GPandit wrote:More specifically about the books: what books helped you to become liberated from those old negativities? which ones were pieces to the puzzle which we are trying to understand? Or, whatever else you feel like recommending
Thank you again for your appreciation. Yes, we have gone through difficult times and regaining our confidence in ourselves as good, spiritual, strong, capable, powerful, independent and intelligent people who are NOT bad, fallen, useless, and so on, is a real achievement!
Specifically, the books that helped me the most to understand life in a really positive and spiritually relevant way were Conversations with God (Neal Donald Walsh) and the follow up books, Communion with God, Friendship with God and so on. Although not every word in these books resonated with me, there were enough wonderful things, wonderfully phrased, that I felt very happy and enlivened and very confident that recommending these books to others is a very good thing. But every word made me think, made me question, and made me appreciate my life and all that has happened in it. Probably you have already read them, but these books specifically address the negative conditioning that is there in fundamentalist organizations which require their members to think and fit into molds which are not necessarily good for them as individuals.
I don't even care if someone agrees with what is presented or not for these books make you think. I was never able to read many pages at a time since I would often simply put down the book and absorb something that was said.
Some have tried to discredit Mr Walsh since he later on said some things which they do not agree with about Krishna or others. I think it is good that he did that since it confirms to me that he is not really the source of the knowledge he presented. There was a part towards the end of the third book in the series when I could feel his personal prejudices color and transform the presentation. This is my personal opinion. When I read the books the he personally wrote I see a big difference from the books that flowed through him (the one's that I quoted above). This does not mean that he has no value personally or that his own writings are not important, for they are important as expressions of himself and how he sees reality. I think it is great that he stands on his own as a teacher and presents things according to his own realization as this is a good way for him to grow and for some people to learn from another point of view. But the original books are world class and extremely valuable, especially for those who have been in movements, organizations, sects or however you wish to label groups of people who all accept some system without the freedom to question the axioms upon which these systems are based.
Since you asked about getting free from the old negativities, these books seemed to be the best way to start. There are others, many others, in all kinds of fields that are valuable and filled with wisdom, but none address this particular issue as directly and appropriately as these books do.
Psychology has many wonderful authors who either are influenced by Abraham Maslow (the most quoted psychologist of all time), Carl Jung, or others. In my opinion, there is no better source to find out about the mind and character of children and an enlightened way to see their development than Rudolf Steiner.
Ah, the list is endless! I could go on for hours listing good books.