SAGES Of The
AGES: On KNOWLEGE
Compiled and
Edited
by
HARENDRA OM,
Ms.D.
HARENDRA
OM, Ms.D.
Volume One
e-Book 2004
Copyright 2004
SAGES Of The AGES: On KNOWLEGE
Compiled and Edited
by
HARENDRA OM, Ms.D.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Copyright
2004
e-Book
Maverick Publishing
HOUSTON, TEXAS
SAGES Of The AGES: On KNOWLEGE
Compiled and Edited
by
HARENDRA OM, Ms.D.
INTRODUCTION
What’s in a name? Sage: A person who is venerated for his
experience, judgment and wisdom. Ages:
Time-immemorial; antiquity and beyond to present.
Sages of the Ages,
Volume I, is a compilation of thoughts on knowledge, from some prolific, revered
and illumined thinkers of all times, and a few common folks.
It is apparent that man’s knowledge has made a quantum leap through the
advance of technology, an expanding global community, and the continued
maturation of the information age.
Consider, we have gained more knowledge in the past fifty years, than we
had in the previous five thousand years.
And, there remains more unknown, than known.
The purpose of this book is to encourage more reading and to provoke
thought. The English historian and
essayist, Thomas Carlyle, postulate “all that mankind has done, thought,
gained, or been, is lying in magic preservation in the pages of books.” And Ralph Besse added, “There is no
knowledge, practically speaking, that is not recorded some place in writing. The whole realm of knowledge known to man
is written out… with very few exceptions.”
Without reading, enlightenment would be confined to one’s own limited
insight and vision. Dipping into
knowledge/wisdom is either discomforting and disagreeable or stimulating and
joyous. But it is worth the try just to
find out.
It is reasonable to assume that one is headed in the proper direction
when the seeking of light turns out to be joyous. Moreover, if you know persons of intellect cater to them and profit
by their wisdom. Do not be ashamed to
ask their advice, for it is no disgrace to accept intellectual donations.
The contents contained within will stimulate the interest, promote more
reading and motivate one to acquire more knowledge, growth.
Blind indeed is the person whose mind is not enriched by some utterance
of lasting truth and wisdom, which serves to heighten his spirit in the
exigencies of life.
Acknowledge however, that knowledge within itself has no power, it’s
the acquisition, implementation, and proper utilization of it, that gives it
power. For it is said that the “pen is
mightier than the sword.”
HARENDRA OM, Ms.D.
SAGES Of The AGES: On KNOWLEGE
Compiled and Edited
by
HARENDRA OM, Ms.D.
BIOGRAPHICAL BRIEF
Since 1985, Harendra Om has been a Doctor and Practitioner of
Divine Metaphysics, a Holistic Lifestyle Consultant, and a published essayist.
Being a contemporary of this present era, Dr. Om’s interests are
paramount in promoting an enhanced well-being and longevity of the “Melanian
consanguinity.” His primary mission is
Self- Synchronization through the rejuvenation, regeneration and revitalization
of the black male’s psyche and other metaphysic disorders, plus discovering and
employing alternate lifestyles and thought processes which will decrease the
high male mortality rate and increase a higher level of consciousness for the
survival of the race.
Dr. Om’s professional affiliations are: Science of Mind; Self-Realization Fellowship; Institute For
Advanced Thinking; The World Future Society, Institute of Noetic Sciences.
Association for Research and Enlightenment, and the Futura Cerebral Consortium.
Dr. Harendra Om, is Editor-in-Chief of Futura On-Line Publications and
affiliate of OMCOM.
SAGES Of The AGES: On KNOWLEGE
Compiled and Edited
By
HARENDRA OM, Ms.D.
