The Tao is universal. Its words “are to be hung like bells in our hearts and rung by the motions we make as we move through our daily lives.” Here Tolbert McCarroll presents it in a unique version. For the contemporary audience, he offers concepts that bridge the Tao to Western mystics, and his language includes both the male and the female experience. Who wrote The Tao? Long ago, some Chinese followers of The Tao put onto bamboo strips the learnings of their life. Here, these people are c...

Few storytellers can capture the sense of the sacred as Brother Toby can. Along with stories from his rich personal history, A Winter Walk takes readers on a journey through the symbols and festivals of different teachings, enhancing our appreciation of such celebratory subjects as the Advent Wreath, Bodhi Day, Chanukah, Ramadan, Santa Lucia, and Epiphany. Especially during the dark, cold nights of winter, this remarkable monk demonstrates that hope and delight may exist where we least exp...

In an era of intensified partisan divides, our ability to find common ground has been dissipating. Yet one remaining area of common ground is the need for periods of stillness, contemplation, and quiet reflection. These still moments, abundantly offered within "Stepping Stones", allow us to disconnect from the distractions of daily life and encounter a sense of unity and togetherness. Each of Brother Toby's "Stepping Stones" is a much-needed dose of inner nourishment for his readers, gentl...

How do we have confidence in our ability to deal with each experience we encounter? Where will we find the strength to follow our personal spiritual compass? Can we look at doubt as a tool for leading us to new understandings? Brother Toby uses the themes of Great Faith, Great Courage, and Holy Doubt as he takes on these questions. THREE GIFTS provides the self-reflection needed to reach an understanding of the self that we truly are.

"Violet Seekers" is an inspiring and uplifting collection of 49 reflections – divided into common seasons in both nature and human experience. Written by Brother Tolbert McCarroll of Northern California's Starcross Monastic Community, this treasure of spiritual reflections will help you navigate life and all of its wonderful adventures. In 2011, as Brother Tolbert McCarroll turned 80, it was becoming difficult for him to travel to offer help or see friends. Brother Toby's two longtime spir...

The renowned nonfiction annual makes its Penguin debutFor more than a decade, Philip Zaleski has collected into a single volume the best spiritual essays and poetry of the year. The Best Spiritual Writing 2010, featuring essays by John Updike and Diane Ackerman, poems from Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney and Pulitzer Prize-winner Louise Glück, and personal reflections by Richard Rodriguez and Leon Wieseltier, is sure to expand on the series' already wide ...

This newest treasury of Joan's wisdom explores how God calls each of us to become fully alive. Here she reflects on the myth of perfection, our need for failure, the power of true humility, reverence for the created world, and the search for God. "When God is the 'monos,' the only goal of our lives," she says, "we are living a 'monastic' life, whatever the shape-married, single, or religious-the monastery of my own particular soul-life may be." This is Joan Chittister at her finest-brillia...

In this highly acclaimed and lyrical modern classic, bestselling author Barbara Brown Taylor reveals the countless ways we can discover divine depths in the small things we do and see every day. While people will often go to extraordinary lengths in search of a 'spiritual experience', she shows that the stuff of our everyday lives is a holy ground where we can encounter God at every turn. For her, as for Jacob in the Genesis story, even barren, empty deserts can become "the house of God an...

New York Times BestsellerFrom the New York Times bestselling author of An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor’s Learning to Walk in the Dark provides a way to find spirituality in those times when we don’t have all the answers.Taylor has become increasingly uncomfortable with our tendency to associate all that is good with lightness and all that is evil and dangerous with darkness. Doesn’t God work in the nighttime as well? In Learning to Walk in the Dark, Taylor asks ...

In the New York Times bestseller An Altar in the World, acclaimed author Barbara Brown Taylor continues her thoughtful spiritual journey by building upon where she left off in Leaving Church. With the honesty of Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) and the spiritual depth of Anne Lamott (Grace, Eventually), Taylor shares how she learned to find God beyond the church walls in this guide to everyday spirituality, embracing the sacred as a natural part of everyday life. In An Alta...

The Book of Awakening has become a modern classic, a spiritual guide for living in hard times and good times that speaks to the hearts of hundreds of thousands of readers. Now, this spiritual favorite, chosen as one of Oprah Winfrey’s favorite things, is available in a special pocket-sized jacketed hardcover edition, perfect for the gift-giving season.The Little Book of Awakening takes some of the very best wisdom from The Book of Awakening and distills i...