Does everyone agree that the senses are an integral component in the search of Wisdom? Socrates is the one who would not agree with it.
Socrates, in the Phaedo, argues that the senses do not grasp reality in any way and try to detour us from our path of wisdom. He believed that a philosopher's concern is not with the body but with the soul.
Socrates was a philosopher who spent his entire life searching for Truths that make up knowledge.
Socrates believed that there was a division between the body and the soul. The body with all its needs (food, drink, sex, material acquisitions, and wealth) was an obstacle and at the same time useless in the search for knowledge. It is like an evil tomb that imprisons our goodness and will try to fool it at every opportunity it can when we try to learn the Truth.
Socrates stated that human beings cannot rely on their senses in any way as a source of knowledge because they do not grasp reality and information from them varies, and it is always changing and constantly deteriorating and things get worse with time. The body with its sensory-based system is what causes war, civil discord, and battles, and our worries with these pursuits keep us from wisdom.
If we want knowledge, Socrates said, we must not pay attention to the sensible world because we will always ended up playing catch up.
Knowledge to Socrates was never changing, and the only way the soul can truly know the Truth is when it is by itself, separated from the body as much as possible. The further we get from the sensible world the closer we are to the Truth.
The body, Socrates said, is of the imperfect, sensible world, while the soul is of the perfect, real world. The sensible world that we see all around is only an illusion. The real world is invisible to us, but it is where the Form exist.
The Forms are entities that provide us with standards, and make up the real world. They cannot be seen or felt, but they make up reality. They are perfect, unchangeable, and eternal and are the standards by which we recognize things in this illusionary world.
Socrates claimed that in another type of life, our souls existed with the Forms in the real world and from participating with them, our souls gathered all the knowledge that is possible to possess. The only thing we need to do is to remember all that has been forgotten, proving that knowledge is still inside our souls and is independent of our sensory capabilities.
The closer we are to the world of Forms and Knowledge the better will be our understanding of the sensible world since the sensible world resembles the world of the Forms. To acquire knowledge, we do not have to appeal to some external activity, we do not have to go to somebody to ask for his knowledge. We must look inside ourselves, and try to remember.
Monday, December 25, 2017
THE POWER OF CLEAR SEEING.
The power of Clear Seeing (Clair-Voyance) is a natural force within everyone that allows the individual to express various degrees of perception, offering knowledge of things independent of ordinary avenues.
The power of Clear Seeing is your birthright, and if nurtured, in the right way, will be a guiding Light through your life. Each person will approach the seeing with more distinctiveness, intuition however is a grand leap of understanding and comes instantaneously.
The power of Clear Seeing is distinct from your usual senses, it is a new awareness of knowing facts, a spiritual shift takes place and an opening of unexplored fields of understanding appears. Some have exceptional perception and are able to cross all barriers of the outer senses. However, personal responsibility for all actions and thoughts will be the accepted law.
The power of Clear Seeing is for anyone, rich, poor, young, old, male, female, it is indiscriminate, and it is for any level of intelligence. All it takes is application, determination, and constancy. Some individuals are gifted with 2nd sight from the moment of birth, but for everyone else effort is needed to achieve the desired results.
When the power of Clear Seeing is used the individual is acting outside its normal mental behavior, and a new muscle is being exercised and remember it is always being tested, since it is one step closer to seeing beyond the 5 senses and in which different type of energies dwell governed by different law.
A strong and focused mind is a prerequisite to success in seeing clearly. An individual can develop its potential by using the power of will, concentration (focus the mind), persistence, self-awareness, self-restraint, energy, focus, and love.
Good results are obtained when the body, the mind and the spirit are in a healthy tune, well rested and working in a calm and peaceful environment. Observe temperance, there is plenty of time to learn, do not compare your ability with anyone else ability, each individual works at their own pace and this is part of their own destiny. Be patient and take small steps, aim for slow steady growth.
The power of Clear Seeing is not something that can be forced as each human being has a particular journey to follow. Natural instincts will dictate which one is the right path to follow because the individual will feel comfortability in the journey he/she takes.
Socrates, Plotin, and Cardanus spoke of the power of Clear Seeing, and Paracelsus was known as a great practitioner of it.
The power of Clear Seeing is your birthright, and if nurtured, in the right way, will be a guiding Light through your life. Each person will approach the seeing with more distinctiveness, intuition however is a grand leap of understanding and comes instantaneously.
