Learning from the Learned

[Charlotte]

"All things began in Order, so shall they end, and do shall they begin again, according to the Ordainer of Order, and the mystical mathematics of the City of heaven." (Sir Thomas Browne)


"We must be still and still moving". (T.S.Eliot)


"Only the impossible is worth research". (Anonymous)

[Charlotte]

Sorting through my books to take some to the Library, I happened upon

Journey in Truth

Idealistic Philosophy from Orpheus to St. Augustine

Manly Palmer Hall

JOURNEY IN TRUTH is based upon a letter written more than sixteen hundred years ago by the great Neo-Platonist Plotinus. The letter is addressed to a young man who had resolved to dedicate his life to learning. To this youth the great master addressed the following words:
"I applaud your devotion to philosophy; I rejoice to hear that your soul has set sail, like the returning of Ulysses, for its native land--that glorious, that only real country--the world of unseen truth. This region of truth is not to be investigated as a thing external to us, and so only imperfectly known. It is within us. Consciousness, therefore, is the sole basis of certainty".

Or, the Kingdom is within, which the Learned assured humanity for thousands of years, come to think of it, from the beginning of time, Man being the Microcosm.

Mr. Hall conveys interesting anecdotes from the lives of the "Oddballs of Greece" as my philosophy teacher called these utterly brilliant minds. Having been absent from the 'Acadamy' for some time, I'll post excerpt to refresh my memory and hopefully learn something.

[Charlotte]

The Good The Virtuous and the Necessary

Common Sense, the Divine Faculty

"The basic philosophy of Socrates was a curious combination of lofty mystical speculation and homely common sense. He held the spiritual part of man existed prior to the generation of his physical body. During material life the incorporal soul and corporal bodywere united in a temporary partnership of purposes. After death the soul returned to its own proper abode, enriched or impoverished according to the measure and merits of the temporal existence. It appears that Socrates accepted the doctrine of metemsychosis or rebirth. So long as the soul contained wordly impulses, worldly ambitions, or worldly attachments it would be drawn back to a union with the body. It was therefore, the particular duty of the philosophically minded to release the soul from any material impulse. When the human being perfected his detachment he ceased to be a mortal creature and ascended to the dignity of the Heroic State, becoming a demi-god."

Socrates was born in Athens in the year 470 B. C., "received an education usual to his time, including gymnastics and music. In ancient Greece the Gymnasium was an institution of mental as well as physical culture. Young men assembled there to study and discuss the liberal arts, and to debate with their masters on problems of philosophy, ethics, and morality. Time was set aside for wrestling, racing, and the throwing of the discus. It was a basic tenet of Greek education that youth should have intellectual and bodily exercise in a balanced program."

[Charlotte]

Philosophy, the interior Journey of Enchantment

pretzler.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/120107-Rafael_socrates.jpg

Socrates in his olive green robe is easily recognizable in Paphael's "School of Athens" preserved in the papal quarters. The man wearing fancy attire is thought to be either Alcibiades or Alexander the Great.

"Alcibiades, appearing one day in a particularly gorgeous velvet cloak, and adorned with many jewels, drew from Socrates the remark, "What a pity that a leaden dagger should have so fine a sheath.

"Prise did nor escape his attention. When Alcibiades inherited a considerable estate and immediately took on the haughty mean of a large land owner, Socrates hung up a large map of Greece and with mock earnestness entreated the youn Greek to point out his new estates on the map. "My estates," observed Alcibiades, "are not large enough to show on that map." Socrates then made the quiet suggestion that if the lands were not great enough to show on the map, it would be just as well if they did not show on their new owner. It is said that this was the incident that led to Alcibiades becoming a new and influential member of the Socratic cult."

[Charlotte]

The Dœmon of Socrates

"In spite of his disinclination to discuss religious matters, Socrates was, parhaps, more of a mystic than he was ready to acknowledge. The Roman philosopher, Apuleius, has left us an important tract entitled,The Demon of Socrates; it reveals the mystical content in the coonsciousness of Socrates which influenced a departments of his thought. He believed himself to be divinely ordained to reveal to the Greeks the falseness of commonly accepted beliefs. His ministry was sanctioned by oracles, dreams, visions, and supernatural signs.

"Early in life a mysterious being appeared to Socrates in his sleep, instructed him in the deeper phases of philosophy and promised to protect him against the conspiracies of jealous and hateful enemies. Socrates called his strange invisible guide a familiar spirit, or demon.

"The later Neo-Platonists were later to teach that each human being is assigned at birth a spiritual precepter, which they called the natal demon.

"Apuleius points out that the demon of Socrates never exhorted him to the performance of any action, but on several occasions warned him against certain undertakings. This attitude is consistent with the highest face of spiritual ethics; for it was held by the Greeks that no man should be prevented by celestial powers from the expression of his personal will and conviction."

Pity that our 'inner voice' doesn't count for much, we need to google or ask an expert to tell us right from wrong, which we know via our familiar spirit.

[Charlotte]

Upon hearing the word Philosophy, the mind of most people goes drowsy, as did mine, but I liked what I heard and had to brave it.

Mr. Hall:

"There are ageless answers to the problems of every age and we must discover these or perish by the way. It is a great pity that so many persons are afraid of the word "philosophy." Its implications overwhelm the average mind, because may philosophers have written lenghty and profound books with strange words and recondite formulas. The reader developes an inferiority complex before he has completed the first page, and becomes convinced that he is unfitted for abstract learning. Further college professors have developed a positive genius for obscuring the thoughts of great thinkers, and our young people, when exposed to pedagogic approach, have developed little foundness for the philosophic life. Bad translations and inadequate interpretation complete the unhappy picture. And a world sorely in need of philosophical discipline, turns away from the very wisdom that would bring about peace and security.

