Bezpłatny fragment - Heraclitean Fragmentarium

Introduction

Calling Heraclitus the first thinker in human history who understood the process of change and the transformation of different forms of energy is rather evidence of a limited understanding of things than a true insight into the essence of his teachings. Such an approach reveals a similar lack of deeper knowledge to that shown today by numerous “experts” in archaeology, culture, or religion of ancient civilizations.

However, I would not blame any of them for such an interpretation of this message, because, as can be seen in the example of this “old fox” Heraclitus, the thoughts and theories of philosophers were deliberately made so tangled and unclear. To truly grasp the meaning of these reflections, one must reach deeper — into the texts of their commentators and into esoteric traditions — using the key that is the understanding of the dualism and cyclicality of the universe.

The antithetical and at the same time aphoristic style in which Heraclitus expressed his thoughts made a unified interpretation of his philosophy impossible. Aristotle also pointed out the obscurity of his style, writing in the Rhetoric: ‘To determine the punctuation in the work of Heraclitus is no easy task, for often we do not know whether a given word belongs to what precedes it or to what follows it, as for example at the beginning of his work: “For although everything happens according to this logos, people always fail to understand it.” It is not clear to what the word “always” should be attached by punctuation.’ In later antiquity the obscurity of Heraclitus’ style became proverbial, so that Timon of Phlius called him ‘the riddler,’ and Strabo of Amaseia called him ‘the obscure’ or ‘the dark.’ Socrates, when asked by Euripides what he thought of the work of Heraclitus, replied: ‘What I understood is excellent, and I suppose that what I did not understand is also excellent; but to get to the bottom of it one would need a Delian diver.

quote: Kazimierz Leśniak, Greek Materialists in the Pre-Socratic Era.

The expression “Delian diver” comes from the island of Delos in the Cyclades archipelago, which in antiquity was known, among other things, for the legend of the “Delian problem,” that is, the famous “problem of doubling the cube.”

According to tradition, the inhabitants of Delos, afflicted by a plague, turned to the Delphic oracle, which ordered them to double the volume of Apollo’s altar — that is, to find a cube twice as large as a given one.

This task proved extremely difficult (impossible to solve using only a compass and straightedge), and from then on the “Delian problem” became a symbol of a very difficult, almost impossible intellectual puzzle.

Thus, a “Delian diver” is a person capable of plunging into deep mysteries — a metaphor for someone exceptionally perceptive, who can reach hidden meanings (like someone able to solve the Delian problem or dive deeply for treasure).

Before plunging into the depths of meanings and symbols of this deliberately obscure (“dark”) philosophy of Heraclitus, we should, like a Delian diver, take a deep breath. Let that refreshing air filling our lungs be the solution to the problem of punctuation, which for centuries has caused so many difficulties for lovers of wisdom.

In the sentence:

“For although everything happens according to this logos always people fail to understand it,” it is enough to use the word always twice, separated by a comma, for the entire hidden meaning of the sentence to gain, after more than two and a half thousand years, its proper significance. Let us therefore begin “diving” into these “dark” waters of Heraclitean philosophy.

The source text

Below in italics comes from the book: Ryszard Palacz, Classics of Philosophy.

“Fragments of the writings of Heraclitus have already been translated into Polish, but never in their entirety. The present attempt is based on the text of G. S. Kirk in The Cosmic Fragments. Ed. with an Introduction and Commentary (Cambridge 1962).”

1. People always fail to understand this Logos, which is eternal, both before they hear of it and after they have heard of it, when I speak about the beginning of the world. Although everything comes into being according to the will of this Logos, they resemble the ignorant when they encounter the facts and views that I present in detail, distinguishing each according to its origin and showing what it is now. The rest, however, do not remember what they did before awakening, just as they forget what they do when they fall asleep.

Under the concept of logos there is “hidden” the generally understood concept of God the Creator, whom none of us can know or understand, unless after death, when we “go to His bosom” — that is, to the Kingdom of Heaven. The only way of an “earlier” meeting with God-Logos is the moment which will undoubtedly occur: the Blessed Isles, the constellation of Orion.

Ignorant are all those experts in archaeology, religion, history, art, or philosophy who, when describing the “treasures of the past,” for obvious reasons failed to recognize their true symbolic meaning: (pyramids, menhirs, the Jewish religion, Paleolithic “Venus” figurines, and many other similar examples).

2. It is necessary to follow what is common. Although the Logos is universal, most people live as if they had their own private understanding.

First, a clarification of the issue that explains much: “the Flood,” “pre-Flood times.” Pre-Flood times were an era in which humanity carried within itself the knowledge of ancient civilizations and sacred mysteries, written in hearts and minds, transmitted through symbols, rituals, and initiations. Human beings lived in harmony with the cosmic order, aware of the cycles of time and the spiritual laws governing the world. This knowledge, however, was hidden and fragile — every manifestation of it required protection, and its loss threatened to erase the memory of entire generations.

