Initiation into the Philosophy of Plato [Paperback]

Raphael - Asram Vidya Order (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 2005

RAPHAEL offers an introduction to Plato’s thought aimed at ‘realizing’ Plato’s teaching about being a real Philosopher, “one who sees the Whole”. While leaving the task of meditating on Plato’s texts to the readers, he quotes many relevant passages from Plato’s works. PLATO is regarded as the father of Western Philosophy, and is an exponent in the West of the ancient Tradition that goes back to Orpheus.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

PLATO is an exponent in the West of the ancient Tradition that goes back to Orpheus, and he is regarded as the father of Western Philosophy. While over the centuries the concept of philosophy has become an exercise of the empirical mind which can offer only opinions, not Truth, Plato's philosophy (love of learning-wisdom-knowledge) is of an initiatory order. It is a conversion to Being, an initiation into the supreme Good.

From the Author

Plato uses philosophy as a method for raising us above the conflict-ridden and contradictory world of the sensible to the harmonious world of Being, which is our original home.

Plato's is a philosophy of catharsis, ascent, realization, transformation of the way of feeling, of willing, of acting. Plato uses philosophy as a method for raising us above the conflict-ridden and contradictory world of the sensible to the harmonious world of Being, which is our original home.

What is meant here by the term "ascetic" is a "raising", a "turning" of the consciousness from the sensible to the suprasensible. Plato's is, therefore, a philosophy of catharsis, ascent, realization, transformation of the way of feeling, of willing, of acting.

Over the centuries the concept of philosophy has assumed a completely different meaning from the original one, to the extent that it has become a mere "mental game", an arid conceptual exercise involving the products of the empirical, phenomenal and imaginative mind which can offer only opinions, not Truth.

Plato's philosophy is of an initiatory order, it is conversion to Being, it is initiation into the supreme Good _ and this is not our idea but Plato's.

Thus, in order to understand it, it is not sufficient to discuss and mentally elaborate it; one must integrate it in one's consciousness. In other words, one must realize it and live it.
It is by absorbing it into our consciousness that we can find the answers to so many apparently impossible questions and discover truths which might at first sight appear irrational.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Aurea Vidya Foundation; Revised edition (September 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931406073
• ISBN-13: 978-1931406079
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,682,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Raphael on Plato, January 6, 2010

By 

Alan Berkowitz (Trumansburg, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Initiation into the Philosophy of Plato (Paperback)

Initiation into the Philosophy of Plato. Raphael (Ashram Vidya Order). 2005. Aurea Vidya Foundation Inc. New York, N.Y. (156 p.). [...]

Seeing Plato through the eyes of Raphael is to see a different Plato. This Plato is not an academic philosopher concerned with conceptual distinctions, nor an economist, political theorist, logician, or all that Plato has been thought to be. Raphael's Plato is a Magus, a spiritual teacher revealing to us the architecture of reality and a spiritual path to lead us out of suffering. Perhaps, with regard to Plato, we ourselves have been in a cave of sorts (as he described in the Republic) but in this case a cave of the "shadows of Plato." Watching academics and scholars parade their interpretations before us on the cave wall, we have taken these "shadows" to be Platonism. Then, from out of the cave comes Raphael providing a comprehensive, synthetic understanding of Plato that integrates and transforms these shadow interpretations into a vision that feels complete and which makes sense. Borrowing another metaphor from Plato, one could describe this book as a "second navigation" of Platonism, the term he uses to describe the reorientation from confusion to truth.

Raphael is certainly not the first teacher to offer a spiritual interpretation of Plato and of Platonism as an initiatory tradition. Others have preceded him, including the legendary Thomas Taylor and many more recent Platonic scholars who are cited in this book. Raphael's gift is to offer an initiatic view of Plato within a contemporary context, one that is accessible to the non-academic, which draws on modern scientific understanding, and which illustrates its points with references to other spiritual traditions.

In Initiation into the Philosophy of Plato Raphael cogently argues that Plato provides a spiritual system that is meant to be transformational and cathartic, leading the soul out of its suffering from confusion to the knowledge of truth. To read Plato correctly, according to Raphael, is to be transformed by the reading. Perhaps an appropriate modern comparison would be to the art of psychotherapy, which also offers a form of cathartic and transformative knowledge - in this case an understanding of past experiences meant to liberate us from suffering and repeating them. But in Plato's case, the psychotherapy is a therapy of the soul that transforms the whole of experience through love-wisdom.

