In this article, we want to share with you 15 best books for spiritual awakening. It doesn’t matter if you are a spiritual seeker or you are new to spirituality. Regardless of what stage you are in on your spiritual path right now, our collection of best books for spiritual awakening has a book for everyone!
Below are 15 best books for spiritual awakening. Choose a book that best resonates with you!
15 Best Books For Spiritual Awakening
“A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle
This is definitely one of the best books for spiritual awakening. And if you are new to spirituality, it’s perfect to start with!
Most of us aren’t aware of how our thoughts control us and we derived our sense of self from our mind. This identification with our mind is what Eckhart Tolle refers to as an ego-based state of consciousness or being unconscious. This bestselling book is about transcending one’s ego to enhance personal happiness and impact the world positively. It’s about awakening to a new state of consciousness and discovering our inner purpose.
Attachment to the ego can contribute to negative feelings and patterns of thinking. Reading this book will help you be more aware of the subtle things your ego does to make you unhappy and suffer.
“A New Earth” has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, “A New Earth” is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life and for building a better world.
“The Shift” by Wayne Dyer
“The Shift” is a companion book to the movie of the same name – illustrates how and why to make the move from ambition to meaning. Such a shift eliminates our feelings of separateness, illuminates our spiritual connectedness, and involves moving from the ego-directed morning into the afternoon of life where everything is primarily influenced by purpose.
As we contemplate leaving the morning of our life, where ego has played a commanding role and entering the afternoon (and evening), where meaning and purpose replace ambition and struggle, we may encounter unexpected occurrences that accompany this new direction. It’s almost a universal law that we’ll experience a fall of some kind. Yet these falls or low points provide the energy we need to move away from ego and into a life of meaning and purpose.
The Shift doesn’t mean that we lose our drive and ambition; it signifies that we become ambitious about something new. We make a commitment to living a life based on experiencing meaning and feeling purposeful, rather than never-ending demands and false promises that are the trademark of the ego’s agenda.
“The Celestine Prophecy” by James Redfield
You have never read a book like this before – a book that comes along once in a lifetime to change lives forever.
In the rain forests of Peru, an ancient manuscript has been discovered. Within its pages are 9 key insights into life itself – insights each human being is predicted to grasp sequentially; one insight, then another, as we move toward a completely spiritual culture on Earth.
Drawing on ancient wisdom, it tells you how to make connections among the events happening in your life right now and lets you see what is going to happen to you in the years to come. The story it tells is a gripping one of adventure and discovery, but it is also a guidebook that has the power to crystallize your perceptions of why you are where you are in life and to direct your steps with new energy and optimism as you head into tomorrow.
“The Book of Awakening” by Mark Nepo
Featured as one of Oprah’s Favorite Things in 2010, this book has become a classic go-to for people seeking spiritual meaning and purpose in their lives.
Written by a philosopher-poet, this book is a collection of 365 beautiful essays, one for each day. At the end of each essay, there’s a mini exercise to help you be present and get more in touch with your spirit.
The Book of Awakening is the result of Nepo’s journey of the soul and will inspire others to embark on their own. He speaks of spirit and friendship, urging readers to stay vital and in love with this life, no matter the hardships. Encompassing many traditions and voices, Nepo’s words offer insight on pain, wonder, and love. Each entry is accompanied by an exercise that will surprise and delight the reader in its mind-waking ability.
In this book, the author also shares his own journey as a cancer survivor and the spiritual insights he received from his experience. Reading this book will inspire you to embark on your own journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening.
This book is best suited for those who enjoy learning via the experiences of others and reading short essays.
“40 Day Mind Fast Soul Feast: A Guide to Soul Awakening and Inner Fulfillment” by Michael Bernard Beckwith
Numbers held great significance to the ancients, and the number 40 is constant in a variety of spiritual traditions. With 40 Day Mind Fast Soul Feast, you may begin your own 40 day transformational, mystical journey with a wise, experienced guide who has walked the terrain for 30 years as a practitioner and teacher of meditation, affirmative prayer, and the Life Visioning Process.
“The Spiritual Awakening Guide: Kundalini, Psychic Abilities, and the Conditioned Layers of Reality” by Mary Mueller Shutan
The first modern, comprehensive resource on spiritual awakenings, this pragmatic, clear guide covers everything from the first step on a spiritual journey to enlightenment, and the different types of spiritual awakenings, from mild to dramatic, we may go through.
Using the concept of the twelve layers that cover an awakened state Mary Mueller Shutan addresses every step of the spiritual journey, starting with the Self and showing how family, ancestral, past lives, karmic, archetypal, and other larger layers such as societal, cultural, global, and cosmic energies condition us to sleep and obscure our realization of an awakened state. Instructions for how to navigate through each of these layers and how to recognize where we are in our spiritual journey are included each step of the way along with common physical, emotional, and spiritual symptoms that may be experienced. By addressing post-awakening states, oneness, dark nights of the soul, ego death, near-death, and severe illness, psychic abilities, addictions, dietary changes, the God-self, personal and collective shadow, and psychosis vs. awakening we understand the experiences we may go through while struggling with spiritual awakenings. This practical book opens new understandings of how to live in the world while going through an awakening process and offers the revolutionary idea that we are meant to be humans, to have a physical body with physical, sensate experiences and emotions. We are meant to live in the world and be a part of it even as fully awakened individuals. This guide proposes a look at the possibility of leading a grounded, earth-bound life of work, family, friends, and other experiences in an awakened state.
“An Invitation to Freedom: Immediate Awakening for Everyone” by Mooji
Amidst the busyness and chaos of our daily lives, many of us search for meaning, fulfillment, and a genuine sense of who we really are beyond our ego and conditioning.
