If you are interested in spirituality, I suggest The Life of the Spirit by Evelyn Underhill. You can read it online here or download a text here.

Another of her famous works, Mysticism: A Study in Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness is in pdf format here.

I'm actually reading Mysticism right now as a devotional practice, and its richness amazes me. Even with the scholarly passages, I find I can barely get through a paragraph without having to stop and reflect on the insight therein. It's really something. Good thing there's no deadline I have to meet; I'll probably finish it somewhere around 2015!

Thanks John for bringing up this thread and thank you Rolling_Stone for starting it and sharing these two books with us. I have been searching for a long time for books on Mysticism and because you posted this post on my birthday...I see it as a gift of spirit.

I will order both books to read, but in the meantime I have a question: Was Evelyn a mystic herself?

If i may be allowed a blatant advert - The Life of the Spirit and the Life of To-day can also be read on my modest web-site here: Texts on Mysticism - Index as can other works by Evelyn: The Spiritual Life, A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness, Practical Mysticism, The Spiral Way, and The Column of dust.

Her works are profound, and enlightening.

Vivamis, according to Wikipedia:

Peace, Love, & Light

Thank you Aged Hippy. Have you read all her books or just a few? I wanted to buy one of hers, but got overwhelmed with choices.

Yes, i've read all of Evelyn's books.


Peace, Love, & Light

Is there one in particular that stands out?

Not really, i found them all to be very informative and illuminating, A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness is quite a detailed discussion (if only because of the abundance of references over 900 IIRC) which was written just before the outbreak of the Great War, and The column of dust is a novel which could best be described as a alien invasion.

I think that all her works are valuable for those interested in the expansion of their soul - and the ways to attain it.



Peace, Love, & Light

One paragraph from The Spiritual Life is, i think, particularly pertinent:
[ ... ]
"Christians, of course, acknowledge that Will and that Kingdom as the greatest of all realities every time they say the Lord's Prayer; that is, if they really grasp its tremendous implications, and really mean what they say. But so many Christians are like deaf people at a concert. They study the programme carefully, believe every statement made in it, speak respectfully of the quality of the music, but only really hear a phrase now and again. So they have no notion at all of the mighty symphony which fills the universe, to which our lives are destined to make their tiny contribution, and which is the self-expression of the Eternal God.
[ ... ]


Peace, Love, & Light

Here is a link to another of her books: Practical Mysticism