Perennial philosophy - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Perennial philosophy is the notion of the universal recurrence of philosophical insight independent of epoch or culture, including universal truth

Truth

Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character...

s on the nature of reality

Reality

In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...

, humanity

Human nature

Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally....

or consciousness

Consciousness

Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...

(anthropological universals).

History

The idea of a perennial philosophy has great antiquity and can be found in many of the world's religions and philosophies. Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

mentions 'universal religion' in his Tusculan Disputations, and Ammonius Saccas

Ammonius Saccas

Ammonius Saccas was a Greek philosopher from Alexandria who was often referred to as one of the founders of Neoplatonism. He is mainly known as the teacher of Plotinus, whom he taught for eleven years from 232 to 243. He was undoubtably the biggest influence on Plotinus in his development of...

in the 3rd century tried to reconcile differing religious philosophies. St Augustine’s statement that “The very thing that is now called the Christian religion was not wanting among the ancients from the beginning of the human race, until Christ came in the flesh, after which the true religion, which had already existed, began to be called “Christian.” can be taken as an assertion of the perennial philosophy. However others see this statement as expressing the Roman Catholic notion of ‘semina verbi’ (‘seeds of the word’), whereby there is some truth (seeds of truth) in pre-Christian Greek thought, but these required purification by the light of the Gospels. This idea was current among many other early Christians including Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria

Titus Flavius Clemens , known as Clement of Alexandria , was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen...

, Origen

Origen

Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...

, Basil of Caesarea

Basil of Caesarea

Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great, was the bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor . He was an influential 4th century Christian theologian...

, Gregory of Nyssa

Gregory of Nyssa

St. Gregory of Nyssa was a Christian bishop and saint. He was a younger brother of Basil the Great and a good friend of Gregory of Nazianzus. His significance has long been recognized in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Roman Catholic branches of Christianity...

, and Leo the Great as well as Augustine

Al-Farabi

' known in the West as Alpharabius , was a scientist and philosopher of the Islamic world...

(872–950), the 10th century Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic philosopher advocated the idea of philosophy and religion being two avenues to the same truth. His own personal philosophy strongly emphasized a classification of knowledge and science on the basis of methodology. Thus, he described his notion of an esoteric philosophy which referenced the eternal truth or wisdom which lies at the heart of all traditions as a "science of reality" based on the method of "certain demonstration" (al-burhan al-yaqini). This method is a combination of intellectual intuition and logical conclusions of certainty (istinbat). He reasoned that it was therefore a superior kind of knowledge to the exoteric domain of religions (millah) since that relied on a method of persuasion (al-iqna), not demonstration. This philosophy is compared with the philosophia perennis of Leibniz and later in the 20th century, Schuon.

Al-Farabi developed a theory to explain the diversity of religions. He posited that religions differed from one another because the same spiritual and intellectual truths can have different "imaginative representations". He further stated that there was a unity of all revealed traditions at the philosophical level, since all nations and peoples must have a philosophical account of reality that is one and the same.

Agostino Steuco, De perenni philosophia, and his predecessors and successors

The term was first used by Agostino Steuco

Agostino Steuco

Agostino Steuco , Italian humanist, Old Testament scholar, Counter Reformation polemicist and antiquarian, was born at Gubbio in Umbria....

(1497–1548) who used it to title a treatise, De perenni philosophia libri X, published in 1540. However, Steuco drew on an already existing philosophical tradition, the most direct predecessors of which were Marsilio Ficino

Marsilio Ficino

Marsilio Ficino was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance, an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism who was in touch with every major academic thinker and writer of his day, and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin...

(1433–99) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola was an Italian Renaissance philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the famous Oration on the Dignity of...

(1463–94).

Ficino, an important figure in early modern philosophy, was influenced by a variety of philosophers including Aristotelian Scholasticism

Scholasticism

Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...

and various pseudonymous and mystical writings. The key theme of Ficino’s philosophy held that there is an underlying unity to the world, the soul or love, which has a counterpart in the realm of ideas. Platonic Philosophy and Christian theology both embody this truth. Ficino saw his thought as part of a long development of philosophical truth, of ancient pre-Platonic philosophers (including Zoroaster

Zoroaster

Zoroaster , also known as Zarathustra , was a prophet and the founder of Zoroastrianism who was either born in North Western or Eastern Iran. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism...

