The

PERENNIAL
PHILOSOPHY

ALDOUS
HUXLEY

MODERNCLASSICS
HARPERPERENNIAL
LOND Oo N IORONIOSY DNEY NE W DELHI AUCKL AND
EW TORK
 MODERNCLASSICS
HARPERPERENNIAL

in 1945 by Harper &

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20 SC 30 29 28 27 26
 C H A P TER I
TP,ds
That Art Thou

IN STUDYING the Perennial Philosophy we can begin either at

the bottom, with practice and morality: or at the top, with
a consideration of metaphysical truths; or, finally, in the
middle, at the focal point where mind and matter, action and
thought have their meeting place in human psychology.
The lower gate is that preferred by strictly practical teachers
-men who, like Gautama Buddha, have no use for specula
tion and whose primary concern is to put out in men's hearts
the hideous fires of greed, resentment and infatuation.
Through the upper gate go those whose vocation it is to think
and speculatethe born philosophers and theologians. The
middle gate gives entrance to the exponents of what has been
called spiritual religion'"the devout contemplatives of
India, the Sufis of Islam, the Catholic mystics of the later
Middle Ages, and, in the Protestant tradition, such men as
Denk and Franck and Castellio, as Everard and Tohn Smith
and the first Quakers and William Law.
It is through this central door, and just because it is cen
tral, that we shall make our entry into the subject matter of
this book. The psychology of the Perennial Philosophy has
1ts SOurce in metaphysics and issues logically in a character
ISac way of life and system of ethics. Starting from this mid
Point of doctrine, it is easy for the mind to move in either di
rection.
In the present section we shall confine our attention to but
a single feature of this traditional psychologythe most im
Portant, the most emphaticallyinsisted upon by all exponents
of the Perennial Philosophy and, we may add, the least psy
chological. For the doctrine that is to be illustrated in this
section belongs to autology rather than psychology-to the
science, not of the per:Onal ego, but of that eternal Self in the
depth of particular, indiyidualized selves, and identical with,
or at least akin Lo, the divine Ground. Based upon the direct
experlence of those who have fulilled the necessary conditiOns

3tology tathe hon

 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

of such knowledge, this teaching is expressed most

Atman, or immanent eternal Self, is one with
sucinctly
in the Sanskrit formula, tat tuvam asi ("That art thou'"); the
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.
The more God is in all things, the more He is outside
them. The more He is within, the more without.
Eckhart

Only the transcendent, the completely other, can be imma

nent without being modified by the becoming of that in whiçh
it dwells., The Perennial Philosophy teaches that it is desirable
and indeed necessary to know the spiritual Ground of things,
not only within the soul, but also outside in the world and,
beyond world and soul, in its transcendent otherness"in
heaven,"

Though GOD is everywhere present, yet He is only

present to thee in the deepest and nost central part of
thy soul. The natural senses cannot possess God or unite
thee to Him; nay, thy inward faculties of understanding,
will and memory can only reach after God, but cannot
be the place of his habitation in thee. But there is a root
or depth of thee from whence all these faculties come
forth, as lines from a centre, or as branches from the body
of the tree. This depth is called the centre, the fund or
bottom of the soul. This depth is the unity, the eternity
Ihad almost said the infinity-of thy soul; for it is so
infniie that nothing can satisfy it or give it rest but the
infinity of God.
William Law
This extract seems to contradict what was said above: but the
Conradiction is not a real one. God within and God withour
rhese are two abstract notions, which can be
the understanding and expressed in wOrds. Butentertained
the facts by
to
which hese noions reier cannot be rcalized and experienced
excEpt in "the deepest and most ceuual part of the soul
And his is rue no less of God without than of God witbin
But though he two abstract notions have lu be ealized (to
 THAT ART THOU /
3
natial metaphor) in the same place, the intrinsic nature s Dr

