(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best christian worship & devotion books

It's easy to miss this bibical imagry and think it's, oddly, just in the Song of Psalms, but look just how much the imagry of the bridge, bridegroom, and wedding feast appear in scripture.

https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Bridegroom

Eros is a kind of madness, of an explicitly sexual erotic variety. It's weird for our culture to separate the erotic from the sexual, but a number of Greek Fathers did, and I believe Syriac but I'm not as familiar.

Eros is a kind of madness/irrational/arational, non intellectual, sensual desire to be drawn out of oneself and into another in a state of communion with the other. Here is something on St. John Chrysostom on the divine eros followed by a poem from st. Symeon the New Theologian from a collection of hyms called the Divine Eros.

https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2014/04/divine-eros-according-to-saint-john.html?m=1

>Come, true light. Come, eternal life. Come, hidden mystery. Come, nameless treasure. come, ineffable reality. Come, incomprehensible face. Come, everlasting exultation. Come, unfading light. come, trusty expectation of all who are going to be saved. Come, awakening of those who sleep. Come, resurrection of the dead. Come, Might One who always creates, who re-creates and who transforms all things by his will alone. Come, invisible and untouchable, and in every way intangible. Come, You Who always remain immutable, and Who at every hour are wholly altered, and are coming to us who lie in hell, You Who are above the heavens. Come, most beloved name repeated again and again, a name entirely forbidden for us to speak or to know the very person You are, the kind of quality. Come, eternal joy. Come, imperishable crown. Come, purple of our great God and King. Come, crystalline cincture set with gems. Come, unapproachable sandal. Come, royal purple robe and truly autocratic right hand! Come, You Who separated me from everyone and made me alone on the Earth. Come, You Who have become desire itself in me and Who made me desire You, the utterly unapproachable one. Come, my breath and my life. Come consolation of my dejected soul. Come, my joy, and glory, and endless luxury.
>
>I think You because You have become one spirit with me, unmixing, unmoved, immutable God over all things, and because You yourself have become the all in all for me, utterly inexpressible food, and utterly without expense, food that is endlessly overflowing the lips of my soul , and gushing out in the fountain of my heart, garment flashing forth and burning up the demons, purification through incorruptible and holy tears that wash me out, tears that You give freely to those who You visit. I thank You because You have become an unfading light and an unsetting sun to me, You Who have nowhere to hide, Who fill the universe with your glory. For You have never been midden from anyone, but we always hide ourselves from You, not wishing to come to You. For where would You hide, You Who nowhere have a place of rest? Why would You hide? You Who never turn away anyone at all, and You do not turn from anyone of them. And so now Master, dwell in me and inhabit me, and remain continually, and inseparably in me you slave, until my death, Good One, so that I also may be found both in my departure and after my departure in You, Good One, and I shall reign with You, God over all things!
>
> Remain, Master, and let me not be alone, so that when my enemies come, always seeking to devour my soul, when the find You remaining in me, they shall flee entirely, and shall have no strength against me, when they see you Who are more powerful than everything , seated within the home of my humbled soul. Verily Master, When You remembered me, when I was in the world of my ignorance, and You yourself picked me out, and separated me for the world, and set me before the face of your glory. So now also keep within, always standing upright and immovable in your dwelling with me. So that watching You continually, I the corpse may live; and holding You, I, a poor hired man, will always be rich, even richer than all kings; and eating and drinking You, and every hour being vested wit You, I will be reveling in unspeakable holy things. For You are every good, and every glory, and every enjoyment, and to You glory is fitting, You the Holy, Consubstantial and life-giving Trinity. The Trinity in Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit venerated, and proclaimed, and worshiped and served by all the faithful now, and always forever and ever. Amen.
>
>- St. Symeon the New Theologian - The Mystical Prayer.

He has a 400 page hymnal book on the Divine Eros if you are interested in more of the same.

As a Zen roshi said in a teisho to his students recently, "Nobody here cares if you believe in anything!" That's not making light of the teachings of Buddhism, it just means that you're absolutely free to practice Zen no matter what you believe, what you think, what you think you believe, what you want to believe or disbelief. We have conversations about whether the hungry ghosts prefer we offer them bread or sunflower seeds, but we throw all the offerings to the birds, and they don't seem too picky. Take all the wisdom of Zen and use it to wipe your ass! ;) But yeah, zazen (sitting meditation) is the foundation. A famous verse says "upholding the precepts, showing remorse, giving gifts, countless good deeds, and right living -- it all has its source in zazen."

