In Conversation
The Traditions
The wisdom traditions in conversation — bios, key texts, and the teachings drawn from each. Nineteen local dialects of a single universal language.
19 Traditions
5th century BCE — present
Buddhism
Form is emptiness; emptiness is form
1st century CE — present
Christianity
The mystical Christ beneath the institution
1st–4th century CE (historical); perennial influence
Gnosticism
The suppressed gospels of direct knowing
2nd–3rd century CE (texts); influence spans antiquity to present
Hermeticism
As above, so below — the Hermetic current
c. 2300 BCE — present (one of the world's oldest living traditions)
Hinduism
Thou art that — Atman is Brahman
Tens of thousands of years — present
Indigenous
All my relations — the center is everywhere
c. 2000 BCE — present
Judaism
The Shema and the Ein Sof of Kabbalah
Present across all eras and traditions
Mysticism
Eckhart, Merton — the cloud of unknowing
3rd–6th century CE; influence continues through Western philosophy and mysticism
Neoplatonism
The One and the emanation of all things
Ancient intuition; formalized in the 20th century
Perennial
The one truth behind many dialects
17th century CE — present; deepening insight since the 20th century
Science
We are star stuff — the cosmos knowing itself
Prehistoric — present; formalized in the 8th century CE
Shinto
The Kami in all things — sacred immanence
15th century CE — present
Sikhism
Ik Onkar — the one creative reality
3rd century BCE — 3rd century CE; renaissance in contemporary culture
Stoicism
The Logos within and without
8th century CE — present
Sufism
Fana — annihilation in the Beloved
6th century BCE — present
Taoism
The nameless ground beneath all things
c. 1500–1000 BCE — present
Zoroastrianism
Asha — the cosmic order of truth
c. 3100 BCE — c. 30 BCE (pharaonic); enduring cultural memory
Egyptian
Ma'at — the cosmic order that holds the world
c. 800 BCE — c. 300 CE (classical); enduring as the substrate of Western thought
Greek
Hubris and the tragic limits of the self