Plato's Parmenides and the Cosmic One
Presented on: Thursday, February 12, 1981
Presented by: Roger Weir
The King and the Queen in the Quest
Presentation 6 of 12
Plato's Parmenides and the Cosmic One
Presented by Roger Weir
Thursday, February 12, 1981
Transcript:
The date is February 12th, 1981. This is the sixth lecture in this series of lectures by Roger Weir on a subject the King and Queen in the Quest. Tonight's lecture is entitled Plato's Parmenides and The Cosmic One.
Don't know if this will work. I'm hoping to give you an image which will be indelible. This is the middle of this lecture series. The music that you're hearing is by Ray Vaughan Williams. It the conclusion to a Symphony Number 6. and it is a symphony that he wrote looking at the rooms of Europe after the Second World War. And I'm going to use it as accompanying music to read to you a characteristic passage of Plato's Parmenides. Because the compositional tone of The Parmenides is remarkably like Vaughn Williams Sixth Symphony. It is an exercise in what is known as music as pianissimo. That is a long grey melodic line that has slow rises and falls that always come back to the unending average line all the way through the end. And the end simply tapers off. And Plato's Parmenides is in tone with what this symphony that we're hearing is in music. I hope you can organize it.
Thus, it appears that the one has being, if it is non-existent. And also, since it is not existent as non-being. Now a thing which is in a certain condition cannot be in that condition only by passing out of it. So, anything that both is and is not in such and such a condition acquires transition. And transition is motion. Now we have seen that the one is existent and also is non-existent. And accordingly, is and is not in a certain condition. Therefore, the non-existent one has been shown to be a thing that moves, sensitiveness transition from being to not being. On the other hand, with the one is not anywhere in the world of existence. And it does not if it does not exist. It cannot shift from one place to another. Therefore, it cannot move by shifting its position. Nor there yet can it revolve in the same place since it has no point of contact with what is the same. For what is the same is existent and the non-existent cannot be in anything that exists. Therefore, the one, if non-existent can revolve from that which it is not. Nor can the one either when existent or when non-existent altered from itself and character. If it did, we should no longer be speaking of the one but of something other than it. If then it does not alter in character and neither revolves in the same place nor shifts from one place to another. There is no other motion it can have. And the motionless must be at rest. And if at rest stationary. It appears that that the non-existent one is both at rest and in motion. Further if it does not move it must become unlike, since in whatever respective thing goes to that extent it is no longer in the same condition as before but in a different condition. So, moving the one does become unlike. Also, in so far as it is not moving on any respect, it will not be becoming unlike in any way.
The question is what happened? What became in the space of one single lifetime the most incredible promise of enlightenment that we've seen on the planet so far. Condensed into one city, within the talents of people who knew each other, and they let it unravel in the space of one lifetime. Until Plato in his anguish for the deterioration of the mind wrote The Parmenides in about 367 B.C. Like Vaughn Williams writing the Sixth Symphony to say I have all the civilization in the world and the only thing I can do with it is to paint a long gray line. a pianissimo tone. And I can't move beyond that.
Plato choosing Parmenides like a master craftsman chose the very fulcrum, the very time, the very person, who occupied the apex of the triad. And in the nature is integration presented the key to the flaw and the fatal unraveling. And very soon after The Parmenides was written the life in Athens became almost unbearable. So that it was almost a mixed blessing when Alexander finally came and usurped the reigns of the city.
All this **inaudible word or two** in an enormous long pattern starting with the Trojan War
and Homeric presentation of that into and epic and **inaudible word** The Odyssey. It has somehow filtered through dark ages of **inaudible word** exploration and has come home in the city of Athens **inaudible few words**. And in the space of about 150 years it developed into the age **inaudible word or two** The symbol of Athens with the building of the Parthenon. Picture-perfect ultimate building of the Gods. But at the same time showing man's comprehension of the Gods. And from that point to about 350 BC when this conversation between Parmenides and Socrates and Zeno (sp?) and so forth and **inaudible word/name** was set.
