Reddit mentions: The best religious leader biographies

First, if you really want to know. Read a book on Sirah (biography).

My favourite.

I have not read this one but it's getting a good reception.


Anyways, some hadith. This is only a small portion. Note, I got many of these from reading Abu Amin Elias's blog, so I relied on his translation. These are Sahih.

>Sa’d ibn Hisham reported: Ammar said, “O mother of the believers, tell me about the character of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.” Aisha said:

> أَلَسْتَ تَقْرَأُ الْقُرْآنَ فَإِنَّ خُلُقَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ كَانَ الْقُرْآنَ

> Have you not read the Quran? Verily, the character of the Messenger of Allah was the Quran.

>Source: Sunan Abu Dawud 1342

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>Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

>لَا تَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ حَتَّى تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَا تُؤْمِنُوا حَتَّى تَحَابُّوا أَوَلَا أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَى شَيْءٍ إِذَا فَعَلْتُمُوهُ تَحَابَبْتُمْ أَفْشُوا السَّلَامَ بَيْنَكُمْ

>You will not enter Paradise until you believe and you will not believe until you love each other. Shall I show you something that, if you did, you would love each other? Spread peace between yourselves.

>Source: Sahih Muslim 54

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>Anas ibn Malik reported:

> مَا رَأَيْتُ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ رُفِعَ إِلَيْهِ شَيْءٌ فِيهِ قِصَاصٌ إِلَّا أَمَرَ فِيهِ بِالْعَفْوِ

>I never saw a case involving legal retaliation being referred to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, except that he would command pardoning the criminal.

>Source: Sunan Abu Dawud 4497

.

>Aisha reported:

> مَا ضَرَبَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ خَادِمًا لَهُ وَلَا امْرَأَةً وَلَا ضَرَبَ بِيَدِهِ شَيْئًا

>The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did not strike a servant or a woman, and he never struck anything with his hand.

>Source: Sahih Muslim 2328

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>Abdullah ibn Mas’ud reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

> مَا مِنْ أَحَدٍ أَغْيَرُ مِنَ اللَّهِ مِنْ أَجْلِ ذَلِكَ حَرَّمَ الْفَوَاحِشَ

>None has more self-respect than Allah, so He has made obscenities unlawful.

> Source: Sahih Bukhari 4847

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> Abdullah ibn Umar reported: A man asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, “Which Islam is best?” The Prophet said:

> تُطْعِمُ الطَّعَامَ وَتَقْرَأُ السَّلاَمَ عَلَى مَنْ عَرَفْتَ وَمَنْ لَمْ تَعْرِفْ

> To feed the hungry and to greet with peace those you know and those you do not know.

> Source: Sahih Bukhari 28

.

>As reported by Anas ibn Malik:


> أَنَّ يَهُودِيَّةً أَتَتْ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ بِشَاةٍ مَسْمُومَةٍ فَأَكَلَ مِنْهَا فَجِيءَ بِهَا فَقِيلَ أَلَا نَقْتُلُهَا قَالَ لَا فَمَا زِلْتُ أَعْرِفُهَا فِي لَهَوَاتِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ

> A Jewish woman came to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with a poisoned sheep and he ate from it. She was brought to him and it was said: Should we kill her? The Prophet said no. I continued to see the effects of the poison upon the Messenger of Allah.

> Source: Sahih Muslim 2190


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> Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

> لَا يَنْبَغِي لِصِدِّيقٍ أَنْ يَكُونَ لَعَّانًا

>It is not befitting the truthful that they curse others.

>Source: Sahih Muslim 2597

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>Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, reports:

> خَدَمْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَشْرَ سِنِينَ وَاللَّهِ مَا قَالَ لِي أُفًّا قَطُّ وَلاَ قَالَ لِي لِشَىْءٍ لِمَ فَعَلْتَ كَذَا وَهَلاَّ فَعَلْتَ كَذَا

>I served the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, for ten years. By Allah, he never even said to me: Uff! He never said harshly for anything: Why did you do that? Why did you not do that?

>Source: Sahih Bukhari 5691

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>Abdullah ibn Mas’ud reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

> لَيْسَ الْمُؤْمِنُ بِالطَّعَّانِ وَلَا اللَّعَّانِ وَلَا الْفَاحِشِ وَلَا الْبَذِيءِ

> The believer does not taunt others, he does not curse others, he does not use profanity, and he does not abuse others.

> Source: Sunan At-Tirmidhi 1977

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>Aisha reported:

> لَمْ يَكُنْ فَاحِشًا وَلَا مُتَفَحِّشًا وَلَا صَخَّابًا فِي الْأَسْوَاقِ وَلَا يَجْزِي بِالسَّيِّئَةِ السَّيِّئَةَ وَلَكِنْ يَعْفُو وَيَصْفَحُ

>The Prophet was not indecent, he was not obscene, he would not shout in the markets, and he would not respond to an evil deed with an evil deed, but rather he would pardon and overlook.

>Source: Sunan At-Tirmidhi 2016

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>يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ أَلَا إِنَّ رَبَّكُمْ وَاحِدٌ وَإِنَّ أَبَاكُمْ وَاحِدٌ أَلَا لَا فَضْلَ لِعَرَبِيٍّ عَلَى أَعْجَمِيٍّ وَلَا لِعَجَمِيٍّ عَلَى عَرَبِيٍّ وَلَا لِأَحْمَرَ عَلَى أَسْوَدَ وَلَا أَسْوَدَ عَلَى أَحْمَرَ إِلَّا بِالتَّقْوَى أَبَلَّغْتُ

>O people, your Lord is one and your father Adam is one. There is no virtue of an Arab over a foreigner nor a foreigner over an Arab, and neither white skin over black skin nor black skin over white skin, except by righteousness. Have I not delivered the message?

>Source: Musnad Ahmad 22978

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>Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was told, “O Messenger of Allah, pray against the idolaters!” The Prophet said:

> إِنِّي لَمْ أُبْعَثْ لَعَّانًا وَإِنَّمَا بُعِثْتُ رَحْمَةً

> Verily, I was not sent to invoke curses, but rather I was only sent as mercy.

> Source: Sahih Muslim 2599

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>Abu Ad-Darda reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

> أَلَا أُخْبِرُكُمْ بِأَفْضَلَ مِنْ دَرَجَةِ الصِّيَامِ وَالصَّلَاةِ وَالصَّدَقَةِ

> Shall I not tell you about what is more virtuous in degree than fasting, prayer, and charity?

>They said, Of course!” The Prophet said:

> صَلَاحُ ذَاتِ الْبَيْنِ فَإِنَّ فَسَادَ ذَاتِ الْبَيْنِ هِيَ الْحَالِقَةُ

>It is reconciliation between people. Verily, corrupted relations between people are the razor.

>Source: Sunan At-Tirmidhi 2509,

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>Ibn Mas’ud reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

> إِنَّ عَبْدًا مِنْ عِبَادِ اللَّهِ بَعَثَهُ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ إِلَى قَوْمِهِ فَكَذَّبُوهُ وَشَجُّوهُ فَجَعَلَ يَمْسَحُ الدَّمَ عَنْ جَبِينِهِ وَيَقُولُ رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِقَوْمِي فَإِنَّهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ

> Verily, a servant of Allah was sent to his people and they denied him, rejected him, and made blood spill from his forehead and he said: O Lord, forgive my people for they do not know.

> Source: Musnad Ahmad 4047

These are sahih.

>What about when he was criticized, or when Islam was criticized, how did he react to or deal with the criticism?

Note: "Mudhammam" is a kind of insulting pun. Change on letter in Muhammad for Mudhammam. Muhammad means "one who is beloved" and Mudhammam is the opposite.

>Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Doesn't it astonish you how Allah protects me from the Quraish's abusing and cursing? They abuse Mudhammam and curse Mudhammam while I am Muhammad (and not Mudhammam). [Bukhari]

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>non-muslim friends

Does Rabbi Mukhayriq count? He had a great relationship with Abu Talib as well but he was family.

Also watch this lecture on Mut`im b. Adi.

I'm reposting something I posted a couple of years ago:

Well, perhaps the most famous recent post-apocalyptic novel was McCarthy's The Road. Quite a bleak book, and very characteristic of McCarthy's spartan prose, this became a huge international best seller and a successful Hollywood movie. I certainly recommend it, but it's not really an uplifting book and has several confronting scenes. Still, very good.

The other obvious recent "literary" PA novels would be Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" trilogy. They start with Oryx and Crake, are followed by Year of the Flood and conclude with MaddAddam. These are very good books with strong feminist and ecological themes (a good thing!). Highly recommended.

The Dog Stars is yet another recent PA novel which garnered a fair bit of praise (I picked it up after hearing a segment on the novel on NPR's Fresh Air). I enjoyed it, despite the cliched "Survivalist" aspects and occasional far-fetched coincidences. A good, fun read; especially if you're a dog lover. :)

Other recommended titles (which I won't link to directly for time reasons) include Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy (kind of a mash up between post apocalypse and horror), Stephen King's The Stand (ditto), A Canticle for Leibowitz, Earth Abides and Alas Babylon (the triptych of classics of the genre).

Good luck. I love these books even though I'm a positive optimistic guy! :)

EDIT: I overlooked Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven (fun, action packed but accused by some of racist undertones), The Postman by David Brin (so so so very much better than the movie it spawned. So much better), The Year of the Plague by someone I forgot (rather original PA novel with nano-technology rearing its head) and even Blood Music by Greg Bear (though most people consider this full on science fiction, it does feature an apocalypse... or a sort. :)





 



 




 



Since then, I've thought of (or read) a few more. Perhaps one of the most famous is Station Eleven. It garnered a fair bit of media attention and mainstream critical acclaim a couple of years ago. It's a bit of a slow burner, and whilst it's not my favourite post-apocalyptic novel, it's certainly worth picking up. The Girl with All the Gifts was a recent hit. Set in the UK, it tells the story of a band of British scientists and soldiers searching for remaining survivors, as they bring along a very strange and very dangerous survivor of the recent plague. It's great fun and was made into a movie recently. I believe the author recently published a sequel (The Boy on the Bridge?), but I haven't read this.

Wastelands is a collection of short-stories. Some really good stuff here, and if you're not feeling up to a full length novel or comptemplating the end of humanity, it's well worth a look.


Let me know if you want more. It's a favourite genre of mine. :)

The book that really got things started for me is the Autobiography of a Yogi. The group he founded is called Self Realization Fellowship who have carried on his mission of teaching powerful yoga techniques of meditation. I can certainly testify that their techniques work very well, and they have plenty of meditation groups around the world.

So if you like what I have written you can check to see if there is a local center of that group. However there are all kinds of groups out there.

What kinds of spiritual groups do you resonate with? Christian? Jewish? Hindu? Buddhist? Native American?

You can use meetup.com to find local mediation or spiritual groups, or find a metaphysical bookstore to find groups of like-minded people that get together. Then find the individuals that seem to 'glow' and are positive and lovely people and find out where they go for spiritual strength and support and training.

Then always check to see how you feel after you leave any person or group of people -- you should feel uplifted, joyful, buoyant, cheerful.

A group of people gathered in a place like a church should have a tangible uplifting atmosphere that takes you up out of your problems and makes you feel energized and positive.

Once you find a group that you like, you want to use the power of their community space plus a personal daily practice of connecting to the Divine within to really accelerate your growth.

If you keep asking around and making it clear what you are looking for, you will find individuals that will speak up. There are many like me that are passionate about this kind of thing, and there is plenty of power out there if you will look and start to open your 'spiritual eyes' and pray for guidance.

The Divine exists within you as you, so you will find plenty of inner help if you ask within and don't doubt and create static to mess up your answers. Just ask with faith and trust that you will be guided and you will, slowly but surely, even though you may make mistakes along the way.

I don't want to be too specific with my recommendations because you will have your own unique set of circumstances that will really resonate with you. However the principles will stay the same.

Edit:

IF your senses are strongly focused on material plane, as is the case with many people, you may not get seemingly strong results or a strong sense of light/upliftment. If your physical eyes are closed, a strong physical light may show up as rather dim. Likewise if your spiritual eye is closed, then a strong spiritual light may similarly show up dimly to you.

