Preface to the Expanded Edition
In the years since publication of The Perennial Way, I've been humbled and gratified by the reception it has received, and by the wonderful comments from readers about the essential place it has found in their lives and search for Truth. I have also received suggestions about other spiritual works readers would like me to tackle in a similar way, most often the Bhagavad Gita, which I have since published separately, and also two lesser known Advaita classics, Avadhuta Gita and Atma Shatakam, which I've included in this edition. I've also included two other works, Three Books of the Absolute, and Book of Yeshua. Three Books of the Absolute is an epic poem by the modern mystic Richard Rose that dramatically describes his Realization and what was realized. Book of Yeshua contains selected sayings of Jesus of Nazareth, who's name in his native language of Aramaic, is Yeshua. It is excerpted from my book Christ Sutras: The Complete Sayings of Jesus from All Sources Arranged as Sermons, and conveys the inner teachings of Jesus in his own words, teachings that are very similar to those of Advaita, Buddhism, Zen, and the other traditions anthologized here. Readers have also asked why I haven't written about the similarities between all these great teachings and provided more commentary in the introductions. My feeling is that commentary often gets in the way of a reader's direct communion with the masters, and my intention with these translations is that they speak clearly and directly for themselves, with a powerful self-evidence that needs no commentary.Better for you to discover for yourself the similarities between Jesus and Lao Tsu, than for me or anyone else to point them out. Better for you to be caught off-guard and struck speechless by a profound verse in Ashtavakra Gita, than for me or anyone else to tell you what to feel or hear in it-or worse, how to "understand" it. There is nothing in these spiritual masterworks that you don't already know in the deep recesses of your heart and soul. Reading them is a journey into Self. Have at it, and Godspeed.