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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 210
EAN num: 9780060570583
ISBN number: 006057058X
Label: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: April 01, 2004
Publishing house: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Release Date: June 15, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 9586
Studio: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
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The Perennial Philosophy is defined by its author as 'The metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds.' With great wit and stunning intellect, Aldous Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains them in terms that are personally meaningful.
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Rated by buyers 
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This book, published very first in 1945, is an amazing compilation of writings from eastern and western mystics and religious practitioners. Mr. Huxley does an excellent job of organizing the quotations and providing commentary. The selections he chose both 1) provide clues to breakthroughs in understanding and in compassion and: 2) challenge each of us to think, live and speak with humility, even if that periodically upsets our present and constraining understandings of life, each other and ourselves.
This book was chosen by our regular weekly church seekers' group, and it has taken us by surprise with its insights and challenges.
Rated by buyers 
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I very first got this book some 20-odd years ago on a recommendation, and read some of the essays. A few of them were far too "thick" for me to follow, it's the kind of reading you keep a dictionary subsequent to you. Eventually managed to get through most of it (still a couple I have not read). It's a must-have for the Huxley fan (at least for fans of his non-fiction), and on it's own is a great work.
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We live in the age of information, but information without purpose to us individually, while perhaps interesting, is also useless. Information takes on real value only when it answers a question or solves a problem. Uncertainty about our place in the universe clearly qualifies as a problem, arguably mankind's most significant and persistent problem. Solving it provides us with both a foundation and a purpose. "The Perennial Philosophy" answers the extremely pertinent questions, "Can man know God, and if so, how?" Not only does Huxley's classic work answer these questions, it does so from the perspective of experiential "knowing" that cuts across all imagined boundaries of time and space. Since humans have historically agreed on so very little, it is of no minor importance that the same basic ideas can be found in spiritual thought gathered from all cultures and times. While we believe that each of us must follow our own path, all serious seekers can benefit from the collected wisdom contained it this volume.
Huxley's purposeful quotations make it clear that intellectual gymnastics, rituals, systems, good works, or even faith cannot replace experiential knowing. Throughout the book, he emphasizes that those who have found God have done so "one on one." They have approached God with a "pure heart" and a "poor spirit." These terms are often misunderstood and have led many seekers to become distracted by the means and miss the goal of Oneness. A pure heart does not petition, it seeks God for no other reason than the pure joy of knowing God. It knows that in seeking God it will find the Self. Huxley points out that the poor in spirit are not those who deprive themselves of material possessions and pleasures, but their "poverty" is that of non-attachment and selflessness. The seeker very first releases all preconceived notions and personal perceptions and then allows God to tell them who God is. Such surrender terrifies the ego/self and will be resisted until we understand that our will and God's will are one. In this knowledge lies the end of all suffering.
The path outlined in "The Perennial Philosophy" is not popular, but as Huxley states, "All are called, but in any given generation few are chosen, because few choose themselves." Never the less, as Huxley emphasizes, God wants to be found. The only thing necessary to our sucess is our willingness. Huxley's masterwork can certainly help us to make that choice and avoid many of the pitfalls the ego finds so attractive. Lee & Steven Hager are the authors of Quantum Prodigal Son: Revisiting Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Perspective of Quantum Mechanics
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Culled from Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist sources, Huxley makes the case for the universality of certain religious doctrines grounded in a common mystical experience. This work by Huxley established him as one of the greatest lay theologians. It is a work of syncretism of the highest order. Huxley was raised as a Christian, yet was a mystical seeker across religious traditions. His quest included experiments with psychedelics, studying vedanta and other religious traditions.
This book is a must read for the mystical seeker, who wants confirmation that the mystical experience is real. This text was also highly influential within the academic study of religion. Huston Smith, who has written the most widely used textbook on the world's religions, has cited it numerous times in his writings as shaping his own views on the commonality of all religious traditions.
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About twenty or so years ago, I had an awakening of sorts. Strange how life can be. One minute you're slicing a banana atop your corn flakes, and the subsequent minute you're looking straight into the Light that all things are created in and out of. And after I had that experience of "knowing" that life was something more than this external form, I went on a rather mad search to see if I could find anything that would back up my experience and one of the very first books I bumped into was the Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley.
After reading this book, I was angry. Not at dear Mr. Huxley who beautifully pointed out why all religions and traditions have strands of the same Truth and Wisdom flowing through them, but I was angry that I belonged to a species that was so obviously stupid.
I frequently sat outside at the local coffee shop in my grey beret, my grey sunglasses, and grey overcoat on chilly 90 degree days looking at the people walking to and fro with complete disdain. I often grumnbled, "Don't these people realize how beautiful and wondrous life truly is? The poor slobs."
And what I was doing was in complete opposition to the Perennial Philosophy. I was no better than the overexcited religionist who wants to "prove" that his religion is better than yours/that her God is the "True God" and I one day I took my blinders off and looked in the mirror. I looked in the mirror until the form before me dissolved and the Light that I was created in and out of came forth.
And I found myself rejoicing at the happy fact that all of us live in such a state of amazing grace. That this is the beauty of life; that it waits and it waits and it waits for us to notice it and when we turn to it, it races with joy and with love and with beauty to give us everything that it has and the Truth is, it NEVER withheld anything from us in the very first place.
Does that kind of sound like the parable of the Prodigal Son? Well it should. Jesus knew that God was not withholding; that God is Love and is Love all the time.
Religions stress sin, evil, repentance, and separation but the revealer behind the religion knows in a beautifully innocent way that the One Life of God...of Spirit...of whatever you want to call it, is in and through everything seen as well as all that is unseen and this is the common thread that runs through every mystical experience and every individual who was daring enough to have one. It is the knowledge that is within you right now and is waiting for you to simply "wake up". You are the prophet you've been wating for. You're already "saved" why are you resisting the procedure? The Kingdom of God is now at hand within you and around you now.
My cynicism has softened over the years and even though there are times where I can easily (too easily) see things as grey or white, I know that there is a stretch of gray that is as big as eternity itself, where beauty and grace reside waiting for me to rememember over and over and over again, that all there really is, is Life Itself and Life needs no one to defend it or protect it or be saved for it. It stands on Its own Formless, Real, and Perfect moving into and through all, as all.
Buy this book. Buy a cup of coffee. Have an experience. Read, assimilate, drink, enjoy. Here's hoping your intellectual experiences transcend themselves into something much, much more.
Peace & Blessings
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