of God
God within is qualitatively different from
the realization
that of the realization of God without, and each in turn is
different from that of the realization of the Ground as simul-
taneously within and without--as the Self of the perceiver
and at the same time (in the words of the Bhagavad-Gita) as
this world is pervaded."
"That by which all
When Svetaketu was twelve years old he was sent to
teacher, with whom he studied until he was twenty
four, After learning all the Vedas, he returned home full
of conceit in the belief that he was consummately well
educated., and very censorious.
His father said to him, "Svetaketu, my child, you who
are so full of your learning and so censorious, have you
asked for that knowledge by which we hear the unhear
able, by which we perceive what cannot be perceived and
know what cannot be known?"
"What is that knowledge, sir?" asked Svetaketu.
His father replied, "As by knowing one lump of clay
all that is made of clay is known, the difference being only
in name, but the truth being that all is clay--so, my child,
is that knowledge, knowing which we know all."
"But surely these venerable teachers of mine are ig
DOrant of this knowledge; for if they possessed it they
Would have imparted it to me. Do you, sir, therefore give
me that knowledge."
me
"So be it," said the father,... And he said, "Bring
a fruit of the nyagrodha tree."
"Here is one, sir."
"Break it."
"It is broken, sir."
"What do you see there?"" Small.""
"Some seeds, sir, exceedingly
"Break one of these.'"
"It is broken, sir."
"What do you see there?" you
"Nothing at all." subtle essence which tbe
The father said, "My son, that very csseuce slandsche
do not perceive there-in that that which is
yagrodha ree. In
being of he huge
4 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
subtle essence all that exists has its self. That is
that is the Sclf, and thou, Svetaketu, art That." the True,
"Pray, sir," said the son, "tell me more."
"Be it so, my child," the father replied; and he said
Place this salt in water, and come tO Ime tomorrow morn.
ing."
The son did as he was told.
Next morning the father said, "Bring me the salt which
you put in the water,"
The son looked for it, but could not find it; for the salt,
of course, had dissolved.
The father said, "Taste some of the water from the sur
face of the vessel. How is it?"
"Salty."
"Taste some from the middle. How is it?""
"Salty."
Taste some from the bottom. How is it?"
"Salty."
The father said, Throw the water away and then
back to me again." come
The son did so; but the salt was not lost,
for ever. for salt exists
Then the father said, "Here likewise in this
yours, my son, you do not perceive the True; but body in of
fact it is. In that which is the subtle there
has its self. That is the True, essence, all that exists
Svetaketu, art That." that is the Self, and thou,

From the Chandogya Upanishad

The man who wishes to know the
nay set Lo work in any one of That" which is "thou"
looking inwards into his own three ways. He may begin by
of "dying to
self"self particular
in reasoning, selfthou and, by a process
feelingcome in
of God that is last to a knowledge of the Self, willing,
at self in
the Kingdom
existing outside within. Or else he may
begin with the
himself, and may ry to realize their thouS
unity with God and, essential
his own being. Or, through (God, with oue alother and
he may seek to hnally (and this is doubless the best with
approah
and from wilhout, the
o that heultimate That both from wihin way),
as comes
nentally at Once he priniple of his Tealize God experi
io
other thous, animate and inanimate. Ihe own thou and of al!
completely illu
 THAT ART THOU

minated human being knows, with Law, that God "is present
inthe deepest and most central part of his own soul"; but he
is also and at the same time one of those who, in the words of
Plotinus,

see all things, not in process of becoming, but in Being,

and see themselves in the other. Each being contains in
irself the whole intelligible world. Therefore All is every
where. Each is there All, and All iseach. 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.

It is from the more or less obscure intuition of the oneness

that is the ground and principle of all multiplicity that
philosophy takes its source. And not alone philosophy, but
natural science as well. All science, in Meyerson's phrase, is
the reduction of multiplicities to identities. Divining the One
within and beyond the many, we find an intrinsic plausibility
in any explanation of the diverse in terms of a single principle.
The philosophy of the Upanishads reappears, developed and
eniched, in the Bhagavad-Gita and was finally systematized,
in the ninth century of our era, by Shankara. Shankara's
teaching (simultaneously theoretical and practical, as is that of
all true exponents of the Perennial Philosophy)is summarized
n bis versifed treatise, Viveka-Chudamani ("The Crest-Jewel
of Wisdom'"). All the following passages are taken trom this
cOnveniently brief and untechnical work.
The Atman is that by which the universe is pervaded, but
which nothing pervades; which causes all things to shine,
but which all
things cannot make to shine.
The nature of the one Reality must be known by one's
own clear spiritual perception; it cannot be knownthrough
pandit (learned man). Similarly the torm of the moon
Can only be known hrough one's owu eyes. How can it
be known
through others?
Who but the Aman is capable of removing the bonds of
iguorance, passion and self-interested action?
6 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
Liberation cannot be achieved except by the
the identity of the individual spirit with the perception of
Spirit. It can be achieved neither by Yoga (physicaluniversal
ing), nor by Sankhya (speculative philosophy), nor by the train-
practice of religious ceremonies, nor by mere learning.
Disease is not cured by pronouncing the name of medicine,
but by taking medicine. Deliverance is not achieved by re.
peating the word "Brahman," but by directly experiencing
Brahman.
The Atman is the Witness of the individual mind and its
operations. It is absolute knowledge.
The wise man is one who understands that the
of Brahman and of Atman is Pure essence
who realizes their absolute [Link],
and
The identity of
Brahman and Atman is affirmed in hundreds of sacred
texts.