"In the place of the old masters of philosophic lore there has sprung up a generation of modern intellectualists who call themselves philosophers but have little in common with the life of reason. Most of these modern thinkers have been thoroughly indoctrinated with a point of view that is materialistic, or as they pleased to call it, realistic. This modern doctrine merely causes the confused to become more confounded and human idealism continues to languish for lack of adequate interpreters.

"Philosophy is a kind of friendly word, signifying the highest effort of man to understand the truths which are the fountains of his own existence. Philosophy has its physical beginning in common sense and homely wisdom, ascending gradually toward the contemplation of eternal reality.

The philosophers of antiquity usually combined their intellectual speculations with the spiritual doctrine common to their time. Their teachings, therefore, should be regarded as spiritual philosophies."

It is a great pity what bad translations, inadequate interpretation, the flat out negation of the better knowing skeptics, the overheated psyche of a deluted baptist minister etc., has done Philosophy and Religion.

[Charlotte]

DIOGENES, THE DOG OF ATHENS

Case in point of bad translation and interpretation according to our current thinking. Since those persons who study the 'Diogenes Syndrome' must have known Diogenes, it cannot be a misunderstanding.

Wikipedia

"Diogenes Syndrome, also known as senile squalor syndrom, is a disorder characterized by extreme self-neglect, domestic squalor, social withdrawel, apathy, compulsive hoarding of garbage or animals, and lack of shame. Sufferers may also display symptoms of catatonia.

"The condition was first recognized in 1966 and designated Diogenes syndrome by Clark et al. The name derives from Diogenes of Sinope, an ancient Greek philosopher, a cynic and an ultimate minimalist, who allegedly lived in a large jar in Athens. Not only did he not hoard, but he actually sought human company by venturing daily to the Agora. Therefore, this eponym is considered to be a misnomer."

Having read some of Mr. Hall's opinion on the Philosopher, I would agree. Diogenes was familiar with the doctrines of Socrates.

Mr. Hall writes:

"These were doctrines basic to the school of philosophy known as the Cynics and Diogenes of Sinope was the most celebrated of the Cynics. He was born about the year 412 B. C. and lived to the age of eighty-nine, but very little of his personal life is known to the historians. He is remembered principally as the self-appointed censor of Athenian morals, and because of the general degeneracy of his time, his crusade against corruption occupied the greater part of his thought and energy throughout his long life.

"Diogenes was born of poor but dishonest parents. His father, Icesias, by profession a money-changer was caught adulterating the coinage, and was branded by the authorities at Sinope as an undesirable citizen, and sent into exile. Diogenes was included with his father in the sentence of exile, and the family moved on to Athens. Here Diogenes came under the influence of the ascetic teachings of Antisthenes, founder of the Cynic school of philosophy.

"Aristhenes was a devoted pupil of Socrates; he walked many miles each day in order to attend the Socratic lectures, and though never a brilliant intellectualist, he possessed great courage of conviction and reduced himself to poverty in his devotion to the ascetic viewpoint. He founded a school of his own in the Cynosarges, Hall of the Bastards, in Athens, and by the simplicity of his life and teachings, excerted a wide influence over the poorer clases. He customarily wore a cloak of rough cloth, carried a long stick and a wallet, and this attire was accepted as the costume peculiar to his sect.

"Antisthenes had a violent temper and was not above committing acts of physical violence upon his disciples when they displeased him. Evidently Diogenes offended his master on more than one occasion and suggered considerable brutality during the years of his discipleship."

[Charlotte]

Doctrines of the Cynics

The poor, homeless, teabaggers, and the wise, then and now.

I thought there was something amiss with Diogenes living in a "jar", Mr. Hall writes that Diogenes lived "in a large empty wine tub", which "stood in the grounds of the Temple of Cybele".

"The Cynics were a reactionary group, a product peculiar to their time and place. The luxurious way of life of many Athenians and their extravagances and dissipations offended the poorer classes and Diogenes became a moving spirit and chief spokesman for the disgruntled. His remedy for the rising tide of dissipation was simple living and personal self-discipline; he was not socialistic, as we understand that word today; his disparagement of the whole theory of wealth was from religious and philosophical convictions.

"In his philosophy of poverty, Diogenes divided the poor into two general classifications. In the first group were thos who, through lack of ambition, or through indolence or ineptitude were poor by the necessity of theit own nature. With no desire to improve themselves or their material estates through personal effort and application, such men became rabble rousers; they attempted to justify their poverty as a virtue and they condemned the rich. And whith these the great Cynic had little patience.

"In the second group were men and women of proven worth who had earning power and enterprise, but who elected to live a life of poverty from ethical or religious conviction. These, discovering the insufficiency and impermanence of all worldly possessions, chose to devote their lives to wisdom, free of the encumbrance of worldly goods. They had come to the philosophic realization that only the truly great can be truly humble, that only those who have known wealth can become the enlightened poor. Diogenes particularly admire these, for their material poverty was not from necessity but of their own choosing."

Many Saints and great Teachers, born into wealthy families, chose a life of material poverty. As Diogenes advanced in years, "he disposed of his worldly possessions until he had only his staff and wooden bowl", then put down his staff as "a wise man's only physical support should be in the strength of his body". In time he also cast away his bowl, seeing a man drinking water out of the hallow of his hands.

Disposing of worldly goods, Diogenes:

"The gods are sufficient unto themselves in all things, and sustain their own beings and the world by the internal energy of their own soul-power. But men conversely are not self-sufficient, and depend upon nature and the gods for their survival. If the wise would aspire to a divine estate they must become like the gods, deriving the strenght from within themselves, and ceasing to be dependent upon outside comforts and commodities. The man who is most god-like is the one whose needs are fewest, and who lives to give, rather than to receive."

[Charlotte]

The tub Diogenes lived in

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Apparently the meeting of Diogenes and Great Alexander is famous as there are many pictures of the occasion.

"Diogenes had a unique solution for the housing problem. A large empty wine tub stoon in the grounds of the Temple of Cybele, and this was selected for an appropriate habitation.

