Eternal Philosophy

You also refer to the Eternal Philosophy, the philosophia perennis, as the universal wisdom teaching and the essence of the inner teachings from East and West. Can you explain this teaching in a simple way and bring it to the point?

OM: There is an Eternal Teaching. A teaching of Truth and Love. It exists beyond all cultures and beyond all times. It is completely unaffected by whether a human being can understand it or not because it is not created by the human mind.
Realized human beings have received this teaching already thousands of years ago.

Where did the teaching originate and for whom is it intended?

OM: The teaching has no origin.
There is a historical origin of this term (philosophia perennis) in the 16th century, first used by an Italian bishop and scholar. However, the knowledge already existed. It is timeless.
It is meant for all human beings, but there are only few who are interested in it.

How do Christian mysticism, Zen, advaita vedanta, or the teachings of the Sufis relate to the Eternal Philosophy?

OM: All the teachings you listed have one thing in common: they are the inner heart of religion, which is visited by very few people. This inner heart of religion is the gate that opens to the One Knowledge. All who have ever passed through this gate have found the same thing. Heart Knowledge. The knowledge of the SELF. Simply THAT.

In your book, Spiritual Mastery, for the first time a term from Indian philosophy appears: Integral Yoga. How can I classify it?

OM: I am European, so I was born in the West and then led to India to encounter the advaita teachings there. Hence it is quite natural that I use terms from both Western and Eastern inner religion. Integral yoga, that is that highest yoga of union, which conveys the Eternal Philosophy. All Indian masters, Satgurus, were and are teachers of the Eternal Philosophy.
A universal wisdom teaching is “the union of everything with everything”. There are “small marriages”, e.g. the integration of body and soul in human beings, and there is the “Great Marriage”, the union of the relative world of appearances with the Absolute.

How can I get in touch with this teaching, how can I experience it, and how do I gain a deeper understanding of its essence?

OM: Inner Science is an inner system of knowledge whose methodology has been used by mystics and sages of all times. Neither faith, nor mental knowledge. Integral knowledge is gained through inner practice, especially through self-enquiry. It relates to what a person is not (but believes he is), as well as to what he is, and teaches him discernment. Only a mind that has entered into perfect stillness is receptive to the ultimate teaching. The Eternal Philosophy, Integral Yoga – these are teachings of the silent, the still tradition. Stillness in words. Stillness in silence.

Does the Inner Work you teach serve this approach?

OM: Inner work is the totality of inner practice to be done on this path. Effort that turns into non-effort. The majority of inner work to be done by students consists of exploring one’s own mind, which allows and denies each person access to Reality.
Work with the heart center (chants, rituals, Darshan, meditation, etc.), as well as work with the abdominal center, the hara, are also aspects of Inner Work.

In connection with the Eternal Philosophy you mention the term “Born to be”: What is meant by this?

OM: No ordinary person knows Being, or knows what being is. This loss of being is the original sin, the original trauma of all human beings. Everyone is searching for it. The vast majority of them, however, in the wrong place, in substitute worlds. It is the birthright of man to recognize this being again. This is what “Born to be” means.

_{Source Header Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Seth}