Caste, creed, family and lineage do not

Brahman has neither name nor form, exist in Brahman.
and demerit, is beyond
time, space andtranscends
the
merlt
sense-experience. Such is Brahman, and "thou art
Meditate upon this truth within your
objects o
That."
Supreme, beyond the
consciousness.
power speech to express,
of
may yet be
apprehended
Pure, absolute
and "chou art and eternal
by the eye of pure Brahman
Reality-such
Tha.,." Meditate illumination.
is
your consciousness. upon his truthBrahman,
within
Though One, Brahman is the
no other cause.
law of causation. And yet cause of he many.
Such is Brahman is There is
Meditaie upon this ruh Brahman, independent of the
within youranu"hou art That."
The uudi of
Brahman
But (even in (hose who so
may be
sonal cpal aleuc» i despundel4nd)
cOnsClousuess.
undeslood
cxists ÉrOLAI beginaiugless [Link]
am the acLor, I a ç wlau li 4d inte
he
l ectu
deaire
pwCríul, ally
Lhe for it
capcicu«cs" This notion,
.
for per-
"
uotion is
 THAT ART THOU
7
the cause of bondage to conditional existence, birth and
dcath. It can be removed only by the earnest effort to live
constantly in union with Brahman. By the sages, the
eradication of this notion and the craving for personal
separateness is called Liberation.
It is ignorance that causes us to identify ourselves with the
body, the ego, the senses, or anything that is not the
Atman. He is a wise man who overcomes this ignorance by
devotion to the Atman.
When a man follows the way of the world, or the way of
the flesh, or the way of tradition (i.e. when he believes in
religious rites and the letter of the scriptures, as though
they were intrinsically sacred), knowledge of Reality can
not arise in him.

The wise say that this threefold way is like an iron chain,
binding the feet of him who aspires to escape from the
prison-house of this world. He who frees bimself from
the chain achieves Deliverance.
Shankara

In the Taoist formulations of the Perennial Philosophy there

1S an insistence, no less forcible than in the Upanishads, the
Gita and the writings of Shankara, upon the universal im
manence of the transcendent spiritual Ground of all existence.
What follows is an extract from one of the great classics ot
Taoist literature, the Book of Chuang Tzu, most oi which
beens to have been written around the turn of the fourth and
third centuries B. C.

DO not ask whether the Principle is in this or in thau;

5 n all beings. It is on this account that we apply o it
the epihets of supreme, universal, total. It has or
but is luselt
dained hat all things should be limited, manifestation,
unlimied,
he Principleinfnite. As to
causes the
pertains to
what
succession of its phases, but is not
his but
succession. It is the author of causes and ettecis,
Is not he causes and effects. It is the author of coudensa-
tions and dissipaions (birth and death, changes of state),
but is not itself ccondensations and dissipauions. All pro
 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
ceeds from It and is under its influence. It is in
all
neither thdiffer.
ing.,
but is not identical with beings, for it is
entiated nor limited.

Chuang Tzu
From Taoism we pass to that Mahayana Buddhism
the Far East, came to be s0 closely which, in
borrowing and bestowing until the associated with Taoism.
two came at last to
fused in what is known as Zen. The be
Lankavatara
which the following extract is taken, was the Sutra, fro
the founder of Zen Buddhism scripture which
first disciples. expressly recommended to his
Those whovainly reason without
are lost in the jungle of the understanding the truth
Vijnanas (the various forms
of relative knowledge),
running
trying to justify their view of about here and there and
The self realized in your ego-substance.
in its purity; this is the inmost consciousness appears
Buddha-womb),
over to mere Tathagata-garbha
which is not the realm of (literally.
those given
Pure in itsreasoning.
own n¡ture and free
fnite and infinite, from the category Or
Buddha-womb, which Universal
is Mind is the undefiled
beings. wrongly apprehended by sentient
One Nature, Lankavatara Sutra
natures, perfect and pervading, circulates
One Reality, in all
realiie8.
The one Moon all-refects
comprehensi
itself
ve, contains within itself all
waLer,
Aud all dhe
moOns in
wherever there is a
sheet of
One M0On. he waters are
The Dhal na body
(the Abuluc) of all
inlO IDy own beng
cubraced within the
Lhe
And my uwi bCiug is
The iound
Iancr Light is beyoLdi unkon Buddhas enters
with heus.
pralxc dbldlie,
Yet it ib CYCH Cae, wA
and tulucas us, cVCI
 THAT ART THOU