"The Dynamic detachment practiced by the celebrated Cynic so greatly impressed Alexander the Great that he made a visit to Athens and paid a formal call at the tube. The King of Macedon was received by Diogenes will ill-cocealed indifference. Soon Alexander asled, "Diogenes, is there not something I can do for you?" The man in the tub replied, "There is one thing, my prince; you can stand to one side, for you are between me and the sun, and I am cold."

"Diogenes was nicknamed the Dog of Athens because, as he himself expressed it, he barked at the heels of the rich, growled and snarled at the polititian, received with elaborately assumed graditude tha scraps of foof that were tossed his way, and his living abode resembled a kennel. For some time Diogenes and Alexander the Great kept up an erratic correspondence. Once Alexander sent a basket of old bones with a note saying, "These are fit for a dog to receive." Diogenes returned the bones with another note, "These are not fit for a Prince to send.

"After bestowing his attention upon the needs of the Athenians for many years, Diogenes decided to travel to distant parts. On a journey to Aegina his ship was captured by pirates, and he was sold into the slave market at Crete. While on the block awaiting sale, Diogenes was asked his trade by a number of prospective purchasers. He answered, "I have no trade except that of governing man. I would like to be bought by someone who wants not a servant, but a master.

"Xeniades of Corinth was the successful bidder; he was a person of superior mentality, and appointed Diogenes tutor for his sons. The great Cynic remained in Corinth for the rest of his life. He devoted these years to the education of the young and the exposition of his philosophical theories. It appears that he was never actually held in slavery, for he would not have recognized the state of serfdom; he taught that no man could be a slave except to his own intemperances."

[Charlotte]

Back to the Journey in Truth

The Divine Mystery and the Mystical Divinity

Mr. Hall

"The Neo-Platonists were among those who taught the doctrine of emanations. This is the believe that the universe emerged fro First Cause, through a series of outpourings. The creational process was repeated throughout nature by superiors releasing inferiors from themselves. The Egyptians referred to this doctrine as concatenation; that is, the birth of the orders of gods from their immediate superiors."

Seems we human being do this all the time, viz., giving up what is no longer needed for something better.

"In the Neo-Platonic system, the supreme principle was denominated Being. In the nature of being was the summit of identity and unity. Being was unlimited and indivisible, the source of all life, the substance of all things, and the ultimate of all experience. It was properly called the Good, because it was inevitable, and there could be no recourse beyond Its will. Or, simply stated, That which is, is good. Fact is always the supreme virtue.

"Being is without arrtibutes, and so it is undefineable except by negatives. What it is we know not. We have to define it in terms of what it is not.

"Without attributes, and therefore without condition, Being is the cause of all conditional existence. Energy moves from this center in concentric circles, like ripples on the surface of water when a pebble is tossed into a pond. Being is the eternal substance, whose center is nowhere, and whose circumference is everywhere. No more exalted concept of the Supreme Being is anywhere to be found among religions or philosophies than that which was held by the Neo-Platonists."

This harmonizes with particle physics where 'an unobserved quantum entity', packet of energy, us for instance, exists 'in a supercoherent state of all things possible by its/our wave function, considering possibilities, until we make up our mind and the wave collapses.

The Nous, which the Orthodox Church considers our highest faculty.

"By emanantion, Being caused to emerge from its own profundity the Nous, which is the universal thought. In its higher parts, Nour is identical with Being, but in its lower parts it is the world idea.

"According to Plotinus, Nous is poor thought, apart from the limitation of either the thinker or the thought of. This Nous is the motionless thought from which the motion of idea originates.

"By emanation, the Nous produces the soul. In its higher parts, the soul is motionless and immaterial, but in its lowere parts it verges toward the phenomenal world, or more correctly, emanates the phenomenal world."

The immaterial Soul and the soul verging toward the phenomenal world we call psyche, I think.

[Charlotte]

THE PHILOSOPHIC EMPIRE

CHALLENGE OF SELF GOVERNMENT

"According to the teachings of Plato, the world is subjects to alternating periods of fertility and sterility."

Ca 2500 years ago, and now.

"Plato further taught that humanity is now approaching the end of the age of iron. Revulsion mechanisms are setting in; humanity is becoming weary with the sterility of its conditions. This revolt against the limitations of materialism will result in the re-establishment of the golden age, that blessed time when the gods walked with men.

"Supported by an increase in natural vitality, the race is moving slowly but surely toward a new birth in wisdom and truth. Great philosophers and mystics dreaming of a better time to come have visualized the world of tomorrow in terms of an enlightened commonwealth administered by the wise, and populated with a self-governing humankind. This Utopian vision has resulted in the production of several important books dealing with the universal reformation of man. The most important of these are Moor's Utopia, Campanella's City of the Sun, Andreae's Christianopolis and bacon's New Atlantis. More recently Edward Bellamy published his Looking Backward in which he attempted to project the concept of socialism into the vision of the golden age."

Socialism and Democracy are not mutually exclusive, neither is philosophy, religion and science as one sheds light on the other.

Off to the Farmers Market.

[Charlotte]

Minding the signs of the time, once again the universal reformation of Man is on the way, a Grand Cathedral built on the ruins of the old as it happens when we periodically run things into the ground. Our time is taken up dealing with daily existence, many people have never heard of Utopia or Atlantis, and to those who know of it, it is fiction I was told.

The Utopians

"Nearly all of the Utopian books are inspired by Plato's doctrines of the philosophic elect. The basis of his reasoning is extremely simple and philosophically irrefutable. In order to be well governed, the world must be ruled over by those best fitted for leadership. Of all men, the philosopher is the most completely informed, therefore the philosopher is the natural ruler of human beings.

"It has already been mentioned that Plotinus, greatest of the Neo-Platonists, aspired to establish a philosophical city in the midst of the Roman Empire, ... a Platonic commonwealth on a large scale. He failed because of the sterility of his time. The world was not ready to accept a Utopian dream as a practical reality."