I practice Zen with a sangha. In my daily life, Zen mostly means that I do daily zazen, try to live harmoniously and wisely (don't ask), and try to be one with whatever I'm doing, not getting tangled up in unnecessary thoughts. Zazen is the basic ingredient, it's like tasting zazen makes it possible to see what else needs to be done.

Edit: Two books I think are really good: You Have to Say Something by Dainin Katagiri roshi, and The Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau roshi. The former is by a Soto teacher, very warm and beautiful, and full of good stuff. The latter is from a tradition that's influenced by both Soto and Rinzai, and is a bit more rough and practical, and has some really inspiring first-hand accounts of initial awakening by modern lay Westerners.

And another little practice that works anywhere is to watch your mind state and care for it. Try to bring a kind of gentleness, clarity, and purposefulness to your actions, speech, and even your thoughts. This means literally everything you do is a profound Zen practice. Ritually I think bowing is a good example: externally it looks like a tiny little gesture of respect, but internally, it's a focused and intense practice. Try bowing to something you appreciate, like a cup of coffee, and see what happens in your mind. Can you find some concentration, love, silence, or gracefulness? That's Zen practice!

Here is a collection of prayers by St. Symeon the New Theologian. Here is the first one in a book of 56 prayers.

>Come, true light. Come, eternal life. Come, hidden mystery. Come, nameless treasure. come, ineffable reality. Come, incomprehensible face. Come, everlasting exultation. Come, unfading light. come, trusty expectation of all who are going to be saved. Come, awakening of those who sleep. Come, resurrection of the dead. Come, Might One who always creates, who re-creates and who transforms all things by his will alone. Come, invisible and untouchable, and in every way intangible. Come, You Who always remain immutable, and Who at every hour are wholly altered, and are coming to us who lie in hell, You Who are above the heavens. Come, most beloved name repeated again and again, a name entirely forbidden for us to speak or to know the very person You are, the kind of quality. Come, eternal joy. Come, imperishable crown. Come, purple of our great God and King. Come, crystalline cincture set with gems. Come, unapproachable sandal. Come, royal purple robe and truly autocratic right hand! Come, You Who separated me from everyone and made me alone on the Earth. Come, You Who have become desire itself in me and Who made me desire You, the utterly unapproachable one. Come, my breath and my life. Come consolation of my dejected soul. Come, my joy, and glory, and endless luxury.
>
>I think You because You have become one spirit with me, unmixing, unmoved, immutable God over all things, and because You yourself have become the all in all for me, utterly inexpressible food, and utterly without expense, food that is endlessly overflowing the lips of my soul , and gushing out in the fountain of my heart, garment flashing forth and burning up the demons, purification through incorruptible and holy tears that wash me out, tears that You give freely to those who You visit. I thank You because You have become an unfading light and an unsetting sun to me, You Who have nowhere to hide, Who fill the universe with your glory. For You have never been midden from anyone, but we always hide ourselves from You, not wishing to come to You. For where would You hide, You Who nowhere have a place of rest? Why would You hide? You Who never turn away anyone at all, and You do not turn from anyone of them. And so now Master, dwell in me and inhabit me, and remain continually, and inseparably in me you slave, until my death, Good One, so that I also may be found both in my departure and after my departure in You, Good One, and I shall reign with You, God over all things!
>
>Remain, Master, and let me not be alone, so that when my enemies come, always seeking to devour my soul, when the find You remaining in me, they shall flee entirely, and shall have no strength against me, when they see you Who are more powerful than everything , seated within the home of my humbled soul. Verily Master, When You remembered me, when I was in the world of my ignorance, and You yourself picked me out, and separated me for the world, and set me before the face of your glory. So now also keep within, always standing upright and immovable in your dwelling with me. So that watching You continually, I the corpse may live; and holding You, I, a poor hired man, will always be rich, even richer than all kings; and eating and drinking You, and every hour being vested wit You, I will be reveling in unspeakable holy things. For You are every good, and every glory, and every enjoyment, and to You glory is fitting, You the Holy, Consubstantial and life-giving Trinity. The Trinity in Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit venerated, and proclaimed, and worshiped and served by all the faithful now, and always forever and ever. Amen.
>
>- St. Symeon the New Theologian - The Mystical Prayer.

https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Eros-Theologian-Popular-Patristics/dp/0881413496/ref=asc_df_0881413496/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312166025508&hvpos=1o4&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10111252812925992950&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019554&hvtargid=pla-491594006626&psc=1

And a second book if of similar prayers by him if you'd like.

https://www.amazon.com/St-Symeon-New-Theologian-Mystic/dp/8186778632/ref=sr_1_4?crid=UALUE5S1GO1E&keywords=st+symeon+the+new+theologian&qid=1567207650&s=gateway&sprefix=st+symeon%2Cdigital-text%2C152&sr=8-4

Hey!