is only
ItYou when you hunt for it that you lose it:
cannot take hold of it, but equally you cannot get
rid of it,
And while you can do neither, it goes on its own way.
You remain silent and it speaks: you speak, and it is dumb;
The great gate of charity is wide open, with no obstacles
before it.
Yung-chia Tashih
the doc
I am not competent, nor is this the place to discussLet
rinal diferences between Buddhism and Hinduisn. it suf
fce to point out that, when he insisted that human beings are
by nature "non-Atman," the Buddha was evidently speaking
about the personal self and not the universal Self. The Brah
man controversialists, who appear in certain of the Pali scrip- rr
tures, never so much as mention the Vedanta doctrine of the
identity of Atman and Godhead and the non-identity of ego
and Atman. What they maintain and Gautama denies is the
substantial nature and eternal persistence of the individual
psyche. As an unintelligent man seeks for the abode of music
in the body of the lute, so does he look for a soul within the
skandhas (the material and psychic aggregates, of which the
individual mind-body is composed)." About the existence of
the Atman that is Brahman, as about most other metaphysical
matters, the Buddha declines to speak, on the ground that
such discussions do not tend to edification or spiritual prog:
ress among the members of a monastic order, such as he had
lounded. But though it has its dangers, though it may become
ie most absorbing, because the most serious and noblest, of
dStractions, metaphysical thinking is unavoidable and finally
ntcessary. Even the Hinayanists found this, and the later
Mahayanists were to develop, in connection with the practice
of their religion, a splendid and imposing system of cos1uolog-
ical, ehical and psychological thought. This systenn was based
upon he postulates of a strict idealism and professed to
dispense with the idea of God. But moral and spiriual ex-
Ce was too strong for philosophical theory, and under
inspiration of direct experience, the wrilers of the Ma-
hayana suras found themselves using all their ingenuity to
cxplain why the Tathagata and the Bodhisalvas display an
infnite charity towards beings that do not really exist. Athe
bane time they Sretched the framework of subjective idealisn
10 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

sO as to make room for Universal Mind; qualified the

soullessness with the doctrine that, if purified, the idea ot
mind can identify itself with the Universal Mind orindiBuddha-
vidual
womb; and, while maintaining godlessness, asserted that this
realizable Universal Mind is the inner consciousness of the
eternal Buddha and that the Buddha-mind is associated with
'a great compassionate heart" which desires the liberation of
every sentient being and bestows divine grace on all who
make a serious effort to achieve man's final end. In a word.
despite their inauspicious vocabulary, the best of the Ma
hayana sutras contain an authentic formulation of the Peren
nial Philosophy-a formulation which in some respects (as we
shall see when we come to the section, "God in the World")
is more complete than any other.
In India, as in Persia, Mohammedan thought came to be
enriched by the doctrine that God is immanent as well as
transcendent, while to Mohammedan practice were added the
moral disciplines and "spiritual exercises," by means of which
the soul is prepared for contemplation or the unitive knowl
edge of the Godhead. It is a signiicant historical fact that the
poet-saint Kabir is claimed as a co-religionist both by Moslems
and Hindus. The politis of those whose goal is beyond time
are always pacific; it is the idolaters of past and future, of
reactionary memory and Utopian dream, who do the persecut
ing and make the wars.

Behold but One in all things; it is the second that leads

you asuay.
Kabir

That this insight into the nature of things and the origin of
good and evil is not confined exclusively to the saint, but is
TeCognized obscurely by every human being, is proved by the
very stuucture of our JaDguage. For language, as Richard
Trenh pointed out long ago, is otten "wiser, hol nerely than
he vuigu, but even than the Wisest ol those who speak ir
SomeLines it locks up truths which werc OnCC well kuown, but
have bEen forgottcn. ln other cascs it holds Lhe germs of
ruths whih, though they wTe never plainly discerned,
he genius ol its fraucS caughl glimpse ot in a hapPy
MOment of diviuation." For exauple, how significant it is
that in the Indo European languages, as Darmsteter has
 THAT ART THOU

pointedout, the root meaning "two'" should connote badness.

The Greek prefix dys- (as in dyspepsia) and the Latin dis
(asin dishonorable) are both derived from "duo." The cognate
bis- gives a pejorative sense to such modern French words as
bene ("blunder," literally "two-sight"). Traces of that '"second
which leads you astray'" can be found in "dubious," "doubt"
nd Zweifel-for to doubt is to be double-ninded. Bunyan
bos his Mr. Facing-both-ways, and modern American slang its
wO-timers." Obscurely and unconsciously wise, our language
onfrms the findings of the mystics and proclaims the essential
badness of division--a word, incidentally, in which our old
enemy "two'" makes another decisive appearance.
Here it may be remarked that the cult of unity on the
political level is only an idolatrous ersatz for the genuine
religion of unity on the personal and spiritual levels. Totali
tarian regimes justify their existence by means of a philosophy
of political monism, according to which the state is God on
carth, unification under the heel of the divine state is salva
tion, and all means to such unification, however intrinsically
wicked, are right and may be used without scruple. This
political monism leads in practice to excessive privilege and
power for the few and oppression for the many, to discontent
at home and war abroad. But excessive privilege and power
are standing temptations to pride, greed, vanity and cruelty;
oppression results in fear and envy; war breeds hatred, misery
and despair. All such negative emotions are fatal to the
spiritual life. Only the pure in heart and poor in spirit can
come to the unitive knowledge of God. Hence, the attempt
to
impose more unity upon societies_ than their individual
lembers are ready for makes it psychologically almost im
possible for those individuals to realize their unity with the
divine Ground and with one
another.
Among the Christians and the Sufis, to whose writings we
andiitsn , the concern is primarily with the hunan mind
and
divine essence.
My Me is
God, nor do
y God Himsell. I recoguize any other Me except
St. Catherine of Genoa
In
also those
unlikeTespects
itself. in which the soul is unlike God, it is
St. Bernard
 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
I went from Godto God, until they cried from me in
"O thou I!"
Bayazid of Bistun
Two of the recorded anecdotes about this Sufi saint deserve in
be quoted here. "When Bayazid was asked how old he
he replied, 'Four years.' They said, 'How can that be He
answered, Ihave been veiled from God by the world for
seventy years, but I have seen Him during the last four years.
The period during which one is veiled does not belong to
one's life.'" On another occasion someone knocked at the
saint's door and cried, "Is Bayazid here?" Bayazid answered,
"Is anybody here except God?"
To gauge the soul we must gauge it with God, for the
Ground of God and the Ground of the Soul are one and
the same.
Eckhart

