Talk:Perennial Philosophy

All the following from PP

Metaphysics

The more God is in all things, the more He is outside them. The more He is within, the more without. Eckhart

Tat Tvam Asi

"see all things, not in process of becoming, but in Being, and see themselves in the other. Each being contains in itself the whole intelligible world. Therefore All is everywhere. Each is there All, and All is each. Man as he now is has ceased to be the All. But when he ceases to be an individual, he raises himself again and penetrates the whole world. Plotinus PP

The Crest Jewel of Wisdom (Viveka-Chudamani) by Adi Shankara. Specifically speaks to the nature of Atman and Brahman

For more on the [Discussion page] for Fabric of Conscousness

Ethics

Spiritual Ego vs. Bodily Ego

Huxley notes the PP makes a distinction between Spiritual Ego and Bodily Ego

...all the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy make, in one form or another, the affirmation that man is a kind of trinity composed of body, psyche and spirit.

and suggests that the goal of spirituality is to someone connect with, be united with, spiritual ego. Huxley makes the common mistake of suggesting, however, that Bodily Ego needs to be suppressed or annihilated if a connection is going to be made.

Man’s final end, the purpose of his existence, is to love, know and be united with the immanent and transcendent Godhead. And this identification of self with spiritual not-self can be achieved only by “dying to” selfness and living to spirit.

Free Will

The notion that humans have someone been given the privilege of "free will" and that we are free to between identification with Bodily Ego or identification with spiritual ego is commonly found in the PP.

The will is free and we are at liberty to identify our being either exclusively with our selfness and its interests...or exclusively with the divine within us and without...

Note this is quite incorrect. The choice is between healthy and strong connection, and the pathology of disconnection. Nobody "chooses" disconnection. They become disconnected as a result of Toxic Socialization, and they "settle and accept" because Spiritual Ideology gives them excuses and justifiction. That is, informs them their disconnection has been their choice.

God incarnated in human form / Periodic Rebalancing

“Know, Vasetha, that from time to time a Tathagata is born into the world, a fully Enlightened One, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to erring mortals, a teacher of gods and men, a Blessed Buddha. He thoroughly understands this universe, as though he saw it face to face.… The Truth does he proclaim both in its letter and in its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation. A higher life doth he make known in all its purity and in all its perfectness.

Importance of real Connection

Can't understand this stuff intellectually. Have to make a connection.

Huxley notes that those attempting to develop an "empirical theology" are doomed to fail. Suggests that one actually has to "directly apprehend" divine Reality in a state of "detachment, charity and humility" if one is to be able to provide a proper revelation. "they are doomed to the perpetual stultification of their best efforts" and "The self-validating certainty of direct awareness cannot in the very nature of things be achieved except by those equipped with the moral ‘astrolabe of God’s mysteries’" and "mysteries’. If one is not oneself a sage or saint, the best thing one can do, in the field of metaphysics, is to study the works of those who were, and who, because they had modified their merely human mode of being, were capable of a more than merely human kind and amount of knowledge." I believe there is some truth to this. The word God means one thing to someone who has never Connected and quite another to somebody who has.

Spiritual Ego vs. Bodily Ego

Huxley notes the PP makes a distinction between Spiritual Ego and Bodily Ego

...all the exponents of the Perennial Philosophy make, in one form or another, the affirmation that man is a kind of trinity composed of body, psyche and spirit.

and suggests that the goal of spirituality is to someone connect with, be united with, spiritual ego. Huxley makes the common mistake of suggesting, however, that Bodily Ego needs to be suppressed or annihilated if a connection is going to be made.

Man’s final end, the purpose of his existence, is to love, know and be united with the immanent and transcendent Godhead. And this identification of self with spiritual not-self can be achieved only by “dying to” selfness and living to spirit.

Free Will

The notion that humans have someone been given the privilege of "free will" and that we are free to between identification with Bodily Ego or identification with spiritual ego is commonly found in the PP.

The will is free and we are at liberty to identify our being either exclusively with our selfness and its interests...or exclusively with the divine within us and without...

Note this is quite incorrect. The choice is between healthy and strong connection, and the pathology of disconnection. Nobody "chooses" disconnection. They become disconnected as a result of Toxic Socialization, and they "settle and accept" because Spiritual Ideology gives them excuses and justifiction. That is, informs them their disconnection has been their choice.

God incarnated in human form / Periodic Rebalancing

“Know, Vasetha, that from time to time a Tathagata is born into the world, a fully Enlightened One, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to erring mortals, a teacher of gods and men, a Blessed Buddha. He thoroughly understands this universe, as though he saw it face to face.… The Truth does he proclaim both in its letter and in its spirit, lovely in its origin, lovely in its progress, lovely in its consummation. A higher life doth he make known in all its purity and in all its perfectness.

Importance of real Connection

Can't understand this stuff intellectually. Have to make a connection.

Huxley notes that those attempting to develop an "empirical theology" are doomed to fail. Suggests that one actually has to "directly apprehend" divine Reality in a state of "detachment, charity and humility" if one is to be able to provide a proper revelation. "they are doomed to the perpetual stultification of their best efforts" and "The self-validating certainty of direct awareness cannot in the very nature of things be achieved except by those equipped with the moral ‘astrolabe of God’s mysteries’" and "mysteries’. If one is not oneself a sage or saint, the best thing one can do, in the field of metaphysics, is to study the works of those who were, and who, because they had modified their merely human mode of being, were capable of a more than merely human kind and amount of knowledge." I believe there is some truth to this. The word God means one thing to someone who has never Connected and quite another to somebody who has.