This morning as I sat reading the introductory essay by Aldous Huxley to "Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God", I was deeply moved by the simplicity and sincerity of his exposition of The Perennial Philosophy in four succinct doctrines. The cogent and lucid manner in which Huxley brought out the essence of religion, touched an inner chord because it mirrored to a considerable extent my own deeper convictions and understandings. Of course each of these doctrines can be elaborated and magnified based on one's own perceptions and experiences, but are they not exquisitely beautiful in their inherent catholicity and directness?
At the core of the Perennial Philosophy we find four fundamental doctrines.
First: 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.
Second: human beings are capable not only 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.
Third: 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.
Fourth: man's life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to intuitive knowledge of the Divine Ground.
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