The Sacred Art of Chant: Preparing to Practice (The Art of Spiritual Living)

Open your mind and heart, lift your voice, and discover how the sacred art of chant can enrich your spiritual life.
"Chanting with an intention to open our hearts and minds to the presence of God in us helps us to be quiet in the face of mystery and learn how to hear what it has to say to us…. Chanting is holistic. It will transform you, you will embody the change, and people will notice the new, more grounded you. More important, though, you will notice the new, more grounded you." ―from the Introduction
The Sacred Art of Chant invites you to use your own voice to create sacred sounds―no matter your religious background or vocal ability. Drawing on chants from several different faith traditions, this invigorating guidebook is ideal for anyone who wants to enliven their prayer experience in a unique way and navigate a path to a conscious relationship with God.
Chant isn't just about monks or ancient Hindu gurus―this dynamic spiritual art continues to be developed and practiced today. Like other spiritual disciplines, chant can lead to limitless and unexpected benefits. With a steady practice and an open mind, you may find that chant helps you to:
<ul>
<li>Cultivate clarity, focus, and compassion in your daily life</li>
<li>Improve your listening skills</li>
<li>Raise your energy level</li>
<li>Improve your receptivity to other people</li>
<li>Transcend the limits you impose on yourself</li>
<li>Feel more comfortable in your own skin</li>
<li>Ultimately, lead a more complete spiritual life</li>
</ul>

Arts & Photography

Hernandez, Ana

Music

SkyLight Paths Publishing

Summer: A Spiritual Biography of the Season

Organized around themes of time and people's response to it, a lush collection of essays, poems, and meditations by great writers explores the rich vibrancy of summer and its spiritual meanings. Original.

Religion & Spirituality

Helps children learn how to communicate with God―without fantasy.
Does God Hear My Prayer? playfully guides children down their own paths of spiritual discovery by exploring the many ways that children can communicate with God. Using simple, everyday examples that children can relate to, this colorful book introduces preschoolers as well as young readers (ages 3–6) to prayer and how prayer can help them express their own fears, wants, sadness, surprise and joy.
Multicultural, nondenominational and nonsectarian, this beautiful book helps parents and children of all faiths and backgrounds embark, together, on an imaginative journey in search of ways we can use our voices to develop a direct and personal understanding with God.

Does God Hear My Prayer?

Children's Books

Gold, August

Religions

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, wife and spiritual companion of Sri Ramakrishna, was a rare combination of human and divine qualities, and is an inspiration today to millions of spiritual seekers. This enlightening collection, the first American publication of the conversations of the Holy Mother as recorded by her disciples both lay and monastic, provides an intimate look at her life and teachings. An essential spiritual guide for people of all backgrounds, this book presents: Details of Sri Sarada Devi's life as both wife of Sri Ramakrishna and revered spiritual guide An exploration of a teacher's role in Hindu spiritual life Excerpts from the diaries of several disciples, offering unique insight into Holy Mother's daily life and conversations with her devotees

Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother: Her Teachings & Conversations

Nikhilananda, Swami

Next to Godliness: Finding the Sacred in Housekeeping

Explore the place where clean and holy meet―and chart a new course toward discovering sanctity. 
"I've always sought solace in cleaning.... As my husband and I packed up our apartment and cleaned the profound dust of the Twin Towers from our books and pillows, we used this shared ritual as an opportunity to reflect and heal. As my neighbor once said, 'Cleaning house is my church.’" ―from the Introduction
Be they our kitchens after a meal or our communities after a crisis, we all face the times―and opportunities―when we must clean up. Through a beautiful, diverse and eclectic array of personal narratives, fiction, sacred texts and verse, this inspiring book offers new perspectives on the unique ways we can reach out for the Divine within the simple acts of washing the dishes, doing the laundry, making a home and more. Giving the process of cleaning house depth and resonance, these writings will speak to your heart and allow you to see beyond the task at hand and into a greater undertaking―to realize the sacred in all that we do.
From sweeping the home, to organizing the office, to cleaning up the more daunting “Big Messes” in our communities, this engaging book touches upon every facet of our lives.
Contributors include:
Louisa May Alcott • Gaston Bachelard • James Baldwin • Andrea Barrett • Mary Catherine Bateson • Jeannette Batz • Sue Bender • Stephen Vincent Benét • Henri Bosco • Sarah Ban Breathnach • Gwendolyn Brooks • Brother Lawrence • Dominique Browning • Yitzhak Buxbaum • Lydia Maria Child • Joan Chittister • Billy Collins • Amiya Corbin • John Crawford • Dorothy Day • Shoghi Effendi • Rick Fields • Sir James George Frazer • Tess Gallagher • Mahatma Gandhi • Allen Ginsberg • Bernard Glassman • Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb • Tenzin Gyatso • Thich Nhat Hanh • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Homer • Ashley Isaacson • Martin Luther King, Jr • Dorianne Laux • Ursula K. Le Guin • Eric Leigh • Jarvis Jay Masters • Cheryl Mendelson • Mother Teresa • Pablo Neruda • Marsha Norman • Gunilla Norris • Kathleen Norris • Kakuzo Okakura • Marc Poirier • Louise Rafkin • Otagaki Rengetsu • Rainer Maria Rilke • Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche • Marilynne Robinson • Taigu Ryokan • Hannah Whitall Smith • Starhawk • Henry David Thoreau • Gary Thorp • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe • Booker T. Washington • Jessamyn West • Richard Wilbur • Virginia Woolf • Anzia Yezierska

