Perusing an internet forum on intelligent design some months ago brought me to an unusual post by David Alexander entitled “Is beauty just Darwin’s bad… Read More »Plato on Intelligent Design: Truth, Beauty, and the Good
Ahimsa paramo dharma: Nonviolence is the highest religion Nonviolence, ahimsa, is the central doctrine of Jainism. It also plays an important role in Hinduism, Buddhism,… Read More »Ahimsa
What is meant by meditation? A general definition would be: one-pointed concentration on a subject, continued attention to it. For every form of meditation, theosophy… Read More »Meditation on Universal Brotherhood
Much about the origin and age of the original inhabitants of America remains unknown. Popularizers still propagate the view of the first Americans as semi-savage,… Read More »Theosophy among the Hopi
Of the many works of the Tibetan master Tsong-kha-pa, few compare in terms of popularity and breadth of influence with his Great Treatise on the… Read More »Tsong-kha-pa: Wisdom for Today
People of all times and places have sought to understand how the universe came into being and how humanity developed. Each culture provides its own… Read More »The Maya Creation Story
Although we live with the wind daily, delight in its blessings and suffer its wrath, how often do we question what it is or where… Read More »Holy Wind, Holy Spirit
Any one of you who has once felt the touch of the god within never is the same again. Never can be the same again.… Read More »The Fourteenfold Path of the Jains
Understanding “emptiness” is presented in Buddhism as the culmination of religious training. It is attained through the systematic practice of the perfect virtues, including the… Read More »The Wisdom of Emptiness
In H. P. Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine we find over 100 direct references to the Vishnu Purana, largely in her discussions of cosmic and human evolution. Purana means “old,” hence a… Read More »Evolution in the Vishnu Purana
Daunted by its size and a misconception that an intimate understanding of Hinduism was needed, I never considered taking the Mahabharata off the shelf. By accident I… Read More »A Wonder of Ancient India: The Mahabharata
[Introduction] This scripture has always been held in the greatest veneration in Mahayana countries. In China and Japan there are at least twenty-eight different recensions… Read More »Prajnaparamita-Hridaya-Sutra (The Heart Sutra)
There are several different schools of yoga. Best known in the West is hatha yoga. It involves bodily postures and breathing techniques which are supposed… Read More »Yoga and Enlightenment
The story of mankind cannot be understood without considering the birth of the planet of which we are all inseparable parts. If our universe is… Read More »The Evolution of Humanity and Its Civilizations
Our love of truth is evinced by our ability to discover and appropriate what is good wherever we come upon it. — J. W.… Read More »An Important Message from the Kogi Elders
Karma, a Sanskrit word meaning “action,” is regarded as a law of absolute universal justice, in which effect is linked with cause. It covers all… Read More »Karma in the Oglala Indian Tradition
Much of the wisdom of the American Indians is written in symbols — a language without letters or sounds that speaks to that part of… Read More »Wisdom Teachings of the Hopi
Lao-tzu’s Tao Teh Ching sat on the bookshelf for many years before it was finally dusted off and read. After only the first chapter I… Read More »Discovering the Tao Teh Ching
Standing in the altar room looking out through the east-facing door towards the dark mesas, I could tell that the sun was about to rise.… Read More »House of the Great Kiva: Astronomical Observations
The Indian Racetrack is located on a mesa above the Animas River Valley of northwestern New Mexico. It is composed of four parabolic arcs of… Read More »South Corner Time: Excavations and Sunrise Observations at Indian Racetrack
Ever since the rise of Greek rationalism, and probably long before that, myths have had bad reviews. In the early 5th century bce Xenophanes openly challenged Olympian… Read More »Plato’s Myths and the Mystery Tradition
The stream of an ancient wisdom flows out of a remote antiquity. At times traces of its existence are observable while at others, when dogmatism… Read More »Pythagoras’ Contribution
How the prehistoric Anasazi, the Ancient Ones, perceived the universe may not be so different from certain theosophic perspectives of the cosmos. The Pueblo Indians… Read More »Autumn Equinox at the World Quarter Shrine
Opening Prayer: If you would walk the paths of the American Indian — be prepared. Walk softly, O My Sisters, O My Brothers. Tread lightly,… Read More »American Indian Vision Quest
Dennis Tedlock’s recent translation of the Quiche Mayan Popol Vuh* is one of the finest, and as such is attracting widespread attention. It, together with his introduction,… Read More »[Review:] The Mayan Popol Vuh
The words gnosis and gnosticism have come into our thinking these days largely because of the discoveries of a Gnostic library at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, and of… Read More »The Gnosis according to Plato
Buddhism is known as a religion of enlightenment and emancipation or freedom. Buddha is a generic name given to one who has realized enlightenment or… Read More »Buddhism: The Path of Compassion
The ancient Egyptians conceived man and kosmos to be dual: firstly, the High God or Divine Mind arose out of the Primeval Waters of space… Read More »Light from Ancient Egypt
Brotherhood is generally accepted as a noble sentiment, a grand ideal, but personal and international events show how frequently it is disregarded. Our egocentricity and… Read More »Brotherhood: Pattern in Nature
Father, give me the light of your mind, / that my mind may be strong; / Give me some of your strength, / that my… Read More »Monster Slayer’s Hero Quest—the Navaho Way
The idea that man has an immortal spiritual nature, or at least an ethereal body which survives death, has been expressed over the centuries in… Read More »The Papyrus of Ani—Initiation and the After-Life