A large portion of the book consists of quotations from Plato's dialogues, skillfully arranged to support Raphael's points and to make sense for us of the whole of Plato's thinking. Quotes from other religio-philosophic traditions are added - including Kaballah, the Old and New Testaments, the Egyptian Mysteries, and - primarily - Sankara's Advaita Vedanta. These parallels demonstrate that Plato's vision is not unique, but rather, a description of reality that has been shared by the wise teachers of all ages and places - what Raphael describes as "The Doctrine" or "Tradition." Raphael corrects popular misunderstandings of Plato (for example, that his teaching is dualistic and/or idealistic, or that the sense-world is unreal) and restores to their original meaning important Platonic terms, such as "dialetic", "theory", and the meaning of "philosophy" itself.

Platonic philosophy is a "love of wisdom" and in one of the final chapters Raphael gives us a beautiful presentation on the meaning of love. This is Plato's path of Eros, or love-beauty and here Raphael synthesizes Plato's teaching that we can be lead by sensible beauty up through the levels of reality to the Divine Love-Beauty. The book concludes with chapters on the Indian Sankara and the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy he founded, presenting both Sankara and Plato as enlightened reformers of their respective traditions who developed philosophical systems which agree in almost all respects - thus proving the unity of "Tradition."

When Plato is seen as an academic philosopher his work falls into the domain of academics. But, if Plato was a spiritual teacher and Platonism a realizative system, then he would best be explained by someone with spiritual insight. Raphael, founder of the Asram Vidya order and author of dozens of books and translations of Eastern and Western texts, offers us an "out of the cave" interpretation of Plato which does exactly this.

Review by Micha-El (Alan Berkowitz), October 2009.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely no ,slight fare', August 12, 2008

By 

dk - See all my reviews

This review is from: Initiation into the Philosophy of Plato (Paperback)

My experience with this book reminds of a (human) 'love affair'. Some years ago I found myself - more intuitively drawn than based upon concrete facts - attracted to the Italian Advaitin and author Raphael. The very first Raphael-book I 'ran into by accident' was this Plato-book. Strangely enough I remember every detail of that moment: the time of day, how the day-light fell into the room, how the book was lying on the table, my first glance at the cover (the original of that painting I've meanwhile 'visited' in the Vatican's museums in Rome). I also remember exactly my painful disappointment when I opened the book and scanned the pages: No, that was definitely not, what I had expected!

However by this (Thank goodness!) the attraction to Raphael was not diminished at all. So finally (via seminars with Raphael himself and other - more accessible - Raphael-books like 'Beyond the Illusion of the Ego') I found my way back to this Plato-book. As here the philosophy of Plato is also presented in comparison with/ in relation to Shankara's, it was helpful to know the doctrine of Shankara (as for example presented in the marvellous Shankara-book 'Vivekacudamani'; with comments by Raphael).

Concerning the content of the book: "However much may have read or even studied, very few indeed have actually MEDITATED deeply on Platonic Teaching without scholary preconceptions, grasping its essence and its profound ascetic and realizational content. ... Plato's is a philosophy of catharsis, ascent, realization, transformation of the way of feeling, of willing, of acting. Plato uses philosophy as a method for raising us above the conflict-ridden and contradictory world of the sensible to the harmonious world of Being, which is our original home." (p.12)

To my surprise, here I discovered 'pure Advaita' in original quotes by Plato:

"But the way out is denied to us above all because knowledge of Him cannot be obtained either by means of science or of thought, ... but only by means of a presence that is worth far more than science. ... Frankly, the teaching does not extend ... pointing out the way and the journey; but the vision is indeed wholly a personal doing of he who resolved to contemplate." (p. 36 f.) "Philosophers are those who are capable of attaining what is always unchangingly the same ... who always love a teaching capable of clarifying for them some aspect of that being which always is and cannot be touched by any kind of alteration caused by generation and corruption." (p. 67)

About the first part of the book (up to p. 77): the profound knowledge of the (Self realized) philosopher Raphael will probably be appreciated most by philosophers and those who are interested in Plato. The book proofs in a convincing and fascinating way the unity of Eastern and Western traditions, is however difficult to read and comprehend without a philosophical background.

For me the second part of the book (from p. 78 on) was much more easy to access: "Now we shall speak of ... 'return' ..., because Plato's is no vain show of mental or conceptual virtuosity, but a philosophy of AWAKENING to what we really are;" (p. 78)

Amongst others Raphael quotes and comments Plato's famous 'myth of the cave'. This (see p. 87 ff.) has accompanied me for days; while the image (directly; just by itself) had a strong impact on me. "in it, he [Plato] chose to summarize all his doctrine, from a metaphysical, epistemological and ethical point of view, as well as that of mystical ascent. This picture ... can stimulate our consciousness into absolute Reality." (p. 87)

The most I was touched by p. 104-115 concerning the 'Pathway of Love'.