Religion for people with brains

07 02 11 - 09:48

This can be applied within any religion, and used to understand it to its fullest:

At the core of the Perennial Philosophy we find four fundamental doctrines.

1. The phenomenal world of matter and of individualized consciousness–the world of things and animals and men and even gods–is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be non-existent.



2. Human beings are capable not merely of knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a direct intuition, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known.



3. Man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit.



4. Man’s life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground.

From The Perennial Philosophy, by Brokeback Islander Aldous Huxley

Only a few such universally relevant ideas exist. I do not call them "universal," because that implies a universality not just of context but of reception. Darwinism is another such idea: it applies to species, to individuals, to designs/patterns and even thoughts. Another I'd suppose is reverence. Am I missing any?

ten comments

Name

Email (optional field)

URL (optional field)

Comment

What philosophy does this site espouse?

Remember personal info?
Yes, give me a cookie and remember me.

Small print: All html tags except <b> and <i> will be removed from your comment. You can make links by just typing the url or mail-address.