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Sorry for the light posting this week-- it'll probably be this way on and off during the Summer, as I have far more spouses and children at home than I'm used to. But let's take a look at our next Beatitude, the Sixth, in The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 8:
The Inner Vision
Every Beatitude follows a simple two-part formula: first we're given a prescription, then a promise. Let's begin with the promise, in this case. By following Jesus's path, we shall "see God."
What does this mean?
Remember our definitions of God. God is the One, the transcendent principle through which all reality is brought into being. God is the Most High God, the chief and leader of all the spiritual beings that dwell in the immaterial world of the spirit and care for the material world. God is YHVH, the particular God of the Jews, whose name means "He Brings Into Being All That Exists," and who has-- perhaps-- been revealed as the High God of all peoples.
And Jesus tells us we will see Him.
How? With our eyes?
Of course not; God is not visible.
Recall what we said about the Nous. It is the highest faculty of the human soul, transcending what we ordinarily mean by soul. And it is a kind of eye-- an eye which is open to spiritual realities, by which we perceive spiritual realities.
Once again, Jesus is teaching us metanoia-- "repentance"-- that is, how to change our Nous. By doing so, we will attain the Kingdom of Heaven, which is already within us, and we will see God directly.
The Cave
Do you remember the Allegory of the Cave from Plato's Republic?
If not, let's have a quick recap.
Imagine, (says Plato), that you had spent your life imprisoned in a cave underground. You were chained in such a way that you could look neither left nor right, up nor down, but only at the cave wall in front of you. Next to you were many other prisoners, all in the same situation. Now behind you there is a fire, which casts its light on the wall ahead. All day long, men walk back and forth between you and the fire, carrying cardboard cutouts in the shape of trees and houses and dogs and people. The light of the fire throws the shadows of these images on the wall in front of you, and these shadows are the only things that you have ever seen, so that you think the shadows of images of trees and houses and dogs and people actually are trees and houses and dogs and people.
One day, someone frees you from your chains and leads you up, out of the cave, into the real world.
At first you can't see very much, because it's too bright, and your eyes need time to adjust. You can only really come out at night, when the light is dim, and so you're still only seeing the shadows of things. Slowly, your vision improves, and you're able to go abroad in the day and really see the actual trees and houses and dogs and people. Eventually, after a long time perhaps, you'd be able to look up and see the Sun itself, and see that it casts the light by which you can see everything up here, in the real world.
Plato concludes his allegory thusly:
Eggheads
Reading Plato or his successors in translation is dangerous, in the same way that reading the Bible is dangerous. As we've discussed here before, the word "Intellectual" in a Platonic context doesn't mean the thinking mind, and Philosophy is not just a bunch of eggheads sitting around a college dorm talking about some real stuff, man. The word "Intellect" is a translation of Nous. Over the course of time and the degeneration of Western culture it has come to mean discursive reasoning, which is a lesser (though still important) faculty, called Dianoia in Greek. Plato's ascent to the "Intellectual" world is an ascent to the Noetic world, the realm of the eternal beings which create and shape and care for material reality. At the height of that world is the Idea of the Good, which is the source of the light of the Noetic Realm, and which is the image of the Good Itself, the closest we can get to attaining It.
Remember that the Good is another name for the One, which is God, and the Idea of Good is also called the Son of the Good.
Purity
In this Beatitude, then, Jesus is teaching us the manner by which we may open the eye of our Soul-- that is, our Nous-- to the Vision of God.
And how shall we do this?
Now, the work of an evil sorcerer is of the same type as the work of the Devil, and is a subset of it. The heart-- in the context of this passage-- is the source of all of our passions and emotions. When these are disordered, overwhelmed with the chaotic impulses that come from our society; from deliberate evil intelligences, whether human or otherwise; and from our own animal nature-- that is to say, from the World, the Flesh, and the Devil-- then our Intelligence is reduced our Nous is clouded, and we are unable to see God.
Levi is talking specifically about sexual seduction, but evil magic of the same type is endemic in our society; we normally call it "advertising." Its purpose is to reduce activate the passions, reduce the intelligence, and, thereby, to render you a slave.
