CONTENTS
Last updated
30/09/07

Reading Rooms...

* indicates link to Amazon.com online bookshop
** indicates link to Amazon.co.uk online bookshop

Listed in alphabetical order of surname of author

Book Recommendations by Satyendra Chelvendra are flagged...

*

Review by a reader "Death of the body is an inescapable part of life; but death of the spirit during the process of dying is a choice. Each of us has a personal belief system about what happens to the spirit after death occurs; but no matter what your's is, this book has at least one lesson to offer you to enhance the life you are living now. Mitch Albom has given all of us the opportunity to share with him in Morrie's mentorship, a gift for which I will always be most humbly grateful. Morrie's lessons aren't geared to any one age or stage of life. I firmly believe that our youth as well as our elders will respond to this book with a true opening of the spirit, and come away with insights they might never have received otherwise. If you were planning to read only one more book in your lifetime, I would definitely recommend that this be the one." 

* James Allen - As You Think, Paperback/Published May 1998

Book Note by the publisher, Marc Allen: " It's not an overstatement to say this book is the single most powerful book I've ever read. It has changed my life. I've read it countless times over the past 20 years; I pick it up whenever I need some inspiration. For years, I've had a quote from the book in big letters over my desk: "You will become as great as your dominant aspiration... if you cherish a vision, a lofty ideal in your heart, you will realize it." This book has helped me go from a poverty case, struggling with my own start-up publishing company, to a multi-million dollar success. I'm not kidding -- no other book has had anywhere near the kind of impact in my life that this simple little book has had. Don't let its brevity fool you. It is worth reading and re-reading and re-reading, until you have fulfilled your dreams."

"...Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight - how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight...Ultimately, he learns the meaning of love and kindness..." 

* Rhonda Byrne - The Secret

*Lewis Carroll  - Alice in Wonderland, John Tenneil (Illustrator) Paperback

"...One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. ‘Which road do I take ?’ she asked. His response was a question: ‘Where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know’ Alice answered. ‘Then’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter’....

*Cherie Carter-Scott, Jack Canfield - If Life Is a Game, These Are the Rules : Ten Rules for Being Human, As Introduced in Chicken Soup for the Soul

"...Each time you view your circumstances as possessing value, regardless of the apparent confusion or hardship, you grow. Your personal evolution will depend on how readily you embrace your lessons and integrate them into your life. Remember, the only consequence for resisting lessons, is that they will keep repeating themselves until you learn them... When the lesson is learned... you then move on to more complex and challenging ones....Wishing that you had already graduated from the school of life does not accelerate your progress or make the lessons any easier. Examining the situation for the real lesson is the scavenger hunt..." [**alternate link to Amazon.co.uk bookshop]

*Edgar Cayce Answers Life’s 10 Most Important Questions  
 

*Charles Chaplin - My Autobiography published by William Clowes & Sons, Ltd, London 1964

 "...I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black men - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness - not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone..."

*Deepak Chopra - Creating Affluence  

"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night. "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."

*Russell H. Conwell - Acres of Diamonds  

*Stephen R. Covey - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People : Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

" 'Begin with the end in mind' is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There's the mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation. To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you are going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction. It is incredibly easy to get caught in the activity trap..... It is possible to be busy - very busy - without being effective... How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and, keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most..." [** alternate link to amazon.co.uk]

"If you were to pause and think seriously about the 'first things' in your life - the three or four things that matter most - what would they be? Are these things receiving the care, emphasis, and time you really want to give them?... Why is it that so often our first things aren't first? Basing our happiness on our ability to control everything is futile. While we do control our choice of action, we cannot control the consequences of our choices... In one sense, this approach is new; in another it is very old. Its deeply rooted in classic timeless principles that represent a distinct contrast to the quick fix... approach to life, promoted by so much of current 'success' literature... There is no short cut. But there is a path. ... Only as we focus more on contributing than consuming can we create the context that makes peace in all aspects of life possible. It's in leaving a legacy that we find meaning in living, loving and learning..." [**alternate link to amazon.co.uk]

* Stephen R. Covey The 8th Habit : From Effectiveness to Greatness

""Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs." Covey sees leadership "as a choice to deal with people in a way that will communicate to them their worth and potential so clearly they will come to see it in themselves." His holistic approach starts with developing one's own voice, one's "unique personal significance."  - Publishers Weekly

"The 8th Habit is about finding out why you're here and helping others to do the same" - Ken Blanchard

*Thomas F. Crum - The Magic of Conflict: Turning a Life of Work into a Work of Art

"..creativity requires not only unusual individuals, but a culture and field of experts that can foster and validate such work. Most creative people have dialectic personalities: smart yet naive, both extroverted and introverted..."

