Come out of the circle of time and into the circle of love.

— Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi

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THE PERENNIAL WISDOM SOCIETY

The purpose of the Perennial Wisdom Society is to provide fellowship for practicing the universal teaching of the wise about spirituality, as well as resources for study and research. Ultimate truth calls us from beyond; yet, its ineffable presence is also within us as wisdom and among us as love. The Society is dedicated to pursuing truth by putting perennial wisdom into practice as a way of life, both individually and in companionship with others.

Spiritual Transformation

The path to ultimate truth is a process in which a person undergoes constant transformation. Those who journey in company with others, which is most, also undergo transformation as a group whose members are continually growing spiritually. Hence, the pursuit of truth through the practice of perennial wisdom is an ever dynamic unfolding, in which appreciation of this wisdom is constantly deepening as one's ability to experience it increases.

We acknowledge ongoing spiritual transformation as a key fundamental on the spiritual journey. Accordingly, we seek to maximize conditions that facilitate positive change as well as to minimize conditions that inhibit growth, We do this by constantly adapting ourselves to change, conceiving our fellowship as a channel with ever widening interior banks instead of as a fixed repository for that which has been received from without.

Most are already aware from experience that institutions which do not acknowledge ongoing spiritual transformation as a key fundamental often restrict the growth of their members inadvertently. Many institutions, organizations, and groups seek to preserve what they received by canonizing some intellectual interpretation or behavioral form of it as absolute, either through fiat or social pressure, instead of making perennial wisdom applicable to changing circumstances by fitting it to emerging needs.

Dogma crystallizes doctrine, thereby stifling its spirit; rubric fixes ritual, thereby separating it from the heart, and injunctions turn spiritual practice into obligatory observance; thereby rendering them mechanical. When its spiritual meaning and purpose are overshadowed by superficiality, a once vital tradition degenerates into mere convention, and the perennial wisdom underlying it is for the most part lost to view.

We acknowledge that the only way spiritual truths can be preserved is in their true home, the heart, and that this is only accomplished by renewing them through experience. We recognize that our spiritual strength lies in being open to transcendence, and we welcome change as the necessary for growth. Hence, we do not attempt to pursue truth on the basis of any fixed creed, dogma, rubric, or injunctions, and we leave all free to come to their own conclusions, form their own associations, and adopt any course they deem most appropriate.

The environment for pursuing truth as perennial wisdom is therefore important. We strive to create an atmosphere supportive of self-transformation that is free from arbitrary restriction. Hence, we seek to be open and supportive rather than closed and judgmental.

Freedom, Truth and Love

Freedom, truth and love are key on the spiritual quest undertaken in companionship:

Freedom

Recognizing individual uniqueness in the ongoing process of self-transformation, we acknowledge that meeting one's personal responsibility to work out one's own way requires freedom of choice with respect to means, as well as the need for freedom of thought and expression in pursuing self-inquiry, self-exploration and self-discovery.

Our fellowship is therefore founded on the principle of giving oneself freedom for self-inquiry, self-exploration and self-discovery, and also according it to others.
Truth

Commitment to the pursuit of truth necessitates complete honesty, authenticity and integrity. This honesty entails transparency with those in whom one places trust as one's companions on the way.

One of the most difficult aspects of pursuing truth is being completely honest with oneself. Hence, an important aspect of our fellowship involves truing oneself with one's companions, which also preserves harmony in the group and ensures consensus.

To the degree that one lives in the present and is completely honest and authentic, the next right step makes itself evident.
Love

The word love has many meanings. The ancients distinguished among sensual love, familial bonds, the affection of friends, and love of the divine Beloved. Companionship is grounded in mutual affection and respect, as well as devotion to shared ideals.

Companionship can rise to true affection and become a means for culturing the heart, especially as appreciation grows not only for one's companions but also for the One in whose name the companions gather.

Integration

The process of spiritual transformation involves becoming conscious of aspects of oneself of which one had been unconscious or in denial. This includes the lower as well as the higher. Spirituality deals with expanding awareness of the higher, and psychospirituality brings inhibitory subconscious material into the light of conscious, so that it can be dealt with intentionally. Both spirituality and psychospirituality are integral to the process of self-transformation.

According to perennial wisdom, spirituality brings about spiritual transformation through unfolding greater love for self and others, higher values expressed in action, and greater awareness of the potential inherent in human nature, which the wise testify is without limit. Spirituality leads to realization through increasing awareness of full consciousness as infinite. Therefore, spirituality is essentially self-transcendence.

