The Perennial Philosophy

People ask me if my approach and perspective has an underlying religious belief or foundation (generally with a vague suspicion or fear that I may be a closet zealot of some kind). Well, that is a fair question, and the answer is a resounding NO. I find all of the world’s religions interesting in their own right, and shudder when I consider what humanity has done to itself in the name of one religion or another. But the yearning to connect and belong that religion satisfies lives in each of us, and I am always looking back and seeking the essence of things. So in this case, I will rely on work and ideas that have inspired me in this quest, and the perennial philosophy is a great example of that.

The perennial philosophy (Latin: philosophia perennis), also referred to as perennialism and perennial wisdom, is a perspective in philosophy and spirituality that views all 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. (from Wikipedia)

Aldous Huxley wrote a book of the same name, exploring this theme and it’s ramifications, in 1945.

From the Wikipedia on the perennial philosophy entry:

In Huxley's 1944 essay in Vedanta and the West, he describes "The Minimum Working Hypothesis", the basic outline of the perennial philosophy found in all the mystic branches of the religions of the world:

That there is a Godhead or Ground, which is the unmanifested principle of all manifestation.

That the Ground is transcendent and immanent.

That it is possible for human beings to love, know and become the Ground.

That to achieve this unitive knowledge, to realize this supreme identity, is the final end and purpose of human existence.

This same perspective underlies the Non-Dualism presented by Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and, more recently, Rupert Spira.