Posts

Who Are We? The Buddha's Answer

Image
Were we to have sought out divine guidance in ancient Greece we might have gone to visit the Oracle of Delphi. And if we had made that journey, upon reaching the temple we would have seen the Oracle's most famous maxim inscribed in stone over the entrance: Know Yourself ( γνῶθι σεαυτόν , gnōthi seauto n ). It also seems likely that if, even now, Buddhists were to come across this aphorism that they would agree that it is some of the highest wisdom that we could put into practice. But why? What exactly, especially from a Buddhist point of view, does this knowledge (a word that should perhaps be put into quotes) help us achieve? To begin to answer this question, we should remind ourselves that the Buddha's teaching is designed to accomplish one thing, which is liberation from dukkha , a word which has been variously translated as “suffering”, “unsatisfatoriness”, or even “bummerness”. It's the “bumpy ride” of life: everything from the slightest of irritations up to the suff...
Post a Comment
Read more

Corpus Hermeticum, Libellus VII : Hermes Trismegistus Urges Us to Wake Up! (part 2)

Ὅτι μέγιστον κακὸν ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἡ περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀγνωσία. Humanity's Greatest Illness is Ignorance Concerning the Transcendent.  The title of this short book contains Hermes diagnosing the root cause of our greatest illness, the source of the greatest evil we inflict upon others as well as ourselves, as being ignorance of the transcendent. Let's examine the three main concepts of this title to see what Hermes is talking about.  I. Illness / Evil Hermes begins his diagnosis by focusing upon humanity's greatest kakon, a word which, in this case, does not have a single English equivalent. The basic meaning is evil , but the way the word evil is used in English to describe the likes of Hitler and Charles Manson is too narrow for what Hermes is discussing, though he undoubtedly means this as well. Another meaning is illness or sickness , which is good, but which undersells the evil component. Really the best way for us to understand what Hermes is talking about is to ke...
1 comment
Read more

Corpus Hermeticum, Libellus VII : Hermes Trismegistus Urges Us to Wake Up! (part 1)

Image
In this series we will be delving into Book VII (a very short book indeed) of the Corpus Hermeticum, wherein we find Hermes Trismegistus urging us to sober up, to wake from our current way of life. He urges us to see things as they actually are, so that we can escape from the worldviews that keep us unreflectively acting according to the dictates of our little ego, and that keep us seeking after ephemeral things that will never lead to true happiness. And in order for us to hear Hermes' teaching even more clearly so that we can put them into practice we will draw upon Buddhist, Vedantic, Yogic, Mystical, and even Magical teachings as well. The aim is for us to understand that we are currently not embarked upon the best path, and to act accordingly, so that we might arrive at the "doors of Gnosis".  I offer the Greek text a bit at a time (in bold type), a translation of the text, followed by some (often lengthy) notes, for which I take no credit with respect to originality...
Post a Comment
Read more