Pythagoras: His Life and Teaching, a Compendium of Classical Sources (3 page)

The Pythagorean community was an unusual experiment in human relations. It comprised a close membership adhering to strictly prescribed rules, which they regarded as reversed ordinances. The brothers were thus united in a common purpose. A friend, they held to be another self. With the understanding, derived from Pythagoras, they established true friendships, with the depth of his meaning becoming practical reality. They were aware that friendship symbolizes the good that exist between God and man, soul and body, and man and woman, binding all relations together. The brothers recognized too that discord, wherever appearing, is the cause of dissension and disintegration.

In this society personal possessions meant nothing. The brothers saw no point in accumulating personal wealth, seeing that overabundance is as pointless as severe need. Upon entering the society, everything that a brother owned became the common property of
all, for the best interest of each. Should one leave the society, he took with him the estate he brought. The brothers would then erect a tomb for him, as if he were dead. Thus they outgrew egoistic interest, which could never promote the principles for which they stood.

Pythagoras advised his disciples not to rise from their beds after sun up. Rather, they must be about their duties and, as the sun rose, see therein the image of God. He instructed them never to do anything they had not first premeditated. He had no approval for the student who made an appointment and then broke it, and disregarded one who broke a vow. In relating, the student was to speak clearly, constructively, and directly. Moderation in all things was demanded, for an excess, even of virtue, can be a vice.

Notwithstanding Pythagoras' severe disciplining, his disciples accepted his directives without question, for they respected That Man. They looked upon him, not as an ordinary human being, but as one, who possessing godly aspects, was in a class between man and the gods. No mere human, they felt, could accomplish such things as he had achieved. They recognized that when he spoke, the aim was to cure, for he regarded teaching as the highest form of preventive and curative therapy.

In directing the Academy, Pythagoras established additional procedures for the strengthening of soul and body. Included was the practice of piety, morality, temperance, obedience, government, fidelity, and respect for law. Instruction also entailed the structure and meaning of the world soul, the universe, and the law of cause and effect which makes one see that he will reap what he deserves. Religious insights, along with natural mysticism, were stressed, for Pythagoras saw that one must align with God and the gods as principles, or spiritual development would be stultified. Man is never to assume that he has been overlooked by God and the gods, who are his agents, for man is always under their supervision.

The curriculum also included harmony, music, the dance, gymnastics, and proper diet. Having discovered harmony, Pythagoras applied it to order body and soul. By music the manner and passions may be modified to produce health. Through the appreciation of music, angers, griefs, fears, and various desires were exorcised and directed toward virtue. There were melodies for evening relaxation,
and others that roused the energies. Pythagoras had music within himself, and applying the ears of his soul to the inner harmony of the world, used it to heal. On one occasion a murder was prevented by the introduction of quieting music. The dance was practiced as conducive to agility of body and health of soul. In healing, poultices and potions from herbs were frequently used. Physical and psychological therapy, by means of color and verse, as those of the
Odyssey
and
Illiad
, were well known to the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras' efforts were spent in the process of unfolding, developing, and deepening the natural potentials of those he accepted for instruction. He saw his disciples and himself as conscious parts of a universal, vital, moving process, and advised all to cooperate with this process, since it involves an inevitable necessity.

The Master taught that, “A man must be made good, then a god.” In the order of ascent, the attainment is first made by achieving in daily life, from hence, under instruction, one comes gradually to comprehend, and then to resemble the Divine. He concluded that, most important of all, a man must inform his soul concerning what is good and what is ill, for one is good only when he knows and practices the good. Everyone is destined eventually to know universals, not with the physical eye, but by intellectual and intuitive insight. Then, as The Golden Verses say, man stripped of flesh is freed to higher ether: “A deathless God divine, mortal no more.”

The Master maintained that philosophy has to do with real things. He means real essences, incorporeal and eternal realities. All other things are what they are by participating in these realities. Such is the nature of material things, which are corruptible. Science, he points out, has to do with corporeals and not with essentials, and the knowledge of particulars must always follow the science of essentials, or universals. In consciousness, he who understands universals will also understand particulars, but not the reverse.

Pythagoras was practical with his philosophy, for he held it to be in vain if incapable of curing man's passions. As medicine cures the body, there is no benefit in philosophy unless it expels the diseases of the soul. What then are the anchors, the helpers, of the soul? He answers: Wisdom, Magnanimity, and Fortitude, for the virtues are solid, the rest are trifles.

Progress at the Academy actually amounted to a series of initiations. The most significant phase of instruction concerned the fundamental concept that number is the essence of things—that everything is essentially number. Authorities disagree as to how this concept is to be understood. Aristotle's opinion is that the two ways of viewing numbers namely as primal essences, or as the symbols of existence, do not exclude one another. The principle explanation maintains that numbers are the Form, the very essence and meaning of things, and do not exist apart from things. Number
per se
was presented as the quality of things, as the substance and law which holds the universe together. So powerful was this concept that it was further stated that number rules over gods and men and are therefore, the condition and definition of knowledge.

All numbers are divisible into either Odd, or Even, which are the universal constituents of numbers and of things. A third class was accepted, namely, the Odd-Even. The Odd was identified with the Limited, while the Even was associated with the Unlimited. All things partake of the Limited and the Unlimited, the Limited to be equated with the perfect, and the Unlimited with the imperfect. In addition to these opposites, there were the One and Many, Right and Left, Masculine and Feminine, Rest and Motion, Straight and Crooked, Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, Square and Oblong. Certain meanings were also assigned to each of these categories. The Pythagoreans felt it to be observable that each thing contains within itself these opposite characteristics.

