Non-Christian religions Books

Zen mind is one of those enigmatic phrases used by Zen teachers to throw you back upon yourself, to make you go behind the words themselves and begin wondering. "I know what my own mind is," you tell yourself, "but what is Zen mind?" And then: "But do I really know what my o...

Become a calmer and happier mother with The Complete Buddhism for Mothers. Parenthood can be a time of great inner turmoil for a woman yet parenting books invariably focus on nurturing children rather than the mothers who struggle to raise them. These books are different. Together for the first ...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is one of today's most admired and controversial political figures. She burst into international headlines following the murder of Theo van Gogh by an Islamist who threatened she would be next. An international bestseller, her life story INFIDEL shows the coming of age of this elegan...

In this beautifully written book, Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh explains how to acquire the skills of mindfulness. Once we have these skills, we can slow our lives down and discover how to live in the moment - even simple acts like washing the dishes or drinking a cup o...

The Koran is universally accepted by Muslims to be the infallible word of God as first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel nearly 1400 years ago. Its 114 chapters, or "surahs", recount the narratives central to Muslim belief, and together they form one of the world's most...

In this astonishingly frank autobiography, the Dalai Lama reveals the remarkable inner strength that allowed him to master both the mysteries of Tibetan Buddhism and the brutal realities of Chinese Communism.

Many books have been published in recent years on happiness. Zen teacher Ezra Bayda believes that the happiness "boom" has been largely a bust for readers. Why? Because it's precisely the pursuit of happiness that keeps us trapped in cycles of dissatisfaction and suffering. In "Beyo...

Best-seller Pema Chodron draws on the Buddhist concept of "shenpa "to help us see how certain habits of mind tend to "hook" us and get us stuck in states of anger, blame, self-hatred, and addiction. The good news is that once we start to recognize these patterns, they instantly b...

Enough! is a hands-on guide to help put an end to the patterns that sabotage the potential for a true and satisfying happiness. All of us are caught up in addictions--big or small. Enough! presents a practical path that releases us from the grip of negative habits and addictions that block a full an...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s gutsy memoir INFIDEL which exposed Islam’s hypocrisy about the status of women caused a worldwide sensation. In it she spoke out about her own experiences as a good Somali Muslim woman, forced to submit to outmoded rules, and often reduced to an invisible silent presenc...

Twenty years ago, the image of burning copies of Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" held aloft by thousand-strong mobs of protestors became an internationally familiar symbol of anger and offence. Kenan Malik examines how the Rushdie affair transformed the debate worldwide on multiculturalism, to...

"Zen and the Art of Running" shows how to align body and mind for success on-and-off the track. Stop ten different people mid-run and ask them why they're running and you're likely to get several different cursory answers: to lose weight, to become faster, to build muscle. But ask them wha...

Considered in Islam to be the infallible word of God, The Qur'an was revealed to the prophet Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel in a series of divine revelations over many years after his first vision in the cave. In 114 chapters, or surahs, it provides the rules of conduct that remain fundamental to...

This book offers short, stand-alone readings designed to help us cultivate compassion and awareness amid the challenges of daily living. More than a collection of thoughts for the day, "Comfortable with Uncertainty" offers a progressive programme of spiritual study, leading the reader thro...

An objective, easy-to-read introduction to Islam by Bernard Lewis, one of the West's leading experts on Islam For many people, Islam remains a mystery. Here Bernard Lewis and Buntzie Ellis Churchill examine Islam: what its adherents believe and how their religion has shaped them, their rich and dive...

The only work of its kind to survive from classical antiquity, the Library of Apollodorus is a unique guide to Greek mythology, from the origins of the universe to the Trojan War. Apollodorus' Library has been used as a source book by classicists from the time of its compilation in the 1st-2nd centu...

This book explores what integral morality and maturity means in traditional yogic terms and in the context of contemporary culture. Feuerstein shows how the ancient teachings of Yoga are singularly relevant in our time of global crisis. At the same time, he offers a trenchant critique of the contemp...

This book offers a deep insight into the nature and functions of the human mind. The first part describes different types of mind in detail, revealing the depth and profundity of Buddhist understanding of human psychology, and how this can be used to improve our lives. The second part is a practical...

This inspiring book reveals deeply transforming yet practical methods to enable a powerful opening of the heart, the source of all true happiness. It explains how to meditate on eight beautiful verses that comprise one of Buddhism's best-loved and most enduring teachings, Eight Verses of Training th...

If you want to study Paganism in more detail, this book is the place to start. Based on a course in Paganism that the authors have taught for more than a decade, it is full of exercises, meditations, and discussion questions for group or individual study. PAGANISM presents the basic fundamentals: w...

