"The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo against knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently separate, independent, and isolated ego."

These are the words of philosopher Alan Watts, who in addition to introducing America to the practice of Zen Buddhism, set out to write a book that could serve as a user's manual which would enable a person to realize who they really are. He appropriately entitled it The Book, and hoped it would one day supplant the Bible as the go-to text for religious instruction.

Well, it didn't.

The Bible is here to stay, even though most people who study it interpret it literally and regard Jesus as an unattainable object of worship, hoping that such adoration, coupled with donations to the local church basket, and perhaps a confession and communion or two, will gain them admittance into some heavenly afterlife.

But I appreciate Alan Watts's effort. He was a charismatic person in his rather brief life and a very engaging writer. As a tribute to Watts and his ilk - the many individuals, including Christ, Krishna, and Buddha, who have spent their time on earth dispelling darkness and revealing to us our eternal, perfect nature, though not necessarily with perfect success - I have written this book. Actually, it is five books, composed over a period of 18 months, each as a stand-alone entity. They all treat the same topic and aim to lead the reader from the unreal (egoic personality) to the real (the One Self present in many manifestations). I consider this topic from many vantage points. The writings are like so many blind men who endeavor to understand what an elephant is by each touching a separate part - snout, skin, tusk, tail, and toes. They all arrive at a different conception of the elephant's essential nature - and only by taking all five perspectives into account is it possible to get a total picture of the creature.

And so we commence our journey from the unreal to the real with a book on the ego, the unreal in you. From here we proceed to what lies beyond the ego, the primal I from which the ego derives its borrowed light. In other words, God. Not some far-off deity endowed with superpowers who stands apart from humans as "Other," but the Self of your very own self. Finally, we explore the two main scriptures of the world to see how these ancient teachings tally with our modern findings.

My wish is that after reading this collection, you will emerge with a clear picture of what you really are, transcending religious belief and differences of age and gender and status and ethnicity, a picture which unites the many diverse manifestations of the Self back into One. Hence our title. I hope that you derive as much enjoyment from reading this book as I have had from writing it.