Description

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The Path is a theosophical magazine published between the years 1886 and 1896, under the editorship of William Quan Judge, co-founder of the Theosophical Society. The current print is a clean facsimile reprint of the original, produced from a high-quality scan. William Quan Judge on The Path: "The Path was not started because its projectors thought that they alone knew the true Path, but solely out of an intense longing to direct inquiring minds towards a way which had seemed to many persons who had tried it, to hold out the possibility of finding an answer to the burning questions that vex the human heart. "The question is always naturally asked 'What is the Path?' or 'What is the Philosophy?' which is the same thing, for of course the following of any path whatever will depend upon the particular philosophy or doctrines believed in. The path we had in view is held by us to be the same one which in all ages has been sought by Heathen, Jew and Christian alike. By some called the path to Heaven, by others the path to Jesus, the path to Nirvana, and by the Theosophists the path to Truth. Jesus has defined it as a narrow, difficult and straight path. By the ancient Brahmins it has been called, 'the small old path leading far away on which those sages walk who reach salvation;' and Buddha thought it was a noble fourfold path by which alone the miseries of existence can be truly surmounted. ... "Thus it happens that Theosophists have many different views of how the path should be followed, but none of them disagree with the statement that there must be one Truth, and that no religion can be called higher than Truth. We therefore have pursued, as far as possible, a course which is the result of the belief that the prevalence of similar doctrines in the writings and traditions of all peoples points to the fact that the true religion is that one which will find the basic ideas common to all philosophies and religions."-William Q. Judge, "A Year on the Path," The Path, March, 1887.

About the Author

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William Quan Judge was born in Dublin, Ireland, on April 13, 1851. His family emigrated in 1864 to New York where he specialized in corporate law (New York State Bar, 1872). A co-founder with H. P. Blavatsky and Henry S. Olcott of The Theosophical Society in 1875, he later became General Secretary of its American Section and Vice President of the international Society. In this capacity he organized and presided over the Theosophical Congress at the World's Parliament of Religions held in Chicago during the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Through his writing and extensive lecturing around the United States, he helped make theosophy known and respected. He died in New York City on March 21, 1896 at the age of 44.