Customer Reviews

The Spiritual Ascent: A Compendium of the World's Wisdom

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This is it!!! The big book of the spiritual wisdom of the ages. From all the great wisdom traditions, east and west, this is the most comprehensive anthology I've ever seen. All the major themes of mankind's search for The Real are treated. From creation to sacrifice to magic to illusion to reality to visions to suffering, death, metanoia, prayer, grace, ecstacy, truth, union, the esoteric, the list goes on and on. Mr Perry has wisely organised this large book [over 1,000 pages] into a very accessable treasure trove of the world's greatest wisdom writings. Well referenced, indexed, foot noted, the book is awesome on many levels. Here you have quotes from the Bible, the Koran, the Buddhist Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, Shakespeare, Plotinus, Ramakrishna, Meister Eckhart, William Law, Thomas Aquinas, Kabir, Lao Tzu, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Black Elk, Plato, and hundreds more. This beautiful book all by itself makes a fine library of both ancient and modern writings by the great prophets, seers, sages, mystics, and scholars who have sought to speak their deepest truths. I buy books all the time, this is one of those rare ones you fall in love with completely. With very few exceptions, I know of no more wonderful book of essential knowledge than this one. Along with the massive amount of wisdom assembled here by Mr Whitall N. Perry, the book is further enriched with a great introduction by Huston Smith and a beautiful foreward by Marco Pallis. The purchaser and reader of this book will get many times their money's worth.

I have this book in its first (1972) edition, and I have to say that it is simply excellent, a cyclopean work (before the general use of computers and all that). This is an encyclopedia of the wisdom of the religions of the world, collected by themes and, from the first page to the end as if it were a spiritual journey, so you begin reading passages about "spiritual death" and you end with the highest level, which is "union with God". Mr. Perry has taken a lot (a lot) of care in quoting the sources, so that they're not out of context. And you have almost 1.200 pages of wisdom in its purest form from the most orthodoxes sages or saints (or both). The notes and introductions to every chapter (and every chapter has its own sections and subsections so each one is relatively short) are clarifying and taken to the minimun, so to not to interrupt much the quotes. Add to this the cross references at the margins of each page and you have the best "summa of the philosophia perennis" ever collected. A must for everyone interested in comparative religions and spirituality no matter your standpoint.

This book is incredible. It gives much meaning to words like death and love. Did you know that marriage and die mean the same thing? In this book, this is something that is brought up. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to expand their spiritual perspective on things. This book is considered to be an " Encyclopedia of Humankind's spiritual Truths " GET THIS BOOK!

This book might well have been be re-named 'An Anthology of the Spiritual Life.'

In brilliantly classified excerpts, chosen out of the immense total of man's spiritual heritage, skillfully arranged so as to throw into relief each other's truth -- and their common truth -- as an evocation from their very contrast, the book is creating a synthesis of mutual corroboration.

In the sequence of a spiritual quest, the extensive quotes from the many Christian mystics, from an Islamic genius to a Hebraic comment, from sayings by Tibetan sages to a Taoist message, and by the 'naturist' vision of the Red Indian Master are all presented, all interlocked in a method of cross-references in which an over-all sense of unity is maintained. With its extraordinary index of sources, the book is the nearest thing to a whole religious library compressed between the covers of a single book. Nothing appears to have been left out or be missing.

Awareness is documented throughout all the pages of this book, as keys used at different stages of the Way to unlock the gate of Unitive truth, transcending distinctions of religious form. Its author can bear witness to an ultimate truth: that by living his own form faithfully and intensely a man will live all 'other' forms by implication.

This book gives testimony by those who had opened the 'heart's eye' throughout the spiritual history of mankind. In it, one finds a fertile source of reference and inspiration.

Although the author primarily had in mind the man or woman of serious spiritual intent, it may be of service to historically or academically minded students just as it may come as a manual, handy to equip oneself for meeting with others who are like-minded from all parts of the world, to all advocates of religious understanding at an oecumenical level.

In Switzerland in 1973, shortly after its first publication, I had the opportunity to find and read through this book. My own copy has remained a personal treasure.

I could write a literary-style, lengthy, verbose review, but I will just say if I could only have a few books in the event of being stranded on a desert island, the Bible, the collected works of Shakespeare and *THIS* book would be among the most tempting candidates... Adding to its rare excellency, the work acts as a master-detective of spiritual-moral subversion, and the ultra-trendy "Left Hand Path" of this our Dark Age (as manifested, e.g., in the O.T.O., irregular free-masons, counter-initiatory cults and practices of various kinds, etc.) is courageously and refreshingly given NO QUARTER in this bedazzling gemstone of truly Traditional gnosis.