May 30, 2012
- Know Thyself -
The Ancient Greek aphorism “Know thyself”, Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, English phonetics pronunciation: gnōthi seauton (also … σαυτόν … sauton with the ε contracted), was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek periegetic (travelogue) writer Pausanias (10.24.1). – wikipedia
In many Polynesian cultures, it is believed that a person’s errors (called hara or hala) caused illness. The therapy that counters this sickness is confession. The patient, or a family member, may confess. If no one confesses an error, the patient may die. The Vanuatu people believe that secrecy is what gives power to the illness. When the error is confessed, it no longer has power over the person. – wikipedia
For self-knowledge would certainly be maintained by me to be the very essence of knowledge, and in this I agree with him who dedicated the inscription, ‘Know thyself!’ at Delphi. That word, if I am not mistaken, is put there as a sort of salutation which the god addresses to those who enter the temple; as much as to say that the ordinary salutation of ‘Hail!’ is not right, and that the exhortation ‘Be temperate!’ would be a far better way of saluting one another. The notion of him who dedicated the inscription was, as I believe, that the god speaks to those who enter his temple, not as men speak; but, when a worshipper enters, the first word which he hears is ‘Be temperate!’ This, however, like a prophet he expresses in a sort of riddle, for ‘Know thyself!’ and ‘Be temperate!’ are the same, as I maintain… – Plato, in Charmides
The idea of jnana centers around a cognitive event which is recognized when experienced. It is knowledge inseparable from the total experience of reality, especially a total reality… – wikipedia
Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. – Matthew 18:18
(W)ithin the body, bodies of many particular desires are enfolded. Since I stop considering them as my nature or as my property, they tend immediately to reunite with nature which ceases, at the same instant, to be considered as something exterior. They now appear as animals which have been enclosed for a long time within the human skin and which, once freed, hasten to rejoin their own packs. – Renee Daumal
He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. – Genesis 2:19
They can be like a sun, words.
They can do for the heart
what light can
for a field.
—St John of the Cross
(to tie it back in with the last post on the Word)
Comment by Ian — May 31, 2012 @ 11:12 am
Word!
Comment by Kate Gowen — May 31, 2012 @ 9:15 pm
:)
Comment by Ian — June 1, 2012 @ 11:33 am
Yet, as my “random posts” widget has reminded me today, there is a shadow side to words as well (though never to the Word, which is why the Word is a living Word, like fire):
http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2009/12/28/yukio-mishima-on-creative-expression/
Comment by Ian — June 1, 2012 @ 11:36 am
And next in line in the widget was this:
http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2010/01/27/the-i-ching-on-darkness/
(don’t worry too much about the shadow side)
And then this:
http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2009/02/19/luck-and-the-middle-path-triage-3/
(words bring order out of chaos, and sterility out of order, find the dusty middle way)
http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2008/02/06/fire/
(concepts help us grow)
http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2010/02/02/yukio-mishima-on-words/
(but they can stain a pristine existence if we go to far)
http://www.reclusland.com/compass/2008/05/16/zero/
(rest, instead, at the zero point, neither the ripping and tearing of chaos and strife, nor the dead sterility of the overly ordered)
We are chased onto the middle path by this very existence. :)
Comment by Ian — June 1, 2012 @ 11:44 am
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/interview-with-daniel-kahneman-on-the-pitfalls-of-intuition-and-memory-a-834407-druck.html
Naming the animals in the dark = know thyself = be less susceptible to those who would use your own survival instincts for their benefit
Comment by Ian — June 5, 2012 @ 12:04 pm
“…if we really want to understand the cunning of this demon, we should allow him to play out his role, [studying] his deceitfulness in detail. Sit down and recall in solitude the things that have happened: where you started and where you went, in what place you were seized by the spirit of unchastity, dejection or anger and how it all happened. Examine these things closely and commit them to memory, so that you will then be ready to expose [and rebuke] the demon when he next approaches you. Try to become conscious of the weak spot in yourself which he hid from you, and you will not follow him again. …expose him at once when he reappears, and tell him just where you went first, and where next, and so on. He cannot remain in action when he is openly exposed.” (from “Texts on Discrimination in Respect of Passions and Thoughts” in The Philokalia, emphasis mine)
Comment by Ian — June 5, 2012 @ 5:34 pm