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

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

Hans Küng

Walter Homolka

Judaism

The Rebirthing of God: Christianity's Struggle for New Beginnings

Dare to imagine a new birth from deep within Christianity, a fresh stirring of the Spirit.
"The walls of Western Christianity are collapsing. In many parts of the West that collapse can only be described as seismic.... There are three main responses or reactions to this collapse. The first is to deny that it is happening. The second is to frantically try to shore up the foundations of the old thing. The third, which I invite us into, is to ask what is trying to be born that requires a radical reorientation of our vision. What is the new thing that is trying to emerge from deep within us and from deep within the collective soul of Christianity?"
―from the Introduction
In the midst of dramatic changes in Western Christianity, internationally respected spiritual leader, peacemaker and scholar John Philip Newell offers the hope of a fresh stirring of the Spirit among us. He invites us to be part of a new holy birth of sacred living. Speaking directly to the heart of Christians―those within the well-defined bounds of Christian practice and those on the disenchanted edges―as well as to the faithful and seekers of other traditions, he explores eight major features of a new birthing of Christianity:
<ul>
<li>Coming back into relationship with the Earth as sacred</li>
<li>Reconnecting with compassion as the ground of true relationship</li>
<li>Celebrating the Light that is at the heart of all life</li>
<li>Reverencing the wisdom of other religious traditions</li>
<li>Rediscovering spiritual practice as the basis for transformation</li>
<li>Living the way of nonviolence among nations</li>
<li>Looking to the unconscious as the wellspring of new vision</li>
<li>Following love as the seed-force of new birth in our lives and world</li>
</ul>

Newell, John Philip

"Your partner can and should meet all of your emotional needs." "All disagreements can and should be resolved." “Great relationships require little maintenance.”
Old models of marriage such as these are crumbling. Divorce rates remain high. Many people are skeptical and mistrustful about having real love in their lives. It's clear people need new models to help them connect with each other in meaningful, lasting ways. It's time to break free from old patterns of commitment and to forge new pathways for healthy, thriving, deeply loving relationships.
This hope-filled resource for developing soulful, mature love is aimed at committed couples who are looking to build, maintain and glorify the sacred in their relationship. It creates a context for couples to honor the gradual movement from physical “flight-fight-freeze” body-based survival to more heart-filled, communication-oriented love, to spiritual awakening and soul-purpose fulfillment. It encourages couples―as individuals and as partners―to let go of dysfunctional, hurtful, restrictive behavior in favor of liberating self-concepts and belief systems. It provides solutions for communicating and problem-solving more effectively, allowing each partner in the relationship to experience more emotional intimacy, joy and sexual pleasure. The book provides relationship information, practical tools and inspirational, real-life stories. It also offers a banquet of spiritual practices for couples of all faiths―or none―to bring these new models into focused action.

Secrets of a Soulful Marriage: Creating and Sustaining a Loving, Sacred Relationship

Sharon EdD, Jim

Sharon MS, Ruth

Parenting & Relationships

Calling on God: Inclusive Christian Prayers for Three Years of Sundays

Fresh, inclusive, creation-conscious prayers to nourish your soul―and the soul of your worship community.
"We are called to name the extravagant wildness of God, the overflowing abundance of creation, and the deep aching need of a broken world in new words and images that speak to contemporary concerns.... [These prayers] are an invitation to pray boldly." ―from the Introduction
This special prayerbook is for today's Christians who find comfort in the rhythm of the traditional lectionary but long to connect with God in ways that are satisfying to the modern heart and mind. Founded on creativity, inclusivity and sharing, it encourages us to remember the divine elements of the natural world around us as we express our hopes and fears for others and ourselves. Inspiring words help us give thanks for human inventions and lament the evils of poverty, violence and oppression of all kinds while remaining mindful of God's promises of healing for a broken world.
Following the annual procession of the seasons with prayers that are appropriate for personal devotion as well as for use in leading worship, these new ways to call on God will feed your soul and inspire you to find your own fresh language for thanksgiving, praise, intercession and petition, whether in your community or personal spiritual life.

Bankson, Peter

Sokolove, Deborah

What are the qualities you need to live fully and lead authentically in our age?
"Is it possible for our institutions of work to become, in the words of American political analyst Yuval Levin, 'soul-forming institutions'? If so, what does leadership become? In this book, Dr. Millis clears a path and points the way for those willing to set out on this journey. The personal stories she asks us to ponder and put into practice transform abstract ideas such as ‘deep engagement’ into living realities. Leadership becomes a personal quest and calling."
―from the Foreword
Leadership consultant and coach Diane M. Millis offers a tool kit for leaders of all kinds and all levels of spiritual involvement―people of faith, people of no faith, spiritual but not religious―for deepening our engagement with our true selves, one another and the communities in which we live and work. Millis provides guiding precepts from many wisdom traditions to help us realize what we most value and identify where we find passion and purpose. As a result, we will be better able to inspire others in all that we do.
Intriguing and challenging, this thought-provoking resource is ideal for use in personal reflection as well as for small group discussion, as a way to invite others to tap into their own leadership potential.

Deepening Engagement: Essential Wisdom for Listening and Leading with Purpose, Meaning and Joy

Self-Help

Millis, Diane M.

Personal Transformation

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Books by SkyLight Paths Publishing