Before the Veil (4)

It seems that Speusippos taught that the soul, whether mental or thymatic, is immortal, just as the rational soul is. The reasons for this will be explained later. Like Pythagoras and Aristotle, who also wrote about the soul, he considered aether to be one of the elements. Therefore, there are five primary elements corresponding to the five regular polyhedra in geometry. This became part of the teachings of the Alexandrian school.[12] In fact, many aspects of the teachings attributed to Philalethes were not found in older Platonic writings. However, these were likely things that the philosopher himself taught, but which he did not write down because they were too esoteric for indiscriminate publication, due to his usual caution. Speusippos and his successor Xenocrates, like their great teacher, believed that the world soul, or anima mundi, was not God itself, but rather an emanation. These philosophers never conceived of the One as living nature. In the sense in which we usually understand the term "being," the Primal One did not "exist." It is only when the One is connected with the Many that a being comes into existence, namely, when the One and the Two are born. The revered thing, or what has appeared (τίμιον), dwells both at the center and at the periphery. However, it is merely a reflection of divinity, i.e., the world soul.[14] A mystical Buddhist spirit can be found in this doctrine.

The concept of God that humans hold is an image of brilliant light reflected in the concave mirror of their own soul. However, it is not the true God, but only a reflection of God. There is God's glory within it, but what humans see is the light of their own spirit, which is all they can bear. The clearer the mirror, the brighter the divine image becomes. But at the same time, one cannot see the outside world in that mirror. In yogis in a state of ecstasy and seers illuminated by light, the spirit shines like the midday sun. In those who have fallen under the gravity of the earth, the brilliance fades because the mirror is clouded with material impurities. Such people deny God and seek to steal souls from humanity in one blow.

Without God, without soul? A terrifying ideology that destroys everything! Before the eyes of a madman, or an atheist, appears a hideous and endless procession of cosmic sparks: substances that are not created by anyone, but appear on their own, exist on their own, and develop on their own. This is "self," yet it is not self. It is nothing, no one. It comes from nowhere, has no cause, is not moved by any cause, and goes nowhere. And it moves forward in a blind, inert, causeless eternal cycle. Even the erroneous notion of Buddhist Nirvana, which involves countless spiritual transformations and reincarnation before reaching ultimate emptiness, pales in comparison to this. In this process, beings may even take millions of years to reach that final nothingness, without ever losing their sense of individuality for even an instant.

Some people considered Speusippos to be inferior to Aristotle, but nevertheless, the world owes a debt to him for defining and explaining many things that Plato left ambiguous in his teachings about sensory experience and ideas. His saying was: "The immaterial is known through scientific thought, and the material is known through scientific perception." [15]

Xenocrates elucidated many of the unwritten theories and teachings of his teacher. He also adhered to Pythagorean doctrines, highly valuing numbers and a system of mathematics. Recognizing three stages of knowledge: thought, perception, and intuitive understanding, he directed the first towards everything beyond the heavens, perception towards things in the heavens, and intuition towards the heavens themselves.

Author's Notes

[12] "On Pythagorean Numbers," p. 62, from Theological Arithmetic.

[13] Plato, Parmenides, 141E.

[14] Stobaeus, Excerpta I, 862.

[15] Sextus, "Mathematics," VII, 145.