Volume 6, Foreword

Spiritual seekers take the availability of sacred texts for granted. Digital scanning and other efforts to preserve the past have rendered rare manuscripts easily accessible. Add tools such as Google, Amazon.com, and online electronic archives, and the exegetic treasures of faith traditions lie virtually at our fingertips. Gaps of course exist. Inventor Louis Daguerre created the first chemical plates in 1829. Prior to that time, preservation of sacred teachings was the domain of oral and written transmission, both subject to faulty reporting and prejudiced interpretation. As technology progressed, so did the accessibility of source materials. Today, anyone can conduct an online search for chapters of the Zohar or words to the Sanskrit Gayatri mantra and obtain documents previously restricted to the most advanced practitioners.

Still, physical possession of texts does not equate to understanding them. Here are the writings, but what do they mean? How do these precepts translate into practice? Do realizations posited hundreds or perhaps thousands of years ago apply to a post-modern world? What relevance do they have in the current environment of globalization, secularism, genetic engineering, and conventions on universal human rights?