50 Spiritual Classics: Timeless Wisdom From 50 Great Books of Inner Discovery, Enlightenment and Purpose (Paperback)

50 Spiritual Classics adopts 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.

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 50 Spiritual Classics 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 US motivational speaker 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.

There are some books covered by Butler-Bowden which I have previously read, but found little in which to inspire me. I'm thinking particularly of Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull and The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield. Butler-Bowden has helped me appreciate these books a little more, even if he hasn't persuaded me to actually re-read them.

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

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.