Blue Demon Approved:
5 Books for College Spiritual Success
at DePaul University
Our individual journeys to find a “favorite book” often comes with life experience. Whether that experience involves, periods of happiness, sadness or uncertainty. During times of extreme emotion, we tend to seek out answers and in my case, I sought out answers through books. Some of my favorites have helped to develop my mentality, resiliency and fortitude for all of lifes challenges–whether they are good or not-so-good challenges.
1. The 4 Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz
My top pick is a book that was passed down 3 times until it reached me. My sister-in-law had the copy first, then it was passed down to my brother (not the brother that is married to her) and finally it reached me. Embodying the wear-and-tear of two people before me, I began to make notes of my own within the pages.
What are the 4 agreements? They are simple, but universally understandable: Never Assume, Always Do Your Best, Be Impeccable with Your Word and Never Take Anything Personally. These are agreements you make within yourself as sort of a way of living and serve you best if recognized as different ways to interpret. “Life is a dream” that you can mold with the agreements you choose to live by.
A FAVORITE QUOTE: “Moses called it the Promised Land, Buddha called it Nirvana, Jesus called it Heaven, and the Toltecs call it a New Dream.”
2. The Art of Happiness – Dalai Lama
Written by the Dalai Lama, this book speaks to the mentality of being happy. To be happy and choose it, is a conscious decision we can make for the majority of encounters in life. Similar to the 4 Agreements, being able to reframe and decide on “Happy” doesn’t mean you ignore the objectively “Sad” or “Bad”, it simply means you expend the decisional energy to let go of the anger or transform a situation into a positive. Dwelling drains you of your happiness and holding it grows contempt within your heart.
A FAVORITE QUOTE: “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
3. 7 Spiritual Law of Success – Deepak Chopra
You may be seeing the similar themes for these books and those are of self-help and enlightenment. Maybe your journey doesn’t need full-on enlightenment yet, but the insights provided in this book are immensely valuable at any stage of your life. As students, we often place our value of self on the outcome of our time in school. This can make our studies incredibly stressful when those are the stakes. The energy we spend should go towards doing our best and knowing we did our best––not on worrying about the actual outcome of how we end up doing.
FAVORITE QUOTE: “The law of detachment doesn’t mean that we give up our desires, rather that we move away from an attachment to the outcome, which can bind us to doubt, fear and insecurity. on problems—but rather allow solutions to emerge out of a problem.”
4. The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
A novel following the journey of a traveler who experiences phenomena that would make one exclaim “look at god”. The journey is symbolic of the life journey we all go through, and the outcome of “following our one and true desire” is a metaphor for the human individual’s interpretation of what “God” is. Different visions of the same message. Following our dreams and goals doesn’t come at the cost of love, but rather it comes through the experience of love.
A FAVORITE QUOTE:“You must understand that love never keeps a man from pursuing his Personal Legend. If he abandons that pursuit, it’s because it wasn’t true love.”
5. Spiritual Book of Your Choice
The oldest scriptures all have common themes of resilience, faith, hope and persistance in the face of adversity. In my view, it is because humans are spiritual beings seeking meaning to all of life’s wonder. Whether it be the Indigenous tribes across the Americas or the prophets of the middle east, humans have had an innate need and want to connect with a higher being. With so much turmoil across the world, we must come together now more than ever, across different faiths and languages.
The digital age has made connecting with the physical, whether it be inanimate or animate, hard to do and “inefficient”. Our phones function as the end-all-be-all whereas item or relics that serve “one purpose” do just that. Relics are what I consider books to be. For me, a book is the physical proof of thought in something as concrete as possible. There are no real-time online revisions or manipulations. It’s simple: You read what’s on the page with your mind, but you interpret it with what’s in your heart.
Visit The Library
Marco Garcia | IG: AstroTheProtege | First-Generation Latino Digital Marketing Student