The Wisdom of Hypatia: Ancient Spiritual Practices for a More Meaningful Life (54 page)

“The row of two in the Tetractys symbolizes the two parts of the Cosmic Nous:

Determinate Being and Indeterminate Being. Contemplation begins at the level of

Determinate Being, where the Ideas are separate and distinct, and then proceeds to

Indeterminate Being, which approximates the ineffable unity of The One. Now pay

attention, for this is difficult.

“Contemplation at the level of the Determinate Being attaches definite thoughts,

images, concepts, or assertions to specific Forms. This is called the
affirmative way
and follows from dialectical analysis and from knowing the Forms noetically. We Pagans

contemplate the many gods who govern our lives. For Jewish and Christian Platonists

this practice includes contemplation of the names of God and his qualities. But we

know that The Inexpressible One cannot be expressed in words, understood concep-

tually, or visualized.

“Therefore, in order to transcend Nous and Being and to approach The One, we

must ascend to the level of Indeterminate Being, where all these specific assertions must be denied. This is the
negative way
. Beside each affirmation, such as ‘The One is good’, we should put its negation, ‘The One is not good’. Against ‘The One is infinite’, we place ‘The One is not infinite’.

“However, such negations are themselves affirmations, for to say ‘The One is not

infinite’ is the same as saying ‘The One is finite’. Therefore, we have not succeeded in transcending the realm of Being and Not-being, and so a more radical denial is required. We accomplish this by denying
both
the affirmations and the negations. Since we cannot assert anything, we must remain silent in the face of The Inexpressible. In this way we are open to hearing God.

“Being in this quiet, receptive state requires inner tranquility, a state of quiet expectation. However, as you have probably experienced, it is difficult to remain in this state for very long. Rather than attempting to enter directly into a state of meditative emptiness, it is often easier to repeat a simple inner chant, called an
arrow prayer
.”

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Arrow Prayers and Invocation of the Name

Some example arrow prayers follow, but of course you can pick your own, or your teacher might give you one. If you are Neopagan or Wiccan, you could choose a short chant, or an extract from a longer one, that is especially meaningful for you.

Alone with The Alone. [Numenius and Plotinus290]

I’m beautiful when I’m truly myself;

I’m beautiful when I know myself. [after Plotinus291]

I contain part of the Supreme. [after Plotinus292]

My soul is a child of The One. [after Plotinus293]

God is the author of liberty. [Plotinus294]

My goal is not to be flawless, but to be god. [Plotinus295]

Remove everything. [Plotinus]

Bear and forebear. [Epictetus]

Hen to Pan (The All is One). [Greek, alchemical296]

As above, so below; as within, so without. [Hermetic]

My god, my nous, my thought, my soul, my body. [Monoïmos the Arab297]

Ribbono shel Olam (Master of the Universe). [Jewish298]

Shalom (Peace). [Jewish]

Elohim (on inhale); Ha-Shem (on exhale). [Jewish names of God]

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Kyrie, eleison (Lord, have mercy). [Greek, Orthodox Christian299]

O God, make haste to help me.

O Lord, make speed to save me. [Christian300]

Allah. [Moslem]

Allāhu akbar (Allah is great). [Moslem]

La ilaha ilallah (There is no god but Allah). [Moslem]

Love is the law, love under will. [Thelemite]

IAÔ. [Gnostic]

AUM (Om). [Hindu, Buddhist, Jain]

Om mani padme hum. [Buddhist]

Namo Amitābhāya (Homage to Infinite Light). [Sanskrit, Pure Land Buddhism]

Namu Amida Butsu (I take refuge in Amitābha, Buddha of Infinite Light).

[Japanese, Pure Land Buddhism]

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama,

Rama Rama Hare Hare. [Sanskrit, Hindu]

Tat tvam asi (Thou art that). [Sanskrit, Hindu]

San Ching Jiao Tzu Wu Liang Tien Tzun (Three pure ones, founders of Daoism,

limitless honored in heaven). [Chinese, Daoist301]

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As you can see, most spiritual traditions have the practice of arrow prayers, for example, Hindu repetition of mantras (
japa
) and Sufi chanting of the divine name (
dhikr
).

An arrow prayer gets its name from the idea that it flies straight to God, that it carries the soul directly into the heart of the Inexpressible One. I think it’s interesting that shamans often use a magic arrow as a means of ascending through the levels of reality to the gods, beating it on their drums to enter a trance state. According to legend, the healer-sage Abaris (seventh to sixth cents. BCE) traveled on such a magic arrow, which he later gave to Pythagoras, who was supposed to be the semi-divine son of Apollo, a solar god of healing and prophecy, often seen with his bow and arrows. In any case, an arrow shot into the sun is a symbol of ascent to The One.

