Asceticism, Renunciation and the One

Asceticism, Renunciation and the One

by Eric S. Fallick


The One, the Good, the Absolute, the Unconditioned, God, the ultimate transcendent Reality, the Noumenon, the Source and Origin of all, That on Which all depend and within Which all exist, That from Which we come and to Which we return, the Source of all good and all being and knowing, the Good that all seek—Hyper-perfection beyond perfection, Hyper-beauty beyond beauty, Hyper-unity beyond unity, Hyper-goodness beyond goodness, Hyper-love beyond love, Hyper-luminosity beyond luminosity, Hyper-knowing beyond knowing, Hyper-being beyond being, Hyper-wonderfulness beyond wonderfulness. This Absolute One and Absolute Good to which we are striving, and should strive with all ours souls, seeking nothing else not absolutely necessary for temporary temporal survival, to return to and attain re-union with, which is release from the cycle of birth and death and individuated sensate existence in space-time—how can we be and live in accord and accordance with It and by It even now before we attain and while we are striving to attain realization of and re-union with It, before we re-become It and are released from ourselves and into It? There is only one way—the Way and the only way is full and true contemplative asceticism and renunciation. Celibate, vegetarian, teetotalling, impecunious, truthful, worldly entertainment and pursuits and activities avoiding, contemplation and study devoted, world-denying, otherworldly, single-minded, both inward and outward, both in thought and body contemplative asceticism and renunciation is the Way and only way of living and being according to the Absolute now and of attaining re-union with It and release. True contemplative asceticism and renunciation is the very reflection of the One or the Good in this world. It is most important to clearly understand this, to whatever degree one is presently able to implement it, and to have a 'traditional', pre-modern and in accordance with Reality mindset and weltanschauung in this regard, not the confused modern non-understanding and self-centered any way is OK, no need to renounce or give up anything, this-worldly groovo-mindset and weltanschauung. This understanding is metaphysically correct and in accord with the actual underlying spiritual Reality and facts. The modern non-understanding is not.

The One or the Good, the Absolute, is actually beyond predication and can only be known and experienced, with the greatest difficulty and trial, directly in ascetic contemplation, after the long, tremendous effort of many years and lifetimes. We can, however, extrapolate a manner of positively discussing and positing wonderful and transcendent attributes and perfections of It. We can correlate these transcendent attributes and perfections with the specific practices and facets of the contemplative ascetic, renunciant life and practice and existence. Thus, we can get an idea of how this Way is even now the reflection of and attuning with the One, and is necessary for attaining re-union with the One.

Celibacy, and that in its fullest and truest sense, is commonly considered the first great dividing line between the worldly and renunciant lives. Celibacy, singleness, the abandonment and renunciation of all sexual activity of any sort whatsoever and of concomitant emotional attachment and of romantic love and of procreation and family life and love, is an absolutely necessary requisite for the higher spiritual life and any sort of real contemplative practice. The One is just that, one. It is unity in a way far beyond and transcending and more complete than any sort of unity that can be conceived of phenomena. The One is also completely self-sufficient—again, in a way far beyond and transcending and more complete than any way of conceiving any phenomenon as self-sufficient. It is totally self-contained. It needs nothing outside of Itself. It seeks nothing outside of Itself. There is nothing outside of Itself. It is completely transcendent love in Itself without any need of an object of love. It is completely transcendently satisfied with Itself. There is nothing outside of Itself in which It could find or seek pleasure. The celibate life reflects, in the individual at the level of sensate existence and change, the unity, self-sufficiency and independence of the Absolute. Sexual desire and activity of any sort, as well as romantic love and familial attachment and love, is rushing headlong the opposite way away from the One and Its Unity into the very farthest reaches and depths of multiplicity and otherness and alienation. It is a state of the greatest lack of self-sufficiency and seeking of satisfaction and pleasure in changing, multiplicious sense experience and otherness. It is of the very essence and root of the miserable cycle of birth and death, of becoming, which is the exact opposite of the self-complete unchanging Unity and Self-subsistence of the One. The celibate contemplative ascetic and renunciant in his life of singleness, complete abstinence from sexual activity and removal from ordinary worldly emotional attachment is the expression in this world of the transcendent Unity and Self-Sufficiency of the Absolute. (A word should perhaps be said here about spiritual friendships. Spiritual friends and friendships are, of course, allowable and beneficial—that is, if you can find any real ones here in these thoroughly and unprecedentedly benighted modern times when real renunciants are an endangered species! True spiritual friendships have, however, properly, an entirely different basis than ordinary worldly emotional relationships. They are based on a common love of the Good, not on ordinary mutual worldly affection and attachment. True spiritual friends seek to overcome alienation and otherness not in each other, like ordinary worldlings do, but in aiding each other in their sole direction towards and focus on the Good and turning from this world. They aid and support each other in seeking their joy and self-sufficiency in the One Alone, not in each other per se and in the things and emotions of this world.)

Vegetarianism or veganism is another absolutely essential aspect of the contemplative ascetic, renunciant life and practice. It is another absolutely essential requisite of any sort of higher spiritual life and true contemplative practice. The Good is just that, good. It is completely transcendently good, the source of all good. It is completely transcendently just and righteous. It is completely transcendently love. It is completely transcendently benevolent. It is perfectly good, just, righteous, love and benevolence in a way far beyond and transcending any way that good, justice, righteousness, love and benevolence can be conceived of phenomena. The vegetarianism or veganism and non-harming of the contemplative ascetic and renunciant reflects, at the level of individuated sensate existence, the perfect good, justice, righteousness, love and benevolence of the Absolute. To kill, to murder, to take away the lives of non-human fellow conscious souls and fellow travelers on the wheel of birth and death, to slaughter our friends and partners, the animals, totally unnecessarily, for no reason than for perverse deluded greed to eat their flesh and confused, deluded and evil custom and habit is unspeakably heinous and evil and completely the exact opposite of the goodness, justice, righteousness, love and benevolence of the Good and removes the cannibalistic flesh-eater very far from It. In his vegetarianism or veganism and general practice of non-harming, the contemplative ascetic and renunciant is the expression in this world of the transcendent goodness, justice, righteousness, love and benevolence of the Good Itself.

Teetotalling, complete abstinence from alcohol and intoxicants of any sort, is another absolutely essential part of the contemplative ascetic, renunciant life and practice and another indisputable essential requisite of any sort of higher spiritual life and any real attempt at the practice of contemplation. The One is complete, perfect, transcendent knowing, consciousness and awareness. It is the one Source of all knowing and consciousness and awareness. It is knowing and knowledge and consciousness and awareness in a completely transcendent way far beyond the limited knowing, consciousness and awareness of individual souls and minds. By completely avoiding and never dreaming of taking alcohol or any sort of intoxicants, by never doing anything to deliberately dull his conscious knowing and awareness, the contemplative ascetic and renunciant reflects the knowing, conscious and awareness of the Absolute in this world. To drink alcohol or use intoxicants is to deliberately and purposely, and horrifyingly, dull, destroy and limit one's awareness and consciousness and knowing and intelligence. It is to deliberately and purposely put oneself for a time into a lower and even sub-human rebirth. It is exactly the complete opposite of the transcendent knowing, consciousness and awareness of the One and of the contemplative path of developing or coming into union with the One's transcendent knowing in oneself. In his complete teetotalling and abstinence from all alcohol and intoxication, the contemplative ascetic and renunciant is the expression at the level of individuated sensate existence of the transcendent knowing, consciousness and awareness of the One.

The contemplative ascetic and renunciant is, of course, always completely honest and truthful and never lies or takes advantage. Certainly, this is indispensably required for the Path of Wisdom. The One is complete, perfect transcendent Truth and completely, perfectly, transcendently True. It is True and Truth in a way far beyond and transcending that in which we can conceive any phenomenon or phenomena to be true. In being completely honest and truthful and righteous and sincere, the contemplative ascetic and renunciant reflects at the level individuated sensate existence in space-time the transcendent Truth and Trueness of the Absolute. To be dishonest, to lie, cheat or deceive for the purposes of alleged personal gain is the exact opposite of the Trueness of the One, and is completely removed from It. Dishonesty is a horrific transgression of the principle of truth and painful even to imagine for one seeking truth. The complete honesty, truthfulness, sincerity and trustworthiness of the contemplative ascetic and renunciant is the expression of the Truth and Trueness of the Good in this world.

Voluntary poverty, not seeking and not wanting to have more than is just necessary to maintain the psycho-physical organism while pursuing the Path, is also an essential part of the contemplative ascetic and renunciant life and practice. The One is completely, perfectly, transcendently Self-sufficient and Whole and Complete and seeks and wants nothing outside Itself. The voluntary and joyous and freeing poverty of the contemplative ascetic and renunciant is the reflection in this world of the transcendent Self-sufficiency, Wholeness and Completeness of the Absolute. Seeking and having money, possessions, things and property beyond what is absolutely necessary to survive, greed and material desire, is the negation of the Self-sufficiency and Wholeness of the Good. It is seeking the wrong way, in the multiplicity of sense experience and alleged pleasures. It is burdensome and bondage and removal from the Good and Its transcendent Completeness. In happily living in what the world considers voluntary poverty and not wanting or seeking more than is necessary, the contemplative ascetic and renunciant expresses the Self-sufficiency and Wholeness of the One in this world.