Dedicated to: AKIL, KAMAU,
JAMILA, SAMARIA, AZIZA, JOSHUA
And
ALL CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT
SAGES Of The AGES: On KNOWLEGE
Compiled and Edited
by
HARENDRA OM, Ms.D.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Metaphysics of Knowledge
Apocalypse Immemorial
Proverbs
African Apothegms
Maxims
SAGES Of The AGES: On KNOWLEGE
Compiled and Edited
by
HARENDRA OM, Ms.D.
THE METAPHYSICS of KNOWLEDGE
There are basically two kinds of knowledge: that which is mundane and physical, known as
exoteric; and that which is arcane, beyond the physical, known only by a few,
as esoteric. Primarily, exoteric
knowledge has to do with the phenomenal world.
It is the knowledge that the individual learns or the human race has
accumulated about the physical world or the human race has accumulated about
the physical world in which he lives.
There are certain laws that seem to be manifest, such as the movement of
objects in space, the tides upon the oceans of the earth, the changing seasons,
and the existence of gravity. This
exoteric knowledge is the knowledge of the physical world, of the immediate
environment, or the physical adjustment of ourselves to that world, but all
other knowledge that cannot be isolated, confined, or described in terms of
physical phenomena falls into the classification of esoteric knowledge.
It is believed by those who accept an
idealistic philosophy that esoteric knowledge does exist and the true realities
of the universe lie within the scope of esoteric knowledge. It is impossible to find confirmation of the
existence of any form of esoteric knowledge in the physical world. Confirmation must come from beyond the
physical world. The validity of
knowledge, according to the idealist and according to the basic principles of
various ancient philosophies, are found in terms of its agreement or
conformance to the absolute.
Exoteric knowledge, or knowledge of the physical world, is obviously that which is perceived by us through our physical sense structure. We are able to see, feel, hear, taste, and smell those things, which constitute the world around us. If we would technically enter into the analysis of the subject of epistemology, which is the science of the nature and validity of knowledge, we might raise serious questions as to whether man does perceive the material world or whether he only perceives impression of it. That question is one of epistemological inquiry, which we cannot do more than touch upon here. We know, for example, when we smell a rose, we receive a certain impression, but is that impression of the rose or is it of certain chemical reaction that occur when the rose approaches the sense faculty of smelling within the human nose? Do we smell the rose or do we smell the chemical change in the air caused by the rose? Of course, this raises the question of whether we can perceive anything in the physical world, or do we only perceive what an external thing causes to exist within the sense perceptive apparatus that perceives it?
We can accept naïve realism as a premise to this extent, that what we perceive through our senses is essentially what exists outside our bodies. In other words, the objects and things that make up the environment we particularly, in terms of metaphysical philosophy, classify as actualities and believe they are actual existent things. We perceive objects substantially as they are, and the reason we believe we do is that we cope with them to a certain degree of success. In other words, we move around in the physical world, and, because of that, we believe that we have perceived essentially in correct form that which actually exists. Consequently, our world of actuality is related to our world of thought through the channel of the physical senses.
Through our five senses, we are able to perceive what exists in the physical world about us. As the result of our sense perceptions, we are able to draw conclusions within our own consciousness concerning the existence, the use, and our application of external things. The physical sense perceptive ability, therefore, is the channel between us as thinking entities and exoteric knowledge.
Esoteric knowledge cannot be perceived or grasped through these physical senses. Furthermore, we are not satisfied that man is capable of perceiving esoteric knowledge merely through the process of reason; that is, the putting together of ideas, while it is a human process and ability that lies potentially within the human mind, is not in itself a creative function sufficient to bring new knowledge into being. Reason is merely an ordering into proper sequence or getting into a certain form the knowledge that we have obtained through the physical senses. Therefore, we must look for another source if se are to procure esoteric knowledge.
The source of esoteric knowledge is intuition. Intuition is commonly taken to mean a direct, immediate, and certain way of gaining knowledge that dispenses with both the element of the logical inference that is present in reason and the element of sensory observation associated with our day-to-day experience. This knowledge exists outside the world of physical phenomena and has to be obtained by a means, which goes beyond any physical limitation.