However just as the sunlight shows up very faintly in the first dim glow of dawn, if you follow that light it will keep getting stronger and stronger until you get full daylight. The same thing applies with spiritual practices. You may think you are not getting much of a result in most cases, but you are seeing the very subtle first rays of dawn. So if you only get a little peace, or only a little joy, or only a little love or upliftment, don't discount those results but treasure them instead. Just like tiny gold flakes will indicate a mother lode of gold nearby, tiny spiritual results will
Indicate great spiritual returns if you keep seeking and working and praying -- developing your spiritual abilities takes great time and patience -- but it is worth all that investment because nothing else will give you that kind of lasting and powerful results.

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_____INTRODUCTION TO ISLAM__

• [Web] Islam Explained - brief 1-page explanation of Islam and other Islam-related topics.
  
  
• [Video] The DeenShow - a talk show that introduces many of the basic teachings of Islam and addresses common misconceptions. Their website here.
  
  
• [Book] The Complete Idiot's Guide to Islam - Yahiya Emerick, Ignore the title, it's a decent clear-English guide to explaining what Islam is about and it's practices.
  
  
• [Video] The Purpose of Life - Khalid Yasin, gives a comprehensive lecture on the fundamental question that every human being must ask: "What is the purpose of life?"
  
  
• [Video] Foundations of Islam -Hamza Yusuf, discusses Quran compilation & preservation, articles of faith, ihsan, and the signs of the Last Day.
  
  
• [Web] Al-Aqidah at-Tahawiyyah - Islamic Creed written by the popular, 10th century scholar: at-Ṭaḥāwī
  
  
  
• [Book] Islam and the Destiny of Man - Charles Le Gai Eaton, introduction to Islam aimed at the Westerner.
  
  
• [Web] What is Islam? - Jamaal Zarabozo, if you're looking for a more concise introduction to the fundamental beliefs and practices of the Islamic faith, then try this free ebook.
  
  
  
  
• [Video] Understanding Islam Video Series - Abdal Hakim Murad, discusses the Qur'anic view of Christianity & Jesus, historical Muslim tolerance of Jews, free will vs. determinism, the problem of evil, etc.
  
  ---
  ___QURAN____
  
  
• [Web] Quran - The Noble Quran in various translations.
  
  
• [Book] The Message of the Qur'an - Muhammad Asad, if you're looking for the Quran in book form, this has helpful commentary to provide a thorough understanding.
  
  
• [Book] Quran - Abdel Haleem, another Quran in book form, this one is written in extremely clear modern English that makes it easy and pleasurable to read.
  
  
  
• [Web] English Tafsir -Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, English commentary of each chapter of the Quran in clear English. Extra link
  
  
• [Audio] Bayyinah Quran Commentary Podcast -Nouman Ali Khan, highly recommended audio commentary of the last 37 chapters of the Quran. Entire Quran commentary with BayyinahTV purchase.
  
  
  ---
  ____LIFE OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD___
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources - Martin Lings, very detailed and thorough biography based on the earliest sources. Recommended by many, (but relies on a few unauthentic sources).
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad Man and Prophet - Adil Salahi, a Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet, from birth in the Arabian desert to the triumph of Islam and its gaining a permanent hold on Arabia.
  
  
  
• [Video] Biography of Muhammad (pbuh) Video Series - Yasir Qadhi, detailed, very lengthy biography video series. Condensed video series here, Mufti Menk
  
  
• [Book] In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad - Tariq Ramadan, presents the main events of the Prophet's life in a way that highlights his spiritual and ethical teachings.
  
  
• [Audio] The Life of the Prophet Muhammad - Hamza Yusuf, brilliant narration that was originally presented in a twelve week course based on the above book by Martin Lings.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad (Critical Lives) - Yahiya Emerick, a simple concise, informative biography.
  
  
  
  
• [Web] The Sealed Nectar - Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, Popular and accurate account of the life of Muhammad (pbuh). Alternative link.
  
  
  ---
  
  ____CHRISTIANITY, JUDAISM AND ISLAM___
  
  
• [Video] How the Bible Led Me to Islam - Joshua Evans, former Christian youth minister conveys his journey to Islam.
  
  
• [Book] The Cross & The Crescent - Jerald Dirks, former minister (deacon) of the United Methodist Church explains how coherent Islam is with the roots of Christianity, provided with verifiable proofs.
  
  
• [Video] Early Christianity From Jesus to Muhammad - Jerald Dirks, discusses the roots of Christianity and the transition to the emergence of Muslims.
  
  
• [Book] MisGod'ed: A Roadmap of Guidance and Misguidance in the Abrahamic Religions - Laurence Brown, examines Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for truth in revelation, and trace the chain of revelation to its logical conclusion.
  
  
  
  ---
  ____ATHEISM AND ISLAM____
  
  
• [Video] The Purpose of Life - Jeffrey Lang explains how he came to Islam after being an Atheist.
  
  
• [Book] The Divine Reality: God, Islam & The Mirage Of Atheism - Hamza Tzortzis, Islamic arguments for God's existence, oneness and worship, while thoroughly addressing popular and academic objections.
  
  
• [Book] Even Angels Ask: A Journey to Islam in America - Jeffery Lang, a former atheist takes the reader along the path by discussing conflicts between faith and reason.
  
  
• [Book] Struggling To Surrender : Some Impressions of an American Convert to Islam - Former atheist, Jeffery Lang, gives a personal account of his search for God when he found out that his inherited religious beliefs could no longer answer his questions.
  
  
• [Video] From Strong Atheist To Islam - Tim, a former atheist used to debate religious people and tried to convince them that there is no God, until he met a Muslim.
  
  ---
  ____LEARN TO PRAY (SALAH)____
  
  
  
• [Web] Prayer Booklet - Easy and concise guide that explain the prerequisites and actions of prayer. Goes well with prayer videos below.
  
  
• [Video] Step by Step Guide to Prayer - Video explains the necessary steps needed to pray.
  
  
• [Video] How to perform all 5 prayers - Demonstration of all 5 mandatory prayers.
  
  
• [Web] How Do I Pray? - Interactive tutorial of all 5 prayers. Includes English transliteration.
  
  
• [Web] Prayer Mat - Contains all the necessary Arabic sayings that are needed for prayer. Print it out and place in front of you for ease. Convenient!
  
  
• [Web] Prayer Times - Online tool for calculating prayer times based on your exact GPS location
  
  
• [Web] Mosque-Finder - helpful tool that lets you locate your closest mosque.
  
  ---
  ____HADITH/SUNNAH____
  
  
• [Video] An Introduction to Hadith - Jonathan Brown, 1 hour introduction to the narrations of Muhammad (pbuh). Some questions about hadith answered.
  
  
• [Web] Imam Nawawi's Forty Hadith - Learn and study 42 popular hadith compiled by the famous al-Nawawi with audio commentary. Notes on al-Nawawi and his compilations for more clarity.
  
  
• [Book] Riyad-us-Saliheen - Imam Al-Nawawi, A popular and useful compilation of authentic hadith, covering every aspect of Islamic belief and moral conduct. Read it online or listen to audio.
  
  Full list here
  
  

Obligatory wiki links: Dystopian Literature. Although, some of the titles listed don't seem to fit (The Dispossessed?). Nuclear holocaust fiction, and your general apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction.

Some of the better/more popular ones:

• Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang Kate Wilhelm.
  
  
• Eternity Road Jack McDevitt. Well written, but not very insightful.
  
  
• The Postman David Brin.
  
  
• Mockingbird Walter Tevis. Great read. Think Idiocracy, with a serious take. Humanity's totally run by robots, everyone's forgotten how to read and think for themselves, and the world population's dropped to almost nothing.
  
  
• We Yevgeny Zamyatin. The inspiration for George Orwell's 1984. Not the best read IMO, but some people claim it's better than 1984. It's possible I read a poor translation.
  
  
• Island Aldous Huxley. It's a utopian island surrounded by a dystopian world. Might not fit in this list, but it's a good read if you like Huxley. I think it was his last novel.
  
  
• 1984 George Orwell. One of my favorite novels. I have a bumper sticker with the quote "War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery", which is a slogan from the book. (Also, a sticker on my mirror with "Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me"). The link points to Animal Farm and 1984.
  
  
• Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury. Another must read. Very well written, thought-provoking novel. Is it still required reading in schools?
  
  
• Earth Abides George Stewart.
  
  
• Alas, Babylon Pat Frank. Lucifer's Hammer Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle. I'm grouping these two together because they're very similar, both in setting and politics. I didn't really enjoy either. The politics were not at all subtle, and the characters fit too neatly into stereotypes, and too obviously the writer's hero fantasy. Still, they're pretty popular, so try them out and feel free to disagree with me.
  
  
• Brave New World Aldous Huxley. Really just a utopia that's rough around the edges, if I'm remembering it correctly (also called an anti-utopia, thank you wikipedia). Another must read.
  
  
• A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter Miller.
  
  
• Memoirs Found in a Bathtub Stanislaw Lem. Another favorite. I once created a text adventure based on this book. It was about as frustrating as that Hitchhiker's Guide game.
  
  
• The Road Cormac McCarthy.
  
  
• Philip K. Dick It's hard to keep track of PKD's novels, but some of them are dystopian, all of them worth reading. Favorites: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (also known as/inspired Blade Runner), Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, The Man in the High Castle.
  
  
• The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood.
  
  
• Y: The Last Man A graphical novel/comic collection. Decent art, great story.
  
  Zombies: World War Z, Raise the Dead, Marvel Zombies, Zombie Survival Guide, Day By Day Armageddon, I Am Legend.
  
  Also, just for kicks, some of my favorite dystopian movies:
  Brazil, Soylent Green, 12 Monkeys, Blade Runner, Akira, Children of Men, Dark City, A Boy and His Dog, Logan's Run, Idiocracy, Equillibrium.

India is definitely the place for that! I am born in the US but visited India in my college years when I was getting interested in spirituality. I am blessed that I had some strong experiences in the US and had a few in India. You can take that as confirmation that you are on the right path. You are right, they will just happen when you least expect it. Sometimes I get experiences like deja-vu, but I just take it as a confirmation that I am where I am supposed to be. I had a few amazing ones that really pushed me into spiritual life as well.

When I was getting interested in spirituality I was a big fan of Paramahamsa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi. A classic from earlier in this century. This is maybe off topic, but when I was visiting Kurukshetra I had a sadhu stop me on the road and wanted to show me things and then asked for money. He actually changed a rock into some sugar candy in front of me. I thought "OK whatever, he did some slight of hand". Then he had me pick up a rock in my own hand, close his hand over mine, then chanted a mantra and it turned into sugar rock candy within my closed fist. I ate it. I had read about those things in the Paramahamsa Yogananda book and it was happening. He then asked for money and wasn't happy with how much I gave. He opened his shirt and showed me scars and said he had been doing a lot of austerities!

An interesting experience. I eventually read more of Shrila Prabhupada's books and settled in as a Hare Krishna devotee. Shrila Prabhupada and even Paramahamsa Yogananda explained that those sort of mystic powers are not the end goal of self-realization.

This is also a great book, this person is still alive and has written an amazing tale of his travels from the US around the world in search of God. How he ends up in Himalayas living amongst the yogis and then meets his guru.
The Journey Home

The authors site: http://www.thejourneyhomebook.com/

Sure -- the best way to learn is to join a group where other people are meditating -- they can give you support and encouragement when you need it.

I have had great results with a system developed by Paramahansa Yogananda, a yogi from India -- he developed a system of meditation exercises that's designed to basically give you spiritual experiences on command. I personally have had wonderful experiences (peace/bliss/love etc) with it, and so have a number of other people I know who use it. You can also read his autobiography (written in 1945 but it has been a bestseller ever since) which you can find in pretty much any bookstore.

I would also recommend the Buddhists, they have a lot of experience with meditation and I have heard of people having really great results, especially at their 10-day meditation retreats.

You can also get a book and practice by yourself, but you lose the benefit and support and encouragement of a group -- also, meditating in a group is very helpful, because there is a "group dynamic" that is created the helps and reinforces your own meditation.

However I would just say whatever you pick, just stick with it because it can really develop into something very beautiful. Just start with a few minutes morning and night -- even as little as 5 minutes is very helpful.

Ironically, when you first start meditating, you notice just how much your mind jumps around -- just stick with it, and great changes will happen -- basically like when you first start working out with weights. At first you may feel out of shape, but later on you notice lots of changes.

