Don't Slay the Herds of the Sun:
Seeing the Absolute You Must Entirely Renounce the Many
by Eric S. Fallick
“The man, tell me of Muse, of many turns, who very much
wandered, when he had sacked the hallowed city of Troy.
And he saw the cities and knew the mind of many people,
and he certainly experienced many pains in his heart in the sea,
trying to achieve his soul and the return of his companions.
But not at all thus did he deliver the companions, even though much desiring it:
for they perished of themselves by their own blind follies,
fools, who devoured the cattle of Hyperion Helios:
but He took away from them the day of return.
Of these things, from somewhere at any rate, goddess, daughter of Zeus, tell us also.”
Odyssey, Book 1, lines 1-10
Directly from Divine Wisdom as an emanation of the Absolute into the relative let us learn
about the true contemplative ascetic, the renunciant, who both experiences many things on the Path of the soul
through many rebirths and has the perceptiveness to deal with them, who
had to wander through many more births and trials after he had already finally gained an
initial entry into the noetic realm, an initial breaking through sensate existence, and seen noetic
beauty. He had to pass through many states and worlds of relative experience and existence
and understand many relative manifestations of mind. He experienced many sufferings
traveling through the ocean of birth and death and individuated, sensate, material existence in
space and time trying to return his own soul to the source, but also trying to keep the lower soul
and faculties that actually belong only to the lower realm and have to be given up and
abandoned and destroyed for the true higher soul to return to the noetic realm and the One.
But, of course, he could not keep these and bring them with him, even though he blindly and
habitually kept wanting to. They were finally destroyed as a result of their own blind, relative
only nature, lower and valueless things only, that continued to grasp the many, the relative, even
while the higher soul was seeing and in contemplation of the Good, and thus were destroyed by
the very radiance and power of the One, because the true higher soul properly renounced them. May we please learn
about these things, in whatever order or piecemeal fashion we can, from the sources of divine wisdom, intelligence and
understanding that appear as a result of the divine order of things, according to our karma, that reflects the
emanation of the Absolute into this lowest order of existence.
There are various and many recurring themes in the Odyssey, an allegorical manual of contemplative ascetic practice over multiple rebirths which, like all true, genuine and real spiritual texts and systems, most staunchly and uncompromisingly teaches true, pure renunciation of the world, world-denying-ness and otherworldliness and puts these forth as of the essence of the Path. One of these themes is the destruction of Odysseus' ship and the death and loss of his remaining men as a result of their killing, and eating, the cattle of the Sun, Helios. This seems to be emphasized as of considerable or even special importance since it is the only one of Odysseus' trials and the only episode specifically mentioned in the very opening lines of the Odyssey. It is a central part of Teiresias' prophecy about how Odysseus can successfully return that Odyssey travels to Hades to learn in Book 11. It is also reiterated and repeated by Circe in her instructions in Book 12, and the incident actually occurs and is described in detail and the prophecy is fulfilled in Books 12 and 13. What is the meaning and significance of this and why is it so important?
At the beginning of his unerring prophecy in Book 11, Teiresias says:
“You seek for the honey-sweet return, illustrious Odysseus:
but a god will make it painfully burdensome for you: for I don't think
you will escape the notice of the Earthshaker, who has laid up resentment for you in his heart,
being wroth that you blinded his dear son.
But yet even so all of you may arrive back, experiencing evils indeed,
if you would be willing to restrain your heart and that of your companions,
when first you would bring your well-made ship to
the Thrinacian island, escaping from the violet-dark sea,
and all of you would find the cattle and goodly sheep
of Helios, who looks upon all things and hears all things.
If you let these be unharmed and have thought for your return,
even still you all may come to Ithaca experiencing evils indeed:
but if you harm them, then I indicate for you destruction,
both for your ship and your companions, but if you yourself at least would escape,
you will return late in straits, having lost all your companions,
in the ship of another: and you will find woes in your house...”
