Sacred Synthesis — The Book

“Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.”

— Nicomachean Ethics, Book I.1 (1094a), trans. W. D. Ross

“O nobly-born, listen. Now thou art experiencing the Radiance of the Clear Light of Pure Reality. Recognize it.”

— The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Evans-Wentz, 1927), Chikhai Bardo — the setting-face-to-face with the Clear Light

“I shall tell thee a twofold tale. At one time it grew together to be one only out of many, at another it divided asunder to be many out of one.”

— Empedocles, Fragment 17 (DK 31 B17), trans. John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy

“Salutation to Âdinâtha (Śiva) who expounded the knowledge of Haṭha Yoga, which like a staircase leads the aspirant to the high pinnacled Râja Yoga.”

— Hatha Yoga Pradipika I.1, trans. Pancham Sinh (1915)

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”

— Manifesto of the Communist Party, Ch. I (Bourgeois and Proletarians), trans. Samuel Moore (1888)

“All whatsoever is spoken, written, or taught of God, without the knowledge of the signature is dumb and void of understanding.”

— The Signature of All Things, ch. 1, §1, trans. John Ellistone

“O servant, where dost thou seek Me? Lo! I am beside thee. I am neither in temple nor in mosque: I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash: neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation.”

— Songs of Kabir, poem I, trans. Rabindranath Tagore (1915)

“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)

“Now that which is that subtle essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.”

— Khandogya-Upanishad VI.8.7 ('Tat tvam asi') — trans. F. Max Muller, SBE Vol. 1 (1879)

“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

“Khien (represents) what is great and originating, penetrating, advantageous, correct and firm.”

— The Yî King, Hexagram I (Khien) — trans. James Legge, SBE Vol. 16

“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

“The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.”

— Tâo Teh King, Ch. 1 — trans. James Legge, SBE Vol. 39

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

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