Many psychedelic drug users have dropped the drugs in favor of meditation.


They say "when you get the message, hang up the phone".

I would recommend "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda for an overview of the yoga perspective on spiritual exploration.

I have used the SRF lessons that were developed by Yogananda to teach people to access these states of spiritual realization at will.

These lessons teach techniques that are powerful and effective.

You have to put some time and effort into the techniques, but what you get in return is your own, bought by your effort and understanding.

What is nice about spiritual experiences that you gain through meditation and inner yoga is that they never really leave you -- they become part of your being and you become transformed by them, so that they become part of your everyday experience.

The point of yoga is to make these experiences become your permanent reality.

The best part is that over time these experiences become more powerful and deep and also more easily accessible.

So I would wholeheartedly recommend accessing these states through meditation and inner yoga.

It's not as cheap and easy as accessing the states through drugs -- the metaphor that seems most apt is the mountain climber vs the person who takes a helicopter ride to the top.

The mountain climber is changed by the effort and time put into the climbing and becomes a master, while the person who got the helicopter ride ends up back at the airport that he or she started from.

The mountain climber may make slow progress and take many years to get the same experience the helicopter passenger got immediately, but when the climber gets to the top, he has gained the ability to come and go as he wishes, and hang out wherever he wants as long as he wants.

The helicopter passenger instead has no control over the experience but always has to return to the airport he started from when the ride is over.

So I think you are on a wonderful track - there are many paths to the top of the mountain, you just have to pick which ones appeal to you.

The advantage of yoga methods is that they use features of your inner energetic anatomy to make the 'climbing' faster and easier.

Welcome to /r/Islam :)

About the basics of Islam, read this
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Firstly, Praise to God. I am sure alot of other people will answer better than me, but I'll try. First off, for Muhammed (saw) in the bible, here is a very interesting video by a former Christan youth minister titled - "How the Bible Led me to Islam"

His story is so interesting because he figured out that a through read of bible itself made him realize something, and convinced him to study other religions in which he found finally found Islam, his story is something every typical Christian should hear.

Secondly, You said:

>I'd like recommendations for a quran translation.

I personally believe that people willing to learn about Islam should read the biography of Muhammed (saw) first to get a grasp of the message of Islam, how it spread, and how we come to respect this man as the greatest of all creation. The best book I recommend is Tariq Ramadan's Book about Muhammed and his life.

Once you've done that, I recommend an exegesis over a translation because your understanding is enhanced.

But a good translation is: http://quran.com
An exegesis (recommended) is: http://www.amazon.com/The-Quran-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199535957

Hope that helps.

I don't really like the other book recommendations in here (no comment on Livia Kohn's book, never seen it). None have very clear instructions or progressions.

Opening The Dragon Gate is an entertaining introduction into the practices - it's a biography of one of the practitioners. That lineage has a book out with specific practices and it has a comically long name.

While I think the lineage sucks, John Chang - Magus of Java - is very interesting. They don't accept students, so don't fall in love with this one. I found out about this lineage form this video. Take it with some grains of salt.

I think those are pretty solid representations of the practices. Mantak Chia is kind of new age, senior citizen practices.

----

You asked about specific practices though and I just gave you a list of books. So I'll try to address your actual question.

The main practice is meditation. Different schools have different meditations. Some of them are steeped in ritual, some are pretty bare bones.

Exercises refer to qigong and martial arts. Qigong is best understood as holding stances, focusing on breathing, and energy.

As for diets, Taoists traditionally abstain from grains. I know the esoteric justification for this, but it's hard to explain without defining a lot of terminology. I pass it off as a bit of dogma - even though I eat gluten free for other reasons. The gist of it though, not eating grains makes your mind more clear and makes you more balanced mentally and emotionally.

Sexual exercises are something popularized by Mantak Chia through a few books. I don't think it is inline with real Taoism. Most the hard core Taoists go celibate for some time to benefit their practice.

----

The theory behind all the practice is that they wish to change physical energy (jing), to energy (chi), and energy to spirit (shen) - through energetic practices, mainly meditation. They believe strengthening their spirit will allow them to attain consciousness after death and continue their practices, refining their spirit and reaching higher planes. They believe that without these practices you are continually shuffled through a cycle of reincarnation.

Basically, they go for a promotion in the spirit world.

Hope this helps.

Welcome. Namaste. My humble suggestion is in agreement with Plutoid--order the sampler box. Hot yoga certainly doesn't have a corner on the market in being the most beneficial physically. It is on the athletic side, but as is several types of hatha yoga, power yoga etc. And I've been reading that the benefits of the heat tend to be more personal/experiential than scientific.

I'm no gymnast but Vinyasa has been the perfect equilibrium of physicality in postures (asanas), paired with breath strengthening (pranayama). I'd suggest you give it a shot to perfect your breathing, and then move on to the more physically demanding versions.

Re-reading your post, you did enjoy the heat--so my suggestion is to follow that direction if you still prefer it over the other styles, having worked on breath in this evaluative period.

Sidenote, in a very un-yogi-like observation, the founder of Bikram yoga, Bikram Choudhury, has been accused of many wrongdoings over the years. Despite the help and power he's given people over the years, he actually began to copyright his sequence of poses, which amassed him billions of dollars. In addition to his materialistic (and sometimes bizarre) pursuits, he has also been accused of sexual harassment by his disciples and trainees. If I did do hot yoga, I'd rather support a local studio that's not the Bikram brand.

Good luck and enjoy!

PS If you're interested in the spirituality and contemporary history, I highly recommend Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramhansa Yogananda. He was a Shakespeare merged with a Buddha. Beautiful writing about Hindu yogic spirituality and his journey helping to bring yoga to America in the early 20th century.

Okay - then to start, I will recommend Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood, both by Margaret Atwood. They're part of a trilogy, the third book is due out this fall. Atwood defines them as speculative fiction; they're set in the not-to-distant future, and follow the downfall of civilization. I like Year of the Flood better, but both are pretty awesome.

For fantasy, I really like The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's a blend of celtic mythology, fantasy, and arthurian legend. Some people don't like that it's basically an homage to LOTR, but it's one of my absolutely alll-time favourites.

For YA dystopian fiction, I'd suggest Divergent and Insurgent - also a trilogy, not sure when the third one is due out, off-hand.

One of my favourite sci-fi series is Phule's Company and the following books, by Robert Asprin. I also love Time Scout by him and Linda Evans. His writing is ridiculously clever and witty, and he's one of last century's greatest writers, in my opinion.

And finally, I love anything by Terry Pratchett - his Discworld series is amazing. So very very British and hilarious.

I just wanted to reach out to Brother Mattson and let him know about all of the other ways that we should be measuring the worth of our lives. Hans has a loving wife, loving children, and an interesting life filled with the best of modern civilization. His hope in Jesus Christ is one of pillars of western civilization. Intellectual integrity is its own reward. It's a gift a man gives himself.

Hans and Birgitta stared down into an eternal abyss ruled by a vindictive god and found a more authentic divinity complete with a hope in Christ they could not find inside the walls of the Frankfurt temple during a Second Anointing. His actions probably were a major contributor to the gospel topic essays, the "Saints" book, and the pants-wetting terror lurking behind the scene among the apostles. The institutional church is no longer poised to convert the whole planet. They are worried about remaining functional in Europe and relevant in the United States.

I will happily buy him a drink if I ever meet Brother Mattson. I suppose the least I can do is buy his book.

Have you read the book Educated? If not, I highly recommend it. While the book does feature a Mormon family, it is not really about Mormonism. Furthermore, while the book relates a much, much more dramatic experience than what you are relating, I think you will notice some parallels in the way Tara's parents and your parents are communicating to you about 'outsiders'.

As others have suggested, there are lots of fabulous sources online that go into teachings, practices, and history of the church that may be helpful to you right now. Here are a few I recommend:

• The CES Letter (Created by u/kolobot)
  
• Letter for my Wife (Created by /u/JeffreyArrHolland2)
  
• Mormon Stories Truth Claims Essays (Maintained by /u/johndehlin)
  
• A Careful Examination (Created by /u/bwv549)
  
• LDS Discussions (Created by /u/ldsdiscussion)
  
  I know that there is a strong tendency to view critical viewpoints with suspicion in the church (which is the rhetoric you are also getting from your parents), but know that truth is truth, regardless who speaks it or where it comes from. I recommend reading this essay on deciding whether to investigate the church's claims or not.
  
  Also consider the following quotes:
  
  >If we have the truth, it cannot be harmed by investigation. If we have not the truth, it ought to be harmed.
  
  —President J. Reuben Clark (J. Reuben Clark: The Church Years)
  
  >“In general it is true that nothing which cannot stand up under discussion and criticism is worth defending.”
  
  —Elder James E. Talmage (Improvement Era, January 1920)
  
  >A dilemma plays out within the sphere of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as trying to decide if a source might be considered “Anti-Mormon.” Is this source designed to hurt my faith? Is this source one that I should purposefully avoid in order to maintain my conviction that the church is true?
  
  >The issue we are presented with regarding what sources to trust does seem to play into this dilemma; however, the choices are not between what sources are “Pro-Mormon” or “Anti-Mormon.” The problem is to decide between what is true and what is false.
  
  >The only type of material, source, etc. that can be labeled as “Anti-Mormon” is that which is opinion-based and false. If a statement or fact is true, then that’s it. Regardless of the motivation behind sharing that fact that is true, because the fact is true, that disqualifies it from being labelled as either “Pro-Mormon” or “Anti-Mormon”: it just is, and that’s the end of it. If a fact is being used to misrepresent or skew another argument, that does not disqualify that fact from being true, it only calls into question the resulting assertion made from that fact. The resulting assertion, if indeed untrue–meaning that it is false and opinion-based–could be considered “Anti-Mormon.”
  
  —BYU Survival Guide
  
  Hang in there, man.

> I feel like I get a slight head change when I do it.

That feeling of getting a 'head change' will increase as your bran/mind gets this skill of meditating developed.

The effect can be quite pronounced.

> I do feel as though I have more mental energy and focus after doing this (placebo maybe?).

It's not at all a placebo effect. It comes from the fact that you have made your mind more efficient. Imagine a river that runs silently, so deep and quiet that it doesn't seem to move at all. Then imagine a whitewater stream that is chaotic and wild. Which has more power?

By harmonizing the flow of your mental energy, you stop it being wasted in chaotic patterns, which leaves you much more calm, rested, and energized.


>Eventually if I lose focus with reading will meditating for 10-15 minutes help bring the focus back?

Yes, although taking a light walk and breathing deeply with fresh oxygenated air will help as well.

Also, the meditation breaks will refresh and recharge you as well. After a while you could be surprised with what even a 5 minute meditation can do for you.

Part of what is going on when you are losing focus is that there is an internal conversation happening in your bran about the reading material that eventually takes over and takes you off track. You will find after a few months of continued practice that this conversation will start diminishing leaving you with a focus that will help you retain and remember the material much more efficiently.

>Very pleased with the results I've seen thus far. If you have anything you have read that you found especially helpful in your journey I'd love to have it.

What really got me going in meditation was a set of home-study lessons from an Indian yogi named Paramahansa Yogananda who came to America in the 1930s to teach meditation and internal yoga methods for achieving bliss to westerners.

He wrote the book Autobiography of a Yogi and while It deals with spiritual things, i figured that 'this guy could teach me how to meditate'. So I sent off for the home-study series of lessons he wrote in the science of internal yoga and meditation, and it actually ended up delivering in the promise he made of learning how to get in touch with inner peace and joy.

So that's how I ended up getting so excited about meditation -- essentially using Paramahansa's techiques of meditation I ended up learning to have spiritual experiences on demand. Which is pretty cool. The techniques themselves deal with the breath and so on, and the idea is that when the mind gets quiet enough then you can directly experience the inner bliss that is at the core of your being. What worked for me since I was extremely skeptical is that you can prove everything for yourself by direct experience.

I know you are basically looking for non-spiritual techniques / outlook on meditation, but since you asked, this is the stuff that's been inspiring me, teaching me, and thinking that meditation is the best thing ever.

Ohh I got some goodies for ya, Hermann Hesse is amazing and opened me up to many books.

1. Just buy it right now..seriously. The Book of Mirdad by Mikhail Naimy
   
   
2. Another Classic by Herman Hesse Demian
   
   3)Another with a similar feel as Siddhartha The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
   
   So these top 3 are the "closest" to Siddartha that I've read. You will defintely like the top 3, they are amazing books with such fundamental truths told through a story. All easy to read and similiar in length.
   