The spirit possesses God essentially in naked nature, and

God the spirit.
Ruysbroeck
For though she sink all sinking in the oneness of divinity,
she never touches bottom. For it is of the very essence of
the soul that she is powerless to plumb the depths of her
creator. And here one cannot speak of the soul any more,
for she has lost her nature yonder in the oneness of divine
essence. There she is no more called soul, but is called
immeasurable being.
Eckhart
The kower and the known are one.
imagine that they should see God, as if He Simple people
and they here. This is not S0. God aud I, we stood there
are one in
knowledge.
Eckhart
"I live, yet not I, bur Chuist in me," Or perhaps it
more accurate O use the verb laisilivcly and say, "I might be
ot I; for il is he Lwgu ww lives me' lives He 4s an live, yee
lives his part. Iu such a case, ol courc, Lhe aclor is a actOr
 THAT ART THOU
13
to the rôle. Where real life iis concerned,
inhnitely superior
Shakespearean characters, there are only Addi-
there are no
or, more often, grotesque Monsieur Perrichons
sonian Catos
Charlie's Aunts mistaking themsellves for Julius Caesar
and
orthe
Prince of Denmatk. Butdramatis
by a merciful dispensation it is
power of every persona to get his low,
always in the pronounced and supernaturally transfigured by
stupid lines Garrick.
of a
thedivine cquivalent
old world
o my God, how does it happen in this poor Thee,
finds that
that Thou art so great and yet nobody Thee, that Thou
Thou callest so loudly and nobody hears Thou givest
art so near and nobody feels Thee, that name? Men
Thyself to everybody and nobody knows Thy
Thee; they turn
flee from Thee and say they cannot find their
their backs and say they cannot see Thee; they stop
Thee.
ears and say they cannot hear Hans Denk

Between the Catholicmystics of the fourteenth and ffteenth

centuries and the Quakers ofthe seventeenth there yawns a
wide gap of time made hideous, so far as religion isconcerned,
with interdenominational wars_and persecutions, But the gulf
was bridged by a succession of men, whom Rufus Jones, in
the only accessible English work devoted to their lives and
teachings, has called the "Spiritual Reformers." Denk, Franck,
Gastellio, Weigel, Everard, the Cambridge Platonists-in spite
of the murdering and the madness, the apostolic Succession
remains unbroken. The truths that had been spoken in the
Theologia Germanica-that book which Luther profesed to
love s0 much and from which, if we may judge from his career,
he learned so singularly littlewere being uttered once again
by Englishmen during the Civil War and under the Crom-
wellian dictatorship. The mystical tradition, perpetuated by
the Protestant Spiritual Reformers, had become dittused, as it
were, in the religious atmosphere of the time when George
Fox had his
ence. firstst grea "opening" and knew by dlirect experr
that
of
Every Man was enlightened by the Divine Light
thatChrisl,
believedandinI itsawcanme
it shine
out ofthrough
Condemnation that they
all; And and came
14 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
tothe Light of Life, and became the Children of it; And
that they that hated it and did not believe in it we
condemned by it, though they made a professon of
Christ. This I saw in the pure Openings of Light, without
the help of any Man, neither did I then know where to
find it in the Scriptures, though afterwards, searching the
Scriptures, I found it.
From Fox's Journal

The doctrine of the Inner Light achieved aclearer formu

lation in the writings of the second generation of Quakers.
There is," wrote William Penn, "something nearer to us
than Scriptures, to wit, the Word in the heart from which all
Scriptures come." And a little later Robert Barclay sought to
explain the direct experience of tat tvamn asi in terms of an
Augustinian theology that had, of course, to be considerably
stretched and trimmed before it could fit the facts. Man, he
declared in his famous theses, is a fallen being, incapable ot
good, unless united to the Divine Light. This Divine Light is
Christ within the human soul, and is as universal as the sed
of sin. All men, heathen as well as Christian, are endowed
with the Inward Light, even though they may know nothing
of the outward history of Christ's life. Justification is for those
who do not resist the Inner Light and so permit of a new
birth of holiness within them.