I walked the French Way in November and a part of December. I walked from the 12 November til the 5 of December. I started in Leon however (had to be home by Christmas).

And I loved it. So few people on the road, it is amazing. You keep running/walking into the same people.

Clothing: I wore leggings together with a pair of pants, but in the end I just wore leggings with rain pants over them. They are also easier to clean when you get mud on them. Then I wore a merino wool long sleeve t-shirt and a fleece vest and also a waterproof coat (it was a coat for sailing so it was warm too). I bought all these things at Decathlon. My shoes turned out to be waterproof, but most Albergues have newspapers laying around to stuff in your shoes when they are wet. I didn't really have that many cold days, some days I just walked in my long sleeved shirt. The rain was something else. When it rained, it poured!

Paths: The paths were still safe (Keep in mind, that I can only talk about the French Way starting in Leon). The only thing that wasn't safe was going up to O'Cebreiro when it rained, it is a pretty steep climb. I was lucky that it was a sunny day when I walked, but I talked to some people who did it in the rain and slipped a few times. Sometimes, due to the rain, when you go downhill, the rocks can get slippery too, but if you go nice and slow, you'll be fine. I had the Brierley book with me, I checked it religiously, but thinking back now, I didn't really need it, except from when I was in a town to look for an Albergue.

Albergues: Like u/chookkyy said, a lot of the Albergues will be closed. But there is this awesome site, Gronze. Here you can look up the Albergues on the Way and check if they're open. Really a life-saver. I checked before I went and I didn't once stood in front of a closed Albergue.

I don't really know how much I spent, but not much. I tried to stay under 25 euro a day. I highly suggest to go for the Pilgrim's menu when you have to eat. You get a 3-course meal with a drink and you get a lot of food. Most of the times it was 10 euro. I did it really cheaply. I always chose the cheapest Albergues, except for when I was in Santiago.

You said you would like your own room at the end, but it you're lucky, it could happen on the Way too! One of my Camino friends slept all alone in some Albergues. She had the Albergue all for herself. She did, however, always stop in small towns, not in big cities. Sometimes she was even asked to close up in the morning.

I slept in one Albergue with donation and I paid 5 euro there.

Feel free to PM me when you have anymore questions! I'd love to help!

Buen Camino

Hi Mattoy,

Yea I would love to share.

First off, the trip was amazing and life changing. We found out about it from watching Martin Sheen pretend to do it in the "The Way". I remember watching this movie and turned to my girlfriend and said "We will be doing this within a year." She laughed at me, said I was crazy and that she had a PHD to finish and start a job.

Fast forward to August, she finished up her graduate school, I proposed, and off we went. We had done the research, gotten the guidebook and went off.

We started in St Jean and ended up in Santiago in 32 days.

Things we struggled with:

1. Finding a place to say. I would say in about 40% of the cases the first alburge we tried to get in to was full. As Mattoy mentioned you can only reserve a spot in the alburge if it is private. I guess the thing that bothered me was I didn't want to call ahead. I never not know where I am sleeping at night and really loved the fact that it wasn't set in stone. Additionally, there were days where my fiance' couldn't continue so if we had made that reservation we would never had made it.
   
   2. This is a little dirty and not a huge deal but there is shit everywhere. You are walking through rural spain with livestock all over the place. As a result, fecal matter is all over the place. As a result, people who weren't careful with washing their hands got gastro. Not the end of the world, but also not pleasant.
   
   Things I Loved
   
   
2. The people. You will meet some of the coolest people on the trip. You will here so many fascinating stories and realize just how truly different and awesome some people are. I got to meet a monk on the trip. Enjoying a dinner with her was one of the highlights of the trip.
   
   2. Wine!!! Wine is super cheap and you have a bottle with every meal almost. My fiance' and I had Sangria or wine at every meal and it was really really nice. The beer is also super cheap and good.
   
   3. The scenery. There are obviously some parts that aren't that great but over all WOW!!! The walk is amazing for the scenary and things you get to see.
   
   4. I was able to get away and just focus on me, my relationship with God, and my future with my soon to be wife (June 7th!). I haven't been away that long without calling anyone from home or anything.
   
