This book provides commentaries on 50 great spiritual books of all times.
In the introductory chapter these books are classified under the following themes: 1. Great Spiritual Lives 2. Practical Spirituality 3. The Great Variety of Experience 4. Opening the Doors of Perception 5. Humanity's Spiritual Evolution The author then proceeds to explain what he considers as landmarks on the spiritual path. They are 1. Acknowledgement of an Unseen Order 2. Divining a Life Purpose 3. Loss of the Little Self 4. Living in the Present 5. Perceiving Beyond Duality. Then follows the commentaries, one chapter for each book. All the chapters are written as per the following template: 1. A short passage selected from the book 2. A couple of lines describing the essence of the book (titled In a Nutshell) 3. Commentary (4-6 pages) 4. A brief half-page profile of the book's author By and large I found the selections quite comprehensive. I don't agree with some of his choices, but then difference of opinion on such matters is quite natural. I have already read 8 of the books included in this selection and have heard about another 16 books. The rest of the selections were new to me. The commentaries are very well written .Though lay persons people may find the language slightly difficult.to understand, it should pose no problems to those who are exposed to philosophical or spiritual literature . The commentaries will surely trigger reader's interest to read the books which have been commented upon. As far as I am concerned through this book I got some exposure to Native American and Irish philosophy and would like to read more about it. The book reinforces fact that at the inner core all cultures, all religions, all thinkers share similar thoughts. The difference is only in the outer rituals, practices and habits. The chapters in this book are sequenced in the alphabetical order of the author's name. I feel it would have been better if they were grouped as per the themes explained in the Introduction chapter. 50 Spiritual Classics is an excellent and concise (just over 300 pages) introductory reference material, which I really enjoyed reading. I look forward to the sequel to this book, having noted that the author has already provided a list of 50 additional spiritual classics, along with one-line summary of each of them. Also the author Tom Butler-Bowdon has very generously provided more than half the contents of this book in his website ( http://www.butler-bowdon.com/50spi ritual-classics-list.html) If you need one-line summary of each book as provided by the author, please visit
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