The Perennial Philosophy

"These teachings are, therefore, no novelties, no inventions of today, but long since stated, if not stressed; our doctrine here is the explanation of an earlier and can show the antiquity of these opinions on the testimony of Plato himself."

Plotinus, Enneads, V, I, 8

The term "Perennial Philosophy" refers to the thesis that the same timeless truths about the nature of the self, the world, the meaning of life, and deity, reappear time and again, regardless of culture or belief-system, differeing only in external culturally-determined details. The existence of such a universal wisdom tradition has been variously argued by  Aldous Huxley, Huston Smith, Ken Wilber, and representatives of the Traditionalist movement, among others

The ubiquity of the Perennial Philosophy can variously be explained as due to either that

1. Reality has a specific "structure" which mystics and visionaries of all times and cultures have tuned into
2. The human brain has a specific "structure" which mystics and visionaries of all times and cultures have tuned into. This describes the "deep structures" of the brain (or mind) but has nothing to say about reality itself
3. Some paleolithic genius came up with a central idea or set of ideas and this was carried down and eventually spread through all cultures. Different traditions added their own embelleshments (again sometimes borrowing from each other)

Of these options we can easily reject the last; it does not explain how mystics came upon these ideas independent of religion or background, or schizophrenics or patients undergoing psychoanalysis can come up with alchemical or gnostic wisdom without knowing anything about the original (often very obscure and little known sources, as C. G. Jung found), and the comprehensive scope of the Perennial Philosophy is too integral to be carried on without fragmentation or distortion.

The second option assumes metaphysical nihilism or at least metaphysical agnosticism; we cannot know about Reality in itself, only about the brain or other things in the physical world. But this basically materialistic or quasi-materialistic itself makes huge assumptions about there being a physical world of such and such properties, human knowledge is limited in such and such a way, etc etc, and these assumptions are specifically part and parcel of the cultural-memetic bias of the secular west. Since there is no reason why the secular west should be any more insightful than say the wisdom traditions of sages past and present, there is no reason this option should be preferred to any other (one cannot say "because the secular west perfect science, and science is so accurate in explaining the world", because science makes no metaphysical statements either way)

That leaves only the first option, which is the position I adopt here

The Perennial Philosophy can thus be considered a valid or reliable source of knowledge

But - important! - to say the Perennial Philosophy consitutes a form of authentic knowledge does not mean that anything that is included under the Perennial Philosophy is automatically gospel truth, and conversely that anything that is not part of the Perennial Philosophy must therefore deficient or unreliable. Such a position - taken by the anti-modernist school of Rene Guenon (i.e. "Traditionalism") - is, like all such literalist statements, both incorrect as far as understanding the physical universe goes (e.g. the struct Traditionalists reject Evolution in favour of a modified (monotheistic-ecumenical) Creationism, although it has conclusively been shown that Creationism is incorrect both factually and in terms of its methodology), seriously narrows the scope of the knowable and denies new frontiers of knowledge, thus creating a new straightjacket to replace the straightjacket of reductionist materilaism.

Because the Perennial Philosophy constitutes the majority view of pre-modernist understanding, that does not mean it is the only view.

So, while we can say that the Perennial Philosophy constitutes one form of authentic knowledge, and as such serves as an essential reference for the creation of any Provisional Metaphysical Theory of Everything; it is necessary to also acknowledge that there are many things that are not included in the Perennial Philosophy, indeed some that actually go against the Perennial Philosophy (e.g. nirvana or liberation is not the highest goal of existence, or science gives a reliable account of external physical reality, or animals have as developed a soul as man) which are I would contend are also equally valid

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Traditionalism

Traditionalism is a Sufi/Islam-inspired [but not orthodox Sufism or Islam, despite claims to the contrary - see Sedgwick 1999 Traditionalist Sufism ] neo-esotericist movement that was founded by the French scholar Rene Guenon (1886-1951) (photo on left). There is a stromng emphasis on the concept of the Perennial Philosophy, the term "Tradition" refers to the central idea that the great Faiths all derive from a single Primordial Tradition, which itself is directly inspired as on-going Revelation from the Transcendental source. This is in keeping with the Islamic belief that "God has sent a prophet (or Messenger) to every people" All the Great Religions and are therefore merely different expressions of the same Divine Logos, and hence are all equally valid spiritual paths to Salvation. Traditionalism therefore is concerned with the abiding inner or esoteric Truth or Principle that it understands to be at the heart of the various exoteric religious Traditions.

Other Traditionalists include Guenon's student Frithjof Schuon, Titus Burkhardt, Martin Lings, art historian and philosopher Ananda K Coomaraswamy,  Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the Egyptologist R.A. Schwaller deLubicz, and a number of others. Thinkers sympathetic to the Traditionalist view include mythographer Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade, scholar of comparative religions Huston Smith, Indianologist Alain Danielou, E.F. Schumacher, and Prince Charles.