This conversation took place in this timeframe. And Plato was having the young Socrates as an observer. Who had in his person had the experience of this positing of conundrums of the mind in such a complex labyrinthian way that the mind once conditioned by this labyrinth could no longer with natural romantic look to nature and simply understand things as they are. That no longer used that Homeric natural image base. Could no longer take anything as it was but ground everything up in a mill of exquisite and ever refined logical conundrum systems. And Socrates alone out of this generation, out of this **inaudible word** turned inwards and began his famous examining. It was the character of Socrates that **inaudible word or two** in Plato.
And Plato then schooled for 20 years the person that we come to know as Aristotle. And Aristotle in his wonderful opportunity focus all of his learning for a few years was the private tutor of Alexander the great. He took that experience and put it back into one man. Who almost like the opposite ends of a reverberating symbol of energy stepped out of the classroom of the mind. And **inaudible word or two** of the world at that time. Alexander's empire, of course, **inaudible word or two** intelligence of a civilization. which we are still in. In which we inherit.
In this development one key image that should concern us, the title of this series is the King and the Queen in quest. And that is the idea that a powerful leader, the idea of that one who uniting in themselves all of these capacities is able to order and organize the society. Becomes of paramount importance. Because it's easy for us to understand Kings like King **inaudible name** or King Metalais. Or even kings like Odysseus. And even a king like Paracles. We **inaudible word or two** and everyone can since. In the jungles of the mind that were initiated by the kinds of objections to thinking that Parmenides as a person raised and personified.
And Plato in his dialogue The Parmenides restates some 80 to 90 years after the fact, the conditionals that led to this almost fatal impasse. I mentioned I think last week the famous Arminian dictum, what is, is and what is not, is not. This is a sort of a loggerhead presentation. What is and what is not are incommensurate. There is further refinement on this. And that is the statement that what is, is what. That is to say we must in some way be able to formulate in our mind and in a discursive language the idea of a cosmos. Not a cosmos like we see on television series and so forth. Something philosophical. Something more essential. Something down to the very roots of the sternum.
In the beginning of The Parmenides there is a meeting of course between the various persons. And for the first oh, five, six, seven pages there is a conversation that begins to develop. And with Socrates and Zeno are talking. and Parmenides, a very distinguished man with the white hair, the elder statesman of philosophers, hears Socrates talking to Zeno and finally interrupts and makes this remark. And this begins the dialogue to take the form that I read to you just at the beginning of this lecture.
Parmenides says that is because you are undertaking to define beautiful, just, good and other particular forms too soon. Before you have had a preliminary training. I noticed that the other day when I heard you talking here with Aristotle. Believe me there is something noble and inspired in your passion for argument. But you must make an effort and submit yourself while you are still young to a severe training in what the world calls idle talk and condemned as useless.
This of course is philosophy.
"Otherwise the truth will escape you. And Socrates says, well then what form should this exercise take Parmenides." and he is told that it should take the form by the treatise that Zeno just described. And that one has to learn to take a hypothesis and by rotating that hypothesis in the mind until every iota of possibility logically has been covered. And you discover to what final ultimate purposes that hypothesis of thought will lead you.
And so, Parmenides brings this skepticism of nature into the lap of Socrates. And Socrates says, "Well I'm not quite sure that I can follow you. perhaps we should have an example." And everyone there says yes let's have an example. Let's have Parmenides display this. The workings of the mind as it takes this form of a hypotheses and this magical investigation. And Parmenides says, I'm an old man. I really can't face these kinds of **inaudible word**. But Zeno and Socrates and the others finally prevail upon him. Parmenides stretching himself begins, and we begin it this way. "Well who will answer the question that I shall put. shall it be the youngest? He will likely give the least trouble. And be the most ready to say what he thinks. And I shall get a moment's rest while he's answering." Well this is strange because the rest of The Parmenides there's hardly twelve lines of anyone else. And the young questioner barely has a chance to say I think so. or it seems so. Because Parmenides with his avalanche of infinitesimal logic granulating every conceivable possibility before the youngster and Socrates and Zeno and himself. And us reading the dialogue. Simply granulates out of existence every capacity to believe that one could think of anything at all. Because he begins with the hypothesis. Perhaps the most difficult of all. If there are one.