, Hermes Trismegistus

Hermes Trismegistus

Hermes Trismegistus is the eponymous author of the Hermetic Corpus, a sacred text belonging to the genre of divine revelation.-Origin and identity:...

, Orpheus

Orpheus

Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...

, Aglaophemus and Pythagoras

Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...

) who reached their peak in Plato. The Prisca theologia

Prisca theologia

Prisca theologia is the doctrine within the field of comparative religious studies that asserts that a single, true, theology exists, which threads through all religions, and which was given by god to man in antiquity...

, or venerable and ancient theology, which embodied the truth and could be found in all ages, was a vitally important idea for Ficino.

Pico, a student of Ficino, embodies a more ambitious attempt to use the philosophies and theologies of the past, especially the priscia theologica. Pico went further than his teacher by suggesting that truth could be found in many, rather than just two, traditions. This proposed a harmony between the thought of Plato and Aristotle, and saw aspects of the Prisca theologia in Averroes

Averroes

' , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was a Muslim polymath; a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music theory, and the sciences of medicine, astronomy,...

, the Koran, the Cabala

Cabala

Cabala may refer to one of several systems of Mysticism:* Kabbalah, the religious mystical system of Judaism...

among other sources. After the deaths of Pico and Ficino this line of thought expanded, and included Symphorien Champier

Symphorien Champier

Symphorien Champier , a Lyonnese doctor born in Saint-Symphorien, France, was a relation of the Chevalier de Bayard through his wife, Marguerite Terrail.-Life:...

, and Francesco Giorgio.

Agostino Steuco was the strongest defender of the tradition of the prisci theologica, and De perenni philosophia was the most sustained attempt at philosophical synthesis and harmony. Steuco represents the liberal wing of 16 Century Biblical scholarship and theology, although he rejected Luther and Calvin. De perenni philosophia, is a complex work which only contains the term philosophia perennis twice, it states that there is “one principle of all things, of which there has always been one and the same knowledge among all peoples.” This single knowledge (or sapientia) is the key element in his philosophy. In that he emphasises continuity over progress, Steuco’s idea of philosophy is not one conventionally associated with the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

. Indeed, he tends to believe that the truth is lost over time and is only preserved in the prisci theologica. Steuco preferred Plato to Aristotle and saw greater congruence between the former and Christianity than the latter philosopher. He held that philosophy works in harmony with religion and should lead to knowledge of God, and that truth flows from a single source, more ancient than the Greeks. Steuco was strongly influenced by Iamblichus’s statement that knowledge of God is innate in all , and also gave great importance to Hermes Trismegistus.

Steuco’s perennial philosophy was highly regarded by some scholars for the two centuries after its publication, then largely forgotten until it was rediscovered by Otto Willmann in the late part of the 19 century. Overall, De perenni philosophia wasn’t particularly influential, and largely confined to those with a similar orientation to himself. The work was not put on the Index

Index Librorum Prohibitorum

The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. A first version was promulgated by Pope Paul IV in 1559, and a revised and somewhat relaxed form was authorized at the Council of Trent...

of works banned by the Roman Catholic Church, although his Cosmopoeia which expressed similar ideas was. Religious criticisms tended to the conservative view that held Christian teachings should be understood as unique, rather than seeing them as perfect expressions of truths that are found everywhere. More generally, this philosophical syncretism was set out at the expense of some of the doctrines included within it, and it is possible that Steuco’s critical faculties were not up to the task he had set himself. Further, placing so much confidence in the prisca theologia, turned out to be a shortcoming as many of the texts used in this school of thought later turned out to be bogus. In the following two centuries the most favourable responses were largely Protestant and often in England.

