"The Human Margin" may be one of the most important essays written by the prolific Schuon. It is a detailed, carefully developed explanation of how and why the divine influence "always allows for a 'human margin' [within revealed religious traditions] where it exerts itself only in an indirect fashion, yielding to ethnic or cultural factors." This margin takes into account human limitations and imperfections as well as the best of human qualities, providing a diversity of doctrinal interpretations and spiritual paths that can accommodate the full range of human types and conditions. Schuon surveys many traditions and doctrines, but focuses on Christian forms to illustrate his thesis, which is central to understanding what has been called the underlying unity of religions, as well as theological divergences within a single tradition.

Dr. Ralph (W.J.) Austin presents sixty-four selected sayings from the Hikam of the great Sufi shaykh Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh al-Iskandarī (d. 1309). Austin himself has translated these sayings of spiritual counsel intended for the Shaykh's disciples. He comments that the Shaykh's Hikam "must rank among the finest works of spiritual counsel, not only in Islam, but in the world." The importance of Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh's book is well known in Sufi studies, but it should have a general appeal because, as Austin writes, "the central theme of the Hikam is undoubtedly the continuous and all-pervading contemplation or consciousness of God." This is clear in the well-chosen verses translated and selected for this essay.

D. M. Deed here addresses and attempts to correct the attitude that spiritual realization is somehow "altogether beyond the capacity of any normal, ordinary person." She writes that spiritual realization is, instead, "a long process which takes us step by step from one realization to the next, each step leading us to a greater, deeper and fuller experience as we go forward. It is both an illumination and an experience of discovery." Applying easily understood language, personal experiences, and Biblical references, Deed shares her thoughts on what this process of discovery might be in relation to a Christian's spiritual development.

T'an-luan (Jp: Donran), who lived from 476-542, was a Chinese Buddhist monk credited by Honen as the founder of Pure Land Buddhism in China. T'an-luan is also considered the Third Patriarch in Japanese Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Though he lived many centuries before the founder of Jodo Shinshu, Shinran, his writings survived and were influential on Honen and his student, Shinran. This essay surveys the history of the development of Jodo Shinshu thought, informing students of this branch of Buddhism of the critical role T'an-luan's played in forming central Shin concepts.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr examines the Zoroastrian and Islamic traditions within the context of the history of Persia. Nasr notes that "although these traditions are of different nature and structure, they are related most of all by the fact that they are authentic traditions and not something else, that is, they are messages from the world of the spirit differing in their outward form but united in their inner essence." Thus, while many forms will be different in the two traditions, underlying principles will often found to be similar. In this essay, Nasr is primarily concerned with some "basic doctrines and themes which have appeared in one form or another in the religion, mysticism and philosophy of Persia throughout its history and which characterize the intellectual and spiritual life of the Persians in their totality." He surveys those doctrines and themes to show how they have formed an essential part of the overall Persian spiritual worldview.

Besides Biblical descriptions, author Leo Schaya turns to some Talmudic and rabbinical writings and oral traditions to give a general, but also a more esoteric, understanding of Jewish doctrines concerning the Temple of Jerusalem. Schaya reviews a number of aspects under which the Presence of God dwells within the physical Temple, but also, by extension and in an immanent sense, within the heart of the Jewish seeker after God. The symbolism of the Temple's features is related, Schaya tells us, to spiritual realities that come to inhabit man's inner reality as well.