FAITH AND SALVATION
 
 PREFACE
 
 This is not an essay born of years of experience in
scientific, philosophic, or religious endeavors. Rather it 
is an attempt to give voice to an intensely subjective 
experience I had at the age of thirty-six, an experience 
similar to those described in Dr. Richard Bucke's book 
entitled: "Cosmic Consciousness". The French psychologist, 
Pierre Janet, no doubt would have described it as an 
"abaissment du niveau mental" (a lowering of the threshold 
of consciousness). Some Christians perhaps would call it a 
conversion experience; others might call it a mystical 
experience while someone else has expressed it as an "inrush 
of the Real".
 
 In any event in the thirty plus years since that time I 
have been seeking to understand more fully that flash of 
intuition which showed me that the Creator of the universe 
is everywhere present in it, that the Being we call God is 
not only a wholly transcendent Other but also a wholly 
immanent "I AM". It came to me not simply as a belief that
one clings to in a world torn by war, greed and intolerance, 
but as an unshakeable reality that nothing or no one can 
ever change - in short, a faith that "all things work 
together for good to them that love God, to them who are 
called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)
 
 It turns out that my intensely personal experience was 
not unique - far from it. Similar revelations have happened 
to many people throughout history regardless of one's race, 
religion, philosophy, or cultural conditioning. So similar 
is it in fact that it was labeled by Leibniz (1646-1717) the 
"philosophia pernennis" (the perennial philosophy). Aldous 
Huxley in the introduction to his book by the same name 
describes this philosophy as:
 
 "that metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality 
substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the 
psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or 
even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places 
man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent and
transcendent Ground of all being is immemorial and 
universal. Rudiments of the Perennial Philosophy may be 
found among the traditionary lore of primitive peoples in 
every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms 
it has a place in every one of the higher religions. A 
version of this Highest Common Factor in all preceding and 
subsequent theologies was first committed to writing more 
than twenty-five centuries ago, and since that time the 
inexhaustible theme has been treated again and again, from 
the standpoint of every religious tradition and in all the 
principal languages of Asia and Europe." (A. Huxley, op. 
cit., p.vii)
 
 It might appear, therefore, that a belief which "has 
been treated again and again, from the standpoint of every 
religious tradition and in all the principal languages of 
Asia and Europe" would be warmly received by our late 
twentieth century "advanced" culture. Such is not the case, 
however - far from it! The primary reason for this is that 
the "perennial philosophy" is not merely one belief among
hundreds or thousands of others. Rather it is a world view 
(a "weltanshauung", to use the German expression) which in 
many ways is diametrically opposed to our current Western 
world view which has largely been shaped by the scientific 
revolution. To the extent it is a religious world view it 
reflects mostly Eastern, Pagan and mystical concepts and 
beliefs, which again are largely foreign to our Western 
Judeo-Christian traditions. However, as Christopher Bache 
points out in a recent book: "The real contrast . . . is not 
between Eastern and Western religions, but between what is 
often referred to as the 'esoteric' and 'exoteric' sides of 
religion." ("Life Cycles - Reincarnation and the Web of 
Life", Paragon House, NY, 1991, p.15).
 
 Thus, while it is true that Eastern religions, such as 
Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism, focus primarily on meditation 
and consciousness raising techniques rather than on dogma 
and ritual, it is also true that movements have arisen 
within the major Western religions which focus on the 
esoteric or inner side rather than on the exoteric or outer
side of religious observances. For example, there were the 
Gnostics in the early centuries following the birth of 
Christianity, the Sufis who emerged from Mohammedanism, and 
the still flourishing Hasidic sect of Judaism, which at its 
peak in the middle of the eighteenth century attracted 
nearly half of the world's Jewry.
 
 That this ancient "weltanshauung" is experiencing a 
rebirth in the late twentieth century in our 
materialistically and technologically oriented Western 
culture is, I believe, largely the result of the bankruptcy 
 
of the idea of inevitable progress - of the ability of man 
as master of the forces of nature to reach a utopia on earth 
entirely ignoring both his spiritual origins and his own 
darker nature and its destructive character. The carnage of 
two world wars in this century including the mass 
exterminations by both Hitler and Stalin have brought the 
darker part of our nature into the full light of day. This 
inability of men to "become as gods" or supermen as claimed 
by Nietzsche and the other atheistic existentialists has
resulted in a profound malaise in the heart, soul and spirit 
of both men and women in the late twentieth century. It 
manifests itself as a feeling of dread or "angst" (i.e. 
anxiety) in the knowledge that the individual is fully 
responsible and accountable for all of his own thoughts, 
words and deeds. The problem of "angst" even reaches into 
Christian theology in the writings of existentialists such 
as Soren Kiergegaard, Paul Tillich, Rudolf Bultmann, and 
Gabriel Marcel.
 
 Another reason for this anxiety has been the failure of 
our social, political and economic structures in the late 
twentieth century to keep pace with our technology, which 
has shrunk the size of the world from one of many 
independent or loosely affiliated nation states to a highly 
interdependent global village concomitant with an alarming 
increase in world population on the one hand and a limited 
supply of natural resources on the other. Modern technology 
has also resulted in the production of enough atomic 
warheads which, if unleashed, could decimate the world's
population and probably a good part of the other life forms 
on the planet as well. With the collapse of the former 
Soviet Union nuclear weapons are now in the hands of an ever 
growing number of nations, some of which have ancient 
hatreds for their neighbors and are committed to their 
destruction or subjugation. Mankind is thus faced with a 
dilemma for which there is no apparent solution in sight.
 