Gottfried Leibniz

Gottfried Leibniz

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....

later picked up on Steuco's term. The German philosopher stands in the tradition of this concordistic philosophy, his philosophy of harmony

Pre-established harmony

Gottfried Leibniz's theory of pre-established harmony is a philosophical theory about causation under which every "substance" only affects itself, but all the substances in the world nevertheless seem to causally interact with each other because they have been programmed by God in advance to...

especially had affinity with Steuco’s ideas. Leibniz knew about Steuco’s work by 1687, but thought that De la Verite de la Religion Chretienne by Huguenot philosopher Phillippe du Plessis-Mornay expressed the same truth better. Steuco’s influence can be found throughout Leibniz’s works, but the German was the first philosopher to refer to the perennial philosophy without mentioning the Italian.

The Sanatana Dharma and the philosophia perennis

Outside the European tradition of the philosophia perennis, one of the best known traditions to propose a similar idea of a common truth residing within all religions is Sanatana Dharma of Hinduism. Indeed this term can be seen as the original name of Hinduism, the latter being a term invented by ancient Persians. This notion has influenced thinkers who have proposed versions of the perennial philosophy in the Twentieth Century.
'Dharma

Dharma

Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...

' is commonly taken to mean divine law or right way of living, while 'sanatana' corresponds to eternal or immutable, so 'Sanatana Dharma' is eternal law. This refers broadly to human identity, our relationship to God and paths to salvation. It also contains a sense of a universal religion that eclipses sectarian divisions, known as the 'Manava Dharma' or religion of man. Adherents of the Sanatana Dharma see it as referring to the common truths in all religions, rather than simply their own faith. The Sanatana Dharma includes a wide variety of beliefs, encompassing both the existence of a personal deity and an impersonal Absolute. The Sanatana Dharma can be seen to have its roots in the belief, found in the Rig Veda, in one god combined with the belief in the existence of several gods, known as Henotheism

Henotheism

Henotheism is the belief and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities...

. There the phrase 'ekam sadavipra bahudha vadanti' (that which exists is one, sages call it by various names), is found in verse 1.164.46

Mandala 1

The first Mandala of the Rigveda has 191 hymns. Together with Mandala 10, it forms the latest part of the Rigveda, its composition likely dating to the Early Iron Age....

. Sanatana Dharma has also influenced the Indian conception of secularism, where the notion of 'sarva dharma sambhava' (all religions or truths are equal or harmonious to each other) prefers to tolerate all faiths equally rather than rejecting religion per se.

The unity of all religions was a central impulse among Hindu reformers in the Nineteenth century, who in turn influenced many Twentieth century perennial philosophy-type thinkers. Key figures in this reforming movement included two Bengali Brahmins. Ram Mohan Roy

Ram Mohan Roy

Raja Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian religious, social, and educational reformer who challenged traditional Hindu culture and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule. He is sometimes called the father of modern India...

, a philosopher and the founder of the modernising Brahmo Samaj

Brahmo Samaj

Brahmo Samaj is the societal component of the Brahmo religion which is mainly practiced today as the Adi Dharm after its eclipse in Bengal consequent to the exit of the Tattwabodini Sabha from its ranks in 1859. It was one of the most influential religious movements responsible for the making of...

religious organisation, reasoned that the divine was beyond description and thus that no religion could claim a monopoly in their understanding of it. The mystic Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna , born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay , was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda – both were influential figures in the Bengali Renaissance as well as the Hindu...

's spiritual ecstasies included experiencing the sameness of Christ, Mohammed and his own Hindu deity. Ramakrishna's most famous disciple, Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta , was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission...

, travelled to the United States in the 1890s where he formed the Vedanta Society

Vedanta Society

The Vedanta Society of Southern California, with its headquarters in Hollywood, was founded in 1930 by Swami Prabhavananda. The society is a branch of the Ramakrishna Order, and maintains subcenters in Pasadena, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Trabuco Canyon...

. Roy, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were all influenced by the Hindu school of Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta is considered to be the most influential and most dominant sub-school of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. Other major sub-schools of Vedānta are Dvaita and ; while the minor ones include Suddhadvaita, Dvaitadvaita and Achintya Bhedabheda...

, which, arguably, emphasises unity over diversity.