The contemplative ascetic and renunciant avoids worldly entertainments, television, movies, theater, fiction, popular music, etc., which, besides wasting the essential time needed to practice the Path, are harmful to the soul and fill it with the passions, desires, defilements, thoughts and images of the world. The One is complete, perfect, transcendent Unity, Knowing, Consciousness, Awareness, Self-sufficiency and Wholeness. In avoiding and not caring for or seeking worldly entertainments, the contemplative ascetic and renunciant reflects these transcendent facets of the Absolute in this world. To engage in worldly entertainments is, like using intoxicants, to dull the awareness and knowing of the soul and mind and fill it with defiled passions. It is also to be insufficient in one's soul and to seek and want in additional sense experiences and alleged pleasures and plunge deeper into the multiplicity of the senses and the realm of repeated birth and death. Thus, pursuing and engaging in defiled worldly entertainments negates the Unity, Knowing, Awarenss and Self-sufficiency of the One. The abstention of the contemplative ascetic and renunciant from worldly entertainments is the expression at the level of individuated sensate existence in space-time of these transcendent attributes of the Good.

The contemplative ascetic and renunciant is, of course, devoted to the practice of contemplation to attain direct knowledge of and re-union with Nous and, ultimately, the One. He also pursues ancillary study and learning to aid in this end. The One is perfect, complete, transcendent Intelligence, Knowing, Consciousness and Awareness. In pursuing singlemindedly and wholeheartedly transcendent wisdom and direct contemplative knowledge and, along with it as a help, spiritual learning, the contemplative ascetic and renunciant is the reflection at the level of individuated sensate existence of the transcendent Intelligence, Knowing, Consciousness and Awareness of the Absolute. Ignorance of the transcendental realities and truths and of the way things really are is part of the bondage and condition of continued birth and death and becoming and the negation of the transcendent Intelligence and Knowing of the Good. So is willful ignorance of spiritual facts and knowledge and understanding and the unwillingness to try to learn these things. Along with the pursuit of direct contemplative knowledge, the ancillary spiritual study and learning and understanding and interest in and concern for such of the contemplative ascetic and renunciant is the expression in this world of the transcendent Intelligence and Knowing of the One.

On the whole, the true contemplative ascetic and renunciant is concerned with the soul not the body, is concerned with the higher hypostases not this world and the things of this world. He is singleminded and wholehearted in his otherworldliness and world-denyingnes, focused always on the Beyond and paying attention to this world and the things of this world only as much as is necessary to maintain his psycho-physical existence while he is still here and until he can attain release. In this, and in the various other specific aspects of his life and practice in addition to the specific examples given above, he is the very reflection and expression in this world of the Unity, Self-sufficiency and Knowing of the Absolute Itself. Thus, this is the true way, and the only way, to live as a true emissary of the One in this world and life. Strive on—it's the only way to go!


© 2016 Eric S. Fallick

The Joy of Renunciation and Asceticism

The Joy of Renunciation and Asceticism, or the World Has
Things Exactly Backwards

by Eric S. Fallick


Though the fact has been forgotten and ignored and even arouses great hostility and opposition and objection in this most dark and deluded brave new modern world of exceptionally deluded and heavy karma souls, true celibate, vegetarian, teetotalling, impecunious, worldly entertainment and activity and involvement avoiding renunciation and asceticism is absolutely necessary and indispensable for, is essential to and part and parcel of, any genuine higher spiritual and philosophic life and practice and genuine higher contemplation or meditation practice. Not only does almost no one practice and embrace the life of renunciation and asceticism anymore, but almost no one, not even, strangely, some of the few remaining institutionalized alleged renunciants, even understands and acknowledges and speaks about its necessity and superiority. In a world where even more people than ever before (if that's possible!) are solely obsessed with the pursuit of hedonism and individual sensual pleasures and worldly desires, and electronic technology has multiplied the means of doing so and provided a ubiquitous culture only concerned with this, where the official dominant dogma of secular materialism and scientism teaches that all there is is the physical sense world and this life and the pursuit of individual desires and that these are valid whatever they are, where it is taboo to even say or think that one way of life is better than or superior to another, where the desires and attitudes of the deluded and foolish many have been elevated to the status of sacred truth and the wisdom of the truly (as opposed to alleged) philosophic and spiritual renunciant, ascetic few has been degraded and derided and disallowed, not only do many people now disavow and object to renunciation and asceticism, but many have never even heard of it or are able to conceive of the idea and find it totally incomprehensible. When or if they hear of someone voluntarily and gladly giving up even the most trivial of the base sensual pleasures that are the focus of their lives, not to mention all unnecessary worldly pursuits and desires altogether, they are astounded and think that this must be a state of the most painful deprivation. Of course, however, just the exact opposite is the truth. The celibate, abstinent, impoverished renunciant and contemplative life without worldly pleasures is the most joyful and happy life without comparison, and the worldly life of the pursuit of worldly desires, wealth, sensual pleasures, worldly involvements, and the possession of these, is altogether the most miserable and painful and sorrowful. The Way of Truth, of the Spirit, of the Few, is completely contrary to and the opposite of the Way of the World, of the Many—in understanding and thought and conception as well as in action and practice. What the world considers life, the truth considers death. What the many consider pleasure, philosophia considers pain. What the world considers sorrow, the truth considers joy—and etc. and vice versa.

We find ourselves in the lowest state of individual souls in becoming in individuated sensate existence in space-time repeatedly and endlessly revolving in the cycle of birth and death being reincarnated over and over and over again in various forms both human and non-human. Our goal is re-union with the One or the Good, the Absolute, or, if you like, God, to cease from individuated existence, to be released from the cycle of rebirth and re-becoming, to become again just the One only Itself. These two conditions—becoming, genesis, the cycle of reincarnation, individuated sensate existence and being just or union with the One—stand in the strongest and sharpest contrast for us. They are completely mutually incompatible and incommensurate. We must choose and have and go in the direction of either one or the other. Both can't be at once and we can't pursue both at once. The soul's love can't be expended in two opposite directions on two opposite objects at the same time. We either love the things of this world and the senses and enter deeper into becoming or love the Good and go higher and higher towards union with it and freedom and salvation. Life in bodily existence is the death of the soul; the death and end of bodily existence is the life of the soul.

Even leaving aside for the present the tremendous pain and suffering and misery and horrors and terrors and vicissitudes and anxieties and unsatisfactoriness of the round of becoming, of endless reincarnation and individuated existence, of this always changing sense world (just look around you at any moment!) that rightly and accurately fill many volumes of the contemptus mundi types of literature of the various spiritual systems and which could more than easily occupy many more essays or a whole book by themselves, becoming, genesis, sensate bodily individuated existence is inherently and intrinsically painful and suffering and miserable. It is so by its very fact, even apart from any particular pains, even when it seems pleasant and pleasurable and happy to ordinary worldlings who know no better. It is so just in itself, in its very nature as being a state of separation, or apparent separation, from the One. The One Itself is pure, inconceivable, inexpressible, wondrous perfection, joy, good, peace, luminosity, happiness, completion, knowing, dynamic rest and well-being. Compared to this even the seemingly happiest and most pleasurable conditions in becoming are just misery and horror. This seems incredible to ordinary worldlings and deluded beings, but it is only because of their not knowing the One, of having forgotten their original state of union with It, that they can't recognize this and it isn't obvious to them and they think that happiness and good is to be found here in genesis. To one who actually knows the Good even a little bit, to the ascetic who has touched the One even a little bit in genuine contemplation, it is more than obvious that this is the case, that being separated from the one and wandering in individuated sensate existence in space-time is in its very self the greatest horror and suffering imaginable, even before the terrible sufferings as conceived in the ordinary sense that are always part and parcel of the cycle of reincarnation are inevitably piled upon it in addition. This being the case, it logically follows that anything that draws us or the soul deeper into becoming, in the direction of individuated sensate existence, anything that looks in the direction of genesis, is ipso facto pain and suffering and misery and unhappiness, even if it seems the opposite to deluded beings who know only the sense world, and anything that draws us to and moves the soul in the direction of the Absolute and re-union with it, that looks away from becoming and toward true higher Being, is ipso facto joy and true pleasure and happiness and well-being, even if it seems like deprivation or discomfort to those same deluded beings who know only the sense world and nothing of the higher noetic realities. All sensual and bodily pleasures and desires, all worldly desires and pursuits, all the things that the world considers goods—sex, romantic love, worldly interpersonal love, the alleged pleasures of food and drink, intoxication, worldly entertainment, wealth, money, possessions, fame, honor, power, privilege, idleness, status, etc., etc., etc.--exclusively turn the soul downwards into becoming, create karma and bind it more and more to the wheel of birth and death, move the soul further and further into separated individuated bodily sensate existence, separate it more and more from and take it further and further away from the One, and, therefore, directly contrary to what the world thinks, are actually pain and misery and unhappiness and deprivation, even, in fact, especially, when they are successfully obtained and 'enjoyed'. Contemplative asceticism, renunciation, celibacy, vegetarianism, minimal simplicity in food, drink, clothing and the necessities of life, voluntary poverty and lack of possessions, avoidance of worldly entertainments and worldly emotional relationships, teetotalling, abstinence, discipline, sole devotion to contemplation and study turn the soul exclusively upwards away from becoming and towards the Absolute, release the it more and more from the wheel of birth and death, make it less and less separate and move it more and more towards union with and closer and closer to the One, and, therefore, directly contrary to what the world thinks, are actually pleasure and enjoyment and happiness and contentment and sufficiency. Even though the contemplative ascetic renunciant Path is, in a sense, very difficult and contains many struggles and pains and ups and downs of its own, especially in the adverse circumstances of the present day, as the soul goes through the very long and difficult process of turning itself away from becoming and towards Being and working through all its massively accumulated habits and karma, these are as nothing compared to its joys and eventual joys, and, in any case, its kind of suffering mixed with movement towards true joy, its difficulties that put an end to all difficulties, its tastes of true happiness, are infinitely better and more enjoyable than the pure unadulterated misery and pain of ordinary worldly life, which is so even and particularly when it seems most pleasant and pleasurable, which contains no real pleasure or happiness even when deluded beings think it does. A drug addict thinks that his condition is desirable and that taking drugs is pleasure and to be pursued and that the process of withdrawal is painful, but obviously it is the taking of drugs and being a drug addict that is misery and the withdrawal process is well worth its difficulty and provides true pleasure in the midst of it in the addict's knowledge that he is getting free thereby and the end state of non-addiction is obviously incomparably better and more pleasurable and happier than the addicted state.