Mr. Hall writes that the reason we resist change to improve our lives "lies in the psychological structure of the human mind. "We cannot cooperate with that which we cannot comprehend". Truer words have never been spoken. "Until an individual experiences the life of reason within himeself, he looks upon Utopias as the idle vageries of visionariy mystics. Man must be conditioned for wisdom, and this conditioning takes the form of war, crime, and poverty, all of which must be experienced to the fullest before the mind will reject them in favor of a simpler and more mature course of action."

Included in the State Mysteries were members of great religio-philosophical institutions forming a race apart, members of the Spiritual Brotherhood, forming an invisible empire of the learned.

"The initiates of the Greek Mysteries fraternized with those of the temples of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, and India. Disciples journed to these distant parts and the religious world of the day was bound together in a large camaradery of purpose. It was required that rulers and princes be initiated before they could hold office. Thus the Mysteries stood behind the State, they did not rule in an obvious way but they ruled the rulers."

Mr. Hall also traveled far and wide to reflect and ponder the given state of affairs.

Kinda grey outside, clouds with silver lining

[Charlotte]

Looking outside I'm grateful for the rain, looking at and around the world I flee to the philosophical Realm, the saving Grace being that the rulers of the mundane world Mr. Hall refers to don't know who and what rules them, and even if they did, there is nothing they can do about it because all is silent. To my mind it has always been so and will remain so if we as Humanity will survive, a good example being ancient Egypt where the Priest's informed and directed Kings and Queens.

"It has been said that the founding of the Platonic Acadamy is one of the most memorable events in the history of Western European science. In one way it was a re-establishment on a small scale of the philosophic empire. Plato, realizing that he could not work with the political factions of his time, resolved to create a state of his own within the boundries of the Acadamy where men could work together according to the dictates of intelligence and reason. If he could not change the government of Athens, he would bestow the power of of self-government upon his own students and disciples, liberating their minds from bondage to the persuasive power of orators and the insidious corruption of private interest. ... Plato was horrified by the lawlessness and violence of the Oligarchs..."

It's also said that the more things change the more they stay the same, and that there is no new thing under the sun.

"In the Acadamy, over which he presided, Plato promulgated the most noble and practical of his convictions: Good goverment depended upon the union of philosophy, science, and politics in the persons of public leaders: Philosophy is the greatest good, and those who aspire to it are not motivated by any alterior design: Men do not become rich by becoming wise, for the reason that wisdom reveals the comparative unimportance of physical possessions: or dose the philosopher gain general distinction in his own day; he is appreciated only by those of similar attainment. He is not likely to rise to high office; he is feared by public leaders because he cannot be corrupted.

"Up to the time of Plato, young Greeks who aspired to a higher education had to depend largely on wandering Sophists, professional educators who toadied to the whims of the rich and the powerdul (I let that slip show), and taught nothing that contradicted with the prevailing prejudices and conceits. These Sophists taught for the sake of profit, and while many of them were proficient in certain forms of knowledge, most were deficient in their integrity."

Ain't that the truth. Someone wrote that it is the duty of the individual in a democracy to think for themselves, deliberalty made impossible for a great number of people, as heard and seen. Sad indeed.

[Charlotte]

Will take month to learn about the Aboriginal Australians, much work preparing for the Holidays, so back to Mr. Hall.

As Above So Below

"Plato taught: As above, so below; and that the patterns of all things are in the heavens.

"Aristotle taught: As below, so above; and that it was perfectly reasonable to suppose that the celestial expanse was an intangible spiritual kind of matter. As matter itself was abundant with intellectual potential".

Matter being abundant with intellectual potential has residence in theoretical physics, and, can we say that matter is intelligent since when we fall or hurt ourselves somehow, people want to help us, but wait, we need to be still a few minutes for our body to arrange to put things back where they belong and we can slowly function again. Reminds me also of 'the tyrant can command the knee but not the health of it'. If we cut ourselves and do nothing but eat good food, the cut will heal.

"During the time that Aristotle was under the influence of Plato he compiled several works very much in the Platonic spirit. The ancient Greeks held a materialistic attitude about the nature of the human soul. This is best revealed in the writings of Homer, who influenced all Grecian thought on this subject up to the time of Pythagoras. According to the Homeric conception, the body was the real self and the soul a kind of ghost or shadow which survived the death of the body, passing into an obscure existence into a shadowy world, where it continued indefinitely in a comparatively misrable state. The ghost or shadow wandered about with a memory of its past existence, was capable of suffering for sins previously committed but was without hope of any ultimate condition of peace, happiness, or re-embodiment. Thus it was said that the humblest of living men was more fortunate than the ghost of Achilles.

"In the time of Pythagoras a new doctrine came to the Greeks, probably from India. The entire concept of the soul's condition was reversed. Physical life was regarded as a ghostly hopeless sphere. Birth was a kind of dying, and death was birth into an immortal and superior state. ... As Aristotle was able to conceive both spirit and matter as eternal, it was quite possible for him to accept eternity of the human soul.

"While Plato continued his life calmly discoursing to his diciples in the quiet groves of the Acadamy, Aristotle mingled with princes and rulers, and was considerably influenced by the attitudes of opinions of those wodly and ambitious men. As a result of these contacts, especially while at Macedon with King Philip and the youg Alexander, Aristotle again verged from the lofty idealism of Plato. In the Republic, Plato declared that it was necessary for a king to be a philosopher. Aristotle, who mingled with kings, discovered that they were not philosophers, and by the very mode of their lives were unsuited for philosophical speculations. Furthermore, he was convinced that princes who were not philosopherscould still govern their states with justice and intelligence. As the populace of a state is not composed of philosophers it is not necessary to be a philosopher in order to administer the duties of rulership."