Well then, says Parmenides, if there is a one of course the one will not many. Consequently, it cannot have any parts. or be a whole, for a part is ae part of the whole. The whole means that from which no part is missing. So, whether you speak of it as a whole or as having parts, either case the one would consist of parts and in that way be **inaudible word or two**. What it is to be **inaudible word** and not **inaudible word**. Therefore, if the one is to be one, it will not be the whole nor have parts.
And so, from such a simple beginning the hypothesis was, is there one. And finds its way through page after page for The Parmenides.
And Parmenides begins taking these hypothesis and rotating it around logically to each infinitesimal possibility. And have **inaudible word** large or small. Will it have likeness or unlikeness. Will it have sameness or difference. Etc. etc. until finally this hypothesis has swept life aside and flattened the entire field of nourishment. And all that is left it's a desolate plateau of realization that the mind in Parmenides time has achieved a power of **inaudible word** analysis that simply can't obliterate all nature. Including its own self nature. The mind has become so powerful, such a flaming sword of differentiation that it simply leaves this dull gray line at the end.
And so, then Parmenides says,
"Well perhaps we have made a mistake. Let's change the hypothesis. Perhaps we misstated this and misunderstood it. Perhaps it's better instead to say is there a one. Perhaps we should backtrack a little bit and bring in the question of existence. Well let's take then as a new hypothesis, a little bit different, does the one exist? Or let's phrase it this way, this is one and is." And so, then he began saying well as we've said that, is an existence **inaudible word or two** all very strange. And so, he begins to rotate this hypothesis.
And we find that the same thing happens. The very same thing. And this is how, this is how the first hypothesis ends and the second hypothesis begins. And you'll get in the transition the way in which Parmenides simply has polarized the mental capacities of everyone there.
Therefore, the one has nothing to do with time. And does not occupy any stretch of time. Again, the words has become, was becoming are understood to me connections of past times. will be, will be becoming, will become with future times. Is and is becoming with time now present. Consequently, if the one has nothing to do with any time it never has become or was becoming or was. Nor can you say it has become. Or are now or is becoming or is. Or that it will be becoming. now a thing can have being only in one of these ways. There is accordingly no way in which the one has been. Therefore, the one in no sense is.
So, he concludes this devastation with the sum total. He drove the bottom home. And he says therefore the one in no sense is. Then he turns around forty seconds later and takes up a hypothesis which takes the other side of that. Suppose the one is. And you are filled with this this great admiration for Parmenides capacity. And one would hope that in this examination that the very opposite would come out. All the wonderful things will occur to us. And we will re-establish again that wonderful world that the mind **inaudible word** to yes everything of course must be. But not so.
And as Parmenides goes through arguments and rotates that hypothesis and brings it to its fruition, we find again the devastation. The mind granulating all possibility using a formidable object. And at each stage of the way the basic rounds of contradiction which has been realized by Parmenides time. The basic notions of supposition and logical consequences from holding them. lines of arguments that had **inaudible word** to them. All of these properties, all of these characteristics developing here.
So finally, we have the ordeals. The end of the second hypothesis. "Thus, the non-existent one both comes to be and ceases to be." Oh, this is the end of the third. The end of the second comes into play with the statement that we can't posit an is.
And finally, Parmenides takes the underside of the statement,
Suppose there is a one, not so. Suppose a one is, not so. Let's suppose that a one is not. Let's take the negative so we can back into reality. Perhaps by using our great capacity here, our fantastic tool, we can recreate what we have destroyed out of possibility by taking the negation. And that comes to this one. That's the non-existent one, both comes to be and ceases to be. And also, does not come to be or ceases to be.
In other words, what's coming up now are incredible ambiguities, you can have it either way. It makes no difference. You can have anything. You can have nothing. It makes no difference.
And so, the words is not mean simply the absence of being for anything that we say is not. We do not mean that the thing in the sense is not. though in another sense it is. The words mean without any clarification that the thing which is not in no sense or manner is. And does not possess being in any way. So, what is not cannot exist or have being in any sense or manner.
And later on,
Thus, in sum to conclude. If there is no one there is nothing at all. To this we may add the conclusion. It seems that whether there is, or it is not a one. both that one and the others are alike and are not. and appear and do not appear to be all manner of things, and all manner of ways with respect to themselves and to one another.
