Forward to Ascesis
Forward from the new book, Ascesis: the Handbook of Platonic Practice
I continue to receive many questions about when our previously announced book will be available. Over the past six months, the book has split into two separate works, each with its own focus. One is the Domestic Romanist Ritual book, complete with new hymns, prayers, and ritual instruction. The second is a book on Platonic practice called Ascesis. I’d like to share the forward of the Ascesis book as I am nearing the halfway point of writing it. The book will be completed this year, but I wanted those who have been waiting to get a taste of what is on the horizon.
Forward to Ascesis: The Handbook of Platonic Practice
Most religions have spiritual practices to gain direct experience of the divine. Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, and Islam all have unique systems of spiritual practice. While techniques specific to each religion can undoubtedly be found, you will often see the same core practices crop up, albeit under different names and terminology.
Nirvana, Liberation, Marifa, Moksha, Theosis: Are these all separate experiences with no relationship to one another? Of course not. If spiritual cultivation is authentic, it should follow the same or similar patterns regardless of the culture or people doing the spiritual work. This is precisely what we observe when looking at various spiritual traditions worldwide.
Sadly, one system of spiritual development has been neglected for far too long, and that is the spiritual tradition beginning with the divine Greek Sage Plato. The Western world has relegated Plato to the position of an ancient political philosopher, and only some Westerners know anything of his spiritual works. Many would likely be shocked to discover that most of his work and legacy are theological and spiritual.
However, despite the many works outlining the theoretical understanding of divine realities, very little has made it to today regarding how to pursue spiritual cultivation as a concrete practice. We can find many appeals from the Philosophers that we should pursue virtue, purify our souls, and seek the highest intelligible realities, but how do we actually do that?
The Platonic tradition is rich with understanding and theory about the divine. It is the most logically constructed understanding of the divine that man has ever created. The clarity, depth, and precision with which it outlines the nature of Gods, humanity, the soul, the creation of the universe, and all levels of divine realities are parallel to no other tradition except perhaps the Hindu sages.
And yet, when it comes to practical instruction on ascending the ladder to the divine, we are left with a deafening silence. All the major works, if there ever were any, on meditation techniques, theurgic rituals, advanced prayer techniques, or even simple prayer techniques, for that matter, have either been lost or destroyed. You won't find any ancient book called How to Meditate or How to Pray: believe me, I've looked for them. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t have the information from disparate sources that we can use to reconstruct the core practices of the Philosophers. These practices, called ascesis, are the foundation of how we do philosophy as a way of life and not merely a rational pursuit as it is treated today.
This information has never been gathered into a book partly because the interest in Platonism until recently was mostly academic. Professors and researchers would pour over the source material like archeologists trying to reconstruct a replica of ancient thought. Very few engaged in the tradition as a legitimate spiritual pursuit. Fortunately, over the past few decades, that has changed, and now interest in ancient philosophy as a spiritual practice is exploding. We are long overdue for a manual on practicing philosophy as a spiritual practice. There certainly have been some who have written books on Platonism from a spiritual perspective. Still, all too often, these books are highly technical and not for a layperson uninitiated in the dizzying amount of terms and theories that make up the platonic philosophical tradition.
In this book, I plan to simplify things as best as possible without losing the most essential elements of this rich tradition. This book is meant for ordinary people. People with families and jobs and everyday responsibilities. It isn’t for academics or lifelong philosophers who have hours to pour over theory and sabbaticals to collect their thoughts. This book is for parents, students, and everyday people who want to better their lives with the wisdom of the ancients. This is also for those looking for a spiritual path that allows them to keep and use their rationality rather than ignore it in favor of faith alone. Faith is essential, of course, but so is rationality, and we mustn’t sacrifice one for the other.
This book also corrects another corrosive problem in Western spirituality: the tendency to overlook spiritual practices originating from our own tradition and instead seek spirituality from foreign sources. At some level, this is understandable. Christianity made many spiritual practices illegal and often punishable by death for centuries. That’s enough to put anyone off, and spiritual systems like yoga, Tai Chi, and Buddhist meditation are just as effective as the more obscure practices of our ancient ancestors.
