Neo-Platonism: The beginning of Comparative Religion?

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Roncooper
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Post by Roncooper »

Al,

Thank you for the very interesting link. I see that he has passed away. Another kindred spirit passing in the night.

He mentions Sanatana Dharma, which I have studied a little. Metaphysically, it is very similar to Neoplatonism.

Ron

ALOberhoulser
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Post by ALOberhoulser »

a little graphic I ran across -
Image
Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.
~Max Planck

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Post by Cindy B. »

8)
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

Roncooper
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Post by Roncooper »

Al.

Nice post. I didn’t realize how universal the golden rule was. I wonder if Campbell commented on this.

I thought I would post one more. It is from Immanuel Kant.


Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.
IMO it is a generalization of the golden rule, and possibly a bit too nerdy for your list. I thought it would be fun to share that there was a philosophical version.


Ron

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Post by ALOberhoulser »

Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man of math - James Earle

Nep-Platonism get a big nod on this... 8)
Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.
~Max Planck

Neoplato
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Post by Neoplato »

As I journey beyond the night,
Hindered from eternal flight,
Guiding stars fail to find me,
And to the Earth the cords that bind me,
Never severed, only dreaming,
For a wholeness, always yearning,
Till once again, home I find,
Albeit lost within my mind.


I’ve been off chasing rainbows. Exploring the colors have been interesting, but I have yet to find the light.
Infinite moment, grants freedom of winter death, allows life to dawn.

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Post by Clemsy »

Neo, i hope all is well!

Cheers,
Clemsy
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Hey, Neoplato! It's cool to hear from you again. 8)
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

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Post by CarmelaBear »

Neo, your silent retreat was a bit scary. Welcome back.

WorryBear

~
Once in a while a door opens, and let's in the future. --- Graham Greene

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Post by Neoplato »

Thanks for the welcome back. Hopefully I can get into the habit of posting again. I haven’t been idle since I’ve been away, I continue to read or listen to anything I can get my hands on.

Over the weekend I just found “The Portable Jung” and “The Joseph Campbell Companion” which I’ve been looking for. I took that as a sign that maybe I should stop by the website. :D
Infinite moment, grants freedom of winter death, allows life to dawn.

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Post by Cindy B. »

8)
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

Neoplato
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Post by Neoplato »

Recently, my continues studies lead me to another volume of old and forgotten lore.

The Varieties of Religious Experience
A Study in Human Nature
by
William James
Harvard University, March, 1902.

And it just so happens that there is a chapter on Mysticism that I found extremely fascinating. Below is an excerpt from pages 407-408.
In Hinduism, in Neoplatonism, in Sufism, in
Christian mysticism, in Whitmanism, we find the
same recurring note, so that there is about mystical
utterances an eternal unanimity which ought to make
a critic stop and think, and which brings it about that
the mystical classics have, as has been said, neither
birthday nor native land. Perpetually telling of the
unity of man with God, their speech antedates languages,
and they do not grow old.

“That art Thou!” say the Upanishads, and the
Vedantists add: “Not a part, not a mode of That, but
identically That, that absolute Spirit of the World.”
“As pure water poured into pure water remains the
same, thus, O Gautama, is the Self of a thinker who
knows. Water in water, fire in fire, ether in ether, no
one can distinguish them: likewise a man whose mind
has entered into the Self.”

“‘Every man,’ says the Sufi Gulshan-Raz, whose heart is no longer shaken
by any doubt, knows with certainty that there is no
being save only One… . In his divine majesty the me,
and we, the thou, are not found, for in the One there
can be no distinction. Every being who is annulled
and entirely separated from himself, hears resound
outside of him this voice and this echo: I am God: he
has an eternal way of existing, and is no longer subject
to death.’”

In the vision of God, says Plotinus [neoplatonism], “what sees is not our reason, but something prior and superior to our reason… . He who thus sees
does not properly see, does not distinguish or imagine
two things. He changes, he ceases to be himself,
preserves nothing of himself. Absorbed in God, he
makes but one with him, like a centre of a circle coinciding with another centre.”

“Here,” writes Suso, “the spirit dies, and yet is all alive in the marvels of
the Godhead … and is lost in the stillness of the glorious
dazzling obscurity and of the naked simple unity.
It is in this modeless where that the highest bliss is
to be found.”

“He who would hear the voice of Nada, ‘the Soundless
Sound,’ and comprehend it, he has to learn the
nature of Dharma
… . When to himself his form appears
unreal, as do on waking all the forms he sees in
dreams, when he has ceased to hear the many, he
may discern the one—the inner sound which kills the
outer… . For then the soul will hear, and will remember.
And then to the inner ear will speak the voice of
the silence… . And now thy self is lost in self, thyself
unto thyself, merged in that self from which thou first
didst radiate… . Behold! thou hast become the Light,
thou hast become the Sound, thou art thy Master and
thy God. Thou art thyself the object of thy search:
the voice unbroken, that resounds throughout eternities,
exempt from change, from sin exempt, the
seven sounds in one, the voice of the silence. Om tat
Sat.”( H. P. Blavatsky: The voice of the Silence)
I find it amazing that these concepts are never talked about but have been documented in numerous texts. Who would have thought there would be a chapter in an obscure book about comparative mysticism?

