Arvindus

Contemplations

True Philosophy

  • Title: Contemplations, True Philosophy.
  • Author: Arvindus.
  • Publisher: Arvindus.
  • Copyright: Arvindus, 2020, all rights reserved.
  • Index: 202003291.
  • Edition: html, first edition.

Content

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Philosophy is in general understood as "[t]he love, study, or pursuit of wisdom, or of knowledge of things and their causes, whether theoretical or practical."1 It is considered to stem from the Greek noun 'philosophia'.2 This word is often thought to originate from the Greek 'philosophos', which refers to a philosopher. But a philosopher is someone who practises philosophy and general concepts, such as philosophy, should always be taken as more primal than particularities, such as particular philosophers, who only exist as such by the grace of such concepts.3, 4 If there had been no philosophia in ancient Greece then no philosophos would have existed there. So in this contemplation the word 'philosophia', referring to the general concept, shall be taken as primary, and the word 'philosophos', referring to a particular practitioner of the aforementioned concept, shall be taken as stemming from the former. This makes way for a better etymology than is usually academically conducted. Academic etymology works from the word 'philosophos' and considers it to consist of the Greek words 'philos', meaning 'lover', and 'sophos', referring to a wise or a sage, comprising the meaning of 'lover of wisdom'.5 We can see that in this academic etymological analysis the two particularities of the lover and the wise have been taken as points of departure. In contemplative etymology, also mentionable as 'etymosophy', 'philosophia' shall be taken as leading, and it shall be considered as consisting of not particularities but of the more general concepts of 'phil[o]', meaning 'love',6 and 'sophia', meaning 'wisdom'.7 Philosophy as philosophia then can etymosophically be understood as love-wisdom.

Now love-wisdom is a concept which is well known in the ageless wisdom. There love-wisdom is considered as a faculty of the soul in man.8 It is the faculty of the intuition, which is also known under the name 'buddhi'.9 The Sanskrit word 'buddhi' is rooted in the word 'budh', meaning 'awake', and 'budh' is also the root of the word 'buddha', thus connecting 'buddhi' with 'buddha'.10 This corresponds with the ageless wisdom teaching that the Buddha is characterized by the wisdom aspect.11 The Christ added to that wisdom the aspect of love,12 and the faculty of intuition then is also called 'the Christ principle'.13 Thus we see how the Christ principle, buddhi, intuition and love-wisdom all regard the same principle of the soul. And to that list we then should also add philosophy when we read the word as 'philo-sophy', or in Greek 'philo-sophia'. True philosophy is not an academic discipline but rather the faculty of intuition in man. And like the Buddha realized buddhi, and the Christ realized the Christ principle, so does the true philosopher realize philosophy.14 But such a philosopher realizes philosophy as a principle in his heart and not through academic study and graduation.

In the Dutch language academic philosophy is often referred to with a term like 'wisdom-desire' ['wijsbegeerte'] and a practitioner thereof then is called 'wisdom-desirer' ['wijsgeer']. It would have been etymosophically proper when the term 'philosopher' would have been reserved for realizers of buddhi and the Christ-principle, leaving a term like 'wisdom-desirer' for academic scholars. The history of the use of language unfortunately has brought about the present situation where wisdom-desirers are called 'philosophers' as well. This however does not need to stop us from aspiring to become philosophers in the original sense.

May we thus realize true philosophy in our hearts.

Notes
  1. Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0), Oxford University Press, 2009, philosophy, n., 1. a.
  2. Ibidem, philosophy, n.
  3. Alice A. Bailey, Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001, p. 41. "The occultist ever approaches the subject connected with the evolutionary process from the angle of the whole and then the part, from the periphery to the centre, from the universal to the particular."
  4. Socrates, quoted by Phaedo, in: Plato, G. M. A. Grube (translator), Phaedo, in: Complete Works, John M. Cooper / D. S. Hutchinson (editors), Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis / Cambridge, 1997, p. 86, sec. 100e. "This is the safe answer for me or anyone else to give, namely, that it is through Beauty that beautiful things are made beautiful."
  5. Oxford English Dictionary, philosoph, -ophe.
  6. Ibidem, philo-.
  7. Ibidem, Sophia1, 1.
  8. Alice A. Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, in:Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001, p. xv.
  9. Ibidem.
  10. Monier Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Etymologically and Philologically Arranged, With Special Reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Anglo-Saxon, and Other Cognate Indo-European Languages, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1862, p. 685.
  11. Alice A. Bailey, The Reappearance of the Christ, in:Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001, p. 97. "Wisdom is the predominant characteristic of the Buddha […]."
  12. Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, in:Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001, p. 411. "Then came the next great Teacher, the Christ. He embodied in Himself a still greater divine principle or aspect, that of Love, whilst at the same time embracing within Himself all that the Buddha had of Light. Christ was the expression of both Light and Love."
  13. Nota 8.
  14. Socrates, in: Plato, Phaedrus, G. M. A. Grube (translator), in: Complete Works, John M. Cooper / D. S. Hutchinson (editors), Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis / Cambridge, 1997, p. 527. "For just this reason it is fair that only a philosopher's mind grows wings, since its memory always keeps it as close as possible to those realities by being close to which the gods are divine. A man who uses reminders of these things correctly is always at the highest, most perfect level of initiation, and he is the only one who is perfect as perfect can be. He stands outside human concerns and draws close to the divine; ordinary people think he is disturbed and rebuke him for this, unaware that he is possessed by god."
Bibliography
  • Alice A. Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, in:Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001.
  • Alice A. Bailey, Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, in: Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001.
  • Alice A. Bailey, The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, in:Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001.
  • Alice A. Bailey, The Reappearance of the Christ, in:Twenty-Four Books of Esoteric Philosophy, (CD-ROM, Release 3), Lucis Trust, London / New York, 2001.
  • Plato, G. M. A. Grube (translator), Phaedo, in: Complete Works, John M. Cooper / D. S. Hutchinson (editors), Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis / Cambridge, 1997.
  • Plato, Phaedrus, G. M. A. Grube (translator), in: Complete Works, John M. Cooper / D. S. Hutchinson (editors), Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis / Cambridge, 1997.
  • Monier Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Etymologically and Philologically Arranged, With Special Reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Anglo-Saxon, and Other Cognate Indo-European Languages, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1862.
  • Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0), Oxford University Press, 2009.