The power of Clear Seeing is distinct from your usual senses, it is a new awareness of knowing facts, a spiritual shift takes place and an opening of unexplored fields of understanding appears. Some have exceptional perception and are able to cross all barriers of the outer senses. However, personal responsibility for all actions and thoughts will be the accepted law.
The power of Clear Seeing is for anyone, rich, poor, young, old, male, female, it is indiscriminate, and it is for any level of intelligence. All it takes is application, determination, and constancy. Some individuals are gifted with 2nd sight from the moment of birth, but for everyone else effort is needed to achieve the desired results.
When the power of Clear Seeing is used the individual is acting outside its normal mental behavior, and a new muscle is being exercised and remember it is always being tested, since it is one step closer to seeing beyond the 5 senses and in which different type of energies dwell governed by different law.
A strong and focused mind is a prerequisite to success in seeing clearly. An individual can develop its potential by using the power of will, concentration (focus the mind), persistence, self-awareness, self-restraint, energy, focus, and love.
Good results are obtained when the body, the mind and the spirit are in a healthy tune, well rested and working in a calm and peaceful environment. Observe temperance, there is plenty of time to learn, do not compare your ability with anyone else ability, each individual works at their own pace and this is part of their own destiny. Be patient and take small steps, aim for slow steady growth.
The power of Clear Seeing is not something that can be forced as each human being has a particular journey to follow. Natural instincts will dictate which one is the right path to follow because the individual will feel comfortability in the journey he/she takes.
Socrates, Plotin, and Cardanus spoke of the power of Clear Seeing, and Paracelsus was known as a great practitioner of it.
Saturday, December 23, 2017
THE NATURAL ELEMENTS.
Classical elements refer to the concepts in ancient Greek of fire, water, air (wind), earth, and aether (void), which explained the nature and complexity of all universal matter in terms of simpler substances.
Ancient cultures (Egypt, Babylonia, Japan, Tibet, and India) had a similar lists.
In Babylonian mythology, the creation myth text (Enuma Elis), written between the 18th and 16th BC, involves 4 gods sought as personified cosmic elements: sea, earth, sky, wind. It was recovered in fragmentary form in the ruined Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq), and published in 1876, by George Smith, and English Assyriologist who discovered and translated one of the oldest-known written works of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh. The text has about a 1000 lines and is recorded in Old Babylonian on 7 clay tablets, each holding between 115 and 170 lines of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform script. Most of tablet 5 has never been recovered, but the text is comprehensible.
The first tablet starts with the following script: "When the Sky above was not named, and the Earth beneath did not yet bear a name, and the primeval Fresh Water (Apsu), who begat them, and Chaos, the Oceanic Waters, the mother of them both, their waters were mingled together, and no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; when of the gods none had been called to being.... ."
A Greek text called "The Virgin of the World (Kore Kosmou)," ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, the author of the Hermetic Corpus (a series of sacred texts), and associated with the Egyptian god Thoth (a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon), names the 4 elements fire, water, air/wind, and earth. In the text it is described as follows: "And Isis answered: 'Of Living Things, my son, some are made friends with Fire, and some with Water, some with Air/Wind, and some with Earth, and some with 2 or 3 of these, and some with all. And, on the contrary, again some are made enemies of Fire, and some of Water, some of Air/Wind, some of Earth, and some of 2 of them, and some of 3, and some of all. For instance, son, the Locust and all flies flee Fire; the Eagle and the Hawk and all high-flying birds flee Water; Fish flee Air and Earth; the Snake avoids the open air. Whereas Snakes and all creeping things love Earth; all swimming things love Water; winged things, Air, of which they are citizens; while those that fly still higher love the Fire and have the habitat near it. Not that some of the animals as well do not love Fire; for instance Salamanders, for they even have their homes in it. It is because one or another of the elements do form their bodies' outer envelope. Each soul, accordingly, while it is in its body is weighed and constricted by these four.
These elements, according to Galenus of Pergamon, a prominent Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire, were used by Hippocrates in describing the human body with an association with the 4 humors: yellow Bile (Fire), Phlegm (Water), Blood (Air), and black Bile (Earth).