While spiritual transformation is ordered to the higher as its end in view, it must work with the lower and eventually through it. For example, spiritual transformation involves bringing to light one's limitations and weaknesses in order to overcome them consciously and intentionally.

This process involves integrating one's subconscious shadow, so to speak, in the form of the latent impressions that manifest cognitively as hidden assumptions, affectively as attachments and aversions, and behaviorally as habit. This is the province of psychospirituality.

The term shadowis used here is used here in the psychological sense of the unconscious aspect of oneself. It does not have a negative implication a or pejorative connotation. While an aspect of one's shadow is one's stuff — that which one stuffs or is in denial about, the shadow side of oneself includes much more, including more expanded states of which one may not yet be aware. Many people avoid this all-important dimension of themselves, or even fear encountering it, because of prior programming, hidden assumptions, and erroneous beliefs.

PERENNIAL WISDOM

Perennial Wisdom expresses insofar as possible in language and symbols the single truth that underlies religions, sacred traditions and philosophies. While this truth sometimes gets expressed in terms of metaphysical models, it is not intellectual speculation but the testimony of the wise to their supramental experience. While it sometimes gets expressed in poetic or artistic symbols, it is not a flight of the imagination but a higher intellection integrating mind and heart.

This wisdom is written in the hearts of all and it is manifested in the universal teaching of those who have realized it. All the world's wisdom traditions have their mystics who have reported on the path and goal.

The key fundamental of this teaching is that absolute reality can be realized supramentally while yet in the human body: All are in pursuit of this ultimate truth, whether they are conscious of it or not.

For this wisdom is not only ultimate truth but also the complete and abiding fulfillment which human desire is ultimately ordered toward. Only after testing many lesser goods, which when gained give only temporary satisfaction, does one turn consciously and intentionally to the pursuit of what the wise testify to be supremely fulfilling.

Spirituality is the encounter with what it means to be a person, that is, as a spiritual being, in addition to a psychophysiological organism with a body, mind, personality, and self-image. Spirituality is about discovering the essence of who and what we really are by nature instead of how we appear to ourselves and others.

Eternal Presence

The wise attest that since perennial wisdom is an eternal and all-pervasive reality, it is within each and at the core of all, ever available in the here and now. There is no question of attaining anything. It is only a matter of removing the veils concealing what is already present in its entirety, as the sun is revealed when the wind blows away the clouds that had been hiding it from view.

The purpose of perennial wisdom is to illuminate the way that leads to realizing absolute reality as ultimate truth through supramental, mystical experience. The world's masters, prophets, seers, saints and sages have testified from time immemorial on realization of absolute reality as the goal, and they have also reported signposts on the way to this ultimate truth. Their reports provide landmarks for navigating the spiritual path, and they also provide guidelines for using the various means as vehicles of ascent.

In order to gain perennial wisdom one must live the universal teaching of the wise by putting into practice its principles and methods, rather than merely studying it intellectually. For this wisdom is ineffable in its essence and is only unfolded spiritually in the heart. A practical subject is only mastered through its application. Therefore, the principles of perennial wisdom must be integrated with practice, and this is accomplished in a balanced way through spiritual living.

Doorway To The Beyond

Since absolute reality is infinite and eternal, its realization lies beyond ordinary understanding, reasoning and feeling. Ultimate truth cannot be contained by words or concepts; for it transcends anything the limited mind can imagine, conceive or express.

Being ineffable, realization of absolute reality cannot be communicated directly by those who have realized it either through descriptions or reasoning, or poetry or symbols. Neither can the supernal experience of the inner planes that is preliminary to its realization be adequately described in words or symbols either.

That which lies beyond can only be attested to indirectly, either by using symbols and analogies to point toward it, or by negating its similarity with anything perceptible, conceivable or imaginable — the via negativa. According to perennial wisdom, ultimate truth is a personal revelation, to which each must awaken progressively by treading the spiritual path.

The mysteries can never be explained. They can only be penetrated in the cave of the heart through mystical experience. Perennial wisdom is therefore a doorway to that which lies beyond the threshold that limits ordinary experience and understanding.

From One, Many

While absolute reality is eternally one and the same, its manifestation is virtually unlimited in multiplicity and diversity. The wise often express it differently; for spiritual teachers speak of their subject not in the abstract but in the context of the needs of the time. The universal teaching therefore wears the variegated garb of many languages and cultures.