   What I gained
   I gained an immense understanding of myself. I also was able to relax, disconnect and focus intrisically on me and what I am doing. You have so much free time while you're walking to just reflect. A few times I just put on the headphones, blasted the music and started walking.....amazing time.
   
   
   The Camino is what you make it and what you put in is what you get out of it. I met some people who were so determined to get to a certain place the quickest, or had to meet their planned out schedule and as a result, they didn't have time to focus on themselves they had to get their day done. An example, we stopped for lunch and were having a beer and some people we were friendly with came up. We asked them to join us but they were too far behind "their schedule" to stop. I feel like you're missing the point of the Camino if that is your thought.
   
   
   tl;dr - buy a sim card and make your reservation in the morning for the Alburgue you plan to sleep in at night, bring ear plugs, and don't feel like you are chained to your schedule.
   
   
   
   

Coming from a Christian background, I understand the oddity. I am viewing the transition more of a set of tools which I did not have previously. Myself, I'm not much for the praying to a god as I am praying with a personality. My objection to the whole praying "to" is that it is myself that needs to do the work. The notion and idea of something external to myself to which I am dependent on and whom will be doing the work doesn't feel quite right. An addict can pray to their hearts content, but it is the practice of life that makes change.

In Buddhism, it is called practice for a reason. It is also work. It is participatory. I think that this is a major difference. Something that Christianity has pointed at and talks about but seemed to have lost in the somewhere. Religion is the intersection of politics and entertainment. The Protestant revolt was, basically, who collects your taxes.

The structure of Hinduism is very interesting as this religion is, in all essence, applied psychology. The book Living Asatru by Greg Shetler has been very good to me - I love the attitude that the author has.

My point of view is that we, as humans, need certain tools. Our conscious minds are specialized for linear tasks - a BEAR! Run! (Or free beer, same thing.) Our subconscious minds are great at abstract things. This subconscious brain also doesn't have to deal with eye-brain visual object recognition requirement which frees up a lot of brain power. The disadvantage is that it can only communicate through symbols.

This need for a linear structure within a circular system called the Universe, Time, is why we have the solstices and equinoxes -- it takes a circle and converts it into a line. Beginning, middle and end. This is what the linear brain is good at dealing with.

There is a lot of psychology and practical aspects to a polytheistic interaction between human and Universe. Feel free to take what you have learned from previous work and apply it with these new tools. Also ask yourself why you moved away from the Christian structure - what were you missing with that structure? Other people will be going through the same process as yourself.

All the best in your journey!

It's a great idea. When I committed to saying the Rosary every day, it was like a special someone hit the gas pedal on my spiritual and prayer life and I haven't looked back since. There's a great book on the contemplative rosary and Pope John Paul II wrote a great letter on it.

"The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), “the goal of human history and the point on which the desires of history and civilization turn”. APOSTOLIC LETTER ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE

​

If it works out for you, see if your friend has ever listened to or read The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. He may enjoy it a lot!! It's on YouTube as well.

Fundamental texts of Zen: The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui-Neng and The Heart Sutra.

Another famous sutra that I recommend: The Lotus Sutra

These are a good start. Also helpful is to get commentaries on sutras. You can search around and look for different translations that include commentaries. The translation of The Heart Sutra that I included has a commentary. Hope this is helpful. Happy readings!

Edit: BTW you can get PDFs of all of these (probably not the same translations). Just type in the name of the sutra and pdf and scan through for readability.

Ah, I'm in college too, so I sympathize with the time constraints!

I don't know if you want to put up any money for a book (maybe check the library?), but there's a short little 90 page book called On Living Simply that's quite excellent. In reference to our discussion on marriage, there's a pretty short thing titled On Marriage and Family Life which is also quite good. My third and last suggestion would be On Poverty and Wealth which is around 150 pages. Also, very good reading. Like I said, definitely check the library!

However, Jews do push circumcision---but in a way that is more sophisticated than door-to-door evangelism.

Consider that circumcision was started in the West (English-speaking, Christian countries) by the Victorian Christians in the UK, mainly to curb masturbation. From there, the practice spread to Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., and Canada.

• In 1948, the UK's NHS dropped circumcision from its offerings and its been decades since circumcision was considered normal there.
  
  
• Australia's RACP stopped supporting circumcision some time in the 1970s and it has steadily declined: The rate of newborn circumcision in Australia is now somewhere around 12% (by way of a few doctors in one region who promote the practice at the expense of gullible and/or religious parents).
  
  
• Circumcision is now virtually non-existent in New Zealand as a routine procedure.
  
