A funny thing happened around the sixth century BCE: the world woke up.
Woke up? Some people might ask, woke up from what? We didn't even know that it had been asleep. Well, in a manner of speaking, it was asleep.
Before the sixth century BCE, superstition and darkness reigned supreme, as dogmatic and oftentimes violent rituals were standard operating procedure. People worshiped a variety of gods—some nice and some not so nice—as they engaged in everything from animal and human sacrifice to other often very barbaric tribal practices. All of this bloodletting was an unfortunate byproduct of the way that people understood their world; indeed, before the sixth century BCE, the knowledge that informed the way that people perceived their universe came from hysterical and often irrational sources, like deified tribal rulers or mind-altered shamans.
All of this superstition and violence made the archaic world a very, very scary place inhabited by angry gods, insane demons, and even nuttier people. In fact, it might even be fair to say that if the relatively enlightened Middle Ages were known as the Dark Ages, then the pre-sixth century BCE was positively pitch black.
So, in that sense, yes, the world was asleep.
But around the sixth century BCE, things dramatically changed. More specifically, at around that time, at various points around the globe, pockets of the human species were awakened by a handful of enlightened individuals; these special human beings were the earliest white crows. This global consciousness awakening occurred in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Indian sub-continent, and perhaps in Africa and the Americas as well, although we unfortunately have less historical documentation from those regions.
Think about it: At around the same time that Siddhartha Gautama (a.k.a., the Buddha) was seeking enlightenment in India while sitting under a bodhi tree (for forty-nine days!) and became “awakened” to the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path towards enlightenment (which would become the foundations of Buddhism), in China, Lao Tsu was writing the Tao Te Ching, the scriptures that would illuminate “the Way,” or the “Tao,” of Taoism, the “mystery beyond all mysteries.” This mysterious Way has been described as a mystical orientation that harmonizes the elemental forces of nature and the universe (forces the yin and yang symbolically represent). The Way speaks of the subtle universal force of chi and the practice of wu wei, a non-doing or “flowing” approach to existence.
And Lao Tsu wasn't the only transformative figure in China during this period; Confucius was also creating and spreading a philosophy that emphasized morality, justice, and sincerity. One of the fundamental precepts of Confucianism would come to be known as the Golden Rule: to never do to others what we wouldn't want others to do to us. Indeed, when Confucius was asked to define what it means to be human, he said, “To love your fellow man.”
Also in India at this time, the ancient Vedic texts of Hinduism were unfolding into the Upanishads (which in Sanskrit literally means to “sit down near,” referring to pupils gathering round their teacher for philosophical instruction). These Sanskrit writings teach the practitioner how to directly experience Brahman, or Ultimate Reality, which is, in essence, one and the same with the atman, or the highest self. Towards that end, the Upanishads introduced the ideas of self-realization, yoga, meditation, karma, and reincarnation.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the Hebrew prophets continued the earlier work and teachings of Moses as they created the Torah and Judaic law, which, in turn, would go on to inform our modern conceptions of jurisprudence. Now, depending on whether one has a theistic orientation, some might argue that the Hebrew Bible, also known to some as the Old Testament, is itself based on superstition. Yet whatever we may think of its theological veracity, there's no questioning the important foundational roles Judaic law and the Hebrew Bible have played in our Western, Judeo-Christian–based society. It also should be noted that the Old Testament oftentimes gets a bum rap for featuring a vengeful God, despite the fact that one of its central tenets, found in the book of Leviticus, encourages love and compassion: “Love thy neighbor as you love thyself.” Those teachings from the Hebrew prophets would, in turn, inform yet another later important transformative figure: a barefooted carpenter from Galilee named Jesus Christ, who, with his simple message of love, compassion, and forgiveness, altered the course of human history.
And in Greece? Ah yes, Greece—something very special indeed was cooking in the land of Zeus and Apollo: Greek philosophy.
Philosophy—meaning literally the “love of wisdom”—was developed by a small group of enlightened Greeks thinkers who would revolutionize the way that people understood their world. Like lights emerging after centuries of darkness, these early philosophers embraced reason as a key to illumination and rejected the dogma and blind faith of religion and authority figures while pursuing a deeper noetic understanding. Instead of superstition and folklore, rationalism and logic became the means by which not only the cosmology of the universe, but also the human condition, might be better understood.