Intuition is frequently used to refer to the direct
and immediate way in which we apprehend some things. As it is a form of perception or a process in which knowledge
comes into consciousness directly and with certainly, it is the opinion of many
that such knowledge exists and is apprehended through a sixth sense. Many psychologists will agree that the
solution of problems have frequently come to the individual who is attempting
to solve a problem as if it occurred by inspiration. They tend to deny, however, that such insight affords sufficient
evidence to prove a special intuitive faculty, but yet they are unable to deny
the fact that such knowledge has come into consciousness.
Intuition, while we have noted that it functions in
different kinds of knowledge situations, is in its general meaning that which
refers to a person’s sudden feeling of certain knowledge for which there is no
apparent evidence other than the power that the conviction has established within
human consciousness.
A related meaning to the function of intuition
concerns knowledge which has come to many of the outstanding characters and
leaders in history by the way of visions, revelations, interior illumination,
inner voices, and similar experiences.
Such intuition commonly has the effect of suddenly resolving the
metaphysical, moral or religious concepts within the person concerned. In many cases such incidents have caused a
complete reorientation of all life and all action. In some Eastern schools of thought, we have read of holy men who
have subjected themselves to long periods of self-discipline, and as a result
would suddenly know the reality that lay behind all things previously
unknown. In all ages and in many
places, incidents of this nature have been experienced by many individuals.
In a famous passage of “The Symposium, Plato says
that the philosopher, after laboriously trying to mount upward toward the realm
of ideas that exist in the Absolute, has by the means of the discipline of
various earthly forms of existence been able to achieve a vision of eternal
beauty which transcends all physical beauty.
Socrates and Joan of Arc, widely different in their belief, culture, and
even the ages and countries in which they lived, both listened to inner voices
at critical or crucial moments in their lives and found a road to reality
through the knowledge that was revealed to them in this manner. Saint Paul had a vision on the road to
Damascus that changed him for being the persecutor of Christianity to its main
advocate. Such forms of intuition are
characteristic of the way in which knowledge is related to the mystical
experience.
There is a close relationship between intuition and
mysticism, and since mysticism is the fundamental basis of many ancient
philosophies, we must always in the final analysis correlate any principle,
which we consider as a philosophy with the basic concept of mysticism.
The mystic is a person who is able to raise his
consciousness to the point where he transcends the physical world in which he
lives, see beyond the world’s illusion, and comes to the realization that one
divine reality exists with which he can feel himself united. Knowledge for the mystic is therefore the ability
for him to perceive the Absolute, to relate himself to God, to be able to rise
above the limitations of the world of physical phenomena and come into contact
individually with that which exists within the realm of esoteric knowledge.
It is, to a degree, more important that an
individual attain esoteric knowledge than exoteric knowledge, yet each of us as
individuals is destined to live here in a physical world and gain understanding
of its principles. The universe was not
created by God as an illusion for the amusement and bewilderment of His
creatures. The agnostic may acknowledge
that there exist a reality and at the same time may affirm that man can never
know it. On the other hand, God, or
whatever name we give to the Real, is everlastingly knowable. There is a veil that exists between man in
his present state, and God, but the veil can be lifted, this shrine can be
entered, the unknowable can be made known.
The path to the unknowable is through the known. It is by way of the illusion of what appears
to be reality that we can approach the knowledge of true reality and apprehends
it. Man himself is merely a mirror of
the universe, a little world within the greater, but he is a part of the
reality and a part of all that has made it.
If we accept the existence of esoteric
knowledge and the viewpoint of the idealistic philosophy propounded by the
ancient mystics, we realize that we are entities existent within a physical
world striving to be released from that world in order to come into a complete
and final association with the Real. To
the average individual who does not think, it might appear that all is reality
and illusion. That is, he would presume
that that which he can perceive is reality and that everything else is
illusion.
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