And the comment tersely, grimly tenaciously at the end. Most true to **inaudible few words** as most do.
And so, you have a brief idea of the activity here in The Parmenides. A brief glimpse at its place in the development of Greek thought. What about, for us, what about for the kind of process that we **inaudible word** in? Let's go back find our way to where we are. And see what The Parmenides has hidden.
We began with a motion and we will create for ourselves something we will designate as a field of inquiry. We will add materials to this by lecture and slides. **inaudible word or two** in here. **Inaudible word or two** slides in here. And King Arthur(?)....**inaudible several words**. And each week we will enlarge this field of inquiry and we'll be in real particular **inaudible word or two** integrate or organize with these materials. We will simply keep them suspended for our appraisal later on and hope that at some time in the future with the shock of recognition or the lightening of understanding, we will be able to precipitate out of the field of inquiry some kind of a thesis for ourselves. To temporarily carry around and observe.
What about The Parmenides? What is he recommending? Is he not recommended something similar? what are the results? What are the differences? The differences lie primarily that if we do this only in a mental realm, that is a frame of reference that exists only here. This process will lead us, finally, to the appreciation of logical form. And that unfortunately will lead us to more and more **inaudible word or two**. And I think one of the best statements of our time, made by a very great magician some time ago * *inaudible few words**, where upon man cannot speak **inaudible word or two** silent.
And the mind is capable through logical refinement to produce an esquite sound. We can rise indefinitely. So that we have to add to this field of inquiry, not simply elements that register as mental phenomenon as ideas. But we have to bring something else into play here. To keep it as it were, grounded in a natural image base. That is, it say, it has be feeling tone and individual and relational to the world in which we find ourselves.
Now at the beginning of The Parmenides as the conversation is just getting underway, Parmenides is careful to point out that there are some very peculiar things that happen when one begins to think. And especially as one is beginning to have ideas. And if one supposes that these ideas have ultimate forms, which through some way of emanation or influence give us coherence to the world. And Parmenides objects. And in a very careful **inaudible word** way brings around the notion that the world that we find ourselves in has a certain **inaudible two or three words**. The realm in which any ultimate forms could be this. And a different **inaudible word or two** and then there's a gap between the two horizons of meaning. They do not in fact touch or have contact anywhere.
We must, in our investigation, suppose that there is in fact one horizon of meaning only. But the capacity of the mind to differentiate are illusory. That the wonderful realm that can be spun exist as entertainment and not as nourishment for the quest. And that's a very big differentiation.
So that for our field of inquiry we are not simply adding elements for our intellectual stimulation, or elements for a kind of mental juggler. But we're hoping that within this field of inquiry we are adding other things. Myself as a human being for you. occasional times when you talk to each other, the ambience of the PRS **inaudible word or two**. The act of extracting yourself of your daily lives once a week to come and build up some sense of continuity in this experience. And
Somehow trying to take that back to where you work and making all kinds of bridges and relationships. So that the fields of inquiry, more properly than something which can be put on the black board exists as an experiential matrix. If I can use that kind of terminology. Which we ourselves in moving in in this particular way. Using that motion of inquiry as the prime thesis, that is not an idea. It is not a preconceived notion. It is not even an idea that is extracted out of the material. or out of our lives. But simply is a motion. is a process of inquiry. With no blinders and no preconceptions which allows us to move freely and return. And finally create a set of hypothetical situations, which we would call Hermetic **inaudible word** so that this great chain of being which expresses its harmonies in the fact of our lives can't have a chance to work. It's quite different. It quite different from something hypothetical. And is determined.
Now in order to give ourselves as Parmenides correctly says, we need to have some way in which to fix for ourselves, even if just temporarily, some notions which we can examine assiduously when some kind of a self-correcting everything procedures. The fact of our participation, of our presence. And that of course, is very much like the, the idea of the course that we have before us. Stringing together of certain lectures in a sequence. So that increasingly what occurs to you is the fact that we haven't just been entertaining ourselves but in fact involved ourselves in a process of discovery of uncovering primordial relationships. Which are made in fact by the process of our questing here and now. That is, they don't exist, I guess the philosophical term of a priori, but they come into actuality by the fact of our doing it. The doing makes it be. Just so. Without any doing we could prove that oh not only does not exist but it's not nonsense. And we could go on from there.