   These next 4 are just suggested for anyone that is into these types of books, I would almost guarantee that you will love them! They are just less "story" like. The Autobiography is an amazing read, and is indeed a story but it's non-fiction. The Way of Zen is just a beautiful book, but is not a fiction along with the Bhagavad and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (The author actually suggests Siddhartha in it!)
   
   
3. If you liked Siddhartha heavily for it's spiritual aspects and the effect it left on you, this book has changed me deeply (they all have but this book is a little different) The Autobiography of a Yogi by
   Paramahansa Yogananda
   
   5)And his translation of The Bhagavad Gita
   
   6)Good ol' Allan Watts The Way of Zen
   
   
4. Another highly suggested book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma
   
   Enjoy my friend!

> I don't believe that a worldview that (for instance) legitimately believes in an afterlife will generate the resolve necessary to commit oneself to solving these problems.

I believe in an afterlife - not based on stories passed down by religion, but based on information collected from individuals who had died for a while; based on scientific investigation that has refuted pure materialism; and based on consistent reports collected from individuals under hypnosis, especially the work of Michael Newton - 1, 2. Brian L. Weiss is another author who has published his experiences with clients under hypnosis (e.g. 3), but a skeptical reader will want to read Newton first for a more comprehensive, less anecdotal treatment. There are reports where it was possible to confirm memories of past lives as recounted by children. Such stories are not scarce - if you frequent the right subreddits, you will see a few per year, for instance this one. Of course that's anonymous and easy to fake, but that's why we have this information from many sources.

You will probably need a personal experience to make any of this subjectively credible to you. You can't believe in electricity until you can feel it, or see it at work.

But none of this conflicts with what you wrote here:

> To advance, humans will need to deal with the ongoing anthropogenic mass extinction, reverse global climate change, sustain their explosive population growth, and eventually find ways to colonize other worlds.

I fully agree with this - and so does the above spiritual narrative. The works of Newton and Weiss both contain warnings from non-incarnated beings - call them guides - who emphasize that humanity needs to solve such problems, and that if we don't pay attention, we're on a good road to fuck up majorly.

Belief in afterlife provides context and perspective for our lives here. It changed the following attitudes for me:

• It becomes nonsensical to pursue an indefinite lifespan for the body, if the body is just a temporary vehicle intended to provide experiences needed by the soul.
  
  
• It makes much more sense to act selflessly and with love, rather than out of a hard-nosed, thick-skinned, rational self-interest.
  
  I see these attitudes as helpful in terms of contributing to solving the world's problems. If this was a purely materialist universe, then the rational end-game for me would be trying to develop augmented intelligence so that I can be among the first to become transhuman. I would hope to be part of a first wave of augmented intelligence pioneers that would render the rest of humanity obsolete. I wouldn't care about the outcomes for anyone but the people I know and care for. If I can make it off the planet and maintain a high quality of life in space, then for all I care, the Earth and its degenerate, monkey-like inhabitants can go to shit.
  
  With my belief in the afterlife, I have a new interest in not selfishly pursuing transhumanism, but rather helping fix the planet's problems in a way that includes everyone else in the solution.
  
  My argument is that belief in an afterlife can be an essential component in favor of solving the problems you listed - rather than opposing them. In fact, I would argue you aren't consistent in your materialism if you care about trying to solve the world's problems, instead of becoming rich and transhuman only for yourself.

عليكم السلام

Don't tell her she can't convert but guide her on a sane way to do this. It's okay if she converts for the aesthetics and then explores the religion slowly. She may need structure in her life and a foundation to hold on to, and you don't know, Islam could be the very thing she needs. People sometimes come into Islam for reasons other than believing in Allah (swt) and then end up finding Him in Islam. You are in the position to guide her to it in a good open hearted way and not leave her vulnerable to random extreme ideologies out there on the internet.

Obviously, she can't run off to the Arab world without speaking a lick of Arabic or knowing anything about it. Don't tell her she can't ever do it, but insist that she should be prepared.

She wants to be muslim, great. She wants to be shia, no problemo. Negotiate with her and become her guide to Islam and set some goals for her that she can reach. Like reading a few books first and discussing them with you <--- insist on this.

My recommendation of books to read:

• An English copy of the Qur'an.
  
  
• Purification of the Heart by Hamza Yusuf.
  
  
• In the Footsteps of the Prophet by Tariq Ramadan.
  
  
  Once she actually understands what Islam is and who the prophet is, if she'd like to read about the sunni/shia thing and make up her mind, there's plenty of books that talk about this.
  
  Are there mosques near you? Sunni or shia? Have her attend Jum'a. Maybe go to halaqas or Arabic classes. If your friend is willing to run off to the Arab world, ask her to at least learn what it's all about.
  
  Also, you should strongly recommend she see a therapist to help her deal with setbacks in her life.

Thoreau: Walden, although non-fiction, may be the closest.

Ram Dass: How Can I Help, also non-fiction, has stories that are perhaps what you are looking for.

Ken Wilber One Taste. Wilber's meditative "journal" for a year. It's one of my 5 top books ever.

Ken Wilber: Grace and Grit. "Here is a deeply moving account of a couple's struggle with cancer and their journey to spiritual healing."

In another area are Carlos Castenedas books, which came out as non-fiction but there have been arguments they are fiction, and I don't know or mind either way. They are based on shamanistic drug use, but I believe it all is possible without drugs.

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

I have not read (Lila) Kate Wheeler's works, but I have heard of them. I've not read them mostly because if I can't get them at the library, I am too cheap to buy them.

Not Where I Started From

Nixon Under the Bodhi Tree is a collection of works and the authors there might lead you to more of their works.

I did read Bangkok Tatoo which has some Buddhist meditation themes in it, but it wasn't really to my liking.

The Four Agreements is said to be like Carlos Casteneda's books, but I have not read it.

Bottom line, I've read a lot, and I can't find any matches in my memory for Herman Hesse's Siddhartha. If I think of any I'll add it as an edit.

If you find anything interesting, please pm me, no matter how far in the future it is!

---

Edit: as per the reply below, I've added here if anyone has "saved" this post:

I thought of two more, these actually should be higher on my earlier list:

The Life of Milarepa : "The Life of Milarepa is the most beloved story of the Tibetan people amd one of the greatest source books for the contemplative life in all world literature. This biography, a true folk tale from a culture now in crisis, can be read on several levels.... "

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which was the start of all books titled, "Zen and the Art of ____." "One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better."

I don't like how people can make a big deal about a grounds crew putting a cross on the mound but think it's perfectly fine to promote this. Consistency, people... c'mon... Are you equal rights or what?

Also, don't pull the whole "b-b-but they were never persecuted" bit. It never works out.

You don't remember Christians getting fed to lions in the Coliseum back in ancient times? Let's go more recent with another example. Here's a book about persecution of Christians in China that happened not too long ago: http://www.amazon.com/The-Heavenly-Man-Remarkable-Christian/dp/082546207X

I did like what you said about people celebrating and it being OK as long as they're not promoting it. No one likes getting beliefs shoved down their throat.

People are always going to judge. Nothing you will ever be able to do about that. Just separate yourselves from those people because they're not worth being around.

Also there are a shitton of weirdos on the internet that I wouldn't want being themselves in public. For the safety of a lot of people. We've all visited 4chan...

(courtesy of /u/lightnlng):


Check what you like from this list of Resources. I recommend starting with the Quran and a biography of prophet Muhammad (pbuh). If you want books, these ones are popular:

• [Book] The Message of the Qur'an - Muhammad Asad, if you're looking for the Quran in book form, this has helpful commentary to provide a thorough understanding.
  
  
• [Book] Quran - Abdel Haleem, another Quran in book form, this one is written in extremely clear modern English that makes it easy and pleasurable to read.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad Man and Prophet - Adil Salahi, a Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet, from birth in the Arabian desert to the triumph of Islam and its gaining a permanent hold on Arabia.
  
  
• [Book] In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad - Tariq Ramadan, presents the main events of the Prophet's life in a way that highlights his spiritual and ethical teachings.
  
  ----
  
  Introduction book to Islam:
  
  
• [Book] Islam and the Destiny of Man - Charles Le Gai Eaton, introduction to Islam aimed at the Westerner. Online PDF
  
  -----
  
  Some popular videos on YouTube:
  
  
• [Video] How the Bible Led Me to Islam - Joshua Evans, former Christian youth minister conveys his journey to Islam.
  
  
• [Video] The DeenShow - a talk show that introduces many of the basic teachings of Islam and addresses common misconceptions. Their website here.
  
  
  
• [Video] The Purpose of Life - Khalid Yasin, gives a comprehensive lecture on the fundamental question that every human being must ask: "What is the purpose of life?"

You should read the Qur'an. That might help increase your faith. Also, read about Imam Ali (a.s) the son of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him and his progeny). There is a good book called "In the footsteps of the Prophet (a.s)". You can look it up to see how our Prophet lived. Also look up the Nahjul Balagha, or "Peak of Eloquence" which is about Imam Ali (a.s). This book has strengthened countless people's faith in God. There is a hadiths which I roughly translate saying "If I am the city of knowledge, then Ali is the gate".

We are translating from Arabic to English, so if anything upsets you please send me a message. I have come across bad translations, and passages which need clarification. That said, this is my favorite English Qur'an, because it is so well translated, and it's language is not Old-English.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quran-Oxford-Worlds-Classics/dp/0199535957

This is a free online link to the Nahjul Balagha. I have not read it, but I do have two copies of this book with different publishers. One of them slanders Imam Ali (a.s), because of the terrible printing job they did. Know that this man did not commit any sins, because he is a part of the household of the Prophet that was purified by God. This is a major event, and you can research it. Tell me if there are errors, and I can try to send you a better link InshaAllah. I highly recommend going to the sayings, and then going back to the lessons.
http://www.al-islam.org/nahjul/index.htm

Again Arabic can be poorly translated, and context is often left out in these quotes. For ex. There is a saying where he compares women to scorpions. I told my friend, and he told me it meant bad women, and not all women. ( phew )

http://www.amazon.com/Footsteps-Prophet-Lessons-Life-Muhammad/dp/0195374762/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372348452&sr=1-1&keywords=tariq+ramadan

This book is pretty clear, and is also popular. The guy is an excellent translator.

I hadn't heard of this story before, but wow! Love it! Good, quick read, and very, very insightful. Have you ever read "Many Lives, Many Masters" by Dr Brian Weiss?

I was reminded of this before I got a little more into your story when you (I?) said that we were all the same person in different parts of our "life" (greater life, not physical life).

If nothing else, as I'm not sure you'll be back to check the thread, thank you for starting out my Thursday on an inspiring note. Cheers!

Crowley first carried out the Abramelin Operation at Boleskine after he left/was expelled from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It's a medieval ritual first (as far as we know) written down in the form of a letter by Rabbi Abraham Von Worms to his son, Lamed ben Abraham. The film is accurate in many ways, especially in that the ritual is intended to attain 'the knowledge & conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel' (but not 'ask a favour', that part was fictitious) Whilst one (often inaccurate) translation of The Sacred Magick... was rendered by Golden Dawn founder-member SL MacGregor Mathers , completion of the ritual was never a pre-requisite to initiation into the Order. To become a member people merely had to be proposed, seconded and take part in the Neophyte Ritual of that order. Confusingly enough, one of the subsections in the initiatory grades of Crowley's own (later) magical order, ostensibly named the Argentium Astrum,or A:.A:., was also called the Golden Dawn (or G:.D:.).

All artistic license and supplementary info aside, I agree it's a fucking great film, I love it. It often makes me think what an amazing film could be made about Crowley's shenanigans at Boleskine House, or indeed any aspect of his colourful adventures. He was certainly a larger than life character- flawed, incredibly intelligent & well educated, sometimes morally questionable (to put it mildly) but not the baby murdering, satanic, black magick Svengali that the popular media of the day (& since!) had him down as. If anyone's interested enough I can thoroughly recommend the George Dehn translation of Abramelin and also Dr Richard Kaczynski's excellent biography of Crowley, Perdurabo.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Abramelin-Hb-New-Translation/dp/0892542144/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Abramelin&qid=1565523394&s=gateway&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perdurabo-Aleister-Crowley-Richard-Kaczynski/dp/1556438990/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Perdurabo&qid=1565523469&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Hadith book collections such as Al-Buhkari are basically a collection of hadiths organized topically. It doesn't provide much in the department of context and what rulings can be derived from each hadith. some hadiths were valid for a set period of time for specific circumstances and then the rule changed later. Scholars call this "Al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh" and it is found in the hadith as well as the Quran.

