Neoplatonist Contemplations - Withstanding Rain & Wind Across Winter Storms

"It is rather like some farmer who, having sown seeds or even planted a tree, is always setting all the things right that winter rains and sustained frosts and wind-storms have damaged."

Plotinus

Neoplatonist Contemplations

Shifting gears momentarily, we turn to the Enneads, a collection of contemplations by the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus. Especially noteworthy among his reflections is a passage that speaks to multiple intersecting themes, ranging from contemplative ecology to resilience in times of hardship.

A Hellenistic philosopher native to Egypt, Plotinus is credited as the founder of Neoplatonism, a new phase in the tradition inspired by the esteemed Greek philosopher Plato. He ventured to modern-day Iran to study Persian and Indian philosophy before retiring to Rome. Plotinus composed the Enneads on a variety of topics, including ethics, cosmology, psychology, epistemology, and natural philosophy, among others.

Relevant to the ongoing environmental crisis and the more recently sparked pandemic, we here investigate the long winter to which Plotinus alludes in a short section from the Enneads, briefly examining the means toward a spring thaw and recovery.

Winter Storms

Broadly, Plotinus distinguishes between three aspects of existence: Soul, Intellect, and the "One." Our passage of interest pertains to the tendency of the soul to "administer the universe," often via comparison, analysis, rumination, and other activities, all overwhelmingly discursive. In characterizing the soul, Plotinus draws on a permacultural analogy.

Keeping a watchful eye over both the spiritual and terrestrial domains, the soul seeks to put objects in their proper order, similar to a farmer mending damages in her garden left by the cold season or inclement weather.

Much of the world remains in an extended winter storm of sorts, characterized by frozen economies, dwindling ecosystems, and a bitter epidemic at large. Interestingly, Plotinus situates the soul below the intellect, and the intellect below the "One." Each is, of course, related to the others. While the soul is concerned with satisfying its externally oriented desires through discursive activity, the intellect contemplates in a less discursive capacity. The so-called "One" is the first principle from which everything else derives, the "Good" to which everything else returns.

Despite the soul's limitations, its acting as a farmer is an image that lends itself to a contemplative ecology with implications for cultivating both mental and physical terrain.

While not the focus of his work, that things can even be set right at all despite damage from winter rains and sustained frosts and wind-storms opens several doors pertaining directly to the challenges we presently face.

On Withstanding Rain And Wind

Although the text itself does not speak explicitly on withstanding rain and wind, or the various other sorts of storms the soul inevitably encounters in its efforts to administrate the universe, we here reference the pandemic and ecological crisis it appears to have eclipsed.

First, the soul's efforts at setting things right ought to be critically scrutinized. Given that its activity, according to Plotinus, is inspired by an effort to satisfy material desires, we should be wary of efforts to fix the present situation through superficial bandages. The causes of these ecological and epidemiological disasters must be deeply probed rather than merely covered up in the name of economic prosperity.

Second, if the farmer's activity is informed by wisdom and thus complementary to the intellect's reunion and reintegration with the first principle (a metaphysical topic deserving of further investigation elsewhere), then we must thoroughly equip ourselves with the knowledge and skills necessary to restore life to frost-bitten, rain-ravaged, wind-torn farmland. Nothing less than the full commitment to revolutionize all systems, both personal and political, from the inside out will do.

Perhaps a similar message of hopeful resilience is echoed further by an additional section from the Enneads, with which we conclude.

"His suffering will not be pitiable, but the light in him will continue to shine like the light of a lantern when the wind is blowing outside in a great fierceness of rain and winter storm."

Plotinus

Ecological Dynamics in Medicine - Hippocrates on Air, Water, and Places

Whoever Wishes to Investigate Medicine Properly

Whoever wishes to investigate medicine properly, should proceed thus: in the first place to consider the seasons of the year, and what effects each of them produces for they are not at all alike, but differ much from themselves in regard to their changes.

Then the winds, the hot and the cold, especially such as are common to all countries, and then such as are peculiar to each locality.

We must also consider the qualities of the waters, for as they differ from one another in taste and weight, so also do they differ much in their qualities.

In the same manner, when one comes into a city to which he is a stranger, he ought to consider its situation, how it lies as to the winds and the rising of the sun; for its influence is not the same whether it lies to the north or the south, to the rising or to the setting sun.

These things one ought to consider most attentively, and concerning the waters which the inhabitants use, whether they be marshy and soft, or hard, and running from elevated and rocky situations, and then if saltish and unfit for cooking; and the ground, whether it be naked and deficient in water, or wooded and well watered, and whether it lies in a hollow, confined situation, or is elevated and cold; and the mode in which the inhabitants live, and what are their pursuits, whether they are fond of drinking and eating to excess, and given to indolence, or are fond of exercise and labor, and not given to excess in eating and drinking.

On Air, Water, and Places

This is no modern medical text. Thus begins an ancient treatise originating some 2400 years ago, in approximately 400 B.C.E. Such insights belong to Hippocrates. Surprisingly applicable to the modern era, these remarks on the relevance of the natural world to health and wellness, both bodily and mental, may remind us of a connection that seems to otherwise have been forgotten in recent years.

