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THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

Aldous Huxley

INTRODUCTION

HYLOSOPHYA PERENNIS – the phrase was coined by Leibniz; but the thing – the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the word of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man’s final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being – the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the Perennial Philosophy may be found among the traditionary lore of primitive peoples in every region of the word, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in very one of the higher religions. A version of this Highest Common Factor in all preceding and subsequent theologies was first committed to writing more than twenty-five centuries ago, and since that time the inexhaustible theme has been treated again and again, from the standpoint of very religious tradition and in all the principal languages of Asia and Europe. In the pages that follow I have brought together a number of selections from these writings, chosen mainly for their significance – because they effectively illustrated some particular point in the general system of the Perennial Philosophy – but also for their intrinsic beauty and memorableness. These selections are arranged under various heads and embedded, so to speak, in a commentary of my own, designed to illustrate and connect, to develop and, where necessary, to elucidate.

            Knowledge is a function of being. When there is a change in the being of the knower, there is a corresponding change in the nature and amount of knowing. For example, the being of a child is transformed by growth and education into that of a man; among the results of this transformation is a revolutionary change in the way of knowing and the amount and character of the things known. As the individual grows up, his knowledge becomes more conceptual and systematic in from, and its factual, utilitarian content is enormously increased, but these gains are offset by a certain deterioration in the quality of immediate apprehension, a blunting and a loss of intuitive power. Or consider the change in his being which the scientist is able to induce mechanically by means of his instruments. Equipped with a spectroscope and a sixty-inch reflector an astronomer becomes, so far as eyesight is concerned, a superhuman creature; and, as we should naturally expect, the knowledge possessed by this superhuman creature is very different, both in quantity and quality, from hat which can be acquired by a stargazer with unmodified, merely human eyes…

Contents

Chapter I    That Art Thou

            II    The Nature of the Ground

          III    Personality, Sanctity, Divine Incarnation

          IV    God in the Word

            V    Charity

          VI   Mortification, Non- Attachment, Right , Livelihood

         VII   Truth

        VIII   Religion and Temperament

          IX    Self-Knowledge

           X    Grace and Free Will

          XI   Good and Evil

         XII   Salvation, Deliverance, Enlightenment

        XIV   Immortality and Survival

         XV   Silence

        XVI   Prayer

       XVII   Suffering

      XVIII   Faith

        XIX   God is not mocked

         XX    Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum

        XXI    Idolatry

       XXII    Emotionalism

      XXIII    The Miraculous

      XXIV    Ritual, Symbol, Sacrament

       XXV    Spiritual Exercises

      XXVI    Perseverance and Regularity

     XXVII    Contemplation, Action and Social Utility Bibliography

                    Index

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