By purifying the heart of all that is foreign to it, we open the Nous to the Vision of God.
What is the One that Precedes the Multiple?
Let's close with some lines from Plotinus. In the Fifth Ennead, he is discussing the three levels of existence above the physical. First there is the Soul; but above the Soul, or at its very height, there is the Nous, which is also called (in translation) Intellect and Divine Mind. And then there is that which is beyond Nous.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
The Inner Vision
Every Beatitude follows a simple two-part formula: first we're given a prescription, then a promise. Let's begin with the promise, in this case. By following Jesus's path, we shall "see God."
What does this mean?
Remember our definitions of God. God is the One, the transcendent principle through which all reality is brought into being. God is the Most High God, the chief and leader of all the spiritual beings that dwell in the immaterial world of the spirit and care for the material world. God is YHVH, the particular God of the Jews, whose name means "He Brings Into Being All That Exists," and who has-- perhaps-- been revealed as the High God of all peoples.
And Jesus tells us we will see Him.
How? With our eyes?
Of course not; God is not visible.
Recall what we said about the Nous. It is the highest faculty of the human soul, transcending what we ordinarily mean by soul. And it is a kind of eye-- an eye which is open to spiritual realities, by which we perceive spiritual realities.
Once again, Jesus is teaching us metanoia-- "repentance"-- that is, how to change our Nous. By doing so, we will attain the Kingdom of Heaven, which is already within us, and we will see God directly.
The Cave
Do you remember the Allegory of the Cave from Plato's Republic?
If not, let's have a quick recap.
Imagine, (says Plato), that you had spent your life imprisoned in a cave underground. You were chained in such a way that you could look neither left nor right, up nor down, but only at the cave wall in front of you. Next to you were many other prisoners, all in the same situation. Now behind you there is a fire, which casts its light on the wall ahead. All day long, men walk back and forth between you and the fire, carrying cardboard cutouts in the shape of trees and houses and dogs and people. The light of the fire throws the shadows of these images on the wall in front of you, and these shadows are the only things that you have ever seen, so that you think the shadows of images of trees and houses and dogs and people actually are trees and houses and dogs and people.
One day, someone frees you from your chains and leads you up, out of the cave, into the real world.
At first you can't see very much, because it's too bright, and your eyes need time to adjust. You can only really come out at night, when the light is dim, and so you're still only seeing the shadows of things. Slowly, your vision improves, and you're able to go abroad in the day and really see the actual trees and houses and dogs and people. Eventually, after a long time perhaps, you'd be able to look up and see the Sun itself, and see that it casts the light by which you can see everything up here, in the real world.
Plato concludes his allegory thusly:
Dear Glaucon, the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the Sun, the journey upwards, the ascent of the soul to the intellectual world. It seems to me that in the world of knowledge the Idea of Good appears last of all and is seen only with an effort, and when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally in public or private life must have his eyes fixed.
Eggheads
Reading Plato or his successors in translation is dangerous, in the same way that reading the Bible is dangerous. As we've discussed here before, the word "Intellectual" in a Platonic context doesn't mean the thinking mind, and Philosophy is not just a bunch of eggheads sitting around a college dorm talking about some real stuff, man. The word "Intellect" is a translation of Nous. Over the course of time and the degeneration of Western culture it has come to mean discursive reasoning, which is a lesser (though still important) faculty, called Dianoia in Greek. Plato's ascent to the "Intellectual" world is an ascent to the Noetic world, the realm of the eternal beings which create and shape and care for material reality. At the height of that world is the Idea of the Good, which is the source of the light of the Noetic Realm, and which is the image of the Good Itself, the closest we can get to attaining It.
Remember that the Good is another name for the One, which is God, and the Idea of Good is also called the Son of the Good.
Purity
In this Beatitude, then, Jesus is teaching us the manner by which we may open the eye of our Soul-- that is, our Nous-- to the Vision of God.
And how shall we do this?
By "purity of heart."
What does this mean?
Let's answer this question by grasping it from the other direction.
