This book is the first English-language translation of the collected core-teachings of the Indian sage Swami Prajnanpad (1891-1974). It captures the raw confrontive rhetoric of a brilliant philosopher, scholar and psychologist. Prajnanpad, unknown to most of the West, is revealed in these pages as the hidden spiritual genius that he was.

Throughout the time of his apprenticeship to Swamji, as he was commonly called, his disciple Arnaud Desjardins kept copious notes of his teacher’s recommendations (Les Formulaes). They included such pithy sentiments as the title suggests, along with many others of enigmatic and quotable worth, such as “Never believe a thought associated with an emotion.”

The commentaries on these pith instructions, in the words and expanded explanations of Desjardins, become a handbook of guidance for the aspirant on this path of self-knowledge. Seekers of any tradition will find here a way grounded in reality and applicable to life in the 21st century. Without such in-depth self-understanding, the author and commentator demonstrate, we will continue to remain trapped by the prisons of our own minds never reaching the full potential of our humanity.