  
• The routine circumcision rate in Canada is around 30%, and it has been becoming even rarer since the national health plan dropped support for it (unfortunately, Canadians were already in the habit of paying for it privately outside of the birthing hospital, if I recall correctly).
  
  
• In the U.S., the rate has been declining, but right now it's still 55%-56.1% when you consider the whole country (it has become a minority practice in the western half of the country).
  
  Why has the rate remained higher in North America (particularly in the U.S.)?
  
  The reasons are a history of Puritanism and a strong Jewish influence in the medical fields and entertainment industries[][1].
  
  Interestingly, the practice of circumcision really took off in the U.S. when Hiram S. Yellen (a Jewish obstetrician) and Aaron Goldstein (a Jewish inventor) invented the Gomco clamp in 1934-1935; the idea was to standardize the procedure as 'routine', and it worked---especially after the two tirelessly promoted their device and technique (and company) in hospitals and medical journals.
  
  Dr. Leonard Glick is a Jewish physician-turned-anthropologist who wrote Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America, which provides further evidence to the relationship between America's circumcision fetish and the Jewish Influence. Amazon's abstract states:
  
  > In this book, Leonard B. Glick offers a history of Jewish and Christian beliefs about circumcision from its ancient origins to the current controversy. By the turn of the century, more and more physicians in America and England--but not, interestingly, in continental Europe--were performing the procedure routinely. Glick shows that Jewish American physicians were and continue to be especially vocal and influential champions of the practice which, he notes, serves to erase the visible difference between Jewish and gentile males. Informed medical opinion is now unanimous that circumcision confers no benefit and the practice has declined. In Jewish circles it is virtually taboo to question circumcision, but Glick does not flinch from asking whether this procedure should continue to be the defining feature of modern Jewish identity.
  
  Religion poisons everything.

I'm not qualified to make a recommendation on basic physics, but here are some of the best examples of science writing I've come across for the other subjects you've listed:

1. Scientific History and Chemistry - The Invention of Air, by Steven Johnson. This book is about Joseph Priestley, and his contribution to the discovery of oxygen. Priestley was incredibly prolific, and made a ton of contributions to completely unrelated fields. It also touches on why science started to really take off at this point in history, and the necessary conditions for good science to occur.
   
   
2. Natural Sciences - Why Evolution Is True. Jerry Coyne takes a college-level biology class on evolution, and condenses it into a single book. It is very easy to understand, even if you don't have a biology background.
   
   
3. Scientific History and Astronomy - The Big Bang by Simon Singh. This is probably the best popular science book I've ever read. A lot of these books will tell you how scientists think the universe works, and stop there. This book is different, it explains the reasons why scientists think the universe is a particular way, and lays out the history of how these ideas changed during the development of astronomy.

It helps me to accept the things I don't like about having Autism so I can focus on the positives. It has helped give me a sense of peace with life and all of the suffering in the world. Buddhism just seemed to make sense to me from the moment I first heard about it. It allows me to be comfortable with who I am as a human rather than an oddball with a label.

Check this book out! It will help

Also, try to visit a temple or monastery if you haven't yet. You can gain a lot of wisdom from a good teacher.

~Peace

> Is there any book that discusses ideological bias in the revised Lectionary?

Hopefully this doesn't count as excessive self-promotion, but Dr Peter Kwasniewski wrote the foreword "Not Just More Scripture, But Different Scripture" to my book Index Lectionum: A Comparative Table of Readings for the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite. Dr Kwasniewski's foreword can be found at https://www.academia.edu/25621308/Not_Just_More_Scripture_But_Different_Scripture. For those who think they might find the book useful, it is available from the North American and European Amazon websites (USA here).

The foreword touches on some aspects of this question, but as far as I am aware there is no book-length treatment of this issue. I think that this is, in part, because there is a good amount of spade-work to do before the question can be properly answered. For example, it is easy to point to particular Sundays and say "See! There's ideological bias there!" In doing this, one might be right, but it seems of limited use without an attempt to put this into the wider context of the whole Sunday OF lectionary - let alone the process of the reform of the lectionary itself, its various stages, what the reformers themselves said about their work (i.e. in the schemata of the Consilium), etc.

In other words, there's a lot of work yet to be done before the question of possible ideological bias can be answered to any degree. Some people have done and are doing some of this work, and this is very valuable, but the definitive, academic critique of the OF lectionary is, IMO, yet to be written.

(I'd love to be the person to write it - but as I don't work in academia and thus have to do this sort of thing in my spare time, this is definitely a long-term project for me!)