To put the matter a different way, the One is also the Good. It is the only true Good, the pure perfect Good, the unmixed and unadulterated Good, the real Good, the Source of all Good. All other lesser derivative realities and lower beings only have whatever good or goods they have as derived from the Good, not from themselves, but to the extent that they participate in the Good Itself, as they also only have such being and existence as they have from the Good, not from themselves. If the things of the senses, the things and objects and desires of this world, have any good at all, it is only as derived from and to the extent that they participate in the Good Itself, to the extent that they are very faint images or phantoms or projections or derivations of part of the Good, that they have a surface coating, as it were, or tinge of apparent good supplied by the Good. All people and beings seek good or their good. This is considered self-evident and no other reason needs to be supplied for seeking good. People, deluded beings, have, however, turned the wrong way in looking for their good and, seeing the projected phantom tinge of good seeming to appear in sense objects, have transferred looking for good and the idea of good from the real Good to illusory seeming goods. They look the exactly wrong way away from the true Good towards these illusory seeming goods and grasp at and pursue them. When people desire and pursue the alleged pleasures of the things of the senses and the body, of this world, they are tossing away their true Good, their true birthright of returning their souls to the Good, and chasing after false goods and considering this to be pleasant and pleasure and happiness, both in the pursuit and the obtaining. Contemplative ascetics and renunciants, on other hand, reject and see through all false goods and wholeheartedly pursue only the and their true Good, the Good Itself. Clearly, to aim at and pursue, and eventually obtain, one's true good is actual pleasure, enjoyment, happiness, etc. To miss this and be deprived of one's true good, to instead aim at and pursue, and even apparently obtain, false illusory seeming goods and consider this satisfactory and all there is, is actually pain, discomfort, unhappiness, etc., even if it seems to be otherwise to those who don't know at all where the and their true Good lie. Thus, it is clear that sensual and worldly pleasures, possessions, etc. are actually pain, misery and deprivation, and contemplative asceticism and renunciation is actually pleasure, happiness and sufficiency.

Again, the One is Beauty. It is the only true real perfect pure Beauty Itself. It is the only source of all beauty. All other things that seem to be beautiful are only so as derivative from, as participating in Beauty Itself. It is the only true real perfect pure Love and the only true real perfect pure Truth. All other things that seem to be lovable and true are only so as derivative from, as participating in Love and Truth Itself. All the things of the senses, of this world, that seem to be beautiful, lovable, desirable and true only appear to be so because of a faint participation in and surface tinge of the Beautiful, Love and Truth Itself. To pursue and engage in and 'enjoy' sensual pleasures and worldly desires is to miss the true Beauty, Love and Truth entirely and to mistakenly simply grasp and experience phantoms and illusory things thinking that they are beauty, love and truth when they are not at all so. Wouldn't this be the very definition of pain and misery and unhappiness and lack? To be a true and proper contemplative ascetic and renunciant is to reject and abandon all illusory phantom things masquerading as beautiful, lovable and true and to turn towards and aim at and eventually, to varying degrees as the Path proceeds, obtain true, actual, real Beauty, Love and Truth Itself. Isn't this the very definition of pleasure, satisfaction, happiness and sufficiency?

Shall we take a few specific examples a little more in detail? Sex, romantic love and celibacy may be considered the first great demarcation line and division between the worldly and renunciant lives. The world generally considers sex to be the very greatest and most intense of sensual and bodily pleasures and romantic love to be the greatest of emotional fulfillments, and many are driven nearly mad or will go to great lengths to have these things. Celibate religious ascetics reject sex and romantic love entirely as being the greatest error, bondage and impediment and making any true higher, substantial spiritual and contemplative progress impossible. The world considers this to be the greatest of deprivations and hardest thing to give up. Celibate ascetics consider it the greatest relief to be free from the madness of sex and romantic love. (Note that this refers to the whole, complete, true celibate practice and understanding and change of attitude and view and perception. Celibate ascetics are, of course, generally and for a long time not at all without sexual desire and thoughts, though they don't act on them, and have to struggle with them and many ordinary worldlings are de facto without sex and romantic relationships due to various circumstances for much of their lives, but the attitudes, understandings, weltanschauungs and practices are completely different.) Which of these is the true pain and misery and which is the true pleasure and joy, however it may seem to deluded worldlings? Of all sensual 'pleasures', sex is considered the most intense and, by the world, enjoyable. Nothing more greatly binds the soul to the body and becoming. Nothing more makes the soul think that the things of the senses are real. Nothing more incapacitates the rational divine soul and mind and strengthens and activates the lower animal soul. No physical 'pleasure' more takes the soul deeper and further into multiplicity and sensate existence and away from the One and the Good. Thus, sex is, by the criteria established above, actually the greatest pain and misery even though world considers it the greatest pleasure and happiness! By contrast, celibacy, abstinence from all sexual activity, for proper spiritual purposes with a proper spiritual understanding and attitude is taking the greatest stand and determination and action to turn the soul from becoming to re-union with the One. Thus, by the criteria established above, full celibacy is the greatest pleasure and joy and happiness and sufficiency, even though the world considers it the greatest deprivation! It is the same with romantic love, which is not really to be separated or distinguished, of course, from sex and sexuality. Being one of if not the greatest emotional attachment to this world, it turns the soul most the wrong way and is thus the greatest pain and misery and deprivation and unhappiness, even when it seems just the opposite to deluded worldlings, and the abandonment of it and freedom from it of the celibate religious ascetic is the greatest pleasure and joy and happiness and sufficiency!

Vegetarianism is, of course, morally and spiritually incumbent on all human beings, and many moral vegetarians are not in the slightest ascetics or renunciants. Let us, however, briefly view the matter from the perspective of the worldling/renunciant and pleasure/pain divide. Most people, incredibly, consider flesh-eating to be a habitual, substantial pleasure gratifying their taste and desire for pleasurable bodily experiences. They consider vegetarianism to be a painful deprivation and to be missing a big pleasure. But to be an inter-species cannibal, to knowingly kill and promote killing, to unnecessarily take the lives of other non-human souls for no reason but habitual greed and ignorance and desire for pleasure and taste is to most vigorously and eagerly and willing separate and alienate oneself and one's soul from the Good, from the Absolute, from the Beauty and Love and Truth Itself and plunge deeply into self-enclosed tiny individuality and multiplicity, to bind oneself ever more and very tightly to the wheel of birth and death and produce the causes for a sub-human, irrational rebirth. Clearly, by the principle established above, this is actually great pain and misery and unhappiness and deprivation, even if it seems like 'pleasure' to ordinary deluded meat-eating worldlings. All true, renunciant contemplative ascetics are pure vegetarians and, just opposite to the worldly view, this is not deprivation or loss of pleasure at all, but the greatest pleasure and joy and satisfaction to live and eat in a way that causes no death to other souls and causes minimum harm and makes one more and more like and assimilated to the Good, to Divinity, which, as indicated above, is the greatest and only true well-being and happiness. Flesh-eating that the world considers a pleasure is actually a great and painful horror and unimaginably miserable in its very act, and the vegetarian contemplative ascetic rejoices and experiences great pleasure and peace in abstaining from it and the very thought of flesh-eating invokes horror, revulsion and disgust in him!

Somehow, much of the world and the many consider the drinking of alcohol and intoxication, whether to a mild or severe degree, to be a major pleasure and desirable thing, and teetotalling to be somehow a deprivation. Of course, all upright human beings of any at all spiritual or even moral or practical perception don't drink alcohol at all or take intoxicants and there are many who abstain without the slightest notion of asceticism or renunciation and some large religions are all teetotalling. But looked at from the perspective being discussed here, to deliberately dull one's consciousness and awareness, even to a slight degree, by willingly and gladly drinking alcohol, to deliberately incapacitate, to whatever degree, the rational and divine part of the soul, which is what drinking does even down to a single glass of wine, is, horrifically, to deliberately and consciously lower the soul to a lesser sub-human state, to deliberately and consciously change oneself further from a divine and rational being to an earthly and irrational one, to take one's soul further and further from the Divine Mind and the One and Intelligible Unity and Light into the darkness and dullness of multiplicity, isolated individuality, phantom reality, stupidity and the endless round of reincarnation—in fact, it is knowingly taking on a sub-human reincarnation for a limited space of time. Although the world considers this a 'pleasure', what, in fact, could be more painful and foolish and miserable and deprivation than that! The genuine contemplative ascetic and renunciant would never even dream of taking even a drop of alcohol and deliberately and knowingly dulling his awareness and disabling the rational and divine part of the soul, which is the only part he identifies with, and separating himself further from the Divine Intelligence. Far from being a deprivation or giving up of something desirable, this teetotalling is a great pleasure and happiness and satisfaction as he rejoices in and enjoys strengthening the rational and divine higher soul and re-assimilating it more and more into the Divine Intelligence Itself!

As a last of many possible examples that could be cited and discussed, let's take the watching of television and movies and reading of fiction. The world and worldly people, especially now, consider these as indispensable pleasures and gratifications and can't imagine and wouldn't know what to do giving them up and doing without them. Real contemplative ascetics and renunciants avoid these entirely and wouldn't imagine wasting their time and damaging their souls with them, but worldly people are incredulous at this, can't imagine why or how they can do it, and think they are being deprived of a very great good and pleasure indeed. But look what they are saying. Television, movies and fiction, far from being pleasures, are to deliberately and consciously for a time to enter into a lower rebirth, to turn off for that time the divine and rational higher soul that strives solely for re-union with the Good and Divine Intelligence and to indulge in and activate the lower animal soul taking the passions, emotions, pursuits, actions, desires, etc. of ordinary, and often base, worldlings as real and true and correct and desirable and wallowing and rejoicing in them and imbibing them as habits to strengthen the lower self and further and further estrange it from the Good. From the principles we have established, what could be more painful and horrible and silly than this! What could be more pleasant and pleasurable, happy and contented than the contemplative ascetic and renunciant's abandoning all this without regret and devoting himself solely to his higher self and his true Good and withering all his worldly passions and desires and thoughts and attitudes and assimilating himself more and more to the One and Divine Intelligence!

