3 Deeply Wise Books that Put My Spiritual Growth on Steroids
You don’t have to be religious to benefit from them
The beauty of growing spiritually is that it automates your mental and physical growth.
Once you know certain truths, you no longer have to burn your mental energy to maintain “conviction” in them — nor the willpower to align your actions.
Spirituality isn’t to be confused with religion. Call it God, the universe, soul, conscience, a higher power, or universal truth — spirituality is about what’s “beyond human”.
While books won’t boost your spiritual growth by themselves, they can guide you down the right path — where you can progress through the right actions.
I want to share 3 such profound books — believer or non-believer. Agnostic or atheist. Young or old.
Everyone can and will benefit from these — all you need is humility and a drive to seek the truth.
Siddhartha By Hermann Hesse
Siddhartha isn’t just phenomenal, profound, or mind-blowing — it’s necessary.
Even if you ignore the other two books on this list, read this. Heck! If you could read only one book on spirituality in your life, this book would be my pick.
Because this is the TL;DR of spirituality — a distilled syrup of various Eastern philosophies with a dollop of western ideas served with a delightful story.
While Hermann has filled the book with simple-worded yet gapingly wise excerpts, here are my top 3:
“Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”
“Not in his speech, not in his thoughts, I see his greatness, only in his actions, in his life.”
“Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.”
This is the tale of a truth seeker who casts off his privileged life as a wealthy Indian Brahmin’s son.
What follows is Siddhartha’s arduous journey of enlightenment through mistakes, realizations, inner strife, and roles — from an austere ascetic to a humble oarsman.
Life is a journey — whose fruitful progress demands a willingness to reject comfort and constantly reinvent yourself.
And Siddhartha illustrates this perfectly.