[Charlotte]

The Nicomachean Ethics

"Probably the most practical of the writing of Aristotle is his Nicomachean Ethics. In this work the philosopher declares that the highest form of human happiness results from the speculative life of intellect or wisdom. In this respect philosophers are the most furtunate of mortals, for the live in a world of thought and devote their lives to the contemplation of great truths and eternal virtues. All men become more fortunate as they verge toward a mental existence. If their intellects are suited to the diviner kind of speculations, they may attempt the most abstract of metaphysical disciplines. They may ponder upon the nature of the gods, upon the substance of the divine mind, and upon the laws governing the motions of the world. Such practices ennoble and perfect the reason and elevate the philosopher to the highest place among mortals.

"Aristotle further insisted that a certain amount of external possessions are necessary to happiness. He disagreed entirely with Diogenes, who taught the blessedness of nothing. Aristippus (433-356 B.C.), the founder of the Cyrenaic sect, had taught that pleasure was the chief purpose of life, and that man should avoid discomfort as a sovereign ill. Aristotle did not go to such an extreme, but he did believe that the good things of live simplified the practice of philosophy and the application of the moral virtues. A man should possess all that is necessary so that he may live in a manner consistent with the nobility of his intellect. Philosophers should not worry about their next meal or the rent or the daily chores. They should have leisure, a little of luxery, and means available to perform various generous and cheritable actions."

[Charlotte]

The Gentleman of Aristotle

"Aristotle had a slightly whimsical doctrine concerning the qualities of a gentleman. Being himself of gentle birth and aristocratic persuasions, it is only natural that he should accept gentility among the virtues. There is a hint of Confusianism in Aristotle's conception of the perfect gentleman. But his idea on this subject, like most of his teachings, underwent a number of changes. His first conception of a gentleman was in perfect harmony with the Greek tradition of a patrician. The gentleman was an elegant person, a patriot ready to give his life to defent his way of living. He was burdened with the small properties of niceties of manner appropriate to his class. He was civic minded and public spirited, always ready to help a good cause; modest in the presence of his superiors, and tolerant in the presence of his inferiors. In substance, he was genteel snob.

"The mellowing effect of years forced Aristotle more and more toward the true Confusian viewpoint--the gentleman emerges as the superior man of Chinese ethics. In final defenition, gentlemanliness becomes a code of absolute justice, including control of the self, the practice of all neighborly virtues, a strict code of morals, and a devotion of the mind to the persuit of wisdom and philosophy."

[Charlotte]

Sir Francis Bacon on my mind, this is what the Gentleman thought of Aristotle.

Alfred Dodd writes:

At the age of twelve, Francis Bacon was send to the University of Cambridge, "and for the first time saw in the distance the lofty spires and venerable walls raised by generations of intellect and piety, "hallowed by the shrine where the works of the mighty dead are preserved and repose . . . and who thus enlarge the borders of man's dominions.

"This mature boy with his thoughtful, ardent mind, was, however, speedely disillusioned of his dreams regarding the uses to which the "Liquor of Knowledge" was put in the ancient Halls of Learning. Instead of the University being a Hive of Industry, with students of all types bent on the pursuit of Truth, in all her ramifications through nature, he found himself:

amidst men of sharp and strong wits, abundance of leisure and small variety of reading, their wits being shut up in the Cells of a few Authors, chiefly Aristotle their dictator, as their persons were shut up in the cells of Monasteries or Colleges; and knowing little history either of nature or time . . . out of no great quantity of matter do spin Cobwebs of Learning, admirable for the fineness . . . but of no substance or profit.

"Instead of general inquiry, he found all studies were confined to Aristotle, who was considered infallible; all the lectures were simply expositions of the Aristolian text and comments on his opinion held as authentic as if they had been given under the Pope's Seal."

Mr. Hall writes:

"The force of Aristotle's viewpoint is a once apparent. He appealed strongly to the factually minded, who saw in him a perfect exponent of their own convictions. In terms of philosphy, Pythagoras had created a universe, Plato had described it, and it was left to Aristotle to organize it. This he did with so great an enthusiasm that he did not hesitate to correct both Pythagoras and Plato wherever he could not fit their doctrine into his finished scheme of things.

"Thus we see how Aristotle paved the way for modern science, which had continued to put the universe in order with the same adolescent ferver that seems to have motivated the great Peripatetic. Modern science has very little interest in divine intention, nor had Aristotle."

Sir Francis Bacon:

"In the Universities they learn nothing but to believe; first to believe that others know that which they know not. They are like a becalmed ship: they never move but by the wind of other men's breath, and have no oars of their own to steer withal. . . .

"The studies of men in such places are confined and pinned down to the writings of certain authors; from which if any man happens to differ, he is presently reprehended as a disturber and innovator."

I know the feeling having been ridiculed and called worse even for my wanting outlandish views, but I like them

[Charlotte]

Mr. Hall

"For three hundred years, science has been busily engaged getting rid of God. This is not true of all scientists, nor would many of them admit this motive is confronted with a direct question; many of these good physicists, biologists, and astronomers would insist that they are God fearing men and regular church goers. But with the help of Aristotle, they have divided God and Nature so completely that Deity is no longer an active factor in their conclusions. The mechanists tried to dispose of Deity entirely and view the universe as a perpetual machine; but the more intelligent of these men have recently admitted their errors and are returning to the concept of impersonal Intellect."

Plato and Aristotle, A Comparison

"Aristotle contributed the principal break in the line of the Platonic descent. The schism which began in the Acadamy has continued for nearly 2400 years, dividing men into two camps bitterly opposed to each other concerning factual statements about the unknowable. In this way, the material sciences were vastly benefited, but the larger and more complete science of living was seriously impoverished.

"The great power of Platonism lies in its appeal to the noblest impulses of human nature. At the same time there is no false stimulation of the emotions, as is so often the case with mystical doctrines. In his discourses and lectures Plato never descended to tricks of oratory in order to sway an audience; he considered that method unfair to the intellect--for when the mind is confused by emotions thae faculty of judgment is prevented from exercising its discriminating power. To Plato, an argument which must be supported by an appeal to the passions does not merit serious consideration."

