Sacred Writings

And the god Mara, mounting his elephant, which was a hundred and fifty leagues high, and had the name "Girded-with-mountains," caused a thousand arms to appear on his body, and with these he grasped a variety of weapons. Also in the remainder of that army, no two persons carried the same weapon; and diverse also in their appearance and countenances, the host swept on like a flood to overwhelm the Great Being.
-from "The Attainment of Buddhaship"
The preeminent American educator of the 19th century, CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926) believed that a sound liberal education could be achieved not through textbooks but by exploring firsthand the great books and great ideas of Western civilization. (Eliot knew a good education when he saw one: during his time as president of Harvard University, from 1869 till 1909, he transformed the school from a regional college to the preeminent educational institution in the United States.)
In this 1910 collection-part of his 50-volume Harvard Classics, his dream library at the foundation of enlightened scholarship-Eliot gathers the great writings of the world's dominant religions.

As the faithful read them, examine:
. the letters of Paul to the Corinthians, from the Bible
. hymns of the Christian Church
. the story of the Buddha
. Buddhist doctrine on the ego, karma, purity, and the attainment of nirvana
. the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita
. and chapters from the Koran.