PHILOSOPHICAL INTERPRETATIONS

 

On The Philosophy of Self Knowledge

 

“Know Thyself” commanded the God! Apollo, God of Delphi, established this injunction in the earliest period of Greek religious unity. Along with the maxim “Nothing Too Much” the God gave the Greeks, with brevity and ambiguity like his oracles, sound advice on both ‘the Good life’ and ‘Piety’. Citizens living a moderate and pious life, free from undue desire and ignorant actions, is the hope of every civilization. The greatness and failures of the Greeks depended on whether or not they obeyed the God and followed His advice. Philosophy has as its parents these two maxims, general truths drawn from experience, and all great philosophers taught these two truths, each in their own way.

 

The ‘Seven Wise Men’, to whom the sayings are attributed, were the first of the recorded Philosophers in Greece, (though not all came from mainland Greece). They knew that for a society to exist and be without faction the first thing must be for the individual to obey these basic injunctions. If all ‘Knew Themselves’ and were moderate both in their desires and actions the society over-all would be a balanced and moderate one. Such a society was the unfulfilled dream of many philosophers and statesmen. The reason the dream remained a dream was that not enough of the citizens followed the God’s commands.

 

Many in the ancient world took the maxim to mean that we should ‘Know’ how weak and insignificant we are compared to the gods. They strove to convince the masses of their innate worthlessness in order better to control their minds. If they could convince people that it was essentially worthless to think above the most mundane level, they could more easily control them. These power-mongers, themselves unloved by the gods, wanted to keep men from the gods themselves.

 

Yet the Pythian deity warns; Know Thyself, i.e. know that you are a man, that an unbridgeable gulf separates you from the gods... Countless myths express the dangerous consequences of this Hybris... The block or restriction imposed by a Greek god has never been more purely or more beautifully expressed; penalty and gain have dropped out of the field of vision, and the only thing left in it is understanding.... And even Socrates, for whom the problem of morality bore a totally different complexion, was able to use it as a fundamental tenet of his ethics.^.[1]

 

Cicero, however, disagrees with this.

 

Strive on indeed, and be sure that it is not you that is mortal, but only your body. For that man whom your outward form reveals is not yourself; the spirit is the true self, not that physical figure which can be pointed out by the finger. Know, then, that you are a god if a god is that which lives, feels, remembers, and foresees, and which rules, governs, and moves the body over which it is set, just as the supreme God above us rules this universe. And just as the eternal God moves the universe, which is partly mortal, so an immortal spirit moves the frail body.[2]

 

It took the courage of Socrates to show these characters for what they really were; unknowing nothings. Socrates pointed this out to the Athenians by example and irony - they executed him!

 

Plato, a member of Socrates’ followers, wished to avoid his teacher’s fate. Therefore, Plato hid the simple maxims behind grand literature, and being admired for his literature, survived, at the cost of subsequent diverse interpretation. The power of Plato’s literary achievement overshadowed the simple message he was putting forward, namely that of Apollo. All modern philosophy, in one way or another, follows in the foot-steps of Plato, though most work on superficial interpretation rather than the message so concealed by the surface of literary greatness. Plato had at all times the commands of the God in mind while writing his dialogues, yet few subsequent philosophers have recognized this fundamental fact. It is fashionable to treat the ancients as children of our mature society, their childish ideas have grown-up to maturity in our scientific adulthood. This really reverses the truth, because in following the maxims that Plato and other ancients knew, we are the children, self ignorant and extravagant in consumption.

 

However, the moral implications are but a part, as it were, of the command. If an individual is to be pious self knowledge means more than it does in moral terms. To Know God is to Know Ourselves as part of God. The ultimate Knowledge in philosophy and religion is Knowledge of Self identical with God. Having within us a ‘spark’ of God we must Know it and kindle a fire from it that burns brightly in our heart, giving warmth and heat to our souls chilled by contact with cold body, that cold body the soul leaves when it separates at the time of earthly death, self returning to Self.

 

In the period of history between Plato (d.347 B.C.E.) and Philo Judaeus (b.40 B.C.E.) most of the mystical writings of the Greek Philosophers have been lost. We know almost nothing of the Alexandrian Platonics who influenced the Jewish schools and later the Christians through Clement of Alexandria and Origen.

