Some words of background context introduction to the important (and indeed) perennial wisdoms we are attempting to identify
as "Central Spiritual Insights" are probably
necessary:-
Many commentators, (including Aldous Huxley), have claimed to have discerned a "Perennial Philosophy" of
central agreement about "Divine Truths" between the Great Religions of the World across the ages!!!
More than twenty-five centuries have passed since that which has been called the Perennial Philosophy was first committed to writing;
and in the course of those centuries it has found expression, now partial, now complete, now in this form, now in that, again and again...
...the Perennial Philosophy has spoken almost all the languages of Asia and Europe and has made use of the terminology and traditions of every one of the higher religions. But under all this confusion of tongues and myths, of local histories and particularist doctrines, there remains a Highest Common Factor, which is the Perennial Philosophy in what may be called its chemically pure state...
[Taken from an introduction, written in 1944 by Aldous Huxley, to an English language translation of
a principal holy book of the Hindu faith].
In his own celebrated study into the central agreements about "Divine Truths" between the Great Religions of the World,
(first published as The Perennial Philosophy in 1945), Aldous Huxley accepted the proposition, deriving from Leibniz, a notably eminent scholar who was an early investigator
into the
Common Ground shared by The World Religions, that Religions concern themselves
"with the one, divine Reality"
and that
"the nature of this one Reality is such that
it cannot be directly or immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfill certain conditions, making themselves
loving, pure in heart,
and poor in spirit."
The results of our own studies into The Perennial Philosophy were such as to lead us to also accept that "the one, divine Reality"
is better discerned by those
spiritually endowed with Charity, Purity of Heart and Humility. However, we came to believe Meekness to be another spiritual endowment which
may well tend to contribute towards heightened powers of discernment.
This suggestion that Meekness is of immense spiritual
value may not surprise.
More unexpectedly, perhaps, the outcomes of our researches were such as to suggest that it is appropriate
to fully associate A Disdain for Materialism
(compared to the Spiritual), A Distrust of the Intellect (compared to Divine Inspiration),
and A Yearning for Divine Edification (or A Thirst for Enlightenment), with the centralities of The Perennial Philosophy.
Links to some truly extra-ordinary wisdoms ~ a selection of "Central Spiritual Insights"
gleaned from Christian sources together with other selections of "Central Spiritual Insights" drawn from "non-Christian" sources
~ are set out below.
Please be prepared for some "soul-force" that might be held to reside within many of these quotations!!!
It may even be the case that spiritual and poetic wisdom can help
us to realise truths that are otherwise largely beyond our reach:-
...the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of
God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.
St. Paul
Poets are masters of us ordinary men, in knowledge
of the mind,
because they drink at streams which we
have not yet made accessible to science.
Sigmund Freud
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This evidence of Common Ground in the core spiritual teachings of several World Faiths tells
us something about the Gods, (or Spirits), that they each revere being, at least, quite similar and ~ at most ~ Identical.
We consider that
many of the Perennial Wisdoms presented on several of our pages are so inherently persuasive as to offer some potent
challenges to the "best-selling - Human Reason reliant - New Atheism" of such persons as Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris.
The navigation links on the right of this page lead to other pages which delve deeply into such Wisdoms.
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