[Charlotte]

Due to simple presentation it is easy to learn from Mr. Hall. The book "Journey in Truth" I'm quoting from deals with history, character and temperament of Persons of the time, our challenge of forever becoming which we're engaged daily, automatically, but "the experiences of life incline most of us toward an acceptance of less kindly doctrines."

"As Plato grew older his mind turned more toward the gods and further away from the world. He realized that the internal peace of the intellect was only to be attained through the contemplation of those divine powers which are the fountain of all life. But Aristotle departed from the philosophy (he) begun under the influence of Plato's gentle idealism, and imbraced the confusion of a realistic viewpoint. The transcendent beauties faded from his mind, and like Mephistopheles in Goethe's Faust: He saw alone man's self-inflicted pains, how the little world god still his stamp retains, as wondrous now as on the primal day.

"Both Plato and Aristotle were seeking truth, and in truth their paths converge and meet. Truth is the supreme fact, the most practical and reasonable of all beings and all essences. Ideals are not abstractions; they are sovereign concretions. Beauty is a sublime fact, even as the brotherhood of man is the most practical, reasonable, and scientifically demonstrable of political truth. Integrity is just as real as a tree or rock.

"There are realities which are invisible to the eyes but discoverable by the intellect. And there are unrealities which are visible to the eyes but are contradicted by the evidence of the intellect.

"Plato, when he called Aristotle 'The Intellect of the Acadamy', defined his youg disciple more accurately than the world has suspected. Aristotelianism in the mind of philosophy, but Platonism is the spirit of philosophy.

"It is the duty of the mind to demonstrate that which the spirit has revealed. The intellect is the servant of consciousness, even as the body is the servant of the intellect. Aristotle is correct on the level of the sphere of the mind, but Plato is correct on the level of the sphere of the spirit—and spirit is lord over the mind, and master of all the creatures which have been fashioned from its nature and are sustained by its laws.

"Aristotle, seperated from his master, is a father of discords, but joined with Plato, he supplies the element of analysis which is indispensable to the statement of synthesis. In his categories of the many, Aristotle really bears witness to the greatness of the One which is the source of the many, the One that binds the many together in the supreme pattern of the world."

[Charlotte]

JOURNEY IN TRUTH

"Through the contemplative life the consciousness is raised to what the Platonists called "a participation in divinity".

"Through this participation man discovers, as an inner experience in consciousness, the true nature of the gods, the harmony of the world, and the structure of universal laws within which all creatures live and move and have their being.

Having established the mind firmly in these Universals, the philosopher can then direct his attention to thr operation of secondary fact. He is no longer in danger of confusing universals with particulars. He can accept the life of his place a time and still remain a citizen of eternity. He accepts limitation without being deceived by limitation, and all his actions are motivated by a richer understanding. Only a person so informed is suited for leadership. Of him it may be said, as of Francis Bacon, that he "rings the bell which calls the other wits together."

"Neo-Platonic reform in education would in no way interfere with the present growth of the arts and sciences, but would relate their growth to the general unfoldment of the world. It would bind knowledge to an adequate purpose; for man could then apply all learning to its reasonable ends—the improvement and perfection of mankind. What we require today is a larger motive; devotion to some high principle. Such devotion to primary fact is called idealism, for it continually relates present endeavor to eternal purpose.

[Charlotte]

"Neo-Platonism advocates a philosophy of education. It seeks to bind up the differences of schoolmen, and end forever educational isolationism. All arts and sciences are of one knowledge; their various disciplines are all means to a single end—the achievement of enlightenment. Men of different temperaments choose professions and trades according to their likings and abilities, but all self-improvement is motivated by a common impulse and pointed to a common end.

"Neo-Platonism as a philosophy is an advanced system of mystical speculation concerning the relationship between human consciousness and Universal consciousness. It rests in the basic formula: human consciousness is suspended from Universal consciousness, in the relationship of a particular to a general. Universal consciousness is the self-awareness of space, human consciousness is the self-awareness of the individual. Bothe share the common property of awareness, and so are identical in substance, but differ according to magnitude. Neo-Platonism is the basic philosophy of Plato with special emphasis upon its mystical content.

"Mysticism teaches the possibility of a direct conscious participation in Universal consciousness. Thus, truth is not discovered by the intellect, it is experienced by the soul.

"Neo-Platonism teaches that the gods are modes of Universal consciousness; that is, they are degrees of awareness in space. Humanity is basically also a degree of awareness, and so are all the other kingdoms of Nature. All living things are divided into types of species; first, according to the degree of self-awareness, and second, according to the degree of Universal awareness. Evolution is the motion toward Universals. For mankind, all growth is measured in terms of the unfoldment of Universal awareness."

[Charlotte]

"During the Dark Ages philosophy gave way to theology. The theologians accomplished the final mutilation of their own beliefs. The Platonic philosophy passed from Christendom to the Arabic peoples, and Islam was the custodian of the sacred art of antiquity. Under the Caliphs of Bagdad, classical learning was revived. Greek writings were translated into the Arabic language, and astronomy, mathematics, and geography were especially cultivated. Europe was without Platonism until the great motion of the Renaissance moved across Europe from Byzantium. The cultural restauration which flowed from Constantinople met the stream flowing northward from the Moorish universities of Spain, and the convergence of these streams of basic culture resulted in the rivival of philosophy in Europe.

"After the decline of pagan schools of philosophy, the Augustinian Patristics dominated Western thinking for nearly eight hundred years. The intellectual power of the Church attained its fullest expression in the exalted speculations of St. Thomas of Aquinas, the Christian Aristotle.

"The Reformation cleared the way for the restauration of classical learning and liberated philosophy from the bondage to the edicts of the Holy Sea. Through Lord Bacon the world had a new birth in learning, and the second great cycles of Platonism and Neo-Platonism had their beginning. In Bacon the old mysteries were restored, and through his great text, Instauratio Magna, he liberated the intellects of his time from the discordancies of pseudo-Platonic theologians and pseud-Aristotelian scholastics.

