The Perennial Philosophy

Huxley put the book together in the Mojave desert in California. In 1942 he had bought a cottage at Llano del Rio with money from his screenwriting.[1] He collected the material there from February 1944 to March 1945.[2] The book came out six months later, on 26 September 1945.[3]

The title is Latin in origin. Huxley opens his introduction by saying that the phrase philosophia perennis, the perennial or everlasting philosophy, was coined by the German philosopher Leibniz. He calls the thing itself immemorial and universal. He says a version of it was first written down more than twenty-five centuries ago.[4]

The book surprised many of Huxley's readers. In the 1920s he had been known for satirical novels. Karen Kildahl's account of his life says that his turn to mysticism in the 1940s astonished many of his followers.[5] David King Dunaway's biography describes the book as an effort to find common ground among the world's religions in mysticism.[1]

The introduction sets out the method. Huxley has chosen passages for their meaning, and also for their beauty and the way they stay in the mind. He places them under headings and connects them with a commentary of his own. He takes few extracts from professional writers or philosophers. He prefers people he calls saints, prophets, sages and enlightened ones, because he thinks they knew at first hand what they were talking about.[4]

His reason is a claim about knowledge. He writes that what a person can know depends on what kind of person they are. In his view the divine reality can be seen directly only by people who have made themselves loving, pure in heart and poor in spirit. For Western Christianity he mostly avoids the Bible. He says familiar scripture tends to produce a reverent deafness, so he quotes less familiar Christian writers instead.[4]

The first chapter is called That Art Thou. The title translates tat tvam asi, a Sanskrit phrase. Huxley explains it as the teaching that the eternal Self in each person is one with Brahman, the principle behind all existence. He says the last end of every human being is to find this out for themselves.[4]

The later chapters move through the rest of religious life. They include Charity, Truth, Self-Knowledge, Grace and Free Will, Good and Evil, Time and Eternity, Silence, Prayer, Suffering and Faith. Some chapters turn critical. One is headed with a line from the Roman poet Lucretius about the evils religion has led people to commit. Others deal with Idolatry and Emotionalism. The last chapter is Contemplation, Action and Social Utility.[4]