My point is that books like Al-Buhkari are meant as raw data for scholars who study the context and the reasons and the conclusions of rulings in the hadith. Not for the layman to causally read through.

If you want to read hadiths that are organized for the layman here are a few suggestions from the sidebar:


---
____LIFE OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD____

• [Video] Biography of Muhammad (pbuh) Video Series - Yasir Qadhi, detailed, very lengthy biography video series. A condensed video series here.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad Man and Prophet: A Complete Study of the Life of the Prophet of Islam - Adil Salahi, from birth in the Arabian desert to the triumph of Islam and its gaining a permanent hold on Arabia.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources - Martin Lings, very detailed and thorough biography based on the earliest sources. Recommended by many, (but relies on a few unauthentic sources).
  
  
• [Audio] The Life of the Prophet Muhammad - Hamza Yusuf, brilliant narration that was originally presented in a twelve week course based on the above book by Martin Lings.
  
  
• [Book] Muhammad (Critical Lives) - Yahiya Emerick, a simple concise, informative biography.
  
  
• [Book] In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad - Tariq Ramadan, presents the main events of the Prophet's life in a way that highlights his spiritual and ethical teachings.
  
  
• [Web] The Sealed Nectar - Saifur Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, Popular and accurate account of the life of Muhammad (pbuh). Alternative link.
  
  
  ---
  
  ---
  ____HADITH/SUNNAH____
  
  
• [Video] An Introduction to Hadith - Jonathan Brown, 1 hour introduction to the narrations of Muhammad (pbuh). Some questions about hadith answered.
  
  
• [Web] Imam Nawawi's Forty Hadith - Learn and study 42 popular hadith compiled by the famous al-Nawawi with audio commentary. Notes on al-Nawawi and his compilations for more clarity.
  
  
• [Book] Riyad-us-Saliheen - Imam Al-Nawawi, A popular and useful compilation of authentic hadith, covering every aspect of Islamic belief and moral conduct. Read it online or listen to audio.
  
  
• [Web] Sunnah - Hadith books. Note: some of these hadith compilations are specialized books and not for the layman to causally read through. This link is for reference.
  
  
• [Book] Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World - Jonathan Brown, provides a detailed exploration of the collection and criticism of hadith and examines the controversy surrounding its role in modern Islam.
  
  ---
  
  
  ^^credit ^^for ^^preparing ^^the ^^list ^^goes ^^to ^^/u/LIGHTNlNG
  ^

I just sent my NC letter today.

It took me about 4 months to get to this point. What made me actually send it was reading a book called Educated which is a memoir about a borderline dad. Not the same, but it showed me how an entire family can orchestrate themselves together to help support the person with the disorder.

What I expect moving forward is that I won't see a lot of my family on her side. She is very close to two of my cousins, and I don't expect them to understand my point of view. I expect that they will potentially try to force us together.

This means that I, and you, have choices. If you are feeling this struggle, I wonder if your brother is too? He might be more receptive than you think to meeting without your mom involved at all. No matter what, it is your choice if you see her or not. It is your choice if you want to communicate with her or not. If your childhood was like mine, you spent a lot of time raising yourself - and probably some time raising her as well. You don't need her to be a good person, or to justify your choices, or to live your life happily.

Good luck!

I'm sorry you feel that way but you obviously came here and felt the need to say something. If you have questions I am happy to answer for you so that I may shed some light into your darkness.

Edit: I would also like you to notice that you are the only person who is being negative. This community is far more understanding, forgiving and accepting than you realize and I implore you to do some research into what Islam really is. If you would like to check these out

The New Muslim's Field Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/1981328998/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_OsN1Cb99E8BEQ

The Clear Quran https://www.amazon.com/dp/097730096X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ItN1CbGKXHNWW


In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195374762/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_PuN1CbMBE7QD9

If you want to really understand what you are making assumptions about DM your information or email I would be happy to send you some information so you may better educate yourself. Then you can formulate an educated opinion.

Day 4:

I finished everything I had set out to do yesterday, which I haven't done for what feels like forever. I picked up Many Lives, Many Masters at the recommendation of my wife. Really good book! I'm about halfway through it now, should finish either today or tomorrow.

See, now this is the crazy thing. It's been 4 days since I've made the conscious effort to really be better, and actually started putting in the effort that something like that deserves. I've already exceeded my initial post by more than honestly I would have thought possible. I'm almost done two books in four days. I haven't read two books in a single month probably since I was about 12, let alone a week!

Started on a site called nowloss.com after reading about their "Jumping Jack Workout" on Lifehacker. I love it. It's so unbelievably simple, but at the same time extremely challenging. Pretty happy with how I feel after working out for the past few days. I decided I should probably keep a picture log. I'm not going to post it in these updates, but I think it'd be motivating all the same to have for myself.

Huangbo said, “I didn’t say there is no Zen, just that there are no teachers. None of you see that although Zen master Mazu had eighty-four Dharma heirs, only two or three of them actually gained Mazu’s Dharma eye. One of them is Zen master Guizong of Mt. Lu. Home leavers must know what has happened in former times before they can start to understand. Otherwise you will be like the Fourth Ancestor’s student Niutou, speaking high and low but never understanding the critical point. If you possess the Dharma eye, then you can distinguish between true and heretical teachings and you’ll deal with the world’s affairs with ease. But if you don’t understand, and only study some words and phrases or recite sutras, and then put them in your bag and set off on pilgrimage saying ‘I understand Zen,’ then will they be of any benefit even for your own life and death? If you’re unmindful of the worthy ancients you’ll shoot straight into hell like an arrow. I know about you as soon as I see you come through the temple gate. How will you gain an understanding? You have to make an effort. It isn’t an easy matter. If you just wear a sheet of clothing and eat meals, then you’ll spend your whole life in vain. Clear-eyed people will laugh at you. Eventually the common people will just get rid of you. If you go seeking far and wide, how will this resolve the great matter? If you understand, then you understand. If you don’t, then get out of here! Take care!”

~

From: Zen's Chinese Heritage by Andy Ferguson

Book's Source: "Wudeng Huiyuan" (Compendium of Five Lamps)

I took Yoga at a college. It was offered as part of the exercise sciences program (phys. ed just wouldn't do any longer). The instructor was great and I benefitted and did recommend it to many people. It also had a blatant religious component. We were required to buy and read Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi. Then we had to complete a 10 page paper dealing with the text, the class, and our lives.

I enjoyed the physical development and noticed great gains (we had an initial set of tests and a final set to gauge improvement). I also enjoyed learning a bit about Yoga. It did occur to me that in p.c. new agey California religion could be taught and exercised in a public exercise class so long as it was not Christianity. Namaste.

My favorite book is oryx and crake by Margaret Atwood... its a great dystopian novel by an amazing author!!

Surprise me, i have a fairly good size book wishlist! =)

You may not like my answer, but in the end it's up to you how you feel about this issue. First let me say that wikiislam is a propaganda islamophobic website. If I were to want information on Christianity, I would ask a Priest or a scholar of Christianity. So please don't read what you find on propaganda websites, some things are outright fabrications, others are taken out of context, others are misattributed etc. etc. So please don't read from those websites, but read from Muslim sources. If you are really sincere in what you say, you can do various things.

Read ''In the Footsteps of the Prophet'' by Dr. Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University. He's a Muslim. He's well versed. He writes amazingly.

Read ''Muhammad: Man and Prophet'' by Adil Salahi. Book is somewhat expensive, but just read the top review by 'Mary' and I think that will tell you everything you need to know, haha. A biography on the life of the Prophet SAW! What more would you want!

You can always read the Qur'an - but that can be taken out of context. Muhammad Asad has a great translation of the Qur'an containing many footnotes describing the context of many verses. After all, in a book that was revealed over 23 years every verse has a context of its own.

The issue with all the above is that they cost money.

So in that case here is Dr. Yasir Qadhi's ongoing series about the life of the Prophet Muhammad SAW discussing many many things going on around his life from beginning to end. There are 98 videos and each has 1 hour.. And it's still going, so this can be really time consuming.

In the end I want to say: If you don't have the time to watch the series, or the money to buy and read the books (which are all sourced from Muslim scholars and even then the muslim scholars cite muslim scholars, the companions of the Prophet, and even the Prophet SAW himself) - then please hold your judgement on Muslims and do not let yourself be distracted by anti Islamic sources. To learn about vaccines, we learn from Doctors, not from anti-Vaccination supporters!

you mentioned being a fangirl; i've been reading some amazing, recent sci fi works written by women authors lately, maybe you'd find them interesting? all 3 of these are among the absolute best sci fi i've ever read:

the time traveller's wife by audrey niffenegger

^ forget about the movie, the book is fantastic

oryx and crake by margaret atwood

^ nice and dark

lilith's brood by octavia e. butler

^ amazon reviews calls it "profoundly evocative, sensual -- and disturbing", which sums it up pretty well

You asked for everything really, but here is a selection I personally like that is more focused on the biography of Muhammad.

For Muslim books on the biography of the Prophet, I highly recommend:

A Biography of the Prophet of Islam: In the Light of the Original Sources, an Analytical Study

In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad

Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

On the more academic side of his life and following centuries, I recommend:

Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction

Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World

In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire

The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad's Life and the Beginnings of Islam

For the four best primary sources of his biography translated into English:

The Life of Muhammad: Al-Waqidi's Kitab al-Maghazi

The Life of the Prophet Muhammad: Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya

The Life of Muhammad

The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad

you can make something or talk about it !

making something of the genuine laniakea thread is just really quite different . . !

as you say a well done commentary doesn't preclude some-one from being creative but the mumonkan commentary is an abortion !

there is a sort of master document that they took the cases from ! ?

in fact I think there are distinct authorship issues with the mumomkan, it may in fact be the work of a committee of monks based on their filtered recording and understanding !

recent scholarship and better availability of original records in recent years is exploding the view of a monolithic and simple scriptural ch'an tableau !

"The Wudeng Huiyuan (Compendium of Five Lamps) is the primary source for the translated passages in this book. That text, compiled by the monk Puji at Lingyin Monastery in Hangzhou during the early thirteenth century, is the distillation of five previous "lamp records," which provide traditional accounts of the lives of famous Zen teachers and their teachings (note that the "five lamps" is not a reference to the five traditional Zen schools). [...] First and foremost among the five lamp records compiled within the Compendium of the Five Lamps is a text entitled The Record of the Transmission of the Lamp of the Jingde Era, commonly called the Transmission of the Lamp. I have translated some passages in this book directly from that text. Often, passages from the Compendium of Five Lamps and the Transmission of the Lamp are the same or quite similar. However, since each text contains material that is omitted from the other, I sometimes cite the Transmission of the Lamp separately"

look at this poem of Sylvia plath's Lorelai, one of the greatest ever written to understand what "the real juice" is !

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood would be an excellent choice. Her language is beautiful. This one's about a capitalist future controlled by corporations, social stratification, and rampant genetic engineering where a genius wipes out humanity and his best friend gets to pick up the pieces. Bonus: it's going to be an HBO series, so you'll be ahead of the game.

by its nature, any translation will be weaker. Even if you learned Arabic, trust me, it wouldn't be much better. Arabic today is a shadow of the Arabic spoken during the Qur'an. To fully appreciate the Qur'an in its literary form, you'd need to study Arabic quite thoroughly, gaining a deep grasp of grammar, rhetoric, syntax, diction, etc.

Honestly, if you want to get a good introduction to Islam, you would probably be better off starting with a biography of the Prophet Muhammad that's written in English before attempting to read the Qur'an. here is probably the best biography in English written by a Muslim author.

Not from this sub, but a collection of true stories from hypnotherapists on exactly this topic can be found in books by Brian Weiss and Michael Newton. I highly recommend starting with Many Lives, Many Masters since it's easy to read and sort of the "gateway drug" to this whole world. Michael Newton's books, like Journey of Souls, go into far more detail (and include word-for-word transcripts from dozens upon dozens of his therapy sessions).