 

Philo gives a detailed application of Platonic mysticism to his Jewish Scriptures, and he, being the only complete writer to have survived from the period leading up to the formation of Christianity, is very important indeed. Clement was trained in the same Platonic tradition, and he again applied the mysticism to his own religion, Christianity. Origen followed from the same school of thought, as did other ‘Fathers of the Church’.

 

The readers or hearers of the works of Hermes Trismegistus had the doctrine of Self Knowledge repeated again and again. The Gnostics took their name from the ‘Gnosis,’ or Knowledge of God within the Self. Their diverse and somewhat complicated accounts of that Knowledge and the steps whereby it is attained, are for the most part ignored, if not misunderstood today.

 

There was, therefore, a general movement in philosophy from just before the time of Jesus and his followers, to ‘Know-Thyself.’ St. Paul contrasted ‘Know Thyself’ with ‘Know ye not thyself?’ and followed with “That Jesus Christ is in you!”[3] (2 Cor. 13;5). The wording in Greek is the same, with Paul forming, by the negative, a question from the Command of Apollo. And as the worshipper of Apollo must Know the God within, Paul admonishes his followers in the same spirit. It is the ‘Christ’ within that must be ‘Known’.

 

Almost all of the religions of the period were orientated toward the Mystery of the God within the Self, or the Self of the person being a part of God. And it was the duty of the devotee to ‘Know’ this part of God as the true ‘Self’, and thereby live a God-like life. The cults of Mithra, Zoroastrianism, and the other Eastern religions gave much importance to self knowledge, Even farther to the East, India, mother of many mystical cults, gave importance to ‘Knowing Atman as Brahman, Atman being ‘soul’ or the part of God, (Brahman), the real and immortal Self.

 

Plotinus is one of the greatest mystical writers who, like Clement, came from the city of Alexandria; the mixing-pot of religion and philosophy. He travelled to Rome and taught there for many years. He had many wealthy patrons and was widely respected. His was a message of ‘Enlightened Intellect’;

“Yes, we must so know, if we are to know what ‘Self Knowledge’ in intellect means. A man has become Intellect when he lets all the rest which belongs to him go and looks at this with this, and himself with himself; that is as an Intellect he sees himself...”[4]

 

How to obtained this knowledge was disputed between differing schools of thought. However the most common was through a path of; (a) Renunciation, (b) Purification, and (c) Initiation. The first two were easy to perform alone, but the Initiation was ceremonially performed with a Guide, Priest, or Hierophant. Often the person was taken on an imaginary journey through the Planetary spheres who govern human passions, where the Initiate is stripped of these and ‘Born Again’ to go forth not a ‘Man’ but a ‘God’ on earth, pure and free from the earth, destined to union with the God after death.[5]

 

 

Three Meanings of the Delphic Oracle

 

What is the meaning, or meanings, of the Delphic Oracle, “Know Thyself”?

 

1. The Material

Does it mean knowing the body, knowing our anatomy, proper diet and exercise to maintain health? Knowing how to treat disorders and injuries of the body? Yes, it means all these, and all knowledge of the material body!

 

2. The Moral

Does it mean Knowing our moral faults and obligations towards others? Does it mean searching our heart and mind and to examine our weaknesses and attitudes to life? Yes, it means knowing our real selves and our moral relations with others around us in our respective societies!

 

3. The Mystical

Does it mean Knowing the deepest inner workings of our mind? Does it mean our knowing ourselves with such an intensity that the knower and the known merge into one? Does it mean mystically knowing oneself as a living part of God? Yes, it most certainly means all of this, in a mystic union with God!

 

So we have three meanings to the oracle, Know Thyself. The Material, Moral, and Mystical Knowledge of ourselves are all contained in the meaning. One can not become the ‘perfect’ human without the knowledge of all three levels.