"This book is concerned with games and aims... Seek above all, for a game worth playing... Having found the game play it with intensity - play as if your life and sanity depended on it. (They do depend on it)... Life games reflect life aims. And the games men choose to play indicate not only their type but also their level of inner development... we can divide life games into object games and meta-games. Object games can be thought of as games played for the attainment of material things, primarily money and the objects which money can buy. Metagames are played for intangibles such as knowledge or the salvation of the soul. In our culture object games predominate. In earlier cultures meta-games predominated.

To the players of meta games, object games have always seemed shallow and futile, an attitude summarised in the Gospel saying: what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul. To the players of object games, meta-games seem fuzzy and ill-defined, involving nebulous concepts like beauty, truth or salvation. The whole human population of the earth can be divided roughly into two groups, meta-game players and object-game players, the Prosperos and the Calibans. The two have never understood one another and it is safe to predict that they never will. They are, psychologically speaking, different species of man and their conflicts throughout the ages have added greatly to the sum of human misery...."

"...our lives and our psychological health depend on a sense of purpose. Mere survival is a purpose, but not enough for human consciousness. Nor is working for the survival of others sufficiently meaningful if one believes that the human race has no place to go, that it endlessly repeats the same patterns, or worse..."

*Wayne W. Dyer - There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem  -

"...Meditation places the loftiest of goals before us and gives us the means by which that goal can be achieved. No matter how far technology advances, without an overriding goal in life it is not possible to live well, just as without a destination it is not possible to get where you want to go. With a goal, even if you wander, you always know how to regain your course; without a goal, you never even know where you are. I had a friend in India who once got so restless that he went down to Madras Central, laid his money on the counter, and said. "Give me a ticket. " The clerk, who was used to all kinds of people, asked politely, "Where to, sir?" My friend shrugged. "Just give me a ticket - any ticket. I don't care where I go. " This seems to be our condition today, and as a result we find ourselves with an increasing number of problems. To make wise choices in life, even in simple rnatters, we have to have a goal to which we can refer every day. Otherwise events are irrelevant; they do not hang together in any meaningful pattern..."

*Epictetus, Sharon Lebell - The Art of Living: The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness  

* Frankfurt, Harry G.  - On Bullshit

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit ... Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted..." more

"...Don't aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself..."

*Robert Fulghum - All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten : Fifteenth Anniversary Edition Reconsidered, Revised, & Expanded With Twenty-Five New Essays  

*Kahlil Gibran - Sand and Foam: A Book of Aphorisms 

*Daniel Goleman - Emotional Intelligence : Why It Can Matter More Than IQ  

There was a time when IQ was considered the leading determinant of success. In this fascinating book, based on brain and behavioral research, Daniel Goleman argues that our IQ-idolizing view of intelligence is far too narrow. Instead, Goleman makes the case for "emotional intelligence" being the strongest indicator of human success. He defines emotional intelligence in terms of self-awareness, altruism, personal motivation, empathy, and the ability to love and be loved by friends, partners, and family members. People who possess high emotional intelligence are the people who truly succeed in work as well as play, building flourishing careers and lasting, meaningful relationships. Because emotional intelligence isn't fixed at birth, Goleman outlines how adults as well as parents of young children can sow the seeds.

*Daniel Goleman - Destructive Emotions : A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama  

"...The relation between a society and its member's spirituality is reciprocal. A society's customs and laws, on the one hand reflect the spirituality of its members. The spirituality of its members, on the other hand, is largely shaped by the nature of society. This 'largely' is never, however, 'totally'..."

* David R Hawkins - Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior  

"All human endeavor has the common goal of understanding or influencing human experience. To this end, man has developed numerous descriptive and analytical disciplines: Morality, Philosophy, Psychology, and so on....Regardless what branch of inquiry one starts from-philosophy, political theory, theology-all avenues of investigation eventually converge at a common meeting point: the quest for an organized understanding of the nature of pure consciousness....To explain that which is simple can be difficult indeed. Much of this book is devoted to the process of making the simple obvious. If we can understand even one simple thing in depth, we will have greatly expanded our capacity for comprehending the nature of the universe and life itself..."

* Aldous Huxely - Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited

Synopsis: Clinical psychologist Oliver James demonstrates that who we are is largely the result of the way we were cared for during our first six years, rather than our genes and other environmental factors. The particular way we were treated in these earliest months and years explains why siblings can be so different. They may have been raised in the same family, but their mother and father related so differently to each of them that they might as well had a different parents. These early experiences affect our choices of friends and lovers, define our interests and professional drives, make us more or less prone to mental illness. James illustrates a vast body of scientific evidence with detailed clinical case histories and those of prominent interviewees as diverse as Jeffrey Archer and Stephen Fry, along with revealing psychobiographies of the likes of Woody Allen, Mia Farrow and Prince Charles. Each chapter also includes a straightforward questionnaire that allows you to complete an 'emotional audit' so that you can be more aware of your role in the family script. Above all, this text shows how insight into and understanding of what really went on in our original family drama can be life-changing.

