Non-Fiction: General Read Literature
This list is by no means exhaustive. These are my personal recommendations as books that have taught me a great deal. This list contains general reads on everything from the origins within various contemplative and wisdom traditions and classical texts, to the vast range of contemporary applications and scientific discoveries in modern texts.
Please Note: This list will be updated on a monthly basis.
Meditation in Ancient and Modern Contemplative Traditions
365 Tao: Daily Meditations
By Deng-Ming Dao
A New Earth: Create a Better Life
By Eckhart Tolle
A Path with Heart: The Classic Guide Through the Perils and Promises of the Spiritual Life
By Jack Kornfield
The Art of Meditation
By Matthieu Ricard
Autobiography of a Yogi
By Paramahansa Yogananda
Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharishi
By Ramana Maharishi
Before I Am
By Mooji
Change Your Mind: Practical Guide To Buddhist Meditation
By Paramananda
Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao
By Wayne Dyer
Concentration and Meditation
By Swami Sivananda
Cultivating Stillness: A Taoist Manual for Transforming Body and Mind
By Eva Wong
The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment
By Adyashanti
Essential Spirituality: The Seven Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind
By Roger Walsh
The First and Last Freedom
By J Krishnamurti
Freedom from the Known
By J Krishnamurti
Full Catastrophe Living, Revised Edition: How to Cope with Stress, Pain, Illness Using Mindfulness Meditation
By John Kabat-Zinn
I am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
By Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Living Beautifully: With Uncertainty and Change
By Pema Chödrön
The Nature of Consciousness: Essays on the Unity of Mind and Matter
By Rupert Spira
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
By Eckhart Tolle
Scholar Warrior: An Introduction to the Tao in Daily Life
By Deng-Ming Dao
Stillness Speaks: Whispers of Now
By Eckhart Tolle
The Sufis
By Idris Shah
Tao: The Watercourse Way
By Alan Watts with Al Chung-Liang Huang
The Unfolding Self: Varieties of Transformative Experience
By Ralph Metzner
Voices of Insight: Teacher of Buddhism in the West Share Their Wisdom, Stories and Experience of Insight Meditation
By Sharon Salzberg
Walden and Civil Disobedience
By Henry David Thoreau
The Way of Heart and Beauty: The Tao of Daily Life
By Deng-Ming Dao
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
By Pema Chödrön
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness for Everyday Life
By John Kabat-Zinn
Who Am I? Nan Yar? The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi
By Ramani Maharishi
Meditation and The Body
Your Body Speaks Your Mind: Decoding the Emotional, Psychological and Spiritual Messages That Underlie illness
By Deb Shapiro
The Body: Art of Meditation
By Paramananda
Meditation in Classical Texts
Bhagavad Gita
Translation and commentaries by Stephen Mitchell
Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)
Translation and commentaries by Diskin Clay and Martin Hammond
The Book of Chuang Tzu
Translation and commentaries by Martin Palmer and Elizabeth Breuilly
Tao Te Ching (A New English Version)
Translation and commentaries by Stephen Mitchell
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation
Translation and commentaries by Graham Coleman and Thupten Jinpa
Specific Meditation Techniques and Practices
A Mind at Home with Itself: How Asking Four Questions Can Free Your Mind, Open Your Heart, and Turn Your World Around
By Byron Katie
A Thousand Names For Joy: How To Live In Harmony With The Way Things Are
By Byron Katie with Stephen Mitchell
Chinese Healing Exercises: The Tradition of Daoyin
By Livia Kohn
How to Meditation: A Practical Guide
By Kathleen McDonald
The Inner Smile: Increasing Chi through the Cultivation of Joy
by Mantak Chia
Living in Balance: A Dynamic Approach for Creating Harmony and Wholeness in a Chaotic World
By Joel Levey and Mitchell Levey
Loving-Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
By Sharon Salzberg
Loving What Is: How Four Questions Can Change Your Life
By Byron Katie
The Six Healing Sounds: Taoist Techniques for Balancing Chi
By Mantak Chia
Meditation and Science
The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?
By Miguel Farias and Catherine Wikholm
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One
By Joe Dispenza
The Healing Power of Meditation: Leading Experts on Buddhism, Psychology, and Medicine Explore the Health Benefits of Contemplative Practice
Edited collection by Andy Fraser (with contributions from )
Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry: When Knowing Becomes Love
By Arthur Zajonc
Meditation As Medicine: Activate the Power of Your Natural Healing Force
By Dr Dharma Singh Khalsa and Cameron Stauth
The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness
By John Yates
The Science of Meditation: How to Change Your Brain, Mind and Body
By Daniel Goleman
Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud
By Robert L Parks
Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
By Robert Wright
You Are The Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter
By Joe Dispenza
Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment
By Jay Michaelson
The 21st-Century Brain: Explaining, Mending and Manipulating the Mind
By Steven Rose
The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-being
By Daniel J Siegel
Mindsight:The New Science of Personal Transformation
By Daniel J Siegel
Meditation and Creativity
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path To Higher Creativity
By Julia Cameron
How the Light Gets In: Writing as a Spiritual Practice
By Pat Schneider
Writing and the Spiritual Life
By Patrice Vecchione
Writing Your Way
by Manjusvara