The Greeks' embrace of reason and philosophy was as powerful and dramatic a shift in human thinking as a thunderclap from Zeus and would lead to a consciousness transformation that has shaped our world to this day. The only problem is that we've lost something in the translation; over time, the original essence of Greek philosophy has been distorted as its transformative message has been all but lost.
But more about that later.
Buddhism, Taoism, the Torah, the Upanishads, Greek philosophy— all of these earth-shattering (and paradigm-shifting) lenses were developed in a relatively concentrated period of time all across the globe. This pivotal period in human history has been dubbed the Axial Age by the twentieth-century German philosopher Karl Jaspers. Jaspers had defined the Axial Age as being between 800 and 200 BCE, with the majority of the enlightened and axis-changing “paradigmatic personalities” (as Jaspers called them) concentrated around the sixth century BCE, the same century that saw the birth of Greek philosophy. It was an astonishing period when human history was turned on its axis as it under-went a consciousness metamorphosis that was inspired by highly evolved individuals.
These paradigmatic personalities were the earliest white crows; they created new ways of thought and experience that would not only transform the existing paradigms, but would also become the foundation stones for the world's major religions, schools of philosophy, and empirical sciences. As such, these transformative figures not only shaped the majority of the world's cultures, but they also created the framework for the way untold billions of people experience their world and the way people conceptualize their role or purpose within that world.
But as pure or wonderful as the original message from the paradigmatic personalities may have been, things tend to get mucked up over time. Messages get distorted, people add their own agendas as the pervading politics, and culture further shapes and influences the messages. As any kid who's ever played the game of telephone can attest, a message can become almost unrecognizable by the time it gets passed down from person to person (and in this case, from generation to generation). So a really beautiful, wonderful message of truth, transcendence, and enlightenment could fairly quickly turn into something else. At worst, it can morph into negative and destructive tribalism, as light can turn into dark, and then the perverted shadow of the original message can become the misguided precipitator for violence.
But back in the Axial Age, the message had yet to be corrupted; the light still glowed with a brilliance that the world has yet to recapture.
And while there were certainly different approaches and orientations that emerged during the Axial Age, the transformative figures of that period did have one thing in common: they were all seeking the way towards illumination, or enlightenment, or awakening. Call it what you may, but they were all trying to apprehend and experience the infinite mystery of the universe— and in so doing, they transformed the very nature of human consciousness.
Since the focus of this book is how the Greek lens points towards illumination, let's travel back to the ancient Hellenic world and explore the origins of Greek philosophy.
Have you ever predicted anything? Have you ever picked the right lottery numbers or predicted who would win the Super Bowl?
Well, I would hazard to guess that most of you have never predicted what an ancient Greek named Thales had predicted in 585 BCE: a full solar eclipse. And he did it without benefit of a telescope or the ever-helpful weather page from his local newspaper.
Instead, Thales, a brilliant and well-traveled Greek from the busy port town of Miletus (on the Ionian seaboard of Asia Minor), was able to use his knowledge of astronomy and math to look skyward and accurately predict when the moon would cast its long shadow.
But in Thales's time, such calculation was unheard of. It was more common to consult an oracle or perhaps to interpret some omens from the harvest or even to sift through tea leaves in order to wean astronomical insight. Thales didn't do any of that; instead, he applied his ample intellect, using his logic and his reasoning mind to not only predict the shadow-casting eclipse, but to solve a variety of other natural and mathematical puzzles as well.
Now, some have argued that perhaps Thales wasn't the first person to be able to do such things, that he might have learned or borrowed those skills from his many travels to Egypt.
Perhaps.
Nevertheless, today Thales is considered the first Greek philosopher and the founder of a philosophical system centered in Miletus—later known as the Ionian school—where he and his early students developed and spread these rationally inspired teachings, which would eventually become known as Greek philosophy. Thales is considered the first in an incredible lineage of Greek thinkers who learned to use observation and deductive reasoning in their attempts to provide rational descriptions and explanations of the natural world.
Several years later, on the small and rocky island of Samos in the eastern Aegean, a strikingly handsome, yet quirky mathematician and deep thinker named Pythagoras took this knowledge of mathematics one step further. He suspected that math could be more than just a numerical system used to count, quantify, and calculate. He believed the underlying rules or principles that governed numbers could also be the underlying unifying principles that governed the fabric of existence; indeed, for Pythagoras, mathematics was the transcendent light that could illuminate the innermost workings of the universe.
