Your own spiritual path can be enhanced by learning from others. I've found the following books to be particularly helpful. I strongly urge you to get hold of them and read them:

The Prophets by Abraham Joshua Heschel

This is a wonderful re-introduction to the ancient Biblical prophets. Reading them through the lens of this extraordinary theologian will give you a renewed sense of how the views articulated in Spirit Matters are not new, but fit into a long tradition that goes back thousands of years. Try also Heschel's Who Is Man?

Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything (Shambhalha,1996)

A stunning and profound thinker examines the course of evolution as the unfolding of Spirit. If you want a detailed account of how Spirit has developed, Wilber is the person to read.. Try also his Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy (Shambhala, 2000).

Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch (volumes I, II and III published by Hampton Roads and Putnam). As an old-fashioned intellectual, I approached this work with a great deal of skepticism. But I found in Walsch's work some of the deepest truths about the realm of spirit, written in a very accessible style. Walsch hears God's voice in a way that regenerates hope. He deals with some of the most troublesome issues facing a contemporary spiritual person--and what God tells him is something most of us already know yet don't allow ourselves to fully know. As if this gift was not enough, Walsch has created a newsletter called Conversations, and a community of people who are supporting his work (called ReCreation).--and I've been delighted to find that in almost every issue of his newsletter I learn new ways to think about the meaning of living a spiritual life. It's available through ReCreation at PO Box 3547, Central Point, Oregon 97502.

The Bank Teller and other Writings on the Politics of Meaning by Peter Gabel (Acada Books, 2000)

Peter Gabel is one of the most creative intellectuals alive today, and his writing provides a deep and comprehensive foundation to many of the thoughts developed in this book. In The Bank Teller you'll find many of the articles Gabel wrote originally in TIKKUN magazine--and when read together they constitute a powerful way to apply spiritual categories to the contemporary world.

The New American Spirituality by Elizabeth Lesser (Random House, 1999)

Elizabeth Lesser provides an indispensable manual for how to make sense of the contemporary discourse on spirituality. Lesser was a cofounder of The Omega Institute which offers weekend and week long seminars in spiritual growth.

The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation (Mythical Books, 1998)

Thom Hartmann tells the story of our destruction of the planet--and what we can do about it. Simple in its presentation, profound in its insights, this is the first book to read if you want to understand how imminent the danger is to our planet.

State of the World edited by Lester R. Brown, Christopher Flavin and Hilary French WW Norton, 2000

Each year the Worldwatch Institute publishes a report on the progress we are making toward a sustainable planet. To keep in touch with their latest reports, write to them at 1776 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington D.C. 20036 or try their website www.worldwatch.org

A Spirituality of Resistance: Finding a Peaceful Heart and Protecting the Earth by Roger S. Gottlieb Crossroad Publishing Co. 1999

An eloquent appeal to spiritual people to take seriously the challenge of healing the planet.

Faith Works: Lessons form the Life of an Activist Preacher by Jim Wallis. Random House, 2000

Wallis is the prophet of a new and powerful progressive movement among Christian Evangelicals called The Call to Renewal. This book is the engaging and compelling story of his own life experience and how it led him to the struggle for a spiritually grounded social justice.

Here are some useful books to give you a background in the Jewish world:

