Learnt a new (actually it is very old!) word - Perennialist
Perennialists believe you should learn -- and pass along to your children and students -- those things that are of everlasting importance to all people everywhere.
What are those things? Humanity's best ideas about how to live.
Some will insist, of course, that we've hit a snag right out of the gate. After all, the world is full of divergent views. People simply don't agree on these matters.
But perennialists counter that enlightened people everywhere agree on certain core principles. These are handed down from generation to generation, through the ages, and across nations and cultures.
The phrase Philosophia Perennis -- the Perennial Philosophy -- was coined by the German mathematician, philosopher and polymath Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716). In more recent years, Aldous Huxley, Mortimer Adler, and Huston Smith, among other writers, have carried the perennialist torch, beckoning us to take part in what they call "The Great Conversation."
It's a broad discussion about what constitutes the best life, one that encompasses everything from the Analects of Confucius to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics -- the sound, practical and undogmatic ethics of common sense -- to the mystical truths of the world's great religious traditions.
The conversation is ongoing and evolving, never static. The best ideas about how to live are hardly new, of course. But discoveries are sometimes made and old ideas are enlarged or restated for a modern audience.
Recent books that touch on the perennial philosophy include Roger Walsh's Essential Spirituality, Karen Armstrong's The Great Transformation, and Robert Wright's The Evolution of God.
Perennialists understand the connection between compassion and successful living. They offer, for example, that:
* Everything worthwhile in life is created as the result of love and concern for others.
* Humanity is one great family. Our similarities are deep, our differences superficial.
* The Golden Rule, expressed in some way in every society, is the cornerstone of human understanding.
* The giving of time, money, support and encouragement can never be detrimental to the giver.
* Character development -- the path from self-absorption to caring and consciousness -- is paramount.
* Problems are life's way of getting the best out of us. They are opportunities to grow.
* It is important to nourish your mind with the thoughts of history's wisest thinkers.
* Courage and self-awareness are required to live fully and follow your heart.
* You should develop the ability to reason accurately and independently rather than accepting ideas based solely on authority or tradition.
* Our egos cause us to cherish opinions, judge others and rationalize our beliefs. Perennialists ask "would you rather be right or be happy?"
* We should exercise humility. Not because others find it attractive -- although they do -- but because, if we are honest with ourselves, we have much to be humble about.
* We should practice forgiveness. When we forgive others, we find that others forgive us -- and that we forgive ourselves.
* Moral development comes from strengthening our impulse control, prioritizing personal relationships and fostering social responsibility.
* Our lives are immeasurably improved by expressing gratitude and generosity.
* Development of the heart is essential. Our actions are the mirror of our inner selves.
* Whenever we act, we are never just doing. We are always becoming. If we aren't growing, we are diminishing.
* Integrity is everything.
Rather than quarreling over sectarian differences, perennialists are interested in the nuggets of truth at the heart of every great tradition.
Perennialists seek enlightenment wherever they can find it. It doesn't matter whether the source is ancient, modern, mythical, foreign, mystical or verified by the latest scientific findings. It only matters that it's true - and that it has some practical application for more skillful living.
As the historian Will Durant wrote in The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time,
"We are born animals; we become human. We have humanity thrust upon us through the hundred channels whereby the past pours down into the present that mental and cultural inheritance whose preservation, accumulation and transmission place mankind today, with all its defectives and illiterates, on a higher plane than any generation has ever reached before."
What is that higher plane? An upward spiral of caring -- from me to us to all of us.
It doesn't always come naturally. And for some, unfortunately, it doesn't come at all.
But perennialists try to absorb as much as they can of our three-thousand-year heritage and take an occasional moment from their hectic lives to ask, "Am I becoming the kind of person I want to be?"
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