 

The first, the Material, we can learn from observation of the external world and from the teaching of others. The second, likewise, has relationship to the external world, but also with the internal world of the mind. The moral knowledge is of both the external and internal worlds, however, the third, or Mystical knowledge is wholly concerned with the inner being. It has no need of the external world nor any interaction with it. Indeed the Mystical Knowledge is entirely concerned with our selves and God alone. This Mystical knowledge is unlike the other two in that it cannot be taught by a teacher. All that can be taught is that such Knowledge does exist, and perhaps some method of attaining it can be suggested.

 

The learning of such Knowledge must be entirely internal with the individual and the only ‘outside’ teaching comes from God, who is really ‘internal’. Though the Mystical Knowledge is supremely superior to the Material and Moral, all three make up the perfect. person. The way of God is supreme but the ways of the world must also be Known.[6]

 

 

Thoughts About Mind

 

Let us think about Mind. Not the popular concept of consciousness or vocal thought, but the pre-vocal thought. It is the thinking that is behind words, before sentences are formed, the conceptual mind. Not the mind of the brain, alone, but the mind which permeates all cells with intelligence, informing them with structure and purpose. The growth and interaction of all parts of the body is governed by Mind without our normal awareness.

 

This extends to the universe and its interacting parts which are governed by an intelligence. As our mind and the universal mind are the same substance, if that which forms substance can be called substance, the analogy of the heavens to our own lives is a fair one. Our thinking mind is ever awhirl flowing like the stars across the sky. The fixed stars forming our fixed needs such as nutrition and steady growth, while the wandering planets form our passions and desires. Each of these, the fixed and changing needs, have a property of mind which governs them, and though performing different functions are basically the same. So, the immaterial part of our known existence can have an analogy in the heavens, and this leads to the worship of the heavens as more than symbol, as the real itself. The heavens are the only suitable outward symbol of Mind, as they are vast and all-encompassing, seemingly in disarray but when known found to be in a perfect order under universal laws. The universe contains all possibilities and the mind all probabilities.

 

Knowing oneself is the knowledge of Mind in its elevation toward the all. The individual mind is known by introspection, the universal by inspiration The contemplation which leads to the knowledge of Mind is essentially subject-less in that all or nothing amounts to the same state of ego-less-ness which is the end in mind. Personal introspection of our worldly actions and thoughts are essential for those who would live well, but impersonal introspection of heavenly action and thought leads to a higher life, an inspired recognition of our true selves.

 

As the universe contains us, we contain mind therefore the universe contains mind. A simple logical statement but a profound one. The order of the universe is knowable by mind, therefore, the order has mind as its source, it cannot be that order precedes that which orders. What lies behind the universe and that which knows is the same, like knows like. One does not gain access to Mind through intellectual effort as for knowledge of things in the world, but by being consubstantial or at-one with the world. The awareness in the egoless state is not a single mind it is being all Mind, being aware of all including the self in Self. There is not a loss of self, but the greatest gain of all Self. Those who fear loss of ego are in danger when their life in the body finishes. Those who have not Known themselves to be the All will know nothing then, when they return to the All.[7]

 

 

What is Truth?

 

“What is Truth” asked Pontius Pilate contemptuously? The only answer is ‘Know Thyself’. Know for yourself the subject being examined, and Know of Thyself, that which Knows, and the Truth becomes apparent. Do not take for True the fact that the earth goes around the sun unless you have measured or at least know how to measure its angular velocity. Then take note of how our senses mislead us to assume, from observation, that the opposite is true.

 

This is part of knowing yourself. Opposites can be true in different circumstances, something can be hot and cold at the same time, in relation to hotter and colder other somethings. Speaking in worldly terms we can be said to see farther in daylight than we can at night, but astrologically we see farther in the night when the obscuring sun has set, (or as the world turns, whichever be the case). So therefore there are opposite truths but each is true only in its own case. What is true in the worldly sense may, and most times, be false in a heavenly sense. Also some opposites are not the reality being examined, such as hot and cold which may be opposite poles but which are both Temperature, which itself has no opposite. The same can be said of other common opposites, but most of all in the case of Morals. Morals change with time and location, what is good here and now may well be bad there and then.

