When we see a book with a title like The Path of Perfection, we may react with a bit of common scepticism: “Oh, another book claiming to give all the answers. One more do-it-yourself enlightenment scheme.”

And certainly, it seems that such scepticism is justified nowadays. Our natural desire for ultimate meaning, happiness, enlightenment, liberation, and salvation has become the most exploited commodity of the twentieth century, creating what one contemporary theologian termed a disastrous “seduction of the spirit.“