1. Nosson Scherman editor, The Stone Edition of the Chumash
2. Roger S. Gottlieb, A Spirituality of Resistance
3. Evan Esisenberg, The Ecology of Eden
4. Adin Steinsaltz editor The Steinsaltz edition of The Talmud
5. Nathan Englander for the relief of unbearable urges
6. Marcia Praeger, The Path of Blessing
7. Tom Segev, The Seventh Million
8. Emmanual Levinas, Nine Talmudic Readings
9. Howard Schwartz, editor Gabriel's Palace: Stories from the Jewish Mystical Tradition
10. Jules Chametzky et.al The Norton Anthology of Jewish American Literature
11. Diane Matza, editor Sepahrdic American Voices
12. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Paradigm Shift (Jason Aronson)
13. Arthur Waskow, Down-to-Earth Judaism
14. Deborah E. Lipstadt Denying the Holocaust
15. Moshe Halbertal, The People of the Book
16. Daniel Matt, The Essential Kabbalah
17. Susannah Heschel, ed., Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity : Writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel
18. Judith Plaskow, Standing Again at Sinai (Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1990)
19. Ilan Stavans, editor, The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories
20. Rachel Adler, Engendering Judaism (Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1998)
21. Joseph Telushkin, The Book of Jewish Values
22. Rodger Kamenetz , Jew in the Lotus
23. Arthur Green, Seek My Face, Speak My Name
24. Lawrence Kushner, God Was in This Place and i, I did Not Know it (Jewish Lights)
25. Aryeh Lev Stollman, The Far Euphrates (novel)
26. Marge Piercy, The Art of Blessing the Day (Knopf)
27. Letty Cottin Pogrebin Deborah, Golda and Me
28. Peter Novick The Holocaust in American Life
29. Riv-Ellen Prell Fighting to Become Americans
30. Tony Kushner, Angels in America
31. Our Lives as Torah Carol Ochs
32. Anita Diamant, The Red Tent
33. Grace Paley, Collected Stories
34. Bernard Malamud, The Complete Stories of Bernard Malamud
35. A.B. Yehoshua, Mister Mani
36. Alfred Kazin: God and the American Writers
37. Geoffrey Hartman, The Longest Shadow
38. Aharon Appelfeld, The Conversion
39. Susan Weidman Schneider Jewish and Female: Choices and Changes in Our Lives Today (Simon & Schuster
40. Meron Benvenisti Sacred Ladscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948
41. Dalia Ofer and Lenore J. Weitzman Women in the Holocaust
42. Yehuda Bauer Rethinking the Holocaust
43. Michael Walzer et al editors, The Jewish Political Tradition
44. David Hartman, Israelis and The Jewish Tradition
45. Judith Hauptman, Rereading the Rabbis
46. Ellen Frankel The Five Books of Miriam
47. Michael Fishbane The Exegetical Imagination
48. David Cooper God is a Verb
49. David Grossman See Under Love
50. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, HITLER'S WILLING EXECUTIONERS
51. Rebecca Goldstein, MAZEL
52. Steven M. Cohen & Arnold M. Eisen, The Jew Within: Self, Family & Community in America
53. Sidra Ezrahi Booking Passage
54. Allegra Goodman, The Family Markowitz
55. Philip Roth, THE COUNTERLIFE
56. Joseph Skibell A Blessing on the Moon
57. S.Y. Agnon, Only Yesterday
58. Lawrence Hoffman, My People's Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries
59. Saul Bellow, Ravelstein
60. Leon Wieseltier, Kaddish
61. Yehuda Amichai, Open Closed Open
62. Paula Hyman & Deborah Dash Moore, Women in America
63. Avivah Gottlieb Zornburg Genesis: The Beginning of Desire
64. Ellen Bernstein, Ecology and the Jewish Spirit
65. Yaffa Eliach There Once Was a World
66. Beni Morris Righteous Victims
67. Saul Friedlander Nazi Germany and the Jews
68. David Biale, Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History
69. Eva Fogelman Conscience and Courage: Rescuring of Jews During the Holocaust
70. Sander L. Gilman Jewish Self-Hatred
71. Amos Oz, In the Land of Israel
72. Thane Rosenbaum, Elijah Visible
73. Jacob Neusner Recovering Judaism
74. Daniel Boyarin Carnal Israel
75. Peter Pitzele Our Fathers' Well
76. Ruth Wisse, A New Modern Jewish Canon
77. Chana Kronfeld On the Margins of Modernism
78. Marcia Falk The Book of Blessings
79. Lawrence Langer Art from the Ashes
80. Tikva Frymer-Kensky In the Wake of the Goddesses
81. Rabbi Debra Orenstgein Lifecylces: Jewish Women on Life Passages & Personal Milestones
82. Adrienne Rich, Selected Poems 1950-1995
83. Rebecca Alpert Like Bread on the Seder Plate
84. Irena Klepfisz and Melanie Kaye/Kanrowitz The Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Women's Anthology
85. Art Spiegelman MAUS: A Survivor's Tale
86. Harold Bloom The Book of J
87. Melvin Jules Bukiet Stories of an Imagined Childhood
88. Judith A. Kates and Gail Twersky Reimer editors, Reading Ruth
89. Elyse Goldstein, editor The Women's Torah Commentary
90. Ellen M. Umansky And Dianne Ashton, Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality
91. Allan Ginsberg Selected Poems 1947-1995
92. Irving Greenberg The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays
93. Neil Gilman Sacred Fragments: Recovering Theology for the Modern Jew
94. Aryeh Kaplan Innerspace
95. David Kraemer Reading the Rabbis
96. Elie Wiesel, Memoirs
97. I.B. Singer, Shadows On the Hudson
98. Elliot N. Dorff and Louis E. Newman, eds., Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality
99. Robert Alter, Canon and Creativity
100. Joyce Antler, The Journey Home: How Jewish Women Shaped Modern America
101. Michael Lerner, Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation