Customer Reviews

50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom from 50 Great Books on Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose

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Butler-Bowdon's '50 Self-help Classics' (2003) and '50 Success classics' (2004) have been acclaimed as erudite commentaries in personal development literature. His third volume in this Trilogy- '50 Spiritual Classics' is a compelling read that establishes Butler-Bowdon firmly in the unique niche' that he has carved for himself with his previous two works in the field of personal development literature.

Reading the `50 Spiritual Classics' is an enlightening and often humbling experience. Whether it be The Discourses of Epictetus (Enchiridion), or Pirsig's 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence', the author displays a masterful ease which is commendable. Halfway through a chapter, one is often seized upon by an unstoppable urge to tear out, get hold of the title being commented upon by the author and read every page of it. And then one decides to exert self-control and continue with Bowden's own book as it is just too difficult to put down.

A brief glance at some of the authors reviewed bears testament to the breadth covered by this 320-page book: St. Augustine, Malcolm X, Chuang Tzu, Gandhi, Kahlil Gibran, Carlos Casteneda and Fritjof Capra! Somerset Maugham's `The Razor's edge' and Huxley's `The Doors of perception' are included. The authors and works in focus are dissected in a fairly non-judgemental fashion. Tom Butler-Bowdon succeeds in bringing out the essential messages and themes of the spiritual classics reviewed without sounding reverential.

This is not a jingoistic account of spiritualism or PD literature; This is not a collection of pontifications from a zealous convert; this is not a book of lists........'50 Spiritual Classics' is a candid and insightful exposition into the subject; it seeks to review the books and to a lesser extent the people who wrote them in the wider sense implied by the work `spirituality'.

But then why do we not see The Bible or Bhagavad Gita in the list, one may wonder. Simply because they have been commented upon in his previous works. Upon reflection, it becomes clear that this third offering is linked in spirit with the themes dealt with in '50 Self-Help Classics' and '50 Success Classics'. As Tom Butler-Bowdon notes with delightful insight in his Introduction, "The paradox of personal development is that, taken to its logical end, it takes us beyond the self. Meaning is found outside the perimeter of our small concerns."

Where does that leave us mortals? We could exert our wider choice and get hold of the Butler-Bowdon trilogy and make them part of that particular bookshelf which you reserve for special tomes. Those volumes that you reach out for to delve into in moments of introspection, or even pure indulgence.

50 Self-Help Classics: 50 Inspirational Books to Transform Your Life, From Timeless Sages to Contemporary Gurus
50 Success Classics: Winning Wisdom for Life and Work from 50 Landmark Books
50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom from 50 Great Books on Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose

In the first instance, I have bought these three books in one go because I have been fascinated by what the author had done: He has practised what is known as the highest level of reading. Mortimer Adler, in his classic book, 'How to Read a Book', written in the forties, had called it 'syntopical reading'. It's actually reading a number of books of the same genre, more or less simultaneously & then synthesising the key points.

Secondly, the author, who is a graduate of the London School of Economics, somehow impresses me with his ability to synthesise the big picture of each of the books that made up the entire collection. For apparently a left-brain thinker i.e. economist by training, this has been a very remarkable feat, as his synthesising endeavour has been essentially more of a right-brain activity. Well, I must compliment him for a job well done.

Before my final decision on buying the three books, I have been thrilled by the prospect of reading three books, which in turn will give me access to one hundred & fifty books.

For each book, the author has very artfully as well as skillfully selected fifty books to made up one collection. I may not agree with his selection, but I must admit that I can't default him at all.

Take the first book, '50 Self Help Classics', with timeless wisdom, as an example. Out of the fifty books he has selected, I have read only seventeen of them. I have those books in my personal library.

For the second book, '50 Success Classics', I have read & still own sixteen of the landmark books on winning wisdom selected by the author.

For the third & final book, '50 Spiritual Classics', covering timeless sages & contemporary gurus, I have read only & still own three of them, namely 'The Tao of Physics', 'The Way of the Peaceful Warrior' & 'Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'.

For those books I have read previously, totaling thirty-six of them (probably stretching over three decades of my life), & upon revisiting them again in the trilogy, which actually took me one whole weekend to complete, starting on Friday evening & finishing on Sunday night, I must say that the seemingly marathon reading experience has been very refreshing & uplifting. It has also given me the opportunity to check & verify whether the author has captured the key ideas or essence of those books. I don't think I can find fault with the author in this respect.

