1.28.2013

Something

No one who has not studied philosophy and who is not entirely pure at the time of his departure is allowed to enter the company of the Gods, but the lover of knowledge only.

For after death, as they say, the genius of each individual, to whom he belonged in life, leads him to a certain place in which the dead are gathered together, whence after judgement has been given they pass into the world below, following the guide, who is appointed to conduct them from this world to the other; and when they have there received their due and remained their time, another guide brings them back again after many revolutions of ages.  Now this way to the other world is not, as Aeschylus says in the Telephus, a single and straight path-if that were so no guide would be needed, for no one could miss it; but there are many partings of the road, and windings, as I infer from the rites and sacrifices which are offered to the gods below in places where there ways meet on earth.  The wise and orderly soul follows in the straight path and is conscious of her surroundings; but the soul which desires the body, and which, as I was relating before, has long been fluttering about the lifeless frame and the world of sight, is after many struggles and many sufferings hardly and with violence carried away by her attendant genius, and when she arrives at the place where the other souls are fathered, if she be impure and have done impure deeds, whether foul murders or other crimes which are the brothers of these, and the works of brothers in crime- from that soul every one flees and turns away; no one will be her companion, no one her guide, but alone she wanders in extremity of evil until certain times are fulfilled, and when the are fulfilled, she is borne irresistibly to her own fitting habitation; as every pure and just soul which has passed through life in the company and under the guidance of the gods has also her own proper home.

Now the earth has divers wonderful regions, and is indeed in nature and extent very unlike the notions of the geographers, as I believe on the authority of one who shall be nameless.

Plato 424-348 B.C.

1.07.2013

Truth Seeker, I Choose to be Inspired.

I give birth to the educated me.

We don't have to ask questions, but we have to live as though we have answered them.

The prisoner doesn't want to see the light.  He sees it as painful and as sufferage.

As we come to know God and to unveil our minds from the tunnel vision this life has to offer, we begin to see truth and reality as it really is.  As we think of this and see it, we have to accept the ugly parts as well as the good.  The ugly parts bring pain.

The more focused we are on God and fixated on Deity, the easier it is to cope with pain and suffering.

Once we get used to this light, an inevitable low comes.  The ebb and flow of life.  As we see Deity and then move towards progression we of course are most familiar with the tunnel vision that came with our childhood, the easy, the comfortable, the ignorant bliss.  Yet once you've searched and sought out the light you search for more, you see more in the stars, the moon, and the heaven, not only in him the sun.

This process eventuates in acceptance of reality and perfection happens when we choose to see things as they really are.

When this change happens we move into a more compassionate being. We acquire benevolence for our fellow ignorantly bliss-filled men.  You pity them because they have not yet seen the perfection in accepting the uglies of reality.

Once we have reached a certain point in the process of progression, the fall is that much further.  It hurts more, its worse to go back to ignorance.  It's spiritual death.

Socrates believes his explanation of the world is that man need be fixed upon this light, this intellectual light, which is good.  Yet he says God is the one that knows whether or not this opinion is true or false.

It's natural for us as humans to want to dwell in light and bask in truth.

The process of going from the cave of darkness to the light of the Lord is much too pleasant, laughable. The reverse unsavory.

Conventional views of education involve a teacher giving the knowledge to the student, as if it's a tangible object shared from one to another.  Socrates differs than that of conventional, that our knowledge is built-in.  He says that it is a combining of mind and body, soul.  It's in this acquiration of knowledge that the brightest and the best of our being exists.

Even if you naturally aren't wise, through exercise, and good habit this can be achieved.

Black has to have its opposite.  White.  You don't know the glory, purity, victory of white until you have become well acquainted with Black.

Proportion.

2 options must exist.

Balance

Yin and Yang

Moderation in all things.

Those who have reached the upper world are called to reach out and untie the blindfolds tied on those prisoners dwelling in the shadows of the cave.

It is an idea of universalism.   Everyone is saved.  Everyone in the same State, made by the legislator, the law maker, God.  What is natural for man is to need/want/love fellow-men.  I am a piece to a puzzle.  A valuable one, an essential part.

Glaucon's  concern is that the process is unfair.  That its unfair for the ones desiring to see the light, to intellectually excel  the seekers to go back, down, to a prisoners cell where darkness and shadows rule.

Socrates explains beautifully the intention of the plan, universalism.

You train yourself to choose how you see the world, and how you react to adversity and trial and pain and suffering.

Beautifully crazy.


Lindsey