TED Community » Philip Tripp

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• A comment on Conversation: What do religions all have in common?

  Sep 9 2011: Aldous Huxley saw all the major religions of the world as conveying the following four fundamental doctrines of truth. He called it the 'perennial philosophy.' I have always found it a useful touchstone to return to when contemplating such matters.
  
  At the core of the Perennial Philosophy we find four fundamental doctrines.
  
  • First: the phenomenal world of matter and of individualized consciousness--the world of things and animals and men and even gods--is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be non-existent.
  
  • Second: human beings are capable not merely of knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a direct intuition, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known.
  
  • Third: man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit.
  
  • Fourth: man’s life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground.
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  A comment on Conversation: What is the single most important question that the youth of this era need to ask themselves?

  Sep 9 2011: What is the deepest and most precious gift that I have that I can share with the world?