Well let's take a break. This is a lot to digest. And we'll come back to it in music. And meanwhile I'll **inaudible word** some more pianissimo so you can feel how that should be.
**inaudible background chatter**
...time that, if you get a chance the **inaudible word or two** of Plato and collected by **inaudible two words** of Hamilton and Huntington **inaudible word** seem to be a very workable volume. It was published in the Bollingen Series and it selects some of the best translations of Plato's dialogues out. It's expensive. It's $17 or $18 but I would consider it a very great investment. That if you intend to pursue these things it really does pay to have an excellent translation of Plato nearby.
When you are considering, as some of you will, reading The Parmenides of Plato. There is another dialogue that was written supposedly almost at the very same time. So that the two dialogues exist as a tandem presentation. The other dialogue is The Theaetetus. Theaetetus. T-h-e-a-t-e-t-u-s. Is that right? **inaudible several words** Theaetetus. And The Theaetetus concerns knowing. How can we know? How can we know wisdom?
And The Theaetetus and The Parmenides together are an interesting presentation. And they were written about 367 or so B.C. Plato was at that time, let's see at that time he would have been about 60. It's interesting to consider The Theaetetus and The Parmenides in connection with Plato's great and longest work The Republic. I think those of you that have been coming will recall, I think two weeks ago we finally got to the expression that led to the positing of the image of World Tree. **inaudible word** up through the circular universe. Horizon being available to us and our presence. And that down in the roots are this where there is an experience of presence, which has a certain underground character. The Parmenides of Plato is a kind of an intellectual **inaudible word**, if you will, that creates this sense of presence in the roots of experience. What we could say and what we cannot say and ultimate therein. The Theaetetus looks at this. Brings us into this kind of understanding. And The Republic itself massively occupies this kind of a level of presentation.
So that in reading through Plato, one has to use an articulation of time that's considerably longer than you would expect. that you can't use days or weeks. Or if someone says days, weeks, months they're the rags of time. You don't know how long it's going to take. Comprehension is sometimes wonderfully elusive. And until we've built a sufficient image base for it to occur to us, the integration will not occur. That's all. So, we simply have to work on building and nourishing and extending and hoping that at some time we will bring to bare enough focuses of information and understanding and insight to create this additional sense of wonder...
END OF SIDE ONE
We simply have to work on building and nourishing and extending. And hoping that sometime we will bring to bare enough focuses of information and understanding and insight to create this initial sense wonder. Or the sense of the sacred. **inaudible few words** The various weeks that we have come to use. and today a sense of philosophy. The term is the lover of wisdom.
If you're going to pursue it beyond reading the dialogue themselves. And if you wish to get involved in something a little more complex. There is a work, a translation and it's a running commentary of The Parmenides. Usually in libraries you might find it. **inaudible word or two** book Plato and The Parmenides. And it's a running commentary written by a very **inaudible word or two**. Towards the end of his life. He had written three or four other books on Plato. and **inaudible name** will do. He's an excellent **inaudible 3-4 words**
**inaudible question from the room**
**Inaudible response 2-3 words**
I believe that we must have it here in the P.R.S. library.
On Parmenides himself. And this will be of interest to you. We have an excellent edition of **inaudible several words**. This. T-a-r-a-n. And he will look at Parmenides as a translation. We have over 146 lines of Parmenides. And there are fragments. And I think longest fragment is I don't know somewhere around 40 to 50 lines. Somewhere in that order.
It is interesting in view of the way in which I have exposed Plato's Parmenides here that Parmenides writing style was an imitation of Homer. That he used the pentameter. He was the very same kind of language and syntax that Homer would use. Only instead of writing about Odysseus he wrote about the way of truth. He was concerned only with, a sort of a non-political statement or what could be said. and what cannot be said.
It's interesting that we have had the wonderful occurrence in our time of some of the most delightful beings. They seem to have resurfaced just to **inaudible word** the classical world. And in the case of Guthrie his wonderful History of Greek Philosophy, it's now in four volumes. And hopefully before the 90th year is out, we will have the other two. And you'll have a complete history of Greek philosophy.
