Book 3: The Sacred Synthesis — The Complete Practical Curriculum

“Behold! human beings living in an underground den... they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave.”

— Republic, Book VII (514a–515a), trans. Benjamin Jowett

“This is the life of the gods and of godlike and blessed men, a liberation from the alien that besets us here, a life taking no pleasure in the things of earth, a flight of the alone to the Alone.”

— Enneads VI.9.11, trans. Stephen MacKenna

“Guide us to that topmost height of mystic lore which exceedeth light and more than exceedeth knowledge, where the simple, absolute, and unchangeable mysteries of heavenly Truth lie hidden in the dazzling obscurity of the secret Silence.”

— The Mystical Theology, ch. 1, trans. C. E. Rolt (1920)

“The inquiry is into the means of precluding the three sorts of pain; for pain is embarrassment: nor is the inquiry superfluous because obvious means of alleviation exist, for absolute and final relief is not thereby accomplished.”

— Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna, verse 1 (trans. H. T. Colebrooke & H. H. Wilson)

“Your business is with action alone, not by any means with fruit. Let not the fruit of action be your motive to action. Let not your attachment be (fixed) on inaction.”

— Bhagavadgîtâ, Ch. II.47 — trans. Kâshinâth Trimbak Telang, SBE Vol. 8

“Justice, being violated, destroys; justice, being preserved, preserves: therefore justice must not be violated, lest violated justice destroy us.”

— The Laws of Manu, Ch. VIII.15 — trans. Georg Bühler, SBE Vol. 25

“Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff (Chitta) from taking various forms (Vrittis).”

— Book I (Samadhi Pada), aphorism 2, trans. Swami Vivekananda (1896)