Robert Colacurcio Book order

The three self-contained works in this compilation are: No Urgency: or How We Fiddle with Eternity Complete, Not Completed Why This Ignorance? These works build on the earlier books in Volume I, and they are more challenging. They provoke--at least I hope they do--a more energetic pursuit of soul depth for the sake of spiritual depth. Like all my books, they openly rely on the spiritual technology of the Buddha. However, they can be on confrontationally read. Because they are non sectarian in the sense that they don't require or promote a "conversion" to a religious viewpoint, they can be practically incorporated by anyone practicing a sectarian or non sectarian path. That's the nature of this "spiritual technology"--Tibetan Buddhism doesn't even have a word for "religion" in its lexicon! The reader is cautioned to take their time and read these books slowly, not hesitating to "stay where there's fruit." In fact, if one reads more than one chapter a day, that pace will miss much. As the pithy Latin expression ("non multa sed multum") has it: "It's not knowing many things that satisfies the soul, but knowing a few quality things deeply."

Most adult believers would acknowledge that the absolute reality of God is unimaginable, and yet the ordinary mind cannot think about divinity without creating images of that reality. This book explores a variety of ways in which our imagination influences what we believe and think we know about God. Even as some theories and the methods behind them yield better results in practice, so certain forms of the imagination yield a truer connection to the divine. Curiously, cutting-edge science--often viewed as inimical to engagement with the divine--is itself creating new images for a conception of divinity that intimately penetrates all that is. Frontier cutting-edge science will thus become one of three interpenetrating streams that impact the influence of the imagination on the knowledge of God. The other two are the conceptual dimension of mind and what I distinguish as the awareness dimension of mind. The application of my theory about the influence of the imagination on the knowledge of God is whether the reader can make practical connections to their experience of suffering in the world and find some diminishment of that suffering. If that does not happen, I apologize to my readers for wasting their time.

This volume is a compilation of six smaller books that were published between 2012 and 2014. They were written as though I were taking dictation. Some higher power unlocked the gates of inspiration and articulation, and I wrote almost continuously for three hours every day without ever fi rst composing an outline for any of these books. Instead of coming out as gibberish, they form a coherent, and I feel, cogent whole, and so I have grouped them together in one volume. Performance excellence in any fi eld requires, among other things, a clear goal that can be methodically approached incrementally in manageable steps and stages. Without a clear goal, there can be no cogent methodology. Accomplishment in the practice of a spiritual discipline that leads to excellent results is no diff erent. Together these books off er a clear goal and method for accomplishing what I feel is the universal target of every valid form of spiritual practice, namely, seeing through the illusion of our separateness. This goal is universal to every form of spiritual aspiration. The methods outlined in this book, therefore, bypass every form of sectarianism. They can be applied and practiced by anyone of any faith who is sincerely motivated to deepen in the spirit that unites us all.

I write this book in a social milieu where telecommunications can make a very private act globally public in a moment. A question I don't consider is whether and to what extent the publicity attendant on a potential suicide inclines one toward or against the follow through. I suspect that it figures in, but what it amounts to in the end differs widely in each case. What I do have in mind is a rather full discussion and consideration of a host of questions I don't hear being asked in the discussion of suicide today. In fact, I find the comments from most media talking heads to be either sincerely trite or politely banal. But then, one shouldn't expect an in depth exploration of any side of the suicide question from the popular media. Where one should expect a more thorough investigation, however, is from the spokespeople representing our culture's philosophical and theological traditions. What I hear most often has been said before, often in a context where the authoritative spokesmen for the Church issue blanket condemnations backed up by the written codes of civil law, canon law, moral law or natural law. Authorization for this outright condemnation of suicide, ipso facto, has always been backed up by law of some kind and its interpretation to the people in the pew or the public at large.

What resources do thoughtful parents fall back on when the faith-based religious practices of their youth no longer satisfy their own spiritual needs, and yet they truly want to raise their children with a foundation in some faith-based practice? Thoughtful parents struggle with this basic question: how do we raise our children to have a solid religious footing? the suggestion for guidance made in this book is that really good questions can be the resource parents are looking for. "Pathfinder questions" are the really good questions that not only illuminate the way to go; they actually help create the way to go. Pathfinder questions are one of the resources from the spiritual technology toolkit of the Buddha. This aspect of the Buddhist methodology can be applied to the practice of any faith-based religion without the least conflict or compromise whatsoever. Pathfinder questions are like a lighthouse beacon. They offer guidance without coercion. the path is illuminated; the obstacles are made clear; but the choice is like the boat captain's whether to sail ahead full speed or not. If the reader chooses to ask the pathfinder questions as a way to guide their children, they will be choosing to sail full speed ahead.

If we all were not so distracted these days by one thing and another, we would notice more the fallout from our lack of focus. Sophistication in the form of multitasking is just one example; it's become a synonym for "cultivated distraction." Distraction comes in many forms. There is a time management demonstration in which a large jar is first filled with big stones, then pea gravel, then fine sand and finally water. At each stage the jar appears full until a finer ingredient is added to the mix. The point of the demo is to emphasize the importance of getting your priorities right. If the big stones don't go in first, then you will never get them in. This book invites the reader to focus first on the "big stone" of one's ultimate purpose. Remembering to remember to remember one's ultimate purpose is the first step in eliminating other finer forms of distraction. The erosion of meaning through the slippage caused by distraction is the overall theme of this book.

This book explores some of the many similarities and parallels between the birth and death process. It does not rely on the testimony of people who have had near death experiences. Neither does it base its argument on the kind of mystical experience that is not available to most people. The exploration of this material requires only the active critical participation of the reader. Therefore, neither faith nor the testimony of some authority is necessary; only the willingness to suspend judgment until the deeper resources of one's own experience can be critically examined. My view is that in many ways culture in the West has it upside down and backwards. In my own small way, I am trying to counteract a cultural bias, that in its narrow definition of wisdom, has virtually nothing to say about soul cultivation and the process of dying to be reborn.

Without a question to hook onto an answer, even profound information can just breeze on by. From his previous six books, all of which explore diff erent aspects for how to deepen in the spirit, the author has selected about 90 of the most provocative questions. Th ese are grouped into three 1) the good beginning 2) the good middle and 3) the good end. Lots of space on the page between questions is meant to encourage refl ection and perhaps a written note, because the author believes that it is not the quantity of information that satisfi es one's soul, but the quality and depth one achieves by going deeper following those questions that truly engage the heart. Th e author calls question like this "pathfi nder questions" Good questions lead to good answers, better questions to better answers, and really good questions lead to superlatively good answers. He hopes that every reader will engage at least one superlatively good question that will, in eff ect, become a path to follow to ever greater spiritual abundance.

Jesus gave the key to the Kingdom and to life more abundant when he gave us the example of children. This book explores the idea that people are most themselves when they achieve the seriousness of children at play. When folks are most themselves, they naturally experience the beginnings of mystic perception. The demystifi cation of mysticism starts as simply as the focused attention of children at play, and takes small steps that, slowly but surely, lead to a life changing relationship with the Divine and the entire universe. Although this book is not intended to be a how-to manual, it nevertheless brings the demystifi cation of mysticism down to daily experiences that can be practiced by anyone. Mystic perception just penetrates beyond their surface appearances. Once even the fundamentals of mystic perception become clarifi ed in practice, sacred space opens up as one's natural environment. Within the environment of sacred space, gratitude as a gift giving exchange becomes the natural relationship one comes to enjoy with the entire universe.