Odysseus, the true higher soul, is still trying to return to his true home in the noetic realm, to be reintegrated and reunited with Nous and the One, which, in truth, he has never really entirely left. He is still, however, encumbered by his lower self and soul and all the faculties, emotions, thoughts, etc. of embodiment and the body in the material realm, his ship and his men. He has to be painfully stripped of all this so that the higher soul can return alone, but he still doesn't realize this and hasn't given up attachment to the lower self and the things of embodiment and is still trying to bring them with him and thinks that he has to and that this is desirable. Actually, the higher soul as connected to the higher hypostases really knows that all the lower things must be given up and stripped away, but can't, at least at the surface level, clearly recognize this because of the obscuring functions of the lower self and body, emotions, etc. It is really the lower self that still wants to go along and the higher soul only as combined with it that suffers the pain of getting rid of the lower manifestations. Thus, Teiresias initially holds out the possibility of the return of the remaining lower self along with the higher soul if only all can be brought and held to the purest renunciation, even though it is already clear and fated, as it has been from the beginning, that the lower self must be entirely lost and destroyed and only the higher self will return alone. At this point in the narrative, Odysseus has already lost the numerical majority of his ships and men, the higher soul has already been much stripped of the animal soul, through the various preceding episodes. The numerically largest loss occurred in the episode of the Laestrygonian giants. The man-eating giants represent a clear view of the grossness, grotesqueness, horror and animality of sensuous material sensate existence, and seeing and recognizing this clearly in itself destroys much of the lower self and attachment to it and makes the higher soul want to purify itself and be alone. A similar meaning is found in the episode of the man-eating Cyclops, but with various differences and important additions and other aspects. Odysseus has already at this point blinded the Kukl-ops, the Circle-vision—the higher soul has destroyed the vision that only sees the circle or cycle of birth and death, of genesis, of samsara, of rebirth, of individuated sensate existence in space-time, of the senses using the burning bright stake of transcendent wisdom. Thus, at this point the renunciant contemplative ascetic can never really go entirely back to sleep. He can never really return to the standpoint and vision of the many deluded ordinary worldlings who only see and know the things of this world and are unaware of the transcendent and see things only from the horizontal standpoint of this life and not from a transmigratory and transcendent perspective. He can never really become an ordinary deluded worldling again, even if there may appear to be brief lapses, but must remain a renunciant striving until final liberation is attained. In doing this, however, he has brought down upon himself the wrath of the Earthshaker, Poseidon, the body and hyle, his remaining karma of embodiment that he has to work off and get rid of and will keep raging against him, against the higher soul and its return and its remaining lower self and causing much suffering until the return is finally accomplished, as it is already clearly destined that it eventually will and must be. He will eventually return to Ithaca, the higher soul will return to the higher hypostases alone without its gross attachments to the lower self, in the ship of another, using the vehicle of a system of spiritual practice to cross the ocean of becoming and hyle and body without the possessive attachment to it that characterizes his own ship of the body. He will then, though, find woes in his house, the defilements and passions are still there assaulting the remaining more subtle and needed for the remaining period of embodiment self, and must be destroyed, which long and difficult process occupies the whole second half of the Odyssey.
After leaving Circe, the circle of becoming, of genesis, of samsara, with whom he has had to abide intimately for a while to learn its ways and neutralize them and turn them to attaining liberation from the cycle itself, and after some additional notable episodes, he arrives at Thrinacia, the island of the sun. Before leaving Circe, he had to travel to Hades, the higher soul had to see this world and its inhabitants as the mere phantoms that they are, he had to see the prisoners in the cave who know only shadows as realities, he had to see that all the things, people, goals, strivings, supposed accomplishments and pleasures and sentiments and great people, etc. of this world are nothing, just meaningless shades, and hear instructions from the prophet Teiresias who is the only one who retains his mind there, the higher soul had to hear from and be reminded about the Path by the only voices in this phantom hell world that know and speak about the Path and the Truth, such as the records of Homer, Plato and Plotinus. Hyperion Helios, the Sun, who sees all and hears all, represents the Absolute, the One, the Good Itself. His immortal cattle and flocks of sheep and goddess herders are the lower hypostases and lower relative many realities that always exist, to the extent that they do, along with the One. Arriving at the sun's island is arriving at direct clear contemplation of the Absolute. The central point here is that true contemplation of and reunion with the Absolute requires the purest and most complete renunciation, contemplative asceticism, moral discipline and otherworldliness. This is of the very greatest importance if the soul is to succeed and not be destroyed. The more the Good is known, the higher the soul goes on the Path, the more complete and pure must the renunciation be. World-denyingness, renunciation and contemplative asceticism is not just a means or way station on the Path—it is of its very essence, is the very manifestation of the Absolute in this world and always remains getting purer and purer the more the One is known and the Way is traversed. To attain the One, one must give up the many. To get free from this world, one must renounce it in all its length and breadth. Only the true renunciant and contemplative ascetic can travel the Path successfully and know the One truly and without being destroyed. Real contemplation and renunciation, mysticism and asceticism always go together—they are flip sides of the same coin. This Truth is stated right at the beginning of the Odyssey, is explained by Teiresias, repeated by Circe, etc. and is a central theme running in various forms through the whole text.
