Messages 2009
Aristotle’s Progression, and the Soul.
May 6th-7th, 2009
Santa Cruz, California
Received by FAB
I am here, Aristotle.
Yes, I am the Greek philosopher who always knew that he knew very little. Yes, I was humble as to truth, and this humility enabled me to learn the doctrine of the Master. I inhabit the Celestial Heavens, and many things which were confusing speculations on earth became knowledge, which I now possess.
I guided you to this book on my thoughts, and I would like to supplement your reading with comments of my own.
You have been guided to my treatise, On the Soul. On this subject, I must say that my earthly thoughts amounted to no more than speculation, whereas in my present state, I am in possession of truth as to the nature of the soul.
And this is certainly understandable. In my culture, we emphasized reason, and I have since learned that reason can only go so far and no further. I could not go further than reason, because I knew not such a way.
Yes, I could not see that the human soul is not at all a part of Nature, in any way, and that it originates with the Creator. Nor could I see that animals do not have a soul that is accountable for their lives to the Creator.
As I look back on my essay about the soul, I see I made the mistake of trying to understand it through reason. The truth therefore eluded me.
There is no division of the soul. It is integral, one in itself. It is the thing that gives life to human beings. Without it, a person cannot have life.
What you feel is lacking in my essay is warmth. It strikes you as dry, whereas you feel that things of the soul are the essence of inspiration and life. And I can now wholeheartedly agree with you.
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology.
Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato’s teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. He was the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality and aesthetics, logic and science, politics and metaphysics. Aristotle’s views on the physical sciences profoundly shaped medieval scholarship, and their influence extended well into the Renaissance, although they were ultimately replaced by Newtonian Physics. In the biological sciences, some of his observations were confirmed to be accurate only in the nineteenth century. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, which was incorporated in the late nineteenth century into modern formal logic. In metaphysics, Aristotelianism had a profound influence on philosophical and theological thinking in the Islamic and Jewish traditions in the Middle Ages, and it continues to influence Christian theology, especially Eastern Orthodox theology, and the scholastic tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. All aspects of Aristotle’s philosophy continue to be the object of active academic study today. (Source: Wikipedia)