"The great truth which is the key to Neo-Platonoc thinking is that all life is one. The work of the student is to discover this, not merely as an intellectual experience but an experience of consciousness. The discovery is gradual, beginning with simple and familiar objects and evolving step by step to participation in a universal vision. The search for unity, therefore, is the Neo-Platonic life. It directs the proper motion of the intellect toward the acceptance of an absolute unity.

"The second great Neo-Platonic priciple is the recognition that good is co-eternal with unity."

[Charlotte]

In my last post, Mr. Hall speaks of Lord Bacon as "he who rings the bell which calls the other wits together." And so it was and is for Bacon lovers.

"As touching the explication of Mysteries, we see that God vouchsafeth to descend to the weakness of our capacity, so expressing and unfolding His Mysteries as they may be best comprehended by us; and inoculate, as it were, His Revelations upon the conceptions and notions of our Reason; and so applying His inspiration to open our understandings, as the form of the key is fitted to the ward of the lock. In which respect, notwithstanding, we ought not to be wanting to ourselves; for seeing God makes use of the faculty and function of Reason in His Illuminations, we ought also in every way to employ and improve the same, whereby we may become more capable to receive and in such such Holy Mysteries, with thia caution, that the mind for its module be dilated to the amplitude of the Mysteries, and not the Mysteries be girt into the small compass of the mind."

Sir Francis Bacon
Advanvement in Learning


www.zastavki.com/pictures/1920x1200/2009/Saint_Valentines_Day_Heart_and_roses_for_Valentine_s_Day_013128_.jpg

Happy Valentine's Day

[Charlotte]

JOURNEY IN TRUTH

Mr. Hall highlights consciousness as an inner experience via contemplation, a participation in Divinity, that this intellect becomes a servant of consciousness, not the mechanical intellect often imparted by academic institutions.

"Symbolism is an important branch of abstract learning. Symbols challenge. They irritate the mind into seeking an explanation. In this way they are more important than a literal statement of the fact. What we are told, we may accept even without thought. The symbols strenghten the mind by forcing the intellect to apply it inherent energies to the solving of a riddle. Once convinced that their elaborate mythology was a veil concealing an all important spiritual content, the Greek intellectuals attacked the riddle whith every faculty at their disposal, and the result was a golden age of intense intellectual activity.

"To summerize Orphic mysticism is to state the foundation of Greek philosophy and aestetics. Space and spirit are identical, creation is a motion in consciousness. The gods are the faculties of the Universal mind. The physical universe is the mortal body of an immortal divinity. Humanity is a degree or level of spiritual activity within the consciousness of God. Religion is the science of approaching God by the inner experience of realization. Philosophy is the discovery of the divine plan through the intellectual contemplation of nature and man. Science is the accumilation of physical facts which bear witness to the operation of divine law in the material world. Always the end to be attained is the discovery of the nature of First Cause. The Universe itself is a symbolic representation of the substance and power of God. The master science is the science of interpreting correctly the world symbolism to discover the substance from its own shadow."

To discover the nature of First Cause, they say, is our purpose here, to go back home without going anywhere, Man being the micro-cosm, better than going to Mars and do what? Time travel is a matter of consciousness.

[Charlotte]

Advanced in age, Thales of Miletus "urged Pythagoras to sail into Egypt and associate with the priests of Jupiter; if the young man would do this, he would become the wisest and most divine of mortals. Thales also instructed him in the simple personal disciplines of a scholar: to live frugally, refrain from personal attachments, and serve the good.

"Pythagoras then began the journey which took him to the furthermost part of the then known world and brought him into contact with most of the great religious and philosophical systems of his time. He went to Phoenicia and from there to Sidon where he conversed with prophets descended from Moses. Thence he journeyed to Egypt where he presented letters to Amasis, king of the two empires, and the Pharaoh gave him credentials to the priests of Heliopolis. But these men were jealous of their sciences and would not initiate Pythagoras into their Mysteries; the depatched him to Memphis, and there the masters sent him to the ancients of Diospolis. Because Pythagoras carried the letters from the king, the priests of the various temples could not refuse to receive him, but it is evident that they had resolved among themselves to discourage his efforts to join their orders.

"It is said that he waited at the gate of the shrine at Heliopolis for seven years. Each day he asked admission and each day he was refused. The priests were finally convinced of the sincerity of his dedication to learning and he was received into all their temples, initiated into the most sublime of their Mysteries, and accorded honors never previously given to any person of another race."

Writing the last pragraph, these thoughts came to mind: At the gates of Heliopolis, city of the Sun, home of the Phoenix, Pythagoras sought to be accorded knowledge of the Mysteries for "seven years" but was refused. As to the number 7, it takes a long tome and much effort to get to "Seventh Heaven". This can apply to us mortals, viz., patiently studying the Mysteries at a sanctuary, even an almond grove, forest, our Heart, until the "veil is rent" and our arduous study and dedication is rewarded with Light.

[Charlotte]

My Philosophy Teacher thought that Plotinus was the greatest of all Neo-Platonists, when I heard the name first, I thought Plotinus was the son of Plato.

"Plotinus of Lycopolis was born in Egypt of Roman parents, about the year 204 A.D. He refused at all times to discuss his childhood or the circumstances of his personal life, and no man knew of the day of his birth", neither did he allow a portrait to be made of him.

"For many years Plotinus attended the lectures of Ammonius Saccas, and with a mind fitted for mystical speculation he not only absorbed all that Ammonius could teach, but extended the doctrine far beyond its original proportions. ... Plotinus decided to open his school in Rome, and there he remained for the rest of his life; for he found among the Romans a group of able and eager disciples, and the house of Platinus at once became a center of intellectual culture. Prominent among his disciples were Amelius, Eustochius, and the immortal Porphrey—first editor of the writings of Plotinus and our principle source of knowledge of the life and teachings of the master.

