In the TM movement, Shankaracharya Brahmananda (1871-1953) is honoured as Guru Dev. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1918-2008) who brought ◦Transcendental Meditation to the world, made it clear in Beacon Light of the Himalayas (PDF) and otherwise that he was a messenger and pipeline of Guru Dev.

❀ THE SITE. The Gold Scales is a quite extensive site with a large collection of traditional and modern wisdom, including sayings of avid thinkers, art, various extract, many proverbs, quotations, tales and fables.

❀ SITE OWNERSHIP AND LOCATION. The non-profit site is located at the ◦Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Tormod Kinnes, MPhil, owns the site.

❀ TOPICS DEALT WITH. Here is visual art that is adapted to the medium, among many other cultural outlets, such as folklore, yoga tenets and investigations into one one particular line of gurus, without being anti guru per se.

❀ NO-MISSION. The Japanese no is taken to mean things that may enrich lives, widen horizons and go into understanding that offers progress or other benefits. [Purpose]

❀ BASIC GRASP ON LIFE. From basics well mastered and enjoyed in a widening circle, fit development is catered to. Compare Huston Smith's:

Shunryu Suzuki's [Zen] is ordinary. . . Four months before his death, I had the opportunity to ask him why satori didn't figure in his book, his wife leaned toward me and whispered impishly, "It's because he hasn't had it"; whereupon the Roshi batted his fan at her in mock consternation and with finger to his lips hissed, "Shhhh! Don't tell him!" When our laughter had subsided, he said simply, "It's not that satori is unimportant, but it's not the part of Zen that needs to be stressed." . . . . His life represented the Soto Way. (In Suzuki 1999:9)

Glossaries of yoga words and Buddhist words are furnished on many pages.

❀ WHO VISIT? Americans are in front. Quantcast says the most typical US visitors attend Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, and the University of Virginia. Visitors also use sacred-texts.com, gutenberg.org, accesstoinsight.org and wikiquote.org. Some more: [Site statistics]

After 15 November 2005 there have been about 16,900,000 pageviews (Google Analytics, 21 Sept. 2018).

❀ MUCH IS FREE - and without strings attached. The site is non-commercial; it is hosted by a university (NTNU).