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What ONE book would you recommend that would be the best for a beginner to read, after the Bible, of course? So many books and methods have been recommended here on this site...it's hard to know what to choose! I am reading, "Crazy Love," and it is wonderful. What do you think has a good guide to spiritual knowledge? Perhaps there is an author you like. What do you think? Remember, this is for a beginner.

asked 17 Dec '09, 09:36

Jaianniah's gravatar image

Jaianniah
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edited 10 Feb '13, 03:36

Barry%20Allen's gravatar image

Barry Allen ♦♦
11411


First of all their is NO one good way to go about this subject. Their is no magic pill, their no One method, One book and One person that can help you awaken. I like to think about spiritual journey as a climbing a mountain. Each One of us takes another route, but we ALL meet at he top.

So first thing I advise you to do is NOT to listen to ANYBODY! And i mean noone. Even me, what I am writing right here is only MY experience of life, ONLY my perspective and it doesn't mean it will be the same for you. In fact QUESTION, QUESTION and QUESTION everything over and over again without shutting yourself off. The only sin of humans is ignorance and laziness. Don't fall for "That One teacher", "That One method". Their is none.

When you embark on this path you have to leave ALL of your assumptions and expectations of life behind. Why do you assume that the Bible is the thing to read first? It's not! I never read the Bible and even if I did, the way that I would read it today would be completely diffrent than any other time in my life. The reason is because when you start on this journey, further down the line, you realize that you don't know SQUAT! All of the world that has been shown to you by society, parents, friends etc. is just a not-so-well made up construction of rules and regulations that people would like to believe are true. Well it's ALL s***! Why? Because we were creating it on basis of the "ME", the Ego and the material world. If we can't see something it doesn't exist. If a child sees angels and ghosts, let's medicate him because he must be mad.

Their is this story I like. Once upon a time their was a kingdom with a very good and wise king. THe land prospered, the people were happy. One day an evil witch decided to put an end to it. She poured a poison in to the towns well, where everybody took water, which made everyone who drinks from it crazy. Not much longer the whole town went crazy, except the king. He never drank from the well. But his heart was hurting when he saw all of his subjects become mad. He longed for the old times, for the good times when everyone was happy. His loneliness grew immensly. His subject didn't acknowledge him anymore. One night, not being able to stand the loneliness, he sneaked out of the castle and drank from the well. The next day the subjects threw a great ceremony, because their beloved king was back.

The road of greatness requiers solitude. You can't ran in a pack with everyone. You will loose a lot of your friends, you will start feeling sorry for people, you will be feeling sorry for yourself. You will judge yourself for what you are doing is not enough. You will feel bad why didn't you get to this point before. You will doubt yourself many times. You will have enormous moments of bliss and even more moments of darkness. You will face the circumstances you never thought you could before. One day you will wake up and KNOW you are a warrior. But before it happens you will be a shmock. You might be a self-rightoues schmock who will judge people all around him. You will force your beliefs on to them. You will try to persuade them that your way is the ONLY way and if they don't wanna take it they are stupid and ignorant. You will be this guy.

You will see the best and worst in people. You will feel trumendous compassion for them. You will cry with the planet and all the cosmos and feel it's pain. But you will have more ability to take it.

You will never rest in finding the next thing, and the next, and the next that will make you more spiritual, more compassionate, more something.

The truth is that you ARE all those things right NOW. You ARE this beautiful, luminous being of light. You ARE immortal, infinitless and beautiful.

The road that most people call "The spiritual path" could be better called as the road of "Re-membering". You already know EVERYTHING you need to know. All you have to do NOW is RE-MEMBER. You must bring back all this information from places of darkness, places of ignorance, self-indulgance and self-pity. You must loose yourself. You must die.

And you will. The truth is that by willingness to explore this part of yourself you ALREADY made it! The simple recognition of the need for change, and more than that, the willingness to change is by far the MOST you could EVER do. Right now you started off a treadmill, a chain of reactions and circumstances that will bring to where you need to go. It's like with a snowball which you start rolling downhill. When you start, the snowball is small and moves slowly. But after a while it gets bigger and bigger, and sooner than later it goes which tremendous speed.

I wanna congratulate you NOW for the courage and willingness to do that. It's an unexplored territory. It takes guts to throw yourself into the abyss, and even you might not know it yet, that's what you did.

Next what I would like to do is give you few tips that work for ME.

Leave your Ego outside for this one. Don't be an asshole to everyone else. Just because you read a few books doesn't make you ANY better than anyone else. In fact, ignorance is bliss, so they don't know you can look at the world in diffrent terms. But you do and your resposobility in NOT to force ANYONE on that path. Do it for yourself, and ONLY for yourself. If your true to it the people will follow.

