Indie Spiritualist

From a recovering addict, musician, and tattooed indie culturist: a guidebook for today’s generation of spiritual misfits who crave a dogma-free path. Brutally honest and radically unconventional, Chris Grosso’s collection of stories and musings about his meandering journey of self-inquiry, recovery, and acceptance shows what it means to live a truly authentic spiritual life. Set amongst the backdrop of Grosso’s original music (includ­ed for download via QR codes in the text), Indie Spiritualist encourages you to accept yourself just as you are, in all your humanity and imperfect perfection.

Rejecting all the hypocrisies and judgments of religion, a recovering addict, musician and tattooed indie culturist, sharing his own journey of self-discovery and acceptance, shows what it means to live an authentic, open and mindful life. Original.

Chris Grosso invites us to sit in on conversations with beloved luminaries and bestselling authors such as Ram Dass, Lissa Rankin, Noah Levine, Gabor Mate, and Sharon Salzberg to discover why people return to self-defeating behaviors—drugs, alcohol, unhealthy eating, sex, media—and how they can recover, heal, and thrive. In his recovery from drugs and alcohol, Chris Grosso has stumbled, staggered, and started all over again. In an effort to understand why he relapses, and why many of us return to the myriad of other self-defeating behaviors despite our better judgment, he went to bestselling authors, spiritual teachers, psychologists, doctors, and more, and asked them why we tend to repeat mistakes in our lives, even when we know these actions will harm us and the ones we love. In Dead Set on Living, Chris shares these intimate conversations and the practices that have taught him to be more loving, compassionate, and forgiving with himself as well as new meditation and healing techniques he learned through his journey. Unabashedly honest and inspiring, Dead Set on Living is essential reading for anyone seeking a path towards triumph over adversity, understanding the human condition, and rebuilding relationships after promises have been broken.

“I’m not a yogi from the Himalayas, a preacher from the pulpit, or a guru with dollar signs in my eyes,” says Chris Grosso. “The truth is, as a result of years of heavy drug and alcohol addiction, I’ve been to some extremely dark places that resulted in a literal life-or-death search for something more.” With Everything Mind, this emerging voice of the spiritual counterculture presents a riveting and insightful book about meditation, the search for deeper meaning, and the life-changing (and life-saving) process of waking up. “Everything Mind” means it’s all part of the path—dark and light, sacred and profane, serious and goofy, tragic and joyous. Each experience is unique, each has something profound to teach us if we open ourselves and let it in. Sharing hard-won wisdom and the spiritual practices that helped him through his darkest times, Chris invites you to discover: • Spirituality—how something that doesn’t fix your problems or change who you are can still revolutionize your life • Why well-worn ideas like “love everyone” and “anything is possible” are much more than just wishful bullshit • The perils of railing at fundamentalism—how to put down the pitchfork and practice compassionate spiritual discernment • The mystery of “interbeing”—convincing your head, heart, and gut that you’re actually connected to everything • Expressing your truth through service, meditation, sports, relationships, punk rock, skateboarding—or just about anything done with love Finding our own spirituality is both liberating and terrifying. Liberating because we no longer have to be tied down by dogma or march off to war just because a guy in a fancy hat says so. Terrifying because it’s now totally on us to find out what’s true, what’s holy, what really matters to each of us. “Cultivating a spiritual lifestyle may be the most challenging undertaking you’ll ever face,” says Chris Grosso. “But if you stick with it, you can learn to meet allof life with an open heart—which, when you get down to it, is pretty fucking amazing.”

Beloved spiritual teacher, poet, and philosopher Mark Nepo returns to the inspiring short-chapter format of his #1 New York Times bestseller, The Book of Awakening, to map an insightful and resilient path for inhabiting the soul by engaging in the world. Mark Nepo has been called “one of the finest spiritual guides of our time,” “a consummate storyteller,” and “an eloquent spiritual teacher.” With the rare ability to communicate stirringly profound truths directly to each individual heart, Mark inspires audiences of more than 15,000 people as well as small, intimate groups. Now, in The One Life We’re Given, Nepo’s personal stories, questions, and meditations take us on a deep and uplifting journey to know our own hearts and enliven our souls. “In order to fully live the one life we’re given,” Nepo writes, “we each must affirm how precious this one life is and open ourselves to loving whatever life puts before us. Whether that is suffering, pain, fear or loss, or surprise, beauty, love or wonder, we work to stay in touch with our hearts in order to make sense of our experience. As we learn when to try and when to let go, when to give our all and when to surrender and simply receive, we unfold the moments that reveal meaning and ready us for grace. This is how the heart breaks a path to our soul’s work, leading us to our authenticity, and to how we can be useful to others and the world.” By illuminating the art of finding and restoring what matters and by exploring the craft of awakening, The One Life We’re Given affirms our purpose as not just to stay alive but to stay in our aliveness.

A groundbreaking, accessible presentation of Tibetan Buddhism from Chögyam Trungpa, renowned twentieth-century master and teacher. Based on a series of talks given by Chögyam Trungpa during the first session of what was to become Naropa University, Cynicism and Magic introduces key Tibetan Buddhist concepts, including karma, the structure of ego, the paramitas, and the bodhisattva. Employing a unique and intimate teaching style, Trungpa Rinpoche presents these concepts in a larger framework of questions we all have: What is authentic spirituality? Can I find enlightenment and freedom? How should I approach life, death, suffering, and boredom? How can I develop some discipline, patience, and sanity? Through these accessible teachings, this book will show you how to approach a living dharma with intelligence, and with a sense of openness and wonder.

It's no wonder that The Power of Now has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. Much more than simple principles and platitudes, the book takes readers on an inspiring spiritual journey to find their true and deepest self and reach the ultimate in personal growth and spirituality: the discovery of truth and light. In the first chapter, Tolle introduces readers to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind. He awakens readers to their role as a creator of pain and shows them how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present. The journey is thrilling, and along the way, the author shows how to connect to the indestructible essence of our Being, "the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death." Featuring a new preface by the author, this paperback shows that only after regaining awareness of Being, liberated from Mind and intensely in the Now, is there Enlightenment.