Buddhist Romanticism

‘mine.’” 53
In terms of the Dhamma, Huxley has redefined “complete deliverance”
to mean release only from a separative self-identity, and not from all forms
of self-identity, separative or unitive. In practical terms, this is shown by his
definition of the last factor of the path:
“…eighth, Right Contemplation, the unitive knowledge of the
Ground.” 54
Here Huxley presents, as the goal of the practice, a revived version of a
step that the Buddha included as part of the path to the goal. From the
point of view of the Dhamma, only when one drops any perception of
“Ground” and any identification with unitive knowledge—which, by
nature, is fabricated—can one attain final release.
From this discussion of Huxley’s treatment of Buddhism, two points are
clear:
1) To make Buddhism fit in with the perennial philosophy, he had to
extensively rewrite it, at the same time criticizing the Buddha: The Buddha
was unwise not to address metaphysical questions about the nature of the
world and the self; his doctrines on not-self and nirvāṇa were incomplete,
leading to a confusion that was cleared up only in the Mahāyāna. Whether
Huxley was correct in making these criticisms, the fact that he had to revise
the Buddha’s teaching so radically to make it fit into the perennial
philosophy shows that the truth claim of that philosophy—that it is true
because all great traditions agree with it—is bogus.
2) From the point of view of the Dhamma, Huxley’s revised Buddhism is
inferior to the original Dhamma in that it can lead not to the total cessation
of becoming, but only to a refined level of becoming. Thus it cannot lead to
total freedom from suffering and stress. And by asserting that differences
among religious traditions don’t really matter, Huxley has obscured an
important principle: that differences in belief do matter when they lead to
differences in behavior. From this principle follows the Buddha’s teaching
on how truth claims made by different teachings can be tested: not by
agreement among views, but by the results that come when teachings are
put into practice. In this way, too, Huxley has promoted an inferior version
of the Dhamma, denying any possible way for religious truth claims to be
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