The restless heart and searching mind of this influential early church father can offer spiritual and intellectual companionship for your spiritual journey.
Augustine of Hippo (354–430), theologian, priest, and bishop, is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. He is known as much for his long interior struggle that ended with conversion and baptism at age thirty-two as for his influential teachings on human will, original sin and the theology of just war. Cherished as a model for the pursuit of a life of spiritual grace and criticized for his theory of predestination, Augustine is recognized as a living expression of the passion to understand and communicate the deeper meanings of human experience.
With fresh translations drawn from Augustine's voluminous writings and probing facing-page commentary, Augustinian scholar Joseph T. Kelley, PhD, provides insight into the mind and heart of this foundational Christian figure. Kelley illustrates how Augustine’s keen intellect, rhetorical skill and passionate faith reshaped the theological language and dogmatic debates of early Christianity. He explores the stormy religious arguments and political upheavals of the fifth century, Augustine’s controversial teachings on predestination, sexuality and marriage, and the deep undercurrents of Augustine’s spiritual quest that still inspire Christians today.

Saint Augustine of Hippo: Selections from Confessions and Other Essential Writings, Annotated & Explained Edition

Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo

Christian Books & Bibles

Proverbs: Annotated & Explained (SkyLight Illuminations)

Wise and practical prescriptions for how to live with an honest perception of reality can become a companion for your own spiritual journey.
More than commonplace truisms, the biblical Book of Proverbs is an anthology of teachings designed to help you live with a sense of self-responsibility. Its wisdom, compiled in the seventh century BCE and credited to King Solomon, transcends nationality and politics, addressing instead the individual seeking the true satisfaction and tranquility that comes from living with an honest perception of reality.
In this fresh translation of an ancient "how-to," Rami Shapiro unpacks the proverbs, demonstrating how these complex poetic forms are actually straightforward instructions to live simply, without rationalizations and excuses. He shows how unlike almost anything else in the Hebrew Bible, the truths claimed in the Book of Proverbs are testable and verifiable. They force us to examine our lives and how we are living them without the benefit of psychological sophistry and New Age babble: We are either doing good or doing bad; we are either disciplined or lazy; we are either students of wisdom or puppets of desire.
Now you can experience the Book of Proverbs and understand Solomon's teachings with no previous knowledge of the Hebrew Bible. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents insightful commentary that shares these timeless principles and encourages us to put them into practice in ways that are uniquely our own.

Proverbs (SkyLight Illuminations)

Lectio Divina―The Sacred Art: Transforming Words & Images into Heart-Centered Prayer

Christine Valters Paintner

Open your mind and heart and discover how the sacred art of fasting can strengthen your spiritual appetite Fasting as a religious act increases our sensitivity to that mystery always and everywhere present to us.... It is an invitation to awareness, a call to compassion for the needy, a cry of distress, and a song of joy. It is a discipline of self-restraint, a ritual of purification, and a sanctuary for offerings of atonement. It is a wellspring for the spiritually dry, a compass for the spiritually lost, and inner nourishment for the spiritually hungry. --from chapter 9 Though fasting is practiced in some form by nearly every faith tradition throughout the world, it is often seen as scary or something only for monastic life. But fasting doesn't have to be intimidating. And it doesn't have to mean going weeks without food. The Sacred Art of Fasting invites you to explore the practical approaches, spiritual motivations, and physical benefits of this ancient practice by looking at the ways it is observed in several faith traditions. Inspiring personal reflections, helpful advice, and encouragement from people who practice fasting answer your questions, allay your fears, and reveal how you too can safely incorporate fasting into your spiritual life.

The Sacred Art of Fasting: Preparing to Practice

Thomas, Ryan

Rev Thomas Ryan

How to Do Good & Avoid Evil: A Global Ethic from the Sources of Judaism

Hans Küng

Walter Homolka

Judaism

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Books by SkyLight Paths Publishing