The Flaws of Perfection
18 November 2024
I just finished rereading Plato’s Phaedo. What a sublime work! For me, Phaedo has become the most important dialogue. Phaedo never fails to inspire me and to reveal new aspects of the Platonic Way that I have previously overlooked or misunderstood.
This time I was particularly struck by how Socrates states that the teaching on the separation of the soul from the body is a teaching that should be followed to the extent it is possible while living in a body. But the association of the soul with the body limits the extent to which human understanding can reach. For example, “. . . for if it is impossible to attain any pure knowledge with the body . . . While we live, we shall be closest to knowledge if we refrain as much as possible from association with the body and do not join with it more than we must . . . “
(Plato, Phaedo, translated by G. M. A. Grube, Plato Complete Works, edited by John M. Carter, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis, 1997, page 58, 66e-67a, ISBN: 9780872203495)
1. I find this teaching refreshing. It places human beings in a context where the natural limitations of being human are taken into account. And this kind of teaching makes the practices more accessible because, instead of aiming for an imagined perfect instantiation of these practices, we simply do the best we can given our situation.
2. In some teachings that are offered today there is the idea that the practitioner experiences a sudden transformation that turns them into a different kind of being than what they were before. They, the teachers, are now on a different level than ordinary humanity.
When the teacher succumbs to ordinary temptations this creates a great deal of tension in the community. Attempts are made to explain away the fall from the perfect ideal that the tradition claims is the goal. This causes more tension. I have observed this in a significant number of spiritual communities and it leads to a lot of confusion, resentment, and bitterness.
The teachings of Platonism differ. The teachings of Platonism differ because these teachings are grounded in asceticism, which means turning away from sensory stimulation and the desires of the body. At the same time, asceticism recognizes the power of bodily desires and that because of this it is understandable that, at times, people succumb to desires’ temptations.
In most cases, this is not a disaster. You simply pick yourself up, recognize what has happened, and continue with the practices of asceses. In some ascetic traditions they even have a ceremony of confession so that the practitioner can reaffirm their commitment to the ascetic path by atoning for their backsliding. It’s kind of like a musician confessing to their teacher that they didn’t practice this week and the teacher encouraging the student to renew commitments to regular practice. Or it’s like someone abandoning their physical training at the gym for a week and then, after talking this over with friends, renewing their gym schedule.
3. Human beings are not perfect; they are flawed. Platonism recognizes this flawed nature and works with it instead of ignoring it. It may seem strange to some, but this is why I consider the path of asceticism to be more compassionate, and more understanding, and just plainly more realistic, than those traditions that think human beings are perfect ‘just as they are.’ The idea that human beings are perfectible, or that they are already perfect ‘just as they are,’ creates a great deal of friction in the psyche because at some level each of us is aware of our limitations and our negative tendencies. Asceticism accepts this and because of this understands that training is necessary; this training manifests as asceses such as limitations on diet, refraining from alcohol, restraining sexual activity, and in general withdrawing from sensory stimulation. It takes time to internalize these asceses, but over time it is possible to do so. Over time the temptations of the senses are reduced and almost forgotten.
But it is a long path. We should be generous with ourselves and towards others. When someone on the ascetic path backslides we should sympathize rather than condemn and encourage them to pick themselves up and regain their footing on the path that leads to the falling away of body and mind and the return to the Good and the One.
This post brings up an interesting tension that I’ve been feeling lately re. reading both Plato/Neoplatonists and some Tibetan and Yogic teachings. While I assume all would agree on the importance of the ascetic path and would no doubt concur with the ways of dealing with backsliding that you outline here, it seems that there might be some difference in the way that these traditions treat the body. While I assume all would agree that examining and for the most part avoiding our typical bodily desires, it seems like the Yogic (and maybe some Taoist) traditions treat the body as a vehicle for understanding in a way that Platonists (and most Buddhists) don’t; i.e. the Platonists (e.g. the cited passage from the Phaedo) and Buddhists seem to primarily consider the body as a hindrance. Alternatively I’ve been feeling that certain practices, such as Tai Chi can constitute an integral and important part of a contemplative practice in a way that never felt encouraged in a typical Platonic or Buddhist context.
ReplyDeleteHi Karl, What you have focused on is, I think, a basic division regarding method in the realm of spirituality. Asceticism is a method and there are those traditions that use this method, exclusively or primarily, to reach the ultimate as they understand it. I don't have a specific name for the other method (in a Platonic context I would call it theurgic, but that's not a word that is widely understood.) For the purposes of this response I'll use Tantric.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast between the two traditions is that Asceticism rests on the idea of purification, whereas Tantra rests on the idea of transformation. A good example from the Buddhist traditions illustrates the difference. In Theravada Buddhism, which uses the foundation of purification, anger is considered to be something that one should eliminate from the mindstream; anger is often compared to a hot coal that one is holding in one's fist and one has to get rid of the coal, that is to say get rid of anger. In Tantra anger is to be transformed so that it can be used by the practitioner for higher purposes such as saving others (this leads to art that depicts ferocious Bodhisattvas.) Of course some traditions, perhaps most, use both approaches now and then, but there is usually a clear emphasis one wary of the other; for example, purification in Theravada is such a tradition.
There is also an underlying difference in understanding causation between these two approaches. Purification based traditions will criticize Tantra as lacking in an understanding of causation by using such metaphors as eating a plate of glass and trying to transform that as something healthy. Tantric traditions respond by saying such a gesture's meaning depends on the context on motivation. And so it goes.
From a purification perspective, the body is a hindrance on the spiritual path because it clouds or understanding and makes endless demands, some basic, some superficial, for attention so that there is very little time left over for spiritual practice. In Tantra, it might be argued, some bodily practices are devices (in terms of transformation) for spiritual growth. Tantra tends to regard purification as an impossible task because desires and tendencies are endless.
Purification traditions tend to use metaphors for their approach like musicianship or gym participation (one of Plato's dialogues takes place in a gym) for the cultivation of asceticism. That is to say, using musicianship, that ability to play an instrument increases with practice and that similarly the state of purification increases with the cultivation of ascetic practices.
Tantra tends to regard practice as, in some sense, a delusion because you are already awakened or realized. Tantra tends to use metaphors like waking from a dream to describe how their approach works.
In my own life, I found that the Tantra approach did not work. I mean that the transformation model was not one that I could actualize or instantiate. Things because much easier and simpler for me when I adopted the ascetic approach. That may just be my karma and nothing deeper, or it may have a metaphysical foundation. I'm not sure.
Best wishes