Volume two deals with the pre-Socratic philosophy after Parmenides. And Guthrie, rightfully denotes that Parmenides is like this sword that cleaves the book of the priests or prince(?). Those who came before, those came after. Because no one we had run into Parmenides or into his observations were the same. You can be retired. You can be indifferent. Or whatever. But eventually when you've been bitten by Parmenides bug the thoughts will occur to you that gee there's something there that I can't get rid of. There are some problems. There are some words. There are some definitions. There are some aspects of things that I myself have noticed. And of course, you're well on your way to observing life in the Parmenion way.
Well, I think to rehabilitate Parmenides just for a second, I'd like to read you a few of his own words in translation. And see if you will see the curious dreamlike quality to his imagery. Quite the stately **inaudible word** from the way in which Plato some 80 years later represented it. The mirrors that carry me as far as my heart ever aspires, speed me on. When they had dropped and sent me on the fire faint road of the Gods, which there is the man of knowledge over all the cities. on that road was I born. Driven on both sides of the two of whirling wheel. As the daughters of the sun having left the house of night hastened to bring me to the light. Throwing back the veil from their heads with their hands. There are the gates of the paths of night and day. Set between a lintel and the threshold of stone. They themselves high in the sky. **inaudible word or two** the great door of which avenging justice holds the alternate keys. Her the maidens beguiled with soft words. And skillfully persuaded her to push back swiftly from them. For both are barred from the gates. The doors move back and reveal the wide opening between their eaves. swinging in turn in their sockets. the browns bound pivots made fast with barrels and ribbons. Straight through them the maidens kept the chariot and horses on the highway. And the goddess welcomed him, graciously. Took my right hand in hers and addressed me with each words. One man who cometh to my house companion by immortal charioteers with the steeds that bear thee. I greet thee. No evil not has sent thee to travel this road. **inaudible word or two** It is far from footsteps of men. but right and justice that would **inaudible word** for thee to learn all things. Both the unshaken heart of well-rounded truth. And also, what seems to mortals, in which in no true conviction. Nevertheless, these things to shalt thou learn. Namely that what seems has assuredly to exist being indeed, everything.
Remarkable personage. And a contemporary, near contemporary, of Pythagoras who presents very interesting way, another service of the same interface.
If, and to continue just to end this recommending. if you get interested in the history, The Pelican History Of Greece by A.R. Burn. A wonderful Spanish professor. Burn is very good. And this little pocket history of Greece can fill you in. There is a little more coherent rise and fall of human nature and all of its ramifications then the history of Athens from the time of **inaudible name** to about the time of Alexander the Great. You can see it all. It's just incredible.
And if you would like a first-hand observation out this essential nature. Other than Plato. Other than the tragedies and so forth. Thucydides, a great Athenian general wrote a history of the Peloponnesian War. And he says on the first page that the reason he's writing it is because human nature being what it is. And we all know damn well what that is. It will **inaudible word** happen again. And that only by knowing the mistakes of the past can sidestep these incredible patterns that seem to force man again and again and again into the molds of triumph and failure. Night and day. And that man somehow, some way has got to discover a way, a key to unlock himself from the shackles of blind pattern habitual necessity. And wake up and get out and be free. And this is of course what all this is about.
Now next week we take up, we take a shift. The course, this course of lectures is half over. Now we enter a new half. A new application. Where we've been stirring around with the classical world. We've been stirring around in Homer and it's parallel in Arthurian times. We've found that somehow from the Homeric matrix that **inaudible word** sprung into flame about the time of Socrates. About the time of Parmenides. And in this short great burst of its career, by the time of Plato and Aristotle had already seemingly run most of its course. So, we would like to know if the Arthurian mythological ethos is similar to the Homeric, was there ever a follow-up to that commensurate with classical Greece? And if so, perhaps we could learn a little closer where we are now. Well we'll look at that.
