Chapter (8) – Transcendence

Independently of the Greek rationalist traditions and the Abrahamic faiths, the perennial philosophy found a direct expression in the Vedic texts of the Hindus’ in northern India over 3,000 years ago. They saw the world as the manifestation of an all pervading principle which they called Brahman. In the final chapter we consider those traditions that were not based upon the worship of a God ‘out there’, but affirmed the primacy of a direct union with the ground of being (the ONE or an immanent God). These traditions of direct union with God can be found in many parts of the world in antiquity. They include the Buddhist traditions, including Zen Buddhism beginning about 500 BCE and the neo-Platonist doctrines of Plotinus in the third century in Rome. The tradition of direct union with God can also be found in the writings of the Christian mystics. All of these traditions maintain a key tenet, that is, that one can directly experience God. When one directly experiences God there is no Self or individual identity, one is immersed and a part of all that is. In a state of pure-consciousness one is free from the bonds of symbolic-consciousness, one is not separate from activity and the world; one is simply part of the unfolding of the world. When in a state of pure-consciousness one has found their true ground and centre, one knows rather than believes that their true Self is all that there is. This is the perennial philosophy.