After all, if a God and Gods genuinely want to see us ascend to the divine, they wouldn't hide the knowledge of how to do so in one religion or region. The path would be discoverable by anyone willing to investigate the mystery for themselves.
For this reason, many Westerners adopt spiritual practices directly from religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. Often, the religiously specific terminology comes with it as well.
Instead of using the term Liberation or Henosis, you hear Moksha or Samadhi.
Instead of cultivating our Pneuma, we hear about Chi and Chakras.
Instead of the Iron Age, it's Kali Yuga,
instead of Piety, we hear of Dharma,
Instead of Ascesis, we say Yoga,
Instead of Chants, we say Mantras
My point isn't to say that the Hindus, Buddhists, or Taoists are wrong. They are, in fact, very correct in their vast array of spiritual terminology. The issue is we Westerners, and especially Platonists, do ourselves a great disservice by not developing our spiritual systems by copying already complete systems from other religions.
The Greek and Roman traditions have all the rich terminology and the spiritual, theological, and philosophical frameworks to explain the most advanced spiritual practices and experiences. However, we continually take the easy road of copying other religions. This usually leads to significant misunderstandings. Talk to any Hindu about how Westerners view Yoga, Chakras, or meditation, and they will likely tell you we get it completely wrong. If you know even the slightest about Hinduism, a single glance at a Western Yoga studio is enough to make anyone cringe. We’ve managed to reduce one of the most complex and deep spiritual traditions into workout routines with incense and hippie platitudes.
That should be expected when copying parts of a vast and complex spiritual system like Hindu yoga. You can't remove parts of Hindu Yoga and use them in isolation without guaranteeing some confusion or misunderstanding. The practices may be similar, but the details and specifics matter if you want a complete, cohesive system.
This book is primarily about correcting this problem and offering Platonists and all Western spiritual practitioners a new way of looking at spiritual cultivation that grounds us firmly in our traditions rather than using a foreign lens to describe our spiritual experiences.
As I mentioned, the spiritual techniques that work are all the same or similar. The differences are often exceptions or simply variations of the main themes. Meditation and spiritual cultivation are a science; we should expect it to work the same everywhere. Two plus two equals four, regardless of the language or how the equation is written.
For this reason, some of these practices resemble those of other traditions. You may say, "Oh, that's like Kundalini," or "That's just like Orthodox Theosis." Given these practices’ scientific and universal nature, these connections should be expected. The vital aspect of our approach is ensuring that Platonism and Western spirituality can develop their framework for spiritual cultivation without appropriating other cultures and often abusing them in the process. Secondarily, this stops the massive influx of foreign spiritual terms that don't align with our native ones.
Finally, this is not a book about theory. There are many books on Platonism and all the theories that come from the wellspring of the Platonic corpus. This book is about practice, i.e., ascesis. This book answers the question, "But how do I actually do it?" regarding Platonic spirituality. As such, there will be a minimal section on theory explained matter-of-factly with little to no argumentation for the points presented. At some level, this book assumes you already accept the platonic understanding of the universe and merely restates the basics to fill out any gaps in knowledge before continuing to the core practices.
Theory is a roadmap for our spiritual journey. However, it is essential that when we begin ascesis, we do not mistake theory for practice. I have met Platonists who could explain the most intricate theories from the most obscure commentaries from Proclus, Porphyry, and Plotinus. Yet, their souls are polluted beyond recognition by hatred, vice, anger, and lust. Spiritual practice is not the same as thinking, nor is it the same as understanding.
The philosophers were clear that intuitive intellection or noesis brings us to the divine, while our rational or dianoetic minds cannot make the final ascent. At some point along our spiritual journey, we must leave the rational speculation, theories, and book learning behind and walk the path on our own.
If anything in this book disagrees with your theory of how things should work, don't believe me. You are free to see things however you like. Again, this book is about practice. This is about putting the theory aside and making progress to experience the divine and mystical union for ourselves. When we reach that point, we no longer need books to guide the way; we are the book. At the summit of our practice, we no longer understand what the path should be; we know it for what it is. Again, theory is not practice, and understanding differs from knowing for yourself.
"Know Thyself."
The Delphic Oracle