This is fascinating to me because the general premise of both these books (as well as many others by other legitimate hypnotherapists who have put clients "under" to the point where they could access past lives as well as lives between lives) is exactly what's quoted in the short excerpts in OP's post: we are spirits living in imperfect and irrational human bodies, and our entire experience on this planet is essentially so we can learn and grow as spirits. In fact these books indicate that Earth (and our human experience) is a more "advanced" or "accelerated" school for spirits (and more difficult as a result).

All of this stuff fascinates me because the story is so consistent among all these therapists who have had first-hand experience with clients "tapping" into this world and among all the anecdotal stories on subs like this.

I just read this book, Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist.

It talks a lot about many of the questions you have asked, and reads as an anecdotal account of one seekers journey as well as attempts to frame historical buddah. The opening story about meeting a Buddhist monk much revered for his ability to control the weather sets the book up nicely.

"Charting his journey from hippie to monk to lay practitioner, teacher, and interpreter of Buddhist thought, Batchelor reconstructs the historical Buddha’s life, locating him within the social and political context of his world. In examining the ancient texts of the Pali Canon, the earliest record of the Buddha’s life and teachings, Batchelor argues that the Buddha was a man who looked at human life in a radically new way for his time, more interested in the question of how human beings should live in this world than in notions of karma and the afterlife. According to Batchelor, the outlook of the Buddha was far removed from the piety and religiosity that has come to define much of Buddhism as we know it today.

Both controversial and deeply personal, Confession of a Buddhist Atheist is a fascinating exploration of a religion that continues to engage the West. Batchelor’s insightful, deeply knowledgeable, and persuasive account will be an essential book for anyone interested in Buddhism."

edited for quote.

Just FYI, if you are a beginner diving into Islamic history you shouldn't be trying to dig at the controversies first. That's one of the reasons they are controversial: even the scholars devoted to those issues have not come to consensus :) I've already upvoted the comment for reading books by Tariq Ramadan. His book In the Footsteps of the Prophet is pretty amazing and very well written.

Additionally, if you already have a specific bias you will always find contrary opinions to not be worthy of note. This is not meant to be an insult of any kind, but sometimes you have to take a step back and assess through what prism you are seeing a topic before you can proceed in a more objective manner. My best method is to just dive in and read whatever you can on the topic that interests you, talk to learned people who you like, and inshaAllah a sound opinion will crystallize for you on its own.

I love imposter stories.

Ever read the book by the kid from Brown University who faked being a born-again Christian so he could attend Liberty University (one of the most fanatically religious and conservative schools) for a semester? It was a very entertaining read, and he painted the students at Liberty in a good light (mostly reasonable, ordinary kids).

I assume you were not allowed to live on campus?

This seems like the perfect time to promote this great book i just finished reading:

Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind https://www.amazon.com/dp/1634310209/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_OFZpDbR7MY9GG

Great book and I’m sure anyone in this sub would enjoy it

This was almost super hard for me until I thought about my grandmother and aunts. My mom is a distant mom. I feel like it is hard to explain in a few short sentences. She never seemed involved in my life. She was very much all about herself. My grandmother did a lot to raise me when I was a small child, well up until 4th grade and then times when I really needed her. My 3 aunts have always been there to bond with me over my moms actions. They help me realize that it isn't me, it is her. This can be hard when you think you aren't worth the love/time because your own mother doesn't want to be involved. I still struggle with those feelings in other areas. I'm glad you had a mom you can be proud of, and I'm sorry for your loss <3

Everyone in my family loves books :)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385721676/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_.5Jhtb0PA280C

Hey Bean!

Do you like fantasy stories? The Gita is actually just one chapter in India's greatest epic, the Mahabharata. It's an amazing story, and gives a great cultural background for Hinduism. Hindu's other epic, the Ramayana, is also lauded by many. I actually just began reading it recently.

Hindu's purest (and probably the world's longest) treatise on non-duality is the book at the very top of the bookshelf, Vasistha's Yoga. It's intense, so if you are just beginning, it's probably not the best intro to Hindu thought.

The most ancient written roots of pure Hinduism are found in the Upanishads. Eknath Eswaran's introduction and commentary are sublime.

A more modern, yet just as mystical take on Hinduism is The Autobiography of a Yogi.

I've been reading Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist and he delves into concepts like these. It was really eye opening. He could be twisting things, but he paints the Buddha as an atheist according to the Pali cannon based on some key things he had said. Then delves into how you can be a religious atheist. I've found many benefits in religious practices throughout my life, they are a good anchor, it's just the metaphysical dogmas I can't dive into as an atheist. But the ideas of community, meditation and ritual can benefit anyone's life. I think every religion has a good philosophy to offer once you strip away beliefs.

Autobiography of a Yogi - While not mind altering, it gave me a new perspective on things I would have initially labeled as quackery.

The Believing Brain by David Shermer - explains the mechanics of why we believe in the things we do without any critical examination especially on topics like religion, politics, ghosts, and conspiracy theories.

Awareness by Osho - Osho might have been a controversial personality, but some of his writings were brilliant and refreshing. This book blew me away and provoked me to live life more consciously and with greater deliberation.

The Freedom of Choice by Tom Chalko - Simple but powerful read (only 100 pages)

• 
  Incoherence of Philosopher- Al Gazali
  
  
• 
  The Road To Makkah - Muhammad Asad
  
  
• 
  In the Footsteps of the Prophet-Tariq Ramdan
  
  
• 
  Musnavi-Rumi
  
  
  
  
• 
  The Burda of Al Busiri
  
  
• 
  Islamic Caliphate - Shah Wali Ullah
  
  The First Book separates the subject of philosophy and religion very well, the second is an excellent biography of a journey of man to Islam, Third book is a very good start to know about the prophet, fourth and fifth are very beautiful 100 level Sufi books, The last book does a very good job in explaining what an Islamic Empire actually is.
  
  
  
  
  

> Or perhaps the atheist isn't probing to the bottom of the glass.

So you think members of the royal academy do not probe science to the bottom of the glass? Numbers for America were very similar to this recent British study

> Or perhaps their pride moves them away from God.

That is not impossible but unrelated to the claim.

The claim was very simple in that it says:

• a bit of science => atheism
  
• more science => theism
  
  It didn't address any reasons for this supposed outcome. This claim is easily verifiable by just measuring the religiosity of people (self declared label plus concrete practice) and looking if it goes up when the science background is stronger (professors compared to students, quality of the publishing within the professoral group etc.)
  
  > make science their god
  
  If you define god as "that which occupies the most important place in our live", then you could say such things. Otherwise this sentence just doesn't make sense, does it?
  
  That's one more example of strategic ambiguity typical of theologians and priests who do not actually believe but have to maintain a Christian image outwardly. Almost all the atheist preachers interviewed for this book use that tactic.

First of all, can I just say how much I love giving and receiving book recommendations? I was a religious studies major in college (and was even a T.A. in the World Religions class) so, this is right up my alley. So, I'm just going to take a seat in front of my book cases...

General:

1. A History of God by Karen Armstrong
   
   
2. The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong
   
   
3. Myths: gods, heroes, and saviors by Leonard Biallas (highly recommended)
   
   
4. Natural History of Religion by David Hume
   
   
5. Beyond Tolerance by Gustav Niebuhr
   
   
6. Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel (very highly recommended, completely shaped my view on pluralism and interfaith dialogue)
   
   
7. The Evolution of God by Robert Wright
   
   Christianity:
   
   
8. Tales of the End by David L. Barr
   
   
9. The Historical Jesus by John Dominic Crossan
   
   
10. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography by John Dominic Crossan
    
    
11. The Birth of Christianity by John Dominic Crossan
    
    
12. Who Wrote the New Testament? by Burton Mack
    
    
13. Jesus in America by Richard Wightman Fox
    
    
14. The Five Gospels by Robert Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar (highly recommended)
    
    
15. Remedial Christianity by Paul Alan Laughlin
    
    Judaism:
    
    
16. The Jewish Mystical Tradition by Ben Zion Bokser
    
    
17. Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliot Friedman
    
    Islam:
    
    
18. Muhammad by Karen Armstrong
    
    
19. No God but God by Reza Aslan
    
    
20. Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations by Michael Sells
    
    Buddhism:
    
    
21. Buddha by Karen Armstrong
    
    
22. Entering the Stream ed. Samuel Bercholz & Sherab Chodzin Kohn
    
    
23. The Life of Milarepa translated by Lobsang P. Lhalungpa
    
    
24. Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism by John Powers
    
    
25. Zen Flesh, Zen Bones compiled by Paul Reps (a classic in Western approached to Buddhism)
    
    
26. Buddhist Thought by Paul Williams (if you're at all interested in Buddhist doctrine and philosophy, you would be doing yourself a disservice by not reading this book)
    
    Taoism:
    
    
27. The Essential Chuang Tzu trans. by Sam Hamill & J.P. Seaton
    
    Atheism:
    
    
28. Atheism by Julian Baggini
    
    
29. The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud
    
    
30. Doubt: A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht
    
    
31. When Atheism Becomes Religion by Chris Hedges
    
    
32. Atheism: The Case Against God by George H. Smith

To my knowledge, http://clergyproject.org is not associated with Richard Dawkins. It's history mainly involves Daniel C. Dennett and Dan Barker. Not only is it anonymous, but to join the community, you must directly contact the people who run it. They confidentially work with the applicant to prove they are indeed a member of clergy to prevent infiltrators who would join just to seek the identities of those involved.

EDIT: I also highly recommend Caught in the Pulpit. This is a book produced by Daniel C Dennett and Linda LaScola. They took the stories of pastors who are stuck just like your pastor friend. If nothing else he will find himself in the pages of that book and realize he isn't alone.

Muhammed: How he can make you extraordinary

The Productive Muslim - Where Faith Meets Productivity

Dua, Weapon of the Believers

Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective

The Art of War

Khadija: The First Muslim and Wife of the Prophet Muhammed

Muhammed: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources

Dua's for success in this world and the next, over 100 Duas

Fortress of a Muslim

Reclaim your heart

These are some of the books I have at the moment and I highly recommend them after reading them. I am waiting on a few more books but a lot are non Islamic but still really useful [:

Edit: Like this

I would recommend this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Aleph-Mathematics-Kabbalah-Infinity/dp/0743422996/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255474257&sr=1-4

Pythagoras and Turing are also great people to read biographies on :)

Pythagoras:
http://www.amazon.com/Pythagoras-Pythagoreans-Charles-H-Kahn/dp/0872205754/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255474335&sr=1-4

don't know a good book only on turing, but this documentary that covers turing, cantor, godel, and others is really good:
http://bestdocumentaries.blogspot.com/2007/09/dangerous-knowledge-full-documentary.html

Enjoy!

Edit 2: Please read this right now. I pulled the relevant appendix from the epub doc and made it into a PDF for everyone. I don't usually steal people's writing but this is IMPORTANT and I don't think the scholar in question would mind this use.


Aisha was NOT six (or seven or eight or nine). Many, many scholars are now conceding that the historical evidence supports her being much older. She was probably in her late teens/early 20's. But DEFINITELY of a marriageable age by all standards, up until quite recently when we started extending our adolescence into our 20's, as life got easier. (I think we can all agree that being a teenager then was incredibly different from being a teenager now. Nobody should be marrying a teen these days. Ugh.) That aside:

A while back we tried forming a book club here in r/hijabis and one of the books we read was Muhammad: Man and Prophet by Adil Salahi. I don't know how many of us finished it, but I did. The book is reputable, scholarly, lots and lots of footnotes, sometime a little dense and hard to get through. Sometimes it leans on preaching the perfection of Islam rather than sticking to the biographical details. A bit conservative overall. Nothing Islamically that anyone could find any fault with, no matter how strict the Muslim.

With all the footnotes and proselytizing etc: there is only ONE appendix. What's in the appendix? (Edit: I misremembered the tone a bit. It's not apologetic.) It is a quite firm defense of the argument that Aisha was older, a denunciation of the idea that Aisha was six and a condemnation of anybody who still believes it. IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO BE THE ONLY APPENDIX.

This is not some sketchy website, this is a reputable, mainstream, impeccable publication we're talking about and a respected scholar speaking up to correct the record. How ANYONE can still believe otherwise boggles the mind. Either they just don't know, or they WANT her to be six because they're disgusting pedophiles.

