DR. ATHENA DESPOINA POTARI shares her insights on Hellenism, the ancient civilization of the Mediterranean, the cultural cradle of Western civilization, and the birthplace of Western science, politics, democracy, and philosophy. Her insights reveal that the Hellenistic tradition is also a spiritual tradition of awakening, divine devotion, purification, virtue, non-duality, and self-realization that are usually associated with the spiritual traditions of the East. She shows us that the East-West divide is our illusion.
In the Ancient Hellenic language, “El” stands for the Light of Being or spiritual Light. As its root-syllable expresses, (H)El-lenism is a worldview, a civilization, and a spiritual tradition which centers around the ontology and practice of Light. The sciences and philosophy are methodical routes towards self-liberation and the realization of Light. Focusing on the notions of Eros and universal consciousness, Hellenism is, in its very essence, a path of enlightenment.
Hellenism
What most people know about Hellenism is that this ancient civilization, born in the heart of the Mediterranean, is the cultural cradle of Western civilization. Its heritage is marked by an impressive devotion to scientific research and the pioneering commitment to reason or Logos. All of the above justify its status as the birthplace of Western science, along with politics, democracy, and philosophy.
What many people don’t know about Hellenism is that its tradition developed over thousands of years in an ongoing co-creative dialogue and exchange with the numerous Eastern traditions of the pre-Christian world. The Hellenic sages had strong ties with their Egyptian, Persian, Babylonian, Hindu, and Buddhist counterparts. For example, Pythagoras was educated in the revered esoteric schools of Egypt, where he served as a high priest for twenty-two years, then studied next to Persian magi in Babylon for another twelve years, before becoming a spiritual teacher in Greece and southern Italy.
In addition, what is also not widely acknowledged is that Hellenism’s core concept of reason (Logos), so highly acclaimed in our modern discourses and political societies, has little to do with mind-based faculties or discursive abstraction resting upon the use of purely rational and linearly logical methods. Reason as Logos, in its original sense, refers to the essence or substance of consciousness that everything is made of, which permeates the entirety of cosmic creation (like the notion of atma).
Epistemologically, it is a state of consciousness beyond discursive knowledge, where individual experience merges with the all-pervasive wisdom of being. Despite its linguistic affinity, Logos is at once the defiance, the transcendence as well as the culmination of logic. Its essential meaning is most conveniently described as universal consciousness revealed to us through and as non-dual, unified awareness.
Reason as Logos, in its original sense, refers to the essence
or substance of consciousness that everything is made of,
which permeates the entirety of cosmic creation
(like the notion of atma).
A few intriguing repercussions follow. First, if Hellenism is the cultural and epistemic landmark demarcating the West from the East, then we have stumbled upon the very exciting realization that the myth of the West-East division is severely undermined once we start delving deeper into the root-tradition of the West.
A closer study into the precepts and history of Hellenism reveals that whatever we think of as the cradle of Western civilization is integrally constituted by what we consider as the sine qua non of the East – spirituality and the possibility of awakening. The Hellenistic tradition is also a fascinating variation of the spiritual teachings of awakening, divine devotion, purification, virtue, non-duality and self-realization that we find in abundance in the East. With that understanding, the East-West divide collapses.
Second, since Logos, as the realization of Being or universal consciousness, dwells at the heart of science (episteme) and philosophy, then the widely held view of philosophy as a rational, argumentative, armchair vocation, removed from direct experience, appears as an outdated caricature.
Therefore, Hellenism is essentially a spiritual tradition like yoga, Advaita Vedanta, or any other practice of self-realization. Hellenic philosophy, which literally means “the state of falling in love with wisdom,” is an intimate, self-transformative, experiential path of awakening to the unity of all experience and the experience of that unity as the true Self.
“He who has been instructed thus far in the path of Eros, and who has learned to see the beautiful in due order and succession, when he reaches toward the end, he will suddenly come to view a nature of wondrous beauty: a nature which is everlasting; which is not born nor perishes, which does not grow nor decay, which neither waxes nor wanes; a beauty which is not beautiful from one point of view and ugly from another, nor sometimes beautiful and sometimes not, nor beautiful in relation to this and ugly in relation to that, nor beautiful here and ugly there, nor beautiful for some and ugly for others. Neither will this beauty appear to him in the likeness of a face or hands or any other bodily part; nor as any form of speech, or knowledge, or science, nor as existing in any other being, such as for example, in an animal, or in earth or in heaven, or in any other place; but only it, in itself, by itself, eternal singular being, absolute, separate, simple, and everlasting, and all other things beautiful (are so because they) in some way partake in it, such that when they come- to-be and perish away, that neither increases nor diminishes, nor changes and nothing happens to it. He who from these beautiful things, ascending in the path of true Eros, begins to perceive that beauty is not far from the end. This, my dear Socrates … is that life above all others which man should live.”
