Fields Book Store - Soulful and scholarly books from the world's spiritual traditions

Directions/Parking

Fields is served by several public transit lines. We are half a block south of the California St. cable car line. Muni buses nearby include the 47 and 49 on Van Ness Ave., the 1 California, and the 19 on Polk St. itself. BART connects to the 1 California bus at Embarcadero Station (which is the best connection from the East Bay) and to the 19 Polk at Civic Center. Golden Gate buses 70 and 80 from the North Bay also pass near the store via Van Ness. To plan your trip, see 511.org.

For easy parking in the neighborhood, use the city-owned Polk-Bush Garage at 1399 Bush St. The cost is about the same as the parking meters, and you won't need to worry about getting a ticket! Going east on Bush St., which is one-way, just take an immediate right into the garage as soon as you cross Polk. It's only a block and a half from the store.

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A Prayer for Spiritual Elevation and Protection: Al-Dawr Al-A la (Hizh Al-Wiqaya)
Ibn 'Arabi, Muhyiddin
Anqa Publishing

Widely used for centuries in Sufi circles, this beautiful and powerful prayer, written by the great Sufi master Ibn ‘Arabi, has never before been available in English. The book provides a lucid English translation and an edited Arabic text, as well as a transliteration for those unable to read Arabic who wish to recite the prayer in the original language. It also explores the prayer’s contemporary life, properties and historical transmission. It gives full details of generations of well-known scholars and Sufi masters who have transmitted the prayer, providing an intimate and fascinating insight into Islamic history.

Price: $25.95

Entering the Castle: Finding the Inner Path to God and Your Soul's Purpose
Myss, Caroline
Simon & Schuster

Myss provides a highly original inner path to self-knowledge as she reveals a necessary external path, one that takes you out into the world to serve God and others as a mystic without a monastery -- without having to retreat into silence, self-denial, or isolation. Adapting Teresa of Ávila's vision of the soul as a crystal castle with many floors and rooms, Myss guides us from room to room, helping us meet different aspects of our self, our soul, and our spirit -- preparing us for the ultimate encounter with God and our own divinity. Through intense practices and methods of spiritual inquiry adapted for contemporary life, she helps us to develop our powers of prayer, contemplation, and intuition and to ascend the seven levels of soul knowledge that build a soul of strength and stamina.

Price: $15.00

The Neuroscience of Fair Play: Why We (Usually) Follow the Golden Rule
Pfaff, Donald W.
University of Chicago Press

Pfaff, head of the Laboratory of Neurobiology and Behavior at Rockefeller University, gives us the first book to describe how ethics may be a universal, hardwired function of the human brain. He explains how specific brain circuits cause us to consider an action toward another as if it were going to happen to us, prompting us to treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Into this picture, he brings various brain hormones that produce or induce forms of moral behavior such as individual heroism, parental love, close friendship, and violence and aggression.

Price: $20.95

Initiation: The Living Reality of an Archetype
Singer, June
Taylor & Francis/Routledge

This book builds on the vast clinical experience of Jungian analyst Joseph Henderson, who studied initiatory symbolism in patients' dreams, fantasies, and active imagination, demonstrating the archetype of initiation in both men and women's psychology. This book's modern collection of essays shows how the archetype of initiation is seen clinically today. It explores the archetype of initiation in Henderson's own life, as well as amplifying and extending the archetype from early history up to the present. Initiation symbolism often underlies contemporary phenomena, but is rarely recognized; Initiation illuminates these experiences.

Price: $33.95