 Although traditional Judeo-Christian religious beliefs 
are a solace to many, there are increasing numbers of people 
who are disenchanted with orthodox religion. Henri Bergson 
described this disaffection as the result of a loss of a 
religion's "elan vital" together with an increasing reliance 
on dogma, ritual and a literal interpretation of holy writ 
with a denigration of symbolical, metaphorical and 
mythological interpretations. Paul Tillich has 
characterized the problem as a loss of the dimension of 
depth in our modern religions and consequently "the symbols 
in which life in this dimension has expressed itself must 
also disappear." (As found in "Adventures of the Mind",
Alfred A. Knopf, NY, 1961, p.5).
 
 We have become, in the words of T. S. Eliot, "hollow 
men", who are empty, superficial and lifeless. Our malaise 
is reflected not only in modern art, literature and drama 
but also in our preoccupation with the production and 
possession of "things". We are, in the words of a familiar 
college refrain: "poor little lambs who have lost our way, 
little black sheep who have gone astray."
 
 This essay, then, is an attempt to show that there is a 
way to recover this lost dimension of depth, to rediscover 
who we really are, where we came from, and whither our 
destiny, to have faith that we are not alone in the 
universe, that this short life is not without purpose or 
meaning and that an abundant, ever more fulfilling life is 
available to us all.
 
 While the central theme of the "perennial philosophy" is 
that the world has the potential for becoming an "enchanted
garden" (to quote a phrase coined by sociologist, Max 
Weber), it also contains the belief, as expressed by 
Nicholas of Cusa more than 500 years ago, that "God Himself 
[and hence all truth] is a 'complexio oppositorum'" (a 
complexion of opposites). (See p. 41 infra). Similarly, the 
famous Danish physicist , Niels Bohr, who helped develop the 
atomic bomb, once said: "The opposite of a correct statement 
is a false statement, but the opposite of a profound truth 
may well be another profound truth." On his escutcheon in 
the Knight's Chapel at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark are 
the words: "contraria sunt complementa" (opposites are 
complementary), and his coat of arms is the familiar symbol 
of the Tao (the Chinese "God above all gods") - a circle 
within which are the two primal and opposite forces of "yin" 
and "yang" in perpetual embrace. Therefore, the world also 
has the potential for becoming a disenchanted garden - cold, 
cruel and impersonal; a potential hell on earth as well as a 
potential Garden of Eden.
 
 Between these antipodes of possibilities stands man, the
microcosm of the macrocosm, who, as the book of Genesis 
tells us, was created in the image of God. Just as the 
universe comes into existence as a result of the creative 
tension beween "yin" and "yang" (i.e. spirit and matter), so 
 
does man in large measure create his own world by collective 
freewill choices between the poles of good and evil.
 
 Our current Western civilization, which has been shaped 
by the philosophical underpinnings of materialism and modern 
science, has concluded that the universe is disenchanted, 
that its laws are both impersonal and inexorable. This has 
led to our present sense of dread and "angst", of 
forlornness and pessimism, and of the emptiness, 
meaninglessness, and purposelessness of life. The perennial 
philosophy, on the other hand, focuses on the reality of the 
spiritual realm instead of on its material outer garment, on 
numina instead of phenomena, on the eternal instead of the 
transient, on the subjective instead of the objective. 
Through various consciousness raising techniques, including 
the time honored ones of prayer and meditation, its
practitioners conclude that the essential nature of the 
universe is its aliveness, its purposefulness, and its 
potential for ever increasing being, joy, freedom, and a 
love for all men - indeed, for all creation.
 
 However, just as a broad river has many tributaries, so 
are there many themes and ideas, even seemingly 
contradictory ones, contained in the perennial philosophy. 
Therefore, it was necessary in a brief exposition such as 
this to sketch in bold strokes only a few of its salient 
features (at least those that appear to me to be salient) 
leaving virtually untouched many of the lesser themes which 
contribute to its rich and multifaceted nature. To put 
flesh on the bare skeleton I have primarily relied on the 
words of those whose grasp of the subject dwarfs my own 
ability to express it. In particular, I have drawn on the 
writings of Plato (and through him the teachings of 
Socrates); the Jesuit trained paleontologist, Teihard de 
Chardin; the Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung; the mythologist, 
Joseph Campbell; the American philosopher, Ralph Waldo
Emerson; the French philosopher, Henri Bergson; the noted 
physicist, Albert Einstein; the playwright, William 
Shakespeare; the poets, Alexander Pope, Robert Browning and 
Oliver Wendell Holmes; religious writers, Mircea Eliade and 
Miguel de Unamuno; the seers, Nostradamus, Emanuel 
Swedenborg and Edgar Cayce; and not only a liberal 
sprinkling of quotations from the Judeo-Christian scriptures 
but also passages from the Koran, from Buddhist discourses, 
from Hindu literature, and from the ancient Chinese writings 
compiled in the  "I Ching" ("The Book of Changes") which 
inspired both Confucius and Lao Tsu, the founder of Taoism.
 
 With these many and varied strands I have endeavored to 
weave a pattern of unity between the concepts we hold of 
God, man and nature; to show, in Alexander Pope's words, 
that "All are parts of one stupendous whole, whose body 
nature is and God the soul." Perhaps none of these 
illustrious men who I have quoted herein would agree "in 
toto" with the portrait presented here. In this sense I am, 
therefore, like one of the blind men who went to see the
elephant (See Appendix p.3) merely trying to describe that 
part of the beast that fell within my grasp.
 
 J. W. Hawkins
 
 October, 1994