That is how Socrates’ teacher, Diotima, a female teacher, priestess, and well-known shaman of her time, summarizes the philosophical path – as a path of Eros, beauty, and goodness. In Greek, “kalos” means both beautiful and benevolent. Divinity, benevolence, and beauty coincide as one and the same thing (which is a no-thing) – they are the main qualities of Being itself.
The path of philosophy is a path of Eros and light.
The quest of self-realization is essentially a love affair – a divine love affair (erotiki pedagogy). It is a relationship of Eros, where Eros means “merging,” and merging implies the dissolution of all separation, the vanishing of duality. This process involves an ever-increasing expansion of the radius of Eros, until that circle of love comes to include and encompass everything. The philosopher is patiently trained to be in love with everything, because the ultimate intimacy emerging from merging with everything is the realization of oneness. Through successive ascensions in the quality of Eros experienced, the end goal is reached suddenly, unexpectedly, in a lightning strike, and the spiritual seeker reaches “the view of the vast sea of beauty (the Good).”
No words can really describe this experience: “We are talking about an inconceivable, indescribable beauty” (Republic, 509). Socrates’ description reminds us of the notion of the Tao “that cannot be told,” “the nameless” that is “the beginning of heaven and earth.” The experience of this view is called “theoria” in Greek, what we nowadays call a “theory,” although the meaning is different.
Theoria comes from “theon oro,” which means, I see (oro) the Divine (theon). Theoria means ascending to the view of the Divine, where the veil of ignorance drops and the cosmic play is revealed as it is – the miraculous, mysterious, ever indescribable play of oneness.
Theoria means ascending to the view of the Divine,
where the veil of ignorance drops and the cosmic play
is revealed as it is – the miraculous, mysterious,
ever indescribable play of oneness.
Nothing around changes, nothing is gained or lost, nothing happens, but this one event, which is really a “non-event,” a perspective, a view, is simply revealed.
From that view, what I experience as a form of seeing is the stripping away of all knowledge, all science, all objects. The very self, its sensations, and the objects of its sensations, all dissolve into a “a vast ocean” of “singular being” which “always is” and which feels like an “ocean of pristine beauty.” This is the view or the experience of Being, the Good, Divinity itself.
Aristotle refers to Divinity (God or First Principle) as Universal Consciousness, which is in a pure state of being aware of being aware of itself. It is the pure energy of self-awareness (noesis noiseos) (Aristotle, Metaphysics, 1074Β 20-1075). He also identifies it as the prime cause or prime mover – that which perpetually sets everything in motion, in existence, in life. And why does “it” do so? What is the motivation or end goal behind Divinity’s activity as a prime mover setting into motion, thereby manifesting, existence?
Eros is the thread that unites the outward movement of
Being with the returning to its source; it is the thread of Unity
between One and All. It is the energy of universal consciousness.
Aristotle’s explanation is at once astonishing and completely mystical: The prime mover moves in order to be the beloved, in order to be the object of Eros (“os eromenon”). The teleology of consciousness is entirely erotic; it manifests the world in order to merge back into itself by self-realizing as pure love.
The love affair of philosophy, as seeking knowledge, leads the devoted lover beyond knowledge, beyond science, beyond subject and object duality, to a view of Being as consciousness-aware-of-itself. The end of Eros is the view of and the merging within the vastness of Being. But then the end goal of Being manifesting itself is also Eros; the divine self-Eros of Divinity. Does the philosopher substantiate the teleology of cosmic manifestation? Is our urge for merging with oneness an expression of oneness’ urge for merging with – or returning to – itself? Or is perhaps our Eros for Being, Being’s Eros for itself, since we and it are one? Eros is the thread that unites the outward movement of Being with the returning to its source; it is the thread of Unity between One and All. It is the energy of universal consciousness.
This excerpt is printed with permission from the author.
First published on April 21, 2021 at https://www.embodiedphilosophy.com/the-light-of-hellenism/.
Illustrations by JASMEE MUDGAL
Dr. Athena Despoina Potari