Not only that, in the first book, I am very impressed that the author has cut through the bewildering array of choices to bring the essential ideas, insights, and techniques from the `literature of possibilities'. In works that span the world's religions, cultures, philosophies, & centuries, he summarizes each work's key ideas & finally makes clear how these legendary classics can educate, affirm, & motivate anyone searching for the inspiration to make a meaningful life change.

In the second book, the author is back with his wide-ranging collection of enduring works from pioneering thinkers, philosophers, & powerful leaders, like Napoleon Hill, Stephen Covey, Kenneth Blanchard, Baltasar Gracian & Christopher Maurer; from the inspirational rags to riches stories of such entrepreneurs, like Andrew Carnegie, Warren Buffet & Sam Walton to the leadership lessons of Sir Ernest Shackleton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln & Nelson Mandela, just to name a few.

In the third book, I believe the author has captured the very best in spiritual writing: They include personal diaries & compelling biographies of such diverse figures as Gandhi, Malcolm X, & Black Elk & Eastern philosophers & gurus including Krishnamurti, Yogananda, Chögyam Trungpa & Suzuki; & Western saints & mystics such as St. Francis of Assisi, Herman Hesse & Simone Weil. For each book in this volume, the author offers insightful commentary on how these classics can help spiritual seekers everywhere bring personal beliefs, values & practices squarely into the center of their every day lives.

Reading the three foregoing books has been quite a breeze because the meaning of each work is initially captured 'in a nut shell' at the onset, coupled with a representative quote as well as cross-referencing to similar work. In each work, appropriate sectional headings in bold print make it really easy for the reader to follow the author's train of thoughts over some six pages. There is also a short biographical sketch of the author of the respective work.

I must admit that the third book in the trilogy has been the most challenging for me to read as I normally do not go for such stuff. To put it bluntly, it's not my cup of tea. On the other hand, the curiosity streak in me has been too overwhelming, since I relish the thought that I could read fifty spiritual classics in just one book!

Overall, & for all those books I have not yet read at all (some of which I have not even heard of), I really enjoyed digesting the author's bite-sized summaries (in actuality, they are only the main ideas, context & impact of each title, to give a taste of the literature, so to speak) in the three collections or volumes, even though some of the titles are relatively esoteric for me. The entire reading journey has been enlightening, inspirational & yet humbling in some areas. Best of all, there are useful tools & practical techniques to take away from each collection!

For the first & last book in the trilogy, namely, '50 Self Help Classics' & '50 Spirtual Classics', the author has respectively provide a list of additional 50 books. The titles are certainly enticing! Well, all I can say is this: I wish the author will repeat his syntopical reading exercise covering these books & add two more volumes, that will make a quintulogy, for all the readers out there, including me!

As usual, all my three books are now scribbled with my own hand-written marginal annotations as well as my fancy colour marker symbols. Additionally, there are also colourful sticky notes in between selected pages. My next personal assignment is to transfer all these notations into mindmaps with Mindmanager Pro.

To end my review, I have one last humble comment to make. Out of the one hundred & fifty bite-sized summaries, I still don't quite get it from 'The Bhagavad-Gita' as outlined in the author's '50 Self Help Classics'. I have not read this work before although I have heard about it. [J Y Pillay, former Chairman of Singapore Airlines, who is credited for building the airline to what it is today, A Great Way to Fly, has vouched for this ancient Hindu scripture as an inspiration for his leadership success during an interview.] However, in the same vein, I found that I could relate quickly to Deepak Chopra's 'The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success' but simply not this one! I may have to explore other avenue.

In site of the above minor short-coming, I strongly believe that the three books in the author's trilogy are really an intellectual treasure!

I'm reading a lot of self-help or success literature by people like Anthony Robbins and Zig Ziglar at the moment. They touch on the spiritual aspect of our lives, but mainly their emphasis is on the here and now. I've found that approach useful, but on the days when I feel able tackle the greater questions I turn to books like 50 Spiritual Classics.

This book follows the format of Butler-Bowden's previous 50 Self Help Classics and 50 Success Classics. In a clear and concise style he examines 50 texts ranging from ancient to modern, taking in many different forms of spiritual experience. The short chapters allow the reader to learn a lot with just a little effort. I don't have as much time as I'd like to read, but I can usually find ten minutes to absorb a chapter. His languange is intelligent and incise, but never dull or worthy. He has a dry sense of humour that makes reading his work a delight.