Recent uses of the term

The term was popularized in more recent times by Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...

in his 1945 book: The Perennial Philosophy
The Perennial Philosophy
The Perennial Philosophy is a 1945 book by Aldous Huxley, published by Harper & Row in the US. It was published in the UK in 1946 by Chatto & Windus.-Social and political context:...

. A "philosophia perennis" is also the central concept of the "Traditionalist School

Traditionalist School

The term Traditionalist School is used by Mark Sedgwick and other authors to denote a school of thought, also known as Integral Traditionalism or Perennialism to denote an esoteric movement developed by authors such as French metaphysician René Guénon, German-Swiss...

" formalized in the writings of 20th century thinkers René Guénon

René Guénon

René Guénon , also known as Shaykh `Abd al-Wahid Yahya was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.In his writings, he...

, Frithjof Schuon

Frithjof Schuon

Frithjof Schuon, was a native of Switzerland born to German parents in Basel, Switzerland. He is known as a philosopher, metaphysician and author of numerous books on religion and spirituality....

, Ananda Coomaraswamy

Ananda Coomaraswamy

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was a Ceylonese philosopher and metaphysician, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West...

, Titus Burckhardt

Titus Burckhardt

Titus Burckhardt , a German Swiss, was born in Florence, Italy in 1908 and died in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1984. He devoted all his life to the study and exposition of the different aspects of Wisdom and Tradition.He was an eminent member of the "traditionalist school" of twentieth-century authors...

, Martin Lings

Martin Lings

Martin Lings was an English Muslim writer and scholar, a student and follower of Frithjof Schuon, and Shakespearean scholar...

, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Seyyed Hossein Nasr is an Iranian University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, and a prominent Islamic philosopher...

. The idea of a perennial philosophy, sometimes called perennialism, is a key area of debate in the academic discussion of mystical experience. Writers such as WT Stace

Walter Terence Stace

Walter Terence Stace was a British civil servant, educator, philosopher and epistemologist, who wrote on Hegel, Mysticism, and Moral relativism...

, Huston Smith

Huston Smith

Huston Cummings Smith is a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions remains a popular introduction to comparative religion.-Education:...

, and Robert Forman

Robert K.C. Forman

Robert K.C. Forman has worked as professor of religion at Hunter's College, C.U.N.Y., and is Founding Executive Director of The Forge Institute for Spirituality and Social Change. His books include The Problems of Pure Consciousness and The Innate Capacity...

argue that there are core similarities to mystical experience across religions, cultures and eras. For Stace the universality of this core experience is a necessary, although not sufficient, condition for one to be able to trust the cognitive content of any religious experience. Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong FRSL , is a British author and commentator who is the author of twelve books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical faith...

's writings on the universality of a golden rule

Golden Rule

Golden Rule may refer to:*The Golden Rule in ethics, morality, history and religion, also known as the ethic of reciprocity*Golden Rule savings rate, in economics, the savings rate which maximizes consumption in the Solow growth model...

can also be seen as a form of perennial philosophy. For writer Stephen Prothero, many perennialist thinkers (including Armstrong, Huston Smith and Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell

Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience...

) are influenced by Hindu reformer Ram Mohan Roy

Ram Mohan Roy

and Hindu mystics Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna

and Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta , was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission...

.

Meditation teacher Eknath Easwaran

Eknath Easwaran

Eknath Easwaran was a spiritual teacher, an author of books on meditation and ways to lead a fulfilling life, as well as a translator and interpreter of Indian literature....

came to the U.S. in the 1960's with a message based on the term, but quickly adapted his teachings to reflect the busy, hurried nature of modern American life. His concept of "slowing down" inevitably leads back to a broader understanding of Perennial Philosophy.

Under the term 'Sanātana Dharma'-- the eternal law—the concept of a philosophy which is 'authorless' but perceived by the great ancient seers, has been a fundamental concept of Hinduism for over two thousand years. It is identified with the Veda and Purana, and as 'shruti', 'heard', is potentially to be added to by such seers.