Whilst the "Bhagavad Gita" has been translated by several persons, this translation is called 'as it is', because it is translated exactly as Lord Krishna Himself spoke it to Arjuna 5000 years ago. His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada is in the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradaya, disciplic succession descend...

As the spiritual leader of Tibet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has captured the attention and admiration of the world through his wisdom. This jewel of a book offers his insights on Buddhism - the fastest growing religion of the West.

Alan Watts was one of the great teachers and philosophers of our time, and forty years after its first appearance his classic study The Way of Zen continues to make Western readers far more aware of, and responsive to, the richness of Zen Buddhism and its place within the context and variety of East...

The beautiful practicality of her teaching has made Pema Chodron one of the most beloved of contemporary American spiritual authors among Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. A collection of talks she gave between 1987 and 1994, the book is a treasury of wisdom for going on living when we are overcome...

Film, television and popular fiction have long exploited the image of the serene Buddhist monk who is master of the deadly craft of hand-to-hand combat. While these media overly romanticize the relationship between a philosophy of non-violence and the art of fighting, "When Buddhists Attack: the Cur...

Many of us with busy families yearn for a slower and simpler life with our kids-one that is connected to the seasons and the natural rhythm of the year, one that has our children spending more time out of doors rather than in, one that balances out some of the busyness of our lives-the computers...

In "The Happiness Prescription", bestselling author Deepak Chopra shows how to experience joy in spite of living in difficult or trying times. By looking through the lens of our contemporary understanding of consciousness, combined with Eastern philosophy, he has created a set of principle...

The words Tao Te Ching translate to 'living and applying the Great Way'. "The Tao" is considered by many scholars to be the wisest book ever written, and it encourages you to change your life by literally changing the way you think. Within these pages, Dr Wayne W. Dyer has broken down the ...

Hidden from the rest of the world, high in the Himalayan mountains, the people of Tibet developed a science of the mind over the centuries it took the West to build cars and planes. Forty years ago, Tenzin Palmo was one of the early Western women to meet the lamas coming out of Tibet and to stud...

"The Book of the Dead" is a unique collection of funerary texts from a wide variety of sources, dating from the fifteenth to the fourth century BC. Consisting of spells, prayers and incantations, each section contains the words of power to overcome obstacles in the afterlife. The papyruses were ofte...

The Dhammapada is the most revered sacred text in the Buddhist world. Attributed to the Buddha himself, the inspirational verses that comprise it convey the fundamental Buddhist teachings with great power and simplicity, and with an appeal that extends far beyond Buddhism. As a scholar, meditator, a...

On every journey, you must die once - the person who arrives should not be the person who left. - Tibetan proverb You Must Die Once is an epic story. After the death of his spiritual adviser, Ian Robinson vowed to deliver his ashes to Mt Kailas, Tibet's most sacred mountain. His journey through so...

Abstract: Pro Player Max Eberle takes the reader onto the path of playing pool at the highest levels. Complete with photographs and diagrams, Zen Pool is a compilation of 38 of Max's nationally published instructional Columns. Max explains that "playing pool is Zen in that it does require your prese...

When the undefeated samurai Miyamoto Musashi retreated to a cave in 1643 and wrote "The Book of Five Rings," a manifesto on swordsmanship, strategy, and winning for his students and generations of samurai to come, he created one of the most perceptive and incisive texts on strategic thinking ever to...

Happiness and How it Happens reveals how happiness is a state of being we all want and can have, because happiness is our true nature! Suryacitta aka The Happy Buddha explores what happiness actually is and how we all can achieve it through the transformational practice of mindfulness meditation. Sh...

Parenthood can be a time of great inner turmoil for a woman. This book explores the potential to be with your children in the all-important present moment, to gain the most joy out of being with them. How can this be done calmly and with a minimum of anger, worry and negative thinking? How can mothe...

Drawing on the unique historical sites, archives, expertise, and unquestioned authority of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, "New York Times" bestselling authors Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon have created the first authorized and exhaustive graphic biography of Anne Frank. Their account is...

'I have heard the supreme mystery, yoga, from Krishna, from the lord of yoga himself.' Thus ends the Bhagavad Gita, the most famous episode from the great Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata. In its eighteen short chapters Krishna's teaching leads the warrior Arjuna from perplexity to understanding and c...

Ziauddin Sardar, one of the foremost Muslim intellectuals in Britain, learned the Koran at his mother's knee in Pakistan. As a young student in London he set out to grasp the meaning of his religion, and, hopefully, to find 'paradise', his quest leading him throughout the Muslim world, from Iran to ...

20 November 1979: as morning prayers began, hundereds of hardline Islamist gunmen, armed with rifles smuggled in coffins, stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca. With thousands of terrified worshippers trapped inside, the result was a bloody siege that lasted two weeks, caused hundereds of deaths, prompt...