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The Perennial Philosophy (Perennial Classics)

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I first read this book 43 years ago. It impressed me because in those years, for me, everything was separate. Since I first read this book, (at least six times since then) I am now convinced that the mystical experience is identical, no matter which particular way you choose. I highly recommend this book to every soul who is uncertain about which way to go to find IT. You will learn that IT is everywhere no matter the path YOU choose. All religious and transcendental experience point the same way and Huxley proves it in his work; a transcendental and enlightening insight on this subject. This book is a must for the seeker, as well as for the enlightened, as a documented proof of the oneness of the Universal Truth.

I found this book quite accidentally as the last thing on the floor of an aquantances apartment as I was helping him move, and it has totally changed my life. Never before have I come across anything that so eloquently brought together the pure essences of the worlds major religions in their pure and simple truth.This book is bound to upset any adherents to one certain religion, as it uncovers the binding truths of them all. It is no Bible, no Koran, no Torah, no Bhagavad Gita, and yet it is all of them and more. It makes no steadfast claims or demands as many religious/spiritual books tend to do. It gently unfolds its spiritual message in a simple and awe inspiring way. I could not recommend this book highly enough to anyone seeking a spiritual truth. I myself did not know I was, and it showed me more than I could have ever hoped to have seen.

Some time in the last century, Thoreau lamented that the "Bibles of mankind" were neglected even among those making a serious attempt to understand the Jewish and Christian ones. In the years since, many anthologies and expositions of sacred writings have endeavoured to repair the gap, few perhaps as successfully as this one. Like a Boethius for the modern age, Huxley delineates the universal and timeless truths enunciated by the sages of preceding centuries, interspersed with his own perceptive and serenely illuminating remarks. This is a book to be carefully pondered and studied with others. I can think of no other which so deserves to be the Vade Mecum of the spiritual journey -- the road map to guide you onward. Ultimately your conception of the "perennial philosophy" may differ from Huxley's, but I am sure you will value his contribution toward its elucidation, and may well agree that several of his original passages merit inclusion in its eternal canon.

_The Perrenial Philosophy_ is a masterpiece of English literature - one of the most important books of the twentieth century written in our language. It is the ultimate introduction to all forms of Eastern philosophical and religious thought. But it is more than just an introduction; it is a comprehensive and exhausting crash course in Eastern religion. This book is an indispensible guide to improving the quality of life simply through a change in attitude. There is an unreal amount of information crammed into this volume. It is in fact a "bible" of sorts. If our society were to be annihilated in some sort of catastrophe, and only one book were to survive for the remaining people to discover, this book would probably be the most advantageous one they could find. It may not be the most profound book ever written, but it is extremely valuble because of the amount and variety of historical information conveyed. It provides wisdom from the viewpoints of dozens of important philosophers and religious thinkers, and reads like some kind of greatest-hits albulm. There are other works that may be more modern and far-reaching, and others that may be more unique and individualistic. But the _Perrenial Philosophy_ accomplishes exactly what it set out to do, which is catalogue and explain profound quotes from a wide variety of great thinkers. Some readers might have preferred that Huxley interject more of his own ideas, but if you want to benefit from the wisdom of dozens of great authors without having to buy each one of their books (if they're even available), then I highly recommend that you buy this book.

This is one of the most comprehensive and well written books on the mystical path, which is the core of the religious/spiritual experience. Huxley unites all the world's traditions offering the intrinsic philosophy underlying all paths to God. I humbly recommend this book to anyone seeking an understanding of the sometimes hidden truth in religion.

Simply stated the Perennial Philosophy is "Thou Essence is That Essence". Each of us is a unique iteration of the Spiritual Source of the Universe. A microcosm of the macrocosm. Created by God as a godlike being for it takes a god to worship God fully. When I use the word God I could just as easily use any of the other names for the ineffable source of existence. The tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao. We are gods, but not the God, lest any man or woman should boast. To fail to see that we are a part of God is an illusion, to think that we are God is a delusion. The seer is intimate with a peace that passeth understanding. God is not only within ourselves, but within all other people as well, even the rest of Creation, God is omnipresent. Pride is a tricky devil. I am an aspect of God, therefore I must be God. Wrong dear solipsist. I am here too. And so are others. God is not One, God is a unitive One. "Totality is a unitive one." Hui-Neng. The Kingdom of God is a family. We are each a part of that which has no separate parts.

God is a synergetic whole, more than one but less than two. An irrational, beyond rational, whole between one and two, a paradoxical number, a numberless number. God is ineffable. This reality we find ourselves in isn't your dream or mine, we are however links in the great dream chain of existence. Our material Universe is a simulation, a learning tool for spiritual beings. An illusion conceals, a simulation prepares. The glass is half full, or half empty, you decide. Are you an optimist or a pessimist? As Teilhard de Chardin once noted, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience". Essence is prior to existence. Spirit is prior to matter. Wu is prior to the body/mind complex. Though it is true that there are no lines of demarcation in Nature, our Universe is interconnected, there are areas of confluence, fields of concentrated energy, such as you and I. All created things are such. That part of us that has not been created, that part of our essence that is divine, is found within the holy of holies, our heart, our soul. We are spirit. An awareness of our true selves is essential for the full expression of our potential to be godlike beings, to be childlike beings. To return to innocence is to let go of our conditioned egos and be our original selves. Life is a test in which we either grade ourselves fairly or we are held back. We get to do it over and over again until we get it right. We graduate from one level of understanding to the next without necessarily leaving this relative reality. Our world changes as we change. Made in the image of God we are co-creators with God. Meditation is about coming to this enlightened realization through direct experience rather than the result of a rational conclusion. We are spirit. Nonduality, God, cannot be described in dualistic terms, rather merely suggested. God is like... Thus the use of Parables and Myths and other such forms of metaphorical expression where God and eternal truths are concerned. We cannot say what God is, only what God is like. I AM THAT I AM. Certainty is the product of pride.

