Prof. Ghulam Yasin

1. Aldous Huxley
• July 26 1884- November 22 1963
• Born in Surrey, UK
• Third son of Leonard Huxley, writer/schoolmaster, and Julia Arnold, founder
of Prior’s Field School.
• Aldous himself very well-educated
• In 1911, suffered from illness which left him almost blind for several years.
Disqualified him from service
• After graduating from Oxford, he was financially indebted to father. Taught
French at Eton where Eric Blair (George Orwell) was one of his students
• In 1920s worked at a chemical plant (inspiration for Brave New World)
• In 1919, married Maria Nys
•In 1937, moved to Hollywood, California to work as screenwriter. Not
successful
•In 1956, married Laura Archera after 1st wife died of breast cancer
• Died on November 22, 1963, the same day as C.S. Lewis and John F.
Kennedy

2. Aldous huxley believed the perennial philosophy
(the philosophy of mysticism
was true, which entails certain beliefs. A given is
the idea that there are two orders of
"reality": orders which have a hierarchical
relationship. The higher order is absolute; the
lower is conditioned, impermanent, in constant
flux--it is where we live. One can refer to
the higher order as “That," and the order in which
we live and move as “This."

3.  Many humans endeavor--religious, spiritual,
psychological, social, even financial-
 -are attempts to access the higher order, and to
bring its benefits into the lower, to join
 That to This, to realize the concepts of "As
above, so below" and "Thy will be done on
 earth as it is in heaven."

4. The first two endeavors, the religious and the
spiritual, are obvious means of making this
attempt.
The third, the psychological, also partakes of the
less-material, non-daylight side of things.
That social enterprises address this issue is a
harder case to make, although it becomes
clearer when we talk about "utopias," or "the
just society.

5.  " But financial endeavors are aimed at
"a better life," even if it is conceived of
in strictly material terms. The end, is still
happiness, which is clearly one of the
fruits of successfully accessing the
"higher order

6. MYSTICISM…..?
 the belief that personal communication or
union with the divine is achieved through
intuition, faith, ecstasy, or sudden insight
rather than through rational thought
 spiritual system: a system of religious belief
or practice that people follow to achieve
personal communication or union with the
Divine

7. ISLAM AND MYSTICISM
 mysticism means the most spiritual teachings
and practices that derive from a given
Revelation, then Sufism is indeed Islamic
mysticism. But if we mean by mysticism
something that is vague and obscure, and
perhaps even abnormal, then Sufism is not
mysticism at all, if only because it is the most
intelligent, the most crystal-clear, and the most
normative dimension of the Islamic religion. In
truth, Sufism has always considered itself to be
the very heart of Islam, which

8. ISLAM AND MYSTICISM
 the esoteric, that has to do with contemplation or
meditation, and the exoteric, that has to do with
action. The prototypes for this division are to be
found amongst the Names of the Divinity: Allah is
called Al-Bâtin (the Interior) and Az-Zahir (the
Exterior). From the realities symbolized by these
two Names flow the esoterism and exoterism of
Islam. The exoteric aspect of the Revelation is
addressed to the great mass of believers, who are
engaged in action; the esoteric aspect is
addressed to a small minority of believers who, in
addition to the life of action, pursue also the life of
meditation.

9. HUXLEY CALLES PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY
 "The metaphysics ( philosophy of being:
the branch of philosophy concerned
with the study of the nature of being
and beings, existence, time and space,
and causality ) that recognizes a divine
reality substantial to the world of things
and lives and minds.

10. HUXLEY USES "DIVINE REALITY
Metaphysically, the divine Reality is the
substance (or in some systems the
creator) of all that we see.
Psychologically: the divine Reality is the
model and "home" of the individual soul.
Ethically, IT sets a standard for human
behavior through knowing--and
presumably therefore accessing--that
divine Reality.

11.  So although the divine Reality is both
"immanent and transcendent," both inside
 the world and outside of it, this Reality has real
implications for the way we understand
 the world, the way we understand ourselves,
and the way we think and behave in this
 very life.

12. PLATO'S THEORY OF FORMS
 postulates that everything we see in This
sensible world has a perfect original in a
realm of unseen Reality
 ……. We Aare twice removed from the
reality….
 Every object is An imitation of the
imitation

13. FOUR FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES.
 First: the phenomenal world of matter and
of individualized consciousness--the
world of things and animals and men and
--is the manifestation of a Divine Ground
within which all partial realities have their
being, and apart from which they would
be non-existent.

14. Everything exists only in that it is the
"manifestation" of the divine Reality, is
clearly a reflection of the metaphysical
statement above.
 In talking about That and This, the
higher and lower orders of reality,
Huxley points out that
virtually all religions hold that That order
is responsible for the existence of This.

15. Second: human beings are capable not
merely of knowing about the Divine
Ground by inference; reasoning
process, logic: they can also realize its
existence by a direct intuition, knowing
without evidence.. Miraj, This
immediate knowledge unites the
knower with that which is known….
Wahdat ul wajood…mansoor

16. Charles Lindbergh's night stand the
morning after his death:
"I know there is infinity beyond ourselves. I
wonder if there is infinity within."
The Perennial Philosophy asserts that
there is, and that it is intimately
connected with the "infinity beyond."

17.  Third: man's life on earth has only one
end and purpose: to identify himself with
his eternal Self and so to come to
knowledge of the Divine Ground.
Fourth: Every quest of humankind is a
quest for the divine Reality. if one
approaches the divine Reality, one is
fulfilled; to the extent that one misses
the mark,

18. one is frustrated and unhappy. Whether it is
"knowing God" or "being one with the
universe," the attainment of religion
described above leads to personal
happiness.
Each of Huxley's coming three points shows
a mode of connection between the divine
Reality and the individual Soul.

19.  First, he asserts that apart from the divine
Reality nothing at all would exist--
including individual Souls.
 Second, he claims that individual Souls
can know the divine Reality directly, and
be united with it.
 Third, he says that the entire purpose of
human life on earth is to achieve This
union.