It's not just how Butler-Bowden summarizes the books that makes 50 Spiritual Classics special. What he does is arrange the information to help the reader digest the sometimes complex ideas easily. You can read this book from start to finish, or if you find a particular stream of spiritual thinking more to your taste, follow that path by referring to the In A Similar Vein section. Butler-Bowden also gives a one-sentence In A Nutshell summary of each book. Perhaps even more importantly he organises the classics into different categories, such as great spiritual lives, practical spirituality, opening the doors of perception and divine relationship and life purpose.

50 Spiritual Classics is by its very nature less practical than Butler-Bowden's previous books. There is still much to inspire here, though spiritual revelation seems much more personal in nature and difficult to reproduce.

There are various books that 50 Spiritual Classics has inspired me to investigate more fully. I had never considered Toltec wisdom as an avenue for exploration before, but now Butler-Bowden has introduced Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. What I find interesting is the similarities between Ruiz's ideas and those of Anthony Robbins. These are two figures that you might not immediately think have much in common. But it seems as if they have come to similar conclusions by different routes. According to Butler-Bowden, Ruiz and Robbins agree that how we use words and how we communicate with ourselves and others, determines the person we are and the world we live in. To find out if the similarities are more than superficial I shall have to do some further reading.

I recommend this book to everyone who wishes to learn more about inner discovery, enlightenment and purpose, whether they consider themselves spiritual or not.

I read and enjoyed Mr. Bowdon's Self-Help & Career Classic books. 50 Spiritual Classics is different in that the first two focused on your profession, goals and self improvement with something of a business slant. This book is more for your soul. As a type-A person, I might never normally read the books in 50 Spiritual Classics which is why I appreciate receiving the essence of 50 books in about 6 pages each. Unless you majored in religion, you will learn things and be exposed to thinking outside your normal "zone". In our turbulent world where much conflict can be traced to religion beliefs, maybe exposure and understanding of different beliefs is what everyone needs.

The books in Tom Butler-Bowdon's Classics series (including 50 Success Classics and 50 Self Help Classics) are classics in themselves. Each beautifully written entry contains an "in a nutshell" description of the key thinker's work and a highly informative summary of his or her life.

Even if you're well versed in spirituality, these thoughtful essays are likely to fill in some blanks in your knowledge. For example, I discovered that Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics, did research at UC Santa Cruz, my alma mater. I brushed up on Islam with Muhammad Asad's The Road to Mecca. I got the jist of Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life without having to read the book. This is what makes this collection especially enjoyable: Not only are the essays inspiring, but they give you that satisfying feeling of being educated and enlightened all in one sitting.

This is certainly a worthwhile read and will serve as a good jumping off point into the spiritual classics, although the book is slanted a bit towards Eastern and New Age titles. With that said, only slightly more than half of the titles chosen are true classics. The author included some real gems like, The Alchemy of Happiness, Interior Castle, and The Varieties of Religious Experience, but the book's title loses some credibility when it includes books like The Celestine Prophecy, The Purpose Driven Life, The Four Agreements, Journey of Souls, and The Spiral Dance (by Starhawk... really?). It is admittedly difficult to include modern or New Age books among the classics for the obvious reason that they have not yet withstood the test of time; however, for me it would have been enough to include A Course in Miracles, The Power of Now and perhaps A Theory of Everything as solid representations of modern New Age spirituality. Also, the inclusion of The Book of Marjorie Kempe is unfortunate. Female mystics from the middle ages were sometimes labeled as hysterics (Teresa of Avila being perhaps the most famous and unfairly labeled), but in Marjorie Kempe's case it's probably an apt title (at best she was highly emotional). If the author was looking to include an English female mystic, even one from the 14th century (same as Kempe), Julian of Norwich would have been the superior choice (Revelations of Divine Love is a true classic).

This collection would have been much improved by leaving out the questionable or at least the "yet to be determined" classics (although does anyone really think that in a hundred years from now, people will still be reading The Celestine Prophecy?), and instead include some already determined and completely agreed upon classics. Here is a short list of works that could have been considered:

The Dark Night of the Soul - by St. John of the Cross
Mysticism - by Evelyn Underhill (2nd half is romantic genius at its best!)
Works of Love - by Kierkegaard
The Cloud of Unknowing - unknown author (Thomas Keating's modern reworking of this classic has sparked an entire interior prayer movement within the Christian community)
The Spiritual Teachings of Ramana Maharshi
The Spiritual Espousals - by John of Ruysbroeck
I and Thou - by Martin Buber
Essential Sermons - by Meister Eckhart
I Am That - by Sri N. Maharaj
A Serious Call... by William Law
The Seven Story Mountain - by Thomas Merton
The Art of Living - by S.N. Goenka
The Ladder of Perfection - by Walter Hilton
The Gospel of Ramakrishna
Holy Wisdom - by Augustine Baker

Where the author excels is in his ability to capture the main points of each book, especially conveying why the work is important, all in about three pages. He clearly showed up for class the day they taught book report writing in High School English.