PS, as others have said, you should leave your husband, he has no right to treat you that way.

Yes, I do!

The 3 best ones that I have ever seen are:

The Sealed Nectar

Muhammad: His Life Based On The Earliest Sources

In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad

The last one is by Tariq Ramadan. It would probably be the easiest one to digest/read for someone not too familiar with Islam or Muhammad peace be upon him.

In Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, Stephen Batchelor wrote of visiting the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, three decades before they were reduced to a pile of rocks.

"From the monk's cell, hewn out of the sandstone cliff centuries earlier, where I spent my days idly smoking a potent blend of marijuana, hashish, and tobacco, a narrow passage led to a dark inner staircase that I would illuminate by striking matches. The steep rock steps climbed to an opening that brought me out, via a narrow ledge, onto the smooth dome of the giant Buddha's head, which fell away dizzily on all sides to the ground one hundred and eighty feet below. On the ceiling of the niche above were faded fragments of painted Buddhas and bodhisattvas. I feared looking up at them for too long lest I lose my balance, slip, and plummet earthward. As my eyes became used to the fierce sunlight, I would gaze out onto the fertile valley of Bamiyan, a patchwork of fields interspersed with low, flat-roofed farmhouses, which lay stretched before me. It was the summer of 1972. This was my first encounter with the remains of a Buddhist civilization, one that had ended with Mahmud of Ghazni's conquest of Afghanistan in the eleventh century.

Like others on the hippie trail to India, I thought of myself as a traveler rather than a mere tourist, someone on an indeterminate quest rather than a journey with a prescribed beginning and end. Had I been asked what I was seeking, I doubt my answer would have been very coherent. I had no destination, either of the geographical or spiritual kind. I was simply "on the road," in that anarchic and ecstatic sense celebrated by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other role models I revered at the time.

I enjoyed nothing more than simply being on the way to somewhere else. I was quite content to peer for hours through the grimy, grease-smeared windows of a rattling bus with cooped chickens in the aisle, observing farmers bent over as they toiled in fields,women carrying babies on their backs, barefoot children playing in the dust, old men seated in the shade smoking hookahs, and all the shabby little towns and villages at which we stopped for sweet tea and unleavened bread." https://www.amazon.com/Confession-Buddhist-Atheist-Stephen-Batchelor/dp/0385527071

---
While the adventures of past pilgrims are inspiring, other types of journeys are impressive as well:

Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman's Quest for Enlightenment https://www.amazon.com/Cave-Snow-Western-Womans-Enlightenment/dp/0747543895

The Sound of Two Hands Clapping: The Education of a Tibetan Buddhist Monk https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Two-Hands-Clapping-Education/dp/0520232607

The Life Of Milarepa

An Introduction To Zen Buddhism by D.T. Suzuki

The Way Of Zen by Alan Watts

Be Here Now by Ram Dass

These are just some of the better ones ive read so far, all really great starting off points into Buddhism. Zen in particular. Good luck!

Salam Brother, I recommand Abdel Haleem translation of the Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics). I believe it's the best translation. The footnotes gives you the context and additional info about the verses.

I also recommand reading the autobiography of the Prophet, the best one I read so far is Tariq Ramadan's : In the Footsteps of the Prophet

​

May God make things easy for you

Margaret Atwood has two companion books, both of a dystopian nature. I prefer Oryx and Crake, but The Year of the Flood is a nice afterword. The Handmaid's Tale is her most popular work. She calls it speculative fiction instead of science fiction.

She's one of my favorites, obviously.

For anyone interested in some nice reading, there's a good book called Cave In The Snow, the story of Tenzin Palmo, a woman who spent 12 years alone in a cave 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas.

The book goes into detail about the topic of women and Buddhism. I actually just finished it today :) Enjoy.

Basically, you are not a body. If life after death is still a question, it means that you think you are a body. But there does come a point after which it is not a question, just a fact. You are Spirit.

At that point, your body is a "wholly neutral" thing (see "A Course in Miracles") because its forms aren't positive or negative. Just utilitarian. If you want to go get breakfast at McDonald's, it will help to have two legs. But other than that, you wouldn't be attached to any particular form. Just whatever's useful at the time.

As such, materializing and dematerializing at will would be something that happens without any mystery. Read Autobiography of a Yogi. The Great Babaji is known to materialize and dematerialize in locations as a means of travel. (Much faster than booking with kayak.com.)

Jesus doesn't really seem to materialize, per se, though I have no doubt that he could. Same with Mary. But they do appear to people and have throughout the centuries. Usually to encourage us. (I refer you to "The Great Apparitions of Mary" by Ingo Swann)

And the Babaji actually shows up in different forms (different physical descriptions). Sometimes he has facial hair, sometimes not. He also speaks all languages. (Known to converse with people in their native tongues). Really quite an interesting read. Really ... a must read. Pity it took me so many years to get around to it. It's more Christian than very many modernly-labelled "Christian" books.

Thank you for your sincere interest, people like you deserve respect and admiration. Muslims doesn't mean scholars automatically, there is many responses already here, I agree with them on general yet It's difficult to respond formally with full knowledge and proof, but since your questions are mostly about the prophet and early years of Islam, I recommand to read the biography of the prophet to see his full perspective and contexts, this one is easy and into the point by the Oxford Professor Tariq Ramadan: In the Footsteps of the Prophet .

http://www.amazon.com/Footsteps-Prophet-Lessons-Life-Muhammad/dp/0195374762/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426453522&sr=8-1&keywords=tariq+ramadan

I'm spiritual, but do not believe in any religions/dogma, probably for the same reasons you don't. But you seem too smart to be a total atheist. This book is pretty interesting:
https://www.amazon.com/Many-Lives-Masters-Prominent-Psychiatrist/dp/0671657860/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1502404354&sr=8-3&keywords=reincarnation+brian+weiss

I really enjoy the book ‘Buddha’ by Karen Armstrong.

It’s less a history about Buddhism, but more a micro-history about the founder of Buddhism.

I’m not sure if it’s what you’re looking for though, because Armstrong freely acknowledges that the biography doesn’t match up to modern standards of historical biography. There’s just not enough to go on, and the myths can’t be untangled from what history remains. Still, it’s probably one of the best sources you can get on this particular topic from a neutral POV.

I ain't so good at book descriptions but here's some stuff I really enjoyed -

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-A-Novel/dp/0307887448

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi: http://www.amazon.com/The-Windup-Girl-Paolo-Bacigalupi/dp/1597801585

The author would argue with me about this being SF - Atwood prefers the term "speculative history" I believe - but the entire Oryx and Crake trilogy is very good.
http://www.amazon.com/Oryx-Crake-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0385721676/ref=la_B000AQTHI0_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397411558&sr=1-2 the first book in Oryx and Crake, followed by Year of the Flood and Madaddam

Doesn’t directly answer your question but check out “Educated” by Tara Westover. Great read, she also left home to pursue education and could be a source of inspiration for you

I recommend these books:

• Jeffery Lang (3) books: Struggling to Surrender, Even Angels Ask and Losing My Religion.
  
  
• Jonathan Brown Hadith- Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World
  
  
• Muhammad Asad The Road to Mecca
  
  
• Tariq Ramadan In the Footsteps of the Prophet
  
  
• Karen Armstrong (2) books: Islam: A Short History
  and Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time
  
  
• Martin Lings Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
  
  
• John L. Esposito Who Speaks For Islam?
  
  
• Nathan Lean The Islamophobia Industry
  
  
• Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, Ossie Davis (Afterword), Alex Haley (As Told to)
  
  
• Sherman Jackson Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resurrection
  
  
• Dr. Ejaz Naqvi The Quran: with or Against the Bible?
  
  
• Hamza Yusuf Purification of the Heart
  
  
• Imam Zaid Shakir's translation, commentary and notes on Imam al-Harith al-Muhasibi's Risala al-Mustarshidin Treatise For The Seekers Of Guidance
  
  
• Al-Nawawi Nawawi Forty Hadiths
  
  Side note on Quran translation:
  
  Stay away from
  
  
• The Penguin Koran (The Koran -Penguin Classics- by Anonymous and N. J. Dawood). Its been written by non-Muslim who also changed the order of the Suras. In fact, Dawood's translation might as well been written by Robert Spencer!
  
  Try:
  
  
• The Gracious Quran: A Modern-Phrased Interpretation in English
  
  
• Mona Siddiqui How to Read The Qur'an
  
  
• Bayyinah Podcast for a comprehensive tafseer with Nouman Ali Khan (The iTunes Podcast URL)
  
  
• Muhammad Asad The Message of The Quran
  
  
• Muhammad Abdel Haleem Understanding the Qur'an: Themes and Style
  
  Misc:
  
  
• Terry Alford Prince among Slaves: The True Story of an African Prince Sold Into Slavery in the American South
  
  
• Omar Ibn Said A Muslim American Slave
  
  
• João José Reis Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia
  
  
• Ahmad Dallal Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History
  
  
• Use this link to download Misc resources.
  
  
• Use this link to download copy of Quran translation by Muhammad Asad on on scribd.
  
  
• Use this link to download copy of Quran translation by MAS Abdul Haleem OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
  
  
• Use this link to download copy of Quran translation by Saheeh International (PDF)
  
  
• The Purpose of Life - Jeffrey Lang
  
  Movie:
  
  
• Journey to Mecca

Cardinality meaning the size of, or number of elements in, a set. Cantor did ground breaking work showing that in some sense there are different sizes of infinity - the start of which was that the real numbers can't be enumerated, or counted, using the integers; meaning there are more real numbers than there are integers, which is very weird.

His diagonal argument is relatively easy to follow.

I highly recommend this layman's book if you're at all interested: The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity. It's a great human-interest story in addition to the mathematics.

There are many stories like that in Buddhism - the biographies of great Indian and Tibetan mahasiddhas that had to overcome some absolutely mind-boggling obstacles in order to reach enlightenment.

I will suggest the most beloved and popular one - The Life of Milarepa.

https://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Man-Prophet-Adil-Salahi/dp/0860373223

There are a lot of decent books recommended below, but this one I feel is very under the radar to a lot of people. If you want a book that reads more easily, and less like a encyclopedia, this is the one. Warning, it is a long one, and may take you a couple of weeks, but it reads like a novel and provides context to all parts of his life.

No one's mentioned Margaret Atwood yet? I love [Oryx and Crake] (https://www.amazon.com/Oryx-Crake-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0385721676/ref=la_B000AQTHI0_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505948514&sr=1-3), and of course, there's The Handmaid's Tale, along with so many others


Also Joan Slonczewski - her best known is [A Door Into Ocean] (https://www.amazon.com/Door-Into-Ocean-Elysium-Cycle/dp/0312876521), but every one I've read is amazing

In the Footsteps of the Prophet (T. Ramadan)... just a beautiful and inspirational read... easy to digest

https://www.amazon.com/Footsteps-Prophet-Lessons-Life-Muhammad/dp/0195374762/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1502498496&sr=8-2&keywords=in+the+footsteps

93 - You will do best to look in Kaczynski's Perdurabo ... Churton's book might also be good. In his Confessions, he mentions being in New York in chapter 23, and chapter 77 through chapter 80 (adn probably a few more).

I personally have no memory of AC staying in Albany. Frankly, the best way to figure it out is to see if the envelopes are actually real (that is, they exist and aren't forged).

A good book that deals with this topic is Cave in the Snow, which is about Tenzin Palmo, an Englishwoman who's part of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism. She's famous for a 12 year cave retreat, and she also founded a nunnery.

She balances nicely, in my view, between critiques of patriarchy and respect for tradition.

A physics-guru friend of mine recommends this three-pronged punch: In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, The Tao of Physics, and Autobiography of a Yogi. Haven't gotten to the third one yet myself, but the first two were quite excellent.

I mean it in the sense that I agree with the general teachings and philosophies of Buddhism (4 noble truths, 8-fold noble path, interdependence, impermanence, etc.); but don't believe in the "organized religion" aspect of it or some of the metaphysical stuff that happens in the sutras.