The catch is you have to spend your whole life training and meditating to develop to a level anywhere close to chang's.

If your interested there are several resources I recommend. Spring forest qigong is a great place to start for basic concepts, robert bruce is a great author on energy work, there was a book called the tao of meditation written in the 80's which describes training similar to changs.
http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Meditation-Way-Enlightenment/dp/0804814651/

Find the virtues in all the mysteries and apply them to your life. It may well have a different meaning but same good purpose for you in the different life stages and moments you recall them. The Contemplative Rosary: With St. John Paul II and St. Teresa of Avila may be a book well worth your time. Here's an encyclical on the Rosary of the Virgin Mary as well

>how do you breathe sensitive to sensations

You do these simultaneously, and whatever accompanies your breathing 'unites' with the breathing, hence 'integrating' skillful factors into a single point ('right samadhi').

The anapanasati sutta says you breathe sensitive to the body, then you relax it, then once the 'heebie-jeebies' are cooled, you let the rapture or 'piti' factor of samadhi unite with the single point of the breath, then you let pleasure or 'sukha' unite with it and so on. You continue this all the way, gathering these skillful things up to abstract stuff like, 'I will breathe in focusing on inconstancy,' on dispassion, and cessation of suffering which you could never extend the breath 'into' literally.

This last part I just typed should give you a clue that the instructions are 'simultaneous' because you don't have to make 'insight into impermanence' arise from breathing always or to make your attention move from the breath 'to impermanence' since impermanence is not a thing but a process, and not always a result but could be a 'cause' (for something disapearing, say) instead of something that 'arises' (an effect of a cause). So the linear-chain form is not the way, it's simultaneous and then they unite with the breath.

>I'm seeing Thanissaro Bhikku

>[...]

>I want to ask him...During anapanasati, how do you breathe sensitive to sensations as the Buddha recommends in the Anapanasati Sutta?

Here is what Thanissaro has said about this.

From 'The Experience of Samadhi — An In-depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation' page 123:

 

>[Interviewer]: In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the Ānāpānasati Sutta, and the Kāyagatāsati Sutta, one is instructed to breathe in and out, experiencing the whole body. Some interpret that it is talking about experiencing the whole physical body breathing, while others say it means staying with the whole duration of the breath but the focus can be at one point.

>Thanissaro: It's the whole body.

>[Interviewer]: Does it matter?

>Thanissaro: One of the drawbacks of concentration that’s too one-pointed is that you’re blocking out many areas of your experience, which means that a lot of things can hide away in the areas you’re blocking out. If, however, you develop more of a 360-degree awareness of the body, you’re more likely to be conscious of the more peripheral events in the mind. Also, if the awareness is a whole-body awareness, it’s a lot easier to maintain the state of concentration as you open your eyes and move around. Whether the concentration while moving around would be termed jhāna, I really don’t know, but there’s a continuity of mindfulness. If you have only one point that you’re totally focused on, then as soon as you move from that one point, your concentration is destroyed. But if you’ve got the whole body as your framework and you’re constantly mindful of this framework, events can come through and go out, leaving the framework undisturbed.

Here is Thanissaro giving a guided meditation where he shows you how he 'spreads' or unites the breath with the rapture / 'piti' factor. That might give you another idea of the details in practice as Thanissaro sees them.

Hope this helps.

The one I know best is this one, but I know there are more recent ones which have gotten good reviews, such as the BDK and the Wisdom versions, which I've been meaning to pick up.

As someone else mentioned, Telushkin's books are very good.

For wedding specific books, when I was planning my wedding, I read both Anita Diamant's The New Jewish Wedding and The Creative Jewish Wedding Book. Both were very helpful.

The Reform movement's publishing arm has just published a new book about Jewish weddings called Beyond Breaking the Glass, and the one amazon review on it so far says it is very user friendly. I have also seen Meeting at the Well recommended for engaged couples.

I have not read it yet, since I just found out about it, but apparently Robert Alter's translation of the Torah is very poetic.

You should take a look at r/judaism's book list as well.

Anything by Thomas Merton is excellent. Contemplative Prayer and New Seeds of Contemplation can be good starts.

Richard Rohr, Henri Nouwen and Thomas Keating will also be good readings.

You're very lucky. It's really confusing trying to figure it out on your own and fairly easy once you sit down with someone who knows what they're doing. I struggled with it for months on my own in college before I went home for the summer and was able to start praying Morning Prayer with my friars every morning. That's when I finally started understanding it.
Whenever someone's new at it and confused, my first suggestion is to see if their priest would be willing to help them.