A Greek physician-philosopher living in 460-377 B.C.E., Hippocrates was in many respects ahead of his time. Credited with the discovery that diseases arise due to natural as opposed to supernatural causes, he is known as the father of modern medicine. Hippocrates is also author of the first ecological text, a treatise by the name On Air, Water, and Places from which the above quote is excerpted.

How might this ancient wisdom expand our contemporary consciousness around contemplative ecology and medicinal approaches to a sustainable future? Looking to the past in this case provides an indispensable key.

Ecological Dynamics

Throughout On Air, Water, and Places, Hippocrates points directly to the intertwined ecological dynamics between the so-called outer and inner worlds. One who wishes to practice medicine wisely must consider the seasons, winds, waters, and earth, the ecological context in which one practices medicine, as these factors their intricacies inevitably seep into the bodily and mental constitutions of beings.

We are inextricably embedded in contexts, in an ecology whose quality directly impacts our health. Likewise, our activity directly impacts the quality of that ecology, creating a symbiotic cycle of influence.

In his treatise, Hippocrates elaborates on the relevance of these ecological dynamics to medicine, advising the traveling physician to pay close attention to the natural world.

From these things he must proceed to investigate everything else.

For if one knows all these things well, or at least the greater part of them, he cannot miss knowing, when he comes into a strange city, either the diseases peculiar to the place, or the particular nature of common diseases, so that he will not be in doubt as to the treatment of the diseases, or commit mistakes, as is likely to be the case provided one had not previously considered these matters.

And in particular, as the season and the year advances, he can tell what epidemic diseases will attack the city, either in summer or in winter, and what each individual will be in danger of experiencing from the change of regimen.

For knowing the changes of the seasons, the risings and settings of the stars, how each of them takes place, he will be able to know beforehand what sort of a year is going to ensue.

Having made these investigations, and knowing beforehand the seasons, such a one must be acquainted with each particular, and must succeed in the preservation of health, and be by no means unsuccessful in the practice of his art.

And if it shall be thought that these things belong rather to meteorlogy, it will be admitted, on second thoughts, that astronomy contributes not a little, but a very great deal, indeed, to medicine.

For with the seasons the digestive organs of men undergo a change.

While some may dismiss such methods as outdated folk medicine based on divination of the stars, Hippocrates appears to be pointing to proven relationships between environmental conditions, disease, and health. Ecology plays a central role in deciding the difference between illness and wellness. With the changing of seasons, for instance, the body must adapt and has evolved to do so quite well through homeostatic regulation. When human activity disrupts the health of the climate, however, then climate change in turn disrupts the health of life on earth.

This exact sort of pattern can be witnessed all around us. With record high emissions, temperatures (as well as stress) rising beyond levels most lifeforms can withstand, and worldwide ecosystem collapse extending from the Amazon to Antarctica, it may be time to recall the advice of Hippocrates and other ancients who realized the ecological dynamics of our existence long before it seems to have clicked for many of us.

In the present day, these ecological dynamics are especially volatile. In order to investigate medicine properly, not merely in formal practice as a physician, but in the ways to which all in the modern world may contribute through global health initiatives at all scales, we must comprehend the intuitively evident connection between nature and health.

Medicine in the Modern Era

While we provide here a mere two sections from the beginning of On Air, Water, and Places, the author's insights nonetheless already shine through, perhaps illuminating ways in which we may reorient our approach to medicine in the modern era.

In order for any amount of wellness to be sustained in the midst of a global onslaught of illness, manifesting in as diverse ways as there are minds and bodies to experience it, the ecological must take priority.

After all, for Hippocrates, the world ecology derives from the Greek oikos/οἶκος, meaning home. This earth, its air, water, and lands, are just as ecological as our own minds and bodies. All must be in harmony to truly be called home.



Source:

Adams, Francis. "On Airs, Waters, and Places." The Genuine Works of Hippocrates Translated from the Greek. London: Wyman, 1849.

Aggregates and Chariots - Greco-Buddhist Contemplations on the Nature of "Self"

Greco-Buddhist Contemplations ...

You may recall one of our previous posts entitled "Intro to Emptiness" outlining a set of five overlapping factors of experience that are often mistaken for a metaphysically substantial self or what pertains to a self. While that may be a bit of a mouthful, perhaps biting off more than one can chew in a single article, we wish to follow up on this subject here in simpler terms.

Understanding these "aggregates," as they're called, in terms of emptiness and dependent origination may feel like an abstract endeavor. Fortunately, however, several useful similes from the Buddhist tradition exist (conventionally) to help contextualize the nature of these so-called aggregates, the building blocks of our experience, and their relationship to a presumed self.

