body, and the strongest power the human body posses. Try to be celibate a month, and any person will see what tension and power this creates. Cultivating (not repressing it, learning how to properly channel in the energy channels) and using this power is therefore crucial.
Love, sex:
- The sex connection, Alan Fitzpatrick.
- Taoist Secrets of love (for men), and Healing love through the tao (for women) – Mantak Chia
For more info: see recommended reading list extended.