Goodness needeth not to enter into the soul, for it is

there already, only it is unperceived.
Theologia Germanica
When the Ten Thousand things are viewed in their one
ness, we return to the Origin and remain where we have
always been.
Sen T'sen

IL is because we don't know Who we are, because we are

unaware that the Kingdom of Heave is within us. thar e
behave in he geASrally silly, the ofen insane, the soletimes
ariminal ways that are so <hai acteislicdliy human. We are
baved, we are liberated and enliglhicned, by perceiving che
nitherto unpereived good hat is alicady wiuha us, by return
ing Lo our elernal Ground and emainmg where, without
 THAT ART THOU

have always been. Plato speaks in the same

Anowing it, we
says, in the Republic, that "the virtue of wis-
sense when he anything else contains a divine element which
dom more
than
remains," And in the Theactetus he makes the point,
always
frequentlyinsisted upon by those who have practised spirit-
o that it is only by becoming Godlike that we can
ual religion,
Godand to become Godlike is to identify ourselves
know clcment wlhich in fact constitutes our essential
withthe divinc
nature, but of which, in our mainly voluntary ignorance, we
unaware.
choose to remail

They are on the way to truth who apprehend God by

means of the divine, Light by the light. Philo

Philo was the exponent of the Hellenistic Mystery Religion

which grew up, as Professor Goodenough has shown, among
the Jews of the Dispersion, between about 200 B. C. and 1oo
A. D. Reinterpreting the Pentateuch in terms of a metaphysical
Svstem derived from Platonism, Neo-Pythagoreanism and Stoi
cism, Philo transformed the wholly transcendental and almost o
anthropomnorphically personal God of the Old Testament into
the immanent-transcendent Absolute Mind of the Perennial
Phüosophy. But even from the orthodox sribes and Pharisees
of that momentous century which witnessed, along with the
disemination of Philo's doctrines, the first beginnings of
Christianity and the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem,
even from the guardians of the Law we hear significantly
iystical utterances. Hillel, the great rabbi whose teachings
On humility and the love of God andman read like an earlier,
ruder version of some of the Gospel sermons, is reported tO
have spoken these words to an assemblage in the courts of the
Teaple. "If Iam here," (it is Jehovah who is speaking
tuough the mouth of his prophet) "everyone is here. If I am
Lot
here, no one is
here."
The Beloved isis allall inall; the lover merely veils Him;
The
Beloved that lives, the lover a dead thing.
Jalabuddin Rumi
There is a spirit in the soul,
soul, untouched by time and Aesh,
lowing from the [Link], remaining in the Spiri, itself
 16 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
whotly spiritual. In this principle is God, ever
eve verdant,
of
ALrol,be
Jaolsr. ever flowering in all the joy and glory of His actual ell
Sometimes Ihave called this principle the Tabernacle of
the soul, sometimes a spiritual Light, anon I say it isa
Spark. But now Isay that it is more exalted over this and
that than the heavens are exalted above the earth. So now
Iname it in a nobler fashion. ... It is free of all names
and void of all forms. It is one and simple, as God is one
and simple, and no man can in any wise behold it.
Eckhart

Crude formulations of some of the doctrines of the Peren

niai Philosophy are to be found in the thoughtsysteas of the
uncivilized and so-called primitive peoples of the world.
Among the Maoris, for example, every human being is re
garded as a compound of four elementsa divine eternal
principle, known as the toiora; an ego, which disappears at
death; a ghost-shadow, or psyche, which survives death: and
finally a body. Among the Oglala Indians the divine element
is called the sican, and this is regarded as identical with the
ton,or divine essence of the world. Other elements of the selt
are the nagi, or personality, and niya, or vital soul. After death
the sican is reunited with the divine Ground of all things, the
nagi survives in the ghost world of psychic phenomena and
the niya disappears into the material universe.
In regard to no twentieth-century "primitive" society can
we rule out the possibility of influence by, or borrowing rom,
sOme higher culture. Consequently, we have no right to argue
from the present to the past. Because many contemporary
savages have an esoLeriç philosophy that is monotheistic wih
a monotheism that is sometimes of the "That art thou'"
variety, we are not entitled to infer offhand that neolithic or
palacolithic men held similar views.
More legitimae and more inuinsically plausible are the
interences that may be drawn from what we know about our
oWn physiology and psychology. We know chat human minds
have proved theuselves capable of everyhing trou iambecility
oQuanLum Theory, uom Mein Kamnpf and sadisu to Lhe
sanciy uf Pilip Neri, hou uetaphysic lo uosword puzzle
power poliio and the Missu Solemnas. we also kow hat
human ands aie in oLE way associaLed wiih human
and we bave lauly guud asons kou uppoig that chere ha brains,
 THAT ART THOU
been no considerable changes in the size and conformation 17of
human brains for a good many thousands of years. Conse-
quentlyi seems justifiable to infer that human minds in the
remote past were capable of as many and as various kinds and
degrees of activity as are minds at the present time.
It is, however, certain that many activities undertaken by
some minds at the present time were not, in the remote past,
undertaken by any minds at all. For this there are several
bious reasons. Certain thoughts are practically unthinkable
except in of an ofapproprlate
an apPpropriate language and within the
terms
ramework system of classification. Where
these necessary instruments do not exist, the thoughts in auee.
rion are not expressed and not even conceived. Nor is this all:
the incentive to develop the instruments of certain kinds of
thinking is not always present. For long periods of history and
prehistory it would seem that men and women, though per
fectly capable of doing so, did not wish to pay attention to
problems, which their descendants found absorbingly interest
ing. For example, there is no reason to suppose that, between
the thirteenth century and the twentieth, the human mind
underwent any kind of evolutionary change, comparable to
the change, let us say, in the physical structure of the horse's
foot during an incomparably longer span of geological time.
What happened was that men turned their attention from
certain aspects of reality to certain other aspects. The result,
among other things, was the development of the natural
Sciences. Our perceptions and our understanding are we directed,
think
n large measure, by our will, We are aware of, and
about, the things which, for one reason or another, we want
O
Bee and understand, Where there's a will there is always an
ectual way. The capacities of the human mind areitalmost
be to
indefinitely great. Whatever we will to do, whether
o the unitive knowledge of the Godhead, or to manu
facture -that we are able to do,
plovidedself-propelled
always that lame-throwers-
the willing be sufficiently intense and
nodern
sustained. It is clear that mmany of the things to which
men have chosen 10 pay atention were ignored by their prede-
Esors. thinking clearly and
uit ul yConsequent ly the very means tor
rCuring nuerely
about those things remained uninvented, not of the
prehistoric times, but even to the openn8
uodern era. frame
t lack of a suitable vocabulary and an adequae
18 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

