53. The "Pagan" Philosophers Speak! (Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Heraclitus,and more)

Excerpts from
"The Wisdom
of the
Pagan Philosophers",
by
Timothy Freke
and
Peter Gandy,
Journey Editions/Periplus Editions,
1998

We have inherited a Victorian view
of the ancient pagan philosophers
as rather dry intellectuals,
whose teachings are outdated
and
of interest only to Classic historians.

Actually
they were charismatic sages
and wandering god-men,
comparable to Hindu gurus,
who taught
the perennial spiritual philosophy.

Pythagoras, for example,
is remembered
as a mathematician,
yet he was also a mystic.

He dressed in flowing white robes
and wore a golden coronet on his head,
he knew all of his own past lives
and those of his followers,
claimed to be able to hear
the harmony of the universe
which he called
the "music of the spheres,"
was believed
to have performed many miracles
including
reviving the dead,
and
was proclaimed a "god"
by the thousands of devotees
who surrounded him.

Pythagoras
was one of the first Greeks
to visit Egypt
where he spent twenty years
being initiated into its ancient spirituality.

He was the first man
to call himself a philosopher
and
was an inspiration
to all the great philosophers
who came after him.

Paganism honors many gods,
but
like all polytheistic religions
it also acknowledges
a supreme
transcendental
One God.

This is the God
of the philosophers.

The other "gods"
were regarded as powers
and manifestations
of this one ultimate divinity.

The philosophers
often ridiculed
the absurd stories
told of the gods
as superstition.

This led to them
being persecuted
as atheists
and,
as was the case for Socrates,
being put to death.

They were not concerned
with the outer forms
of religion,
but
with directly experiencing
the mystical truth
for themselves.

Above the sanctuary
at
the Oracle of Delphi
were inscribed
the words
"Know Your Self".

This is the essence
of Paganism.

The philosophers taught
that only through
self-knowledge
can we come to
knowledge
of the Oneness
of God.
[From the Introduction, pages 8 and 9.]

+++

"The infinite
has no beginning.

It is the beginning
of all other things.

It is divine,
immortal,
and indestructible."
-- Anaximander
[p. 11]

+++

"On one side
is God,
the active principle,
who acts.

On the other side
is matter,
the passive principle,
that undergoes."

-- Pythagoras
[p. 11]

+++

"There are
two sides
to this tale.

On the one hand
the many unite
to become
the Oneness,
and
on the other hand
the Oneness
divides
to become
the many.

Things
continually shift
between
being united
by love
and
divided
by strife."

-- Empedocles
[p. 12]

+++

"The sum
of all that is
has a soul.

God is the mind
of the universe."

-- Thales
[p. 14]

+++

"Why will you
not admit
that the universe
is
a conscious intelligence
since
conscious intelligences
are born
from it?"

-- Cicero
[p. 16]

+++

"God
is the unity of Oneness
in which
I dwelt
myself
before I was snatched away
by the conflict of opposites
and born into the world
of plurality
organized by strife."

-- Empedocles
[p. 17]

+++

"Appearances
are
a glimpse
of
what is hidden."

-- Anaxagoras
[p. 17]

+++

"He is too great
to be called
by the name
'God.'

He is hidden,
yet obvious
everywhere.

He is bodiless,
yet embodied
in everything.

There is
nothing
that he
is not.

He has no name,
because all names
are his name.

He is
the unity
in all things,
so
we must know him
by all names
and
call everything
'God."

-- Hermes
Trismegistus
[p. 18]

+++

"There is one God,
always still
and at rest,
who moves
all things
with
the thoughts
of his mind."

-- Xenophanes
[p. 19]

+++

"The universe
is a single whole,
comprised
of many parts
that are also
wholes."

-- Plato
[p. 19]

+++

"'Philosopher' means
'lover of Sophia
the goddess of wisdom.'

The philosophers
were not just
great intellectuals,
they were also
devotees
who treated truth
as their beloved.

Although they were
accomplished scientists
who knew
the world
was a sphere orbiting the sun
hundreds of years
before Kepler,
they were also
saintly mystics
who reached
beyond the intellect
to
direct intuitive knowledge
of God.

Ultimately,
philosophy
is about transcending
all ideas and concepts
and
experiencing 'Gnosis' --
mystical enlightenment."

[from the introduction
to
Chapter Two:
Lovers of Wisdom, p. 20]

+++

"The words
of the philosophers
promise us peace.

If you will listen to me,
whoever you are
and
whatever you do,
you shall not grieve,
you will not be angry,
you will not be forced
or blocked,
but you will live
without anxiety
and suffering.

Caesar did not
and
could not
proclaim
this peace,
for
it comes only
from God."

-- Epictetus
[p. 20]

+++

"Human opinions
are toys
for children."

-- Heraclitus
[p. 20]

+++

"The wise
exchange
all things
for
One thing;
but
most people
are like
full-fed cattle."

-- Heraclitus
[p. 20]

+++

"Life
is
a battlefield.

You
are
a stranger
sojourning
in
a foreign land.

After fame
comes oblivion.

What is there
that can support
a human being?

One thing only --
philosophy."

