Klinsly

Books about spiritual masters

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Hello friends, I figured this would be a good place to ask about book recommendations specifically about high level spiritual masters. 

 

The few I've read I love and I feel just reading about what they can do etc while it can being distracting on the path is also incredible at building faith and hope!

 

So ones I have read  include the greek author magus series lol. Magus of Java about John Chang and more impressive the Magus of Strovolos  about Stylianos Atteshlis aka Daskalos. Basically a Christian buddha who had vast wisdom and power that died in the mid 90s.

 

As well as things like autobiography of a Yogi

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Master Emply Cloud (Hsu Yun / Xu Yun) Autobiography

The Sixth Patriarch Sutra (first part of it is about the Sixth Patriarch's life then followed by his teachings)

Great Disciples of the Buddha

The Life of Milarepa
Ajahn Mun (there are also countless other Thai Forest Buddhist master biographies)

Frabato the Magician

Wild Ivy (Master Hakuin)

Chan Master Han Shan Autobiography

 

Others not necessarily spiritual masters or in the fashion of a biography but still great reads within the same theme/genre:

- 7 Taoist Masters

- Touching Ground (this is an awesome biography, it isn't of a "spiritual master", but of someone who earnestly cultivates the Path that encounters karmic obstacles and setbacks - a true, genuine, and raw account of what it looks like when you try but don't quite 'succeed')

- Siddhartha (fiction)

- A Search in Secret India (somewhat similar to Road to Heaven)  

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Books that I keep rereading, and will not hesitate to recommend include works by Alan Watts, notably, The Meaning of Happiness. Rainbow Painting by Tulku Urgyen is excellent. Ken Wilber's Integral Psychology and A Theory of Everything. Some of J. Krishnamurti's works are good, but can get repetitive. Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, a profoundly poignant autobiography of an Irish Zen nun. All of Dilgo Khyentse's and Keith Dowman's books are worthwhile reading. Definitely recommend commentaries on The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Too many to list.

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These are some great recommendations thanks so much everyone! This  list will keep me busy for awhile. 

Edited by Klinsly
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Why don't you become one...I mean unleash the spiritual master within? Rather than reading spiritual-fi books.

 

;)

 

 

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You could become an 'Ascended Master '   :)

 

I was organising  workshops for an alternative festival once , people that wanted to do a workshop had to go through me .. One guy wanted to do an 'Ascended Master Workshop '   , he was actually an 'Ascended Grand-Master '  , that meant, apparently, he was in charge of the other Ascended Masters  hereabouts  ( I am not sure of the extent of his territory ) .  I asked him to answer the questions everyone else  had to , like ;  What is it you actually do, what are your qualifications, where did you train and show testimonials of past clients, etc .

 

That was fun , he dodged, tried to outwit me  .... badly  ,  ( eg , he had a website that he  had written about himself  and he kept presenting that as 'testimonials ' .  )  he couldnt answer the questions , so no go .  He became annoyed , angry , argumentative, accusing , crazy , threw tantrums  and insults at me  ... and other types of 'ascended grandmaster behaviour '  :)

 

"You cant stop me from coming .... who do you think you are ? !   I agreed , but I could stop him getting a free ticket in for work  . 

 

Spoiler

I really hope he was one of the ' back door guys ' I caught that year !

 

You could sneak in to our festival along an old tractor trail that ran between a steep overgrown bank and the river side . thus avoiding the entrance gate and the fee . I didnt mind, and was actually amused by it  seeing people sneak in that way , parking their cars way down the road  and having to carry their gear up the road ... then disappear into the bushes ,  but it got too well known and each year more and more did it .

 

So one year , during festival prep I blocked it , by towing all sorts of  shit in there with the tractor ; old dead branches, clumps of spiky lantana and other prickle bushes we had cleared the site of .  All facing the way that makes them harder to get through . I made the first part easier , to encourage entry .  Then as you got about half way , worse  but by then one would have gone too far to want go back through it . The last section was hell , then at the end of that,   after you finally made it through I set up a table and chair and sat there with a cash box and a bunch of tickets . People would emerge, lugging their camping equipment and supplies,  exhausted , scratched up ....

 

" Hi , welcome to the festival !  Four adults is it   ?  Thats  $ 60 each thanks . By the way , there is a much easier entrance up top at the main gate , right off the road ,  you can even drive your car in that way . "  

 

Edited by Nungali
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