LIGHTEN UP. That's what word EN-LIGHTEN means. Lighten up on yourself, on others and every circumstance that comes to your life. If you attracted something it means it's for you to see. Why? I don't know. Explore, speculate, search, but, MOST IMPORTANTLY, have FUN with that. If you have to be serious, be a serious fun-lover.

Loose ALL expectations. If someone would tell me that 2 years form now I would be sitting and writing these words I would tell them they are crazy. Don't expect ANYTHING to happen a certain way or speed. It all happens exactly at the right time and place. TRUST, TRUST, TRUST.

Which brings me to ACCEPTANCE. Acceptance is by far the most difficult thing for us to accept. Acceptance for our life, acceptance for what has happened and will happen. If you accept the thing that you really can't predict what tomorrow will bring, you will see the world much more flexible. If their is something that feels more than you can handle say "I accept that I created this. Now, what insight can I get out of it?"

TRUST your INTUITION. Your emotions are what will guide you thru this process. "Negative" emotions are the result of corrupted belief system, "positive" emotions are the indicators that you are BEING your true, natural self. So this IS VERY important. If I would have to give you ONE advice this is what it would be: FOLLOW YOUR EXCITEMENT. EXCITEMENT is the becon, a compass of where you need to go next to get to the place where you need to be. It can be simple, like calling a friend but acting of those things, seemingly insignificant, will bring you closer to your true self. So whenever you are choosing something, out of ALL the things you can choose you choose the thing that generates the feelings of excitement in you. You don't have to know why or understand it. It can be taking the dog to a park, eating dinner, reading a book. WHatever it is ACT on it with the BEST of your ability. And after you finished you can choose from all available options again the thing that EXCITES you the most and so on. That is the fastest and surest way of bringing you to where you need to go. THIS IS CRUCIAL! FOLLOW YOUR EXCITEMENT!

Be patient and persistent. You won't change in a day, week or a month. In fact once you get started you will NEVER stop, EVER. That's the only constant in the Universe - CONSTANT CHANGE. Be ready for it and be bold, be bold.

Cut down ALL the relationships that might bring you down. It might sound a little harsh and hard at first to let go of your best friends but if their is absolutely no way for him to understand that the way your going is what you wanna take and he can't respect that, you will have to let him go. In fact you are responsible, but not for other people, but too them. You are responsible too them for being THE BEST POSSIBLE SELF YOU CAN BE. If their's something that's holding you back, your job, relationships, where you live, unhealthy habits, REALLy, REALLY consider of cutting them from your life. THey will drain your energy and that is really the ONLY thing that we have.

LOVE, GRATITUDE and PRAISE. Those are the emotions that will help you and boost your growth. Practice them AS OFTEN AS YOU CAN, which means all the time. LOVE your enemies for they are YOU, be GREATFUL for what you HAVE instead of bitch*** of what you don't, PRAISE the beauty and perfection of creation in every rock, every tree and animal because IT IS ALL PERFECT, WE aRE ALL PERFECT.

DON'T feel you have to follow some rule book. Make your won rules as you go alone. Be ready to change your views on minute-to-minute basis. Don't be an asshole that knows everything. A true warrior knows he knows NOTHING for sure and he expects the unexpected.

If you feel some teachers are exploiting others or just simply not resonate with you, don't feel the need to follow them. Their are as many roads as their are people. If there was only One way there would only be One person.

Welcome FEAR into your life. Realize what fear is. Fear is a product of belief system that isn't alligned with your highest truth. You feel fear because you believe something is true which your natural self KNOWS it's not. If you feel that thank the fear for being there and start exploring the theme. "What belief system do I have to feel this way in that situation? Why would I have that?" Once you identify it it's gone. The fear is over because it made it's job. It signaled what it needed to and it can go away. Now you can change the belief to the One you prefer and act as if that's true. Simple as that.

WALK the TALK. ACT, ACT, ACT. Most people talk a lot but do very little. Show others how you've changed and then, one day, thwy might ask you how you did that. Feel free to tell them then, but not force anything on anyone.

And the MOST IMPORTANT THING : RELAXXXXXXXXX... Breath, breath, breath. Laugh, play, fu**. EVERYTHING is spiritual. Their is nothing more spiritual in not eating meat than the opposite. EVERYTHING is Gods creation. Be childlish, not childlike. Re-discover the world once again. Eat like it's the first and last meal in you life. LAugh, laugh, laugh. Let that energy feel your body. Relaxx.. breath.. breath.. breath..

