The spiritual awakening journey is not an easy path and sometimes it is necessary to look to others that have done this before us. These can be sages, gurus, Zen Masters and yogis, but also everyday people who have realised their deepest nature. In this article I’ll share with you my top 3 books about spiritual awakening and Self Realisation. They work as powerful and potent guides and transmissions and have helped me tremendously.
#1 Awake: It’s Your Turn by Angelo Dilullo
Awake: It’s Your Turn goes to be my number one favourite. It dives deeply into the process of spiritual awakening. In fact, it has become almost like a handbook to me. Angelo turns toward those who considers themselves spiritual and those who don’t. Everyone that feels inclined to know their deepest, true nature can do so. In this book from 2021 he shares transmissions, guidance and techniques to support you as a reader. As a result, everything from meditation practises, attention and self inquiry to emotions, thoughts and ego mechanisms are being covered here.
Moreover, he dubunks myths about spirituality and awakening, making it clearer than ever how to proceed forward. For good reasons, he avoids using spiritual terms as much as possible. The purpose is to prevent the mental tendency of conceptualising spirituality and compare to other teachings. This book is a 5 star for me due to all the spiritual pitfalls one can fall into on this journey-less journey. It really helped me get on a real track with regards to awakening. Angelo is a US based man with a seeming normal life despite of being Self Realised in terms of liberation and non-duality.
Get it here.
#2 Who am I? by Sri Ramana Maharshi
Sri Ramana Maharashi was an Indian sage or liberated man that spontaneously realised his true Self as a teenager. I am in the mids of reading this book right now and can confirm that it is really good at pointing to truth. Sri Maharshi wrote his books as answers to questions from students that came to him for answers. The book is simple and short (just 28 pages), but contains the deepest wisdom. In a way, self inquiry was introduced to the world by this sage. He simply advised people to know themselves by asking this one simple question: who am I?
“Who am I?” is the base question of inquiry and when we ask this question with a perfect blend of pure curiosity and surrender, the One we really are moves closer. It is the most fundamental question we can ask as humans, along with similar inquiries like “what am I?” or “what is this?”. The intention behind is more important than the question itself, but the question shows us where to place our attention. In a way, the sage shows us how to move beyond the mind and right into the mystery of what we are. In fact, this method is said to be the fastest track towards Self realisation.
Find it here on Amazon.
#3 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Can I write a post regarding books about spiritual awakening without mentioning this one? Probably not. It is probably one of the most famous and most read books within spirituality. This is for a good reason. The Power of Now is written by a German man that was, like Ramana Maharshi, spontaneously waking up when he strongly felt like he couldn’t live with himself any longer. As a result, the false suffering self was replaced by what he refers to as being or pure presence.
The present moment has all we need and is already perfect, states Eckhart Tolle in this book. Moreover, he calls out how the mental, ego mechanism causes human suffering, making us us feeling alone, isolated and helpless in the world of form. He points out that the present moment is the only moment that exists and has ever existed. The experience of past and future is a painful illusion depriving us from joy, wonder and truth about life.
If you have not read The Power of Now, you can get it here.
There are many more amazing books about spiritual awakening written by Self realised teachers and Zen masters. The can point the way for you, but only you can walk it.
If you are going through the Dark night of the Soul, I invite you to check out my program, Awaken You! . Above all, it is designed to help you find joy, wonder and peace in the present moment as the only cure to the Dark night of the Soul.