An Invitation to Freedom guides you toward the immediate, authentic awakening that so many of us seek – the realization of our true nature as pure, effortless awareness. These simple yet profound instructions, questions, and contemplations will lead you directly into the heart of truth and absolute freedom. This could be the greatest discovery you make in your life.
“3 Steps to Awakening” by Osho
This is one of the best books for spiritual awakening written by Osho!
Waking up or awakening means that the dream is over – the dream of unconsciousness we all spend most of our lives in – often a life of tensions, anguish, feeling unfulfilled and running after illusions which are just substitutes of what we are really looking for. This little book is actually a big book, containing Osho‘s entire teaching from an early period of his public life and teachings. He takes us through three steps on the path to awakening, steps to help us to get out of our conditioning, our limitations, and frustrations. “There are only three steps: freedom of consciousness, simplicity of mind, and emptiness of mind.”
For freedom of thought, for the liberation of thought, and for the awakening of intelligence, the first thing, the first awareness that is needed is: “No thought is mine. No thought is mine.” While we read this book, Osho takes us through this experience of letting go of identification, allows us to get a glimpse of what a life of awakening can be.
“Awakening of the Heart: Essential Buddhist Sutras and Commentaries” by Thich Nhat Hanh
Awakening of the Heart is a comprehensive, single-volume collection of the Buddha’s key sutras, translated with contemporary commentary by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Awakening of the Heart captures the heart of Buddhist wisdom and Thich Nhat Hanh’s unique talent to make the Buddha’s teachings accessible and applicable to our daily lives and times. This is a wonderful gift for anyone looking to deepen their practice and understanding of the teachings, as well as a unique resource to understand the fundamentals of Buddhism from its source.
“Awakening the Sacred Body: Tibetan Yogas of Breath and Movement” by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
The power of the breath has been recognized for millennia as an integral part of health and well-being. In Awakening the Sacred Body, teacher Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche makes accessible the ancient art of Tibetan breath and movement practices. In clear, easy-to-understand language, he outlines the theory and processes of two powerful meditations—the Nine Breathings of Purification and the Tsa Lung movements—that can help you change your relationship to yourself, to others, and to the world.
The simple methods presented in Awakening the Sacred Body and in the accompanying online video focus on clearing and opening your energetic centers to allow the natural human qualities of love, compassion, joy, and equanimity to arise. When sadness releases, joy is able to arise. When anger releases, love becomes available. When prejudice releases, equanimity prevails. And when lack of kindness ceases, compassion is present.
These practices, which focus the mind and breath together while performing specific body movements, will help you discover your inner wisdom and express your greatest potential.
“Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World” by Lama Surya Das
Lama Surya Das, the most highly trained American lama in the Tibetan tradition, presents the definitive book on Western Buddhism for the modern-day spiritual seeker.
The radical and compelling message of Buddhism tells us that each of us has the wisdom, awareness, love, and power of the Buddha within; yet most of us are too often like sleeping Buddhas. In Awakening the Buddha Within, Surya Das shows how we can awaken to who we really are in order to lead a more compassionate, enlightened, and balanced life. It illuminates the guidelines and key principles embodied in the noble Eight-Fold Path and the traditional Three Enlightenment Trainings common to all schools of Buddhism:
Wisdom Training: Developing clear vision, insight, and inner understanding – seeing reality and ourselves as we really are.
Ethics Training: Cultivating virtue, self-discipline, and compassion in what we say and do.
Meditation Training: Practicing mindfulness, concentration, and awareness of the present moment.
With lively stories, meditations, and spiritual practices, Awakening the Buddha Within is an invaluable text for the novice and experienced students of Buddhism alike.
“The Little Book of Buddhist Awakening: The Buddha’s instructions on attaining Enlightenment” by Eric Van Horn
The Little Book of Buddhist Awakening looks at the subtle and elusive questions about awakening, which is also commonly called “enlightenment.” What does it mean to awaken? What are the different ways in which the Buddha described the end of the Noble Eightfold Path? What are common misconceptions about awakening?
“Awakening the Mind, Lightening the Heart: Core Teachings of Tibetan Buddhism Hardcover” by Dalai Lama
The second volume in the landmark Library of Tibet series, Awakening the Mind, Lightening the Heart examines the next step of the Path: Compassion. Based on a classic fourteenth-century Tibetan poem famous for its ability to awaken compassion in the human heart, this elegant primer combines the mind training and stages of the path traditions of Tibetan Buddhism with enduring simplicity and illuminating prose.
“Holy Science” by Sri Yukteswar Giri
This extraordinary treatise explores parallel passages from the Bible and the Hindu scriptures to reveal the essential unity of all religions. Swami Sri Yukteswar, the revered guru of Paramahansa Yogananda, outlines the universal path that every human being must travel to enlightenment. He also explains the vast recurring cycles of civilization, affording a profound understanding of history and the ever-changing panorama of turbulent world events.
“The Yoga Sutras by Patañjali” by Swami Satchidananda
This valuable book provides a complete manual for the study and practice of Raja Yoga, the path of concentration and meditation. The classic Sutras (thought-threads), at least 4,000 years old, cover the yogic teachings on ethics, meditation, and physical postures, and provide directions for dealing with situations in daily life. The Sutras are presented here in the purest form, with the original Sanskrit and with translation, transliteration, and commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda, one of the most respected and revered contemporary Yoga masters. In this classic context, Sri Swamiji offers practical advice based on his own experience for mastering the mind and achieving physical, mental and emotional harmony.