Brief Notes on Various Topics -- 25

14 May 2024

Brief Notes on Various Topics – 25

1.  I think of cyclical reading as a spiritual practice.  By cyclical reading I mean regularly rereading a book.  This happens usually on a yearly basis, but if the book is short, it can be several times a year, or if the book is very large the cycle can last multiple years.  But the most common is a yearly cycle.

I have done this with the Enneads of Plotinus for many years now.  I think cyclical reading nourishes our spiritual understanding.  Though I am reading the same thing each year, the Enneads in this case, my understanding grows with each reading.  This resembles the way a plant grows as it is nourished through the cycle of the seasons.  Each year the seasonal cycle returns, and each year the tree receives the gifts of the seasons to nourish its growth.

I used to live near Armstrong Woods.  The largest tree there is the Colonel Armstrong Tree, named after the guy who first worked to preserve this forest.  The tree is estimated to be 1,400 years old.  The tree has a very productive relationship with the nourishment brought to it from the seasonal cycles.

In a similar way, we can nourish our souls through the cyclical reading of the Enneads and the Dialogues.  And after a lifetime of reading, perhaps our souls will have a metaphorically similar strength and depth as the Colonel Armstrong Tree.

The one obstacle to cyclic reading that I run into, and that I have seen others run into, is that cyclic reading shrinks the amount of time we have available for new reading.  This was a strong hindrance for me.  I overcame it by becoming aware that each time I read the Enneads it is, in a sense, the first time I have read the Enneads.  I only became aware of this by engaging in this practice of cyclical reading.  It is the first time each time in the sense that my mind and soul have gradually become more and more receptive to what the Enneads have to offer; so I’m not simply repeating the previous experience.  Instead I’m having a new experience with the same material.  In a way it’s like a sunset; each sunset is the same experience, yet each sunset differs, both because the atmospherics change day by day, but also because I change day by day.  When looked at in this way rereading the Enneads and the Dialogues makes sense and it is now something I look forward to.

2.  I read recently that researchers have discovered the location of Plato’s burial site.  This was reported in The Smithsonian magazine for this month, May, 2024.  The information comes from a scroll that was part of a library of such scrolls at Herculaneum, which was destroyed at the same time as Pompeii, in 79 C.E.  These scrolls were badly damaged, and were in such a condition that they could not be unrolled.  But recent developments in scanning technology allowed researches to slowly uncover what was written on some of them.  One of the scrolls is a work called The History of the Academy by Philodemus.  According to this scroll, it appears that Plato was buried in the garden of the Academy near a temple to the Muses.  (The Academy was destroyed by Sulla in 87 B.C. in his conquest, and sacking, of Athens on behalf of Rome.  That is why only scattered ruins remain.) 

Perhaps one day a new burial site, dedicated to Plato, and perhaps other heads of the Academy, will emerge.

3.  I recently listened to a lecture on Boethius and his Consolation.  I’m what you might call a ‘fanboy’ for Boethius so I tend to listen to the odd online lecture about him.  The lecturer greatly admired Boethius but felt that the metaphysical orientation of Boethius is an obstacle for today’s reader.  It was an interesting point, one I have considered myself.

The dialogue between Philosophy and Boethius in the Consolation covers many issues, but it is primarily a dialogue about metaphysics.  Boethius was grounded in Platonist metaphysics and this comes out in the Consolation.  An overall arch of the dialogue is that Boethius has either forgotten about these teachings, or never clearly followed out their implications.  Philosophy is there, in Boethius’s hour of need, to instruct him on these primarily metaphysical issues.

What is interesting to me, vis a vis the lecture, is that this metaphysical emphasis in the Consolation only seems to be a barrier today for University educated philosophers such as the lecturer.  He argued that after Nietzsche’s attack on philosophy, which was an attack on metaphysics, along with other dismissals of metaphysics, it is difficult to comprehend what Boethius is saying, or more accurately, it is difficult to take Boethius and Philosophy seriously in the 21^st century.

But that doesn’t seem to have an impact on most readers.  My guess is that most readers of the Consolation do not bring to their reading the anti-metaphysical prejudices of modernist philosophy.  Even if the reader is not a Platonist or a Christian, they likely still have an underlying metaphysical perspective and the reader is skilled enough to transfer the understandings offered in the Consolation to their own metaphysical context.  It’s not that hard; it’s kind of like listening to a song with the musicians using instruments you aren’t used to or familiar with. 

The Consolation continues to be read by a lot of people, often when they are in a crisis.  My observation is that the Consolation will be recommended by a friend and in this way it is passed on from person to person. 

4.  In spiritual traditions there is usually a stratification of participants in accord with what the tradition regards as the degree of their dedication.  For example, in the Buddhist tradition, which I was involved with for decades, there is a basic division between lay people and monastics.  Monastics are considered to be more dedicated and worthy of support by laypeople. 

In spiritual traditions where there is no formal tradition of stratification there is nevertheless a recognition that some people are more dedicated than others.  For example, it might be pointed out how much time a particular person devotes to study and practice in contrast to the average participant.

I was thinking about how this might apply to Platonism; in particular when Platonism is understood to be a spiritual tradition.  Most people are what I might call casual Platonists; I mean that they enjoy Platonism and irregularly read core texts, but I don’t see casual Platonists practicing contemplation, cultivating the virtues, or taking on the practices of asceticism.  Looked at by these just mentioned criteria (contemplation, virtues, and asceses), which I think of as roughly equivalent to a Buddhist (or Jain) monastic, such dedication is rare.  That’s not a bad thing; but I think it is good to keep in mind a kind of archetype of a dedicated Platonist practitioner as it helps in the cultivation of one’s own practice of the Platonist Dharma.

5.  There are times when I get depressed; that’s not unusual.  I think it makes sense that now and then people fall into depression.  Given the situation in this world of strife, of becoming and begoning, it can, at times, be difficult to not feel depressed.

But, like all things in becoming and begoning, depression also passes.  Depression is kind of like a very hot day in the desert that makes you feel enervated.  But the weather changes, the seasons move on.  And the Presence of Eternity remains.