12-31-2009, 05:41 PM
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#11
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Contributor
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Falls Creek, Oz.
Posts: 11,192
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gurugeorge
Quote:
Originally Posted by mountainman
Someone here (was it GuruGeorge?) pointed me to the works of Richard Kingsley related to the concept of nonduality. In the same sense that Buddism is often seen as neither a religion, metaphysics or philosophy, the Greek conception of divinity (as espoused by Plato to Plotinus) may also be so perceived.
There is also a small window of opportunity in the early 6th century BCE for Buddhist (Hindu) ideas to pass to Greece. C.515 BCE Therapeutae were sent by Buddha as emmissaries to the four directions. Were the ancient Pythagoreans influenced by Indian ideas – vegetarianism, communal property, 'transmigration of souls.' and the principles of Ayurvedic medicine (Pythagoras' four humours).
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That's Peter Kingsley, and yeah it's an interesting angle. He posits, basically, that the Phoceans borrowed from the shamanism indigenous to their previous home in Asia Minor, and took it to Italy in Greek-i-fied form, where it was mixed with Hindu/Egyptian ideas, became Pythagoreanism, fomented the Eleatic school, and then retired away from the spotlight for a while, only to return with Neo-Pythagoreanism (which probably actually was Pythagoreanism, contrary to what earlier scholars thought), and also influenced the closely-related Hermetic teachings, as well as Middle Platonism and Gnosticism (which, if Plotinus was engaged with in its philosophical aspect, must have been quite big, especially in Alexandria). The stream of indigenous European non-dualism then ended up in Akhmim in Egypt, from whence it spread, along with the closely-related Alchemy, to Sufism, and, ironically, back to roughly the same regions it started from, in Persia. Basically, it was non-dual "meditation" (very similar to the Tibetan Dzogchen, and may possibly be distantly related) and exercise in "dying before you die".
You only have to look at what Parmenides' teacher is noted to have taught him, to cotton on to what it was really all about : silence. |
Agreed.
I see this as continued via the neopythagoreans Plotinus and Porphyry and also Arius of Alexandria
in the extracts from Thalia ... (translated by Williams)
Quote:
Arius claimed that God Himself, as he really is, is inexpressible to all.
Arius claimed that this inexpressible essence alone has no equal
Arius claimed that this inexpressible essence alone has no one similar (homoios)
Arius claimed that this inexpressible essence alone has no one of the same glory.
Arius Claimed that he and his supporters called this inexpressible essence unbegotten, in contrast to an essence who by nature is begotten.
Arius claimed that he and his supporters praised this inexpressible essence as without beginning in contrast to an essence who has a beginning.
Arius claimed that he and his supporters worshipped this inexpressible essence as timeless, in contrast to an essence who in time has come to exist.
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In the sense that Buddhism is called by some a religion, by others a philosophy and by yet others as a metaphysics, so too was the conception of the Greek {Religion / Philosophy / Metaphysics } by the greeks. It sought to be integrated. Integration covered mathematics, geometry, proto-science, medicine (See Asclepius and Hippocrates and Galen) and astronomy /astrology, etc as well as literature and philosophy, but aslo askesis - ascetic yoga (IMO)
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