Many more specific cases could be examined where what the world considers pleasure and desirable—wealth, money, cars, possessions, gadgets, family and worldly loves and attachments, having children, worldly, as opposed to spiritual, friendships, sports, popular music, fame, honor, chauvinistic enthusiasms for teams, schools, countries and so forth, fancy clothing, travel, tourism, shows, recreations, fancy houses and furnishings, technological advances, politics, extensive news and gossip, etc., etc., etc.--turns out to actually and obviously be really pain and misery and unhappiness and deprivation, just the exact opposite of what the world thinks, and the contemplative ascetic and renunciant life and practice gladly abandoning all these things and singlemindedly and exclusively directed towards re-union with the Good turns out to be actually and obviously the greatest pleasure and joy and happiness and sufficiency and satisfaction, again, directly contrary to what the world thinks. Enough, however, has, hopefully, been said and the principles and understanding have been made clear enough that the reader can apply them to every instance of alleged worldly 'pleasure' and alleged contemplative ascetic 'deprivation'. The worldly life and pursuit and obtaining of worldly 'pleasures' and desires and passions and possessions and 'goods' is really, contrary to what it seems to the worldlings involved, just pure, unadulterated, unmixed pain and misery and unhappiness and deprivation of the true Good. It is just endless suffering on the wheel of birth and death. The contemplative ascetic and renunciant life, abandoning and rejecting all the 'pleasures' and desires and passions and 'goods' of the world, with its exclusive orientation to the true Good, is the actual great pleasure and happiness and satisfaction and sufficiency and well-being. Choose what you will—real pleasure or real pain, real happiness and sufficiency or real unhappiness and deprivation, endless misery throughout endless reincarnations or release and freedom and re-union with the One, the true Good, Beauty, Love, Truth and Intelligence or the most thorough and depraved deprivation of these!


© 2016 Eric S. Fallick platonicascetic (with) (Gee)mail (period) com

Images of Emanation and Renunciation

Images of Emanation and Renunciation

by Eric S. Fallick


In these very dark ages and most benighted times of the modern world hardly anyone understands the necessity and desirability and value and real and proper practice of renunciation, asceticism, otherworldliness and world-denyingness. Yet, there is no true spiritual and contemplative life and practice and no possibility of actual liberation without these. Most of the contemporary alleged followers of the contemplative systems that have, and always have had, renunciation and celibate contemplative asceticism as their very core conveniently ignore this fact or explain it away or as unnecessary and only belonging to the past. They even take pride in rejecting the otherworldly and world-denying and renunciant essence of their systems and claim that their worldliness and delusions and worldly desires and activities and attempts to make these compatible with contemplative practice mark an advance over the renunciant sages and systems of the past. They, further, invert and twist the metaphysics or descriptions of reality of these systems to justify their delusion and worldly desire and inability to see past the sense world (a general symptom of the problems with the modern age) invoking such things as 'creation spirituality', their ideas of huayen, 'zen', tantra and theurgy, an upside down understanding of 'non-dualism', the 'identity of samsara and nirvana', etc. Some have even invoked the Platonic teaching of the three hypostases and the emanation of the lower realities from the One to rationalize worldly indulgence and desire in the context of theurgic practice. The general idea seems to be something like that since this world of individuated sensate existence in space-time is in some sense an emanation of the One, the creation of God, a product of the Absolute, at some level part of the Absolute, etc., it must somehow be an ultimate good and desirable in itself, an augment of or addition to or improvement of the Absolute Itself (!)--rather than a diminution or darkening of the Absolute—and that we should, therefore, wallow in it forever and that the purpose of contemplative spiritual practice and even contemplative union is to allow us to wallow in it more effectively and help others to wallow in it more effectively. They ignore the teaching throughout all the systems that our presence here in this world is the result of a fall, of avidya or maya or desire, of audacity and wanting to be our own separated from the One, etc. and that our sole goal is escape from this world and restoration to our original condition as in union with or at least part of the Absolute or God. When they wish to cite past 'authorities' in this regard, they fix on the few most anomalous and dubious figures of their traditions or most dubious schools or aspects of their traditions, or take a few limited citations out of context of respected figures in their schools. While the modern world is indeed the most deluded of any in history and current circumstances are most unconducive to any true wisdom and understanding and renunciation and spiritual and contemplative practice, still this is ultimately due to their own delusion and heavy karma. In this essay, I would like to present some images for helping to understand the idea of emanation and the existence of the lower realities of the three Platonic hypostases and suggest how a proper understanding of these leads of necessity to full renunciation of the world as the only mode of true spiritual and contemplative practice.

The three Platonic hypostases are the One or the Good, Nous, which I will render as the Divine Mind-Thought, and Soul. These describe and encompass the actual structure of Reality. The One is the Absolute Itself, the only thing that really is, the Source and Origin of all else, totally independent and self-sufficient, completely without time and space, remaining completely unchanged and perfect as the lower realities emanate from or are included within it. Nous or the Divine Mind-Thought is the first level of multiplicity, but multiplicity in unity, the level of the Platonic Forms or Ideas, existing in eternity and infinity, one whole at the same time differentiated, thought and thinker the same but distinct, also remaining unchanged as Soul comes to be from or within it. Soul is the lowest level, that of individuated sensate existence in space-time, both of the Soul of the All and each individual soul, the limit of multiplicity and differentiation, being changed all the time as it produces its own objects in space and time. Only the One is truly real and really is and includes all else. Nous is less real and is less than the One, and Soul and souls are less real and are less than Nous. These are existential levels at which consciousness as a unitary whole can exist, but as we descend the levels we exist less, we are less, have less actual being. Unity is more real, exists more than multiplicity. We must resist thinking of this as a temporal and spatial process and of the hypostases as having separate existences in space and time. Space and time only come to be at the lowest and least real level of soul and have no ultimate reality. The three hypostases are always present everywhere, so to speak, but consciousness at one level, particularly the level of soul, isn't always aware of the presence of the other levels as such. We also must resist considering the lower emanations as being additions to or more than or additional than or outside the One. They are, rather, subtractions from, lessenings of, negations from within of the One.

It is hard to do better than Plotinus' explanation of all reality as contemplation and the descending levels as being stronger and weaker contemplation. The One is complete, perfect, total strongest contemplation without multiplicity. The Divine Mind-Thought is weaker and less real, but still strong and, though not completely timeless and spaceless, at least eternal and infinite contemplation. Soul is the weakest, least real, most incomplete, most multiple, most untrue spatial and temporal contemplation.

In the One, subject and object are completely one without distinction, just a single unitary contemplation. In the Divine Mind-Thought, subject and object have become distinguished but not actually separated. The Divine Mind contemplates the Divine Ideas as itself, not truly separated. At the level of soul, subject and object have separated and broken up completely, at least in appearance and how they are experienced, and each soul considers itself as an independent subject viewing independent spatial-temporal objects.

The One may be viewed as complete, pure, perfect knowing with nothing else—the highest, purest, independent unified knowing with no admixture of anything else. Nous is a lower, lesser, more impure knowing—not complete knowing, but knowing mixed with some not-knowing or nescience. Soul is a still lower, lesser and more impure knowing mixed with a great deal of not-knowing or nescience—as much not-knowing as knowing. These lesser levels of knowing are not additional knowings or knowing more than the pure knowing, but rather greater levels of ignorance or nescience, knowings of less. They are not elsewhere but within the perfect knowing. The perfect knowing includes the possibility of its own negation as not-knowing without Itself lacking any knowing or having any not-knowing or knowing in the same incomplete and imperfect way as the lower knowings mixed with nescience. The One is perfect, complete unitary Thought. As such, it contains or includes, without being, all possible incomplete, impure, divided thought—It's own partial negations.

Imagine a mass of complete, pure brilliant light—nothing at all but light. This is the One. Although the mass is just pure inconceivably complete and full light, it includes or contains within Itself, again without being, the idea of darkness, of lack of or negation of light, which is not actually something in itself, just the absence of light. The first diminution of the Light is Nous—still much very bright light, but not all the Light, but mixed with darkness, having the absence of some light. Soul is a further diminution or dimming of the Light—as much darkness or absence of light as light. The two lower levels are not something more than or added to the great pure Light, but removals from or negations or dimmings of It. They exist less than It.

Imagine a great ball of pure white light. This is the One. It has within Itself a lens or filter that is actually nothing in itself but only a negation or absence or potentiality for negation or absence of the Light Itself. This is Nous. The pure white light passes through this lens or filter producing a still dimmer projection of Itself within Itself as supposed individuated souls and their objects in space-time that is soul. But this projection is just a dull image or darkness within the Light, a negation of the Light Itself, not actually additional content to the Light. The original Light has both the lens or filter and the projection in Itself without being them or as them. They are just potential configurations of the inherent possible idea of darkness within light.

