The Spiritual Ascent A Compendium of the World's Wisdom

Truly magisterial, this compendium of spiritual wisdom is organized according to the traditional religious concept of spiritual ascentor, in Christian terms, the sequence of death, resurrection, and eternal life. Hundreds of selected passages represent many faiths and philosophical traditions, with insight from some of the world's greatest minds, including Black Elk, Confucius, Eckart, Muhammad, Philo, Rumi, and Shakespeare. The material itself is divided into three sections that correspond to the ascent, with the opening quotations treating suffering, sin, and obedience before giving way to the middle section's preoccupation with action, combat and judgment. Finally, the third set of quotations climbs aloft to investigate the subjects of truth, eternity, the shattering of forms, and the cosmos.

Whitall N. Perry was an expert on comparative religions and studied with A. K. Coomaraswamy, Rene Guenon, Frithjof Schuon, and other gurus, including Native American sages. He also contributed articles on metaphysical and cosmological subjects to academic journals before his death. Huston Smith has taught at Washington University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, and the University of California–Berkeley. He is internationally known for his bestselling book The World's Religions, the focus of a five-part PBS television series with Bill Moyers. He lives in Berkeley, California. Marco Pallis was an Englishman who studied under Tibetan lamas and was initiated into their order with the name Thubden Tendzinthe. He was the author of two popular books about Thailand, Peaks and Lamas and The Way and the Mountain.