Mystical Spirituality Book Group

Our Mystical Spirituality Book Group meets in person once per quarter to discuss a book that deepens our exploration of mystical spirituality through a range of spiritual traditions.

As part of the Book Group we also have an ongoing WhatsApp chat for informal connection and comment while we read the book.

If you would like to be involved, please send an email to: compassionatesociety@yahoo.com

Upcoming:

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

A 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha.

Previous titles:

Meister Eckhart by Matthew Fox

‘Like Rumi, the great Christian mystic Meister Eckhart was—according to Matthew Fox’s brilliant and inspiring account—deeply ecumenical, encompassing wisdom that one can find in Jewish, Sufi, Buddhist, and Hindu mystical traditions, as well as in shamanism and indigenous spirituality. Eckhart advocated for social, economic, and gender justice. He also championed an earth-based spirituality and a cosmic consciousness, and taught that we are all artists whose vocation is to birth the Cosmic Christ (or Buddha Nature). All these elements have inspired Fox and influenced his Creation Spirituality. In this book, Fox imagines dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, and many others.’ — Tikkun Magazine review

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

‘Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves the big city to return to the area where she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of New South Wales. She doesn’t believe in God, yet finds herself living a strange, reclusive existence almost by accident. A temporary visit becomes something much more permanent …’ Booker Prize Reading Guide

Seduced by Grace by Michael Bernard Kelly

In these collected writings, Michael Bernard Kelly invites us into an intimate exploration of the inner wisdom and radical challenge of Christianity. In reflections that take us from the fields of Nicaragua to New York and the ‘War on Terror’; from the joy of erotic pleasure to the challenge of cleansing the church of homophobia, Kelly gives voice to a spirituality of desire grounded in justice and love. “Michael Kelly writes with great precision and poignancy of a yearning which everyone shares. A yearning for love, both physical and spiritual. A yearning for completion…” – Fiona Capp. “Michael Kelly has come out but stayed in. His indictment of the church is stark but his vision of what it might become has the power to move even hardened atheists…” – David Marr

A.H. Almaas, The Unfolding Now

The keys to self-knowledge and deep contentment are right here before us in this very moment – if we can simply learn to live with open awareness. In The Unfolding Now, A. H. Almaas presents a marvelously effective practice for developing the transformative quality of presence. Through a particular method of self-observation and contemplative exploration that he calls inquiry, we learn to live in the relaxed condition of simply “being ourselves,” without interference from feelings of inadequacy, drivenness toward goals, struggling to figure things out, and rejecting experiences we don’t want. Almaas explores the many obstacles that keep us from being present – including defensiveness, ignorance, desire, aggression, and self-hatred – and shows us how to welcome with curiosity and compassion whatever we are experiencing.

Tyson Yunkaporta, Right Story, Wrong Story