of reference, and the absence of any strong and

desire to invent these necessary instruments of sustained
thoughthere
are two sufficient reasons why so many of the almost endless
potentialities of the human mind remained for so long unac-
tualized. Another and, on its own level, equally cogent reason
is this: much of the world's most original and fruitful thinking
is done by people of poor physique and of a thoroughly
unpractical turn of mind. Because this is so, and because the
value of pure thought, whether analytical or integral, has
everywhere been more or less clearly recognized, provision
was and still is made by every civilized society for giving
thinkers a measure of protection from the ordinary strains
and stresses of social life. The hermitage, the monastery, the
college, the academy and the research laboratory; the begging
bowl, the endowment, patronage and the grant of taxpayers
money-such are the principal devices that have been used
by actives to conserve that rare bird, the religious, philosoph
ical, artistic or scientific contemplative. In many primitive
societies conditions are hard and there is no surplus wealth.
The born contemplative has to face the struggle for existence
and social predominance without protection. The result, in
most cases, is that he either dies young or is too desperately
busy merely keeping alive to be able to devote his attention
to anything else. When this happens the prevailing philosopay
will be that of the hardy, extraverted man of action.
All this sheds some light-dim, it is true, and merely infer
ential--on the problem of the perennialness of the Perennial
Philosophy. In India the scriptures were regarded, not as
revelations made at some given moment of history, but as
eternal gospels, existent from everlasting to everlasting, inas
much as coeval with mnan, or tor that matter with any other
kind of corporeal or incorporeal being possessed of reason.
A similar point of view is expressed by Aristotle, who regards
the fundamental truths of religion as everlasting and inde
srucible. There have been ascents and falls, periods (literally
"roads around'" or cycles) of progress and Tegress; but the
great fact of God as the First Mover of a universe which
partakes of His divini1y has always been recognized. In the
iight of what we khow about prchistoric man (and what we
know amnouns Lo nothing uore than a few chipped stones,
sOme painúngs, drawings and sulpturcs) and of what we mav
legiimacly inier rom other, beler documented fields of
 THAT ART THOU
19
knowledge, what are weeto think of these traditional
My own view is that they may be true. We know that doctrines?
born
contemplatives in the realm both of analytic and of integral
thought have turned up in fair numbers and at frequent
intervals during recorded history. There is therefore every
reason to suppose that they turned up before history was
recorded. That many of these people died young or were
unable to exercise their talents is certain. But a few of them
have survived. In this con text it is highly significan
that, among many contemporary primitives, two thought
patterns are foundan exoteric pattern for the unphilosophic
and an esoteric pattern (often monotheistic, with a
belief in a God not merely of power, but of goodness and
wisdom) for the initiated few. There is no reason to suppose
that circumstances were any harder for prehistoric men than
they are for many contemporary savages. But if an esoteric
monotheism of the kind that seems to come natural to the
born thinker is_possible in modern savage societies, the
majority of whose members accept the sort of polytheistic
action, a
philosophy that seems to come natural to men of
similar esoteric doctrine might have been current in prehis
have
toric societies. True, the modern esoteric doctrines may
been derived from higher cultures. But the significant fact
remains that, if so derived, they yet had a meaning for certain
considered valuable
members of the primitive society and were many
enough to be carefully preserved. We have seen that
an appropriate vocabu
houghts are unthinkable apart fromfundamental
lary and frame of reference. But the ideas of the
rrennial Philosophy can be formulated in ideas a very simple
refer can
lar, and the experiences to which the
ld Andeed must be had immediately and apart trom any
theophanies are
Vocabulary whatsoever. Srange openingsareandoften profoundly
graned to quite small children, who experiences. We have no
and
permanent
Ieason 9 Jy affected by these
bLLall huppose that
what happens HQw (o persons
with
remote antiquity. In the
vocabularies iu
did not lappenTraherne Wordsworth,
Iuodern world (as VVaughan and teuds to grow out of his
and
alaong others, haye Lold us) the child the habit
duect Ground of things; for
awarenesSof theisone