A lot of wonderful books have been written, but not all of us have time to read as many of them as we would like. Tom Butler-Bowden has apparently made the time, and those of us who wish we could read more are his beneficiaries.

50 Spiritual Classics contains four to eight page summary/commentaries of 50 books chosen for their ability to inspire, expand and improve. While reading them all yourself would be ideal, the four to eight pages this book provides is enough space to give you some understanding of the books you haven't read, and to refresh your memory of books you have. These book reviews are accessible and enticing. Perusing 50 Spiritual Classics is a good way to chose which of the works covered you would like to explore on your own. A vast expanse of time is represented. The earliest authors are St. Augustine, Epictetus and Chuang Tzu, who all lived 1,600 or so years ago. The most recent are Ken Wilber, Rick Warren and Pema Chodron. The scope is wide too, including Mother Teresa, Malcolm X, and Black Elk.

Many of the world's major religions are represented in the books Butler-Bowden has chosen, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, but the focus here is on a personal spirituality. For this reason the book provides the life stories of many of the authors it covers. Butler-Bowden points out that the word "spiritual" comes from the Latin word for breath. Just as breath is an ordinary, everyday part of living, Butler-Bowden sees spiritual development as a natural, rather than unusual, part of our humanness.

This is the third in Butler-Bowden's trilogy of books meant to highlight powerful, life-changing ideas found in works that have stood the test of time. 50 Self-Help Classics and 50 Success Classics began the series. Some of the books you might expect to find in this third book are covered earlier, for instance the Bible, Tao Te Ching, the Bhagavad-Gita and the Dhammapada are included in 50 Self-Help Classics along with Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Thomas Moore and The Dalai Lama.

50 Spiritual Classics is interesting, inspiring and even timely. To take an example from the news, are you curious about how reading A Purpose Driven Life could help the woman in Florida convince an escaped prisoner to turn himself in when he had already killed several other people? That book is profiled here. Every book covered has had a powerful impact.

This is one of five volumes in a series written by Tim Butler-Bowdon. Each of the others also focuses on 50 "classic" sources of information and wisdom provided in landmark books in the fields of prosperity, psychology, self-help, spirituality, and success. Of course, throughout human history, the subject of this book - spirituality -- has been nurtured as well as defined and measured in many different ways. Hence the importance of the fact that Butler-Bowdon offers a wide range of perspectives from the works of an especially diversified group that includes St. Augustine (Confessions, 400), Carlos Castaneda (Journey to Ixtlan, 1972), Mohandas Gandhi (An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1927), William James (The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902), C.S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters, 1942), Teresa of Avila (Inferior Castle, 1570), Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, 1998), Rick Warren (The Purpose-Driven Life, 2002), and Paramahansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi, 1946).

As in the other volumes in his series, Butler-Bowdon follows a format for each of the 50 chapters: brief representative quotations, an "In a nutshell" section, a rigorous and remarkably thorough summary of the given source's key points, a Final comments" section, and then (in most instances) a brief bio of its author. I also appreciate the fact that the book can be read straight through from the first chapter to the last (i.e.Mahammad Asad to Gary Zukav), or in chronological order, or according to six thematic categories (Great spiritual lives, Practical spirituality, The great variety of experience, Opening the doors of perception, Divine relationship and life purpose, and Humanity's spiritual evolution), or by cherry-picking whichever contributors and/or subjects are of greatest interest. As a convenience to his reader, Butler-Bowdon suggests in his Introduction which authors belong in which category. Here are a few of his comments about some of those whom he discusses, followed by a brief statement by Eckhart Tolle:

"If your misery is great enough, there is a chance that you will arrive at an equally great sense of peace and purpose that less intense people will never experience. The Confessions is one of the best pieces of writing on how a divided, tormented person can be healed through religion...From his inauspicious Roman backwater childhood and fast-living student days, it is remarkable that Augustine became (along with Aquinas) the major intellectual figure in the Christian West for the next 1,000 years. His huge work, The City of God (426), which took 13 years to write, became a theological foundation stone for the emergent Christian religion. All this from a black man born into the fringes of the white empire." (Page 25)

