The Perennial Philosophy
Encyclopedia
The Perennial Philosophy is a 1945 book by Aldous Huxley
, published by Harper & Row in the US. It was published in the UK in 1946 by Chatto & Windus.
The book offered readers, assumed to be familiar with the Christian
religion and the Bible
, a fresh approach, such as Eastern and Western mysticism
:
The final paragraph of the cover text is revealing:
:
begins:
the psychology
that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality;
the ethic that places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent
and transcendent
Ground of all being—the thing is immemorial and universal."
In the next paragraph, Huxley summarizes the problem more succinctly: "Knowledge is a function of being." In other words, if you are not suited to knowing something, you do not know it: which makes knowing the Ground of all being difficult, in Huxley's view. Therefore he concludes his Introduction with:
The chapter titles are:
, combining it with less familiar sources:
Huxley then explains:
"We can only love what we know, and we can never know completely what we do not love. Love is a mode of knowledge..."
Huxley is quite vague with his references: "No specific sources are given."
The Times also stated that "it is important to say that even an agnostic, even a behaviorist-materialist... can read this book with joy. It is the masterpiece of all anthologies."
Huston Smith
, a religious scholar, said that in The Perennial Philosophy:
John Robert Colombo writes that, like many others in the 1950s, he was swept away with enthusiasm for "the coveted volume" as a young man:
Not all the reception was so positive. Chad Walsh, writing in the Journal of Bible and Religion in 1948, spoke of Huxley's distinguished family background, only to continue:
Colombo too was less enthralled when he revisited the book half a century later:
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
, published by Harper & Row in the US. It was published in the UK in 1946 by Chatto & Windus.
Social and political context
The Perennial Philosophy was published in 1945 in the USA, 1946 in the UK, immediately after the Second World War and the defeat of National Socialism. The cover text of the British first edition (see illustration) explains:- "The Perennial Philosophy is an attempt to present this Highest Common Factor of all theologies by assembling passages from the writings of those saints and prophets who have approached a direct spiritual knowledge of the Divine..."
The book offered readers, assumed to be familiar with the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
religion and the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, a fresh approach, such as Eastern and Western mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
:
- "Mr. Huxley quotes from the Chinese Taoist philosophers, from followers of BuddhaBuddhaIn Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
and MohammedMuhammadMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, from the BrahminBrahminBrahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
scriptures and from Christian mystics ranging from St John of the CrossJohn of the CrossJohn of the Cross , born Juan de Yepes Álvarez, was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a Spanish mystic, Catholic saint, Carmelite friar and priest, born at Fontiveros, Old Castile....
to William LawWilliam LawWilliam Law was an English cleric, divine and theological writer.-Early life:Law was born at Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire in 1686. In 1705 he entered as a sizar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge; in 1711 he was elected fellow of his college and was ordained...
, giving preference to those whose writings, often illuminated by genius, are unfamiliar to the modern reader."
The final paragraph of the cover text is revealing:
- "In this profoundly important work, Mr. Huxley ... provides us with an absolute standard of faith by which we can judge both our moral depravity as individuals and the insane and often criminal behaviour of the national societies we have created."
Scope of the 'Perennial Philosophy'
In the words of poet and anthologist John Robert ColomboJohn Robert Colombo
John Robert Colombo, CM is nationally known as the Master Gatherer. He is among Canada's most prolific authors of serious books...
:
- "“The Perennial Philosophy” is essentially an anthology of short passages taken from traditional Eastern texts and the writings of Western mystics, organized by subject and topic, with short connecting commentaries. No specific sources are given. Paging through the index gives the reader (or non-reader) an idea of who and what Huxley has taken seriously. Here are the entries in the index that warrant two lines of page references or more:"
-
- "Aquinas, Augustine, St. Bernard, Bhagavad-Gita, Buddha, Jean Pierre Camus, St. Catherine, Christ, Chuang Tzu, “Cloud of Unknowing,” Contemplation, Deliverance, Desire, Eckhart (five lines, the most quoted person), Eternity, Fénelon, François de Sales, Godhead, Humility, Idolatry, St. John of the Cross, Knowledge, Lankavatara Sutra, William Law (another four lines), Logos, Love, Mahayana, Mind, Mortification, Nirvana, Perennial Philosophy (six lines, a total of 40 entries in all), Prayer, Rumi, Ruysbroeck, Self, Shankara, Soul, Spirit, “Theologia Germanica,” Truth, Upanishads (six different ones are quoted), Will, Words."
Huxley's view of the 'Perennial Philosophy'
Huxley's Introduction to The Perennial PhilosophyPerennial philosophy
Perennial philosophy is the notion of the universal recurrence of philosophical insight independent of epoch or culture, including universal truths on the nature of reality, humanity or consciousness .-History:The idea of a perennial philosophy has great...
begins:
- "the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds;
the psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality;
the ethic that places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent
Immanence
Immanence refers to philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence, in which the divine is seen to be manifested in or encompassing of the material world. It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which the divine is seen to be outside the material world...
and transcendent
Transcendence (religion)
In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature which is wholly independent of the physical universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways...
Ground of all being—the thing is immemorial and universal."
- "Rudiments of the Perennial Philosophy may be found among the traditionary lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions. A version of this Highest Common Factor in all preceding and subsequent theologies was first committed to writing more than twenty-five centuries ago, and since that time the inexhaustible theme has been treated again and again, from the standpoint of every religious tradition and in all the principal languages of Asia and Europe."