 

With the Mystical we have no opposites, no truth which may be false in differing conditions, all is One. That is not to say that the mystic knows the Truth, but rather that the Truth can be Known. The mystic’s starting point is also end of the quest, the Knowledge of ‘that which is’, an illumination that is confirmed only after death. The instant illumination of the timeless All, an All that is all Truth, assures the mystic that Truth does exist. Finding the All within oneself and seeing the immensity of the starry heavens one can only compare them with each other; and realizing that the similarity is greater than the difference one identifies them as an analogy, if not as identical.[8]

 

 

On the Value of the Ancient Mystics

 

Why are Plato and the other ancient Mystical writers preserved?

Not because they write of cobblers or politicians, but because they know the mind!

 

The Mystical writers are saved because of their value above and beyond the world. Yet their writings are of most value as an explanation of the world. When even your enemies praise you, then you are of value. Though praise from the ignorant is like unto a curse, as criticism from the learned is a blessing.

 

Even though misunderstood or not understood at all, the Mysteries have a Truth that shines through all ignorance to enlighten mankind in all ages.

 

The Knowledge of Thyself of the ancients is the Knowledge of what Is.

 

It is only through God within that we can Know the God everywhere, as like Knows like. As the universe has matter so do we, and as we have mind so does the Universe have Mind. How can we have what the Whole does not or the other way around? Foolish is the man who thinks he has done something that is new under the sun or that thinks even that the sun is unique to his life!

 

Our bodies are here to tend the earth and our minds to think of God, if this is done by all then All will be Good. This is the message of the Earth Mother as well as the Stars above to those who have minds to Know.

 

Those who cannot see when their eyes are closed, nor hear in silence, will never Know Themselves, nor God. They hear but do not listen, look but do not see, and are afraid of the dark within themselves. If the men of the world closed their eyes for a while until they saw themselves in their mind, they would start to know themselves. If they listened in silence they would hear themselves answer with Truth all their questions. This is something that any person can do at any time; yet few do at all in a life-time!

 

Of all beings on earth the stone is the most obedient to the will of God, waiting without complaint until the Un-Moved Mover moves it, through hot or cold, day-night, up-down, wet-dry, a True creature of God, trusting in the truth of its being and the Being of God. Mountain or sea-rolled pebble, it is all the same to God and the Stone, as Parmenides said, “It Is All One!”

 

Where is the Ego when one meets the One? To demand separation from God as an individual ego is the ultimate Blasphemy and Insult to the Creator of All! What is the pain in giving up a very little for the All, to Know what is Known?

 

Plato and the Mystics have made Known ourselves to ourselves, a timeless Knowledge to those who recognize themselves as the same as the One True God, That what Is, Was and Will Be.[9]

 

 

 “YE ARE GODS!” Are We? If Not Why Not?

 

Then the serpent said to the woman, “No! You will not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat of it (fruit of the tree of Knowledge) your eyes will be opened and you will be like Gods, knowing good and evil.”[10][Genesis 3;4-5]

 

I once said “You too are Gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.”[11] [Psalm 82;6]

 

“Is it not written in your Law: ‘I said, You Are Gods?”[12] [John 10;34]

 

The serpent, God and Jesus all agree on one thing: ‘We Are Gods’. What are we to think of this astounding claim from the highest authority? In what way are we Gods, in what part are we not gods? The serpent answers the first question for us, we are like gods in having ‘Knowledge’ and a choice to use that knowledge for good or evil. Though when one recognizes the God within, only good can be chosen. We are not gods if we do not recognize ourselves to be so. I do not think anyone can argue against the last statement as it is self evident. Therefore the path to godhood lies in the direction of Self-Knowledge.

 

The Delphic maxim ‘Know Thyself’ is this self same directive applied toward the Greeks. Through Self-Knowledge comes the recognition of our godhood, and the exercise of good rather than evil. This is the basis of all religion and its chief function. Jesus could not have put it plainer, nor the Psalmist more clearly, yet why have people not attained this goal set so plainly before us for hundreds of generations? There seems to be just as much evil in this world today, and every day, since the bible was written. Why, then, have people, both within and outside established religions, ignored the Word of God. Worse, they have ignored the God within their own selves. Even the serpent, the archetype of evil, knew the Truth. Woe for humankind if they remain ignorant, doom and destruction are at hand.