In Classical Thought, the 4 elements earth, water, air (wind), and fire, proposed by Empedocles, a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher [citizen of Acragas (Agrigentum), a Greek city in Sicily], who is best known for originating the cosmogenic theory, frequently occur. Influenced by the Pythagoreans, Empedocles was a vegetarian who supported the doctrine of reincarnation. Aristotle added a 5th element, aether; it has been called akasha in India and quintessence in Europe.
The concept of the 5 elements formed a basis of analysis in both Hinduism and Buddhism, in which the 5th element describes that which is beyond the material world.
In Buddhism the 4 elements, to which 2 others are added, are not viewed as substances, but as categories of sensory experience (philosophy of perception), where the focus is on beliefs about experience (perceived sensation) rather than what is it directly like to be experienced (having a glass of wine instead of perceiving the taste of wine). The 4 elements are a basis for understanding suffering and for liberating oneself from suffering. The earliest texts explain that the 4 material elements are the sensory qualities of their characterization: solidity or inertia (earth), fluidity/cohesion (water), temperature/heat/energy content (Fire), mobility/expansion/vibration (Air). Instead of concentrating on the fact of material existence, one observes how a physical thing is sensed, felt, and perceived.
The Chinese Wu Xing, also known as the 5 elements, 5 phases, 5 agents, 5 movements, 5 processes, 5 steps/stages, and 5 planets of significant gravity (Jupiter, Saturs, Mercury, Venus, Mars). It is a fivefold conceptual scheme that traditional Chinese fields use to explain a wide array of phenomena, from cosmic cycles to the interaction between internal organs, and from succession of political regimes to the properties of medicinal herbs. The 5 phases are: -wood (mu), fire (huo), earth (tu), metal (jin), and water (shui). The order of presentation is known as the "mutual generation/overcoming," and describes the interactions and relatiopnships between phenomena. After it came to maturity in the 2nd century BC during Han Dynasty, this device was employed in many fields of early "Chinese Thought,"including fields such a Feng Shui, astrology, medicine, music, military strategy, and martial arts. The system is still in use in some forms of complementary/alternative medicine and martial arts.
The system of 5 elements (pancha mahabhuta) found in Vedas are: -earth (bhumi), -water (ap or jala),
-fire (agni), - air or wind (marut, vayu or pavan), and aether or void (akash). They suggest that all of creation, including the human body, is made up of these 5 essential elements and that upon death, the human body dissolves into these 5 elements of nature, thereby balancing the Cycle of Nature. The 5 elements are associated with the 5 senses, and act as the gross medium for the experience of sensations. The base element, Earth, created using all the other elements, can be perceived by all 5 senses: hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. The next higher element, Water, has no odor but can be heard, felt, seen, and tasted. Next come Fire, which can be heard, felt, and seen. Air can be heard and felt. Aether is beyond the senses of smell, taste, sight, and touch; it being accessible to the sense of hearing alone.
Ancient cultures (Egypt, Babylonia, Japan, Tibet, and India) had a similar lists.
In Babylonian mythology, the creation myth text (Enuma Elis), written between the 18th and 16th BC, involves 4 gods sought as personified cosmic elements: sea, earth, sky, wind. It was recovered in fragmentary form in the ruined Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (Mosul, Iraq), and published in 1876, by George Smith, and English Assyriologist who discovered and translated one of the oldest-known written works of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh. The text has about a 1000 lines and is recorded in Old Babylonian on 7 clay tablets, each holding between 115 and 170 lines of Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform script. Most of tablet 5 has never been recovered, but the text is comprehensible.
The first tablet starts with the following script: "When the Sky above was not named, and the Earth beneath did not yet bear a name, and the primeval Fresh Water (Apsu), who begat them, and Chaos, the Oceanic Waters, the mother of them both, their waters were mingled together, and no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; when of the gods none had been called to being.... ."
A Greek text called "The Virgin of the World (Kore Kosmou)," ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, the author of the Hermetic Corpus (a series of sacred texts), and associated with the Egyptian god Thoth (a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon), names the 4 elements fire, water, air/wind, and earth. In the text it is described as follows: "And Isis answered: 'Of Living Things, my son, some are made friends with Fire, and some with Water, some with Air/Wind, and some with Earth, and some with 2 or 3 of these, and some with all. And, on the contrary, again some are made enemies of Fire, and some of Water, some of Air/Wind, some of Earth, and some of 2 of them, and some of 3, and some of all. For instance, son, the Locust and all flies flee Fire; the Eagle and the Hawk and all high-flying birds flee Water; Fish flee Air and Earth; the Snake avoids the open air. Whereas Snakes and all creeping things love Earth; all swimming things love Water; winged things, Air, of which they are citizens; while those that fly still higher love the Fire and have the habitat near it. Not that some of the animals as well do not love Fire; for instance Salamanders, for they even have their homes in it. It is because one or another of the elements do form their bodies' outer envelope. Each soul, accordingly, while it is in its body is weighed and constricted by these four.
