The GOLDEN VERSES STEP 7
THE WISDOM OF SELF-RESPECT
We continue part 2 of the Golden Verses by stepping from Temperance into the realm of Wisdom, where self-respect and self-knowledge are the motivators. This is the first appearance of the famous of inscriptions over the temple of Apollo: Gnothi Seauton, or ‘Know Yourself.’ This part is coming a little early as I have a special post coming next week.
7th Step THE WISDOM OF SELF-RESPECT. Verses 12-13
§. 7. Never do anything shameful,
whether alone or with another.
Most of all, revere and respect yourself. §
SELF-RESPECT
When we were children, we had only a sense of ourselves in relationship to our parents and less to the world outside. We ate, played, slept, and were dependent upon adults for everything. Our behaviour was not always orderly, because we had not yet learned the boundaries that needed to be respected. From the self-centred world of the infant to the self-aware world of the adult, our parents, teachers and others taught us how to conduct ourselves. We slowly, and after many stumbles, learn Wisdom, but not before we have blotted our copybook a few times!
This toddler’s self-expression is innocent – that crayon was perfect to make this picture - but it is a good image of what we are doing to ourselves, once we are adult, when we commit the shameful and alarming act of overwriting our original likeness. The blue-print of the soul is given to us as a true likeness of the divine. This is why Neo-Platonism speaks of a rational and an irrational soul: the rational soul is the part of our array that is in tune with Wisdom, which mirrors to us our divine likeness; the irrational soul follows the dictates of the body’s desires, passions, ambitions and our competitive strife that threatens to erase that likeness.
Training ourselves up to begin to follow the rational, Wisdom-led soul, with the help of our daimon is the way learn self-respect. And if it was the toddler that started out exploring the world by testing the boundaries of existence with small acts of experimental satisfaction or reactive frustration, then it is certainly the teenager that continues that process by challenging the boundaries of good-behaviour and conventional wisdom by crashing the boundaries. So how do we begin to overcome the reactive and transgressive habits of our youth that may still be ruling the roost, and mature into a person whose body is ruled by the soul that is united with the divine?
Epictetus addresses those who are immodest or shameless, using the metaphor of the gymnasium: ‘Fight against yourself, recover yourself to decency, to modesty, to freedom…. In the first place, condemn your actions; but when you have condemned them, do not despair of yourself, nor be like those poor-spirited people who, when they have once given way, abandon themselves entirely, and are carried along as by a torrent. Take example from the wrestling-masters. Has the boy fallen down? ‘Well, get up again,’ they say; ‘wrestle again, till you have acquired strength.’ Cast your mind on this. For be assured, that there is nothing more tractable than the human mind. You need but will, and it is done, it is set right; as, on the contrary, you need but nod over the work, and it is ruined. For both ruin and recovery both come from within.’ (ED 4:10, 14016
Building strength to overcome our tendencies to be self-indulgent, to check our ability to run from indulgence into petty crimes that we can ‘get away with’, to stop our wilfulness and self-regard that tells us ‘we are worth it’ about whatever it is we don’t have is one thing. But what about when we have a following wind and the persuasion of companions who are like-minded in their self-indulgence with us, and their sense of taking whatever it is they want, regardless of whether that is a lawful action? As Hierocles says, the things that we would not have others find out about, we do alone, and the lack of witnesses can help us get away with many enormities, but the companions that encourage us to join forces lead us into perpetrating things together, both lead us out of concordance with our rational soul.
‘Concord, even as the name itself suggests, involves a communion and unity that brings together kindred minds; starting out from this space, it extends itself to cities and homes to all gatherings, public and private, and to all natures and kinship groups, public and private likewise. And further, it comprehends also the concordance of each individual with himself; for it is by being governed by a single mindset and attitude that a person is concordant with themselves for if we are into minds towards ourselves and hold variant opinions we are in conflict, with ours remaining always in the same state of mind we can be full of Concord, whereas being unstable in our views and liable to be driven from one opinion to another we could be lacking in solid foundation and at war with ourselves.’ (Iamblichus p.29 Letters)
Epictetus also used these three modes to determine where people were in their journey towards self-knowledge and their mastery of philosophy. He asks a series of diagnostic questions that point us to the first principles of self-respect, and the push-me, pull-you of our mingled longings and disappointments:
‘So, do you currently desire what is possible, and what is actually possible for you in particular? Why then are you frustrated and troubled?
Are you currently trying to avoid what is inevitable? Why then do you fall into all kinds of difficulties, why do you suffer misfortune?
