The Quotient of a Lifetime

Renunciation really taught a great life-policy, though no one was aware of it. It is the method, in its refined form, of increasing life’s fraction by lowering the denominator of demands instead of striving always to increase the numerator of satisfactions. It comes to be one of the great life-philosophies. —Sumner & Keller (1927)

A Taxing Legacy

The boastful records of a Rameses III are worthy of credence. In a reign of thirty-three years, he had given to the various temples 113,433 slaves, 493,386 head of cattle, 88 barks and galleys, and 2,756 golden images. Further contributions were 331,702 jars of incense, honey, and oil; 228,380 jars of wine and drink; 680,714 … Read more

Finding Continuity

Religious states of mind contrast with those which are scientific or simply practical or moral in this respect, that whereas the scientific and moral are attempts at mastery over the not-self, to bring the objective material within the categories of the understanding or to bend it to the purpose of the will, in religion the … Read more

The Object of Worship

Man has worshipped everything on earth, including himself, stones, hills, flowers, trees, streams, wells, ocean, and animals. He has worshipped everything he could think of beneath the earth, metals, caves, serpents, and under-world ghosts. Finally, he has worshipped everything between earth and heaven and everything in the heavens above, mist, wind, cloud, rainbow, stars, moon, … Read more