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.

20 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

5th century BCE — present

Confucianism

Filial piety, the rites, and the unbroken line