This book by Manly Hall ordered it in the Order of the Quest series is **inaudible word** The Holy Grail. This might be of interest to you. I think it's only about five dollars and 75 cents or something like that. This will be the main topic next time. Manly Hall's Orders of the Quest. Especially The Holy Grail. Because we want to develop from Geoffrey **inaudible word or two**, Malory and so forth. What happens if we internalize these cycles? These patterns? What happens in the internal pressure when the mind comes to bear and the sense of the sacred compels us to have a little bit deeper experience. And bringing reflection into play. And bring ideas into operation. And begin synthesizing for ourselves some new vision. What happens then? Well that's what we'll be getting into next week.
Well I have some slides. And this is the, this is an idea that I think will **inaudible word or two**. These will be, these will be exactly the same slides that we saw last week. And I think **inaudible several words** in the last two weeks it will be interesting to see how differently we look at them now. Let's see what **inaudible word or two** look like.
**inaudible background chatter. A few sentences.**
Ok we were talking about what is and is not. And **inaudible word or two** line verdict.
I think the first place in the life of any questioning is just to sit **inaudible word** What do you see? What do you see? How do you describe or characterize what you see? Do you talk in terms of recognizable forms? Do you talk in terms of just pure color? Or in terms of **inaudible word** organization? Or in terms of associative feelings? How do you think? And what is the very first level on which you feel capable of expressing?
Go to another one.
Let these questions turn.
How do you see? What do you see? And more particularly, not only what is it that you observe but how in yourself do you begin to express their experience to yourself? Or that you're going in the **inaudible word or two** someone else, me for instance. what do you see? **inaudible few words**
Now suppose this slide **inaudible several words** reflected on inner and mental space. What can you say? And try to feel where, try to catch yourself in trying to say.
Ok let's try another one. The very same questions. **inaudible several words or few sentence** How does it sound? How does it feel from the initial **inaudible word** and sensations to the next step and the next step and so forth. **inaudible word or two** actually begin responding to yourself. Try to articulate to yourself. Talk out loud to yourself. What did I see? Why is it I notice this versus that? Why does my **inaudible word** move out of my mind.
Are there reverberating **inaudible few words** in our capacity to express what we see. Are there elements in that that are outside of our capacity to put, if you say logical form. Not that we are drumming up an argument that one could use on this. But **inaudible word or two** you can feel it, play it for one's sense of something else. And how are we not guarding it **inaudible few words**. Guarding it.
The form, the forma and capacity that we begin to recognize emerges from the context of **inaudible word**. Does that factor exist as the form the same way? Or does it have a different quality?
Let's use this. Let's use the I-Ching **inaudible word** a second. The form, the creative form, emerges here **inaudible word or two** the receptivity on the background. Which one has the upper hand? Which one is more important? Do the form and the background present a polarity? Or does it seem to manifest a complementarity? Does the energy follow the form into **inaudible word or two** What is form in here?
Next **inaudible word or two** a state outside of, outside of possible, outside of probable possibilities. That's **inaudible word or two** Does our mind stay take to impose form quickly on an experience or are we **inaudible word or two** messages to articulate our observations spacing them with the experience of being conscious that we're seeing. **inaudible few words** that you're seeing something. and sometimes feel things.
**inaudible several words** constellations. What do you see? **inaudible sentence why do we see the form so strongly? And why does the formless background seem so and what is the role of the background? You can see in just about the same way the form leaps out into consciousness and is **inaudible word or two** in this case. Swirls and lines. **Inaudible word or two**
What do you see? Let's add a second question. what do you think about what you are seeing? For yourself. The experience here is that the big **inaudible word** shows things that are **inaudible few words**. And this is just the way in which **inaudible word or two** occurs in experiential mode. There are some **inaudible word** carry on from moment to moment, year to year and so forth. **inaudible word or two* are the part of it, if we are aware of of it. The symbol is unknown at first experience. how do we **inaudible word** in relation to that and not make it a quandary? That is how to we **inaudible word** what we know what know with what we don't know. and **inaudible few words** because it doesn't mix into something that is **inaudible word or two**. That's what we're dealing with.
And part of the enticement is transformation. Transformation.
**inaudible question from the room**
The name? This is a **inaudible word** Chinese **inaudible word** coming into his space of **inaudible several words**
How, if we do not see this simply as a slide **inaudible several words** the example is something mysterious. How **inaudible word** we see is a teardown of Parmenides, while trying to draw our attention to that which we perceive from an **inaudible word** of mental composition inspires us **inaudible word or two**. We get to a point where you begin to disintegrate out of **inaudible word or two** our own intellectual capacity. You see the **inaudible few words** begin to transform into their opposite or other side. Their **inaudible word** these kinds of considerations I think are really paramount.