All these images and attempted descriptions are imperfect attempts to explain and understand a state of affairs that cannot really be fully grasped at the level of discursive thought at the lowest level of soul per se, that can only really be known at the level of the One or the Good Itself, but can be more intuitively and intellectually, in the truer sense of the word, or noetically apprehended, with much difficulty and long effort, in ascetic contemplation. It is important to understand, however, as emphasized above, that only the One or the Good is fully and truly real and fully and truly perfect and good and that the lower hypostases are not ultimate goods, not goods in themselves, but only good in so far as they participate in the Good and that the lower hypostases are not additions to or augmentations of the One, but subtractions and declinations from, poor and faint and less real reflections of the One. The existence or emanation of the lower hypostases doesn't affect the Good in any way and it is neither more nor less for their being. The lower hypostases don't exist or emanate as the result of any sort desire or inclination or need or intention of the One. They are the result of the metaphysical necessity of the perfect complete Good or Knowing or Thought or Being containing the Idea of the possibility of Its own partial negation. Our existence here as individuated souls in sensate existence in space-time undergoing the endless cycle of reincarnation is not a good resulting from an intentional production or need or desire of the Absolute, and is not at all identical with the Absolute as such, but rather a fall or declination or diminution resulting from metaphysical necessity of its possibility manifesting as our own audacity and wanting to be our own independently of the One. It is wholly an unfortunate and miserable, though ultimately less or unreal, thing. Our innate love of the Good and desire to return to It and to turn to It and away from this world and our individuated sensate existence is what is real and true in us and is a reflection of the unity and true nature of the One. Our pursuing the things of this world and the senses and thinking that it is real and good and important, our wanting to be our individual selves and turn away from the One is simply being less real and turning further into darkness and nescience and unreality and represents the further negation of the Good.

We may now consider the above understanding and images in relation to individual spiritual and contemplative practice, renunciation and asceticism, and the deluded modern worldly views and practices referred to at the beginning. Again, we find ourselves in this world in a state of individuated sensate existence in space-time as individual souls reincarnating endlessly in different forms. We are in a state of lesser or unreality, at the lowest existential level of separated subject and object, in the lowest level of not-knowing, nescience and ignorance, barely existing at the level of least being and least good, in darkness mixed with only a little light, in greatest multiplicity. We want to move back to, return to union with the One or the Good, to shift our existential state back to the complete non-difference of subject and object, to become real and really be again, to return to full and true knowing again, to return to and become again pure light and unity. It is only obvious, clear and logical that to do this we have to renounce this world and our existence and pursuits in it as much as possible in our present condition of embodiment and needing to maintain our present pyscho-physical organism so that we can continue to practice in order to eventually transcend this world entirely. To say otherwise, to think, as the foolish deluded moderns do, that we can pursue both this world and the things of this world and sensual pleasures and desires and worldly activities and pursuits and also the contemplative spiritual life and practice to escape from and transcend this world and return to the One, is to say and think that one being can go in two completely opposite directions at the same time. It is to say that one can simultaneously go both further into multiplicity and towards greater unity. It is to say that darkness and pure light can both be there together at the same time for the same soul, that we can both know and not-know at the same time, pursue both knowledge and ignorance, pursue both death and life, being and non-being, unreal and real existence at the same time, that subject and object can be both broken up and unified at the same time in the same consciousness. It is to think that we can contemplate both weakly and strongly at the same time. True renunciation, both inner and outer, as much as possible is spiritual and contemplative practice. Obviously, as unclear as it is to so many moderns, there can be no real contemplative and spiritual practice and life without true celibate asceticism. As best as we can, we have to and can only go in one direction or the other—we can't have both. As best as we can, we either love the Good or this world—the first is our true innate love and results in renunciation and asceticism and turning all our attention and desire and love and aspiration to the Good; the second is the false love of marginally existent worldlings and leads to worldliness and continued minimal and miserable existence.

Truly, those who deny the absolute and unquestionable necessity and value and beauty of full world renunciation and celibate, vegetarian, teetotaling, etc. contemplative asceticism can never have really touched and known at all in contemplation the One or Good or God or Absolute they claim to be seeking or following. If they had, they would have been overwhelmed by Its indescribable and inconceivable perfection, wonderfulness, luminosity, knowing, unity, fullness and goodness and realized that this world and the things of this world and the senses are just nothing in comparison and are only to be renounced and forsaken. Renunciation and contemplative asceticism would have appeared as obviously the only possible way of real spiritual and contemplative practice. Even the thought of any other way and greater separation from the One would be unbearable to them. Their love for the Good would be too intense to allow them to think that any other love is allowable or desirable. Real, full and true renunciation and celibate contemplative asceticism is, logically, rationally, metaphysically, mystically and spiritually, the true reflection or representation of the Absolute in this world.


©2016 Eric S. Fallick platonicascetic (with) (Gee)mail (period) com

Homer on the Limitations of Institutionalized Monasticism

Homer on the Limitations of Institutionalized Monasticism:
The Aeolus Episode of the Odyssey

by Eric S. Fallick

The Odyssey of Homer is a great and wonderful spiritual treasure left to us from antiquity. Although it is little appreciated as such now, it is actually an amazing spiritual guidebook and practice manual describing in a symbolic, allegorical, and anagogical manner the journey of the practitioner's soul through successive rebirths in its striving to obtain liberation from the cycle of becoming and return to its home in transcendent Reality. Like all real spiritual texts, the Path it describes and prescribes is that of contemplative asceticism, renunciation and meditation, and knowledge or wisdom. In fact, the asceticism and renunciation and mysticism it commends is of the most severe, pure, world-denying, uncompromising, abstract, and transcendent nature. (This, of course, does not mean it recommends the sort of self-torture practices that are sometimes included, unfortunately and incorrectly, under the rubric of asceticism.) No compromise is made with this world and ordinary human attachments and desires, which ultimately have to be transcended and given up completely to reach the Goal, difficult as this may be. So pure and austere and transcendent is this renunciation and contemplation, that it recognizes that institutionalized, ritualized, organized, corporate renunciation is not really full or true renunciation since, while incorporating some of the absolutely essential renunciant practices such as celibacy, vegetarianism, teetotaling, lack of personal possessions, devotion to practice, etc., it otherwise merely reproduces different forms of the same social structures of this world and caters to and provides for the same human emotional needs, desires, and attachments (all of which need to be transcended) within institutional monastic structures. Actual liberation, according to Homer, requires a long and painful process of totally stripping away the burden of the lower self and its needs and desires and totally reorienting the soul towards the Absolute. Institutionalized monasticism and renunciation does not, according to Homer, accomplish this, but ineffectually attempts to achieve transcendent contemplation while leaving the burden of the lower self and passions intact. Thus, it doesn't really work and must be considered as at best a way station towards more complete, full, independent, unsupported, and untethered renunciation and contemplative asceticism and complete otherworldliness.

The Aeolus episode at Book 10, lines 1-76 of the Odyssey relates Homer's view of the inadequacy of institutionalized monasticism and may serve as an example of relatively manageable size for an attempt at illustrating the symbolic, anagogical meaning of the text. I would, therefore, like to try here to give a literal prose translation of the text followed by an exposition of its undermeaning.

And we came to the Aeolian island: and there dwelt Aeolus son of Hippotas,
dear to the deathless gods, on a floating island: and, indeed, around it all was
an unbreakable bronze wall, and smooth stone runs up.
And of him twelve children have been in the halls, on the one hand six daughters,
on the other hand six sons being in the prime of youth:
there he indeed gave the daughters to the sons to be wives.
And they always dine beside their dear father and devoted mother, and a myriad good things
lie beside them, and indeed the house full of the savor of roasting fat resounds around
the courtyard during the days: and during the nights, on the other hand, they sleep beside
their revered wives in both blankets and perforated beds.
And we came to their city and fine house.
And for a whole month he held me dear and inquired about each thing, about Ilium
and the ships of the Argives and the return of the Achaeans: and I, for my part, related everything to him in due fashion.
But when then I also asked for the way and bid him to send me, he did not
at all refuse, but fashioned a conveyance.
But he gave me a leather bag having stripped it off of a nine year old bull,
and there he tied up the ways of the roaring winds: for the son of Kronos
made him manager of winds, both to make to cease and
to set in motion, which wind he would want.
And he tied it up in the hollow ship with a shining silver cord, so that
nothing would blow past even a little bit: but for me he sent forth a breath of the West
Wind to blow, so that it would bear both the ships and ourselves: nor then was
it going to be brought to completion: for we were lost by the senselessness of ourselves.
For nine days then we sailed both night and day alike, but on the tenth already
the fatherland country appeared, and then being near we were seeing the
people tending the fires: then sweet sleep came upon me having toiled,
for always I wielded the lower part of the sail of the ship, nor gave it to another of
my companions, in order that we would quickly come to the fatherland:
but my companions began addressing each other with words, and they said that I was
bringing home for myself both gold and silver as gifts from great-hearted Aeolus son of Hippotas.
And thus one was saying, seeing, to another one near:
Ah me! How this person is dear to and honored among all peoples,
of whomever he would come to both the city and the land.
Many are the fine treasures of spoil he is bringing for himself from Troy, but
we on the other hand having completed the same way come back home
together having empty hands: and now Aeolus showing
favor has given these things to him with love.
But come, quickly let us see what thing these things are,
how much certain both gold and silver are present in the bag.
Thus they said, and evil counsel overcame the companions:
they loosed the leather bag, and all the winds rushed out.
And at once snatching them up a storm wind bore them seaward wailing,
from the fatherland.
But I myself awakening turned over in my blameless spirit,
whether falling from the ship I should perish in the sea,
or quietly should bear it and still be among the living ones.
But I endured and stayed, and covering myself I lay in the ship.
And the ships were borne by an evil storm of wind back again
to the Aeolian island, and the companions groaned.
But there we went onto the land and drew water, and at once
the companions took dinner by the swift ships.
But when we had partaken of bread and drink, then I myself taking with
me a herald and a companion went to the famed house of Aeolus:
And I found him dining beside his wife and his children.
But coming into the house we sat down on the threshold by the
doorposts: but they were astonished in spirit and asked right out:
How have you come, Odysseus? What evil spirit assailed you?
Surely indeed we cordially sent you off, so that you would come to
your fatherland and house and if anywhere is dear to you. Thus they said, but I spoke among them feeling pain at heart:
Both my evil companions injured me and besides them stubborn sleep.
But cure it, friends: for the power is in you.
Thus I said addressing them with soft words, but they became silent: but the
father replied with a word: go quickly from the island, most reproachable of the
living: for it is not lawful for me to provide for or send forth that man who would
become hateful to the blessed gods: go, since then you have come to this place
becoming hateful to the gods.
Thus saying he sent me away from the house moaning heavily. …