The various historical expressions of perennial wisdom may be seen as adorning it rather than adulterating it. The different teachers and traditions have fashioned the single gem of eternal truth with different facets. As prisms, so to speak, these facets reflect the light of eternal truth in a colorful spectrum that refracts its colorless light as a rainbow of teachings and traditions.

All genuine spiritual teachers and traditions express the one truth from different angles, giving its light a different coloration, so to speak. Indeed, even a single teacher may speak with a different voice and in a different tone to different hearers owing to their different spiritual requirements, so that even one teaching may be as a symphony of many instruments.

As a result the universal truth is made manifest in a variety of ways, each of which has its own unique characteristics which contribute to the body of perennial wisdom. This is especially significant with respect to approaching perennial wisdom from a variety of traditions and teachings. Different teachers and teachings, indeed, even entire traditions, emphasize different angles that make important contributions to knowledge and facilitate practice.

Every religion has a mystical core, which grounds its spirituality in transcendental experience. This mystical core is expressed as a spiritual tradition that manifests perennial wisdom uniquely.

While these traditions differ in name and form, they express the same eternal truth in their own characteristic way. In the Vedic tradition it is called sanatana dharma, signifying the eternal religion that has been cognized by the seers. Buddha called it simply dharma or the universal teaching of those who are awake spiritually. Taoists call it tao, meaning both absolute reality and the natural way to its integration in life. In Sufism it is called tasawuf, or spiritual science. In Judaic mysticism it is called qabalah, meaning that which has been received by the zaddikim or sages. The Greeks called it sophia or wisdom. It is also called sophia in mystical Christianity, as well as mystical theology or simply mysticism. While they all express the same perennial wisdom of spirituality, they do so differently, and each makes significant contributions.

Applied Philosophy

Perennial wisdom is also known as philosophia perennis, meaning the perennial philosophy. Perennial wisdom is applied philosophy in the sense that the ancients used the word philosophy.

Philosophy means love of wisdom. When this love of wisdom is strong enough, it inspires one to the pursuit of truth above all. For the ancients philosophy signified not a speculative exercise which is the province of specialists, as it does largely today. Rather, philosophy signified for them a practical way of life grounded in the highest ideals and values, and which is available for all to follow. Anyone who was dedicated unreservedly to this pursuit and acted on it was said to be a philosopher.

According to the ancients, love of wisdom as a way of life leads to the progressive unfolding of true knowledge. Love of the infinite leads one ultimately to the experience of infinite love. Infinite love is love of wisdom fully requited in the complete and abiding fulfillment of realization, which according to the wise is ultimate truth, the apex of knowledge.

According to the ancients, the aim of philosophy is to live the good life. For them, the good live did not signify a life of ease and pleasure, as it does today. Rather, it meant a life ordered to the summum bonum or highest good. The sages are generally in agreement that this supreme good is found ultimately in realization of absolute reality in mystical experience that transcends limited mind. According to the universal teaching, the aim of practicing perennial wisdom as applied philosophy is ultimate truth, and the way to it is the spiritual path.

The Spiritual Path

The wise testify that the spiritual path is the ladder of ascent through the supernal realms. Since absolute reality is one, its full realization is identical for all, and so ultimate truth is one and the same for all. The spiritual path as the way to it is also one in essence, although it manifests itself in innumerable ways through individual quests. The ladder of ascent leading though the supernal realms must be climbed rung by rung, and the rungs of this ladder are the inner planes all must pass across. In this sense alone, it is identical for all.

One Road, Many Vehicles

To say that existence is one or that there is one spiritual path that all traverse does not imply that there is only one way to practice, for the means are many, and individuals are to be used as appropriate. So, while the path is one, path work may be markedly different from individual to individual and even over the course of development of a single individual.

While the goal of realizing ultimate truth is ever one and the same, the means are varied, and the caravans traversing the path are many. In addition, each person's journey is individual. General principles, precepts, and practices must be adapted to individual conditions. Hence, freedom of thought, association and expression are necessary for making one's way.

Since everyone is shaped by individual temperament and each faces different circumstances in life, everyone's spiritual journey is unique. However, since all human beings share in the same human nature, everyone goes through essentially the same process of evolution and involution in order to reach the goal. Mediating between the simple unity of the way and the limitless diversity of those plying it are the principal types of path work.

