Comparative Resources

The following is a growing list of resources for the study of comparative contemplative experience and comparative religion.
Resources will be added as the site develops.

General
Mysticism, Evelyn Underhill
The Varieties of Religious Experience (Lectures XVI, XVII), William James
The Perennial Philosophy, Aldous Huxley
Philosophy of Mysticism: Raids on the Ineffable, Richard Jones
Mysticism: A Study and an Anthology, F. C. Happold
Mysticism and Philosophy, W. T. Stace
The Transcendent Unity of Religions, Frithjof Schuon
The Problem of Pure Consciousness, Robert Forman (ed.)
Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis, Steven Katz (ed.)
God Has Many Names, The Fifth Dimension, John Hick
The Experience of God, David Bentley Hart
The Meaning and End of Religion, Wilfred Cantwell Smith
The Mystic Heart, Wayne Teasdale
The World’s Religions, Huston Smith
World Religions, Thomas Robinson and Hillary Rodrigues

Christian
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: Apophthegmata Patrum, Various (Benedicta Ward, trans.)
The Philokalia Vol. 1-4, Various (Sherrard and Ware, trans.)
Philokalia: The Eastern Christian Spiritual Texts, Various (Palmer, Sherrard, and Ware, trans.)
The Life of Anthony, St. Athanasius (Dom McLaughlin, trans.)
The Rule of St. Benedict, Benedict of Nursia (Timothy Fry, ed.)
The World of Medieval Monasticism, Gert Melville
Plotinus: Complete Works (“Neo-Platonist”), Plotinus (Kenneth Guthrie, trans.)
Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, Pseudo-Dionysius (Colm Luibheid, trans.)
The Cloud of Unknowing and Book of Privy Counseling, Anonymous (Early English Text Society edition)
The Cloud of Unknowing and Book of Privy Counseling, Anonymous (William Johnston, trans.)
The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, St. John of the Cross (Kavanaugh and Rodiguez, ed.)
The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, St. Teresa of Avila (Kavanaugh and Rodiguez, ed.)
Meister Eckhart: From Whom God Hid Nothing, Meister Eckhart (attr.) (David O’Neal, ed.)
Selected Writings, Meister Eckhart (Oliver Davies, trans.)
Dangerous Mystic: Meister Eckhart’s Path to the God Within, Joel Harrington
New Seeds of Contemplation, The Inner Experience, Contemplative Prayer, Journals, Thomas Merton
Intimacy With God, On Divine Therapy, Thomas Keating
Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, Cynthia Bourgeault
Centering Prayer: Renewing an Ancient Christian Prayer Form, Basil Pennington
Centering Prayer and the Healing of the Unconscious, Murchadh O Madagain
The Path of Centering Prayer, David Frenette
An Introduction to Centering Prayer, Anthony Coleman
Lectio Divina, Basil Pennington
Sacred Reading, Michael Casey
Praying Scripture for a Change, Tim Gray
Christian Mysticism, Carl McColman
The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism, Bernard McGinn
The Courage to Be, Paul Tillich
Letters to Contemplatives, William Johnston


Vedantin
The Upanishads, Various (Eknath Easwaran, trans., comm.)
The Bhagavad Gita, Anonymous (Eknath Easwaran, trans., comm.)
Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sankaracarya, Sankaracarya (Gambhirananda, trans.)
Indian Philosophy, An Idealist View of Life, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, Various (Radhakrishnan and Moore, ed.)
Vedanta: A Simple Introduction, Pravrajika Vrajaprana
Vedanta for the Western World, Christopher Isherwood
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
The Crest Jewel of Discrimination, Shankara (Swami Prabhavananca, trans.)
Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Tattwavidananda
Bhakti Yoga, Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God, Edwin Bryant
Rig Veda, Various (Wendy Doniger, trans.)
Mahabharata, Anonymous (John D. Smith, trans.)
Ramayana, Anonymous (William Buck, trans.)
Meditation, Swami Tadatmananda
Science of Being and Art of Living, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Transcendental Meditation, Jack Forem
Transcendence, Norman Rosenthal
Catching the Big Fish, David Lynch


Yogic
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Edwin Bryant (trans., comm.)
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Sri Swami Satchidananda (trans., comm.)
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with Vyasa Commentary, Ganganatha Jha (trans.)
Raja Yoga, Swami Vivekananda