Odysseus, the true divine soul or self and the contemplative ascetic and renunciant practitioner, is struggling to return to Ithaca, his true home, the higher transcendent realm of the Divine Mind-Thought and ultimately the One Itself, from which he has fallen into the ocean of genesis, of becoming, of birth and death, of individuated subjective experience in space-time. He is aware of being lost, but at this point doesn't know exactly how to get back, although he does know where it is he wants and needs to return to. He also at this point still has his ships and most of his crew, which represent the lower self or soul involved in the psychophysical complex and the accompanying passions, emotions, defilements, etc. He still is attached to this lower self and its faculties and still identifies with them and wants to bring them back with him. He doesn't yet understand that these are a great burden binding him to the prison of this world and preventing his return, and that he will have to get rid of or lose all of them and everything, however painful he may experience the process of doing so to be, before he can go back to Ithaca, that is, awake to true Reality. To return to the One, the Simple, the Pure, the Good, the Beautiful, one must oneself become unitary, simple, pure, good, and beautiful, stripping away everything that has accumulated around the true divine soul, so that it can become like the One it is returning to and realize that it is in fact the emanation of that One. Odysseus has, however, at this point already blinded the eye of the cyclops, made the initial separation from the senses and the bestial self involved wholly in the senses, which, while bringing all the karmic obstructions of matter, Poseidon, against him to be worked through, means that his eventual return to Ithaca, to Reality, alone, stripped entirely of the lower self, is already fated.

Now he comes to the island of Aeolia, of Aeolus son of Hippotas, which represents organized, institutionalized, ritualized monasticism. Incidentally, it may be noted that the course of spiritual practice described in the Odyssey is more iterative than necessarily linear, and one may go through the same episodes repeatedly in the course of the many lifetimes of the Path in various ways and at various levels. Aeolus and Aeolia imply in the Greek quick-moving, swift, wriggling, nimble, shifty, slippery, glittering, changeful of hue, and the like. This indicates both the cleverness of legalistic maneuvering and manipulation of ritual, along with politics, that tends to characterize institutionalized renunciation, and also the colorful and impressive appearance created by uniforms, corporate ritual, art and architecture, etc. He is the son of Hippotas, son of a horseman, because he 'descends' from a religious founder who instituted means and/or structures to try to tame the lower, bestial self and the beast of the body, the horse. He is dear to the gods because such are all sincere spiritual strivers. He lives on a floating island representing the fact that the institution is somewhat separated from the rest of the world but is still subject to various historical, temporal, and cultural vicissitudes like any institution in this world. It is surrounded by an unbreakable bronze wall and sheer stone cliff because it is cloistered and self-contained with its own corporate and administrative existence. His symmetrical even dozen six sons and six daughters married to each other show the uniform and uniformly, ritually reproduced disciples constituting the monastic order and indicate, along with Aeolus and his wife, the sort of non-biological procreation that maintains monastic orders and actually, and unfortunately, replicates worldly family structures within them. (There is, of course, no actual sexual implication in the symbolic description here using the language of ordinary conjugal arrangements.) Their continual dining represents the ongoing organized routine, largely centered on obtaining and preparing and consuming meals, maintaining the physical plant and income generating activities and services, and performing corporate ritual, that much constitutes cenobitical monastic life, and winds up really taking the place of individual spiritual striving. These activities visibly and audibly fill the monastery, so the savor of roasting fat resounds through the courtyard during the day, and at night they rest together in their uniform, appointed accommodations, their blankets and perforated beds. A myriad good things lie beside them suggesting the relative economic and physical security of institutionalized, corporate, and especially cenobitical renunciation, as opposed to the great insecurity of individual renunciation.

Odysseus, then, comes to this pleasantly accommodated monastic institution, and is cordially welcomed since he is, at least initially, recognized as a fellow renunciant, even if an independent one. In fact, they question him at great length concerning Ilium, the initial attempt to wrestle noetical beauty away from the material realm, the ships of the Argives, the means by which independent renunciants traverse the ocean of becoming, and the return of the Achaeans, how fully focused renunciants have attempted to return to awakening. Odysseus, the true contemplative ascetic, does not, however, wish to be retained here long, however nice it may be, but asks to return to the aim of his spiritual practice, Ithaca, and for help and conveyance in getting thereto. Aeolus gladly obliges him since, although he has not returned himself, he has various traditional methods that he believes are effective in suppressing and controlling and altering the passions and defilements, the son of Kronos has made him manager of winds, that is, passions and defilements. He teaches Odysseus the methods, which Odysseus diligently practices. He binds the winds, passions, in a leather bag made from a bull nine years old, that is, suppresses the passions and defilements by a long practice of physical restraint of the bestial self through regulated, ritualized activity, and secures it with a silver cord, that is, the practice of the mundane constitutional virtues without actual wisdom. He sends forth the West Wind, the positive emotion and enthusiasm generated by communal ritual, to help them on their way. But it can't actually work in the long run. The passions and defilements have only been suppressed and mitigated, not destroyed, and the whole lower self has not been gotten rid of and the process of doing so has not been gone through.

They set sail for Ithaca, that is, Odysseus, with the passions temporarily bound and with his lower self mostly still intact, diligently practices contemplation or meditation and comes within sight of the higher realm, Ithaca. Then he suddenly falls asleep, that is, he enters a state of deep contemplation or samadhi as would be necessary for contacting that higher Reality. But, alas, in this case it is only a temporary glimpse and meditative state. The elements and faculties of the lower self still being there unchanged and now being released from the control of the higher, divine self which is occupied in its meditative state, erupt into their characteristic greed, envy, egotism, etc. They think Odysseus has gold, silver, and gifts in the bag, that they are being deprived of the pleasures and gratifications of the ordinary emotions by the ritualized ascetic practice Odysseus has been following under Aeolus's guidance. So they open the bag, while Odysseus is in samadhi he can't attend to the ritualized mundane practice of keeping the defilements and karmic habit patterns in check, sitting on them, so to speak, without having actually destroyed them with real wisdom and true practice and knowledge, and release all the suppressed passions, the blustering storm winds that blow them back out into the sea of material existence and back to the ultimately mundane temporospatial realm of the monastery. Even the faculties of the lower self now realize their mistake and are upset, and Odysseus, the higher soul, having now emerged from the meditative state and rejoined with the lower self and still identifying with it is so distraught that he briefly considers giving up the Path altogether, perishing by falling entirely into the sea of material existence, but of course he endures and they come back to the island of Aeolus.

At first, upon arrival, they pause to draw water and take dinner. Sadly, even in the midst of spiritual crises we still have to maintain and tend to the basic needs of the body. Odysseus then goes back to the famed house of Aeolus where he finds them dining as ever. They are shocked to see him because, although they have never actually returned yet themselves, they have never doubted that their traditional methods should allow one to do so, and ask what happened. Odysseus, still distraught, but also still not realizing that the methods he has been given are not efficacious, especially when he still has the whole apparatus of the lower self which he still doesn't understand that he must be rid of, explains what happened, perhaps not even realizing that entering samadhi was really a good thing, and asks for them to help him to try again. They, however, are unable to understand the limitations of their system, and so the only thing they can conclude is that the individual renouncer and soul they have tried to help must be cursed, have heavy karma, and be a bad soul, even though he is actually better fated than they are, and send him away. So sad Odysseus leaves with much of the Path and many trials through a number of lifetimes ahead of him leading to his eventual success and freedom.


© 2011 Eric S. Fallick platonicascetic (at) (gee) mail (dot) com

On Genuine Spiritual Experience

On Genuine Spiritual Experience

by Eric S. Fallick


We live in a time of the most immense and profound spiritual and philosophical confusion. Despite the self-infatuated notion of the age that it represents the pinnacle of historical “progress” (“progress” being, incidentally, a notion entirely of its own creation), the modern world is the darkest and most lacking in wisdom in at least the last 2500 years. Materialism, positivism, subjectivism, anti-intellectualism, in the more profound sense of the term, and worldliness are prevalent everywhere and in all institutions. The notions of conforming oneself to an objective divine reality or structure, and that it is the objective divine reality that is important, and otherworldliness, more available in the pre-modern world, have been almost entirely forgotten or dismissed as antiquated, and this-worldliness, concern only for this phenomenal world, and concern only with individual subjective experiences and desires as being valid and important has more or less entirely pervaded even things that are designated as “spiritual”--a natural consequence of the belief that only the things of the senses and matter are real, which has, consciously or unconsciously, been steamrolling further and further since the inception of the modern world. Yet, otherworldliness, concern with and adapting to an objective divine reality, renunciation, and ascent through divine intellect are what any real spiritual practice and spirituality are about, whether this goes with the prejudices, thoughts, and tendencies of the present day or not. Since the opposite attitude seems to be found in virtually all writings, publications, teachers, organizations, practices, etc. currently advertised as spiritual, the result is that there is very little real spiritual stuff going on anywhere, and the spiritual seeker is unlikely to ever encounter any real spiritual teaching unless he turns directly to the writings of the ancients and has the ability to understand them directly and correctly on his own without help. One greatly important area where this mess manifests itself is in the understanding, or lack thereof, of what constitutes genuine spiritual experience and the methods and nature of its attainment, despite, or because, of the present exclusive concern with subjective or phenomenal experience and gain. It is pretentious for a poor slob to try to descant on such a subject, but given the enormous confusion prevalent, perhaps it is worth daring to try to say a few words on the matter based on the teachings of Homer, Plato, and Plotinus.

