Greco-Roman Philosophy as a Path of Enlightenment

A central inspirator for my philosophical counseling practice is Pierre Hadot. Hadot's recurring theme is that philosophy in Antiquity was characterized by a series of spiritual exercises intended to transform the perception, and therefore the being, of those who practice it; that philosophy is best pursued in real conversation and not through written texts and lectures; and that philosophy, as it is taught in universities today, is for the most part a distortion of its original, therapeutic impulse. 

If you just take the thinking as a presumption, the mind will never be silent

If you just take the thinking as a presumption you don´t investigate further, yes, then the mind will never be silent, so that it can listen to the noise of its own battles and pains.

But both Stoics, Epicureans, Taoists and Buddhists, instead say: ”Be simple and don´t try to become something else than what you are, or to catch up some kind of experience”.

All of the thought´s activities strengthen the ego

All of the thought´s activities, whether they are positive or negative, are usually experiences that actually strengthen the ego, because they suck life out of the present, out of the Now and timeless, and into time´s self-producing movement from past towards future.

Is it therefore possible for the mind to let life flow back to the present, to allow a total existential presence in the Now?

As the Stoics and the Taoists say, then it can only happen when there is completely silence.

If your mind can empty ifself for your images of life, it is something entirely else

Provided that the mind can empty ifself for the known, for your perspective, your images of life, then it is something entirely else; then the mind is something new, and therefore, according to Taoism, immortal.

Passively to observe and feel the past´s activity is an act without past

When the Taoist monk is sitting and observing a tree passively without any kind of thought-activity, then it is an act, which isn´t defined by the past.

And passively to observe and feel the past´s activity is also an act without past.

To be the past present is to be one with your past, without that there is any displacement or distortions between the realizer and the realized.

To empty out the mind is to give life back to the present

In Taoism and Zen Buddhism you time after time hear the statement about emptying out the mind.

To empty out the mind means, that you are emptying it for its content.

The content of the mind is the known, your perspective of life, your historical limitation, the past which projects ifself into the future, the past and the future which sucks life out of the present and transforms memories and plans into reality, and reality into emptiness.

In this way the mind, or the Ego, makes ifself independent in relation to your reality, and the reason is lost.

To empty out the mind is the opposite movement. You give life back to the present, you are emptying the mind and are filling reality with vitality and urge to live.

In this way the mind becomes one with your reality, and the reason is won.

Meditation is to enter into the unknown

In accordance with the Taoists, the actual thing to be present in passive listening (wu-wei), is the same as to act spontaneous (tzu-jen).

Any spontaneous action is an expression of, that there is a passive listening presence, a space between the thoughts.

When for instance the Taoist is seeing, that there is fear, he observes it neutral as in a mirror, without saying yes and no, and feels it deeply and incisively, without seeking to achieve anything with it.

The actual experience in this passive listening presence, makes the experience free from fear; and that is to act spontaneous.

In all this the unknown is at stake; reality or truth.

Meditation is in other words to enter into the unknown.