the Kybalion

image: https://www.amazon.com/Kybalion-Centenary-Three-Initiates/dp/0143131680

indexed text of the Kybalion: https://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/kyb/index.htm

Written in the early 20th century, this book purports to outline the ancient philosophy of Hermes Trismegestus, aka Hermeticism. The book revolves around 7 core principles (per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kybalion):

1. The principle of mentalism

"The All is Mind; the Universe is Mental."

2. The principle of correspondence

"As above, so below; as below, so above.” [...] This principle embodies the truth that there is always a correspondence between the laws and phenomena of the various planes of being and life.

3. The principle of vibration

"Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates."

4. The principle of polarity

"Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled."

5. The principle of rhythm

"Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates."

6. The principle of cause and effect

"Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause; everything happens according to law; chance is but a name for law not recognized; there are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the law."

7. The principle of gender

"Gender is in everything; everything has its masculine and feminine principles; gender manifests on all planes."

I loved listening to the Kybalion. It felt like an orientation program for my subconscious mind. When listening to mindfulness & self-help books, I find my egoic mind often grasping to personalize what's being read, to start weaving the teachings into its running story. The Kybalion's teachings are so abstracted, and so beyond the familiar roamings of the discursive mind, that the egoic mind had little traction for self-application, allowing the subconscious mind to more freely drink the wisdom home.