The 50 Most Influential Spiritual Books of Our Time

“Books are to be called for and supplied on the assumption that the process of reading is not a half-sleep; but in the highest sense an exercise, a gymnastic struggle; that the reader is to do something for himself.” —Walt Whitman

A list compiled from our own thought and experience. This is not meant to be objective or universal, but merely the books that we perceive as being useful and important. With the holidays around the corner, the list might be useful for those of you still seeking gifts for the seekers on your lists.
 

The Essential Rumi	Coleman	Barks
I Ching, Wilhelm Baynes Edition	Wilhelm	Baynes
I and Thou	Martin	Buber
Cosmic Consciousness	Richard Maurice	Bucke
The Hero of A Thousand Faces	Joseph	Campbell
Tao of Physics	Fritjof	Capra
The Teachings of Don Juan	Carlos	Castaneda
Journey to Ixtlan	Carlos	Castaneda
When Things Fall Apart	Pema	Chödron
Be Here Now	Ram	Dass
Mount Analogue	René	Daumal
The Reality of Being: The Fourth Way of Gurdjieff	Jeanne	de Salzmann
The Sacred and Profane	Mircea	Eliade
The Four Quartets	T.S.	Eliot
The Prophet	Kahlil	Gibran
Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, All and Everything	G. I.	Gurdijeff
Markings	Dag	Hämmarskjold
Peace is Every Step	Thich Nhat	Hanh
Zen & The Art of Archery	Eugen	Herrigel
Siddhartha	Herman	Hesse
The Magister Ludi	Herman	Hesse
The Doors of Perception	Aldous	Huxley
The Varieties of Religious Experience	William	James
Man and His Symbols	Carl G.	Jung
Memories, Dream, Reflections	Carl G.	Jung
Think on These Things	J.	Krishnamurti
And Then There Was Light	Jacques	Lussevran
The Seven Storey Mountain	Thomas	Merton
The Bhagavad Gita Tao Te Ching	Stephen	Mitchell
Black Elk Speaks	John G.	Neihardt
The Idea of The Holy	Rudolf	Otto
In Search of the Miraculous	P. D.	Ouspensky
Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance	Robert M.	Pirsig
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones	Paul	Reps
Ahead of All Parting: Selected Poetry and Prose	Ranier Maria	Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet	Ranier Maria	Rilke
The World’s Religions	Houston	Smith
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind	Shunryu	Suzuki
Come Be My Light	Mother	Theresa
Walden	Henry David	Thoreau
The Courage to Be	Paul	Tillich
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism	Chyogam	Trungpa
Mysticism	Evelyn	Underhill
Leaves of Grass	Walt	Whitman
Autobiography of a Yogi	Parmahansa	Yogananada
Nag Hammadi & The Dead Sea Scrolls (The Gnostic Gospels)
The Bible
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali	Patanjali
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
The Dhammapada
A Course In Miracles