 

This is not speculation, it is a hard and cold fact, that if people do not find the God within themselves they will not find God, nor the Good, nor the Truth! ‘What is Truth’ but the Self-Knowledge of our Godhood, and the Good. How is it to be attained? Every branch of religion has its own answer, ritual, works, faith, etc... Firstly, it is not attained but granted. Secondly, we can only prepare our selves so as to be ready to recognize what is being offered. Thirdly, deep self introspection (and a careful watch must be kept on the mind) is the method of preparation and recognition.

 

“If you boldly grasp this conception, you will get a truer notion of Him who contains all things,... If then you do not make yourself equal to God, you cannot apprehend God; for like is known by like. Leap clear of all that is corporeal, and make yourself grow into a like expanse with that greatness which is beyond measure; rise above all time, and become eternal; then you will apprehend God,...”[13]

 

Think that you are everywhere at once, on land, at sea, in heaven; think that you are not yet begotten, that you are in the womb, that you are old, that you have died, that you are beyond the grave; grasp this in your thought all at once, all places and times, all substances and qualities together; then you can apprehend God.”[14]

 

‘Ye are Gods’ only if you recognise yourself as a God, thereby doing only good, in union with God Godself.[15]

 

 

The Wisdom of The Ancients: Sophia

 

The wisdom which holds nature in bounds by natural immaterial forces, whereby all is accomplished for the Good of the Whole.

 

Whatever the description, no matter how it is said or demonstrated, the message is understood only by those who Know Themselves, for they find Wisdom in all things. Those who are known as Philosophers, or Lovers of Wisdom, altogether differ from the worldly wise, in that they Know Themselves to be a product of the Wisdom of God, and see in the workings of nature a wholeness and a goodness so immense as to be beyond the mind of any man to fully comprehend. The guiding Mind behind the world, so great though it is, can be Known by those who can recognize It’s effects in the material world, through a similarity of thought.

 

To recognize the inner forces which are the causes is but the first step, (one on which our modern science sits), as the observer is part of the same as the observed. Since the world and self are but parts of the same thing, to Know Thyself is to know the world. Not the world of particulars, one does not need to know each grain of sand to know a beach, any more than one needs to know all the laws of the universe to Know that the universe is governed by an order. As each part of a whole is interdependent on each other part, to Know the Whole is to Know the parts. That which Knows the Whole alone is Wise, and is guided by Wisdom, that part of the whole which recognizes the wisdom that guides, and follows in the path of that wisdom is the lover of wisdom, the philosopher.

 

The opinions of the worldly wise progress in a manner from generation to speculative automation of the material in like pattern of the things witnessed in the world, however, without the understanding of the end results of their action, as all is, to them, invention. The overall Knowledge of Wisdom has the end in mind before the beginning, as the Architect of the Universe should, but the architects of the world, by holding to the present moment in time as their only true reference, can never do. Whereas the philosopher does as is done, by nature, for he Knows that there is nothing new under the sun, and can do whatever he wishes, as all he wishes is for the Wisdom and Knowledge of God to continue, to be in the future as it was in the past, and must be in the present. Therefore the future for one who Knows Himself is as secure as the present is real and as necessary as the past was, whatever the Now brings, was, is, and will be, as it should be, So Be It.[16]

 

 

 

An Eternal Moment of Tranquillity

 

            A Reverie in the Park

 

I was walking through the park one morning,

Looking at the trees,

Seeing the leaves, each and all of them.

 

When suddenly the earth was far below me

As I rose into the heavens,

Seeing All being All, at once and yet timeless.

 

A great light and warmth enveloped me.

A flame of Love surrounded me.

Timeless, knowing All, being All, in an ecstasy of Love.

 

I thought, ‘I Am’!

 

But, on the thought ‘I’;

Suddenly I was back in the park,

Half a pace from where I was before.

 

An eternity had passed in half a step.

 

A deep sadness came over me for a moment,

But, seeing the trees, each and every leaf perfect where it was,

I felt a great relief and belief that I was perfect where I was.

 

Thinking that when I am no longer being ‘I’,

Will Be Eternally All.[17]