Schuon’s treatment of the Sunnah (“ways of acting, customs and examples of Muhammad…[which are] precedents [that] constitute the norm, at all levels, of Moslem life”) notes that the Sunnah “comprises several dimensions: physical, moral, social, spiritual, and others besides,” and then focuses upon an inner Sunnah. As is his custom, the author addresses all these dimensions and then turns special attention to those of the most elevated spiritual value. He shows that “the spiritual Sunnah, concerning the ‘remembrance of God’ (dhikr) and the principles of the ‘journey’… is very parsimonious as regards what is truly essential in it. Basically, it contains all the [prophetic] traditions referring to the relationship between God and man.…” Schuon notes that there is “another domain which must be rigorously distinguished from this spiritual Sunnah, although it may sometimes seem to overlap with it, and this is the moral Sunnah.” He helps the reader separate the two, which are often confused, and enables the reader to discover what is most universal and essential in the Sunnah of the Prophet of Islam.

Roger Lipsey discusses the philosopher Ananda Coomaraswamy. Lipsey uses Coomaraswamy’s philosophy of each individual being comprised of an outer and an inner man, “man and the Man in this man”, and uses this to examine Coomaraswamy’s life through his search for self-knowledge. Thus in discussing his philosophies and his search for truth, we can better understand him.

For centuries, the recitation of the Nembutsu has been one of the central practices in the Pure Land tradition of Buddhism. Shojun Bando explains how this practice was selected by Honen, whose message was in turn transmitted by Shinran in the form of the Kyo-Gyo-Shin-Sho. Throughout the course of his discussion, Bando summarizes each of the six parts of this classic work, using the teachings of Shinran as a framework for a broader explanation of the fundamental doctrines of Pure Land thought.

Ian Watson makes ‘scattered observations’ on the decline in thinking and the rise of the secular-materialist mindset in the world. His observations center on his perception that self-reflection and contemplation on the inner has, for the most part, vanished and that it is this absence that has led to a general degradation in thought.

Music has a unique place among the traditional arts because unlike the visual arts, it lacks material form, thus enabling man to forget his earthly body and recall the original state of being which preceded it. The ability to forget one’s self is essential in order to perform traditional Persian music. Nasr analyses the various aspect of this music, showing how they each help to bring about a spiritual ascent that is characteristic of Sufi practice. He also relates performance of traditional music to the concept of the neverending “spiritual concert” to which the perfect gnostic is always listening.

In this brief introduction to the art of relaxation, Ursula Darkins explains how the ability to relax requires one to become receptive; this effectively means learning to control the habits of tension which one develops as a result of the capacity for rational thought. From the ability to be receptive naturally arises the ability to concentrate, since concentration is a passive function, although it is rarely understood as such. Darkins concludes by discussing the relationship between degress of tension in the mind and the body.

Guénon here undertakes to show how the Taoist tradition is an integral part, though mostly hidden, of the ancient Chinese tradition with its origin in pre-history. This earlier tradition, first visible to history in the I Ching, adapted itself to later conditions through the birth of two parallel and reciprocal doctrinal forms, Taoism and Confucianism. Guénon’s more general objective is to illustrate how “traditional doctrines…contain in themselves from the very beginning the possibilities of all conceivable developments…and also the possibilities of all the adaptations which might be required by later circumstances.” The author demonstrates how the particular application here, namely the Chinese tradition, from a common root was divided into a doctrine of “pure metaphysics” (Taoism) and “the practical domain [or]…the realm of social applications” (Confucianism). The last part of the essay considers how the “real influence of Taoism can be extremely important [in China], while always remaining hidden and invisible.”