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Platonic Life


Amita

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A lecture by Tim Addey of Prometheus Trust:

http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/Platonic_Life_-_the_Philosopher_in_the_World.pdf

An excerpt:

Quote

Every human being stepping into the world has before him or herself a part to play in a drama: whether that drama is a tragedy or not just as clearly depends upon how well the self is known. Indeed, the whole human race living and acting upon this earth also has a collective drama to enact – and the message is still the same: unless we as a global society know what we are, what kind of creatures we truly are, we are likely to find out only through tragedy.

So finding an answer to the question, "what kind of creatures are we that require the art and science of philosophy to move towards the good" is worth whatever effort we are able to give it.

 

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The second lecture by Guy Wyndham-Jones:

http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/The_Platonic_Life_-_the_Philosopher_in_the_Soul.pdf

An excerpt:

Quote

Philosophy itself has no sects; it is simply the love and admiration of all that is real and good – and whoever does this as the great work of his or her life is to be called a philosopher. Philosophy is the voyage of discovery of that which is already there, and always has been and always will be there….. Whatever names, whatever divisions, whatever paths to and true visions of things which essentially are, are all discovered through the love of wisdom, by whatever name anyone may choose to call it.

 

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The final lecture of this 2013 series, again by Addey:

http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/The_Platonic_Life_-_The_Philosopher_amongst_the_Stars.pdf

An excerpt:

Quote

In our lectures so far we have looked the unfolding of human life in what is called by the Platonic tradition "the political sphere" – that is to say in the outer world that we help to create and order – and in the inner world of the self, or soul. In the first, our soul powers are turned outwards and in the cultivation of the virtues or excellences of wisdom, temperance, fortitude and justice, they join with the commonwealth of the manifested universe to add a certain goodness due from each human individual. In the second, our soul powers are turned inwards – and here again the excellences are cultivated in order to adorn, beautify and order our own nature. This second movement – this deepening of our powers – is the field of the cathartic virtues: they are so called because through the cultivation of cathartic wisdom, temperance, fortitude and justice we purify ourselves from the illusions, errors and attachments which seem to have become a part of the soul in its dealings with the material and natural universe.

 

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Very nice. Philosophy was originally supposed to teach us how to live well and lead a moral life. 

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32 minutes ago, StarMountainKid said:

Very nice. Philosophy was originally supposed to teach us how to live well and lead a moral life. 

Yep, and more, to become our true nature - godlike & immortal.

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Much Platonic thought has been translated since 1835 when the English Platonist Thomas Taylor died.  Yet his translations are still valued - as someone once said to the effect - "Taylor may not be the best Greek scholar, but he knows Plato best."

However some of his terms are difficult to understand and present-day dictionaries are often of little help.  So Prometheus Trust put together a nice little glossary for our benefit:

http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/Glossary.pdf

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My personal belief is that immortality is a waste of living a good life ... immortality is merely a ' T ' away from immorality

~

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3 minutes ago, third_eye said:

My personal belief is that immortality is a waste of living a good life ... immortality is merely a ' T ' away from immorality

Clever, but silly.  What makes you think immortality stops one from "living a good life"?

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The Platonic Philosophers' creed, by Thomas Taylor:

http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/Platonic_Philosophers_Creed.pdf

A little preface:

Quote

The following summary of Platonic philosophy was written by Thomas Taylor and published several times with minor variations. This particular version is from Thomas M Johnson's magazine, The Platonist. It is called the "Platonic Philosophers' Creed‟ with the expectation that students of philosophy will use it not so much as a dogmatic statement that admits of no argument, but rather as a starting point for a series of studies and meditations: this version has each point starting with the words “I believe”, while other versions omit this opening – we offer this one because we wish to emphasize the close relationship between knowledge and belief. The attempt to isolate either knowledge or belief from the other either dismisses philosophy, or reduces it to a lifeless body of clever facts.

The Creed was included in Taylor‟s essay on "The Theology of the Greeks‟, which is to be found in the fourth volume of the Thomas Taylor Series, Collected Writings on the Gods and the World.

 

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26 minutes ago, Amita said:

Clever, but silly.  What makes you think immortality stops one from "living a good life"?

What makes you think that a waste of living a good life renders it to a stop ?

Is it the silliness that makes it clever , is it the cleverness that makes it silly ?

~

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4 hours ago, Amita said:

Yep, and more, to become our true nature - godlike & immortal.

Philosophy isn't a religion, even though some philosophical points of view have religious undertones. 

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10 minutes ago, third_eye said:

What makes you think that a waste of living a good life renders it to a stop ?

