Perennial philosophy


The Perennial philosophy (Latin: philosophia perennis),[note 1] also referred to as Perennialism, is a perspective in the philosophy of religion which views each of the world's religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine has grown.

The Perennial philosophy has its roots in neo-Platonism and the Theory of Forms. Agostino Steuco (1497–1548) coined the term philosophia perennis,[1] drawing on the neo-Platonic philosophy of Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94).

A more popular interpretation argues for universalism, the idea that all religions are basically the same. In the early 19th century the Transcendentalists propagated the idea of a metaphysical Truth and universalism, which inspired the Unitarians, who proselytized among Indian elites. Towards the end of the 19th century the Theosophical Society further popularized universalism, not only in the western world, but also in western colonies. In the 20th century universalism was further popularized in the English-speaking world through the neo-Vedanta inspired Traditionalist School, which argues for a metaphysical, single origin of the orthodox religions, and by Aldous Huxley and his book The Perennial Philosophy, which was inspired by neo-Vedanta and the Traditionalist School, culminating in the New Age movement.

EGO & ENLIGHTENMENT

EGO: In Buddhism, the concept of an ego, in the sense of consciousness of one’s self, is seen as composed of non-valid factors, as delusion. The concept of an ego arises when the dichotomizing intellect (the sixth sense) is confused into presupposing a dualism between I and not I (or other). As a result, we think and act as though we were entitles separated from everything else, over and against an imagined world that lies outside of us. Thus the idea of an I (self) becomes fixed in our subconscious, a self which produces thought processes like “I hate this, I love that; this is yours, this is mine.” Nurtured by such conceptions, we reach the point where the I or ego dominates the mind; it attacks everything that threatens its dominance and its power. Enmity, desire, and alienation, which culminate in suffering, are the ineluctable results of this outlook, which in Buddhism is cut through by the practice of INSIGHT MEDITATION. Thus, in the course of PRACTICE(discriminative meditation) training under a GURU, who leads people on the path to ENLIGHTENMENT, the dominance of the ego illusion over the practitioner’s thinking and aspirations is gradually overcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbOvjBchKkg        

ENLIGHTENMENT is the word used to translate the Sanskrit term BODHI (AWAKENED). A person awakens to a nowness of emptiness which he himself is, even as the entire universe is emptiness and which alone enables him to comprehend the “true nature” of things. The emptiness experienced here is no nihilistic emptiness; rather it is something unperceivable, unthinkable, unfeelable, and endless beyond existence and nonexistence. Emptiness is no “object” that could be experienced by a “subject”, since the idea of a subject itself is dissolved in to “emptiness”. In a profound experience of this kind, it becomes clear that emptiness and phenomena, absolute and relative, are entirely one. The experience of true reality is precisely the experience of this oneness. “Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form”, it is said in the HEART SUTRA. In profound enlightenment, the ego is annihilated, it dies. Thus is said in Zen, “You have to die on the cushion.” The result of this “dying,” of this “great death”, is “great life,” a life of freedom and peace.



“ALL MEANING IS IMPUTED”