The essential part of us, our spirit, was never born and will never die. The purpose of life here in the realm of duality is not to play a game of Solitaire with ourselves, but to play a game of Hearts with each other. This is the message of all the great Mystics from all the great spiritual traditions of our world, past and present. Our material but insubstantial reality comes from an immaterial but substantial source. God is eternal, and so are we.

This book by Aldous Huxley is one of the greatest books ever written about the Perennial Philosophy. It is must reading if you want to know more about the truth of the universality of truth. No religion has a patent on God. As that great Christian Mystic Meister Eckhart once said, "God is like a great underground river". Meditation is the technique nearly all great mystics have used to dig sacred wells into the great underground river of spirit that flows through and beyond every manifested thing. I say nearly because there are exceptions to every rule but this rule. Grace is the final arbiter. With that said, take personal responsibility and dig your own well my friend. Just don't get to thinking your well is the only well. This is the Philosophia Perennis in a nutshell. Now Go.

For futher reading on the Perennial Philosophy may I suggest some of the following authors. Karen Armstrong, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Joseph Campbell, Meister Eckhart, Rene Guenon, Thomas Merton, Rumi, Frithjof Schuon, and Huston Smith, among others.

I was given this book by my grandmother, who had purchased it in to 50's. At first I found the content and the author's writing style frustrating, but I found that as I let the words drift by, I was left with pure ideas, pure content. With this book, Huxley acheives a subtlety of presentation that many authors will never achieve. He concisely summarises and presents the theological and spiritual fundaments of the major religions in a way that is accessible to the devoted reader. It has a very different feel to some of his other works like Brave New World and The Doors of Perception. I liked it, but I think that you need to approach the book with a little patience.

About twenty or so years ago, I had an awakening of sorts. Strange how life can be. One minute you're slicing a banana atop your corn flakes, and the next minute you're looking straight into the Light that all things are created in and out of. And after I had that experience of "knowing" that life was something more than this external form, I went on a rather mad search to see if I could find anything that would back up my experience and one of the first books I bumped into was the Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley.

After reading this book, I was angry. Not at dear Mr. Huxley who beautifully pointed out why all religions and traditions have strands of the same Truth and Wisdom flowing through them, but I was angry that I belonged to a species that was so obviously stupid.

I frequently sat outside at the local coffee shop in my black beret, my black sunglasses, and black overcoat on chilly 90 degree days looking at the people walking to and fro with complete disdain. I often grumnbled, "Don't these people realize how beautiful and wondrous life truly is? The poor slobs."

And what I was doing was in complete opposition to the Perennial Philosophy. I was no better than the overexcited religionist who wants to "prove" that his religion is better than yours/that her God is the "True God" and I one day I took my blinders off and looked in the mirror. I looked in the mirror until the form before me dissolved and the Light that I was created in and out of came forth.

And I found myself rejoicing at the happy fact that all of us live in such a state of amazing grace. That this is the beauty of life; that it waits and it waits and it waits for us to notice it and when we turn to it, it races with joy and with love and with beauty to give us everything that it has and the Truth is, it NEVER withheld anything from us in the first place.

Does that kind of sound like the parable of the Prodigal Son? Well it should. Jesus knew that God was not withholding; that God is Love and is Love all the time.

Religions stress sin, evil, repentance, and separation but the revealer behind the religion knows in a beautifully innocent way that the One Life of God...of Spirit...of whatever you want to call it, is in and through everything seen as well as all that is unseen and this is the common thread that runs through every mystical experience and every individual who was daring enough to have one. It is the knowledge that is within you right now and is waiting for you to simply "wake up". You are the prophet you've been wating for. You're already "saved" why are you resisting the procedure? The Kingdom of God is now at hand within you and around you now.

My cynicism has softened over the years and even though there are times where I can easily (too easily) see things as black or white, I know that there is a stretch of gray that is as big as eternity itself, where beauty and grace reside waiting for me to rememember over and over and over again, that all there really is, is Life Itself and Life needs no one to defend it or protect it or be saved for it. It stands on Its own Formless, Real, and Perfect moving into and through all, as all.

Buy this book. Buy a cup of coffee. Have an experience. Read, assimilate, drink, enjoy. Here's hoping your intellectual experiences transcend themselves into something much, much more.

Peace & Blessings

Huxley was clearly a man with great vision, undoubtedly ahead of his time. This book notes the crucial points of world religion/philosophy in terms understandable to both Eastern and Western minds. It will become essential reading to the student of philosophy/world religion and a work valued for centuries to come. The author points out the key elements of the human condition and the proper path to follow for ultimate salvation. Huxley shows us the way, the burden is now ours to understand. I highly recommend this book as a must reading for anyone.

Culled from Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist sources, Huxley makes the case for the universality of certain religious doctrines grounded in a common mystical experience. This work by Huxley established him as one of the greatest lay theologians. It is a work of syncretism of the highest order. Huxley was raised as a Christian, yet was a mystical seeker across religious traditions. His quest included experiments with psychedelics, studying vedanta and other religious traditions.

This book is a must read for the mystical seeker, who wants confirmation that the mystical experience is real. This text was also highly influential within the academic study of religion. Huston Smith, who has written the most widely used textbook on the world's religions, has cited it numerous times in his writings as shaping his own views on the commonality of all religious traditions.