Why is it that when you want something and it doesn’t come about, and when you don’t want it, is happens anyway?
It is a very strong proof that you’re in a troubled and unfortunate state. “I want something and it doesn’t come about: well, who could be more miserable than myself? I don’t want something and it happens: who could be more wretched about it than I?” ‘‘(ED 2:17, 16-18.)
This diagnosis of someone’s condition is based around the principle of ‘what is a proper object of desire?’
‘First of all, I must act like a human being. What does that involve precisely? That I shouldn’t act like a sheep, even if my behaviour is gentle, nor that I should act harmfully like a wild beast.’ (ED 3:23, 4)
The Wisdom that is always with us is not only in the rational soul, it is also accompanying us – the Daimon. As Hierocles says: ‘If you had a habit of respecting yourself, then you will always have at hand a faithful guardian. Did you have no-one to dwell with you? Or did you have the judgement of your conscience to guide you?’ (GV IX,3)
KNOWING OURSELVES
Hierocles advises us: ‘When we are not being stirred up and hurried along by the passions, we may meditate in tranquillity on what we must do: it is so that we will learn to know ourselves, to know what we truly are, and to respect ourselves when we have attained to that knowledge. From this knowledge, we learn to avoid shameful actions.’ (GV VIII, 6)
Self-Knowledge leads to wisdom, which is why the instruction ‘Gnothi Seauton’ is so centrally placed upon the temple of Apollo at Delphi – to have self-knowledge was the summit of the cardinal virtues, enabling anyone to excel as a human being seeking to live up to their full and generous gifting by the gods.
Socrates says of himself, "I am not yet able, as the Delphic inscription has it, to know myself; so it seems to me ridiculous, when I do not yet know that, to investigate (any) irrelevant things. So, I bid farewell to such issues ... but I investigate myself instead." (Plato: Phaedrus 229E-230A)
But investigating ourselves is hard work, for we are mysterious to ourselves and often chose instead to hold onto those stories that we have told ourselves or believed about our own mystery. Pythagoras had high ideals for his followers progress on this path and held that the principle of recollection was a guiding tool to this investigation:
‘Pythagoras established as the best starting point for education and the care of humans the recollection of previous lives which souls had lived through before entering the present body in which they were living. He reminded many who met hm very clearly and distinctly about the former way of life which they lived before, long ago, before being bound to their present body. He convincingly demonstrated that he had been Euphorbus, son of Panthous, the conqueror of Patroclus (of the Trojan Wars). Through the recognition of his own former lives, he based his care for others, reminding them of the life which they formerly had.’ (Iamblichus: VP, 14,63)
In our own age, Pythagoras’ approach to the concept of reincarnation as a means to education and remembering who we are, may be helpful in terms of understanding how we can have familiarity with certain knowledge because we are actually remembering the instructions of earlier lives, but generally speaking, it is today more often an occasion to run off into the land of fantasy, by dwelling upon scenarios of self-importance or self-justification, which do not lead to the path of self-knowledge. Socrates, squarely asked himself, ‘Am I perchance some beast more complex and more lustful than Typhon, or a gentler and simpler creature endowed by nature with a divine and unpretentious fate?’ (Plato, Phaedrus, 230A) Typhon was the name of the chief Titan who tore apart the child-god Dionysus, whom Zeus had intended as his heir and successor
This is a question that has been considered by many great minds. When one of St Teresa of Avila’s nuns pronounced herself scandalised at the report of a recent murder in the locality, and then congratulated herself on her own virtue and lifestyle, St Teresa rebuked her self-complacency, reminding her that every human being born has enough of the passions in them to commit even murder, given the opportunity and occasion. What keeps us in check is the remembrance of who we are and to what we belong, as Photius tells us:
‘Pythagoras said that man was a microcosm, which means a compendium of the universe; not because, like other animals, even the least he is constituted by the four elements, but because he contains all the powers of the cosmos. For the universe contains gods, the four elements, animals, and plants. All of these powers are contained in humans. We have reason, which has divine power; we have the nature of the elements, and the powers of moving, growing and reproduction. However, in each of these we are inferior to the others. We have lesser reasoning powers than the gods and less of each of the element than the elements themselves. Our anger and desire are inferior to those passions in the irrational animals, while our powers of nutrition and growth are inferior to those in plants. Therefore, of these different powers, we have a difficult life to lead.