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answered 17 Dec '09, 18:37

wildlife's gravatar image

wildlife
(suspended)

You just wrote what I would recommend for a beginner to read...before anything! I like to ask questions that I think people searching for Truth would ask. The responses have been tremendous! People are going to read your response and are going to change! That is THE WHOLE POINT!!!! Blessings on your journey...or, rather, for obviously already having gone quite a long way already. Thank you for sharing part of the map! Jai

(18 Dec '09, 08:14) Jaianniah

Great answer Wildlife !!! "The wisest follow their own direction" - Euripides

(21 Dec '09, 21:13) Michaela

Wow that was amazing. I am putting it on my wall. Thank you. :)

(30 Dec '10, 14:57) aquamarine

very good insight expect few eliminiation of words like asshole, bitches..Thank u wildlife for sharing your wisdom the way life unfolds before you

(13 Feb '13, 01:10) marathisend
showing 2 of 4 show 2 more comments

I would have to recommend Richard Bach's Illusions, the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.

And then, Ask and It is Given.

Richard Bach's book is really a distillation of Abraham's principles, in inspirational story form. Reading it will give you a good emotional basis for pursuing those principles further.

If you don't want to go that route, I recommend the unabridged version of Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill.

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answered 17 Dec '09, 17:52

Vesuvius's gravatar image

Vesuvius
32.7k851201

edited 17 Dec '09, 21:31

What about A COURSE IN MIRACLES

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answered 07 Aug '10, 19:20

evelyn's gravatar image

evelyn
771419

I recommend "Initiation into Hermetics" by Franz Bardon. If you don't want to practice, read only the theory part. It is very informative.

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answered 17 Dec '09, 21:30

Asklepios's gravatar image

Asklepios
(suspended)

I would like to suggest two books: The Navigator by Eric Pepin, and The Looking Glass What Do You See? If you choose to read either of these books, you can share with us what you have learned, or was it useful to you, or how did it helped or inspire you. In reality there are tons, and tons of books out there, so it is a matter of choice as to what you want to read.

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answered 18 Dec '09, 05:11

Inactive%20User's gravatar image

Inactive User ♦♦
470124198

I would suggest anything written by allen watts to start

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answered 21 Dec '09, 04:51

eleanor%20sawitsky's gravatar image

eleanor sawitsky
40311

In truth I don't believe that there is really one book that will work for everyone. When I began my quest in personal/spiritual growth, I learned to leave my heart and mind open as I read the desciptions of books I was "led to". If you do you will "feel" a connection that in effect says to you "This is what I'm looking for" or "This sounds interesting, I think I'll check it out", etc.

As you grow, and you will, it will become natural to "just know" what is right for you.

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answered 07 Aug '10, 12:16

Frank%20W's gravatar image

Frank W
211

use the internet and go with word searches,
read/ explore what seems of interest,
it may lead you to articles or books.
a search of 'theosophy' has provided me with many avenues to explore

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answered 07 Aug '10, 17:20

fred's gravatar image

fred
19.7k176

the book of life! go experiance!

Update:book about: meditation to get to know your self.I will put a warning that you should read about shadow people , sleep paralysis,alien,demons,entity,ghost,jin. Know this it is not because something is nice to you that it always is.Sometime they play with you,if you have feeling that something is not good do not fear and send them away.Those thing feeds on fear and i think they can change apperance,they know what you think.They all have the same pattern.Also if you see dark smoke coming from them even if they talk to you,and seams nice do not trust them.They can appear in dreams or sleep paralysis.Some reports seing them in reel life and on camera.Also leave the dead alone.

here is a video to start to wake you up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Bct81cOq0c

They influence you and play with your mind and free will and they do not want you to wake up.

Here on camera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WryGSI8_N-M

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answered 07 May '11, 08:53

white%20tiger's gravatar image

white tiger
21.9k115116

edited 11 Feb '13, 05:40

I would definately recommend the Qura'n, but start with smaller chapters first or medium like surat Yusuf, (joseph), and Taha (mentions story of Moses).

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answered 10 Feb '13, 10:24

springflower's gravatar image

springflower
907122

Say HE is God alone, God the self sufficient, He beggeteth not, nor is He begotten, and there is none like Him.

Praise be to God the Lord of the universe, the Most compassionate most Merciful, the owner or the day of judgement, You alone we worship and You alone we beseech, Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom yoh have bestown your grace upon, not those who are wrathed nor those who are mislead. Ameen

Glorious Quran.

Allah said: He who comes with a good deed, its reward will be ten like that or even more. And he who comes with vice, his reckonbwill be only one like that, or I can forgive him. He who draws close to Me a hand's span, I will draw close to him an arm's length. And whoever draws near Me an arm's length, I will draw near him a fathom's length. And whoever comes to Me walking, I will go to him running. And whoever faces Me with sins nearly as great as the earth, I will meet him with forgiveness nearly as great as that, provided he does not worship something with me

(13 Feb '13, 20:10) springflower
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