50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom From 50 Great Books of Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose Paperback – 31 October 2017
by Tom Butler Bowdon (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 133 ratings
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50 SPIRITUAL CLASSICS captures the diversity of life journeys that span centuries, continents, spiritual traditions and secular beliefs: from the historical The Book of Chuang Tzu to modern insight from the Kabbalah, from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet to Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.
The first and only bite-sized guide to the very best in spiritual writing, this one-of-a-kind collection includes personal memoirs and compelling biographies of such diverse figures as Gandhi, Malcolm X and Black Elk; Eastern philosophers and gurus including Krishnamurti, Yogananda, Chogyam Trungpa and Shunryu Suzuki; and Western saints and mystics such as St. Frances of Assisi, Hermann Hesse and Simone Weil. The last fifteen years have been a golden age in the genre of personal spiritual awakening, with names such as Eckhart Tolle, Neale Donald Walsch and James Redfield breathing new life into the literature.
50 SPIRITUAL CLASSICS showcases these newer works alongside traditional classics such as St Augustine's Confessions and Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle, and conveys the great variety of spiritual experience. In its commentaries of both the conventional classics as well as new writings destined to endure, 50 SPIRITUAL CLASSICS makes universal the human spiritual experience and will inspire spiritual seekers everywhere to begin their own adventure.
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328 pages
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Review
What an uplifting journey I had... If you only ever read one spiritual book, let is be this one. - Susan Jeffers PhD, author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
A kaleidoscope of inspiration ...insightful commentaries on each classic and biographical information on the authors. A unique overview of Spirituality. - Watkins Review
Review
What an uplifting journey I had... If you only ever read one spiritual book, let is be this one. - Susan Jeffers PhD, author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
A kaleidoscope of inspiration ...insightful commentaries on each classic and biographical information on the authors. A unique overview of Spirituality. - Watkins Review
Book Description
50 Spiritual Classics captures the diversity of life journeys that span centuries, continents, spiritual traditions and secular beliefs: from the historical The Book of Chuang Tzu to modern insight from the Kabbalah, from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet to Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now.
From the Publisher
Tom Butler-Bowdon is recognised as an expert on personal development literature. His 50 Classics series has been hailed as the definitive guide to the literature of possibility, and has won numerous awards including the Benjamin Franklin Self-Help Award and Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Award. A graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Sydney, he lives and works in both the Oxford, UK and Australia. www.butler-bowdon.com
About the Author
Tom Butler-Bowdon is recognised as an expert on personal development literature. His 50 Classics series has been hailed as the definitive guide to the literature of possibility, and has won numerous awards including the Benjamin Franklin Self-Help Award and Foreword Magazine's Book of the Year Award. A graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Sydney, he lives and works in both the Oxford, UK and Australia. www.butler-bowdon.com
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Tom Butler-Bowdon
Through his award-winning "50 Classics" books, including 50 Business Classics (2018), 50 Economics Classics (2017), 50 Politics Classics (2015), and Philosophy Classics (2013), Tom Butler-Bowdon has devoted his life to “more people knowing more.”
Tom’s work is based on the idea that every subject or genre will contain at least fifty books that encapsulate its knowledge and wisdom. By creating a list of those landmark titles, then providing intelligent commentaries on them, readers are led to great writings they may not have discovered otherwise.
Tom was working as a political adviser in Australia when, at 25, he read Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Captivated by it and other books in the personal development field, he left his career to write the bestselling 50 Self-Help Classics, the first guide to the personal development literature and a winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award. This book was followed by 50 Success Classics (2004); 50 Spiritual Classics (2005); 50 Psychology Classics (2007); 50 Prosperity Classics (2008); and 50 Psychology Classics (2013) all published in the US and UK by Nicholas Brealey. Bringing important ideas to a wider audience, the 50 Classics series has sold over 500,000 copies in English and is in 23 languages.
Tom is a graduate of the London School of Economics (International Political Economy) and the University of Sydney (Government and History).
Visit his website www.Butler-Bowdon.com
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Gordon Brandly
5.0 out of 5 stars Bite-sized quick nuggets of wisdomReviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 22 June 2017
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A very entertaining (and I hope, eventually, enlightening) read! I will definitely be picking up some of the works summarized in here, since this book gave me very good tastes of what they're about.
