Platonic Reality Part 1

 

Platonic Reality Part 1

Plato taught that true reality consists of the nonphysical world of thought, ideas and mind.  The physical world of the senses is simply an imperfect copy of this invisible world.  At first, this may seem like a rather strange concept.  -But not so to Plato.  He taught that Truth, Justice and Beauty are invisible thought-forms, which he called “Forms”.  The enlightened philosopher, according to Plato, has discovered this realm of Ideas, which is non-spatial and non-temporal.  To Plato, true spirituality and true ethics consists of the invisible concepts of the True, the Good and the Beautiful.

Plato’s mystical vision of Truth, Justice and Beauty is illustrated in his famous story of The Cave.  Imagine, says, Plato, a cave where people have lived for generations.  They live their whole life as prisoners in chains with their backs to the entrance of the cave.  When animals walk by the entrance, they can only see shadows cast on the cave walls.  To them, the shadows are the only reality.  One day, however, some one finds a way to release the chains, turn around, and walk out of the cave into the sunlight.  At first, the light is so bright that she can barely see anything at all.  Eventually, however, her eyes adjust, and she sees true animals, true trees and true sunlight.  She returns to the cave to tell her friends what she has discovered.  But her friends simply mock her and do not believe her story.

Plato used this illustration to illustrate the liberated, “unchained,” ENLIGHTENED PHILOSOPHER, who, through vigorous, disciplined inquiry, has risen above the everyday world of the senses to invisible world of archetypical Ideas.

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