Art-Making & Art Monasticism:

• The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach
• The Artist’s Rule
• The Artist’s Way
• The War of Art

Interfaith Monasticism:

• Alone in Community: Journeys into Monastic Life Around the World, by William Claasen
• Benedict’s Dharma, edited by Patrick Henry, afterword by David Steindl-Rast OSB
• Sanctuaries: A Guide to Lodgings in Monasteries, Abbeys, and Retreats, by Jack and Marcia Kelly

Chinese Buddhist & Taoist Monasticism:

• Sacred Economies: Buddhist Monasticism & Territoriality in Medieval China, by Michael J. Walsh
• The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China, by Yifa
• Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits, by Bill Porter
• Monastic Life in Medieval Daoism, by Livia Kohn
• The Daoist Monastic Manual, a translation of the Fengdao Kejie (奉道科戒) by Livia Kohn

Eastern & Western Christian Monasticism

• Tales of a Magic Monastery, by Theophane the Monk
• One Heart, One Soul, Many Communities, by the Monastic Institute
• How to Be a Monastic and Not Leave Your Day Job: an Invitation to the Oblate Life, by Brother Benet Tvedten
• The View from a Monastery, by Brother Benet Tvedten
• Green Monasticism, Edited by Prof. Donald W. Mitchell, and William Skudlarek, O.S.B.
• The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris
• The Novice, by Stephen Schettini
• The Gateway to the Middle Ages: Monasticism, by Eleanor Shipley Duckett
• Lives of the Trappists Today, by Frank Bianco
• Thomas Merton & the Monastic Vision, by Lawrence S. Cunningham
• A Time to Keep Silence, by Patrick Leigh Fermor, introduction by Karen Armstrong
• Things of the Hidden God: A Journey to Holy Mountain, by Christopher Merrill
• Equal in Monastic Profession: Religious Women in Medieval Franceby Penelope D. Johnson
• Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany, by Erika Lauren Lindgren
• Monastic Tithes From Their Origins to the Twelfth Century, by Giles Constable
• Pillars of Community: Four Rules of Pre-Benedictine Monastic Life, by Terrence G. Kardong
• Western Monasticism: A History of the Monastic Movement in the Latin Church, by Peter King
• Words for the Journey: A Monastic Vocabulary, by Sister Edith Scholl
• Community of the Transfiguration: The Journey of a New Monastic Community, by Paul Dekar

Tibetan & Indian Buddhist Monasticism

• Recalling Chögyam Trungpa, “The Establishment of a Pure Monastic Tradition in the West” by Pema Chodron.
• Buddhist Monks and Business Matters: Still More Papers on Monastic Buddhism in India, by Gregory Schopen (see Art, Beauty and the Business of Running a Buddhist Monastery in Early Northwest India)

Southeast Asian (Theravada and Zen Buddhist) Monasticism

• Buddhist Monastic Life According to the Texts of the Theravada Tradition, by Mohan Wijayaratna
• Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman: A Study of Urban Monastic Organization in Central Thailand, by Jane Bunnag
• Freedom Whereever We Go: A Buddhist Monastic Code for the 21st Century, by Thich Nhat Hanh
• Stepping Into Freedom, Introduction to Buddhist Monastic Training, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Japanese Monasticism

• Unsui: A Diary of Zen Monastic Life, by Eshin Nishimura, drawings by Gieti Sato
• Hokkeji & the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan by Lori R. Meeks

Jewish Monasticism and Kibbutzism

• Inner-Worldly Monasticism: Towards a Model of Rabbinic–Halakhic Spirituality, by Professor Martin S. Jaffee
• Judaism and collective life : self and community in the religious kibbutz, by Aryei Fishman.
• Between Market, State and Kibbutz: The Management and Transformation of Socialist Industry, by Christopher Warhurst

Community:

• Co-housing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett
• Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, by Diana Leafe Christian
• Communalism: from its Origins to the Twentieth Century, by Kenneth Rexroth (text online)
• A Walden Two Experiment, by Kathleen Kinkade
• Voyages to Utopia: from Monastery to Commune—the Search for the Perfect Society in Modern Times, by William McCord
• The nuclear family in crisis: the search for an alternative, Edited and with an introd. by Michael Gordon

Buddhism:

• Small Boat, Great Mountain: Theravādan Reflections on The Natural Great Perfection by Ajahn Amaro
• Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha (an amazing book)
• Rebel Buddha, by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
• Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, by Chögyam Trungpa
• The Myth of Freedom, by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
• Indestructible Truth, by Reggie Ray
• Secret of the Vajra World, by Reggie Ray
• Buddhism Without Beliefs, by Stephen Batchelor
• Song of Mind, Wisdom from the Zen Classic Xin Ming, by Sheng Yen
• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki
• Mind at Ease: Self-Liberation Through Mahamudra Meditation, by Traleg Kyabgon
• Pointing Out the Great Way, by Daniel P. Brown

Christianity:

• Teachings of the Christian Mystics, edited by Andrew Harvey
• The Gospel in Brief, by Leo Tolstoy
• Beyond Belief, by Elaine Pagels
• Adam, Eve and the Serpent, by Elaine Pagels
• Jesus and Buddha, by Marcs Borg
• The Heart of Christianity, by Marcus Borg
• Living the Apostle’s Creed, by David Steindl-Rast
• Open Mind, Open Heart, by Thomas Keating
• Confessions of Saint Augustine
• Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, text by Hildegard with commentary by Matthew Fox
• The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

Meditation, Mind Fitness, & Neuroscience

• Luminous Mind: Meditation and Mind Fitness, by Joel & Michelle Levey

Religion, Philosophy & Art:

• Spiritual Enlightenment: the Damnedest Thing, by Jed McKenna
• Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason, by Immanuel Kant
• The Varieties of Religious Experience, by William James
• Religion, Values and Peak Experiences, by Abraham Maslow
• Creative Evolution, by Henri Bergson
• The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, by Henri Bergson
• Philosophy and the World, by Karl Jaspers
• Modern Man in Search of a Soul, by C.G. Jung
• Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, by Iris Murdoch
• The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer
• The Passionate State of Mind, by Eric Hoffer
• Death of the Soul, by William Barrett
• Sacred Pleasure, by Riane Eisler
• Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
• Techgnosis, by Erik Davis
• Passion of the Western Mind, by Richard Tarnas
• The Voices of Silence, by André Malraux

Websites:

• The Rule of Augustine
• Monasticism at Gampo Abbey
• Monastic Interreligious Dialogue
• The Art Monastery Project

Fiction:

• The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
• Saint Francis, by Nikos Kazantzakis
• Narcissus and Goldmund, by Herman Hesse
• The Glass Bead Game, Herman Hesse

Poetry

• Rilke’s Book of Hours, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

Films

• Into Great Silence
• Of Gods and Men
• The Monastery: Mr. Vig & the Nun
• Merton: a Film Biography