What the Stones Remember: A Life Rediscovered by Patrick Lane At age 62, after forty years spent in a haze of heavy drinking, the poet Patrick Lane got sober--and the beauty of the world knocked him off his feet. He spent a good deal of his time working in the garden and recording what arose

The Eight Gates of Zen: A Program of Zen Training by John Daido Loori   If you want to practice Zen but there's no zendo for miles around, this book may be the next best thing. It contains the complete, eight-phase program of training taught at Zen Mountain Monastery, Mt. Tremper, New York. It's a

The world lost one of its greatest meditation masters and teachers in the past few days, Kyabje Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche,  at the age of 103 or 104.  Chatral Rinpoche was a teacher's teacher - a bridge between the great teachers the 19th and early 20th centuries like Khenpo Ngagchung, Sera Khandro, and Dudjom Rinpoche

The Way of a Pilgrim and The Pilgrim Continues His Way translated by Olga Savin This is the little book that Franny clings to throughout her doomed date with Lane in the J.D. Salinger classic Franny and Zooey, which is likely how most people came to know about it after 1961. But this classic of

Untrain Your Parrot: And Other No-Nonsense Instructions on the Path of Zen By Elizabeth Hamilton   It has nothing to do with birds. The "parrot" Elizabeth Hamilton refers to is nothing other than discursive thinking, and the untraining she offers is about learning not to let it run your life. The wise and quirky voice

Individuation in Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz Here's another one from the days when we published extensively in Jungian psychology-and it's arguably one of the best. Von Franz was likely Jung's closest student, and her insights into how fairy tales can tell us who we are can be world-view transforming.

Mango Elephants in the Sun: How Life in an African Village Let Me Be in My Skin by Susana Herrera It's a funky title, but don't let that hold you back. Susana's account of her two years in the Peace Corps in Cameroon is a rollicking good read. As much for the wisdom it contains