Guénon had a low opinion of modernity which he believed had degenerated from or corrupted the Divine Revelation and authentic spiritual civilization, and other Traditionalists and Traditionalist-supporters tend to share this view.

Frithjof Schuon, and Traditionalism as a mystical path

Frithjof Schuon could rightly be considered the greatest of the Traditionalists; he taught a universalist mysticism based on a common esoteric Truth in all religions and spiritual paths. With Schuon we see Traditionalism, in its Neo-Sufi guises, as a tolerant (as regards all religions and spiritual teachings) spiritual theosophy, emphasising the Logos or universal revelation, and contrasting the exoteric rational mind with the spiritual Intellect, the latter corresponding to the faculty ofjnana or gnosis. His first book,  The Transcendental Unity of Religions, is still the most influential, although he has written many other works as well.

The Transcendental Unity of Religions  Other books by Schuon

Frithjof Schuon, image from  Frithjof Schuon - Life and Work

Rejection of Evolutionary Science

Traditionalist anti-modernity means the rejection of anything to do with the modern and postmodern West, including, all elements of science that conflict with traditional accounts of the universe. One thus finds Traditionalists like the Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr advocating a Creationist viewpoint, because secular evolutionary science is seen to be at variance with the truths of traditional cosmologies. Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr goes so far as to flatly deny the possibility of reconciliation between science and religion. See also Kenneth Oldmeadow's essay  The Firmament Sheweth His Handiwork - Re-awakening a Religious Sense of the Natural Order.

Is Traditionalism Fascist?

There is an occasional tendency among some "fringe" Traditionalists to be affiliated with the Right. Guenon's friend the  fascist philosopher Julius Evola is often included among the Traditionalists, although Guenon never held fascistic or antisemitic views. The Russian scholar and political activist  Alexander Dugin (b. 1962) is founder of the contemporary Russian school of geopolitics known as Eurasianism or Neo-Eurasianism, a Putin supporter and the former ideological guru for Edward Limonov's National-Bolshevik Party, although his fascist credentials  seem to have been exaggerated by the West. There may be a psychological equivalence here - people who want certainty (and hence hate modernity) are also likely to be attracted to strong religious positions (e.g. in the West religious funddamentalists are often (but not always!) to the right of the political spectrum. However, Traditionalism as a whole is in no way fascistic, and one can hardly blame the movement as a whole for the occaisonal malcontent. However, these individuals should not be taken as representative of perennialism as a whole.

Summing up

Perhaps the best way to utilise Traditionalism then is to consider Schuon-style mysticism and his and other Traditionalists' authentic constructive critques of the limitations of exoteric consciousness and sceptical rationalism, while not allowing oneself to be shackled by their anti-modernity and glorification of a romantic past religious Golden Age that never existed.

Links

 Tradition - short good intro and excellent list of links

 Traditionalist Sufism by Mark Sedgwick
This article was published in ARIES 22 (1999), pp. 3-24. It takes a very authoritative look at the somewhat uneasy relationships between orthodox Sufism and Islam on the one hand, and the Traditionialist Sufism of Guenon and Schuon on the other. Highly recommended reading for anyone who wuld like to know more about the roots of the modern Traditionalist movement.

 Religio Perennis: Traditionalism, the Perennial Philosophy, and and Islamic Studies - book review that gives a good overview

 Why I Am Not a Traditionalist

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Exoteric, Esoteric, and Levels of Reality

The distinction between esoteric and exoteric allows us to see how different areas of knowledge pertain to the four basic metaphysical levels.  If we list general fields of inquiry and practice, we would have:

Reality	my cosmology	Neoplatonic paradigm	Kabbalistic paradigm	Huston Smith (Forgotten Truth) by Huston Smith	Exoteric	Esoteric
Godhead or Absolute	Absolute Reality	Absolute- the One	En Sof	Spirit/Infinite	n/a	Monistic mysticism
Spiritual- Divine(God)	Noetic Noeric	Nous	Atzilut Beriah	Soul/Celestial	Religion	Theistic mysticism
Psychic- Intermediate	Psychic	Soul	Yetzirah	Mind/Intermediate	Psychology; naive Religion	Occultism
Physical	Physical	Sense world (Hyle)	Asiyah	Body/Physical	Science	n/a

Obviously, there is some overlap, in that some areas of knowledge (especially in the Mystical and Hermetic - Occult fields) pertain to more than one reality.  Confusion also arises through the fact that lower-order forms of knowledge (such as "born-again" Christianity - Psychic/Intermediate level) claim to represent higher realities (Divine and Absolute) than they actually pertain do.  Moreover, both Esoteric and Exoteric fields pertain to these various levels, the Esoteric fairly accurately, the Exoteric less so.