**inaudible few words** the experience that we run **inaudible word or two** in our times right now, 1980-81, is **inaudible word** by considerations parallel **inaudible word or two**.
This of course, I urge you again, **inaudible few words**. It gives you **inaudible few words** the highest quality which you can have in a different way from the **inaudible word**. In other words, instead of just looking at it and you can actually move around it and find your feelings. Find your presence. coming to you from your **inaudible word** experience **inaudible few words** a photograph or a book **inaudible word or two** it surrounds you.
**inaudible several words/sentence or two** Again, just simply the beginnings of our philosophy **inaudible word** What do you see? How do you see it? Does it **inaudible word or two** every mark. Some of these images are so primordial that they occur to us again and again even after they are gone. Something else is keyed in here besides **inaudible several words** organize something else after it.
What we want to do is to test ourselves in the process of discovery and know how we do it. That it's hard to become increasingly aware what this meaning is. People over her meaning as we talked about in the very first lecture of the series. Meaning is an phenomena at first. But aspiration and inspiration and their sight inspire to know or inspire to **inaudible word**. We want to reach down with experience to comprehend. And we want to bring it into control and understanding. And in this process of breathing(?) life as it were, meaning arises. And meaning is in the shape of the pattern of discovery. So that rather than following a logical form we are following a Hermetic path.
**Inaudible few words** In that a **inaudible word* of your living and your experience with **inaudible several words/a sentence or so** Wherein this kind of **inaudible several words** do you find that logical form to either **inaudible several words** to have the inspiration of the **inaudible word** operating.
So, this **inaudible several words** first and second and third each time. The best way, hopefully, **inaudible several words** it will occur.
During **inaudible few words** what you see. Move with our capacity and **inaudible few words**.
Let me try this for you with **inaudible word** words and **inaudible word** description for this Hermetic process. My eye enters this work with the **inaudible several words** that seem to put up to the window, which is the **inaudible few words**. And I know that because it is sequestered there **inaudible word or two** the apex of **inaudible word or two** which seems to me to be the hinge on which all formal capacities of the world rest. Then my eye naturally comes back to **inaudible several words** the vegetation goods almost indifferently **inaudible word or two** trees. And fix onto the tree behind the barn. And if **inaudible word or two** tearing up the branches. My eyes see the branches, but my feelings simply have become aware of the **inaudible several words**. And I begin to get a good deal stronger in my feeling tone then simply the excursion of my eye is perception. And once I have these gray clouds and feeling tones I come down in feeling from those clouds and fall in feeling like snow. And I fly off the roof where I started onto these other roofs and staring down at a beautiful 30-degree slopping, 60-degree slopping to the ground. And while I'm doing that, I'm aware that I'm participating in very **inaudible word** triangular motions and not just looking at a **inaudible word**. I could go on from there. That should give you some idea **inaudible few words** of what happens in the process **inaudible few words**.
Just move around with the experience. Try to become conscious of what is it that you are doing. **inaudible word** and express it. And remember the expressions. The **inaudible word** and
imagination, **inaudible word or two** reverberates through some meaning. And the meaning **inaudible few words** at least temporarily into an idea.
Represented here **inaudible few words** haphazard sketch at the last minute **inaudible word or two**sophisticated painting. A remarkable philosophical experience in penetration of heaven and earth, through the structure of man and time **inaudible several words**. The tree of life reaching up into the grey clouds **inaudible word or two** presence of being. And like black lightening, like the reverse **inaudible word or two** lightening bringing it back down to the earth. **inaudible word or two** structure.
Anyway, that's the **inaudible word or two** And we'll talk about the Holy Grail. **inaudible few words** wonderful painting of **inaudible.
I don't know if you can stand it but **inaudible word or two** wonderful painting of **inaudible word** is very much like the **inaudible word or two**. It's not **inaudible word** alike but perhaps by **inaudible several words/sentence or two** Well we will see how that words next week. Thanks very much.
END OF RECORDING