Similarly, the well-known Sanskrit mantra AUM is interpreted as the bow that shoots

the arrow, representing the true self (
atman
), into Brahman (Absolute Reality). Its letters represent the triadic principle: Creation, Preservation, and Destruction. The Gnostic IAÔ

can be interpreted similarly as the Neoplatonic triadic principle: Abiding, Proceeding, and Returning, respectively.

Notice that an arrow prayer may be as simple as a divine name or attribute; its purpose is to keep your mind focused on the deity, until the repeater and the repeated merge together.

Also, most of these prayers do not ask for something or attempt to change God’s mind, and so they may seem a little different from the prayers familiar to you. According to Neoplatonic philosophy, prayers are not intended to persuade the gods, flatter them, rouse their pity, or otherwise suppose the gods are like super-humans subject to human emotions. Rather, the gods or angels in the Cosmic Nous are Beings outside of time, impassive and steadfast in their governance of change here below. And this applies even more to The One. The purpose of Neoplatonic prayer is not to bring divinity down to our level, but rather to raise our souls up toward the divine. The purpose of a prayer is not to change God, but to change us. Therefore, a Neoplatonic prayer is more like an affirmation, which is intended to keep us focused on our goal, which is The One. This is the target of the arrow.

Petrus, one of Hypatia’s Christian students, raises his hand and asks, “What is the

proper posture and technique for this contemplation? Some Pagans mock our holy

men who dwell in the desert, and call them ‘navel gazers’.”

Hypatia laughs. “It’s true that the Pagan practice is a little different, and Christian method seems odd to us. However, I see that Synesius, who has recently arrived in

Alexandria, has slipped into the back of the room. As you know, he was my pupil many

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years ago and has since converted to Christianity, so he can explain the practice of your desert hermits.”

Synesius is caught off-guard, but proceeds to the front and addresses the disciples.

“Thank you, my lady, for this honor. Our ascetics are called ‘navel gazers’ because they bend forward until they can stare at their navels, the center of their vitality. Sitting on a stool in this posture causes tension in their shoulders and necks, but especially con-striction around their hearts. This keeps them alert, but also aids concentration of the vital spirit into the heart. They compress this spirit with each breath, which they hold while they mentally invoke God, and which they release briefly between invocations.

By focusing on their navels, they shift their attention from external things into themselves and master the inner beast.” Synesius takes an empty seat.

“Thank you, my friend,” Hypatia says, “for this clear explanation. I’m sure it is an effective technique, but we do it differently, sitting with an erect spine and our eyes closed or focused a short distance away. For us, an erect posture symbolizes the natural state of humans as intermediate beings, able to choose to look downward to mate-

rial reality or upward to divine reality. The three parts of our souls are arranged along our spines, which symbolize the Cosmic Axis, Olympus, or the ‘World Tree’ connecting Earth and Heaven together. Neither is complete without the other, and we must look

both up and down to understand all of reality.”

“Forgive me, Master,” Petrus interrupts, “but is navel gazing wrong?”

“There are many ways,” she replies, “all effective, but some work better for some

students than for others. Partly it is just a matter of habit, or of your teacher’s preference. Since you have Christian teachers, Petrus, you should probably practice after their fashion.”

Arrow Prayer:
Select an arrow prayer from those above or find one elsewhere. Generally you should use a meaningful arrow prayer so that you can focus on its

meaning, which will keep you alert. The practice is to sit in a comfortable

position, quiet your soul, and raise and concentrate it into your nous. Repeat

the arrow prayer silently, without any accompanying image. Do so in a relaxed

way, without excessive stress or loudness in your inner voice. Try synchroniz-

ing it with your breath.

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Four Degrees of Prayer

Hypatia explains that there are four degrees of prayer of decreasing materiality

and increasing subtlety, ascending toward The One. The first is “prayer of the lips,” that is, prayer spoken out loud, which is the way people usually prayed in the ancient world.

(If someone whispered a prayer, others suspected them of praying for something

bad.) “Prayer of the lips,” she says, “corresponds to the level of the body. The second degree of prayer is more inward, at the level of the soul. In this case you repeat the prayer in your mind, but since it goes word by word in time, it is at the level of the soul.

This practice is especially valuable if your mind is filled with pointless chatter. Do you know what I mean?”

Athanasius, raises his hand but cannot restrain himself. “My brain is always talking to itself: repeating the arguments I have won, or agonizing over those I lost, repeating what I should have said, if only I had thought more quickly. Or it’s planning what I will say in an upcoming conversation, or what I should say, if ever I chance to discourse on some topic. Is this wrong?”

“It’s not wrong,” Hypatia replies, “but governing your inner dialogue is an essential part of the virtue of self-control. If you are going to speak or write about something, then it is certainly wise to plan your words. But then you should let it go, without causing yourself mental anguish by imagining all the ways it may turn out. Likewise, it’s pointless to gloat over past triumphs or to rehearse the mistakes you’ve made in the past, suffering again the humiliation, pain, guilt, or regret.