Growing a spiritual library is important for the aspiring yogi. The study of the books and sacred texts which deal with the nature of the true Self (spirit) and its realization is one aspect of swadhyaya, one of the “Ten Commandments” of yoga (yama and niyama) outlined by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras. Food for the mind in the form of spiritual reading is a tremendous help to the yogi.
OCOY.org is itself a spiritual library, with over 1300 web pages, blog posts, PDF downloads, books and other resources, and in this series of articles we will show you some of what we have available for your spiritual library.
We endeavor to make the writings of Abbot George Burke and others on OCOY.org available in a variety of formats to suit the habits of those who read here. There are five ways to grow your spiritual library, whether digital or in print.
1.Read Online. For those who wish to explore our site and get a taste of its content, this is ideal. Be sure to bookmark OCOY.org or any pages you are reading so you can easily come back at any time. Of course you can print out the articles for reading later. Because of the length of the books available on our site, they are broken down into chapters, each with its own web page. If you want to access the full, undivided books, you can…
2.Download a Free PDF. Our E-Library has PDF’s of much of the books and content on our site, as well as other books which we share from other sources. These can be downloaded for free and read on your computer at any time, or printed out for convenient offline reading.
3.Listen to Podcasts and Audiobooks. Abbot George has made over 30 podcasts and radio interviews available in our Podcast section. In topics ranging from the yoga life, vegetarianism, monastic life, saints and spiritual figures he has known, and much more, you will find much to interest you and profit from.
Do you have iTunes? You can access our podcasts in the iTunes Podcast directory. You can also subscribe to our podcast feed, so the most recent podcast from Abbot George will be downloaded to your iTunes directory. You can also listen to our podcasts at Stitcher.
We are investigating the costs of having Abbot George’s books made into professionally recorded audio books, and hope to have them available in the future.
4.Download and Read Ebooks. We are working on publishing Abbot George’s writings in ebook format and in print. For those who have a Kindle, iPad, Smartphone, or other digital device, this is ideal. You can find his ebooks on various online sites, including Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Kobo Books, and Smashwords, and of course Amazon.
5.Purchase and Read a Printed Book. Perhaps you prefer to hold a book in your hands and disconnect from the digital world for a while, and engage in “deep reading.” Readers of print books absorb and remember more ideas than readers of e-books do, according to a study that was presented in Italy in 2014. In an earlier study, print readers also scored higher in other areas, such as empathy, immersion in the book, and understanding of the narrative.
For such readers, we are making an increased number of Abbot George’s books available in printed format.
In the rest of this article and the following blog posts, we will highlight some of Abbot George’s books and link to web pages, the E-Library page with the book and article PDFs, and to the Amazon and other sites where you can get ebooks and paperbacks of Abbot George’s books.
The Christ of India: the Story of Original Christianity
“Original Christianity” is the teaching of both Jesus of Nazareth and his Apostle Saint Thomas in India. Although it was new to the Mediterranean world, it was really the classical, traditional teachings of the ancient rishis of India that even today comprise Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Dharma, that goes far beyond religion into realization.
In The Christ of India (online here) Abbot George Burke presents what those ancient teachings are, as well as the growing evidence that Jesus spent much of his “Lost Years” in India and Tibet. This is also the story of how the original teachings of Jesus and Saint Thomas thrived in India for centuries before the coming of the European colonialists.
Also download it from our E-Library And you can purchase the ebook at Amazon here, or the paperback here.
Satsang with the Abbot: Questions & Answers about Life, Spiritual Liberty, and the Pursuit of Ultimate Happiness
One of the most valuable spiritual activities in East or West is satsang: a gathering of spiritual aspirants for spiritual study, discussion and inspiration. A satsang is especially beneficial when there is someone with many years of practice and experience who answers the questions asked by the aspirants.
“The scriptures contain a mixture of sand and sugar, as it were. It is extremely difficult to separate the sugar from the sand. Therefore one should learn of the essence of the scriptures from the teacher or from a sadhu.” -Sri Ramakrishna
Abbot George Burke has spent a lifetime helping spiritual aspirants separate the sand from the sugar. Grounded in the perspective of classic Indian thought, directly taught by such luminaries as Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh and Sri Anandamayi Ma, and blessed with the clarity and originality of thought that can only come from years of spiritual practice (sadhana), his answers to his inquirers’ questions are unique, fresh, and authoritative.
The questions in this book range from the most sublime to the most practical. “How can I attain samadhi?” “I am married with children. How can I lead a spiritual life?” “What is Self-realization?”
Many of the questions and answers in this book are taken from the Q&A section of our blog, here. The ebook can be purchased here, and the paperback here.
May a Christian Believe in Reincarnation?
A growing number of people are open to the subject of past lives, and the belief in rebirth–reincarnation, metempsychosis, or transmigration is becoming commonplace. But it often thought that belief in reincarnation and Christianity are incompatible.
But is this really true? May a Christian believe in reincarnation? The answer may surprise you.
This historical study of reincarnation in both Judaism and Christianity cites many authorities of both traditions, including many Christian saints and Fathers of the Church, as well as both Old and New Testaments.
Read this online at OCOY.org, or download the free PDF from our E-Library. You can get a free ebook download from Amazon, or purchase the paperback here. You can also listen to the radio interview podcasts Reincarnation: Its Causes and Consequences and Understanding Karma as the Basis of Reincarnation.
As mentioned before, in addition to Amazon, you can also get all of these ebooks from Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, and Kobo Books.
In the next blog post we will share information about Abbot George’s Dharma for Awakening series of books, and other online resources for spiritual reading, and a yogi’s recommended reading list.