Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)

Full Title: Alice in Wonderland
Major Topic: A fantasy world constructed by the author.
Level: all levels

This classic children’s book is a virtual must for anyone who goes to any depth in Buddhist meditation. Lewis Carroll’s logical absurdities create a dreamlike atmosphere in which anything and everything is possible. From the nonsensical Jabberwocky, which nevertheless moves one emotionally, to the need to walk away from where one is intending to go, Carroll time again points (albeit inadvertently) to the kinds of paradox and mystery one encounters in practice. The principal theme is the mind training instruction “regard all experience as a dream”. The logic puzzles and the play of language frequently create gaps in the conceptual mind and one can rest in those gaps.

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Tales of the Dervishes (Idries Shah)

Full Title: Tales of the Dervishes
Major Topic: teaching stories
Level: all levels

These excellent teaching stories can only be fully understood when the student has reached a certain level of experience. Read, savor, and contemplate the stories, one by one. Do not read more than one at a time..

Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights (Richard Burton)

Full Title: Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights
Major Topic: Arabian folk tales that, like most of the old folk and fairy tales, present manifold layers of meaning and understanding.
Level: All levels

Collection of old fairy tales which bypass intellect to speak directly in the language of emotion and myth; precise records in symbolic form of spiritual and psychological processes. Read these stories as descriptions of projections, patterns, and the transformation of reactive energies. A good source of teaching stories as well.