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A Philosopher's Blog

May the Gods kindle in our souls a love and an understanding for things divine and human, may they elevate our souls as we realise our holy nature, and may they assist us as we bring light and beauty to those in our presence.

6 January 2009: Hyperignorance: pure Socratic Irony

The humourous yet profoundly successful method of Socrates is his famous admission of ignorance on whatever subject he happens to be discussing. This allows him the freedom to pursue the truth wherever it leds him. It is a path of inquiry which is both fruitful, honest, and delightful.

In relations to this, Damascius, the last head of the Platonic Academy in Athens, coined the term "hyperignorance" (huperagnoia) to refer to our most truest method of understanding the Divine. He wrote that "the Ineffable should be honoured by complete silence, and above all, even with complete unknowing, itself deeming all knowledge unworthy." The spiritual path of "Unknowning" is essentially this Socratic method of admitting ignorance applied to knowledge of the Good.

But there still a kind of knowledge, however contradictory, to be gotten from this line of inquiry. In most of the dialogues, Socrates goes back and forth between propositions and their conclusions until he reaches a point where reason fails him. But yet the path is fruitful.

For instance, in the Lysis, he tries to define "friendship" but fails. However, at the very end, he tells Lysis that he is glad to have him as a friend, even though he does not quite know what that means now. Plato is hinting at the fact that, though we may not be able to know things definitively, we still have a sense about them. It is a knowledge written in the soul that transcends language and all attempts at definition.

The Divine is not understood by reason or demonstration, but by a sense of unknowing that the mysterious principle rises in the souls of those who seek it. It can be the most joyfully tormenting side of Socratic irony. Damascius nails it when he says that "perhaps the Ineffable is so completely ineffable that one cannot even establish that it is ineffable."

(These quotes of Damascius were translated by Rosemary Griffith in Neoplatonism and Christianity: Pseudo-Dionysus and Damascus)

2 January 2009: Avoiding an Endocrine Spirituality

The spiritual exercises of the Platonist are aimed at perfecting the vision of the soul. The essential practice, though performed in a multitude of ways, is simply this: (1) to rationally and intuitively study the nature of the universe, at all its levels, both at the corporeal and divine levels, (2) then, after this rational study, to contemplate and actually witness these truths being played out around you, as actually present to oneself, all the time, and (3) to live in accordance with these truths, through the practice of noble virtue and with a reverence for the Divine and its creation.

This is different from many of the spiritual exercises which one may encounter elsewhere, in which one induces "states" by altering one's natural breathing and stimulating the parts of the body (the chakras, the kundalini, etc.) by intense concentration or posturing.

The reason that the Platonist avoids these is that when such states are produced, how are we to know whether the results are a true enlightenment, a geniune understanding and union with reality, or a physiological sensation produced by a saturation of oxygen and an over-stimulation of the endocrine system.

This is not to say that mystics who use such techniques are not enlightened; it is simply that, for the Platonist, such practices, though they may be used for deification, invite the real risk for self-deception and falling from the path of Wisdom into pleasure seeking behaviour.

The methods of our school are primarily noetic. By taming the body through a simple diet, healthy exercise and modest living, and training the mind in the art of dialectics, contemplation, and virtuous activity, the risk of falling into a spirituality that is biological in essence is reduced and the soul is serene and clear enough to witness the divine realities as they are.

The aim of all this is to understand better, not feel better.

1 January 2009: Pray

The solace and joy the soul finds in prayer, in turning her self towards the sources of her light and being, in drawing her self into the activity and warmth of divinity, is wondrous and revitalising.

Mastering the art of prayer, perfecting the ritual of offering the motion of one's thoughts and actions to the gods, is something that occurs only after much practice and a great deal of experience.

One of the most important skills the soul must develop is learning when she is falling off course during her prayer. How well and how quickly she can distinguish between true experiential gifts from the divine and her own projected imaginations and bodily sensations, determines if she will succeed in her quest for the highest knowledge and virtue.

Does she spend her time imagining how great it would feel to witness and commune with God, or does she actually engage in prayer and contemplation? Does she speak of owning divine virtues, and yet hasn't mastered the human ones?

The joy and splendour of divine illumination cannot come until the soul has chosen to put aside dreaming and begin engaging in practice, until she has given up wasting her time on social trivialities and dedicate serious time towards her eternal homecoming.

The pleasure of prayer is beyong description, but not for a soul that is afraid to exchange thinking philosophically for Philosophy itself.