At no time since man was brought into being capable of everlasting life has he been left without the revelation to him of the Word, and of the Way.  In the early days, before man's understanding had ripened, this knowledge was revealed to him by beings who had his unfoldment in their charge.  They taught him that there was and is an Unseen Power greater than man, and they delivered to him commandments from that Unseen Power as to how man should live. But those days are past, and man in this day, being matured in the capacity to understand, to know, shall learn to draw directly from the universe, which is before him.  No teaching, or dogma, or doctrine may stand before the universe of being in which man is set.  Within it is to be found, opening ever in fresh wonder and magnitude, the nature and purpose of existence, the answer to every question that man may desire to ask.  In this day man stands as one free of the past before the fountain of All Truth which awaits his capacity to receive it and to comprehend it as it is unveiled before his understanding.

How can man accomplish such a task, since he knows but a tiny fraction, and that the most exterior of the universe of being?  Placed where he is, as it were at the periphery of being, he knows not the Centre.  His eyes and his thoughts and his discoveries turn outward, exploring with zest the phenomenal universe in which his being is embedded.  Though he attain to growing mastery in that realm his questions remain unanswered.  He finds himself pursuing the particularities until in his analysis they become more and more tenuous before him breaking up into magnitudes so vast that purpose and pattern alike are lost and he sees only fragments whose existence he may measure, but whose cause and origin elude him.  Being thus frustrated in his discovery by the questions which elude him, he says there is no plan, no purpose, no pattern, no complete whole; there are but a multitude of parts of phenomena which play upon one another forever, and, of these, man is but one.  Nonetheless the way of advance is not closed against man's understanding, but it requires the ascent of his consciousness that it may embrace other dimensions in the universe before him:  dimensions whose exploration calls for talents which are already within his being, which remain to be acknowledged, recognised, understood and developed.

Because man of himself cannot find the key to these dimensions of existence which elude by their nature his external senses, which cannot be measured by them, or judged by them or commanded by them, nor cognised by them, he has from the earliest days been given revelations which were designed as keys to a door, that he might unlock his understanding and, advancing, find for himself and of his own direct experience the answers to his questions.  Such revelations have all ages been given to man through sages, saints and seers in every race of man in every land, for never has there been, nor is there, nor will there be, any monopoly of such revelation.

Observe that it is not knowledge, which is revealed to man, for knowledge is nothing when not transmuted into understanding, and understanding comes only from within.  Knowledge may be received from without, but understanding, which gives to knowledge meaning and power, comes from the All Light centre with a man, of which men know nothing.  The revelations give to man the key by which he man attain to transmute, knowledge into understanding without which man's knowledge rests in words and is of little value.

In the same manner throughout all ages has such revelation been given: to those among men so born, so trained, so developed, so inspired from within, that they ask without ceasing the primal questions: What is life? Whence came I? Has my life a purpose, a meaning?  Does my life continue forever, or has my individuality an end and do I become as if I had not been?

To those who asked such questions without ceasing in the sincerity of their souls, with a desire they could not still, whose source they knew not, the realms of being, the estates of consciousness, higher than man's, more interior than man's state, were opened to them.  They were opened in measure according to the need of the time, according to the growth and stage of man's understanding at that time, and the purpose was ever the same: to reveal to man the direction in which he must look, the discipline by which he must search, and the road on which his search will lead him.  That which was thus revealed may be termed the science of being, the key to right living, and a revelation of the purpose and destiny of man.

The means used in all ages have been the same: to the souls of those thus quickened to enquire, whose grade, sincerity and stability were sufficient, the line of inspiration was directed: in the first place creating conditions suitable for its delivery and reception in clarity.  These conditions established, secured and safeguarded, inspiration was delivered down to the still centre of that man who had been trained to await and receive it, as a clear mirror may await and receive the direct light of the sun which it gives back again exactly as it received it.  In this case, what is termed the line of inspiration is a ray of consciousness in motion, called thought, set in motion from realms of being in which consciousness reaches a state and a potency far beyond mans.  This thought, this ray of thought, comprising within it all the potency of that which was to be delivered, polarizes the whole being of the man, the vessel, into which it is delivered.  The polarizing thought is thus shaped in him into words, into vision, with understanding.  These words, these visions, he is impressed to write down.  Thus are they delivered, through a man, in the form suitable for the understanding of man, in the language that he uses and the words that are his.  Such have ever been the revelations of the higher realms of being, the higher states of consciousness, the interior dimensions of existence, to man on this earth.

It will be observed and understood that the words and the vision, though given through the man, shaped conformably within the vessel of his consciousness, are not the words of that man.  The thought was not his thought. The knowledge, until its delivery, was not his knowledge.  The understanding of the vision conveyed by the thought, and in part by the         words, was not his understanding until, by its delivery into him, it had been received by and had possessed him, illumining his being.

To whom, then shall this light thus delivered be rightly ascribed?     If the line of inspiration, the shaft of thought so potent, be followed up, where shall we find the terminus, the source of origin of its delivery?  Whence can it be, save the Source of All Consciousness, the very line and fountainhead of life itself?  Thus in all ages, sages, saints and seers, thus delivering to man that which they well knew was not their own, pointed always to the All Highest by whatever name known.  Ascribing to the All Highest the revelation given, they placed the responsibility beyond the limits and confines of themselves: yet, in humility, remembering that the part cannot perfectly reveal the whole, that the finite cannot reveal the infinite, and that words cannot reveal the fullness of that which must lie ever beyond the scope of words to contain. 

In this same manner is this book recorded: the shaft of quickening thought delivered into a place prepared, secured, safeguarded against all the clamour and confusion of the lower realms of being.  Into the being of a man, as a mirror, was the light cast, the words resulting were written down and are here presented.

The purpose of this book, even as the purpose of revelations in time past, is to reveal to man in this day the direction in which he must look, the discipline he must embrace, that he may unlock progressively the secrets of existence, finding as he does so the answers to those questions which are needful for his advance.  Also revealed in the nature of that advance, and the discipline required upon it, and the destiny of man, in measure sufficient that he may see before him an unending unfoldment with hope and joy and delight and wonder ever growing upon the traverse.

This book, here recorded in one tongue, in one place, is but one among an uncounted number.  It expresses no monopoly, it claims not perfection, nor infallibility, for nothing cast in words in any language on earth can approach more than the fringe of the dimensions of consciousness and the magnitudes of which this book treats.

At the same time as this record was delivered and written down, the same potent shaft of creative thought radiated its power in, over and about all lands of the earth where it will be recorded by great numbers whose being are capable of being attuned to receive it.

It shall also be said that this book does not supersede nor override revelations previously given, where those are free of bondage imposed upon man in dogma and doctrine.  There is but one universe of being, one All Truth, which that universe reveals, and never ceases to reveal, to all who can receive it.  The facts of existence are before man in this day, dimension upon dimension, awaiting only his growth in capacity, in the unfoldment of his consciousness, in the expansion of his consciousness, to attain to understanding of them.