Total freedom

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1. kcartlidgeMar 2024
   Quite a few along the way, but in an attempt to minimise:

   - "Letters from the Desert" by Carlo Carretto

   - "Being the Body" by Charles Colson

   - "Fire in Our Hearts" by Mike Farrant

   - "Total Freedom" by Jiddu Krishnamurti

   - "Muhammad - a Prophet for Our Time" by Karen Armstrong

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2. kcartlidgeMar 2022
   - Total Freedom by Jiddu Krishnamurti.

   Initially this came across as shallow truths masquerading as profundity, especially with his unwillingness/inability to explain himself during discussions. Finally I read enough that some things just 'clicked' into place and my perspectives shifted along with my outlook on life.

   - Letters from the Desert by Carlo Carretto (first half).

   I was brought up a protestant so was never really exposed to catholic thought in my formative years. When I finally started exploring the classics for myself I found them often overly wordy and mystical, so I moved on to more modern (relatively speaking) works like this and the Way of the Pilgrim too. The simplicity of the writing and the clarity of the thoughts in the first few chapters of Letters from the Desert hit me hard.

   - The Quran

   A wonderfully phrased book that captures its times very well. Ideally to be read alongside something like Islam: A Short History or Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, both by Karen Armstrong, to provide the context.

   As an aside the Qu'ran is available for free online in audio format both as interlinear English/Arabic but also as Arabic only, and as a non-speaker of Arabic I often find listening to it being chanted a very calming and uplifting experience despite having no clue what is being said.

   - Getting Real by 37 Signals.

   As a programmer/developer/engineer since the late 1980s this was a revelation, bringing a clarity to my own thoughts and feelings about much of the world of enterprise software development. Very obvious points in retrospect that nobody ever (including me) seemed to have realised during my entire career before then.

   - Web Copy that Sells by Maria Veloso.

   A strange choice, given that there is nothing 'profound' in here. What it is, though, is a very well written book on persuasion which finally got me to see that I'd spent years avoiding 'sales' as something that wasn't for me whereas in reality it's for everyone and we do it all the time.

   - The Body by Charles Colson.

   Colson was jailed for his part in the Nixon stuff, then became a Christian. It's an incredibly moving book which is not his autobiography but an analysis of what is going wrong with the church. The impact comes from the stories he relates at the start of the chapters (especially the opening ones about 9/11). Those tales gave me an understanding of the potential 'greatness' in people.

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3. imakwanaJul 2019
   1) Total Freedom : The Essential Krishnamurti. Selected writings of Jiddu Krishnamurti from his 50+ years of lectures and notes to self.

   2) Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality without Religion, by Sam Harris. An amazing masterpiece on a rational approach to meditation.

   3) Coming to our senses, by Jon-Kabat Zinn. A collection of essays which delve into the urgency of understanding oneself in the present moment & the case for contemplative life.

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4. koolhead17Feb 2018
   * Total Freedom by J Krishnamurti

   * Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

   * Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard's Almanack by Benjamin Franklin

   * Influence by Robert B. Cialdini

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5. koolhead17Jan 2018
   These are my 10 favourites:

   - Total Freedom by J Krishnamurti

   - Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard’s Almanack: Benjamin Franklin

   - Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio

   - The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius by Marcus Aurelius

   - 10% Human: How Your Body’s Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness by Alanna Collen

   - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert Pirsig

   - What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Murakami

   - Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger by Janet Lowe

   - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Harari

   - The Complete Adventures of Feluda (Volume 1) by Satyajit Ray

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6. krossMar 2013
   I'd like to recommend a good book for this kind of journey:

   Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti

   www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0060648805/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

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