2 people found this helpfulReport
Alan Gaudet
4.0 out of 5 stars Four StarsReviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 5 March 2015
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Wonderful book
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Camber
5.0 out of 5 stars Profoundly Transformative -- Best Book on Spirituality AvailableReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 18 February 2007
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My review can be summarized with the simple statement that this is among the best books I've ever read in the genres of spirituality, philosophy, and religion, and in fact in any genre. It provides truly meaningful exposure to a diverse kaliedoscope of spiritual viewpoints which, for the most part, I find to be complementary and reinforcing, rather than contradictory and conflicting.
The result for me has been profoundly tranformative, and I think that will be the case for many others who read the book, provided that they do so with an open mind. For those who are diehard skeptics or dogmatists, perhaps this book will even open many of their minds.
I'm eagerly looking forward to reading many of the books summarized in this book, as well as the three other books in the "50 Classics" series written by the author.
In short, I can't recommend this book strongly enough, and it's no accident that all of the prior reviewers gave it 5 stars. I've given copies of this book to quite a few people, which is something I've never done before with any other book.
Let me say it in another way: if you were stranded on an island and could have only one book, this might be the one to have.
2019 Addendum: I recently re-read this book for the third time. Here is my summary and synthesis of the key points from these 50 classics:
• The spiritual path requires an open mind and willingness to deviate from the herd.
• Progress along the spiritual path may be quite uneven, and may extend across multiple lives.
• There are many ways of relating to ourselves and reality, and we need balance among them. They include modes which are sensory and cognitive, intuitive and intellectual, directed inward and outward, assertive and submissive, and oriented short-term and long-term.
• The self is ultimately a multifaceted illusion, so we should avoid the urge to feed self-esteem. But we should still act in the world in a coherent and integrated way, rather than allowing the sense of self to fragment or trying to eliminate the self entirely.
• We should appreciate the unity of all things, with the self just being a facet of the whole.
• We should calmly go with the flow (rather than reacting to things or trying to force outcomes), accept both good and bad luck, be content with doing our best, and avoid negative moods.
• When circumstances become too difficult to bear, we should withdraw and take a break, possibly “surrender” to the circumstances, and put our apparent difficulties in a cosmic context.
• We need to balance sometimes being in the moment with a short-term mindful and spontaneous approach to life, versus sometimes acting towards longer-term purpose.
• Finding our distinct purpose may involve some trial and error. Once we find it, we shouldn’t shy away from it. Acting on our purpose will give our lives direction and meaning and fulfillment.
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Anusha
4.0 out of 5 stars Good collection of spiritual ideasReviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 15 September 2019
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Good read. The author has condensed many spiritual ideas drawn from 50 classics ranging from ancient to contemporary text covering almost all religious beliefs – Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, Judaism etc for the appreciation of the readers, who can draw similarity at the same time contrast between different belief. I feel it is good start point for embarking journey of detailed study of religious and spiritual literature. Some of the thoughts conveyed commonly in most of the spiritual text are surrendering to god, love and compassion for others as we are all came from the same creator, understanding the divine call and dedicate our lives towards higher goal, contemplating on our mortal structure so that we can understand that our emotions like fear, greed, anger, vanity etc are all only trivia in this ephemeral life, practicing self control and equanimity through detachment and mindfulness, practice calmness even in turbulence by assigning rationality to all our sufferings and many other divine revelations for betterment of humanity and enlightenment.
Thanks
2 people found this helpfulReport
Lawrence J Danks
5.0 out of 5 stars Elevating and InspirationalReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 14 December 2018
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Tom Butler-Bowdon is truly a great teacher, exposing readers to new ideas that would have been otherwise unseen and unknown.
The "50 Spiritual Classics" are not “religious books” , but more broadly spiritual ones that provide new insights to improve daily life and the search for peace and happiness.
I read one or two of his summaries a night before bed, skipping around sometimes to find one of the many classics that catch my fancy because of my curiosity about certain works and names I’ve heard of, but knew little about, or because the topic seemed promising in providing some improved insights. Each summary contains many thought provoking words of wisdom. I’ve found 50 Spiritual Classics to be transformative on a variety of levels and recommend it highly for anyone seeking improved insights and guides to living a better and fuller life.
- Lawrence J. Danks
5 people found this helpfulReport
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- Lawrence J. Danks
5 people found this helpfulReport
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