In the next paragraph, Huxley summarizes the problem more succinctly: "Knowledge is a function of being." In other words, if you are not suited to knowing something, you do not know it: which makes knowing the Ground of all being difficult, in Huxley's view. Therefore he concludes his Introduction with:
- "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."
Structure of the book
The book's structure is simply:- A brief Introduction (by Huxley), of just over 5 pages.
- Twenty-seven chapters, each of about 10 pages, of quotations from 'sages and saints' on the named topic, with "short connecting commentaries". The chapters are not grouped in any way, though there is a kind of order from the nature of the Ground at the start, down to practical exercises at the end. The Acknowledgements list 27 books from which quotations are taken, from 18 publishers.
- A detailed Bibliography of just over 6 pages.
- A detailed Index (two columns, small print, 5½ pages).
The chapter titles are:
- That Art Thou
- The Nature of the Ground
- Personality, Sanctity, Divine Incarnation
- God in the World
- Charity
- Mortification, Non-Attachment, Right Livelihood
- Truth
- Religion and Temperament
- Self-Knowledge
- Grace and Free Will
- Good and Evil
- Time and Eternity
- Salvation, Deliverance, Enlightenment
- Immortality and Survival
- Silence
- Prayer
- Suffering
- Faith
- God is not mocked
- Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum ('The practice of religion leads people to practice evil.')
- Idolatry
- Emotionalism
- The Miraculous
- Ritual, Symbol, Sacrament
- Spiritual Exercises
- Perseverance and Regularity
- Contemplation, Action, and Social Utility
Style of the book
Huxley deliberately chose less well-known quotations, because "familiarity with traditionally hallowed writings tends to breed, not indeed contempt, but ... a kind of reverential insensibility, ... an inward deafness to the meaning of the sacred words." So, for example, Chapter 5 on 'Charity' takes just one quotation from the BibleBible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, combining it with less familiar sources:
- "He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. 1 John iv"
- "By love may He be gotten and holden, but by thought never.The Cloud of Unknowing"
- "The astrolabe of the mysteries of God is love.Jalal-uddin Rumi"
Huxley then explains:
"We can only love what we know, and we can never know completely what we do not love. Love is a mode of knowledge..."
Huxley is quite vague with his references: "No specific sources are given."
Critical reception
When first published in 1945, the New York Times wrote that "Perhaps Mr. Huxley, in 'The Perennial Philosophy' has, at this time, written the most needed book in the world." The Times described the book as
an "anthology [that] is above all a masterpiece of discrimination.... LeibnizGottfried LeibnizGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....
gave the name of 'The Perennial PhilosophyPerennial philosophyPerennial philosophy is the notion of the universal recurrence of philosophical insight independent of epoch or culture, including universal truths on the nature of reality, humanity or consciousness .-History:The idea of a perennial philosophy has great...
' to this theme. Mr. Huxley has systematized, and dealt with, its many-branching problems, perils and beatitudesBeatitudesIn Christianity, the Beatitudes are a set of teachings by Jesus that appear in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The term Beatitude comes from the Latin adjective beatus which means happy, fortunate, or blissful....
.
The Times also stated that "it is important to say that even an agnostic, even a behaviorist-materialist... can read this book with joy. It is the masterpiece of all anthologies."
Huston Smith
Huston Smith
Huston Cummings Smith is a religious studies scholar in the United States. His book The World's Religions remains a popular introduction to comparative religion.-Education:...
, a religious scholar, said that in The Perennial Philosophy:
- "Huxley provides us with the most systematic statement of his mature outlook. Its running commentary deals with many of the social implications of Huxley's metaphysics."
John Robert Colombo writes that, like many others in the 1950s, he was swept away with enthusiasm for "the coveted volume" as a young man:
- "Everyone interested in consciousness studies has heard of his study called The Perennial Philosophy. It bears such a prescient and memorable title. His use of the title has preempted its use by any other author, neuropsychologist, Traditionalist, or enthusiast for the New AgeNew AgeThe New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
. The book so nobly named did much to romanticize the notion of “perennialism” and to cast into the shade such long-established timid Christian notions of “ecumenicism” (Protestants dialoguing with Catholics, etc.) or “inter-faith” meetings (Christians encountering non-Christians, etc.). Who would care about the beliefs of Baptists when one could care about the practices of TibetansTibetan BuddhismTibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
?"
Not all the reception was so positive. Chad Walsh, writing in the Journal of Bible and Religion in 1948, spoke of Huxley's distinguished family background, only to continue:
- "The only startling fact, and the one that could not have been predicted by the most discerning sociologist or psychologist, is that in his mid-forties he was destined to turn also to mysticism, and that since his conversion he was to be one of a small group in California busily writing books to win as many people as possible over to the "perennial philosophy" as a way of life."
Colombo too was less enthralled when he revisited the book half a century later:
- "Painfully absent from these pages are Huxley’s mordant wit and insights into human nature. It is as if his quicksilverishQuicksilverQuicksilver is an archaic name for the element mercury. It may also refer to:Science and technology:* Quicksilver , a codename for the third revision of the Power Mac G4...
intelligence has been put on hold or has found itself in a deep freeze of his own making. When it comes to selecting short and sometimes long quotations, he is no compiler like John BartlettJohn BartlettJohn Bartlett may refer to:*John Bartlett *John Bartlett , publisher of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations*John H...
of quotation fame, but he does find time to make a few deft personal observations."
Publication data
- The Perennial Philosophy, 1944, Harper & Brothers
- Harper Perennial 1990 edition: ISBN 0-06-090191-8
- Harper Modern Classics 2004 edition: ISBN 0-06-057058-X
- Audio Scholar 1995 audio cassette edition: ISBN 1-879557-29-0