-- Marcus Aurelius
[p. 22]

+++

"Because the One
transcends
all descriptions,
you can form
no conception of it,
yet
it is always present
to those
with strength
to touch it."

-- Plotinus
[p. 22]

+++

"Pure philosophy
is
spiritual striving,
through
constant contemplation,
to attain
True Knowledge
of the One God."

-- Hermes
Trismegistus
[p. 23]

+++

"No human being
will ever know
the Truth,
for
even if
they happened to say it
by chance,
they would not know
they had done so."

-- Xenophanes
[p. 24]

+++

"Discovering
the Father and Creator
of the universe
is
a supremely difficult task;
and
having found Him
it would be impossible
to
tell anyone
about Him."

-- Plato
[p. 25]

+++
"Human beings
think of the gods
as
having been born,
wearing clothes,
speaking,
and
having bodies
like their own.

Ethiopians say
the gods are black
with snub-noses.

Thracians say
they have blue eyes
and red hair.

If cows and horses
had hands
they would draw pictures
of the gods
looking like
cows and horses!

-- Xenophanes
[p. 27]

+++

"Human beings
entering life
are like those
going
to a public spectacle.

Some desire
wealth and comfort.

Some want
power and control.

Some are ambitious
for glory.

Those with purity
and integrity
devote themselves
to contemplation
of
the most beautiful things.

These may
genuinely be called
'philosophers'."

-- Pythagoras
[p. 32]

+++

"It is not bad luck,
but right and just
that you have
found yourselves
traveling this road,
far from
the beaten track
followed
by others.

It is right
that you
should learn all things
and
develop
the unshakable heart
of
well-rounded truth,
unlike
the opinions of men
that
contain no truth at all.

You shall learn how
mere appearances
seem as though
they actually exist."

-- Parmenides
[p. 33]

+++

"There is a saying
uttered in sacred rites
that human beings
are in
a sort of prison,
from which
we should not attempt
to escape."

-- Plato
[p. 53]

+++

"Life
would be
a feast
to the wicked
and
death
a godsend,
were it not for
the immortality
of the soul."

-- Pythagoras
[p. 54]

+++

"The highest
of our initiations
in this world
is only a dream
of the true vision
and initiation
of death.

The Mysteries
have been
carefully conceived
to awaken memories
of
the sublime things
to come."

-- Plutarch
[p. 55]

+++

"Having been born
again and again,
the soul
sees everything that exists
and
has knowledge of all."

-- Socrates
[p. 55]

+++

"Earthly death
liberates Consciousness
and the soul
from the body.

The soul flies up
to a space
between
the Earth and Moon
where it
is punished
and
purified.

The purified souls
of the just
enjoy
the delights of paradise
on the Moon.

If they avoid sin
they are not punished
with reincarnation,
and
the second death occurs
that
liberates Consciousness
to return to the sun,
its source."

-- Plutarch
[p. 56]

+++
  
"The best
life
is spent
preparing
for death."

-- Plato
[p. 56]

+++

"It is our fear
of death
that terrifies us.

You can think
about a thing
in many ways.

Scrutinize
your idea
of death.

Is it true?

Is it helpful?

Don't dread
death or suffering.

Dread your fear
of
death and suffering."

-- Epictetus
[p. 56]

+++

"The wise
seek to escape
from
neither life
nor death,
for life
does not trouble them
and
death
does not seem an evil.

Just as with food,
they don't choose
the largest portion,
but
the most delicious.

They do not desire
the longest period
of time,
but pluck
the
most pleasant fruit."

-- Epicurus
[p. 57]

+++

"Birth
is not
the beginning
of life --
only
of
an individual awareness.

Change
into another state
is not death --
only
the ending
of
this awareness.

Most people
are ignorant
of the Truth,
and
therefore
afraid of death,
believing it to be
the greatest of all evils.

But death
is only the dissolution
of a worn out body.

Our term of service
as guardians
of the world
is ended
when we
are freed
from
the bonds
of this mortal frame
and
restored,
cleansed,
and
purified,
to the primal condition
of our higher nature."

-- Hermes
Trismegistus
 [p. 58]

+++

"Nothing
comes into existence
and
nothing
passes away.

Everything
is
compounded from
and
dissolves into
That Which Is.

Coming into being
is just
composition,
and perishing
is simply
dissolution."

-- Anaxagoras
[p. 58]

+++

"When we live
our souls are dead,
but when we die
our souls
revive
and live again."

-- Heraclitus
[p. 59]

+++

"The soul
is immortal.

After death
it transmigrates
into
other beings.

All sentient beings
are part of
one great family."

-- Pythagoras
[p. 59]

+++

"At the moment
of death
the soul
must be
as it is
during the Mysteries;
free
from any blemish,
passion,
envy,
or anger."

-- Porphyry
[p. 60]

+++

"There has been
a time
when
I was a young man,
and
a young girl,
and
a bush,
a bird,
a scaly fish
gleaming
in the ocean."

-- Empedocles
[p. 60]

+++

"Perhaps death
is life
and
in the other world
life
is thought of
as death.

Who knows?"

-- Euripedes
[p. 60]

+++