Thich Nhat Hanh is a famous Buddhist monk from Vietnam. In 1967, Martin Luther King nominated him for the Nobel Prize.

The Miracle of Mindfulness is a short, high quality book that explains how to incorporate meditation into our daily lives. The beauty of the book lies in its depth of ideas presented in simple language. For me, this book is special — just reading the first few chapters of this book makes me feel calmer.

Practical Insight Meditation (free) (16 pages, 1944) by Mahasi Sayadaw would be a good booklet to complement Thich Nhat Hanh's 'A Miracle of Mindfulness'. Mahasi Sayadaw's booklet also has precise instructions on how to practice mindfulness in our day to day lives. 10-day Vipassana meditation courses would be helpful in learning mindfulness techniques formally.

Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) was a saint in Tamil Nadu, India. He was mostly silent. Visitors from all over the world used to visit him to spend some time in silence with him. He wrote no books.

The most famous book associated with Ramana Maharshi is the 16-page booklet titled 'Who Am I' with 28 questions and answers. The booklet is available for free in PDF format. Ramana Maharshi's technique was quite simple: he emphasized that when a thought occurs, we must question, 'To whom does this thought arise?' :) That begs the question: is it possible to see our thoughts in the first place? Yes, through a variety of meditation techniques, the mind can be stilled to the extent that the ability to see thoughts in third person may be acquired. Thereafter, Ramana Maharshi's technique is applicable by asking ourselves, 'To whom does this thought arise?' :)

The answer is captured beautifully by Atma Shatkam by Adi Shankaracharya. The relationship between Atma Shatkam and the 28 Q&A in 'Who Am I' by Ramana Maharshi is quite clear. Both of these teach Advaita Vedanta, an understanding which may be aided by these lectures: (1) Who Am I — Part I (YouTube) and Who Am I — Part II (YouTube) by Swami Sarvapriyananda (monk at Ramakrishna Order) at IIT Kanpur, 2014. (2) Sadhana (YouTube) by Swami Advayananda (President, Chinmaya International Foundation), 2015.

A collection of 81 insightful sayings. Each saying is accompanied by a brief, one-page summary that explains the saying. I chanced upon this book in 2007. It was helpful to me. Here are two of the 81 sayings:

I like this book because it provides concrete advice about real life situations using plain language.

A comparison of meditation techniques from various traditions. Quite illuminating. Daniel Goleman was a Professor of Psychology at Harvard in 1970s. He then spent many years with spiritual masters in India, then returned to the West to write books like Emotional Intelligence (1997).

I read this book around 2007-2008 time frame when I was researching meditation techniques. The book was quite interesting. However, by merely reading this book, I was not able to figure out what exactly meditation was, and how different traditions differed from each other. In September 2007, I did my first 10-day Vipassana meditation course — that was a life changing event. That course taught me what meditation really was, and how it changes us positively.

In the same book, Daniel Goleman mentions two different paths: one leading to 'zero', another leading to 'one', and that these two paths ultimately led to the same realization. In 2007-2008 time frame, I couldn't make any sense of these statements. Even after the 10-day course, these concepts were unclear. It was sometime in December 2015 that these dots got connected for me — at least I understood intellectually what zero and one meant.

This book is in 'veer rasa' (inspirational). The basic idea is simple: we all feel comfortable in our current situation even though it may be highly unpleasant. We fear the unknown. In a BIG way! Osho emphasizes that belief in the known is an illusion. What will happen tomorrow, or even a few minutes from now, is actually unknown. For example, one of the biggest unknowns is the time of our death. Through a variety of angles, Osho encourages us to become bold, to "hold the bull by the horn", to become fearless! I like the writing style of this book: it's evocative and inspiring.

In general, I find Osho's writings too verbose. He uses too many words. In the end, I'm not even sure if I understood what he was trying to convey. In contrast, sayings of Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna Paramhansa are precise, to the point, brief — I can readily connect with what they are conveying.