Perennial wisdom is a concept that holds that all the world’s enduring spiritual traditions share a single truth; a prisca theologia which is the foundation of all religions, in which each manifest itself in a form according to each cultures’ language, idioms, and time in history.
Huston Smith, a renowned scholar of religious studies, thought that all of the major religions were channeled by the divine. “I do not prioritize any one of them, not my Christianity or any one of them. If that be heresy, then make the most of it.” He took a lot of heat from his own Christian community for that, and he was frustrated by the general lack of interfaith understanding and dialog. When he was challenged about his Christianity he replied, “I was born of missionary parents and that meant that I was imprinted with Christianity from the very beginning. You peel Christianity off of me and there is no Huston left.”
We live in a time when, more than ever, there is a need for us to come together. It is time we celebrate our commonalities, and at least try to appreciate our differences. At their core, these traditions have more in common than you might think.
One of the greatest commonalities in all the spiritual traditions is Love. Talking about Love may seem a bit sappy or hippy-dippy to some. But, by my measure, it is the greatest and most common foundational principal in all the world’s spiritual traditions. And so, I chose to go with this theme for the inaugural of this journal.
I offer the following inspirational quotes for consideration.
MMc
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians
“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise, we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” Thomas Merton (Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic and scholar of comparative religion)
“Love transforms us. It makes us beautiful in the eyes of those who love us. It makes us real.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Z”L (Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian)
“Love is the bridge between you and everything.” Rumi (13th-century Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic)
“Inner peace and love are the greatest of God’s gifts.” Lakota proverb
“I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 31:3
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” Dalai Lama
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Jesuit priest, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher)
“To love God truly, you must first love man. And if anyone tells you that he loves God but does not love his fellow man, he is lying.” Hasidic proverb
“Love your neighbor as yourself” Leviticus 19:18
“The one who loves all intensely begins perceiving in all living beings a part of himself. He becomes a lover of all, a part and parcel of the Universal Joy. He flows with the stream of happiness, and is enriched by each soul.” Yajur Veda – an ancient collection of mantras and verses used in Hindu worship
“Teach us love, compassion, and honor that we may heal the earth and heal each other.” Ojibwa (indigenous North American tribe) prayer
“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.” Australian Aboriginal Proverb
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7
“Love is the expression of the one who loves, not of the one who is loved. Those who think they can love only the people they prefer do not love at all. Love discovers truths about individuals that others cannot see.” Soren Kierkegaard (Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author)
When the concept of love is written about, the selection and arrangement of words become the reflection into one’s placement amongst their fellow mankind. So I ask you is love a learned concept or truly just part of our DNA? – author unknown
Mark. You are my first recorded comment. Thanks and congratulations! I am reminded of the 1991 movie “Grand Canyon”. In it Steve Martin plays a filmmaker named Davis. His best line is, “…all of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.” Maybe. Yea, well the character is a little full of himself. Then I am reminded of the 1994 film Interstellar where Anne Hathaway’s character Brand says, “Maybe it’s some evidence, some artefact of a higher dimension that we can’t consciously perceive. I’m drawn across the universe to someone I haven’t seen in a decade, who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.” Learned? I think probably not. DNA? Perhaps. If it were a pure survival thing, what biological utility would there be in loving someone who has passed away? Love is like God. Some say Love is God. They definitely have at least one thing in common; both are ineffable.