The Perennial Philosophy, Aldous Huxley
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter I That Art Thou
Chapter II The Nature of the Ground
Chapter III Personality, Sanctity, Divine Incarnation
Chapter IV God in the World
Chapter V Charity
Chapter VI Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood
Chapter VII Truth
Chapter VIII Religion and Temperament
Chapter IX Self-Knowledge
Chapter X Grace and Free Will
Chapter XI Good and Evil
Chapter XII Time and Eternity
Chapter XIII Salvation, Deliverance, Enlightenment
Chapter XIV Immortality and Survival
Chapter XV Silence
Chapter XVI Prayer
Chapter XVII Suffering
Chapter XVIII Faith
Chapter XIX God is not mocked
Chapter XX Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum page
Chapter XXI Idolatry
Chapter XXII Emotionalism
Chapter XXIII The Miraculous
Chapter XXIV Ritual, Symbol, Sacrament
Chapter XXV Spiritual Exercises
Chapter XXVI Perseverance and Regularity
Chapter XXVII Contemplation, Action and Social Utility
A List of Recommended Books
Acknowledgments
For permission to use the following selections, grateful acknowledgment and thanks are extended to the following authors and publishers:
George Allen & Unwin Ltd.: MONKEY and THE WAY AND ITS POWER, translated by Arthur Waley; LETTERS, by Spinoza.
Burns, Oates & Washbourne Ltd.: THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING, edited by McCann; THE WORKS OF ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, translated by Allison Piers.
Cambridge University Press: STUDIES IN ISLAMIC MYSTICISM, by R. A. Nicholson. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.: ADORNMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL
MARRIAGE, by Ruysbroeck, translated by Winschenk Dom.
P. J. and A. E. Dobell: CENTURIES OF MEDITATION, by Thomas Traherne.
Dwight Goddard Estate: A BUDDHIST BIBLE, by Dwight Goddard.
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd.: MASNAVI, by Jalal-uddin Rumi, translated by Whinfield.
Longmans, Green & Co. Ltd.: THE SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES, by Jean Pierre Camus, translated by Lear; CATHERINE OF SIENA, by Johannes Jorgensen.
Macmillan & Co. Ltd.: THEOLOGIA GERMANICA, translated by Winkworth; THE SPIRITUAL REFORMERS, by Rufus Jones; MYSTICISM EAST AND WEST, by Rudolph Otto; ONE HUNDRED POEMS OF KABiR, by Rabindranath Tagore.
John Murray and Mr. Lionel Giles : MUSINGS OF A CHINESE MYSTIC, from THE WISDOM OF THE EAST series, translated by Herbert Giles.
Oxford University Press and Harvard University Press: THE TRANSFORMATION OF NATURE IN ART, by Amanda K. Coomaraswamy.
Oxford University Press and The Pali Text Society: THE PATH OF PURITY, by Buddhaghosha.
Oxford University Press: THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, translated by Dr. Evans-Wentz.
Paramananda and the publishers of BHAGAVAD-GITA.
George Routledge & Sons Ltd.: STUDIES IN THE LANKAVATARA SUTRA, by Suzuki.
Skeed & Ward Ltd.: THE MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF ST. BERNARD, by Etienne Gilson.
The Society far Promoting Christian Knowledge: DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE, translated by C. E. Rolt.
John M. Watkins: WORKS OF MEISTER ECKHART, translated by Evans; THE CREST-JEWEL OF WISDOM, by Shankara, translated by Charles Johnston.
Introduction
PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS—the phrase was coined JL by Leibniz; but the thing—the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world 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 world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every 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 every 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 form, 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 that which can be acquired by a star-gazer with unmodified, merely human eyes.
Nor are changes in the knower’s physiological or intellectual being the only ones to affect his knowledge. What we know depends also on what, as moral beings, we choose to make ourselves. * Practice,’ in the words of William James,’ may change our theoretical horizon, and this in a twofold way: it may lead into new worlds and secure new powers. Knowledge we could never attain, remaining what we are, may be attainable in consequence of higher powers and a higher life, which we may morally achieve.’ To put the matter more succinctly, * Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ And the same idea has been expressed by the Sufi poet, Jalal-uddin Rumi, in terms of a scientific metaphor: ‘ The astrolabe of the mysteries of God is love.’
This book, I repeat, is an anthology of the Perennial Philosophy; but, though an anthology, it contains but few extracts from the writings of professional men of letters and, though illustrating a philosophy, hardly anything from the professional philosophers. The reason for this is very simple. The Perennial Philosophy is primarily concerned with the one, divine Reality substantial to the manifold world of things and lives and minds. But the nature of this one Reality is such that it cannot be directly and immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfil certain conditions, making themselves loving, pure in heart, and poor in spirit.
Why should this be so? We do not know. It is just one of those facts which we have to accept, whether we like them or not and however implausible and unlikely they may seem. Nothing in our everyday experience gives us any reason for supposing that water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen; and yet when we subject water to certain rather drastic treatments, the nature of its constituent elements becomes manifest.
Similarly, nothing in our everyday experience gives us much reason for supposing that the mind of the average sensual man has, as one of its constituents, something resembling, or identical with, the Reality substantial to the manifold world; and yet, when that mind is subjected to certain rather drastic treatments, the divine element, of which it is in part at least composed, becomes manifest, not only to the mind itself, but also, by its reflection in external behaviour, to other minds.
It is only by making physical experiments that we can discover the intimate nature of matter and its potentialities. And it is only by making psychological and moral experiments that we can discover the intimate nature of mind and its potentialities. In the ordinary circumstances of average sensual life these potentialities of the mind remain latent and unmanifested. If we would realize them, we must fulfil certain conditions and obey certain rules, which experience has shown empirically to be valid.
In regard to few professional philosophers and men of letters is there any evidence that they did very much in the way of fulfilling the necessary conditions of direct spiritual knowledge. When poets or metaphysicians talk about the subject matter of the Perennial Philosophy, it is generally at second hand. But in every age there have been some men and women who chose to fulfil the conditions upon which alone, as a matter of brute empirical fact, such immediate knowledge can be had; and of these a few have left accounts of the Reality they were thus enabled to apprehend and have tried to relate, in one comprehensive system of thought, the given facts of this experience with the given facts of their other experiences.
To such firsthand exponents of the Perennial Philosophy those who knew them have generally given the name of ‘saint’ or ‘prophet,’ ‘ sage’ or’ enlightened one,’ And it is mainly to these, because there is good reason for supposing that they knew what they were talking about, and not to the professional philosophers or men of letters, that I have gone for my selections.
In India two classes of scripture are recognized: the Shruti, or inspired writings which are their own authority, since they are the product of immediate insight into ultimate Reality; and the Smriti, which are based upon the Shruti and from them derive such authority as they have. ‘ The Shruti,’ in Shankara’s words, ‘depends upon direct perception. The Smriti plays a part analogous to induction, since, like induction, it derives its authority from an authority other than itself.’ This book, then, is an anthology, with explanatory comments, of passages drawn from the Shruti and Smriti of many times and places.
Unfortunately, familiarity with traditionally hallowed writings tends to breed, not indeed contempt, but something which, for practical purposes, is almost as bad—namely a kind of reverential insensibility,
