Perennial Wisdom and the Perennial Philosophy

Perennial wisdom, also known as the perennial philosophy and Perennialism, is a perspective that views each of the world's religious traditions as sharing a single metaphysical truth. This single truth, according to Perennialism, is the origin from which all religious or otherwise transcendental ideas and doctrine have grown.

In his book The Perennial Philsophy, Aldus Huxley examines Perennialism from the common perspectives shared by Christianity, Sufisim, Kabbalah, Vedanta, Buuddhisim, Yoga, Hinduisim, Taoisim, and many other religious and transcendental belief systems. Huxley, in addition to other well-known authors such as Ethan Eswaren, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Joseph Campbell, acknowledge three central ideas contained in the Perennial Philosophy. These ideas are 1) the transcendent ground, 2) Self vs. Ego, and 3) the purpose of life.

1. The “transcendent ground” refers, in a sense, to Emanuel Kant’s idea that there are two different worlds: a “phenomenal world” that the human mind creates, experiences and labels as reality (i.e., length, width, height, and time), and a “nomenal world” that is independent of the mind’s creation, experience and labels. The transcendent ground refers to this nomenal world and is, according to the Perennial Philosophy, the world (i.e., reality) as it actually is.

2. “Self vs. ego” refers to the choice you have in gaining the knowledge and experience of your identity. On the one hand, you can choose to base your knowledge and experience of your identity on your ego (thoughts, emotions, life story narrative, etc.), which is a function of the phenomenal world (i.e., the image of reality that your mind creates). On the other hand, you can choose to base your knowledge and experience of your identity on the Self. According to the perennial philosophy, the Self is a function of the transcendent ground previously described. In this way the Self is part of the world as it actually is (the nominal world) and is your true identity—not the identity your mind creates, experiences and labels. By experiencing your true identity, you also “break through” the phenomenal world (the world your mind creates) and experience the nomenal world—the world as it actually is. Integral to this idea is that while both the Self and ego (as defined herein) are both vital and necessary psychological functions of your mind, all human suffering stems from ego over-identification. That is, if you confuse your thoughts, feelings, life story narrative, etc. with yourself, and thereby deny the experience of the Self, you a guaranteed to suffer.

3. The purpose of life is to gain an immediate experience and knowledge of the Self. Why? Because it is your nature to over-identify with the ego and under identify with the Self, according to the perennial philosophy. Considering the immense negative consequences of ego over-identification the main purpose in life is, therefore, to increase Self-identification.

Note that I capitalize “Self” to separate it from the notion of “self” which may refer to self-awareness. “Self” is not self-awareness, but the concept described herein.

The Perennial Philosophy therefore, according to Professor Jonathan Shear, asserts the following:

(1) The phenomenal world is the manifestation of the transcendent ground;

(2) human beings are capable of attaining immediate experience of that ground;

(3) in addition to their phenomenal egos, human beings possess a transcendent nominal Self which is of the same or like nature with that transcendent ground; and

(4) the identification with the Self is life's chief end or purpose

Among the core difficulties in describing the transcendent ideas contained in the perennial philosophy is their ineffable nature (too great or extreme to be expressed or described in word). Considering the idea of a transcendent ground and the Self are purported to be outside typical phenomenal human experience—and outside even the experience of the ego—describing their characteristics and the felt experience of them using words is very difficult, if not impossible. That being said, several anecdotes come from Vedic literature. Humans that identify with the Self experience 1) a strong unity with all things, often described as “oneness” or “thou art that”; imagine your sense of self extending beyond your own body and consciousness into everything around you; 2) an altered sense of time; your experience of past, present and future blur and is replaced by a felt experience of Now, also known as the “present-moment awareness”; 3) an altered experience of thoughts, feelings, and other ego-functions; 4) an altered experience of the phenomenal world (to be expected, since ego-functions are experienced differently); 5) a state of joy and bliss; and 6) for those belief systems that purport reincarnation (like the Vedanta), memories of past lives come into consciousness.

Do you believe in the transcendent ground, Self and ego? Why? Why not?

What does it mean to ego over-identify? How do you know you are ego over-identifying?

Why does ego over-identification guarantee suffering?

What does it mean to Self-identify? How do you know you are Self-identifying?

Is it possible to Self over-identify?

Why does Self-identification stop suffering?

How do you begin to identify with the Self?

If you identify with the Self, does that mean you no longer identify with the ego?

What does it mean to not identify with the ego?

Is there a single Truth that all religious and transcendent beliefs have in common? What do you think this single Truth is?