Tuesday, August 20, 2013

the causeless cause

There is an ancient axiom credited to Sextus, a Pythagorean, in his 104 sentences called, "The Sentences of Sextus," number 3 goes, "Do not investigate the name of God because you will not find it. For everything called by a name receives its appellation from that which is more worthy than itself, so that it is one person that calls and another that hears.  Who is it, therefore, who has given  a name to God?  The word "God" is not a name of his, but an indication of what we conceive of him."  In other words, God the word, is merely a conceptional focal point around which this concept draws its meaning.  There is no wonder then, that different religions and spiritual communities have given different names to the concept of God, ie. God, Alla, Jehovah,  the pantheon of Hindu names, Krishna, Siva, etc.  Because the concept of God is of such a high quality of abstraction, differences of interpretation and understanding arise.  The attributes, however of all the different religious and spiritual affiliations ascribe to this Intelligent Supreme Power, are more or less similar:  infinite, omnipresent, omniscient, compassionate.  The Intelligent Supreme Power accordingly is without equal, and has no opposite; that is, it is without an equal.  Thus when, any attempt is made to explain this highest of concepts, it will invariably fall short.  What then remains of the attempt are  mental confusion, and unsound.philosophical reasoning.

All sages, past, and present, have fundamentally taught the same doctrine about the Intelligent Supreme Power.  They teach that there is a fundamental causal unity, that underlies all things and all beings, and all worlds through out the full breath of the Kosmos; and this fundamental causal unity is what they describe as the illimitable Vast and incomprehensible, utterly Unthinkable-Life-Consciousness.  This Intelligent Supreme Power is so divine that it is spoken of only as "That" or "Self," in the Hindu Upanishads.  The mere mention of It to the uninstructed would  be the gravest  form of blaspheme.  In many ancient texts reference to the Intelligent Supreme Power and other concepts were disguised, cloaked by fable and allegory.  For instance, Origin, one of the early Fathers of the Christian Church wrote as follows:

"In Egypt, the philosophers have a most noble and secret Wisdom concerning the Nature of the Divine, which Wisdom is described to the people only under the garment of allegories and fables... 
All the Eastern nations-the Persians, the Indians, the Syrians- conceal secret mysteries under cover of religious fables and allegories; the truly wise (the initiated in the Wisdom), of all nations understand the meaning of these, but the uninstructed multitudes see the symbols only and the covering garment."

A similar account is gotten from Mainonides, the greatest Jewish Rabbi of the Middle Ages, who writes in his "Guide of the Perplexed:"

"We should not take literally what is written in the Book of Creation nor hold the same ideas about it that the people hold.  If it were otherwise, our learned ancient sages would not have been to so great labor in order to conceal the real sense, and to hold before the vision of the uninstructed people the veil of allegory which conceals the truths that it contains.  Taken literally, that work contains the most absurd and far-fetched ideas of the Divine.  Whosoever can guess the real sense, ought to guard carefully his knowledge not to divulge it.  This is a rule taught by our wise men, especially in connection to the work of the six days."

The Causeless Cause, the Boundless All, that which is and is not, the Central Sun, the Unspeakable, the utterly Unthinkable, the god of the ancient and modern seers and sages, of its majesty and boundless perfection we can not know.  It is enough, however to know that it infinitely is; that its the consciousness that underlies the fundamental causal unity of all things; that in common with our fellow creatures we posses a "spark" of its Essence; and that its Nature can be studied only in the worlds called forth by its mighty consciousness.

Plotinus, a third century Greek philosopher, student of Ammonis Saccas, provides first hand testimony to the unity of thought surrounding the concept of an Intelligent Supreme Power in the ancient world among philosophers of some capacity:

"The highest of all is ubiquitous yet nowhere in particular.  Further more, the highest Divine is at once everywhere in its fullness for its the 'everywhere' itself, and furthermore, all manner of being.  The highest Divine must never be thought as being in the everywhere, but itself is the everywhere as well as the origin and source of all beings and things in their unending residence in the everywhere."

I know the above quote may sound like 'philosophical babble,' but there is significant knowledge to be had in its understanding.  If you go to, ascendtheascent.wordpress.com and find a blog "sayings and comments 4, Dec. 2012. hopefully you may find some clarification of the above statement.