Here comes a short definition of what has been called the perennial philosophy and how it relates to psychosynthesis, according to Roberto Assagioli.
By Kenneth Sørensen, MA Psychosynthesis
The perennial philosophy is a concept that became popular during the Renaissance. It is based on the insight that there is a similar esoteric core in all the world’s religions when it comes to the mystical aspect of each religion. According to Arthur Versluis (2015: 2): “Perennial philosophy does not mean that all religions are one. Rather, it means that there is an underlying basic shared human metaphysical reality.”
The various traditions name this metaphysical reality Spirit, Ground, God, Void or Emptiness – this reality underlies and unites all the esoteric religions, according to the perennial philosophy. The individual can realize this divine reality through a path of mystical ascent to the One source, which transcends all duality, resulting in enlightenment.
Esoteric wisdom is what perennialism is: it is the core insight that God is immanent and transcendent, as documented by the mystics. According to Versluis (2015: 106), in the West, perennialism is in “Plato and Plotinus through Damascius, and then from Dionysius, the Areopagite forward through via negativa Christian mysticism, up to and past Emerson into the present day”. In the East, perennialism is found via “Shankara and Padmasambhava and Chih-i and Fa-tsang and Abinavagupta and Lady Tsogyal in the East”, according to Ken Wilber (2000b: 455).
When the philosopher Aldous Huxley[1] popularised perennialism in the twentieth century, he offered the following list as a “Minimum Working Hypothesis; the basic outline of the perennial philosophy found in all the mystic branches of the religions of the world”:
- That there is a Godhead or Ground, which is the unmanifested principle of all manifestation.
- That the Ground is transcendent and immanent.
- That it is possible for human beings to love, know and, from virtually, to become actually identified with the Ground.
- That to achieve this unitive knowledge, to realise this supreme identity, is the final end and purpose of human existence.
- That there is a Law or Dharma, which must be obeyed, a Tao or Way, which must be followed, if men are to achieve their final end.
However, as we will see, the perennial philosophy has other essential features. According to Ken Wilber (2000: 5), another fundamental aspect of the perennial philosophy is what he calls “levels of consciousness”, which has also been called the Great Chain of Being (Lovejoy: 1933), and something I present in the link.
The above is the essential insight of perennials – and perennials belonging to different traditions can generally recognize one another. However, in traditional religion, difficulties and conflicts arise when flawed interpretations of the mystical experience become dogmas, with particular words or rituals prioritized over the internal esoteric insight, which is often ignored or not acknowledged.
Assagioli’s conception of religion
Let us briefly see how Assagioli aligns with the above concepts of an underlying esoteric core in all the religious presentations. In an interview with Michael Murphy and Stuart Miller from the Esalen Institute in California, he states the following (1970):
“That takes me to a subject of more interest, that is my relationship with all these religions and philosophies. My attitude since the beginning has been, in a sense, universal, not binding myself to any presentation — if you want to call it philosophical relativism — that there is one universal truth, and that all human presentations are only partial and conditioned by many individual, cultural, historical reasons; but the core is the same in all, and the variations are of less importance”.
This seems to be a clear sign of his adherence to the perennial philosophy, and with the knowledge that Assagioli was also a Theosophist, the evidence for this hypothesis becomes stronger. It is well-known that Theosophy is a strand of perennialism – they often used the term the Ageless Wisdom, to underline that fact. I am not aware that Assagioli ever referred to the perennial philosophy by name. Still, we find clear traces of his alignment with the above principles in his writings. It is not the time and place to fully present his metaphysical understanding here, so let me point the readers to the following sources, and they will show that all the above principles of perennialism are included in Assagioli’s writings.
Spirit or Ground as pure transcendence and unmanifested reality.
Assagioli writes, “Spirit in itself is the supreme “Reality” in its transcendent, that is, absolute aspect; devoid of all limitation and concrete determination. Spirit, therefore, transcends every limitation of time and space, every constraint of matter. Spirit is in essence eternal, infinite, free, and universal. This supreme, absolute Reality cannot be known intellectually, since it transcends the human mind; but it can be postulated rationally, grasped intuitively, and to some extent mystically experienced.” (Spirituality in the 20th Century)
In a conversation with students, the following exchange occurs:
Q.: Can you say anything that can help people overcome the difficulty of the Self seen as transcendent, in the sense of being something completely “other?”
