 124. Philosophy � Greek |
"All men seek 'good' (the form or state of the good, the true SELF) by nature."
-Plato
Virtue is knowable, the source of all virtue is knowledge.
-Plato
i.e., the state of spiritual-SELF-awareness is obtainable, the way to discover and obtain spiritual-SELF-awareness is through the practice of the "way," or meditation. "Understanding" is that knowledge (not intellectual knowing). "Understanding" is intuition, which is not a faculty of the brain, but is an expression of the inner soul, or spirit. Virtue, understanding, and true knowledge are the ACTUAL EXPERIENCE of Divine-Self-Realization.
The most vicious acts are done involuntarily.
-Plato
i.e., the most vicious acts of violence, physical or mental, is an act of a person in the lesser, or lower egoic, or egocentric state. The fallen soul, with its loss of remembrance as an eternal spirit, is now identified with and controlled (possessed) by the psychological personality, the ego-I, which now commits harm without the awareness of restraint of the spiritual self. Jesus said the same thing when He said: "Father, forgive them (the souls lost in confusion) for they (as sons of God) do not know (understand) what they are actually doing (from a spiritual point of view).
A soul that is lost in confusion, i.e., identified with the physical animal body-brain is like a person with an altered state of consciousness, a drug induced state, intoxicated.
"The soul is more important than the body."
-Plato
The purpose of the body is for the soul, the essence of God to experience life from the body, but not as the body. The sin of the soul is to become identified with the physical body and therefore casts itself out of spiritual self-awareness. (It casts itself, by itself, out of heaven, or the state of divine grace.)
"Sense is distinct from knowledge."
-Plato
The knowledge (inferior or lower knowing) which is based on sensory perception, is subordinate to the intuition of true knowledge, which is of the soul, or spiritual. True knowledge is the spiritual "understanding" of things changeless and eternal. Sensory "knowing" is always in a state of perpetual flux (constant and ever-changing).
The dictum of Descartes: "I think, therefore I am," is not philosophically valid. The reasoning faculties cannot shed light on man's ultimate being. The human mind, like the phenomenal world that it cognizes, is in perpetual flux and can yield no finalities. Intellectual satisfaction is not the highest goal of the true philosopher or seeker of reality.