Here, we thus examine a segment of the Milinda Pañha, a nexus of Greco-Buddhist contemplative philosophy and practice. Considered canonical in Burmese Buddhism, it claims to document an exchange between the Buddhist sage Nāgasena and a king of the Indo-Greco empire, Menander the First of Bactria - spanning modern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. A historical figure, Menander ruled from roughly 160 to 130 BCE. His name is "Pāli-cized" as Milinda. Among their dialogue's major motifs is the image of the chariot, tracing itself to the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, now widely used as an analogy for the concept of "self" in Buddhism.

Aggregates and Chariots

The simile of aggregates and chariots surfaces in a series of questions posed by King Milinda to the sage Nāgasena. Most of these questions orbit around the notion of selfhood. Prompting the chariot simile, in the middle of this discussion, Nāgasena remarks that "Nāgasena" is but a name, while in actuality, there is no Nāgasena. Befuddled, the king presses further, to which Nāgasena responds by employing the simile of the chariot. Their dialogue unfolds with Nāgasena asking King Milinda how he was able to come to their present location in the first place.

"How did you come here, by foot or in a chariot?"

"In a chariot, venerable sir."

"Then, explain sir, what that is. Is it the axle? Or the wheels, or the chassis, or reins, or yoke that is the chariot? Is it all of these combined, or is it something apart from them?"

"It is none of these things, venerable sir."

(trans. Bhikkhu Pesala)

Here, we find Nāgasena pressing King Milinda to identify exactly what it is that he calls a chariot, positing each of its parts as possible identifiers. The king is unable to pin it down. Nāgasena asks if the chariot is the sum of its parts, or if it extends beyond them. Seemingly elusive, the king replies with none of the above.



Clearly the wheels of thought were set in motion here. As the king searches for a rational response to give to his questioner, he arrives fully to their present exchange, prompting his invocation of the chariot as simile. Certainly he had some notion of what made the chariot a chariot despite his struggles to put it into words. After a brief interlude, the chariot again takes center stage as the king, after much reflection, finally formulates an answer.

"It is because it has all these parts that it comes under the term chariot."

"Very good, sir, your majesty has rightly grasped the meaning. Even so it is because of the thirty-two kinds of organic matter in a human body and the five aggregates of being that I come under the term ‘Nāgasena’. As it was said by Sister Vajīra in the presence of the Blessed One, ‘Just as it is by the existence of the various parts that the word “Chariot” is used, just so is it that when the aggregates of being are there we talk of a being’."

(trans. Bhikkhu Pesala)

Importantly, the sense of self arising from the aggregates is comparable to a constellation, assemblage, conglomeration. A whole comprised of parts, "self" serves as a conventional appellation for an aggregation of bodily form, feeling, perception, volitional activities, and consciousness. "Self" is an at-times useful tool that humans have constructed (like a chariot) to serve conventional ends, but need not be mistaken for an ultimate identity or ultimate reality.

Given that the self is constructed, it has only a conventional existence. In the same sense that a chariot consists of its component parts - which alone are not the chariot and even together amount to no ultimate chariot - the conventional self is likewise made up of five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness. Like a chariot, explains the Buddhist nun Vajīra in the Vajīra Sutta (SN 5.10) referenced by Nāgasena, the self is a conventional designation for an assemblage of parts, a heap of phenomena.

"Just as, with an assemblage of parts,
The word 'chariot' is used,
So, when the aggregates are present,
There's the convention 'a being.'"

(trans. Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Indeed, Vajīra's remarks here are the origin for the chariot analogy within Buddhism. The image also traces itself to the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, a text of the Vedanta tradition, a precursor to and modern Hindu schools. It's unclear where its exact origins lie, but the chariot is nonetheless a familiar image with significant symbolic value in Indic contemplative circles.

As we can observe from the Buddhist nun Vajīra's remarks, a distinction is drawn between conventional language and ultimate reality, although the latter is not mentioned explicitly. Acknowledging the widely accepted worldly usage of "chariot" and other terms to refer to compounded objects, Vajīra clarifies that no one is denying the utter existence of chariots all together. Rather, the chariot does not exist as it appears to exist.

The Nature of "Self"

Unpacking the nature of "self" can be a thorny issue in Buddhism, for these very reasons. On one hand, the self is a conventionally experienced process, but on the other, it is not an ultimately existing thing. Notice the difference, which we hope to draw out through these key terms.

• Conventionally
• Experienced
• Process

vs.

• Ultimately
• Existing
• Thing

The second set of descriptors (ultimately existing thing) helps convey that what we grasp as self appears relatively unchanging, a lasting identity, some kind of persistent entity that remains the same from moment to moment.

The first set of descriptors (conventionally experienced process) helps convey that upon scrutinizing its supposed solidity, the sense of self is in actuality instantaneously arising and subsiding, changing from moment to moment, flowing onward like a stream.

Certainly not all see it this way. The Buddhist theory of self (or theory of "not-self") is definitely an outlier among other philosophies and world religions. Further, it has been variously interpreted throughout history and up to the present. We offer these reflections as a means of framing the question differently, not as whether there is or is not a self, but by offering two angles from which one may contemplate the situation, consistent with the "two truths" of conventional and ultimate reality.



We now turn the question to you. Does the chariot have a driver? Who or what has hold of the reins? Let us know below.