The basic teaching is that God alone is the all-pervading reality; the individual soul is none other than the universal soul. According to Shankara, it is the ignorance of our real nature that causes suffering and pain. The desire for happiness is essentially a longing to awaken to who and what we truly are. Through the path of self-knowledge, Shankara clearly teaches how to awaken from ignornce created by the mind, and abide in the peace of our true nature.

    Garrigou-LaGrange, the 20th Century's greatest authority on mystical theology. Here Dom Lehodey, Abbot of Bricquebec, concentrates on the beginning stages of prayer, up through what is called the prayer of quiet, but he also describes the higher forms of prayer as well, including the very summit, or the prayer of union. In the process, he explains the advantages, the joys and—yes— the trials of mental prayer, plus he gives practical instructions on the methods of practicing this type of prayer. He also shows what to avoid and how to overcome the difficulties involved. By far the salient strength of this book is its description of how one goes from ordinary prayer to mystical prayer, which constitutes the giant step in the spiritual life. A wise and learned guide to spiritual matters, The Ways of Mental Prayer is a work destined to lead many to divine intimacy—a foretaste of Heaven on earth.

    Into the New World my first message.You who gave the Ashram,And you who gave two lives,Proclaim.Builders and warriors, strengthen the steps.Reader, if you have not grasped — read again, after a while.The predestined is not accidental,The leaves fall in their time.And winter is but the harbinger of spring.All is revealed; all is attainable.I will cover you with My shield, if you but tend to your labors.I have spoken.

    Leadbeater offers an enlightened study of the Path of Discipleship under the Guidance of the Ascended Masters. While existing in our troubled world, we can see in this work the place of initiation and its role in both our spiritual and physical selves. Beautifully written in a manner to both guide and instruct, this classic book is of timeless value to all students of Initiation and Guided Wisdom. Includes a clickable Table of Contents.

    It is said that these teachings are records of private, intimate talks between a teacher and one or two of his disciples. The setting was in Egypt under the Roman Empire, among men who had received some instruction in Greek philosophy, and especially the Platonism of the period, but were not content with merely accepting and repeating the cut-and-dried dogmas of the orthodox philosophic schools and sought to build up, on a basis of Platonic doctrine, a philosophic religion that would better satisfy their needs. Included here are the libelli of the Corpus Hermeticum, the Asclepius, the Hermetic excerpts in the Anthologium of Stobaeus, and other fragments. The entire text is produced in the original Greek or Latin, with an English translation on facing pages. Volumes II, III, and IV of Hermetica, which contain Scott's notes on the work, his commentary, and testimonia, extensive addenda, and indices, are also published by Shambhala.