While all other things are ruled by one nature only, we are drawn by different powers; (i.e. body and soul) as for instance, when by God we are drawn to better things, or when we are drawn to evil courses by the prevailing of the lower powers. Whoever, like a vigilant and expert charioteer within ourselves cultivate the divine element, being able to utilise the other powers by mingling of the elements, by anger, desire and habit, just as far as may be necessary though it seems easy to know yourself, this is the most difficult thing of all. This (saying) is said to derive from Pythian Apollo, although it has come attributed to Chilon, one of the Seven Sages. Its message is, in any event, to re- discover our own power, which amounts to learning the nature of the whole extent world which as God advises us, is impossible without philosophy.’ (Photius p.138 Pythagorean Sourcebook.)
These Seven Sages were those wise forebears of Greek antiquity who were revered in memory as the foundational exemplars of Wisdom.
Thales of Miletus (c. 624 BCE – c. 546 BCE) was aGreek philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer of Phoenician descent. The ancient biographer Diogenes Laertius attributed the aphorism, "Know thyself’ to Thales.
Pittacus of Mytilene (c. 640 BCE – c. 568 BCE) governed Mytilene (Lesbos). He tried to reduce the power of the nobility and was able to govern with the support of the common people, whom he favoured.
Bias of Priene (fl. 6th century BCE) was a politician and legislator of the 6th century BCE.
Solon of Athens (c. 638 BCE – c. 558 BCE) was a famous legislator and reformer from Athens, framing the laws that shaped the Athenian democracy.
Cleobulus, tyrant of Lindos (fl. c. 600 BCE), he is reported as either the grandfather or father-in-law of Thales.
Myson of Chenae (6th century BCE) was a long-lived farmer from Mouth Oeta, who stressed the importance of facts over arguments – he might be very welcome over at Facebook!
Chilon of Sparta (fl. 555 BCE) was a Spartan politician to whom the militarization of Spartan society was attributed.
These sages are first quoted in Plato’s Protagoras, but the listing is sometimes slightly different in other sources.
Considering ourselves as ‘a compendium of the universe’ is a humbling and glorifying way of not just staying out of trouble, but of realizing ourselves as imbued with the Wisdom that guides us every day.
§ Consider: §
· Examine the diagnostic questions asked by Epictetus above in the first section of this step, and analyse your own answers.
· Discover from looking over the last few days or weeks, where has Wisdom and the rational soul led you? Where and to what has your irrational soul led you?
· What is it that sustains your belonging to the divine likeness? What robs you of that likeness?
· Confer quietly with your daimon, and ask to be shown the paths and openings of Wisdom.
· Look at what is troubling you and causing you to be fearful. Then contemplate the Pythagorean saying, ‘Do not tear the god in you apart.’ What do you understand by that, bearing in mind the myth about the components of all human beings – the god Dionysus and the Titans? What reconnects you and unites you?
MEDITATION
Respecting ourselves from the perspective of Wisdom is something that society doesn’t particularly encourage us to do these days: more often we are more often persuaded to promote ourselves, to care for our bodies, and to admire the achievements of celebrities. In this passage from Epictetus, that could have been written just yesterday -it is so current - we discover that self-reverence is very different from self-regard, and certainly is not the same as self-knowledge, because it is the part of us that is divine that is a witness to all we do, think, say, and are.
‘You are of primary value; in fact, you’re a fragment of the divine. Why then are you ignorant of your high birth? How is it that you don’t know where you came from? Don’t you want to keep in mind, when you eat, who is doing the eating and who is it that you’re feeding? When you engage in sexual intercourse, who is doing this? In your social interactions, in your physical exercises, and in your conversations, are you not aware that it’s a god whom you’re feeding, a god that you’re exercising? You carry the divine around with you, you poor thing, and yet you have no knowledge of it!
Did you suppose that I meant some external image, a god of gold or silver? No, it is within yourself that you carry the divine, and you failed to realise that you’re defiling the divine through your impure thoughts and unclean actions. But, if you were in front of a divine image, you wouldn’t dare do any of the things that you do; but when the divine itself is present within you, seeing and hearing everything, aren’t you ashamed to think and act as you do, you who are ignorant of your own nature and an object of divine anger?
Not only has the divine created you, but has trusted to you into your own sole charge, and yet you will not only fail to remember that, but you will dishonour the sacred charge that has been trusted to you? If the gods had entrusted an orphan to your care, would you have neglected the child in such a way? Yet the divine has delivered you yourself into your own keeping and says, “I had no one in whom I could put more confidence than you. Keep this person as they were born by nature to be; keep this person modest and trustworthy, high-minded and unshakeable, free from desires, unperturbable.”’ (Epictetus Discourses 2:9, 13 & 22)