Philosophy has a history. It is the history
of questions with no easy answers, no easy means of finding them, and perhaps
no definite answers at all. Whether it
makes sense to ask such questions is itself a philosophical question.
Perennial philosophy is the pursuit of
knowledge through the contemplation of questions that have bothered human
beings ever since they began to think.
One is how to live a truly human life, a life worthy of our higher
selves. By "higher self" I do
not mean some "soul" existing in its own separate world, but rather
the potential for a life that is more open and developed. These questions have not changed over the
centuries because the human condition has not changed.
The human world has always been extremely
complicated, despite the fact that ancient peoples seem to us to have lived
simpler lives than ourselves. These
complications arise because our genetic programming allows varying responses to
the same situations. We have to
integrate thoughtful contemplation and self-consciousness into our lives. This is no easy task, but
it has been ours ever since we have needed
wisdom and good judgment to organize our perceptions, knowledge, thoughts and
actions into a coherent and flourishing life.
Before then, instincts were sufficient to our needs.
The "self" that we have, such as
it is, is a creation of our lives, not a thing in its own right. Therefore, we can aim to develop that self to
the point where like a butterfly leaving its chrysalis, we can leave the paths
of our natural unthinking lives and take to higher ground in thought and
actions. If we did not have to think about things, there would be no need for
wisdom, no need for a "self" at all, let alone a "higher
self". The secret of the perennial
philosophy is that no matter how thoroughly we may plan for the future,
unforeseen events happen, and it is only our own attitudes towards what happens
that we can manage on our own. The love
of wisdom infuses our attitudes with reasonable beliefs and knowledge and gives
our judgments the best chance of being true.
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