In Chapter 18 of the second book of the Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic, Eliphas Levi discusses the work of enchanters. As an aside, it's very interesting to read this chapter in full, as it discusses the means by which a person can put another under their power for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Read it, and you will understand exactly what men in the "Pick Up Artist" community-- and their female opposite numbers-- are doing. It's black magic, pure and simple. In any case, Levi writes that:
To reduce the action of intelligence is to augment in equal proportion the opposing forces of mad passion. Love of the type which evildoers wish to inspire, and of which we speak here, is a veritable stultification and the most shameful type of moral servitude.
Like the word "Intellect," Intelligence doesn't refer to discursive reasoning-- or, to be more accurate, it doesn't just mean that, it also means the power that extends above Reason, into what we would ordinarily call the Spiritual Realm.Now, the work of an evil sorcerer is of the same type as the work of the Devil, and is a subset of it. The heart-- in the context of this passage-- is the source of all of our passions and emotions. When these are disordered, overwhelmed with the chaotic impulses that come from our society; from deliberate evil intelligences, whether human or otherwise; and from our own animal nature-- that is to say, from the World, the Flesh, and the Devil-- then our Intelligence is reduced our Nous is clouded, and we are unable to see God.
Levi is talking specifically about sexual seduction, but evil magic of the same type is endemic in our society; we normally call it "advertising." Its purpose is to reduce activate the passions, reduce the intelligence, and, thereby, to render you a slave.
By purifying the heart of all that is foreign to it, we open the Nous to the Vision of God.
What is the One that Precedes the Multiple?
Let's close with some lines from Plotinus. In the Fifth Ennead, he is discussing the three levels of existence above the physical. First there is the Soul; but above the Soul, or at its very height, there is the Nous, which is also called (in translation) Intellect and Divine Mind. And then there is that which is beyond Nous.
Our own soul is of the same nature with this by which the gods are divine, so that to consider it purified, freed from all that is adventitious, is to see how precious the essence of the soul is, far more honorable than anything bodily...
But over this Soul there is a diviner still, its prior and its source; for though so great a thing, Soul is but an image and an utterance of Divine Mind, the stream of life sent forth by It to the production of further being, the forthgoing heat of a fire in which also heat essentially inheres. Sprung from Divine Mind, Soul is intellective too; for its perfecting it must look to that Divine Mind which may be thought of as watching over its child.
Bring itself closer to Divine Mind, becoming one with It, Soul seeks still further: What Being, now, has engendered this God, what is the One preceding this multiple? Before duality, there must stand the Unity.
How comes it, then, that possessed of such powers, we do not lay hold of them, but for the most part let them go idle, some of us indeed never bringing them to effect?
We remain unaware of them because the human being includes sense-perception too. If there is to be consciousness of what is thus present, we must turn the perceptive faculty inward and hold it to attention there. Hoping to hear a desired voice we let all others pass and are alert for the coming at last of that most welcome of sounds; so here, we must let the hearings of senses go by, save for sheer necessity, and keep the soul's perception bright and quick to the voices from above.
But over this Soul there is a diviner still, its prior and its source; for though so great a thing, Soul is but an image and an utterance of Divine Mind, the stream of life sent forth by It to the production of further being, the forthgoing heat of a fire in which also heat essentially inheres. Sprung from Divine Mind, Soul is intellective too; for its perfecting it must look to that Divine Mind which may be thought of as watching over its child.
Bring itself closer to Divine Mind, becoming one with It, Soul seeks still further: What Being, now, has engendered this God, what is the One preceding this multiple? Before duality, there must stand the Unity.
How comes it, then, that possessed of such powers, we do not lay hold of them, but for the most part let them go idle, some of us indeed never bringing them to effect?
We remain unaware of them because the human being includes sense-perception too. If there is to be consciousness of what is thus present, we must turn the perceptive faculty inward and hold it to attention there. Hoping to hear a desired voice we let all others pass and are alert for the coming at last of that most welcome of sounds; so here, we must let the hearings of senses go by, save for sheer necessity, and keep the soul's perception bright and quick to the voices from above.