The comments made thus far already give us some pointers in the direction of determining authentic spiritual experience. It doesn't come cheap—indeed, the whole world must be sacrificed for it. World-denying renunciation and otherworldliness are necessary, though not alone sufficient, conditions for any genuine spiritual experience, and such experience results always all the more in renunciation, unconcern for this world, and otherworldliness. It is not attained quickly, easily, or by many. The people of the present day must think that all the great sages and practitioners of the past, even of their own systems, were spiritually retarded, since they think that everybody and their brother now attains spiritual accomplishment and teaching credentials quickly and easily without giving up anything, no fuss, no mess, while the ancients struggled and exerted the greatest efforts for many years and lifetimes with only a few attaining in a given birth. Real spiritual experience comes only as the result of prolonged, sustained, intense, concentrated, exclusive, properly directed effort, not just in contemplation/meditation alone, but accompanied by true renunciation and asceticism, strictest moral discipline, and correct philosophical understanding and study. It certainly does not arise spontaneously from such things as immersion in the beauties of nature, uplifting music or art or literature, emotional experiences or relationships, physiological practices, just listening to and hanging out with a groovy guru, etc., etc. It can never arise accompanied by or be followed, after any amount of time, by indulgence of any worldly or sensual desires, moral misconduct of any kind, use of intoxicants, flesh-eating, political, social, organizational, or self-aggrandizing activities, etc. True spiritual experience is supra-rational, not infra-rational. It is not at all attained by abandoning rational thinking and immersing oneself in pre-critical sense feeling, but by shifting 'thought' into the transcedental realm of the Divine Mind-Thought and the Platonic Forms/Ideas, which is intermediate between this sense-world of birth, decay, and death and the One itself. (Experience of this Nous is also legitimately to be considered authentic, if intermediate and limited, spiritual experience, but is not the ultimate genuine spiritual experience that is the concern of this essay. Even to reach this intermediate stage, however, is a most difficult, remarkable, substantial, and rare achievement.) One of the greatest and most pervasive of errors these days seems to be the idea that somehow spiritual and meditation practice involves abandoning thinking clearly and rationally and just focusing on and plunging oneself down to the level of exclusive attention to bodily sensations, feelings, and emotions, perhaps a reflection of the delusive modern idea that physical things and 'nature' are more real than ideal things and values, which is really just the opposite of actual spiritual practice and certainly has never commended itself to the authentic sages of the past of whatever system.

What then is the genuine spiritual experience we have been considering? It is only the direct experience of, and ultimately re-union with or in, the Absolute Itself, the One, the Good. This experience is completely, totally, and qualitatively different from any phenomenal experience, just as the Absolute Itself is totally and completely different from (though, of course, containing and 'immanent' in) any and every thing. It is completely transcendent and not another experience in or of this world at all. It is not really a “personal” experience at all. In truth, it is not really an experience of the little individual phenomenal self, but is really the Absolute re-manifesting Itself to the final and blessed elimination of the experience of the individual phenomenal self. This does not happen all at once to the complete degree, and there may be a very, very long time of continued effort and pain from an initial glimpse and authentic experience to the complete re-manifestation of the Absolute, but when the end is finally reached, all there is left is the Absolute Itself and Its own singular absolute unchanging experience, with no concern at all or, in our sense, awareness of this world. Of course, throughout the long journey of the Path through many rebirths through the long dark night of time, there will be many experiences, insights, changes, and understandings that we may, if we like, designate as in some sense “spiritual”, but they are only so, only of value, to the extent to which they move us along the Path to the one ultimate transcendent type of absolute experience that we have been designating genuine spiritual experience, which is the only portal to and, in the end, state of freedom from birth and death.

By this point any of my more hip, groovy, and modern readers (if I have any readers at all) may have already left me, and I am afraid that perhaps some readers who are still with me may feel that the Absolute and the genuine spiritual experience of it have appeared as so utterly transcendent and wonderful that they may be discouraged and despondent and impatient of their attainment, which has appeared as by no means the quick and easy matter that many nowadays imagine. But be encouraged and take heart! There is nothing else at all to any degree worth aiming at and striving for, nothing even faintly as wonderful, nothing in this world worth even the slightest in comparison, than this genuine spiritual experience and the Supreme Good Itself. Even if it takes a thousand rebirths of strenuous effort and hardship and struggle, that is as nothing compared to the Good to be attained and, indeed, there simply is no other way to go and the thought of not fully exerting oneself on and dedicating oneself fully to this Path is not even to be entertained. Press on!



©2012 Eric S. Fallick platonicascetic (at) (gee) mail (dot) com

The Practice of Contemplation

The Practice of Contemplation

by Eric S. Fallick

The formal practice of contemplation is the central transformative practice of the Path to liberation. This is especially so in a spiritual system based on an idealist metaphysic. (Conversely, such a metaphysic is implied by the fact that all the systems of the philosophia perennis, even non-idealist ones, consider that the practice of “meditation” or contemplation is the means of changing one's mode or state of being.) Since all is mind or spirit or thought, experience without referent; since Reality is, in fact, contemplation, and knowing or experience is not possible without the Absolute, the absolutely essential practices of moral discipline, renunciation, and asceticism, and the necessary ancillary study and reading and thought and reflection may all be taken as also being forms of contemplation. Contrary to the prevailing view and practice in these darkest of times, when “meditation practice” is “taken up” by worldlings all and sundry without philosophical understanding, without giving up anything, and with a view just towards being healthy, wealthy, and wise, genuine spiritual contemplation is a difficult practice of contemplative ascetics requiring renunciation of the world and worldly pursuits and desires, strict moral discipline, and the ability to think and discern clearly, and is based on a definite metaphysical or philosophical understanding or view of the nature of Reality, and has a definite aim or telos. In this short essay, I would like to try and present a very brief discussion of Platonist contemplation practice.

Plato and Plotinus were the greatest of mystics, contemplatives, and spiritual teachers. Although in modern times the teaching of the divine Plato has, unfortunately, been presented as just “philosophy” in the modern sense of the term as just thinking about things, it is, in fact, a spiritual and soteriological system more akin to the Indian systems and the Greek systems of Orphism and Pythagoreanism. It has, however, happily, never become an organized, institutional religion for the many, never has had an organized, ritualized monastic order, etc. This has allowed it to retain its purely transcendent, spiritual nature and great liberating power, but perhaps has led many moderns to overlook its actual nature and content. Similarly, the dialectical form and, in the case of Plato himself, often symbolic, allegorical, and anagogical form of presentation used may lead to a lack of understanding or appreciation. Platonism requires of the individual practicer, contemplative ascetic, or philosopher in the original Platonic sense of the term considerable intelligence, discernment, and self-reliance. The goal or aim of the Platonic teaching, with, of course, its own uniqueness in various respects, is, like the allied systems mentioned above, liberation from the endless miserable cycle of repeated birth and death, of individuated existence in space-time, and, like at least some of the other systems, re-union with the Absolute. This should be obvious from, for example, an unbiased and informed reading of Plato's Phaedo, perhaps the core dialog for the Platonist practitioner and the key to understanding the rest of the Platonic corpus.

As indicated above, real contemplation practice is based on, and in turn reveals, a particular metaphysic or understanding of Reality. Of course, actual contemplative experience transcends and is ultimately not a matter of discursive understanding and constructs, but rather is a direct transformation of state of being and union with higher Reality, but the expression of such contemplative accomplishment and transformation at the level of discursive thought yields definite understandings, and such understandings are, conversely, necessary for undertaking contemplative practice. Further, the attempt at conceptual understanding is in itself part of the practice at a lower level and continues along the Path in interaction with the knowledge directly “seen” in contemplation. Thus, it will be necessary to first sketch a very brief outline of the Platonist understanding of the nature of Reality.

The highest, ultimate, truest, most really being, in fact, the only thing fully being, Reality is the One or the Good, the self-existent Absolute, the Source of everything. This is really beyond predication, hyper-one, hyper-good, hyper-beautiful, existence beyond existence, pure knowledge without knower and known, absolute sentience without subject and object at all. It is not only completely without time and space, but even beyond eternity and infinity. This is really all that is. It is our origin and goal. Without it, neither we nor anything else would be even to the degree that we and they are. It is the ground of all experience, and our whole aim is to return entirely to this. The true noetic love at the base of our soul that is the propelling force on the Path is for This One only.

The One in its hyper-perfection emanates, without being in the slightest bit altered or affected or losing any of its total independence, the next “descending” order of Reality, Nous, commonly translated as Intellect, but which here will be rendered the Divine Mind-Thought. Here a degree of nescience has arisen so that there is a degree of multiplicity. This is the realm of the Platonic Forms or Ideas which are, however, not different from the Divine Mind that eternally and unchangingly contemplates them. Here subject and object have emerged and become distinct, but are not separated. Unlike the chaotic multiplicity of the sense-world, here there is only one each of the eternal Ideas. There is no change or time or space, but their divine paradigms of eternity, infinity, and the interrelation of the Forms have appeared. One must resist the temptation to imagine Nous as spatially separate from the One or emerging in time from it. It is more like a lesser degree of being or reality being discriminated within in it by nescience.

The Divine Mind-Thought, although lacking the hyper-perfection of the One, still is perfect enough to emanate another lower order of being or reality while remaining unchanged itself. This is the level of soul, both the World Soul or the Soul of the All and our individual souls. Here subject and object have split up and time and space and multiplicity and change have appeared. Soul creates, so to speak, the apparent multiple-object space-time world by projecting the Forms of the Divine Mind-Thought into multiple partial reflections trying to thus approximate the totality that has now been seemingly lost at this the last and lowest level of being. Soul, however, unlike the two higher levels, is unable to remain unchanged in the process and is continually caught up in and is part of its own projection. The experiential field of the World Soul contains all time and space simultaneously, encompasses the whole All, including all at once all the modifications reflected in it of the modifications of each of the experiential fields of the individual souls brought about through their respective volitional activities, and, in turn, the individual souls' experiential fields are modified reflecting all these modifications induced by their own actions with respect to the actions of others, but the individual souls do not experience these changes all at once like the World Soul, but as a continuing series in space-time that constitutes what appears to them as an involuntarily given empirical world. Again, this level is not to be thought of as actually spatially and temporally separated from the higher levels (indeed, space and time have only just emerged at this lowest and least important level), but, again, more like an even lesser degree of being or reality further discriminated within the two higher levels by a greatly increased degree of nescience.