Book Note contributed by Mahul Spencer:  "Authored by Oliver James who has dedicated to his parents who were both clinical psychologists like him. His previous work was "Britain on the Couch" or it may as well have been America or Australia etc on the couch. He has taken one to four lines from the 3 verse 12 line poem (given below) of Philip Larkin to head all his chapters in the approx 370 page (hard cover) book which should now be available in paperback.

"This be the Verse

They fuck you, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another s throats

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don t have any kids yourself.

"... 'Cheese' is a metaphor for what you to have in life - whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, health or spiritual peace of mind. And 'The Maze' is where you work in, or the family or the community you live in... Change Happens (They keep Moving the Cheese); Anticipate Change (Get Ready for the Cheese To Move); Monitor Change (Smell the Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old); Adapt to Change Quickly (The Quicker You Let Go of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese...."

*Spencer Johnson - The Present : The Gift That Makes You Happier And More Successful At Work And In Life, Today!

"...The strong man holds in a living blend strongly marked opposites. Not ordinarily do men achieve this balance of opposites. The idealists are not usually realistic, and the realists are not usually idealistic. The militants are not generally known to be passive, nor the passive to be militant. Seldom are the humble self assertive or the self assertive humble. But life at its best is a creative syntheses of opposites in fruitful harmony.... truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in the an emerging synthesis which reconciles the two.

Jesus recognised the need for blending opposites. He knew that his disciples would face a difficult and hostile world, where they would confront the recalcitrance of political officials and the intransigence of the protectors of the old order. He knew that they would meet  cold and arrogant men whose hearts had be hardened by the long winter of traditionalism. So he said to them, 'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves'. And he gave them a formula for action; 'Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves'. It is pretty difficult to imagine a single person having simultaneously, the characteristics of the serpent and the dove, but that is what Jesus expects. We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart...

...We do not need to look far to detect the dangers of soft mindedness. Dictators, capitalising on soft mindedness, have led men to acts of barbarity and terror that are unthinkable in civilised society. Adolf Hitler realised that soft mindedness was so prevalent among his followers that he said, 'I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few'. In Mein Kampf he asserted: 'By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell - and hell, heaven... The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed...' There is little hope for us until we become tough minded... A nation or a civilisation that continues to produce soft minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan..."

*Arthur Koestler -  Janus : A Summing Up , Hutichinson of London, 1978 [see also Arthur Koestler in the Unfolding Consciousness Pages]

"...Now the reductionist fallacy lies not in comparing man to a 'mechanism powered by a combustion system' but in declaring that he is 'nothing but' such a mechanism and that his activities consist of 'nothing but' a chain of conditioned responses which are also found in rats...".

"...Intelligence is not personal, is not the outcome of argument, belief, opinion or reason. Intelligence comes into being when the brain discovers its fallibility, when it discovers what it is capable of, and what it is not.... When (thought) sees that it is incapable of discovering something new, that very perception is the seed of intelligence, isn't it? That is intelligence ...The discovery of that is intelligence...Thought is of time, intelligence is not of time. Intelligence is immeasurable... Intelligence comes into being when the mind, the heart and the body are really harmonious..."

* Jiddu Krishnamurthi - The Book of Life, Daily Meditations - Published by Harper, San Francisco

From a review at Amazon.com: This volume is ... unique.. All the books by or about (Krishnamurti) seem to offer added insight but this book is very useful in what it brings to the reader. I found that it was best, for me, to read a week's worth of daily readings at a sitting since they are chosen to relate to each other...each week having a single focus. No book can capture the man or the totality of his challenge to us but this book surely is a must for anyone seriously trying to get an understanding of the man and his trying to verbalize that which is not easily expressed in words.

* Jiddu Krishnamurthi - Think on These Things 

'Krishnamurti’s observations and explorations of modern man’s estate are penetrating and profound, yet given with a disarming simplicity and directness. To listen to him or to read his thoughts is to face oneself and the world with an astonishing morning freshness.’ Anne Marrow Lindbergh

"...You don't become principle centred in a day. Principle centred power, which enables you to influence others with honour, builds over a lifetime of deliberate living. In this book, I have invited you to consider a way of living the rest of your life.... 'Wisdom is knowing what to do; virtue is doing it'. Here are some possibilities for you to consider as re-evaluate your key relationships and the types of power bases you want to operate from. I recommend you implement one suggestion at a time. Give yourself permission and space to try and fail and try again. One course correction can put you on a path to a new and different place. One idea, realistically and patiently implemented, can change your life...". [ also *Audio Cassette ] [** alternate link to amazon.co.uk]
 

Jack Rauahala - Find Your God:A Pilgrim's Guide to the Cosmos

"The meaning of the cosmos is its purpose. The purpose of the cosmos is its meaning... there is no enlightenment. There is only continuous enlightening because reality is a verb, a process, a reaching for total communion with the Consciousness of the Cosmos..."