Maybe "Buddhist Atheist" is redundant - but I was introduced to the term from:

http://www.amazon.com/Confession-Buddhist-Atheist-Stephen-Batchelor/dp/0385527063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292871808&sr=8-1-spell

Hope this helps to clarify

You can do your own research about this, it's not too hard to track down the roots of what grew into american pop yoga from wikipedia. There are multiple books too about original yogis. It is true, some of their work is physical related, but it is not at all how westerners think of it. This book is a good place to start to understand why yoga is the way it is in America today, and also a lot of experiences and stories from India. People in this subreddit may have passing knowledge of this sort of thing, like myself, but if you seek the truth, there is plenty of already written material that covers what you're asking.

I read the title and came to say this: I lost my mother to prescription-pill suicide when I was 15. She was also a closet drinker. It was the coldest day of the world when we buried her.

You do, indeed, 'move on'. But, from experience I can tell you, it shapes you, the loss does. Whether you will it so or not. But it does not define you. Losing a parent young, being wounded...it's tough, and what I found is that I was fine, like, for a year or more, and then I would break down over something maudlin, but, I always knew what was the driver of those tears.

Dad died of a heart attack seven years later.

It took me far too long to realize what had happened to me. It will likely be the same for you. Ten, twenty years or more afterward, you have a revelation. But before that, we just can't see it.

First, he's right there with you. Dad's still on duty, he just got promoted. I found I could, in quiet moments, talk to my Dad and sometimes I would hear an answer. I knew I was OK when I started hearing good advice I didn't want to take.

[This book took away my fear of death[(https://www.amazon.com/Many-Lives-Masters-Prominent-Psychiatrist/dp/0671657860) and taught me a bunch of stuff.

I wish you Peace.

Kevin Roose also wrote a book when he was in college where he spent a semester at Liberty University called "The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University". It was really good and an interesting perspective.

This is the most critically acclaimed biography of his, entitled Perdurabo. I read it. It is quite good. Very objective. Doesn't apologize for his, at times eccentric behavior, yet routinely shows that the sources of some of the more outlandish claims were untrustworthy at best. And in most cases were attempts of deliberate slander.

I would have to think about it, since a lot of those incidents don't come readily to my mind (no surprise, I've tried to forget about most of it). It's less about individual events I remember and more about the overall experience that what the extreme Christians say among themselves is much different than what they say in public.

This is the reason that documentaries like Jesus Camp are so shocking to people on the "outside", I think. It's a look behind the curtain at what these people are like when they think they're among their own.

This article is more about the neo-conservative movement than Christianity, but the two are very connected, and this article demonstrates the amount of crazy they throw around in private.

A book called The Unlikely Disciple is also a really good look at the crazy that goes on behind the scenes. I would highly recommend it if you want to understand what the evangelical movement is like from the inside. It's a fairly accurate depiction of the world that my family used to live in.

Hakuin's autobiography would be a great place to start.

Heinrich Dumoulin's 2-volume "Zen Buddhism: A History" (Vol 1, Vol 2) is a classic, albeit somewhat dated. It has extended descriptions of the lives of some of the more notable teachers.

Andy Ferguson's "Zen's Chinese Heritage" is a very readable translation of the Lamp Records, providing some useful historical flavor. Although, the Lamp Records are where many of the major koan collections are drawn from, so if you're not into koans, ymmv.

I'll see if I can think of any others.

Start with this one: God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062279556/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_vxgSBbC82834X

And when you’re ready for it, go on to this one: Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671657860/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_RzgSBbJ4CQSWD

Then this one: Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives https://www.amazon.com/dp/1567184855/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_RygSBbAD9C961

If you are not comfortable with mystical concepts like karma and rebirth, but would rather focus on concepts like mindfulness and compassion, you can read Stephen Batchelor, http://www.amazon.com/Confession-Buddhist-Atheist-Stephen-Batchelor/dp/0385527063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291073951&sr=1-1

Compare Brunner's epic The Sheep Look Up with Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. (If Sheep Look Up proves to hard to find reasonably, substitute Shockwave Rider, also by Brunner.)

Or, if you're feeling really froggy compare Mark Twain's Letters From the Earth with one of his more popularly acceptable works like Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer.

Maybe a long shot, but try Margaret Atwood's MaddAdam trilogy? I've read only the first so far Oryx and Crake and it definitely has a story with biology and the cultural impact. Give it a try! It's one of my favorites.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.

Simultaneously a post-apocalypse and a dystopian novel, the final novel in the trilogy was just released, so this might be a good chance for those of us (like me) who have never read this modern classic to catch up.

I recommend checking out Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda if anything it was entertaining to read and helped me look at things differently :)

Autobiography of a Yogi

There is a book called Many Life Many Masters by Brian L. Weiss, where he speaks about his time as a clinical psychologist where he had a young troubled patient, he uses regression therapy to make her experience her past lives and that way overcome her issues.

It is pretty interesting even if you don't believe in reincarnation. There are also several youtube videos that teach you how to go step by step through the regression process. There are other books, you would have to find them on Amazon so you can buy them.

Not referral link btw.

Prayer is very comforting. I do not believe in a traditional "God" and hate organized religions. I have experience 2 deaths (my parents) being with them 24/7 in their final days. I am convinced there is something more. After one death I started reading Elisabeth Kubler Ross, on death and dying, trying to understand what that something is. In one of her lectures to a room full of doctors and scientist she recommended a book by a psychiatrist Brian Weiss, Many Lives Many Masters. This book is a true story of his experience. It really changed my life and gave me a whole new perspective on what is possible. Also another true story book he wrote is amazing too , Only Love is Real. http://www.amazon.com/Many-Lives-Masters-Prominent-Psychiatrist/dp/0671657860/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453817211&sr=8-1&keywords=many+lives+many+masters+brian+weiss

This is the book that helped me.
They talk about wise ones here.
Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671657860/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_R2CpDbARDBQG7

Nice list, I will try to check out some of these books. Here are other books I'd like to read:

Life after Life by Dr. Raymond Moody - it's about NDE like you mentioned in your post: https://www.amazon.com/dp/006242890X

and here is a book about reincarnation and many past lives of clients that a psychiatrist interviewed: https://www.amazon.com/Many-Lives-Masters-Prominent-Psychiatrist/dp/0671657860

Do you believe in reincarnation? It's something I've become interested and have started reading more about it.

“Educated” is a 2018 best-selling memoir written by a woman who grew up in this type of environment (and whose parents were also against formal education to boot) and later went on to get her PhD (and vaccines)! Given that she has older siblings, we are looking at 35+ years of this kind of gig. I highly recommend the book. By the way, her mother STILL runs a successful essential oils business.

Yes! Margaret Atwood is, in my opinion, one of the modern greats. I suggest Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's Tale. I think this despite the fact that she insists she doesn't write "science fiction." Who did you read in that course?


Very much agree about Card. :) Speaker for the Dead ftw.

Weeeell, it's quite hard to explain it all in a post on reddit. First of all, Buddhist does not consider Buddha to become or transform into a god.

My advice is to read some book about it. For instance Buddha by Karen Armstrong. It's about the person Buddha rather than his teachings. http://www.amazon.com/Buddha-Penguin-Lives-Biographies-Armstrong/dp/0143034367

Good luck!

You are welcome!

And yes! Book is out in English!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1722885750

Slightly OT but has anyone read The Heavenly Man and if so, how much of it do you believe? It claims to be factual but having read it, I found it to be incredibly far fetched.

The Swedish rescue information can be found on mormon think. There is also very good information on this in Hans Mattsson's new book.

> I will not define Buddhism in any way

There's a wide range, apparently. The more dogma and lack of evidence involved the less I like it. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with trying to achieve inner peace, learning about your own consciousness, and all that.

Thinking I might learn something, I recently added Confession of a Buddhist Atheist to my wish list.

I did, i've read this one in english in particular. I've heard the one from Karen Armstrong is good too if you want one from someone who isn't a muslim.

I could suggest more complete ones in arabic if you can read it, but the one in the link from Tariq Ramadan is pretty accurate.

Gratitude is very powerful. Are you familiar with Yogananda?

Autobiography of a Yogi (Self-Realization Fellowship) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0876120796/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_UrH0CbZT74B9G

The Reasonable Doubts Podcast (one of my favorites, BTW) did a 3 part series on the good and bad of Buddhism Epsidoes 73-75. They had as a guest Stephen Batchelor, one time high ranking Buddhist monk turned atheist, and author of a number of books including Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

If you're interested, it's as good an overview as you'll find anywhere I think.

Most of the Pali Canon is in the form of the Buddha responding to one question or challenge or another, so you can sort of infer a personality from much of that.

I enjoyed Karen Armstrong's book Buddha which tries to paint a picture of what the actual Buddha may have been like by placing him in his correct historical and sociological context as an ascetic wanderer, philosopher and teacher on the Gangetic Plain of 2,500 years ago.

I haven't really looked into teachers in particular, but Stephen Batchelor's books on both his path to secular Buddhism and Secular Buddhism itself are excellent reads. Here and Here

The Sealed Nectar is one of the most popular.

Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources is another one that people like.

In the Footsteps of the Prophet: Lessons from the Life of Muhammad

A bit dramatic, but considering the association geometry is masonry, the use of numbers implies we can numerically prove that something transcends masonry/geometry. Thus the first step, i.e. Initiation, is unlearning what you have learned, and numbers/geometry is proof that reality itself implies a super-reality (which then gets into the need for a supreme being/morality, etc... and etc...)

EDIT: which brings us to the Mystery of the Aleph.

I really liked this one: Buddha by Karen Armstrong. She gets some of the key inflections in the story right. It is not a good book for learning the Dharma, but some of the things she said in her account are things that I recall when I'm thinking about how to practice, and that's saying a lot.

The movie Little Buddha also had a very nice rendition of the Buddha's life story, although it wasn't the main focus of the movie, and I wouldn't consider it complete.

There are a lot of miracles claimed in this book, and when I have time later I'll take a look and see if I can provide a good example. The book, by the way, is considered a "classic" in the spiritual world, and the author a supposedly authentic guru or spiritual master. So it should be a good source for something to discuss.

A couple of the people involved with The Clergy Project's founding, Daniel C. Dennett and Linda LaScola, published a book called Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind (revised/expanded edition 2015), which might be helpful. It's a synthesis and qualitative analysis of more than 30 current and former pastors (including some seminary students/professors) on their life, struggles and nonbelief. Might be an encouraging read as well.

I hope he gets to have an impact like Brother Yun:(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/082546207X?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links).

Oryx and Crake

It really is an awesome book.

We're meeting to discuss Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at 7pm, Bean Scene Café, 4000 Bay St. (Corner of Bay & Fremont Blvd.).

Please pass on the info. Anyone can join. Thanks!

Orxy and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Read it my senior year of high school for a random book group. It was awesome!

Hmm I really don't like most scifi covers, especially the retro pulpy stuff! I have to say I do love all the iterations of Orxy and Crake by Margaret Atwood, like this one, this British one or this other British one.

Unfortunately, I don't own any of these editions!

Margaret Atwood already did it in two of her books.

But I'd also love to see different renditions of the same kind of scenario.

Faulker wrote:

> "Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it.

That said: I'd recommend Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. It's a fun story, and she represents several different styles of English writing and speech between the different characters.

The Unlikely Disciple

boom. Great book.

Buddha by Karen Armstrong. A good short guide to what's known about his life, and what he actually taught (as opposed to what all the successive generations of Buddhist sects have been teaching).

https://www.amazon.com/Perdurabo-Revised-Expanded-Aleister-Crowley/dp/1556438990

This really contains the best, most authoratative research on all aspects of Crowley. It's also available as an ebook. A lot of info on the internet involving Crowley and Abramelin is sensationalized and not very trustworthy (hooray for the internet!). This is an actual scholarly work.

Under Buddhism, yes, this is generally the belief followed. However, I believe that OP was specifically asking about historical substance relating to the buddha called Siddartha Gotama.

Personally, I would reccomend Karen Armstrong's book on his life, as it provides very well-consolidated insights into the world that we presume Siddartha came from. Unfortunately, I don't remember any of the texts I've read well enough to provide much more insight than that.

EDIT: Apparently Karen Armstrong is less popular than I had anticipated. I wasn't aware of this.

Yep, atheistic Buddhism.

Stephen Batchelor was excellent on Reasonable Doubts:

http://doubtreligion.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/episode-73-confession-of-buddhist.html

He wrote a book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Confession-Buddhist-Atheist-Stephen-Batchelor/dp/0385527063

I would strongly recommend Tariq Ramadan's "In the Footsteps of the Prophet" to learn about Muhammed's -p- life.