Then came the Flood — not only as a physical cataclysm, but as a process of erasing memory. The waters of history washed away the record of ancient times, destroying the structures of communities, culture, and consciousness. Languages, customs, and rituals disappeared; ancient sciences were forgotten. The Flood thus became a symbolic “reset” of the world — a stage in which humanity was forced to begin anew, with a blank slate, from which knowledge could be rebuilt only through new experiences and mystical discoveries.

In the pre-Flood times, when universal knowledge of God the Creator prevailed among all people (the faith of Babel), soon, as a result of the Flood, it divided into different confessions (the Tower of Babel).

Despite the fact that God the Creator is called Yahweh in Judaism, Allah in Islam, and God in three persons in Christianity, it is the same Creator God of life on Earth as the other gods of ancient civilizations. Therefore, universal understanding and harmony among different nations (the Kingdom of God) will prevail only when we realize that for this to happen there must be a return “to the roots,” that is, what must unite us is one faith — one knowledge of God the Creator, such as united different nations and tribes before the Flood.

3. The sun (as can easily be observed) is the width of a human foot.

6. The sun is not only new every day, but is new continuously.

For Heraclitus, the sun is human life — the life of each of us.

This span of time from our birth until death — that is the human foot. With this explanation, the sixth fragment of his writings no longer requires further commentary.

4. If happiness consisted in bodily pleasures, we would call oxen happy when they find vetch to eat.

Human life does not consist merely in satisfying one’s own needs and yielding to desires.

If that were so, we would not be at the stage of intellectual and civilizational development at which we now stand. Human beings were created by God for higher purposes, not to vegetate among a whole range of pleasures. More on this subject elsewhere.

5. Seeking purification (from blood) when they have already been stained with blood, they pollute themselves with a new crime, just as someone who stepped into mud would try to wash himself with it. Anyone who sees this would consider him a fool. They also pray to statues, as if one could converse with houses, not knowing what gods and heroes really are.

The various cultures and religions that arose after the Flood use rituals in their ceremonies during which animals were sacrificed to the gods.

This “ritual” killing of animals is not needed by God at all; it is only an anachronistic manifestation of primitivism and stupidity. The anthropomorphizing of God through statues and figures is also meaningless, because God the Creator is not a human being. Megacycle — once it was and will be again — the Kingdom of God.

7. If all existing things turned into smoke, they could be distinguished only by the nose.

Atheists, denying the existence of God, refer to the material manifestation of being — what cannot be seen does not exist.

To understand that God is our “archetype,” one cannot use the material aspects of our senses, i.e.: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, because God is not “an old man with a gray beard,” but an infinite, unknowable, and all-encompassing thought. Those who have undergone clinical death — NDE did not see, touch, or feel God, but were in Him.

8. The opposed is brought together; from discord comes the most beautiful harmony, and everything happens through struggle.

10. Harmonious connections: the whole and the not-whole, the consonant and the dissonant, the melodic and the discordant; from the whole, unity, and from unity, everything.

This is a story about the dualism and cyclicality of the universe.

“Woman” and “man” — these are two antagonisms, but only thanks to this constant movement from non-existence — collapse, to existence — the Big Bang, in the middle phase of this megacycle life can exist.

9. Donkeys prefer hay to gold.

11. Every animal is driven to pasture with a whip, as Heraclitus says.

13. Pigs find more pleasure in mud than in clean water.

Honest work, a dignified life, devotion to family, or activity for the benefit of those in need is such “gold” that can be mined throughout one’s entire life, and as a result of this enormous daily “yield” only a small nugget of pure gold of gratitude and respect can be “smelted.”

One can also “gorge oneself” on consumerism and the demoralization of morals, but from this gluttony only a “pile of manure” will remain — of loneliness, alienation, and empty, purposeless existence.

If our conduct is not characterized by concern for the needs, happiness, dignity, and free development of human beings, then we will succumb to the blind and primitive desires of sexual libertinism and the dehumanization of life.

Clean water — faith in God and conduct in accordance with the commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai — is far more difficult than wallowing in the mud of pig-like pleasures and desires. If you do not want to be a donkey or a pig, then the only path is Logos.

12. Zeno calls pride an evaporation rising (from blood), capable of feeling in the same way, as Heraclitus said. For he, in order to explain it, says that breaths capable of thinking evaporate (from blood), are always different, comparing them with the current of a river, saying as follows: upon those who step into the same stream different waters always flow; likewise breaths evaporate from liquid (from blood).

This point is entirely devoted to the state in which we are daily, altogether for one third of our lives. It is a state of reduced sensitivity to stimuli, a state of partial inertia and slowing of functions, combined with the suspension of consciousness.

Pride — this is psyche, the psyche, the soul; the stream — this is sleep; the current of the river — this is the subconscious; different waters — these are different dreams; breaths — these are thoughts.

Now everything is probably clear.

14. To whom does Heraclitus of Ephesus prophesy? To night wanderers, magicians, followers of Bacchus, Maenads and mystai (he threatens punishment after death, he prophesies fire). The sacrifices in the mysteries, celebrated by people, are impious.

15. If they did not go in procession in honor of Dionysus and did not sing songs about Phalos, their behavior would be shameless. Hades and Dionysus are the same, for whose sake they go mad and celebrate the Lenaean festivals.