Brief Notes on the Topic of Purification

2 June 2024

Brief Notes on the Topic of Purification

1.  I’ve been reading the essay “Purification” by Mark Anderson in his book Pure, published in 2009.  I find it very impressive.  It is the clearest presentation of the idea and process of purification in the Platonic tradition by a contemporary philosopher that I know of.  It is my feeling that you have to go back to Porphyry to find a Platonic philosopher who has a similar focus on purification.  (If anyone has another example of this kind of focus, please let me know.)

2.  Porphyry’s presentation of purification is embedded in the context of virtue ethics and the cultural concerns of his day.  Anderson’s essay on purification is directly concerned with the way modernity opposes the process; for example Anderson writes, “Modern modes of thought seem somehow to incline one toward vice, and thus toward a wretched existence.”

Porphyry spoke about purification using the issues of his day to communicate this process.  Anderson does the same thing for a modern audience.

3.  The practice of purification is found in a lot of spiritual traditions.  It is prominent in Theravada Buddhism.  The most highly revered commentary and manual of Theravada Buddhism is called The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga).  It was written in the fifth century C.E. and has had, and continues to have, a central role in the way Theravada Buddhism understands the Buddhist path.

In a completely different tradition, that of Shinto, we also find purification practice as central to the tradition.  Collectively, purification rituals are used to cleanse away impurities.  A common ritual is known as ‘misogi’ and it involves cleansing through ritual ablutions, including standing under a waterfall for a given duration.

And, of course, purification is central to the Platonist tradition in multiple ways.  Purification defines Platonism as a way of life, and the specific behavioral demands on the Platonist practitioner.  And purification also is a philosophical response to the metaphysical situation in which humans find themselves as outlined in the system of metaphysical levels, or hypostases.  Purification explains how we can find a way to higher levels of reality and, eventually, how we can return to the One.

4.  Spiritual traditions that rely on, or emphasize, the process of purification see spirituality as a path that its practitioners are travelling on.  These traditions see spirituality as a long journey; for those traditions that accept the truth of rebirth it is typical that they think of the spiritual journey as encompassing many lifetimes.

5.  Purification traditions tend to use metaphors for spirituality that emphasize a gradual unfolding rather than a sudden or instantaneous realization.  For example, some Platonists compare the spiritual journey to a sculptor chipping away at a hunk of marble over time until only the inner reality of the soul remains. 

6.  Purification traditions are, as far as I am aware, not transgressive.  In the Platonic tradition this is illustrated by the emphasis on civic virtues found in Porphyry and other Classical Platonists, including Socrates.  This doesn’t always keep them out of trouble, but nevertheless civic virtues are considered valuable for the spiritual quest.

7.  A different view of spirituality from that of purification is transformation which is the model found in traditions such as Tantra (both Hindu and Buddhist), Zen, and various modern teachers such as Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti, and many Western Non-Dual teachers.

The two approaches have a different take on causality in a spiritual context.  The transformation view is, to borrow one of their teachings, to ‘turn poison into nectar.’  This means that anything can be an occasion for spiritual development and realization if understood correctly.

The criticism of this approach is that you can’t have a meal that consists of broken glass; it won’t nourish you and it will cause you great harm.  The purification model is embedded in accepting the reality of causality as it presents itself to us.  Just as a musician needs to train in certain techniques to become a musician, so also a spiritual practitioner needs to train in the techniques of purification to advance on the path.  The method of purification may be arduous and the journey long, but it is understood to be worthwhile.  As Anderson writes,

“The potential reward that awaits the purified soul – the intellectual insight and the existential state – is of the highest possible order, namely the realization of the human telos, which the Platonic tradition conceives as unification with the divine.” (Page 72)

8.  Though the path of purification is long, and sometimes arduous, it is also rewarding.  It is rewarding in the sense that one can perceive the progress one is making (Plutarch wrote a whole essay on how to recognize progress in cultivating the virtues.)  Just as a musician discovers that they can play a piece that previously they were unable to, so also those walking on the path of purification can observe that their equanimity has grown, and that their understanding has become deeper.  This is my own experience.  Yes, there are setbacks, but the overall movement is toward a greater expansiveness and detailed understanding.  At times these moments of increased understanding are amazing.  At other times they are small steps but they are steps forward.

9.  The path of the path of purification is itself beautiful.  That is because it is directly connected to the Good and the One.  As we journey forward we get closer and closer to the source of all things and the approach to that source becomes more radiant and sublime.