The Wisdom of Hypatia: Ancient Spiritual Practices for a More Meaningful Life (51 page)

understanding of the Ideas.”

“That is a great relief, my lady.”

“Another useful dialectical practice is textual commentary, such as I practice with

you. We select some venerable text—it might be one of Plato’s dialogs or one of Ar-

istotle’s essays, or an inspired text such as the poems of Homer and Hesiod, or the

Chaldean Oracles
—and either I comment on it myself, or assign it to one of you for 246 the path of truth

commentary. Other teachers might choose the
Torah
or
Gospels
. The task of the commentator is to expound, analyze, and criticize the text, revealing its inner meaning. But we also want this to be a collaborative activity, with the commentator responding to questions and challenges, either orally or in writing.”

Through the preceding, Petrus has been growing more visibly upset.

“Do you have a question, Petrus?”

“Forgive my boldness, my lady, but how can you mention in the same breath the

holy gospels and the false Pagan fables of the gods? Moreover, the gospels are be-

yond criticism, for they are the literal word of God.”

“Which gospels do you have in mind?” snorts Athanasius—always ready to pick a

fight—“For you Christians have them by the bushel, all mutually contradictory!”

“There are only four that are genuine,” pronounces Olympius. “There must be four,

like the four pillars that support the earth, but we must be patient until the holy syn-ods finally decide which four. All the others are heresy!”

“Why don’t they approve of the
Gospel of Thomas
?” asks Cyrus, a Christian suspected of Pagan leanings. “It is excellent.”

“Aren’t there also gospels of Eve, Mary, and Sophia?” asks Aedesia.

“Heresies!” cries Olympius.

The students begin to talk at the same time, until Hypatia raises her hand and they

instantly fall silent.

“There is much of truth and value in our sacred and inspired texts—
if
you know how to read them. Do the
Illiad
and
Odyssey
record the true history of the Trojan War?

While I have no doubt there was such a war, I
do
doubt that these poems record every detail correctly. That is not their purpose. Nor do I believe the literal truth of Hesiod’s stories of the violence the gods commit against each other. Plato teaches us that such violence is against their nature.

“Nevertheless, these sacred, inspired texts, these scriptures, contain deep and pro-

found truths. But you must set aside their literal meanings and read them—or hear

them—
symbolically
. Then you will pass beyond the trivial particularities of time and place, the literal meaning, and penetrate to their universal and eternal meaning in

their hearts. When we discussed the Ascent by Love, we did this in our analysis of the myth of Narcissus, a silly enough story if read literally! So remember:

Mythic truth is truer than literal truth.

the path of truth 247

“Moreover, as you will learn when we discuss the Ascent by Trust, long meditation

on a symbolic interpretation allows the symbols to act in your soul, bringing about

spiritual transformation. But enough of dusty books and brittle scrolls for now! The weather is very pleasant, so let’s move our lesson to the garden.”

Textual commentary is often viewed as a sort of low-grade, second-hand philosophy, but it is a spiritual exercise inculcating humility and love of truth. Nowadays we tend to value novelty for its own sake, but ancient philosophy was aimed at the truth as a guide for living.

Whether an idea was new or old was not the point, and philosophers recognized that an old idea, which had been tested and refined for centuries, might be much more valuable than an untested innovation. Therefore, at its best, textual commentary acknowledges the time-tested value of a philosopher’s work, while simultaneously trying to enhance human well being by making incremental improvements to the philosophy’s doctrines and practices and by adapting them to contemporary circumstances. (This is in fact my hope in presenting Hypatia’s philosophy as a contemporary spiritual practice.)

Dialectics also includes reading and studying texts, both primary texts and secondary commentaries or analyses. An important part of this activity is allegorical interpretation and dialectical analysis of inspired texts or scriptures in order to reveal their inner meaning. Therefore, as part of your program of spiritual development you should continue to read critically books of philosophy, mythology, and spiritual wisdom, both ancient and modern. See the following exercises and
Additional Reading
at the end of this book for some suggestions.

Textual Commentary
: You can practice textual commentary as a group exercise.

First, pick some text of mutual interest with a spiritual orientation. Obvious

choices would be any of Plato’s dialogues. Traditionally Neoplatonists studied

them in a prescribed order,283 but that is not at all necessary; I recommend the

Phaedo
,
Symposium
, and
Phaedrus
as accessible dialogues with direct relevance to spiritual practice. Another good, challenging choice would be Plotinus’
Enneads
, since they are the foundation of Neoplatonism. If you are not ready

to read them all, there are some good selections available, such as those by

Dodds, O’Brien, Katz, and Uždavinys (see the
Bibliography
).