Better yet, who would have thought that the person actually looking for this would ever find it. :shock:
Infinite moment, grants freedom of winter death, allows life to dawn.

Roncooper
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Post by Roncooper »

For those who don't know, William James is one of the founders of Pragmatism and is considered to be one of the best American philosophers.

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Post by nandu »

Neoplato wrote:Recently, my continues studies lead me to another volume of old and forgotten lore.

The Varieties of Religious Experience
A Study in Human Nature
by
William James
Harvard University, March, 1902.

And it just so happens that there is a chapter on Mysticism that I found extremely fascinating. Below is an excerpt from pages 407-408.
In Hinduism, in Neoplatonism, in Sufism, in
Christian mysticism, in Whitmanism, we find the
same recurring note, so that there is about mystical
utterances an eternal unanimity which ought to make
a critic stop and think, and which brings it about that
the mystical classics have, as has been said, neither
birthday nor native land. Perpetually telling of the
unity of man with God, their speech antedates languages,
and they do not grow old.

“That art Thou!” say the Upanishads, and the
Vedantists add: “Not a part, not a mode of That, but
identically That, that absolute Spirit of the World.”
“As pure water poured into pure water remains the
same, thus, O Gautama, is the Self of a thinker who
knows. Water in water, fire in fire, ether in ether, no
one can distinguish them: likewise a man whose mind
has entered into the Self.”

“‘Every man,’ says the Sufi Gulshan-Raz, whose heart is no longer shaken
by any doubt, knows with certainty that there is no
being save only One… . In his divine majesty the me,
and we, the thou, are not found, for in the One there
can be no distinction. Every being who is annulled
and entirely separated from himself, hears resound
outside of him this voice and this echo: I am God: he
has an eternal way of existing, and is no longer subject
to death.’”

In the vision of God, says Plotinus [neoplatonism], “what sees is not our reason, but something prior and superior to our reason… . He who thus sees
does not properly see, does not distinguish or imagine
two things. He changes, he ceases to be himself,
preserves nothing of himself. Absorbed in God, he
makes but one with him, like a centre of a circle coinciding with another centre.”

“Here,” writes Suso, “the spirit dies, and yet is all alive in the marvels of
the Godhead … and is lost in the stillness of the glorious
dazzling obscurity and of the naked simple unity.
It is in this modeless where that the highest bliss is
to be found.”

“He who would hear the voice of Nada, ‘the Soundless
Sound,’ and comprehend it, he has to learn the
nature of Dharma
… . When to himself his form appears
unreal, as do on waking all the forms he sees in
dreams, when he has ceased to hear the many, he
may discern the one—the inner sound which kills the
outer… . For then the soul will hear, and will remember.
And then to the inner ear will speak the voice of
the silence… . And now thy self is lost in self, thyself
unto thyself, merged in that self from which thou first
didst radiate… . Behold! thou hast become the Light,
thou hast become the Sound, thou art thy Master and
thy God. Thou art thyself the object of thy search:
the voice unbroken, that resounds throughout eternities,
exempt from change, from sin exempt, the
seven sounds in one, the voice of the silence. Om tat
Sat.”( H. P. Blavatsky: The voice of the Silence)
I find it amazing that these concepts are never talked about but have been documented in numerous texts. Who would have thought there would be a chapter in an obscure book about comparative mysticism?

Better yet, who would have thought that the person actually looking for this would ever find it. :shock:
The book has not been entirely forgotten, Neo. It has been on my to-read list for a long time.

The Goodreads website has a bunch of insightful reviews, both pro and con.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/288 ... earch=true

Nandu.
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu

Roncooper
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Post by Roncooper »

The reviews certainly are mixed. I put the book on my wish list. It is worth $7 just to read about the various experiences people had.

In my opinion the experience described on pages 407-408 happens when what the Hindu's call the greater Self and I call the Whole enters into a person's consciousness and is experienced as self.

This is the great experience for our consciousness. Just as holding one's newborn child is for the heart and kicking the winning goal in the World Cup final is for the will.

This mystical experience of unity is reinforced by our intellects now that we have scientifically discovered that we are not separate in a physical sense. Of course the scientific community and the world's mystics differ as to the nature of the Whole. The mystic experiences the greater Self with its consciousness and the scientists only sees the machine.

This mystical experience can be so powerful for the individual that they conclude that not only is the separation we experience in everyday life an illusion but the actual separate self is an illusion. This is probably the prevailing viewpoint among individuals who have thought about this topic.

But the more research I do the more I find that people who have dwelled upon this mystical experience for many years reach a place where they believe we live a dual existence in that we are both. Maslow called this the plateau experience which is typically experience by the elderly. Evidently it takes a long time to get there.

The view from the plateau is that I am both temporal and eternal, both the Whole and a quantum of the Whole.

I have been trying this view on for size and it makes sense to me. As quanta we worship pieces of the Whole like love, or the brain, or the mystery. Following our bliss is being lucky enough to spend time focusing on that piece which is meaningful for us.

This is new for me and I need more time to think. Thank you for the thought provoking post.

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