What is the native American’s view of death? Tribal traditions about the matter vary in expression but are not at variance one with another on… Read More »Death and the Tree of Life
“Man is made From Everything” is a beautiful Navaho saying that is pregnant with implications. It means that we human beings are compound of every… Read More »Continuous Journey to the Sun
It is probable that people in general do not realize that all who betake themselves to philosophy in the right way are engaged in one… Read More »The Ancient Mysteries:A Great Light, A Force for Good
Before the beginning of the making-anew, only the Maker and Container of All, the All-father Father, had being. Nothing else whatsoever was, through the great… Read More »Children of the Rainbow
If we consider man as composed of body, soul and spirit, then the sacred pilgrim in Greek thought is the human essence engaged in the… Read More »The Sacred Pilgrim in Greek Thought
Happiness comes to him, through whom happiness goes out to others. — Ushtavaiti Gastha Alexander’s conquest of the 4th century BC brought with it a… Read More »The Vision of Ardai Viraf
Mazdean teachings explain that because all creatures are equally important parts of one “Vast Individual,” whatever gives pleasure or pain to one, affects for good… Read More »The “Vast Individual”
Aid me by light, and vivify me by light, and guard me by light, and unite me unto light! I ask of Thee, O Worthy… Read More »The Prophet of Light
The Persian story of beginnings is of the rebecoming, the renovation, of what has ever existed and is repeatedly refashioned in manifested appearances. These appearances… Read More »The Story of Beginnings
Here at hand is The Desatir, which Zoroastrians call the Book of God, the message-bearer and nourisher, not only of the wisest and best, but… Read More »The Book of God
On I Chuen our Lord took out from itself its Divinity, and made heaven and earth. On 2 Eb it made the first ladder to… Read More »I, The Great Mystery
The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao;The name that can be defined is not the unchanging name.Non-existence is called the antecedent… Read More »Renovation Follows Renovation Without Cease
The ancient Egyptians believed that the numerous gods of their pantheon were emanations from the First Cause of all life which, before the moment of… Read More »The Radiant Thread of Egyptian Myth
The teachings of Jainism are presented in their sutras and commentaries with such mathematical exactness and logic one can’t help exclaiming, how true, how clear,… Read More »The Logic of Jain Mystical Doctrines
Vast as is the legacy of the skilled and illustrious Jain scholars and artisans, equally extensive is the contribution of the humble and industrious aspirants… Read More »A Lamp of the True Light
The barefoot beggar who wanders through India sweeping the dust from his path lest unintentionally he crush by his step some beetle or seed may… Read More »The Twenty-four “Buddhas” of Jainism
The remains of Maya civilization were discovered during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by amateur archaeologists who came to Central America. Better prepared individuals in… Read More »Those Mysterious Maya?
[Part 1] There was an ancient American theosophy which taught conceptions of the universe and of man just as lofty, profound, and spiritual as any… Read More »The Theosophy of Ancient America
Part One The question of how and when man first arrived in the Americas is far from settled, for the whole Western Hemisphere is covered… Read More »Where Did the ‘Americans’ Come From?
A student at one of the Eastern colleges of the United States writes in that he has more questions than time to ask, and these… Read More »On Plato’s Theory of Ideas
The mighty task of bringing together the various factions and of and revitalizing the great philosophy underlying the ancient Vedas was undertaken by two great… Read More »Jainism
Imagine, if you will, a people who had a complex written language that suffered no major changes for more than a thousand years; whose cultural… Read More »Ciphers and Civilizations
Somewhere in the third millennium BC a great conference was held on the slopes of the Himalayas to discuss a problematic Vedic injunction which was… Read More »The Vedic Schism
In ancient cultures, such as that of the Indo-Aryans or the Druids, literacy and education were not considered of general major importance, because they were… Read More »The Vedas: Soil of Buddhism
The following impromptu address was given during a long trip on a Chinese Cargo Liner. Each Sunday morning there was a short religious service during… Read More »The Three Noble Teachers of Ancient China
Part One In a just published book, Before Columbus (Crown Publishers, Inc., N.Y. 1971; 224 pages, $6.50; see review article, “A Question of Maps,” Sunrise August 19, 1967), Dr. Cyrus… Read More »Ancient America
The resurgence of life during the vernal equinox has been celebrated by all peoples who have inherited from remotest antiquity the meaning of what occurs… Read More »The Two Faces of Egypt
Part I Though the art of writing was known to the ancient Vedic sages, it was used extensively only in the inscriptions of the Indus… Read More »The Art of Writing in India
The most precious relic of Pre-Columbian culture in Mexico is the Aztec Calendar Stone. This immense object of basaltic porphyry measures thirteen feet in diameter… Read More »Aztec Calendar Stone
Didactic ballads and folklore are the most precious remnants of a glorious culture that disappeared from the surface of our globe many centuries prior to… Read More »Unbroken Chain of Oral Tradition
The ancient Egyptian civilizations is still strange to us after many decades of research into its features and history. It seems so contradictory and presents… Read More »The Riddle of Ancient Egypt
I will give you the story of Creation, as it was taught by the ancient Druids in Wales. It is to be taken as symbolical,… Read More »War-Cry of the Soul
How are we to make practical use of our faith in universal brotherhood? One answer is by adventuring in brotherhood. Perhaps you object: “I have… Read More »Adventuring in Brotherhood