"....They call you 'Little Man', 'Common Man'; they say a new era has begun, the 'Era of the Common Man'. It isn't you who says so, Little Man. It is they, the Vice Presidents of great nations, promoted labour leaders, repentant sons of bourgeois families, statesman and philosophers. They give you your future but don't ask about your past.... I have never heard you complain: "You promote me to be the future master of myself and the world, but you don't tell me how one is to be the master of oneself, and you don't tell me the mistakes in my thinking and my actions..."

* Jonathan Roof - Pathways to God: A Study Guide to the Teachings of Sathya Sai Baba ( Volumes 1,2,3)

".. Everyone on this planet is a wonder of this world. Every one of us is a hero in some way or another. Every one of us has the potential for extraordinary achievement, happiness and lasting fulfillment. All it takes are small steps in the direction of our dreams... Small victories lead to large victories. Tiny, incremental changes and improvements such as those I have suggested will create positive habits. Positive habits will create results. And results will inspire you towards greater personal change. Begin to live each day as if it was your last. Starting today, learn more, laugh more and do what you truly love to do. Do not be denied your destiny. For what lies behind you and what lies in front of you matters little when compared to what lies within you... We are spiritual people having an earthly experience..."

*Robin S. Sharma - Who Will Cry When You Die? Life Lessons from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari  

"...Anyone who goes openly on a journey into the interior, who withdraws from the ceaseless agitation of everyday life and pursues the kind of training - satipatthana, yoga, Jesus Prayer, or something similar - without which genuine self knowledge cannot be obtained, is accused of selfishness and of turning his back on social duties... Meanwhile, world crisis multiply and everybody deplores the shortage, or even total lack, of 'wise' men or women, unselfish leaders, trustworthy counsellors etc. It is hardly rational to expect such high qualities from people who have never done any inner work and would not even understand what was meant by the words..."

*Ekhart Tolle - The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment  

"...One of the greatest lessons I've learned in life is that success is neither the destination nor the journey, but a way of travelling. Destinations and journeys inevitably involve arrivals and endings. I have always felt the word retired, for example was misspelled. The word should be retried or maybe, reinspired. Retired implies tired again or perhaps tired for the final time... Life is not something to step back from and admire when completed. It is an ongoing process of design, laying the foundations, forming, erecting, bonding, changing, detailing, refining and renovating... It is always under construction.. It calls for us to gain hindsight from all that went before... It calls for us to gain foresight by imagining a better world ahead for all by passing on our trials, errors, and achievements as lessons in leadership. It calls for us to live in the present, longing for neither yesterday nor tomorrow, but rather facing what today offers, boldly, optimistically and flexibly..."

"...Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery, the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets is this: That for every outside there is an inside, and for every inside there is an outside, and though they are different, they go together...."

*Neale Donald Walsch - Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialogue -  (Book 1) - (Book 2) - (Book 3)

"The intent of this book is to encourage and support you to begin conversations about things that are important to you and those near you.. It has no other purpose." ... 10 "conversation starters" like "Do I feel a 'vocation to be truly human'?" "When have I experienced good listening?" and "When have I experienced working for the common good"..

From a 'Note to the Reader' by the Author  "In Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a massive supercomputer is designed to give the ultimate answer, the absolute answer, the answer that would completely explain "God, life, the universe, and everything." But the computer takes seven and a half million years to do this, and by the time the computer delivers the answer, everybody has forgotten the question. Nobody remembers the ultimate question, but the ultimate answer the computer comes up with is: 42.

This is amazing! Finally, the ultimate answer. So wonderful is the answer that a contest is held to see if anybody can come up with the question. Many profound questions are offered, but the final winner is: How many roads must a man walk down?

"God, life, the universe, and everything" is pretty much what this book is about, although, of course, the answer is not quite as snappy as "42".  It deals with matter, life, mind, and spirit, and the evolutionary patterns that seem to unite them all in a pattern that connects."

"...Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure about you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others..."

" We are saying that, on the whole, you are more likely to extend your business and have a fulfilled life if you have the attitude that there are always new customers out there waiting to be enrolled rather than that money, customers and ideas are in short supply. You are more likely to be successful , overall, if you participate joyfully with projects and goals and do not think your life depends on achieving the mark because then you will not be able to connect to people all around you. On the whole, resources are likely to come to you in greater abundance when you are generous and inclusive and engage people in your passion for life. There aren’t any guarantees, of course. When you are oriented to abundance, you care less about being in control, and you take more risks. You may give away short-term profits in pursuit of a bigger dream; you may take a long view without being able to predict the outcome. In the measurement world, you set a goal and strive for it. In the universe of possibility, you set the context and let life unfold. "