There are three principle avenues of this path work - the paths of knowledge, love, and action. There are also innumerable principles and practices that the wise have prescribed for different types of aspirants and for use in different situations.

The uniqueness of the individuals connects with the universality of human nature through the three broad avenues of path work applicable to all: the ways of love, knowledge and action that correspond to body, mind and heart, in terms of which the various subsidiary means are ordered. Spiritual athletes may initially be more attracted to the path of action; spiritual lovers to the path of the heart, and seekers after spiritual truths to the way of knowledge.

Each of these ways has a variety of means available to it. Among these means are the various spiritual practices, such as meditation, loving remembrance, and selfless service. Nor are these means monolithic. Meditation, for instance, may take many forms. Moreover, as one progresses on the path, these ways converge, and they ultimately unite at the goal.

We prescribe neither path work nor practice, leaving individuals to come to their own conclusions about what is most appropriate for them at any time and to chose whatever guides seem best for them in their spiritual ongoing, in light of their own constitutions and the particular circumstances they face in life.

Intuition

The spiritual path is the way across the inner planes, which are only visible with the spiritual eye, so to speak. Therefore, spiritual transformation involves the unfolding of higher modes of knowing that make the supersensible and supramental accessible directly.

Intimate to the practical study of perennial wisdom is appreciating intuition as a bridge between knowledge of the mind and of the heart. Knowledge of the mind is gained through sense experience, understanding and reasoning; it is mediated by phenomena, concepts and logic. Knowledge of the heart is gained chiefly through love and intuition, by which wisdom becomes directly accessible. Initially, this is through conviction, then in supersensible experience and supramental cognition, and ultimately a spiritual realization.

What mind cannot reach through sense experience, understanding or reasoning, it must either hypothecate, assume, or believe. But the heart can go where the mind cannot penetrate.

According to perennial wisdom, knowledge of the heart unfolds itself particularly on the ladder of ascent, whose rungs are the inner planes. As one progresses in the path love and knowledge converge, until they unite in spiritual realization, where love of wisdom is completely fulfilled in the union of the lover and Beloved.

This ascent begins with the intellectual conviction that takes one to the threshold and develops into supersensible experience and supramental cognition on the inner planes. It culminates in ultimate truth, where love of wisdom is fully requited when one unites with wisdom. This gnosis is the realization of absolute reality become conscious of itself through one's completing the process of spiritual evolution and involution, called figuratively, God playing hide and seek with Himself.

The Balance Of Head And Heart

Pure intuition uses the best of the mind and the best of the heart. The intellect operates through discrimination and discernment. The heart, though love and appreciation. Discrimination and discernment as well as love and appreciation are essential in the pursuit of truth, which involves balancing head and heart.

Love and appreciation attract and unite; discrimination and discernment clarify and affirm. Therefore, discrimination and discernment as well as love and appreciation are integral to the pursuit of truth. For knowledge that is not acted upon is not integrated into life.

It is the heart which motivates one to act, not the mind which, wisdom holds, is here in the service of the heart. Yet, action needs to be guided by intelligence. For choice is based on deliberation, which requires discrimination and discernment. Therefore, a balance of head and heart is required for wisdom be to translated into action.

This balance involves being able to integrate complimentary modes of knowing and appreciating such as the linear and nonlinear, sequential and holistic, analytic and synthetic, rational and extra-rational, literal and symbolic, and mediated and immediate. In this process, previously developed functions are not discarded but rather supplemented with newly developed ones that compliment them instead of supplanting them.

One significant consequence of this integration is the unfolding of intuition, which subsequently develops into the higher intellection that progressively unifies the cognitive and affective, and which makes wisdom directly accessible. It is through this integrated higher intellection that the seers ultimately unite with truth as one and indivisible through the convergence of love and knowledge at the culmination of the spiritual quest.

A significant aspect of our practical work together therefore involves balancing the head and the heart, as well as culturing intuition in the process of spiritual transformation. Sharing honestly and openly in fellowship, for example, is a powerful tool for culturing intuition and also truing it with trusted companions.

Doing the Work Together

The Circle

In our fellowship, the circle of companions provides a field for pursuing self-inquiry, self-exploration and self-discovery in the pursuit of truth.

The key fundamental of the circle is sitting among equals and speaking one's truth from the heart. All participate as active listeners creating a space for free expression and serving as mirrors for each other. Even the speaker is an active listener in the sense of allowing the heart to speak, while the mind remains the silent observer, aware only of the emergence of one's truth in the moment as one is moved to speak it from deep within.

