Listening not to me but to the Logos

"Listening not to me but to the Logos, it is wise to acknowledge that all things are one."


Orthodox Christianity has Plato to thank for it's clear, sharp lines between body and soul (amongst other things), but I think that the pre-Socratic phusikoi, Heraclitus, might possibly be the philosophical grandaddy of the Gnostics. Living around 500 years prior to our Lord, he's a gentleman who I imagine would have earned his title 'The Riddler' and 'The Obscure' quite easily in Ancient Greece. His quotes remind me of T.S. Eliot:

'The way up and the way down are one and the same. '
'Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony. '
'Immortal mortals, mortal immortals, one living the others death and dying the others life.'
'Nature is wont to hide herself.'
'If you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.'

Logos is usually translated as 'word', but it also means a pattern, a rational account:

'Although this Logos is eternally valid, yet men are unable to understand it -- not only before hearing it, but even after they have heard it for the first time. That is to say, although all things come to pass in accordance with this Logos , men seem to be quite without any experience of it -- at least if they are judged in the light of such words and deeds as I am here setting forth. ...'

I think I would have liked to have known this, from all accounts, highly unpopular and uniquely obstreperous man.

Praise be to the Void.