A collection of writings and essays, lectures and speeches, assorted writings from various books and magazines (mostly Vendenta and the West) by Aldous Huxley. Huxley has always been one of my favorite essayists and modern day philosophers. The Doors of Perception, Heaven and Hell, The Island, Brave New World, Time Must Have a Stop, are all personal favorites (Chrome Yellow ... was ok).

He has a wonderful way to write out things and I've always loved his spiritualism despite no real religious overtones to it, mostly because of how there is no religious overtones to it, and mostly because of how it applies so universally (one could believe in the enlightenment through Buddha as well as in the Christian God; so Huxley would have you believe).

This collection is still in alignment with that, but also includes amazingly, a far substantial amount of writings on Christianity than I was expecting. (Even three small essays about the Lord's Prayer). His spiritualism and his essence through Buddhism still takes the forefront, but there is a lot more depth to his religious explorations in this collection than I've previously read of him. It all makes for a much more fascinating read to be honest, and gives a lot of leeway to explore options if one were to take his route and use his expressions and thoughts as their own search.

Much of this directly delves into his "The Perennial Philosophy" so this acts as a wonderful prequel of sorts to that treatise/writing. This definitely is a great comprehensive look at Huxley's work as a whole, as it spans the 20s through up to his death in 1963 (trivia fact: he died on the same as C.S. Lewis and the day JFK was assassinated). Its an interesting road to see how his spiritualism and beliefs and thoughts on religion evolved throughout those years. ( )