If it doesn't come with a 2018 St. Joseph's Guide, pick one of those up with it. They're only like $2 and they tell you the page numbers for each day. You can look the page numbers up online for free, but I find it easier to just have the little booklet. You may also want to buy the inserts if it doesn't come with them. Again, they're only a few bucks and it saves you from a lot of flipping around.

Assuming based on post history you're looking for 1979 prayerbook resources, I use the settings in the 1982 hymnal for most of MP and EP, and this for chanting psalms.

Also, hidden in the organist edition of the hymnal (but not the pew edition) is plainchant settings for noonday and compline, which is very annoying to me. You can purchase them separately here, but they often go out of stock/the algorithm sends them to unreasonable prices.

edit: if you have more questions I'm happy to answer them :)

Living Asatru by Greg Shetler

Short but sweet. A very concise introduction to Asatru, Ive found it extremely helpful.

OP: I started with the linked material here; it's an excellent resource and served me for at least a year or two.

I recently got the Plainchant Psalter for Christmas and am in love with it.

Those aren't books of instruction, ewk. They are popular collections of certain people's enlightenment encounters.

Is Red Pine's translation of Bodhidharma not a direct teaching? Are letters of practice instructions from Foyan, Yuanwu, and Hongzhi not direct teachings? I suppose that Takuan Soho's instructions to Munenori on maintaining no-mind in daily life doesn't count either?

Why is it better for novices to dive deep into stories about Gutei's finger or think about whether the flag moves or not than it is to read directly from Huangpo? Isn't that like asking a baby to chew a piece of meat?

I'm very glad for this discussion, as it brings to mind the breadth of concentration practice. If I might offer up a book, The Experience of Samadhi by Richard Shankman. It is an illuminating look at the historical, canonical and commentarial descriptions of Samadhi practice, leading to Jhana.

Shankman also has a number of talks online (look on Dharmaseed or AudioDharma, about his book and research, in case a 200-odd page book is too much (!?!)

I appreciate the Visuddhimaga descriptions and style of practice, as it is pretty rigidly laid out. If you ever wanted a way to absorption that seems absolute and cut-and-dried, this would be it. The suttas, however, did not specify this level of requirement, so it would seem that there are more ways to get to absorption than the commentaries would presume.

Until one has some experience being able to discern and map the way through for themselves, however, it can be difficult to make heads or tails of all this.

Any way you can. Go in and sit and pray. Or just sit quietly. Meditate on Christ. Read the Bible. Pray the rosary. Sit and say, "Ok, Lord, I am here. What do?" Or as the good book says, "Be still and know that I am God."

If you want more, you could read The Real Presence. It's written by a saint!

Great, and pre-birth life exists And there is ample evidence that we choose our parents

I highly recommend you do some research before you pass judgement so quickly.

Depends on the day. Very often not much at all. But I'm not a shining exemplar of the contemplative life. I'm more like a lackey wishing I could be as contemplative as, say, Thomas Merton, but meanwhile never take the time to actually doing any prayer.

But if you want to know about the Christian tradition of contemplative prayer and what it's all about I highly recommend Thomas Merton's New Seeds of Contemplation or Contemplative Prayer

Theravada Buddhist here. My primary methods are mindfulness of breathing and metta (sometimes called lovingkindnesss) meditation. I also practice walking meditation on retreats.

Meditation, from my perspective, is really the cultivation of particular states. Broadly, these states can be divided into two types: states of calm and states of insight into the nature of experience. Different meditation techniques develop one or both of these, and gaining skill at one tends to lead to getting skill in the other.

As far as an Aspie-friendly method, it would really depend on how Aspergers manifests for them. Fortunately, there are lots of methods.

There is one book on the topic I'm aware of, also from a Buddhist perspective. Asperger's Syndrome and Mindfulness

Liturgy of the Hours Inserts are awesome for this.

Some excellent family/marriage advice from St. John Chrysostom. I believe he has a homily or two about how to pick a spouse.

Oh, no need to apologize anyway. There's just a lot of... backstory.

You'll need to couple source material like the below with the above historical scholarship if you want to come to a full understanding.

As for some primary sources:

Tang dynasty teachers who were students of Mazu (one of the most influential Zen teachers ever)

Dazhu (although, relevant)

Huangbo

Baizhang (this text is prohibitively expensive on Amazon, so look in local libraries.)

