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The Courage to Practice


Hohm Press

Pages: 192 pages
Size: Paperback, 5.5 X 8.5 inches
ISBN: 978-1-942493-35-8

The much-needed message of this book is that spiritual practice is not a weekend hobby or an activity for adolescent seekers (of any age). Instead, Lalitha makes a case for mature spirituality, which evolves from a serious commitment to the Path, and assumes dignity, integrity and personal responsibility for one’s life choices. She proposes a series of “questions that matter”. . . including:

• What Path Are You Really On?

• What Are You Seriously Committed to?

• What Do You Call Love?

• Are You on Your Deathbed?

The playing field of spiritual maturity can never be separate from one’s everyday life—one’s work, relationships, art, physical limits, suffering, aging and dying—Lalitha affirms. And, it will always reflect a sacred regard for the highest principles (one’s aim), along with gratitude for what is, and kindness, generosity and compassion toward others.

Lalitha is a spiritual teacher and a farmer—her ashram in BC is also a working organic farm. She knows the disciplined efforts needed to prepare a ground for planting, to nurture and maintain young shoots, to guard against predators and to harvest a mature crop. As a long-term spiritual practitioner, she has worked with students for over twenty years. She knows the risks, the sweat and the fruits of the spiritual path. Full of practical help, her book cites dozens of examples relative to spiritual authority, doubt and confusion, a life of practice, and the facing and embracing of death . . . as well as other issues that matter! She is the author of Waking to Ordinary Life, and several books on health and healing.

BOOK REVIEWS:

The important question which must arise with any spiritual teaching is this: Can I use this right now to help me find my way out of hell? If not, it is of no practical use. Lalitha’s teaching sets my foot at once in the right direction on the path which leads out of hell. I must walk the path, but she provides a most useful and practical map of the territory.
Red Hawk, author, Self Remembering: The Path to Non-Judgmental Love, Self Observation: The Awakening of Conscience, and Return To the Mother: A Lover’s Handbook

A much needed book in a world where the desire for instant gratification and instant enlightenment seem to be the norm. Lalitha beautifully offers the reader a road map for both understanding the path one is on, as well as for clarifying and refining it. Cultivating Spiritual Maturity is both an easy read and a book to reread, for inspiring oneself again and again.
– Yogacharini Maitreyi, teacher and founder, Arkaya Yoga, www.arkaya.net
In accessible, wise and playful language, this book is a guide for all dedicated spiritual practioners. Whatever path you are on, Lalitha breaks open the way for us, as human beings, to a radical and pragmatic relationship with our own spiritual practice. These are teachings to return to over and over; their bold wisdom runs through you, and in these words is a living companion.
– Celeste Snowber, PhD, author, Embodied Prayer and Embodied Inquiry: Writing, Living and Being Through the Body

A BOOK FOR BOTH NEW AND LONGTIME STUDENTS OF ANY TRANSFORMATIONAL/SPIRITUAL PATH. A VALUED ADDITION TO BOTH UNIVERSITY AND PUBLIC LIBRARY COLLECTIONS.

Cultivating Spiritual Maturity
1795