Monthly Archives: August 2018

Perennial Tradition Summary

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The underlying messages that different religions and denominations use are often in strong agreement, but they use different metaphors to communicate their own experience of union with God. (Sunday)

One way to summarize the substance of perennial wisdom (paraphrasing Aldous Huxley) is:

  • There is a Divine Reality underneath and inherent in the world of things;
  • There is in the human soul a natural capacity, similarity, and longing for this Divine Reality;
  • The final goal of existence is union with this Divine Reality. (Monday)

Our goal is to illustrate both the image and the likeness of God by living in conscious loving union with God. (Tuesday)

Everything you see, think, feel, and imagine is part of and never apart from the same Source. We call this Source by such names as God, Reality, Brahman, Allah, One, Krishna, the Absolute, and the Nondual. The list of names is long; the reality to which they all point is the same. —Rami Shapiro (Wednesday)

Awakening is the expression of that grace in which we see through our apparent separation and notice that we are already one with divine Presence and with all that is. All that is missing is awareness. —David G. Benner (Thursday)

What do you want? If it’s union with Love, then listen to that longing and it will be a reliable guide to truth and intimacy. (Friday)

 

The Perennial Philosophy

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The term “perennial philosophy” . . . refers to a fourfold realization: (1) there is only one Reality (call it, among other names, God, Mother, Tao, Allah, Dharmakaya, Brahman, or Great Spirit) that is the source and substance of all creation; (2) that while each of us is a manifestation of this Reality, most of us identify with something much smaller, that is, our culturally conditioned individual ego; (3) that this identification with the smaller self gives rise to needless anxiety, unnecessary suffering, and cross-cultural competition and violence; and (4) that peace, compassion, and justice naturally replace anxiety, needless suffering, competition, and violence when we realize our true nature as a manifestation of this singular Reality. The great sages and mystics of every civilization throughout human history have taught these truths in the language of their time and culture. —Rami Shapiro 

 

Rami Shapiro, Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent: Sacred Teachings—Annotated & Explained (Skylight Paths Publishing: 2013), xiv.

The Essence of Perennial Wisdom

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  • There is a Divine Reality underneath and inherent in the world of things;
  • There is in the human soul a natural capacity, similarity, and longing for this Divine Reality;
  • The final goal of existence is union with this Divine Reality. 

Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy (Harper & Brothers: 1945), vii.

The Beatitudes as Affirmations

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Affirmations: Fr. Thomas Keating refers to the beatitudes as affirmations. Perhaps you will want to reflect and then select one as an affirmation for the time ahead:

Blessed am I, poor in spirit,

for mine is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed am I who mourn,

for I will be comforted.

Blessed am I, the meek,

for I will inherit the land.

Blessed are I who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for I will be satisfied.

Blessed am I, the merciful,

for I will be shown mercy.

Blessed am I, the clean of heart,

for I will see God.

Blessed am I, the peacemakers,

for I will be called child of God.

Blessed am I who is persecuted for the sake of righteousness,

for mine is the kingdom of heaven.

— cf. Matthew 5: 3-10

Amen.