Praxism, The Perennial Philosophy, & Inter-religious Principles

The Praxist Society, as its name would suggest, has, as its central focus, the philosophic conception of Praxism: the notion of the proper praxis of all things in conformity with an integral design incorporative of all reality. According to the conception of Praxism, all things derive their individuality from a prior and greater metaphysical unity, within which they participate through action corresponding to preordainment, and identified through predisposition; therefore, all things participate in the ultimate design of reality, and have been provided individuality, and indeed even existence, by due necessity. Thus, all things have a "proper" way of being, determined by their metaphysical condition, regardless of their temporal status, and this "proper way of being" is defined as Praxism. The Praxist Society holds that all things must be in accordance with their Praxism in order to create the temporal conditions necessary to parallel the metaphysical framework used as the basis for ontological propriety to begin with.

Praxism is, therefore, at the heart of religiosity; it is the principle of religiosity itself, insofar as religion is both the real and symbolic participation in higher realities, connecting with God, the Monad, or the greatest unicity and source of all things (however it may be termed by various traditions). Praxism extends beyond religiosity, however, as the religious aspect is merely the doctrinal and orthodoxic element of spiritual practice, and the priestly interface by which humanity accesses the sacred, in other words, the formalistic aspect. The idea behind Praxism is less so orthodoxic, though the importance of orthodoxy must not be downplayed, and more so, as one might guess, orthopraxic [1](Algis Uzdavinys explores this idea in his title Philosophy As A Rite Of Rebirth). Thus, the idea of Praxism is one according to which every action made by any being is affected by some kind of metaphysical imposition, and therefore has results reflected in various ontological spheres; but also, it is the idea, again, of a "proper way of being", not by suggesting a singular and universal delineation on an equilateral basis, but by suggesting the necessary qualities and properties one must assume to participate in one's "proper way of being". This proper way of being is, however, dictated by the design of the total unicity that produces and incorporates all things, and so Praxism is the way in which a being participates in this total unicity and transcends towards God. The universality being observed in this case is a qualitative universality, namely, the quality of propriety, established by the criteria of participating in the highest reality; in other words, spontaneously fulfilling "God's plan", or aligning with a metaphysical preordainment. In this regard, the Hermetic quote "as above, so below" gains a prominent significance. The manifestations of this quality, or perhaps the path towards its attainment, however, is not universal, and therefore the path of orthodoxical religiosity is but one of many one may take to discover the total unicity and participate in the highest reality of the One. This is the way in which Praxism is the foundational principle of religiosity.

This is to say that the goal of all proper religions is the achievement of Praxism: for the access to, interface with, and participation in the Quintessential Reality. But more than this, Praxism, as opposed to orthodoxical and doctrinal formalism, is the fundamental basis for the Traditional worldview, making note to emphasize the capital T. Defining authentic Tradition as "the way in which Man participates in the Quintessential Reality" presents the same qualitative universality as the notion of ontological propriety, now, in this case however, as applied only to the humanly principle. Therefore the Traditional worldview is one, again, according to which all individuation results from the unfolding of a prior and greater unicity, producing archetypes and corresponding beings. In this understanding of reality, every event is preordained, and every action is a ritual, invoking or satiating one or another metaphysical impulse, and it is necessary, according to this worldview, that any given being participates in a manner which fulfills its corresponding archetype. Therefore, in Traditional societies, or places in which this worldview is dominant, all activities are oriented in an orthopraxic fashion, up towards God, whether this be through direct action, or through contemplation, or through devotion - and in certain cases many alternative routes are aspired to as well; there is nothing that would escape sacralization or sanctification, as all things are thought to partake of the same ultimate design, and all purposes apart from fulfilling this design are considered secondary.

Therefore, the fundamental foundation for true, authentic Tradition is that of Praxism; this is the singular unitive aspect of all proper expressions of archetypal fulfillment that become manifest and partaken of through Traditional thought and activity, yet this is only the principle behind the various manifestations themselves, which are contingent on a number of temporal factors. Traditional civilizations adhere to this notion each in their own different ways; each of them emphasize one aspect or another as a central focus, and adopt certain traits and practices from which proceed the manifestations of this principle in corresponding formalisms. This occurs through a procedure that has as its starting point an initial revelation of the type of action through which one may achieve the highest human state, along with the knowledge of that state itself: union with God, or a re-absorption by, and a supra-conscious connection with, the total Divine Unicity; the Monad. But orthopraxic action regardless of formalism cannot definitionally be regarded as religiosity, which relates to the formalism itself and the exoteric aspect associated with it. Religiosity appears as a conditioned codification of proper praxis once it becomes adapted to time and place; it then becomes the way in which the relationship between Man and Divinity, or, indeed, the total Unicity, becomes expressed. This is not a negative conditioning, however, simply a neutral one, as the way in which Man interacts with the Divine is obscured by various temporal factors, and yet in lieu of this, the interaction is always possible. The religious aspect is that aspect which has been carefully moulded for the conditions of its participants, and it emphasizes most the elements of the relationship between Man and God which innately resonate primarily with its practitioners. For this reason, minor syncretistic actions aside, every religion completely contains within it the necessary components for Man to participate in the Divine Plan, and yet not all of them are the same.

