Brief Notes on Various Topics -- 15

20 March 2024

Brief Notes on Various Topics -- 15

1.  I have mentioned a few times my understanding of the various strands of Platonism present in the world today.  I think it might be helpful, or at least clarifying, if there was some kind of forum, or vehicle, for those speaking from these various views to discuss their understanding of Platonism and how they view other understandings.  Think of what it would be like if a Christian Platonist (someone like Peter Kreeft) and a contemporary Theurgist exchanged their views on Platonism.  Or what it would be like for a Contemplative Platonist to exchange views with an Academic Platonist. 

2.  In Platonism ‘First Things’ are ineffable.  Though they are ineffable, the tradition calls them the Good, the One, and the Beautiful.  In ideology First Things are political, which is to say divisive.  The First Things of Platonism lead to unity and eternal peace.  The First Things of ideology lead to strife and grasping for power.

3.  I mentioned that I think of non-harming as the foundational principle of Platonist ethics and virtues.  Here I want to add that non-harming aligns the practitioner with the One.  The One is also the Good.  The One and the Good are, by their very nature, incapable of harming living beings.  When a practitioner adopts the mental asana of non-harming, that practitioner steps closer to the Good and the One.

4.  Following the Platonist Path resembles swimming upstream.  We need to swim upstream because upstream is where one finds the source of the river.  But all the energy of the stream flows in a different, opposite, direction.  Sometimes this is tiring.  It’s OK, now and then, to swim to a shore for a brief rest, to gather our strength before proceeding further. 

5.  An interesting thing about music is that musical objects can co-exist with other musical objects.  This is true for all kinds of music, not just sophisticated or complex music.  Think of a popular song with its melody and bass line.  The two musical objects share the same sonic space, yet each object retains its integrity while simultaneously intermingling with the other object.  This resembles, or is a kind of analog, of the way noetic objects relate to each other, though in the noetic realm there is no time.  Still, in the noetic realm, noetic objects are completely present and transparent to each other.  This kind of relationship also happens in music in a way that our temporal minds can access. 

6.  I went out to watch the sunrise on the Equinox yesterday.  I do this regularly on the Equinoxes and Solstices, as a kind of contemplation.  The One is frequently compared to the Sun.  Some refer to the One as the Spiritual Sun.  There’s a description in one of the Enneads, I forget which one right now, where Plotinus describes the practice of contemplation as like waiting for the sun to rise.  Taking that as an instruction, I sometimes wait for the sun to rise, always keeping in mind that the sun is the material symbol of the Spiritual Sun, an emanation of that reality. 

I live in the desert so I can walk, often with a friend or two, out into the desert.  We turn to where the sun will appear.  There is a mountain range surrounding the valley which delays the physical appearance of the sun from what the data will tell you is the time of sunrise, by about ten to fifteen minutes. 

I enter into meditation while standing in the pre-dawn light and simply wait for the sun to rise.  Shortly after the sun has risen, and casts its full light over the valley, I thank the sun for its blessings, bow, and then return home.  I find this a very restful and easeful form of contemplation.  It nourishes my practice as I continue my journey to the Spiritual Sun; the Good, the One, and the Beautiful.