Today we consider both Thales and Pythagoras to be ground-breaking, early pioneers of philosophy. (In fact, Pythagoras—a former student of Thales—is credited with being the first person to use the term philosopher.) They were part of a breathtaking, consciousness-awakening movement that would also include names like Heraclitus, Parmenides, Socrates, and Plato (see “Timeline of the Major Greek Philosophers”), whose insights and wisdom would eventually transform the world—and our perception of it.
Yes, we are talking here about a bunch of dead white guys who, admittedly, in today's politically correct world are definitely not in vogue. But we need to give the devil his due because these Deceased Caucasian Men (not a bad name for a rock band) almost singlehandedly laid the foundation for disciplines like physics, philosophy, astronomy, biology, rhetoric, and ethics.
Timeline of the Major Greek Philosophers
Seventh Century BCE
624–525 Thales, Greek philosopher and scientist
610–540 Anaximander, Greek philosopher
Sixth Century BCE
570–490 Pythagoras, Greek philosopher and mathematician
540–480 Heraclitus, Greek philosopher
515–445 Parmenides, Greek philosopher and poet
Fifth Century BCE
490–430 Zeno, Greek philosopher
490–420 Protagoras, Greek Sophist philosopher
469–399 Socrates, Greek philosopher
470–360 Democritus, Greek philosopher
427–347 Plato, Greek philosopher
Fourth Century BCE
384–322 Aristotle, Greek philosopher
341–270 Epicurus, Greek philosopher
Third Century CE
204–270 Plotinus, Greco-Roman philosopher*
_____________
*Plotinus, although not Greek and born well past the classical period, is considered by most historians as the last great Greek or Hellenistic philosopher.
And the most amazing aspect of this awakening in ancient Greece was that, for the first time in human history, philosophers embraced reason as a key to illumination. This effort to better understand not only led them to use natural observation and deductive reasoning, but also prompted them to ask the big, existential questions. As they looked up in wonder and awe at the brilliance of the starry night sky, they asked questions like, what is the origin of the universe? What is the nature of the cosmos? Is there any reality beyond my senses? What is my purpose?
Unlike their predecessors, who found their answers to those big existential questions in superstition and religion, the Greeks tried to use their reasoning minds via philosophical contemplation to intuit the answers. Towards that end, Greek philosophers developed a systematic philosophical exploration of both anthropos (humanly affairs) and cosmos (the universe) that would eventually become the foundation for both the empirical sciences as well as for philosophical inquiry.
When discussing ancient Greek philosophy, it's important to mention that Hellenic philosophy wasn't just one happy homogeneous system; there were many variations of flower that blossomed on that tree.
We should also bear in mind that ancient Greece itself during this period was also not one large, cohesive, homogeneous, Kumbaya nation. While the Greeks did share a common language, culture, and polytheistic belief system, the country of ancient Greece consisted of various states and colonies that operated, for the most part, rather independently and quite autonomously (although they would often unite against common opponents during times of war, as was the case during the Trojan War and the Peloponnesian War). And since the Greeks were a sea-faring people, this ancient Hellenic world was geographically spread out, consisting of cities and villages in what is today mainland Greece, as well as along the western coast of what is now Turkey and the eastern coast of what is now Italy, and other colonies sprinkled as far away as the Iberian Coast and Asia Minor. (See the map at the beginning of the book.)
Time Periods of Ancient Greek Philosophy
Pre-Socratic Philosophy (sixth to fifth century BCE)
The Ionians (Thales, Anaximander, Xenphanes, Heraclitus)
The Pythagorean School (Pythagoras, Philolaus, Archytas, Alcmaeon)
The Eleatic School (Parmenides, Zeno, and Melissus)
The Pluralists and Atomists (Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Democritus)
Classical Philosophy (fourth century BCE)
The Sophists (Protagoras, Gorgias, Antiphon, Hippias)
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Hellenistic Philosophy (late fourth century BCE to first century CE)
Cynics (Antishenes, Diogenes, Crates)
Stoics (Zeno of Citium, Cleanthes)
Epicureans (Epicurus, Metrodorus, Hemarchus, Lucretius)
Skeptics (Pyrro of Elis, Carneades)
As for the various philosophical schools, most historians tend to break down Greek philosophy into three periods, with several schools or movements within each of those periods (see “Timeline of Major Greek Philosophers”).