"Gandhi did not like the title Mahatma, as he did not think of himself as a great man. Far from being a trumpet blowing exercise, his autobiography was designed to detail, objectively his discoveries and failures in relation to right principles and spiritual truth, and he never claimed to have been perfect...Our choice today is to look on him as a singular individual whose like we may never see again, or to take the trail he blazed as our own. Either way, what Gandhi achieved in his experiments is now the spiritual heritage of us all." (Page 89)

William James "recognized a pattern in conversion experiences. They tended to happen when people were so low that they just `gave up,' the vacuum of hope providing space for revelation. The religious literature is full of stories along these lines, in which the constrictions and negative aspects of the ego are finally discarded; we begin to live only for others or for some higher goal. The compensation for becoming dependent on God is a letting go of fear, and it is this that makes conversion such a liberating experience." (Page 133)

"Is painting the world in terms of good and evil too simplistic? Perhaps, but [C.S.] Lewis's quirky presentation of the polarities as real is quite convincing and makes us think about all of the rationalizations we use to justify our thoughts and actions. What we can take from this book [i.e. The Screwtape Letters] is a reassurance that there is something in us that is naturally resistant to corruption - and that by being true to ourselves we can succeed in increasing that resistance." (Page 158)

Eckhart Tolle: "Don't look for any other state than the one you are in now; otherwise, you will set up inner conflict and unconscious resistance. Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace. Anything you accept fully will get you there, will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender." (Chapter 43, 50 Spiritual Classics, Page 264)

With all due respect to Butler-Bowdon's other books, (especially those that focus on self-help and success), I think this one is his most valuable because his discussion of the 50 works in which their authors discuss spiritual issues helps his reader to understand that "the quest for material security alone does not ultimately satisfy, and that not even emotional security or great knowledge is enough to sustain us - we were built to see answers to larger questions." He notes that the word "spiritual" comes from the Latin word for breathing. "If nothing else, this book aims to dispel the idea that there is anything outlandish about spiritual experience; on the contrary, it is what makes us human." This book is only indirectly about religion and theology. Its primary focus is on what others have learned during their journeys of exploration and discovery within a realm that has what William James characterizes as an "unseen order," and our "supreme good" lies in a harmonious adjustment to it. In this context, Tom Butler-Bowdon cites a Persian proverb that serves both as an appropriate conclusion to his Introduction and to this commentary: "Seek the truth in meditation, not in moldy books. Look in the sky to find the moon, not in the pond."

My review can be summarized with the simple statement that this is among the best books I've ever read in the genres of spirituality, philosophy, and religion, and in fact in any genre. It provides truly meaningful exposure to a diverse kaliedoscope of spiritual viewpoints which, for the most part, I find to be complementary and reinforcing, rather than contradictory and conflicting.

The result for me has been profoundly tranformative, and I think that will be the case for many others who read the book, provided that they do so with an open mind. For those who are diehard skeptics or dogmatists, perhaps this book will even open many of their minds.

I'm eagerly looking forward to reading many of the books summarized in this book, as well as the three other books in the "50 Classics" series written by the author.

In short, I can't recommend this book strongly enough, and it's no accident that all of the prior reviewers gave it 5 stars. I've given copies of this book to quite a few people, which is something I've never done before with any other book.

Let me say it in another way: if you were stranded on an island and could have only one book, this might be the one to have.

In these 50 spiritual classics, if they remind us of anything, it is the fragility of our humanity. We humans are really just "little fearful ego machines," floating about rudderless in various cultural seas. In each culture we have struck a deal with society that we will "act in a certain way" in exchange for the protection of the "belonging" that society provides us?

[What an inherently juvenile arrangement?]

Both our freedom and enjoyment happens to be tied to and exists within the confines of this unholy deal struck between our ego and society. Fulfillment thus cannot just be about self (as in self-fulfillment) -- i.e. maintenance of the temple called the ego -- but also necessarily must be about how to best improve and advance the human condition: our common humanity.

That is the only project worthy of the time we spend on this earth. If we succeed, we earn the right to die; if we fail, there are no human or imaginary games that will save us in the afterlife, period.

In short, in this larger project, there are no shortcuts or angles to be played. It is an existential game from the very beginning (when our butts are spanked) to the inevitable end (dust-to-dust and back into the ground). Everything else - gods, angels, gurus, ghosts, and imaginary manipulative friends in the sky; shamans, witch doctors, and other forms of snake oil salesmen - is a delusional game. The comforts they offer are temporary and maximally unsafe for the growth and maturity of the ego, and I believe for the main project of our existence, advancing our humanity.

Isn't it curious that only a handful of these 50 are theological scholars, and most of these are from antiquity? Five stars