Song dynasty teachers

Yuanwu (1, 2)

Hongzhi (1, 2) (note, take Taigen dan Leighton's introduction to Cultivating the Empty Field with a grain of salt, as he's a shitty scholar. He basically just misrepresents Hongzhi and Dahui's relationship. See Schlutter's How Zen Became Zen for more details.)

Song dynasty kanhua Chan teachers (kanhua is the main approach to Zen in both Rinzai and Seon)

Dahui (Yuanwu's student)

Wumen

A Japanese Zen teacher

Bankei (1, 2)

A Korean Zen teacher

Daehaeng (1, 2, 3)

___

Note that this leaves out huge swathes of the literature, including all of the literature associated with the East Mountain teaching, the Northern school, the Oxhead school, Soto, most of Rinzai, Obaku, most of Seon, etc. Of course, some people with more fixed and essentialist ideas of what "Zen" is object to the idea that some of these other schools/lineages are actually "Zen". Use your own head. (I'm not saying they're necessarily wrong; I'm just saying that once you feel comfortable with the basics, start to think critically about Zen and your own study of it, including e.g. how you would decide which teachings to follow, and why.)

There's no roster of "Zen masters^TM " anywhere, so the above is a bit of a random mix of my own choosing.

While reading, note what people say and ask yourself questions -- where do they agree? Where do they disagree? If they disagree, should that be reconciled or not, and why?

Some more pointed questions to ask for each book: What can one do to reach awakening? What ways to reach awakening are preferred over others? What practices and doctrines are criticized? Is there any cultivation necessary at any point along the path? If yes, what is to be cultivated? If the teacher is talking about the teachings of earlier masters, are those teachers being represented accurately, or are extrinsic frameworks being laid onto them to fit the later teacher's presentation of Zen? If you had to sum up the teacher's teaching in a slogan, what would it be?

Really, the main thing is that you can think critically about what you're reading, but the above reading list and approach would give you a really solid foundation for the things people tend to talk about on this forum.

Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality
https://www.amazon.com/Taoist-Yoga-Kuan-Charles-Luk/dp/0877280673

Internal Elixir Cultivation: The Nature of Daoist Meditation
https://www.amazon.com/Internal-Elixir-Cultivation-Nature-Meditation/dp/1943155135/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478006245&sr=1-2&keywords=internal+elixir+cultivation

Healing Light of the Tao: Foundational Practices to Awaken Chi Energy
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594771138/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2P7K1FW99QSDG12HVPZA

Foundations of Internal Alchemy: The Taoist Practice of Neidan
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984308253/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5KF0N4TFRQQQ4PCVCH6F

The Tao of Meditation: Way to Enlightenment
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804814651/ref=pd_sim_14_25?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5KF0N4TFRQQQ4PCVCH6F

The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson. One of my favorite books, about the intersection of science, religion, and politics.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1530230721/ shows how the readings correspond between the EF (1962) and OF - which may help cross referencing propers also.

Maybe this book could help you.

Check out the book Cosmic Cradle for more "pre birth" stories like this.

So, a book by a woman would be best, but hard to come by. I'm not aware of anything by Sts Hildegard, Catherine of Pisa, or Theresa of Avila on the matter directly.

So for a Doctor of the Church I'd recommend John Chrysostom: https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Family-English-Ancient-Greek/dp/0913836869

As for more modern historical reviews in social science, I view any work published since the 1960s on with the gravest reservation.

From what I understand (intellectually -- I have not mastered the jhanas experientially), the "hard" jhanas are the ones of the Visuddhimagga, with no background thoughts etc., whereas the "soft" jhanas are the ones of the Pali canon as taught by people like Leigh Brasington. But it might be even more complex than that. There is another book (haven't read it yet) called The Experience of Samadhi by Shankman about the many, many different things people mean when they talk about the jhanas.

have you heard of this book before?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/019517674X

Have you read Richard Shankmans book 'The Experience of Samadhi'?

Dazhu Huihai, Hongzhi, Dahui all teach meditation.

http://terebess.hu/zen/huihai-eng2.html

http://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Empty-Field-Illumination-Hongzhi/dp/0804832404

/r/chan/wiki/swamplandflowers

The Real Presence

This might have some history in it.

http://www.amazon.com/Threefold-Lotus-Sutra-Bunno-Kato/dp/4333002087/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1324081524&sr=8-3

http://www.amazon.com/Religion-Humanity-Cambridge-Cultural-Anthropology/dp/0521296900/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324081574&sr=1-1
(Dense reading, but I think it is very good.)