R.A.: You have to understand that there is absolute transcendence and there is relative transcendence. Absolute transcendence, the unmanifest absolute, can be spoken of only as a general background, because nothing else can be said about it. In this sense, it would correspond to “the void.” (The Transcendence of the Self). See also this glossary entry for more examples of Assagioli’s understanding of pure transcendence. Involution.
Panenthesism.
Assagioli presents his affiliation with panentheism in his essay: Roberto Assagioli and Panentheism and I have summed up the case in this article: Psychosynthesis and Panenthism. This philosophy includes the notion that the Ground or Spirit is both transcendent and immanent. That Spirit creates the world through the Platonic and Neo-Platonic concept of emanation, something Assagioli also fully embraces – see emanation. The result of this emanation is a series of inner worlds culminating in the physical realm, which has been called the Great Chain of Being. Here is a short example of how Assagioli understood emanation or involution:
“As we consider the subject of love we need to bear this overall spiritual framework in mind. First of all we have the original unity, free from any form of differentiation, i.e. the Absolute, Transcendent, Unmanifested. It is from this that we have obtained the manifestation or differentiation we might regard as the projection, emanation or self-expression of the Supreme. The great cosmic process has various stages. The first is that of duality: the One becomes two. The first fundamental difference has been introduced: spirit and matter, the subjective and the objective aspect, energy and resistance, activity and passivity, a positive pole and a negative pole, a male aspect and a female aspect. So far we have only spoken about the objective aspect of matter, undifferentiated. We have not spoken about matter already differentiated as we know it. This is the primordial stage which we can call the relationship between the two.”
“The two great aspects of being do not remain separate, as though they were indifferent to one another. Exchanges take place – there is action and reaction – and the effect of this vital attraction is the creation or the manifestation of this fully developed, concrete universe. It did not reach its present form in a moment: there were successive stages of differentiation at the heart of creation. There was the expression of ever more concrete and material planes or levels of life and ever more limited states of consciousness. And at each level countless new, successive differentiations took place until we reached the present highly divided state of separateness and difference between creatures in the widest sense of the word.” (Assagioli in: Transpersonal Development, p. 2007, p. 250-251 – See the full text here: Involution)
Self-realization as a way of unification with the divine
Self-realization, resulting in union with the divine, is a central theme of Psychosynthesis, something I present in my introduction to the free e-book Conflicts, Crises, and Synthesis, and I have collected a compilation of quotes by Assagioli on the subject of Union, which demonstrate that unio mystica or the mystical union lies at the heart of Assagioli’s vision. Here comes an example by Assagioli:
“The inner experience of the spiritual Self, and its intimate association with and penetration of the personal self, gives to those who have it a sense of greatness and internal expansion, the conviction of participating in some way in the divine nature. In the religious tradition and spiritual doctrines of every epoch one finds numerous attestations on this subject some of them expressed in daring terms. In the Bible there is the explicit sentence “I have said, Ye are gods ; and all of you are children of the most High.” St. Augustine declares: “When the soul loves something it becomes like unto it; if it should love terrestrial things it becomes terrestrial, but if it should love God (we may ask) does it not become God?”
The most extreme expression of the identity of the human spirit in its pure and real essence with the Supreme Spirit is contained in the central teaching of the Vedanta philosophy: “Tat Twarn Asi” (Thou art That) and “Aham evam param Brahman” (In truth I am the Supreme Brahman).
In whatever way one may conceive the relationship between the individual Self and the universal Self, be they regarded as identical or similar, distinct or united, it is most important to recognize clearly, and to retain ever present in theory and in practice, the difference that exists between the Self in its essential nature—that which has been called the “Fount,” the “Center,” the “deeper Being,” the “Apex” of ourselves—and the small ordinary personality, the little “self” or ego, of which we are normally conscious.” (Assagioli in, Self-realization and Psychological Disturbances )
Let me sum up the conclusion of the above reflection. The perennial philosophy with its core elements, seem to be the foundation of Assagioli’s philosophy.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_philosophy
[2] Assagioli, Roberto. Practical Contributions to a Modern Yoga; The Beacon, Oct 1933, Vol 12.
[3] Chapter two in The Eye of Spirit, 2000b, contains a fine overview of the perennial philosophy.
Versluis, Arthur. 2015. Perennial Philosophy. New Cultures Press. Kindle Edition.
Wilber, Ken, 2000b. The Collected Works of Ken Wilber, Volume Seven, Shambhala.
1974, Interview with Roberto Assagioli by Murphy and Miller, From the Assagioli Archive.