These elements, according to Galenus of Pergamon, a prominent Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire, were used by Hippocrates in describing the human body with an association with the 4 humors: yellow Bile (Fire), Phlegm (Water), Blood (Air), and black Bile (Earth).
In Classical Thought, the 4 elements earth, water, air (wind), and fire, proposed by Empedocles, a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher [citizen of Acragas (Agrigentum), a Greek city in Sicily], who is best known for originating the cosmogenic theory, frequently occur. Influenced by the Pythagoreans, Empedocles was a vegetarian who supported the doctrine of reincarnation. Aristotle added a 5th element, aether; it has been called akasha in India and quintessence in Europe.
The concept of the 5 elements formed a basis of analysis in both Hinduism and Buddhism, in which the 5th element describes that which is beyond the material world.
In Buddhism the 4 elements, to which 2 others are added, are not viewed as substances, but as categories of sensory experience (philosophy of perception), where the focus is on beliefs about experience (perceived sensation) rather than what is it directly like to be experienced (having a glass of wine instead of perceiving the taste of wine). The 4 elements are a basis for understanding suffering and for liberating oneself from suffering. The earliest texts explain that the 4 material elements are the sensory qualities of their characterization: solidity or inertia (earth), fluidity/cohesion (water), temperature/heat/energy content (Fire), mobility/expansion/vibration (Air). Instead of concentrating on the fact of material existence, one observes how a physical thing is sensed, felt, and perceived.
The Chinese Wu Xing, also known as the 5 elements, 5 phases, 5 agents, 5 movements, 5 processes, 5 steps/stages, and 5 planets of significant gravity (Jupiter, Saturs, Mercury, Venus, Mars). It is a fivefold conceptual scheme that traditional Chinese fields use to explain a wide array of phenomena, from cosmic cycles to the interaction between internal organs, and from succession of political regimes to the properties of medicinal herbs. The 5 phases are: -wood (mu), fire (huo), earth (tu), metal (jin), and water (shui). The order of presentation is known as the "mutual generation/overcoming," and describes the interactions and relatiopnships between phenomena. After it came to maturity in the 2nd century BC during Han Dynasty, this device was employed in many fields of early "Chinese Thought,"including fields such a Feng Shui, astrology, medicine, music, military strategy, and martial arts. The system is still in use in some forms of complementary/alternative medicine and martial arts.
The system of 5 elements (pancha mahabhuta) found in Vedas are: -earth (bhumi), -water (ap or jala),
-fire (agni), - air or wind (marut, vayu or pavan), and aether or void (akash). They suggest that all of creation, including the human body, is made up of these 5 essential elements and that upon death, the human body dissolves into these 5 elements of nature, thereby balancing the Cycle of Nature. The 5 elements are associated with the 5 senses, and act as the gross medium for the experience of sensations. The base element, Earth, created using all the other elements, can be perceived by all 5 senses: hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. The next higher element, Water, has no odor but can be heard, felt, seen, and tasted. Next come Fire, which can be heard, felt, and seen. Air can be heard and felt. Aether is beyond the senses of smell, taste, sight, and touch; it being accessible to the sense of hearing alone.
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE SLEEP?
Sleep is a very active state. Our bodies move frequently, as we roll about during the night, and, more importantly, our brain activity is even more varied than it is during normal waking state.
When awake, most people exhibit brain wave patterns that can be classified into 2 types of waves, beta and alpha.
Beta waves are those associated with day to day wakefulness. These waves are the highest in frequency and lowest in amplitude, and also more de-synchronous than other waves. That is, the waves are not very consistent in their pattern. This de-synchrony makes sense given that day to day mental activity consists of many cognitive, sensory, and motor activities and experiences, and thus, when awake, we are mentally de-synchronous as well.
During periods of relaxation, while still awake, our brain waves become slower, increase in amplitude and become more synchronous., These types of waves are called Alpha waves. Activities that promote Alpha wave activity, have positive health benefits.
