The perennial philosophy
An inspired gathering of religious writings that reveals the "divine reality" common to all faiths, collected by Aldous Huxley "The Perennial Philosophy," Aldous Huxley writes, "may be found among the traditional lore of peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions." With great wit and stunning intellect—drawing on a diverse array of faiths, including Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christian mysticism, and Islam—Huxley examines the spiritual beliefs of various religious traditions and explains how they are united by a common human yearning to experience the divine. The Perennial Philosophy includes selections from Meister Eckhart, Rumi, and Lao Tzu, as well as the Bhagavad Gita, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Diamond Sutra, and Upanishads, among many others.
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- Not a textbook in any way, but I've enjoyed Aldous Huxley's Perennial Philosophy
https://www.amazon.com/Perennial-Philosophy-Interpretation-G...
- People seem quick to forget that religion/philosophy was originally married to the quest to discover more about our world.
Carl Sagan, before lamenting about modern astrology, reminds us in Cosmos that astrology was once an actual attempt to make heads or tails of an impercievably large cosmic system and understands these are largely attempts at answers that simply lack the information/ability to falsify them yet.
What psychological tendencies the common man has about those beliefs/theories presented to them is a whole other topic.
I've finally read enough texts from various sources to feel ready to start Aldous Huxley's book on The Perennial Philosophy which I'm finding a refreshingly well researched alternative to, as you say, propaganda from whoever passes by in conversation.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Perennial_Philosophy
Recommended Huxley reading for the committed Materialists of HN.
- William James was a Theosophist (no religion higher than truth). Theosophy is another mystery school, like Masonry which preceded it (look into Leadbeater & Olcott, Blavatsky's handlers), and like Anthroposophy, which splintered from it in-turn. These schools seem to have been undertaking the syncretization of all world religions known at the time. Immediately after the fall of the Knights Templar, we get the Masons--mixing the Abrahamic with the Egyptian and Mithraic. Then, as the Hindu and Buddhist doctrines made their ways into western consciousness in the 19th c., these also had to be retconned into the mix, ergo Theosophy.
So, of course James would be one to write about such things, but he was standing on the shoulders of giants; a disclosure of received wisdom more than personal insight. And if you are interested in such things, the more recent mystery schools--Theosophy (Blavatsky), Anthroposophy (Steiner), Perennialism (Guenon), Esalen (Huxley, "The Perennial Philosophy")--are all good places to start.
- Another of Huxley's books that's shamefully unknown is "The Perennial Philosophy" https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061724947?ie=UTF8&linkCod... where fleshes out the teachings of major religious traditions
- I never claimed you will never understand. I said the exact opposite (read again), and again you are twisting my words to play a pointless game that you so much want to win, it seems so important to you because you keep on using these childish words win/lose... shrug.
I am definitely attacking your arguments, which I find ignorant. Not you. I don't care, I don't know you.
It's factually wrong to claim that religious myths are to be taken literally or that they were ever meant to do so. Or that philosophy is random speculations. You are missing the concept of "plausibility" as opposed to truth, which would help you navigate these topics. I can suggest the book Perennial Philosophy by Huxley to start getting a cursory understanding of what we are talking about here, which ultimately boils down to the inability of language to capture transcendental experiences which every society, all over the planet for the whole of recorded history had and thought about capturing in stories that survived to these days. To call that "random speculations" is so ridicule that can hardly be commented against.
What you write is not tearing anything down, is making me laugh, actually: it sounds exactly like me 20 years ago.