Definition

Perennial philosophy is the philosophical concept, which states that each of the world’s religious traditions share a single truth. Perennial philosophy asserts that there is a single divine foundation of all religious knowledge, referred to as the universal truth. Each world religion, independent of its cultural or historical context, is simply a different interpretation of this knowledge. World religions including, but not limited to, Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

, Taoism

Taoism

Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...

, Confucianism

Confucianism

Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...

, Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

, Sikhism

Sikhism

Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...

and Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, are all derived from the same universal truth. Although the sacred scriptures of these world religions are undeniably diverse and often oppose each other, each world religion has been formed to fit the social, mental and spiritual needs of their respective epoch and culture. Therefore, perennial philosophy maintains that each world religion has flourished from the foundation of the same universal truth, making these differences superficial and able to be cast aside to find religion’s deeper spiritual meaning.

According to Huxley, the perennial philosophy is:

the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

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
Immanence
Immanence refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence, in which the divine is seen to be manifested in or encompassing of the material world. It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which the divine is seen to be outside the material world...

and transcendent
Transcendence (religion)
In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways...

Ground of all being;
the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the perennial philosophy may be found among the traditional lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions
(The Perennial Philosophy, p. vii).

He also pointed out the method of the Buddha

Buddha

In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...

The Buddha declined to make any statement in regard to the ultimate divine Reality. All he would talk about was Nirvana, which is the name of the experience that comes to
Phenomenology of religion
The phenomenology of religion concerns the experiential aspect of religion, describing religious phenomena in terms consistent with the orientation of the worshippers. It views religion as being made up of different components, and studies these components across religious traditions so that an...

the totally selfless and one-pointed. […] Maintaining, in this matter, the attitude of a strict operationalist, the Buddha would speak only of the spiritual experience, not of the metaphysical entity presumed by the theologians of other religions, as also of later Buddhism, to be the object and (since in contemplation the knower, the known and the knowledge are all one) at the same time the subject and substance of that experience.

The Perennial Philosophy

and that in the Upanishads:

The Perennial Philosophy is expressed most succinctly in the Sanskrit formula, tat tvam asi
Tat Tvam Asi
Tat Tvam Asi , a Sanskrit sentence, translated variously as "That thou are," "Thou are that," "You are that," or "That you are," is one of the Mahāvākyas in Vedantic Sanatana Dharma...

('That thou art'); the Atman, or immanent eternal Self, is one with Brahman, the Absolute Principle of all existence; and the last end of every human being, is to discover the fact for himself, to find out who he really is.

Aldous Huxley

According to Karl Jaspers

Karl Jaspers

Karl Theodor Jaspers was a German psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspers turned to philosophical inquiry and attempted to discover an innovative philosophical system...

"Despite the wide variety of philosophical thought, despite all the contradictions and mutually exclusive claims to truth, there is in all philosophy a One, which no man possesses but about which all serious efforts have at all times gravitated: the one eternal philosophy, the philosophia perennis."

And according to Frithjof Schuon

Frithjof Schuon

Frithjof Schuon, was a native of Switzerland born to German parents in Basel, Switzerland. He is known as a philosopher, metaphysician and author of numerous books on religion and spirituality....

It has been said more than once that total Truth is inscribed in an eternal script in the very substance of our spirit; what the different Revelations do is to “crystallize” and “actualize”, in different degrees according to the case, a nucleus of certitudes which not only abides forever in the divine Omniscience, but also sleeps by refraction in the “naturally supernatural” kernel of the individual, as well as in that of each ethnic or historical collectivity or of the human species as a whole.

Perennial philosophy and religious pluralism

Religious pluralism

Religious pluralism is a loosely defined expression concerning acceptance of various religions, and is used in a number of related ways:* As the name of the worldview according to which one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus that at least some truths and true values...

