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by Arthur Avalon
Sometimes difficult to read but certainly a comprehensive study of Kundalini Yoga written by an English aristocrat (a.k.a. Sir John Woodroffe), who spent many years training in India. The readability problem lies in his obsessive use of Sanskrit and Hindi terminology that could just as easily be translated into English. (I think he's trying to impress someone.) A good read if you're up to it.
translated by Francesca Fremantle and Chögyam Trungpa
A step-by-step instruction book on how to die without returning to the realm of action, and if you must do so, how to choose which realm and which form you will be born into. Meant to be read to the dying person as the life drips out of him. Good reading for living folks as well. KILL YOUR EGO.
by Omar Garrison
A good introduction to this incredibly powerful spiritual practice, which will allow you to experience communion with both God and your sexual partner at the same time. Will make what was once merely animalistic satisfaction of bodily urges into a self-transforming experience.
translated by Juan Mascaró
The most essential book of the Hindu scriptures known as the Vedas. Written as a conversation between Krishna and Arjuna, a Hindu warrior-king who is in a moral bind because he must wage a war with his own brother. Teaches that one must "do thy duty, even if it be humble, rather than another's, even if it be great. To die in one's duty is life: to live another's is death." Also teaches the supremacy of the all-might Brahman.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester
More Vedas. More inarguable truths. Teaches the knowledge and immortality of the Self, which is also the Non-Self, the tiny, three-inch mass that dwells in the lotus of the heart. Written in the form of little vignettes.
by Lao Tsu
81 stanzas about the eternal Void that will take the breath out of you, written by an ancient Chinese philosopher. My favorite, #4, goes as follows.
"The Tao is like an empty bowl,
Which in being used can never be filled up.
Fathomless, it seems to be the origin of all things.
It blunts all sharp edges,
It unties all tangles,
It harmonizes all lights,
It unites the world into one whole.
Hidden in the deeps,
Yet it seems to exist forever.
I do not know whose child it is;
It seems to be the common ancestor of all, the father of things."
translated by Richard Wilhelm
An enlightening blend of Buddhism, Taoism and Confuscianism by an ancient Chinese sage that will free you from the bonds of Karma. Contains some entrancing pictures of mandalas and a forward by Carl Jung.