of analytial thought fatal o the inuiious of integral
level.
"psychic" or the spiritualobstacle
hinking,preoccupations
Psyhic wheher on he
may be and often are
a major
 20 THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
in the way of genuine spirituality. In primitive societies n
(and, presumably, in the remote past) there is much peee
pation with, and a widespread talent for, psychic thinking,
But a few people may have worked their way through
psychic
into genuinely spiritual experience just as, even in modern
industrialized societies, a few people work their way out of
the prevailing preoccupation with matter and through the
prevailing habits of analytical thought into the direct experi,
ence of the spiritual Ground of things.
monotlo
Such, then, very briefly are the reasons for supposing that
the historical traditions of oriental and our own classical
antiquity may be true. It is interesting to find that at least one
distinguished contemporary ethnologist is in agreement with
Aristotle and the Vedantists. "Orthodox ethnology," writes
Dr. Paul Radin in his Primitive Man as Philosopher, "has
been nothing but an enthusiastic and quite uncritical attempt
to apply the Darwinian theory of evolution to the facts of
social experience." And he adds that "no progressin ethnolog!
will be achieved until scholars rid themselves once and for all
of the curious notion that everything possesses a history; untl
they realize that certain ideas and certain concepts are as
ultimate for man, as a social being, as specific physiological
reactions are ultimate for him, as a biological being" Among
these ultimate concepts, in Dr. Radin's vew, is that of mono
theism. Such monotheism is often no more than the recog
nition of a single dark and numinous Power ruling the world.
But it may sometimes be genuinely ethical and spiritual.
The nineteenth century's mania for history and prophetic
ULopianisn tended to blind the eyes of even its acutest think
ers to the timeless facts of eternity. Thus we find T. H. Green
writing of mystical union as though it were an evolutionary
process and nos, as all he evidence seems to show, a state
which mnan, as man, ha_ always had it in his power to realize.
"An animal organism, which has is history in time, gradually
becomes the vehicde of an eternally complecte cosciousnes,
which in iself can have no history, but a history of the process
by which he animal organisn becomes itb vehicle." But in
actual lact it is only in regard so ppheral ktiowledge chat
there has been a genuine histozical developucaL. Wihout
muh lapse of ime and much acunmulation of skills and
inlonation, theas san be bu an impei kec kuowlelge af he
maLerial world. But ducc awalcucas ol he cLCTnally com
 THE NATURE OF THE GROUND
21
consciousness," which isthe ground of the
plete possibility material
world, is a occasionally actualized by sone human
beings at almost any stage of their own perSOnal
rom cchildhood to olld age, and at any period development,
of the race's
history.

C HA PTER I I

The Nature of the Ground

OUR starting point has been the psycho<ogical doctrine, "That

thou." The question that now quite naturally presents
itself is a metaphysical one: What is the That to which the
thou can discover itself to be akin?
the fully developed Perennial Philosophy has at all
times and in all places given fundamentally the same answer.
The divine Ground ofall existence is a spiritual Absolute,
inefable in terms of discursive thought, but (in certain cir
cumstances) susceptible of being directly experienced and
realized by the human being. Thís Absolute is the God
without-form of Hindu and Christian mystical phraseology.
The last end of man, the ultimate reason for human existence,
is unitive knowledge of the divine Ground-the knowledge
that can come only to those who are prepared to "die to self"
and so make room, as it were, for God. Out of any gven
generation of men and women yery few will achieve the hnal
end of human existence: but the opportunity for coming to
unitive knowledge will, in one way or another, continually
be ofered until all
The sentient beings realize Who in fact they are.
Absoluteof Brahman is Isvara, and Isvara is further mani-
The activity Ground of all existence has a personal aspect.
fested in the Hindu Trinity and, at a more distant remove,
in the
gously, other deities or mystics,
for Christian of the
angels the ineffable, pantheon. Analo-
Indian attributeless God-
lead is manifested in a of Persons, of whom it is
Possible opredicate such Trinity
human atributes as goodness, wis-
dom, merCy and love, but in a supereminent degree.
wlGod,oFinalpOssesses
ly there is an inncarnation of God in ahuman being,
the sane qualities of character as the personal
bur who exhibits them under the limitations necessarily