77 Philosophy

Sophists were the creators of wrong thinking --
False philosophers, insolent
And vainglorious. In the world of Greece
The chosen one was Plato, the most wise;
Before him was Pythagoras, mysterious, deep --
The Spirit bloweth where it listeth.

Not philosophers, but misosophers,
One should call the inventors of false doctrines --
Those who follow their ambition and their pride
And are stubborn in their mad ideas.

Plato and Aristotle, and later Plotinus:
They radiate over a thousand years
And more. What they wished, and partly achieved,
Was that humanity should rally round the Truth.

 

III/3 Speaking

Why is it that a speech by Chief Red Cloud
On some earthly subject moves us deeply,
Whereas stilted school-philosophy
Is like dead leaves scattered by the wind?

A scholar spoke to a weary assembly
On Scripture exegesis and theology;
After him came Rûmî, who spoke of his cat:
The crowd was moved as never before.

The person who says this or that to you,
Is sometimes more real than what he said;
For his personal greatness bestows infinitely more
Than what outwardly he dared to say.

 

III/1 Languages

Each language is like a soul,
Said Aristotle. One of them is
Our own soul's depth; the others are
Sun-rays that shine into us.

Each language has its own virtue:
There is Latin, objective and severe;
Then there is German, imaginative and profound;
Something of each language one would like to be.

Then there are the languages the Lord has spoken,
To enlighten us in different ways;
In the sacred Scriptures God speaks aloud --
In the holy chamber of the heart, He speaks softly.

 

XXIX

The dignity of a noble man is not superficial;
It is based on a profound reality:
The immovable Center amidst the circular movement
Of the world; the wheel of existence is consecrated to God.

As Aristotle taught: silent
Is the cause of all things. Nobility
Is participation in Pure Being;
This lies deep in the blood of the noble man.

The principle of dignity should resound in the heart --
Dignity means:
                                to bring Being into our existence.

 

XCI
Plato's thought looked towards Heaven,
    Aristotle's thought looked towards the earth;
Similar is the relationship
    that we find between Shankara
And Ramanuja in India;
    both spiritual edifices
Had to be built,
    each one to shape a specific world.
Greece and India
    are not on the same level;
Hellas cannot be
    the Sanâtana Dharma.

 

CXLIX

All too often psychology replaces logic --
And even Truth itself --
And thereby, in our decadent age,
Has robbed many people of all support.

If one had remained with Aristotle,
One would not have swallowed every false idea --
But psychomania twists everything according to its wishful thinking.

 

CXXXII

Some scholars say
That stories, plays and fables
Should be understood
symbolically;
Nevertheless: what stories tell us
must have a meaning on its own plane,
Otherwise symbolic interpretation
is but jest and shimmering illusion.
One can never excuse stupid puzzles
by spiritual interpretation;
Give us beauty and truth,
not wild yarns and lies.
Because the purpose of tragedy,
As Aristotle said, is catharsis;
If one is offered only chaotic action,
the seeker after Wisdom will find nothing.
Mytho-poetical story-telling
is a widespread human weakness --
The wise man, Deo juvante,
is able to perceive the nature of things.

III/22 False philosophy

It is a prejudice -- someone said -- to believe
That after one comes two;
It is a prejudice to believe that what occurs
Draws its occurrence from a cause.
Such people believe that "thinking without presuppositions" is the right way to think --
In this were so, the rider can give away his horse!

It lies in the deep substance of things
That each thing sings the praise of its archetype.

 

IV/48 Problematic

You have been toiling with problems --
Only a wise mind can complete the circle.
Philosophy C a complicated screw,
If you so wish. Faith is better by far.

 

LXVIII

"Double truth," was the Medieval term:
Theology was for all, for the multitude;
Philosophy, as it was called, was for those
Who saw further than the narrowness of dogma,
And yet held firmly to their faith --
On its plane, and within the limits of the law.

In popular speech it is said: thoughts pay no taxes --
God gives us naked Truth, without wavering.

LXIII

Some take their stand on the ground of faith,
Others on the ground of knowledge;
Some see virtue as obedience,
Others see it as domination of self;
What for believers is theology,
Is for gnostics philosophy --
Not what wrong thinking names thus,
But what separates error from truth.

 

CIII

"There are more things in Heaven and on earth
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy" --
Said Shakespeare. But who wants to become a sage?

Too many things seem self-evident to man --
He was born in them, grew up in them,
And thinks his poor day-to-day existence has to be.

Divine possibility is infinite;
And out of it our world was made.

Man kindled his own dream --
The foundation of existence can be only grasped by the Intellect.

 

XLII

The man in whose soul the Intellect is awake
Can, and must, think completely independently;
This is not the case of the pseudo-philosopher --
All he can do is to drown the truth in his foolishness.
Quod licet Jovis, numquam licet bovis:
"What is lawful for Jupiter, is not lawful for the ox."
The fool should not try to make his mark in philosophy --
One whose Intellect is deficient should not play the sage.

 

XLIII

One talks of "putting the cart before the horse"--
This is precisely what crude pragmatism does;
It thinks that perversely twisting things is philosophy.
I call it willful satanism.
To invert everything that is natural
Is to collaborate with the devil's wickedness.

 

CXIX

The opposite of faith and trust
Is the pseudo-philosophy of "Angst",
Invented by those who are no longer willing, or even able, to think.
Such people declare that they are the ones who are right.

It is obvious that "me-first" madness
Mocks intelligence and experience.
The only way to our true Self
Lies in piety C in God and Virgin Nature.

 

XXXVII

All too often philosophy is the thinking
Of a "no-longer-wishing-to-think", and not a reflection
On what is the essential content of all thinking;
One entertains thoughts that dissolve into nothingness.

True thinking leads to a reality;
But people want to replace this with the cult of existentialism --
A cult of power, of life. And also
One imagines that one has unraveled the Veil of Isis.

 

CXXVII

In the widest sense, philosophy is thinking of the True.
But there are two levels:
There is thinking on the basis of human reason;
And there is Light, to which the sage refers --

Divine inspiration. Plato combined the two,
And so did the Stagirite. While Shankara
Contemplates the mysteries of Heaven's meadows.

 

LXXVII

Without wisdom, life has no meaning,
And without beauty, we cannot live;
So let us strive to obtain the clear water of Truth,
Together with the wine of Beauty.

For, according to Plato, all harmony
Radiates from primordial philosophy.