"In attendance at his lectures were a number of distinguished Roman ladies, and Plotinus often visited their homes. Several outstanding families, impressed with the extraordinary nobility of his person and his universal reputation for integrity, appointed Plotinus executor of their estates and guardian of their children, responsibilities he accepted as part of the penalty of being born. His home overflowed with young people in his later years, orphaned children of some of the finest families of the Roman Empire. From the master they received instructions in the virtues, and according to their capacities, he initiated them into the mysteries of his philosophy. He joined with them in their youthful sports and was regarded as a dear friend, not merely a guardian and teacher.

"He also purchased the freedom of a number of young slaves of unusual abilities and talents, and these mingled with the youthful patricians on an equal footing. The liberty of noble children taken in war was similarly bought and his menage crew until it threatened to bent outward the walls of his home. Plotinus never married, but we do not know whether his single blessedness was from philosophic conviction or philosophic preoccupation."

[Charlotte]

"Porphyry tells us that Plotinus possessed not only universal wisdom but a knowledge of magic and the ability to perform seeming miracles. He gives a personal instance. He attended one of the lectures of Plotinus with a mood of melancholy heavy upon him and with a resolve to commit suicide. The lecture over, the master approached him, read his mind in every detail, and turned his thoughts completely away from self-distraction. This was the incident that brought the two men into a close communion of understanding that lasted throughout their lives.

"Among the Romans, Plotinus had only one enemy Alexandrius Olympius, a magicician, who regarded himself as the leading intellectual of the city, and was violently jealous of the master. He attempted to destroy Plotinus by diabolic art, necromancy, and the knowledge of the evil influences of certain stars. But the evil agencies which he sought to direct against Plotinus returned upon Olympius and he nearly perished. We have his own words: "The soul of Plotinus", said the magician, possessed such a might power that it immediately repelled malignant influences directed upon his person, so that they returned to the author of the evil.

"Porphyry describes the visit of a celebrated Egyptian priest, who came to Rome in a mission of state. The Egyptian, when introduced to Plotinus, possibly by Porphyry himself, recognized immediately the greatness of the master. He persuaded the philosopher to attend him in the magical ritual of invoking a familiar demon, and Plotinus at once consented.

"In the doctrines of the Egyptians, as preserved in the writings of Iamblichus, it was held that each man was given at birth a demon, or spirit guide, to be his constant attendant throughout life—of this order of being was the demon of Socrates."

We call the demon our Guaradian Angel, or perhaps in the greater scheme the "Divine Mind", aware of a snowflake falling, giving us the "first thought or answer" which we, having been conditioned by science and industry that all these things are not valid, almost automatically dismiss, but then regret as I should have listened to my 'instinct' we mostly call it.

Mr. Hall speaks of magic in the same manner he speaks about good food in our lives, and the reason the Egyptian priest immediately recognized Plotinus the master, was because he was of the same high spirits. I would think that many people pause a moment or two when meeting a person giving out good vibes, different from a person exuding life-giving enery such as Mr. Hall looking up or slightly waving his hand during a lecture, lifting us listeners to his mind. Ancient acounts, legends and myths are repleat with magic, it is written that should anyone mock the magician in those days, he would evaporate in a puff of smoke.

[Charlotte]

Sometimes I don't express correctly what I mean, to wit, it should mean the magician evaporated in in puff, not the person mocking him.

"Happy Plotinus," exclaimed the Egyptians, "who hast a god for an ettending spirit."

"It appears that on four occasions Plotinus enjoyed the blessed privilege of illumination when he was lifted up into the spiritual consciousness of his god, and received as an inner experience participation in the mystery of being. The purity of his life, the serenity of his mind, and the extension of his spiritual conception, he believed, would free him from the humiliation of a subsequent rebirth in a corporeal body.

"Plotinus resided in Rome approximately twenty-six years, and was a close friend and confidant of the Emperor Galienus, and his wife Salonina, both of whom held in profound reverence his person and his doctrines. It was to Galienus that Plotinus explained his secret desire to establish a philosophical city to be named Platonopolis, in honor of the immortal Plato. He asked for restoration of a destroyed city of the Campania, and that it be set aside as a habitation for philosophers, to be ruled over by the laws set forth by Plato. It seems that similar attempts were made, both in Rome and in Egypt, to establish such a city. The Emperor Galienus greatly favored the project, but was forced to abandon it when the patricians and other nobles threatened to dethrone him if he persisted with his sponsership.

"Plotinus died in the sixty-sixth year of his life, the second year of the reign of M. Aurelius Flavius Claudius. The direct cause of his death appears to have been the plague, but the indirect cause was probably the extreme austerity of his living. His vitality was lowered and undermined by abstinence from food. When writing or discoursing he would go for days without bread."

Profound, Mr. Hall's formulation of the first sentence of the first paragraph.

[Charlotte]

"The last words of Plotinus were addressed to Eustochius. There was no warning of the approaching end, and Eustochius had not hastened the time of the visit. Plotinus turned on his couch as the brilliant disciple entered; "As yet," he said, "I have expected you, and now I endeavor that my divine part may return to that divine nature which flourishes through the universe."

The Amalfi Coast, Richard Wagner also loved the Campania.

[Charlotte]

"We are often made to feel that there is another youth and age than that which is measured from the year of our natural birth. Some thoughts always find us youn, and keep us so. Such a thought is the love of the universe and eternal beauty. Every man and women parts from that contemplation with the feeling that it rather belongs to the ages than to mortal life. The last activity of the intellectual powers redeems us in a degree from the condition of time. In sickness, in languor, give us a strain of poetry, or a profound sentence, and we are refreshed; or produce a volume of Plato, or Shakespeare, or remind us of their names, and instantly we come into a feeling of longevity."

R. W. Emerson