For the World Soul and its All, there is not necessarily any fault or problem connected with its existence at this level. It is merely the necessary and, in some sense, permanent radiation of the Divine Mind-Thought. For the individual souls, however, which are in some sense microcosms of the whole system capable of in some sense existing at all three levels, being here as individuals in space-time and as subjects with separate objects is the greatest of faults and errors. They have, through nescience, dared to move away existentially from the higher unities, to want to belong to themselves and objects as separate individuals, and have forgotten their true identity as really being the One. Thus, they wander further and further away, deeper and deeper into nescience, forgetting the Real more and more, continually projecting the Forms they have forgotten as such into new supposed objects which they exalt as more important than and to themselves, and thus experience endless misery (in fact, just the fact of being here at this lowest level at all is the most hellish suffering compared to the hyper-bliss of being the One) reincarnating in an endless series of forms both human and non-human.

This then is the situation and reality in which we presently find ourselves, and the obvious task is to reverse the whole process, escape totally from space and time and multiplicity and individuality, and even from eternity and infinity and totality, and return to just being the One. This is the Path of Contemplation. In understanding this process and path, it is important to note that the nature of the individual soul is to love, and it is where and is what it loves. While the soul's true love is only for its source, the One, to which it really longs to return, in its present fallen condition this has been forgotten and its love has been altogether turned around and misdirected through nescience to the things of this world and itself, pursuing which, its misdirected love becomes all the more misdirected and it ties its bonds tighter and tighter in a vicious cycle of ever-increasing nescience. Of the essence of the Path, then, and continuing throughout it, is the continuous effort to give up all love for all the things of this world and the individual self and to redirect all the soul's love back exclusively towards the Good, the Absolute. True renunciation and true knowledge go hand in hand together. (This, incidentally, is why the Socrates of the Symposium, who represents the higher divine part of the soul, states that he says that he knows nothing other than the things of love (177d 7-8).) It is also important to note that the soul, as stated above a sort of microcosm of the whole system of reality, never really entirely descends, but part of it, however much it may be forgotten by the lower part we are mostly exclusively aware of, remains always above in the higher realities, and it is through this higher part that we need to pull ourselves back up. Also, it needs to be remembered that everything is really spirit, mind, or contemplation, and that discursive thinking and “physical” action are really lower weaker forms of contemplation even though they appear to us in our delusion to be dealing with and attempting to manipulate an objective, external, and physical or mental, in the lowest, psychological sense of the word, object-world. Actions and thoughts directed towards things in this world really aim at creating a state where different things will appear to us, which is really an altered state of contemplation.

The practice of contemplation, then, may be roughly outlined in three stages corresponding to the three levels of reality or modes of being. It should be noted, however, that actual practice is iterative and nonlinear and the three levels constantly interact with and reinforce each other throughout the Path. Also, this brief outline essay will not discuss all of the practical details and the many difficulties, troubles, hindrances, pains, and pitfalls that occur through the course of spiritual, contemplative practice. It may be noted, however, that tremendous perseverance, effort, patience, endurance, and discernment are required.

The first stage involves alteration of discursive thinking and phenomenal behavior. The practitioner must first gain a good understanding of the principles of the Path and the nature of Reality, as outlined above, and of the unsatisfactory nature of worldly life and repeated rebirth. He must stop thinking like a worldling and start thinking as a renunciant, always thinking of how things are and of getting free, always seeing things in terms of universal principles, not particular occurrences, as much as possible not thinking of worldly matters and desires beyond what is necessary, trying to gain greater understanding, in thought and emotion turning his concern and love away from all the things of this world and towards the Divine Mind-Thought and the Absolute, etc. This is done through reading, study, and reflection with continuous effort. (Ideally, it is, of course, good also to have the association of, teaching of, and discussion with other, more advanced, or at least equal, renunicants and contemplatives, but, unfortunately, in this dark age, such are hardly to be found, so the sincere aspirant is basically left on his own with the writings of the ancients as his only guides.) The practitioner must also in deed renounce all worldly activities, pursuits, and desires as much as possible, and devote all his time and energy, beyond what is necessary for psycho-physical survival, to contemplation and study. This includes celibacy, vegetarianism, teetotaling, abstention from entertainments and social events, complete honesty, kindness and non-harming, etc.-- the cultivation of all moral and ascetic virtue. All this may seem like only necessary preparatory requirements for contemplation, but since, as stated above, all is really contemplation, and to know is to be, these practices of thinking and conduct are, in fact, a sort of low-level contemplation, and by changing one's thinking and actions and way of life and attitude, one has already to a certain preliminary degree brought about a change in one's contemplative state and mode of being.

The next two stages comprise what may appear as more the contemplation practice proper. The second stage is the ascent to and contemplation of and ultimately union with the Divine Mind-Thought. This stage itself consists of two parts. The first part is the ascent to the noetic realm from the things here, and the second part, the “dialectic” proper, is the sustained contemplation of and absorption into or transfer to this realm after the initial access to it has been gained. The first part is basically the one part of the Path where the question of a number of methods of proceeding arises. The dialogs give a number of different methods for making the initial ascent to the noetic realm through either the variety of different Forms or through working to gain the vision of one particular Form. The Phaedo gives the direct method of at once shifting the soul from all preoccupation with individual sense data in the space-time realm to the Ideas which they reflect while sitting in formal contemplation and as each occasion for discrimination arises in the seeming space-time flow; the Symposium gives the method of access through contemplation of the specific Form of beauty; the Republic presents the method of ascent through contemplation of the mathematical-type Forms, and etc. The basic principle and procedure underlying all these methods is, however, the same. Starting with multiple reflections of either one specific Form or of a group of related Forms or of many Forms as the occasion for each arises, one must continually abstract the universal element in each more and more, ignoring the multiple things per se and concentrating just on that universal non-sense-perceptible element, until the direct apprehension of the Idea in itself dawns upon one. When, after long, hard practice and impelled by growing love for the divine beauties one is now beginning to glimpse and by corresponding growing disgust for the sense world, one has attained at least a degree of direct apprehension of at least some of the Ideas and can fairly regularly and consistently direct one's attention to them and bring them into view, one can then proceed to the second part, the actual contemplation proper of the Divine Mind-Thought.

This second part of the second stage is, as stated, where the practicer directly and deeply contemplates and is in contact with the Divine Mind-Thought. This is the famed “dialectic”, which, contrary to popular belief, has nothing to do with discussion between people or discursive or professorial thinking. In the “dialectic”, the “dialog” is between the noetic part of the soul and the Divine Mind-Thought. Entering into the noetic realm, apprehending the Forms and their relations by directly receiving them from the Divine Mind-Thought, exploring all the structure and wonders There and being drawn in by their ravishing beauty, identifying with the Divine Mind-Thought more and more and attenuating oneself more and more, the summit of this stage is reached when the awareness and experience of the soul has entirely entrusted itself to and passed over into the awareness and experience of the Divine Mind-Thought in itself timelessly yet actively resting in itself. Within this awareness, it receives truer knowledge about itself and knows that this is not the end, but that it must and its love is impelling it to press further to the One itself. Incidentally, it may be noted that when this stage is accomplished to some degree, the practicer now has a degree of direct access to knowledge and the Forms themselves and can directly “see” the Ideas of “contemplative-asceticism-in-itself”, “spiritual-teaching-in-itself”, “righteousness-in-itself”, etc., and, to the extent that he can see them clearly and follow them despite his remaining bondage, habit-patterns, ignorance, etc., now has direct guidance from the Forms in the Divine Mind-Thought independently of any instruction appearing in the least real sense world.

Established to some degree here, one may pass on to the third and final stage of directly apprehending, approaching, and re-uniting with the Good or the One. There is not so much that can really be said of method for this stage. Understanding now in some way where the One must lie and with great longing gazing steadily in that direction, being carried out by the surge of the effulgence and love of the Divine Mind-Thought, suddenly, after a long time, the One appears and manifesting itself gives a glimpse to the contemplator. Now knowing to at least a small degree where and what It is, one keeps looking with tremendous long and protracted effort. The One keeps revealing Itself more and more, deeper and deeper, clearer and clearer, with quantum increases followed by painful returns of darkness. When the One is manifesting, the soul feels now an almost unbearable love wanting only to totally be absorbed and obliterate itself in It. Over a long time, the Vision becomes clearer and steadier, the more one can give up attachment to everything else, and the soul begins to realize its own nothingness in this contemplation—that really the One Itself is the Source of its own awareness and experience and that really contemplation of the One can only ultimately be the One contemplating, in a sense, Itself. The soul's great love is an incomplete reflection of the autonomous Unity of the One in its hyper-goodness. Continuing more and more, the One manifests Itself more and more, more and more fully, and the soul passes over more and more into the One and is more and more attenuated as itself. When the One is fully and completely manifested, then That is all there is: no more soul, no more world, no more time and space, no more even eternity and infinity and the Divine Mind-Thought; endless hyper-sentience beyond sentience, hyper-oneness beyond oneness, hyper-goodness beyond goodness, hyper-perfection beyond perfection. When This is all there is, this One only and fully, and everything else whatsoever has totally ended completely forever, this is release from birth and death and the End of the journey.

©2011 by Eric S. Fallick platonicascetic (at) (gee)mail (dot) com