One could also observe that each of the three main metaphysical alternatives of Materialism, Dualism, and Monism are valid, but only inasmuch as they apply to their own particular "segment" of the spectrum of being. Materialism pertains to the Physical, or level one; Dualism to the Intermediate (psychic or psychological; level two) or the celestial (spiritual; level three) alongside the physical; and Monism to the Infinite (or the Absolute: level four, in contrast and in relation to the other three levels.

At level one, the Physical, the laws of science apply, but not the laws of magic, which belong to level two.  Hence the materialist or sceptic, who understands only level one, dismisses magic as "superstition" or "pseudo-science".

With each higher level, different laws, and a different way of experiencing Reality, apply.  And sometimes it happens that one of the higher levels can "break through" into one of the lower and manifest there, in so doing overriding the laws of that lower level.  When that happens we have what is generally called a "miracle", a Divine break-through.  Understood from the emanationist perspective it can be seen that there is nothing "supernatural" or "mysterious" about this at all; it is all a matter of metaphysics, even if it is not a matter of physics.

Forgotten Truth : The Common Vision of the World's Religions by Huston Smith

This book is much less about comparative religion and more about a hierarchical cosmology in which the renowned scholar of comparative religion Prof. Smith, inspired by the "Primordialist" School of Fritjof Schuon, Rene Gueneon, and co, posits four ontological grades as a means of integrating science, religion, mysticism, phenomenology, and folklore into one grand picture. I had already been thinking along these lines when I read this book many years ago, but his simple presentation really galvanised my own perspective, and helped give me a basic and uncluttered framework on which to build. There is no real mention of emanation in his book, and so his cosmology is curiously static, and in addition quite simplistic. One might also wonder if this ontological gradation is as universally held as he claims. But even so this is a very good introduction to the idea of an ontological gradation of reality

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Huston Smith and the Primordial Tradition

 

Four Levels of Reality

The Great Chain of Being begins with the Source and proceeds through emanationist through various stages of manifestation, down to matter and non-being. Thus Reality is described in terms of a specific structure. The accounts of different traditional and pre-modern esoteric and exoteric cosmologies are similar enough for it to be possible to present a single account embracing all of them

Such a unified account has already been presented, at least on a basic level, by one contemporary scholar of comparative religion Professor Huston Smith (formerly of Syracuse University, N.Y.), who (in his books Forgotten Truth and Beyond the Post-Modern Mind) refers to four levels, which pertain to bioth the microcosm (the individual) and the macrocosm (the universe and reality as a whole):

Spirit/Infinite - God unmanifest: Godhead or the Infinite. Soul/Celestial - God manifest: the celestial plane. Mind/Intermediate - The world in all its invisible aspects: mind and the vital principle; the intermediate plane. Body/Terrestrial - The world as visible: space, time and matter; the terrestrial plane. [ Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, p.41]

Here we have a basic spiritual cosmology consisting of physical reality; intermediate or psychic reality; spiritual and Divine reality; and Absolute Reality or Godhead or Source. (see also the Three Tier Model, which is identical to the above except that it does not include Spirit/Infinite as a sperate hypostasis)

As Professor Smith points out, each of these levels of reality can be studied separately:

"The marvels of the terrestrial plane are being unveiled at an astonishing rate by the physical sciences. The intermediate realm adds life and consciousness: biology helps to understand the former, and for light on the latter we turn to the durable findings of phenomenology, depth psychology, and parapsychology, as well as aspects of shamanism and folk religion. The theologies of the great traditions describe God's knowable nature (the celestial plane) from a variety of cultural angles, and the literature of mysticism carries the mind as far as it can journey into God's absolute and infinite depths"

[ Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, p.45].

In this all-embracing gradational metaphysic, we have a way of looking at the world totally different to the conventional Materialistic or Dualistic stance. Borrowing a popular Theosophical term, I use the word "Esoteric" to indicate this alternative way of perceiving things

It would be possible to add many more correspondences here. The following is a more elaborate diagram of the four levels described by Professor Smith:

Diagram by Brad Reynolds, from Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything, (Shambhala: Boston), 1996.

Here, the top half of the diagram refers to levels of reality ("the macrocosm") and the bottom half to levels of self ("the microcosm"). Note: There are a few errors here - the bottom half under Judaism has sefirot when it should hav ethe equivalent levels of soul - nefesh, ruah, neshamah - while at the top the world of Emanation (Atzilut) corresponds to "God" not the Absolute or Godhead, but these are minor points, and on the whole this is a very good diagram.

Links

Interview with Huston Smith

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by Alan Kazlev 2009