The religions, using this word very loosely to simply suggest orthodoxic formalisms, which are successful in the endeavor of producing this type of adherent activity are those which can, in all cases, be considered as truly proper. This quality of propriety is evident most prominently in those religions which explicitly have "proper participation" as part of their doctrine. What this means is that, though all religions declare that they possess total Truth, and though some declare a certain exclusivity to Truth at the negation of all others, they are correct, but not in the way that those who only follow the orthodoxic aspect of them would suggest. It is not that they all possess Truth as they declare it, but that they are all participating in Truth through a praxis that uniquely expresses itself as a formalism to a practitioner's way of thought. It might even be suggested that each religion is in itself a manifestation of a Divine archetype that, in relation to Man, connects the metaphysical and spiritual factor to the biological factor, and, by this reasoning, that biology may suggest the archetype to which one may be predispositioned, but this is another argument entirely. Therefore the notion of Praxism is intimately related to the Perennial Philosophy as the referential root that unites the various proper religions, and the proper goal of all spiritual and temporal activity.

One of the primary goals of the Praxist Society is to ensure that the Quintessential Truth of all of Reality, namely, that aforementioned Truth which is espoused in a unique fashion by each proper religion, remains illuminated, and, by virtue of this, there are many subsidiary goals which include the documentation and archiving of the elements of those religions which correspond to their propriety.

In this endeavor it is necessary to mark as true the general claims asserted by the Traditionalist School who espoused the Perennial Philosophy in great detail. Great care must be made, however, not to pledge exclusive loyalty to any of the particular theses made by the authors thereof; what is of importance is the subject matter itself. As James S. Cutsinger has put it - "The perennial philosophy may be classified as a kind of pluralism, though with two important qualifications. First, unlike many pluralists, perennial philosophers do not believe that every religious tradition is valid, but distinguish between true religions and their human or demonic counterfeits and, within authentic traditions, between orthodox and heretical forms ... Second, where pluralism sees religion as resulting from human efforts to reach out to a divine Reality that can never be known as it is in itself, perennialism teaches that the world's true or orthodox religions are directly revealed by that Reality." - and in this regard, the words of Algis Uzdavinys on the worldview of ancient civilizations have a similar significance - "In the ancient Near Eastern civilizations, all theologies, cosmogonies, and their related divine names were translatable. They were not absolute at the level of myth and polysemantic hermeneutics. Therefore not the question of orthodoxy, but that of orthopraxis, the correct performance of sacred rites, based on the distinction between right and wrong in human action was thought to be important". What must be held in the highest regard is not any particular formalism, which is not to say that this aspect should be disregarded - this is simply not the focal point of the task at hand - but rather the universal principles of which the formalisms are humanly manifestations.

Therefore, efforts must be made to continue the work of the Traditionalist School and to observe the praxiologies of various religions in relation to what can be identified as the common truths that underpin each one, with the intent of preserving the illumination of that which is truly Real and Authentic. This can only be done through philosophization, and the kind of knowledge that is gathered here is that of essentiality, and can thus hardly be described in binding or defining terms; in other words, it is identifying Truth prior to interpretation, which, for the human ego, is strenuous at best. However, the path of the Praxist as the "Active Philosopher" affirms propriety through a proven set of essential truths that are substantiated by what may be called the "proper religions", according to the parameters set forth above. It is the path that synthesizes knowledge and action: knowledge of First Principles, and action that corresponds to one's place in relation to them; be it not enough to "know", so one must also verily "be". This will shed light on the common identity offered by the Praxist Society to those of a truly Traditional disposition, and this endeavor may only be progress through a truly genuine inter-discussion of those who wholeheartedly follow one of the paths offered either by the proper religions, or the aforementioned ways of being (Action, Contemplation, Devotion).