Broadly speaking, the first period is known as the pre-Socratic, creatively named because it occurred in the time before Socrates. This period begins with Thales in the sixth century BCE and ends during the fifth century BCE; the various philosophical schools during this period where the Ionian, the Pythagorean, the Milesian, and the Pluralist and Atomist. The next philosophical age is known as the classical period (the fourth century BCE) and includes Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The final philosophical age is the Hellenistic period (late fourth century BCE and all the way into the first century CE). In this period we have the Cynics, the Stoics, the Epicureans and the Skeptics, and Plotinus coming much later during the third century CE.
In very, very broad strokes, the tree of ancient Greek philosophy is considered to have two main branches; these branches have been described as the scientific temperament and the mystic temperament.
Again, very broadly speaking, the philosophers of the scientific temperament (which included the Ionian school, as well as the Atomists) favored observation and inquiry into the natural world. Philosophers like Thales, Anaximenes, and Anaximander became quite obsessed with discovering what the universe was made of and were thus determined to deconstruct it to its quintessential substance. Sure, they got it wrong (Thales thought that substance was water; Anaximenes thought it was air), but give them credit for trying. And keep in mind that they didn't have any of our fancy, high-tech gadgets to work with. Instead, all they had was a rock to sit on and their agile and probing minds.
Now let's discuss the mystical branch of the Greek philosophical tree. This branch (which included the Idealists and the Eleatic school) was comprised of philosophers like Pythagoras, Plato, Parmenides, and other later neoplatonists such as Plotinus. They embraced the notion that there was an unseen “implicate” order of reality (reflected in Plato's Ideal Forms, Pythagoras's Informational Realm, Plotinus's “the One”) that was unavailable to our senses; according to them, our crude senses were limited and able to perceive only the visible “explicate”—yet illusory— shadow manifestations (i.e., matter and the material world) of that deeper level of reality. In essence, they believed that the physical world was a quasi-illusion; ephemeral and short lived, and that our senses would often deceive us into believing that the illusion was real, when, in fact, it had no permanence.
In contrast, the transcendent realm, of which Ideal Forms were underlying principles, were eternal and everlasting, but could be illuminated only by the reasoning of our higher mind via contemplative meditations on things such as mathematics, which, happily, could reveal those eternal truths. Simply put, the chair you're sitting on will crumble and dissolve to dust, but two plus two is forever. And, contemplating that eternal truth can have an elevating effect on one's consciousness and a purifying effect on one's soul.
The role, then, of philosophy (according to the mystic philosophers) was to purify or attune the mind, body, and soul via not only contemplative meditations on such things as the Eternal Forms, but also by a rather rigorous and holistic lifestyle. This whole-person attunement would then allow the initiate to experience and apprehend that deeper level of transcendent reality. I'll let Hierocles, a fifth-century neoplatonist, explain it:
Philosophy is the purification and perfection of human nature; it's purification, because it delivers it from the temerity and folly that proceed from matter and because it disengages its affections from the mortal body; and it's perfection, because it makes it recover its original felicity by restoring it to the likeness of God.
See what I mean? As Hierocles mentions (and as we'll discuss a bit later in more detail) this purification was meant to not only help the experient apprehend the deeper level of reality, but, in a sense, to mystically join with it.
Another way to describe this attunement as a means of mystical joining borrows from a concept in the physical sciences known as entrainment (which was briefly discussed in chapter 2). Entrainment has several different definitions in chemistry, engineering, and the biological sciences, but in this context I'm referring to the definition of entrainment as “an adjustment to an internal rhythm of an organism so that it synchronizes with an external cycle”; in other words, when something entrains, it vibrates in sync with something else. In this case, the mind, body, and soul of a person is purified by Greek mystic philosophy so that it can be in sync— entrained—with the larger universal rhythm.
What gets in the way of this entrainment are the traps of the material world, as we get seduced by that illusion. Using our mind to contemplate matters eternal (Plato's Forms, mathematics, God) can be the key to breaking us out of this trap.
That's what Pythagoras and Plato were all about.
Unfortunately, most people today don't know any of this. While they may have heard of Plato and Pythagoras, they have no idea that these Greek philosophers developed a transformative method that can help free a person (and his or her soul) from this illusory trap of the material world and the physical body, or what Plato had analogized as “freeing a bird from a cage.”
Instead, like easily distracted children, most people are hypnotized by shiny little baubles like American Idol or glistening junk from the mall, while their souls get trapped—and crushed—further in the cage that Plato describes.
But before we further explore the liberating wisdom of Greek mystical philosophy, let's take a closer look at how philosophy differs from other ways of knowing.