Saturday, June 16, 2007

The Seer


"In Plato's Alcibiades, Socrates is pondering the meaning of the Delphic inscription 'Know thyself'. It is, he says, as though someone were to say to the eye, 'See thyself', which it should do in a mirror, especially in the mirror of another eye. 'If the eye is to see itself, therefore, it must look at the eye, and at that part of the eye - the pupil - where sight which is the virtue of the eye resides.' It is then a small step to be talking about the soul, which should look at that part of the soul in which wisdom resides, and looking at wisdom we may arrive at God and thus come to know ourselves. This is sound doctrine supported by similar reflections the world over, as in the vedas, which give the name of Brahma to the Person in the Eye and say of him: 'The eyes opened from them a luminous ray, from it the sun was made - the sun, becoming seen, penetrated the eyes..."
Francis Huxley, The Eye the Seer and the Seen

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