is the philosophical concept that states that various world religions are formed by their distinctive historical and cultural contexts and thus there is no single, true religion. There are only many equally valid religions. Each religion is a direct result of humanity’s attempt to grasp and understand the incomprehensible divine reality. Therefore, each religion can hold an authentic but ultimately inadequate concept of divine reality, producing a partial understanding of the universal truth, which requires syncretism to achieve a complete understanding as well as a path towards salvation or spiritual enlightenment. Although perennial philosophy shares the idea that there is no single true religion, it differs when discussing divine reality. Perennial philosophy states that the divine reality is what allows the universal truth to be understood. Each religion provides its own interpretation of the universal truth, based on its historical and cultural context. Therefore, each religion provides everything required to observe the divine reality and achieve a state in which one will be able to confirm the universal truth and achieve salvation or spiritual enlightenment. According to Aldous Huxley, in order to apprehend the divine reality, one must choose to fulfill certain conditions: “making themselves loving, pure in heart and poor in spirit.” Huxley argues that very few people can achieve this state. Those who have fulfilled these conditions, grasped the universal truth and interpreted it have generally been given the name of saint, prophet, sage or enlightened one. Huxley argues that those who have, “modified their merely human mode of being,” and have thus been able to comprehend “more than merely human kind and amount of knowledge” have also achieved this enlightened state.

Perennial philosophy and evangelical Christianity

Traditionally, evangelical Christianity has been considered hostile towards the concept of perennial philosophy. To most evangelical Christians, their religion is the one true faith and is either exclusive or inclusive. That is to say that either, anyone who is not of the Christian faith is denied salvation, or, those who are ignorant to Christianity will still be able to obtain salvation if they embrace the Christian faith. However, perennial philosophy asserts that Christianity is only one of many religions, all of which are true faiths, and that non-Christians can achieve salvation without Christianity. This assertion has appeared to most evangelical Christians as heretical and contrary to their faith. However, the purpose of religion is to provide salvation to as many people as possible. People can only take their faith seriously and without question if they are assured that their religion is the best, if not only, way to attain salvation and reach God. Therefore these claims are not surprising, as providing salvation takes precedence over interfaith dialogue within evangelical Christianity as well as the religions of the world. However, considering that all religions originate from the universal truth, evidence of this underlying truth can be found in the most essential principles and doctrine of each religion. The most essential principle of Christianity is the concept of Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

. Christians who oppose perennial philosophy and believe Christianity to be the one true faith often quote Christ to support their position, quoting John 14:6 "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me" This is interpreted as proclaiming that anyone who has not accepted Christianity will be denied access to God and salvation. However, according to the Nicene Creed

Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed is the creed or profession of faith that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It is called Nicene because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.The Nicene Creed has been normative to the...

, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, and, "of one being with the Father." In accordance with this most essential Christian doctrine, it is impossible to refute that there is only one Son of God, or that this son is responsible for the salvation of humanity, or even that Jesus of Nazareth was that son. However, there is no Biblical or dogmatic foundation to support the belief that the Son of God has limited his responsibility for the salvation of humanity to his incarnate presence as Jesus of Nazareth. As stated in John 1:14, the Son of God, "became flesh and dwelt among us." Even during his time on Earth, the Son of God was not limited to, or restricted by his body. Therefore the concept of the Son of God, as an eternal source of salvation, can be found throughout the world religions. James S. Cutsinger writes, "Though truly incarnate as Jesus Christ in Christianity, he is salvifically operative in and through non-Christian religions as well. In some he is present in an equally personal way, as in Krishna and the other Hindu avatars, in whom he was also 'made man', while in others he appears in an impersonal way, as in the Qur'an of Islam, where he made himself book." St. Augustine said: "That which we today call Christian religion also existed among the ancients, and has not been absent amongst humankind from the time of its origin up to the time that Christ became flesh; true religion, which had already existed, began then to be called Christian".

External links

Awesomely extensive researches into The Perennial Philosophy
Kabbalah and the Perennial Philosophy
Slideshow on the Perennial Philosophy
The End of Philosophy by Swami Tripurari
Swami Tripurari
Tripurari Swami, also known as Swami B.V. Tripurari and Swami Tripurari, is "an author, poet and guru. As a prominent master in the Gaudiya Vaishnava lineage, he is one of the leading practitioners of Bhakti-yoga in the West."-Biography:...
Religious Pluralism and the Question of Religious Truth in Wilfred C. Smith
James S. Cutsinger Perennial Philosophy and Christianity

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