Those are the fundamental questions, are they not? For you, the reader of this site, and for me as a gentle guide to the bit of hard-earned wisdom compiled through my years of search, and through the millenia where the great voices have spoken at length about the nature of humanity, Divinity, and cosmology. And for all of us in the context of our lives on this rock in space.

My personal search began in earnest shortly after high school, when circumstances conspired to trip me up almost immediately, break me, and imposed intense suffering that compelled me to look for answers. The specifics are not particularly important: we all have our own versions of events in our lives that may do so. We are all branded by life in one form or another. Along the way, I was fortunate to find one breadcrumb after another that directed me along a path that steadily became clearer. These nuggets of wisdom came from many and diverse directions, East and West, but over time they cohered and eventually took shape in an eclectic personal philosophy that was nonetheless recognizable in form as a restatement of the Perennial Philosophy.

The perennial philosophy, also referred to as perennialism and perennial wisdom, is a perspective in philosophy and spirituality that views all of the world’s religious traditions as sharing a single, metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine has grown.

Wikipedia, accessed 9/16/2021

But philosophy alone is not enough. I found that the search had to be far more comprehensive and penetrating, and the result far more encompassing to have any possibility of alleviating the suffering that prompted it. It had to address practice – a sadhana, as Aurobindo would call it, and that practice needed to incorporate elements that addressed body, voice/energy, (importantly) emotions, and mind, as well as spirit. Furthermore, the notion of practice, or praxis, while well-adapted to the Western mindset that values activity, purpose, and the will for self-improvement, was not at all well-adapted for Westerners in the practices that have come from Eastern traditions. There are some that have succeeded in adapting and assuming a form that is amenable to a Western mind grounded in rationalism and skepticism. But, on the whole, there is room for improvement in this aspect of the quest. In many cases, the practices have been lifted directly from these traditions and grafted on as is.

Together, the theology/philosophy and the practice of its content comprised what I began to think of more broadly as the Perennial Way. Hence the name of this site, from the Latin : Via Perennis.

More importantly, the practice had to have the potential to lead to a mystical or gnostic experience of the Divine that alone was the sole and true resolution to the suffering of an individual human life. I was fortunate to have my search and this content validated in such a way. It is my wish and hope in launching this site that in compiling and documenting for myself what the vitally important elements of this way have been, it casts a light for you, the reader, in ways that are uplifting, helpful, accessible and beneficial. This is one man’s personal testimony of his way: may it prove to be a light along the way for others. And in the words of the Irish blessing:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields…
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.