Among the wide array of sacred Buddhist texts, few (if any) have attained the fame of The Dhammapada. As part of the Tripiṭaka, or ‘Tripe Basket' of sacred Buddhist writings, it contains a collection of 423 sayings attributed to Siddharta Guatama, more commonly known as the Buddha. The work remains the most popular Buddhist texts in the West, and many believe it to be one of the best encapsulations of the great teacher’s core ideas and an ideal introduction to the ancient religion that bears his name.

The Bardo Thodol, known in the West as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, is a selection from a larger Tibetan Buddhist corpus called the Profound Dharma of Self-Liberation through the Intention of the Peaceful and Wrathful Ones. The work represents both the first and the most famous text of Vajrayana Buddhism translated into English. Its goal is to prepare its reader for death by describing the various experiences one encounters between the end of one life and the beginning of the next. The book has had an immense impact on certain Western thinkers, such as Aldous Huxley and Carl Jung.

Undoubtedly, the Bible stands as the most influential, well-read, and debated text of the Western canon, forming the foundation of Christianity. The first section, called the Old Testament (a text also of high importance in Judaism), contains anywhere from 39 to 54 books (depending upon the tradition) and is said to catalogue God’s interaction with the people of Israel over a thousand-year span. The second section, the New Testament, consists of 27 books and focuses exclusively upon the teachings and work of Jesus and his immediate followers.

The I Ching or Book of Changes is one of the oldest and most popular works to arise out of China’s rich history. While its author is unknown, its purpose is not. Composed of sixty-four hexagrams, the I Ching is not meant to be read but rather consulted as a source of divination. The most common method for using the work involves asking a question, flipping three coins multiple times to create a hexagram composed of yin and yang lines, and then finding the corresponding hexagram and its accompanying oracle. The work has proved highly significant over the centuries, influencing the various Eastern religious traditions of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism as well as great Western figures like Carl Jung, Joseph Needham, and Niels Bohr.

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During the late classical era (c.100-500 AD), groups now known as the Gnostics wrote and preserved texts said to contain esoteric wisdom capable of freeing us from our lower plane of earthly existence and helping us discover our inner divine reality. While lost for centuries, the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in Egypt in 1945 allows us, for the first time in over a millennium, to read these forgotten texts and recover their occult teachings.

According to legend, the great Hermes Trismegistus discovered the secrets of alchemy and hermeticism and recorded his discoveries in the cryptic texts of the Corpus Hermeticum. The seventeen writings contain many texts that prove highly influential in classical and medieval alchemy, though perhaps none more so than the Emerald Tablet, which is often associated with popularising the concept of the philosopher’s stone as well as the saying, ‘As above, so below.’

The most famous section of the sacred epic Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita records the dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, prior to a battle Arjuna only reluctantly wishes to engage in. Despite its violent setting, the work was an inspiration for Gandhi, who interpreted the text as an allegory for one’s inner struggle against lower desires. Moreover, the work has proved a foundational text for Hindu understandings of Atman, yoga, and many other key doctrines and likewise serves as a centrepiece in the Vedanta tradition.

While the Vedas, the sacred texts of the Hindu tradition, possess an enormous amount of ancient teachings, the most famous portion is the most recent. The Upanishads, which are a collection of 108 writings at the end of the Vedas, contain the deepest philosophical portions of the corpus. The works deal with such topics as the relationship between Atman and Brahman, the practice of rituals and meditation, and the nature of reality in general. Of the 108 texts, the first few are considered the most important and have served as the central texts, along with the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras, for the school of Vedanta.

The Koran is one of the most important and well-read religious text in history. The work, believed to have been given to the prophet Muhammed by the angel Gabriel, serves as the canon for the Islamic faith. Divided into 114 chapters (surahs or suwar), each of which is a lyrical poem –the Koran is argued to be a direct revelation from God (Allah) that contains the key teachings for the attainment of salvation.

While the Tanakh has traditionally served as the central religious text in Judaism, another collection of writings, composed in the late classical or early medieval period, has proven key to mystic and Rabbinic Judaism. The work contains a large collection of teachings on Jewish law, history, and customs as well as extensive commentaries on the Torah (the first five books of the Tanakh) and other sacred books by the greatest rabbis of the period.

The mystical, esoteric branch of Judaism, known as Kabbalah, appeals to many important spiritual texts, such as the Sefer Yetzirah and the Bahir. However, the most popular and influential remains the Zohar. Though first appearing in the 13th century, the work is credited to the 2nd-century Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, who appears as the most prominent figure in the text. However, the bulk of the work is a commentary on the Torah (the first five books of the Tanakh), drawing forth the supposed hidden meaning beneath the words and revealing the true nature of God, the world’s origins, and humanity’s place within it.

The Tanakh, also referred to as the Hebrew Bible due to the language in which most of it is written, is of central importance to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (among other faith traditions). The various ancient documents contained within it tell the story of the creation of the world and the trials of God’s chosen people – including the tales of Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David – as well as poetry celebrating God’s love, justice, and might; and prophecies against those who practice injustice and immorality.

The Masnavi is a collection of six books of poems written by Rumi, a famous and influential medieval Persian poet, scholar, and mystic. The Islamic mystical tradition of Sufism has often drawn deep inspiration from the works of Rumi. Mystics of other traditions often concur and the Masnavi is sometimes regarded as the greatest work of mystical poetry in history.

As the central work of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching is a relatively short book that contains 81 chapters of eloquent and often cryptic and paradoxical sayings. It focuses on the Tao, the font of all reality, and how one can become aligned with its ceaseless flow. According to tradition, the work derives from a scholar named Lao Tzu, (renowned as the greatest Chinese spiritual thinker next to Confucius). Before deserting the decaying remnants of the society around him, Lao Tzu was forced by a city guard to record his teachings for future posterity, thus preserving the Tao Te Ching for future generations.

Celebrated as one of the great works of the late classical period, this short book by an unknown author (who writes under the title of Dionysius, a revered 1st century Christian saint) offers a picture of the cosmos that is filled with a spiritual presence. Containing one of the most detailed accounts of angelic procession, the text proved massively influential for later theories of the hierarchy of spiritual entities, beginning with God and culminating in our material world.

Like Pseudo-Dionysius’ other work, On the Celestial Hierarchy, On the Divine Names remains one of the most important spiritual works in history. Unlike his other work, this title focuses primarily on God, arguing that the mystery of the divine nature supersedes all language and can be understood only beyond all logical, rational thought through the mystical experience itself.

It has famously been asserted that all Western philosophy is merely a series of footnotes to Plato. As one of the greatest minds ever to put pen to paper, Plato’s works have influenced every major text that followed them, both spiritual and non-spiritual. His dialogues wrestle with the very nature of reality itself and the ephemerality of life, inspiring interpreters to dream of escaping to higher planes of existence, where the eternal light of higher Forms and the font of all goodness and beauty reside. Especially relevant in this regard have been Plato’s Phaedo, Republic, Symposium, and Timaeus.