I think I know the problem. Westerners don't have fun gods and spirits..... 

and like I said before, the only thing they've ever done for our spiritual traditions is add a anal retentiveness to it :yes:

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9 minutes ago, Piney said:

I think I know the problem. Westerners don't have fun gods and spirits..... 

and like I said before, the only thing they've ever done for our spiritual traditions is add a anal retentiveness to it :yes:

When god is nothing more than a demanding parental figure no wonder people have sharp pointy sticks up their backside. Can't do this, can't do that, all the potential fun is taken out of life. Leaving nothing more than a guilt complex and spiritual paranoia. 

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4 minutes ago, Piney said:

Westerners don't have fun gods and spirits..... 

Its not a East West thing on a Philosophical level, merely more so on a Social Cultural Level. For over a thousand years in the recent thousands, fun was merely the devil's playground, but then again, the only irreligious play ground that seems to be available is a god's fun with the devil.

Spirits are the more difficult factual jar to put the finger in, its much easier just to pour it out and let it seep or dissipate. We know the labels and brand names always outlast the contents.

 

~

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31 minutes ago, third_eye said:

What makes you think that a waste of living a good life renders it to a stop ?

Is it the silliness that makes it clever , is it the cleverness that makes it silly ?

Too deep for me - please explain the first line.

Cleverness makes it silly.

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32 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

Philosophy isn't a religion, even though some philosophical points of view have religious undertones. 

Nowadays that is true, but in ancient times the Living Sacred was everywhere, in mind, heart, earth, sky, and beyond.

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1 minute ago, Amita said:

Too deep for me - please explain the first line.

It is not deep, therefore no explanation will suffice

~

1 minute ago, Amita said:

Cleverness makes it silly.

Pouring milk in an ink well and scratching the quilt pen on the stone ?

~

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4 minutes ago, Amita said:

Too deep for me - please explain the first line.

Cleverness makes it silly.

How much actual enjoyment do you get from your spiritual path? Does it give you meaning? Purpose? Does it make you biased and judgmental of others who do not follow your path? 

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1 minute ago, Amita said:

Nowadays that is true, but in ancient times the Living Sacred was everywhere, in mind, heart, earth, sky, and beyond.

All of it was metaphors, not to be taken literal. Say it was the spirit of the thing. Actually meant the emotional qualities it possessed. In other words how it made you feel. 

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Just now, XenoFish said:

How much actual enjoyment do you get from your spiritual path? Does it give you meaning? Purpose? Does it make you biased and judgmental of others who do not follow your path? 

A regular if not constant buzz - no gift, no separation, but meaning is deepened - same response - the Mahayana or Theosophy or ancient Philosophy includes all paths, so whatever others do or not do is fine with me.

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5 minutes ago, Amita said:

A regular if not constant buzz - no gift, no separation, but meaning is deepened - same response - the Mahayana or Theosophy or ancient Philosophy includes all paths, so whatever others do or not do is fine with me.

Here's the thing. Not a lot of spiritual people are like that. Quite a bit of them are almost demanding in their need for validation. 

My rule of thumb is that if it harms no one, I don't care. Some ideologies are toxic, and need to be nipped fast. 

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10 hours ago, Amita said:

A lecture by Tim Addey of Prometheus Trust:

http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/Platonic_Life_-_the_Philosopher_in_the_World.pdf

An excerpt:

 

Legitimate question: give Plato's own strong distaste for theatre, isn't it odd to frame his philosophy in terms of drama?

I mean, the metaphor is /clearly/ not the speaker's own, it's been around, well, since at least Plato's time, but seeing that makes me wonder just how firm a grip on the subject matter he has.

EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Addey_(astrologer)  (Emphasis mine.)

Never mind.

EDIT EDIT: New question: How do you (or anyone else) reconcile the idea of a philosopher -- literally, a lover of knowledge -- studying astrology, the original pseudo-science, and the opposite of learning?

4 hours ago, Piney said:

I think I know the problem. Westerners don't have fun gods and spirits..... 

and like I said before, the only thing they've ever done for our spiritual traditions is add a anal retentiveness to it :yes:

Uhh, we get Bacchus and Eros. Show me more fun gods and I'll...

have a lot more fun, evidently.

--Jaylemurph

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6 hours ago, XenoFish said:

Can't do this, can't do that, all the potential fun is taken out of life

Can't murder and can't rape people,what a stern god he is.

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12 hours ago, Amita said:

Yep, and more, to become our true nature - godlike & immortal.

Godlike ?

Immortal?

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4 hours ago, jaylemurph said:

Uhh, we get Bacchus and Eros. Show me more fun gods and I'll...

Past tense, I will say no more.

Because I can't remember the name of the Roman emperor who led the death squads to wipe out all those happy go lucky pagan priests. 

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