When we sleep, the first stage of sleep is characterized by Theta waves, which even slower in frequency and greater in amplitude than Alpha waves. The difference between them is gradual and subtle. As the sleeper moves to stage 2, Theta waves activity continues, interspersed with 2 unusual wave phenomena. These phenomena, which occur periodically every minute or so, are termed with a sudden increase in wave frequency, and a sudden increase in wave amplitude. Stages 1 and 2 are relatively light stages of sleep. In fact, if someone is awoken during one of these stages, the person will often report no being asleep at all.
During a normal sleep a sleeper passes from from the Theta waves of stage 1 and 2, to the Delta waves of stage 3 and 4. Delta waves are the slowest and highest amplitude of brain waves. There is no real division between stages 3 and 4 except that, typically, stage 3 is considered Delta sleep in which less than 50% of the waves are Delta waves, and in stage 4 more than 50% of the waves are Delta waves.
Delta sleep is our deepest sleep, the point when our brain waves least like waking. Consequently, it is the most difficult stage in which a person can't wake up easily, and when they are awakened they are usually sleepy and disoriented. Delta sleep is when sleep walking and sleep talking is most likely to occur.
Besides these 4 basic stages of sleep, another, unique, stage of sleep exists. This stage gets its name from the darting eye movement that accompany it, Rapid Eye Movement (REM). It is characterized by a sudden and dramatic loss of muscle tone, in fact, the skeletal muscles of a person are effectively paralyzed. This is associated with a unique brain wave pattern in which the waves demonstrate characteristics that are similar to waking sleep, a combination of Alpha, Beta, and de-synchronous waves. This is the stage of sleep most associated with dreaming. When a sleeper begins to exhibit the physiological indices of REM sleep, and they are awakened, the great majority of the time they will report that they were having a vivid, story-like dream. During other stages, on the other hand, they normally do not report dreaming.
When awake, most people exhibit brain wave patterns that can be classified into 2 types of waves, beta and alpha.
Beta waves are those associated with day to day wakefulness. These waves are the highest in frequency and lowest in amplitude, and also more de-synchronous than other waves. That is, the waves are not very consistent in their pattern. This de-synchrony makes sense given that day to day mental activity consists of many cognitive, sensory, and motor activities and experiences, and thus, when awake, we are mentally de-synchronous as well.
During periods of relaxation, while still awake, our brain waves become slower, increase in amplitude and become more synchronous., These types of waves are called Alpha waves. Activities that promote Alpha wave activity, have positive health benefits.
When we sleep, the first stage of sleep is characterized by Theta waves, which even slower in frequency and greater in amplitude than Alpha waves. The difference between them is gradual and subtle. As the sleeper moves to stage 2, Theta waves activity continues, interspersed with 2 unusual wave phenomena. These phenomena, which occur periodically every minute or so, are termed with a sudden increase in wave frequency, and a sudden increase in wave amplitude. Stages 1 and 2 are relatively light stages of sleep. In fact, if someone is awoken during one of these stages, the person will often report no being asleep at all.
During a normal sleep a sleeper passes from from the Theta waves of stage 1 and 2, to the Delta waves of stage 3 and 4. Delta waves are the slowest and highest amplitude of brain waves. There is no real division between stages 3 and 4 except that, typically, stage 3 is considered Delta sleep in which less than 50% of the waves are Delta waves, and in stage 4 more than 50% of the waves are Delta waves.
Delta sleep is our deepest sleep, the point when our brain waves least like waking. Consequently, it is the most difficult stage in which a person can't wake up easily, and when they are awakened they are usually sleepy and disoriented. Delta sleep is when sleep walking and sleep talking is most likely to occur.
Besides these 4 basic stages of sleep, another, unique, stage of sleep exists. This stage gets its name from the darting eye movement that accompany it, Rapid Eye Movement (REM). It is characterized by a sudden and dramatic loss of muscle tone, in fact, the skeletal muscles of a person are effectively paralyzed. This is associated with a unique brain wave pattern in which the waves demonstrate characteristics that are similar to waking sleep, a combination of Alpha, Beta, and de-synchronous waves. This is the stage of sleep most associated with dreaming. When a sleeper begins to exhibit the physiological indices of REM sleep, and they are awakened, the great majority of the time they will report that they were having a vivid, story-like dream. During other stages, on the other hand, they normally do not report dreaming.
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