Theravada Buddhist
The World’s Religions (Buddhism), Huston Smith
World Religions (Buddhism), Thomas Robinson and Hillary Rodrigues
An Introduction to Buddhism, Peter Harvey
Buddhisms, John Strong
Buddhism, Damien Keown
In the Buddha’s Words, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha,
The Long Discourses of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, attr. (Bhikkhu Bodhi, Maurice Walshe, Bhikkhu Nanamoli, trans., ed.)
The Dhammapada, Siddhartha Gautama, attr. (Eknath Easwaran, trans.)
The Path of Purification, Buddhaghosa
The Path of Freedom, Arahant Upatissa
The Noble Eightfold Path, Bhikkhu Bodhi
Mindfulness, Joseph Goldstein
Wherever You Go There You Are, Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness in Plain English, Bhante Gunaratana
The Miracle of Mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh
Theravada Meditation: The Buddhist Transformation of Yoga, Winston L. King
Noble Strategy, Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Metta: The Practice of Lovingkindness, Various (Nagabodhi, ed.)
Metta: Philosophy and Practice of Universal Love, Acariya Buddharakkhita
The Heart of Unconditional Love, Tulku Thondup


Mahayana Buddhist | Zen
Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism, D.T. Suzuki
The Lotus Sutra, Anonymous (Gene Reeves, trans.)
The Diamond Sutra, Anonymous (Red Pine, trans.)
The Essence of the Heart Sutra, Tenzin Gyatso
The Buddha Nature: A Study of the Tahtagatagarbha and Alayavijnana, Brian Brown
Essays in Zen Buddhism, Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D.T. Suzuki, D.T. Suzuki (William Barrett, ed.)
The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Bodhidharma (attr., Red Pine, trans.)
The Sutra of Hui-Neng, Hui-Neng (attr., Thomas Cleary, trans.)
Beyond Thinking, The Essential Dogen, Moon in a Dewdrop,
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, Enlightenment Unfolds, Dogen (Tanahashi and Levitt, ed.)
The Three Pillars of Zen, Philip Kapleau
Zen Training: Methods and Philosophy, Katsuki Sekida
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki
What Is Zen?, Norman Fischer and Susan Moon
Wake Up, Bonnie Treace
Buddha in Blue Jeans: An Extremely Short Zen Guide to Sitting Quietly and Being Buddha, Tai Sheridan
Zen and the Birds of Appetite, Thomas Merton
Zen for Christians, Kim Boykin
The Still Point, William Johnston


Vajrayana Buddhist | Dzogchen


Taoist
The Daoist Tradition: An Introduction, Louis Komjathy
Taoism: The Enduring Tradition, Russell Kirkland
Taoism: The Parting of the Way, Holmes Welch
Tao: The Watercourse Way, Alan Watts
The Four Chinese Classics, David Hinton (trans.)
Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu attr. (Stephen Mitchell, trans.)
Lao-Tze’s Tao Teh King (Chinese-English), Paul Carus
The Texts of Taoism, James Legge (trans.)
The Essential Chuang Tzu, Chuang Tzu attr. (Hamill and Seaton, ed.)
The Way of Chuang Tzu, Thomas Merton
The Book of Lieh-Tzu, Lieh-Tzu attr. (A.C. Graham, trans.)
Early Daoist Scriptures, Stephen Bokenkamp
Sitting in Oblivion, Livia Kohn
The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin


Islamic
Sufism: An Introduction to the Mystical Tradition of Islam, Carl Ernst
Essential Sufism, Various (Fadiman and Frager, ed.)
The Garden of Truth, Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Introduction to Sufism, Titus Burchhardt
Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism, Alexander Knysh
Sufism: Veil and Quintessence, Frithjof Schuon
What is Sufism?, Martin Lings
Philosophical Sufism, Mukhtar Ali
The Knowing Heart, Kabir Helminski
Sufism: Transformation of the Heart, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Freedom From The Self: Sufism, Meditation, and Psychotherapy, Mohammad Shafii
Remembrance: The Dhikr of the Inayati Sufis, Pir Netanel Miles-Yepez
The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks
The Key to Salvation and the Lamp of Souls, Ibn Ata Allah (Mary Ann Koury Danner, trans.)
On The Remembrance of God Most High, The Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God,
The Revival of the Religious Sciences, Alchemy of Happiness, Al-Ghazzali
The Bezels of Wisdom, Ibn Al-Arabi (R.W.J. Austin, trans.)
Sufi Encounters, Fadhlalla Haeri and Muneera Haeri


Jewish
Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl
The Will to Meaning, Viktor Frankl