Through a series of 144 short texts on twelve key subjects, this text introduces the reader to some of the central perplexities of human life. Along with those texts written by the author himself are selections from such sources as Genesis and Lao Tzu, Plato and the Upanishads, Hume and Wittgenstein, Augustine and Ecclesiastes, to name but a few. Topics range from the nature of language to pleasure and pain to life after death. Most of the classical questions of the philosophy of religion are introduced. Contents: The Sphinx; Words; Good and Evil; Time; The Self; Pleasure and Pain; That None Greater Than Which can be Conceived; Knowing and Not Knowing; Prescription; Transformation; The Good Life; and Life After Death.