As a symbol of sacred geometry, the circle represents the equal relationship of the companions, who are equidistant from the center. At the hub is the Higher Self of all, omnipresent as the only reality, in whose name the circle gathers itself in spiritual fellowship to pursue truth through inspiration and illumination.

The circle is an expression of the three treasures in which Buddha said that aspirants ought take refuge: the awakened one or inner teacher, the universal teaching of timeless spirituality, and the gathering of companions dedicated to the pursuit of truth, relying on grace and guidance.

For the circle is called in the name of the ever present One, the spirit of grace and guidance, and for the purpose of pursuing truth on the basis of perennial wisdom as the universal teaching. It is also an assembly of those inspired by this teaching to aspire to the highest good, committed to the most lofty ideals.

Our fellowship is conducted in open circles committed to freedom for self-inquiry, self-discovery and self-expression, in which participants pursue truth by committing to honesty, authenticity, and integrity, as well as mutual respect and support. Circles of companions based on freedom, truth and love serve to culture the heart, inspire harmony, and cultivate wholeness.

Companions may also elect to gather in circles dedicated to a specific purpose. Participation in dedicated circles is on the basis of unanimity among those choosing to participate.

Integration of Spiritual and Material

Since absolute reality is one and indivisible, the spiritual is not inherently separate from the material, but only seems so to limited awareness. The purpose of spiritual living is to integrate the spiritual and material consciously.

The spiritual is to be found within the material at its very core. This core is discovered not only through activities that have been traditionally considered to be spiritual or religious, but also in art, science, the humanities and, indeed, in all creative pursuits.

Spiritual values are also found at the basis of family life, in the friendship of companions, and in one's solitary time with oneself. Even business, which is often thought of as the antithesis of spirituality, presents opportunities as well as challenges for integrating lofty ideals and spiritual values into mundane pursuits.

Ordinary life is our church, monastery, ashram and spiritual school, and our spirituality is pursued principally in the context of otherwise ordinary activities. Therefore, a principal activity of ours is turning daily life into spiritual exercise, both individually and in concert with companions, by being in the world but not of it.

Spiritual Community

For some time, masters and sages have prophesied the dawn of a coming age of enlightenment that will give birth to a new humanity in which harmony will prevail and where spiritual values will coexist with material progress. In this global age especially, an unprecedented opportunity exists for building bridges, along with the huge challenge of tearing down walls. We seek to play our part by cooperating with others of good will in building spiritual community based on universal principles and values.

Service

In addition to hosting fellowship and serving as a node for this global work, the Perennial Wisdom Society engages in spiritual education and inspiration through its publications, courses, seminars, workshops, and retreats. We also provide resources for advancing appreciation and understanding of perennial wisdom.

PARTICIPATION

All Are Welcome

Everyone dedicated to pursuit of truth through perennial wisdom is invited to explore our fellowship. We institute no rule other than empathy, integrity, personal responsibility, and good character, which is presumed to include voluntarily observing the laws of the land.

All traditions are honored equally as expressions of perennial wisdom. No profession of belief is required for participation.

The Perennial Wisdom Society holds that deity is inherently ineffable. The wise point to supreme reality as the indivisible unity that may be experienced mystically as personal God, impersonal Absolute, and transpersonal Self, and as both immanent and transcendent, manifest and unmanifest, with and without attributes and qualities, and formless and with form. Perennial wisdom as the eternal religion is under the guidance of the Spiritual Hierarchy and is administered through the natural leadership of the wise. External signs and symbols are unnecessary.

We honor all conceptions of deity and leave each free to conceive of this as they find most appropriate. We do not establish as exclusive any particular expression of doctrine, ritual, observance, or spiritual practice. Nor do we establish any particular ministry or lineage. Ministers and lineage holders of all sacred traditions are welcome to serve this fellowship as may be appropriate.

Distance Participation

Participation in spiritual fellowship is also not limited to any physical location. Communications technology now provides for coming together without being in the same place, and participation at a distance is also available.

ORGANIZATION AND MEMBERSHIP

Organization is the enemy of spontaneity, and spiritual living is nothing if not spontaneous. Membership is informal — based on participation — and is open to all interested.

No commitment is required to join the open circle. If you are interested in participating, either informally in the circle, by or taking on a project, please be in touch.

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