Throughout the Odyssey, the horrible image of animal slaughter, sacrifice and consumption represents the need to dedicate, sacrifice and use the lower faculties and animal soul and their unavoidable necessary maintenance solely for the purpose of pursuing the Practice and Path in full renunciation, not for the purpose of sensual pleasure or worldly desires. It occurs constantly since, most unfortunately, as long as we have a body and its accompanying lower emotions, needs, etc., we have to constantly attend to it and provide for it, but always trying to dedicate it to divine purposes. The use of the image of sacrificing and eating animals and drinking wine (using the senses), so repulsive to the real vegetarian and teetotaling contemplative ascetic, is used by the vegetarian teetotaling Homer to continually generate revulsion towards material, animal existence and its needs and interference with contemplation and spiritual practice. Arriving at the island, Odysseus, the higher soul, recalls the instruction that in the actual period of contemplation and contact with the Absolute any, even the necessary normal, concern with the world and the body and its needs will be destructive. The eternally existing lower hypostases have to be entirely left alone and forsaken during the actual period of direct and intense contemplation of the Absolute and of Union, though they, alas, can't be ignored when returning to sensate existence until the telos is finally attained and sensate existence is ended completely and the soul has entirely re-become the One, but the proper understanding of renunciation must be retained all the time even so.
Thus, Odysseus, when entering the contemplation of the Good, remembers the instruction and wants to keep going and not attend to the needs of the body and the lower self at all. But they cannot be denied even then and so they have to pull into the island, but with the promise that the lower needs will be content with the minimum, the supplies they already have with them, and not kill the cattle and flocks of the Sun, won't pursue the things of the world and the lower hypostases more than necessary. But with time the lower needs become more importunate and Odysseus, the higher self, goes off alone to reach out to the divine, prays to the gods. They shed sleep upon him, he enters into a state of deep contemplation, of samadhi. Like in the Aeolus episode, while the higher soul is in this deep contemplation, the remaining undestroyed passions and defilements, now unrestrained by the higher self, break out and, in this case, take more care for this world and physical and emotional needs than is necessary, they kill the cattle, involve themselves with the lower hypostases, which during this contemplation need to be just ignored and left alone. This time, however, their folly calls forth the purifying power of the Absolute, which, through its emanation as the divine order in the lower hypostases, exposes the true nature of these grosser passions and defilements, helps the higher self know that they truly have to be left behind and destroys them and strips the higher self of them with the light of wisdom—Zeus destroys Odysseus' ship and men with the thunderbolt—leaving the higher soul alone to continue on with the further stages of the Path—with embodiment and more subtle and fundamental passions and defilements still not finished and much trial and pain and purification of renunciation still to come.
The soteriological necessity and wonderfulness of renunciation and celibate asceticism has almost been entirely forgotten in this ever darker modern world. There have always been sophists who, in their delusion and worldly desires, have claimed that renunciation isn't necessary or superior and that it is possible to practice contemplation and attain liberation as married or non-celibate or pursuing and enmired in worldly desires, but, in the past, in better times, the necessity and superiority of celibate asceticism was generally acknowledged, even if not followed. Now the sophists of worldly delusion have become the norm and reached new heights in their rationalizations and popular purveyors of meditation and contemplation and allegedly spiritual paths actually take pride in denying renunciation and claiming that the Path can be followed by all and sundry worldlings and that this is an advance over the benighted premodern world. This goes along with the deeply and almost entirely deluded and mistaken this-worldly, physicalist, etc. weltanschauung and thoughts (such as it thinks at all) of the modern world which has almost completely lost any sense of transcendence and the hierarchy of being. An analysis of this would, of course, be a volume and beyond the scope of this essay. Ultimately, of course, it has to do with the delusion and heavy karma of the souls inhabiting the modern world. Let us be grateful that we have the Teiresias of Homer to remind us of the necessity of pure renunciation and truly realizing the Absolute and transcending this world!
© 2016 Eric S. Fallick platonicascetic (with) (Gee) mail (period) com