Regarding first principles, Pythagoras taught that from the opposition of Unity and Duality, other opposites may be deduced, such as: Spiritual and Corporeal, Form and Substance, and Deity and Matter, which is itself derived from Deity as the original Unity. Unity is the condition of all beginning, and from it arose infinite Duality. Unity and Duality produced numbers and, from these, points, and other mathematical and geometrical forms. Unity is the efficient or moving cause of things. Duality is fundamental matter out of which, when impressed by Unity, creation is produced. The Neo-Pythagoreans regarded Unity as the One and correlated it with Deity, a formless Form lying beyond all opposites as the cause of causes. Duality is to be identified with diversity, as the fragmentor of Being.

The opposites are held together by Harmony, present in each thing, as the unifier of the many which brings discord into accord. Pythagoras assigned special importance to this principle, seeing that it was a necessary condition of each discrepant unit of being: for instance, it is inherent in musical structure, and in the constitution of individuals.

To understand Pythagoras we cannot minimize his preoccupation with numbers and their application to specific concepts and objects. His theory applies specific numbers to everything, both animate and inanimate—for example, to man, plant, and earth. He also applied numbers to concepts: two is equated with opinion, four with justice, five with marriage, seven with timeliness.

The decad was regarded as the inclusive, culminating, sacred number. The Pythagoreans, therefore, divided the universe into ten spheres: first was the circle of the Divine Fire, then the seven spheres of the planets, the earth, and Antichthon, which they proposed as a counter earth. This we never see, since its motion always keeps it at 180° from the earth, kept from view by the sun. They conceived of the heavenly bodies, not so much as physical bodies, but as energy centers, serving as agencies through which Divine intelligence expresses.

The Tetractys, representing universal forces and processes, forms a pyramid by the use of 10 dots. It was the most revered symbol of the Pythagoreans. To construct the figure, four dots are used to form the base, three are placed above these, and then two upon them, and finally one. The one is unity, the two, diversity, the three, equilibrium, while the four is the smallest number of lines that can enclose a square.

Pythagoras draws attention to the properties of the ten basic numbers:

1.  The Monad, accepted before all others, because having no diversity, it is always the same;

2.  The Duad, the audacious, because the first to separate from the One;

3.  The Triad, because it grows out of the Duad, or great mother and the Monad, or divine father;

4.  The Tetrad, because it provides the foundation of structure;

5.  The Pentad, or equilibrium, because it divides ten into equal halves;

6.  The Hexad, because it comprises the form of forms, and concerns the perfection of parts;

7.  The Heptad, because it is the number of life and law;

8.  The Ogdoad, because it symbolizes counsel, prudence, and love;

9.  The Ennead, because it contains the first square of an odd number (3 × 3), and entails boundary or limitation;

10.  The Decad, because it is the most inclusive, number, involving all arithmetic and harmonic possibilities.

From the first ten numbers all others were created, since these involve the nature of all numbers.

Pythagorean metaphysics teaches that creation was the result of a central fire formed in the center of the universe. This fire is the One, or Monad and therefore, is good. It is the moving principle of all, including the gods and heavenly bodies. Pythagoras was convinced that the central fire always was; hence, it was not appropriate to speculate upon a beginning of this first cause. As the objects of time and space were regarded mathematically, so the central fire was regarded dynamically. It is the spirit or soul of individuals, as well as of the universe, and is fused throughout the entirety of Being.

The stars are highly evolved phases of the universe, having everything that the earth has, except more perfect. Pythagoras discovered Venus to be both a morning and evening star. He knew the motion of the heavenly bodies, and was aware of the unchangeable regularity of their orbits. In this he saw something divine. From the revolution of heavenly bodies he arrived at his theory of a universal year.

The heavenly bodies give off a sound which the Pythagoreans called the harmony of the spheres. The tones produced by these bodies is in relation to their size, distance, density, and movement. As the planetary system produces a harmony, so too does the universe in its entirety, and as living creatures breathe, so do the planets and the universe.

In the Pythagorean schema the universe entails three levels of being, which correlate with three levels of consciousness. There is
the Supreme World, the Superior World, and the Inferior World. The Supreme is the highest, a subtle spiritual essence. The Superior World is that of essential principles such as Numbers and Ideas, and is the abode of the immortals. The Lower World is inhabited by those creatures which partake of material substance. The Supreme world contains within itself the nature and capacity of the lesser two.

Human souls, requiring experience which will eliminate ignorance, take on bodies. The soul, however, must discover how to extract itself from matter, or better, to incorporate the principle of matter into itself. As long as it experiences on the earth plane, it requires a body through which to function. Separated from the body, the soul in the other world experiences the exact sort of life it has set up for itself by causes established during its earthly existence. The later Pythagoreans regarded man's soul as a part of the world soul and, for this reason, considered it divine and imperishable. Another reason for this is that soul has its number and harmony, both of which are imperishable.

The Pythagoreans also believed in Daemons. At times these forms appear to men and assist in directing the processes of their lives. They may, in fact, as may man himself, be regarded as agencies or facilitators of a purposeful plan extent in the world process. The Daemons in consciousness stand midway between man and the gods. Man is under divine direction, and cannot accomplish his transformation to the Hero state without the help of the Daemons, gods, and God. To achieve this greatest good, man must follow the order and spirit of Nature, rather than the dictates of irrationality, and emotional abandonment. Therefore, it is one's duty to purify the soul, and not to depart earthly responsibilities of one's own accord.

Of Pythagoras' Golden Verses, his cryptic way of presenting important truths, seventy-one are recorded, exemplified by those quoted: Verses XIII-XVI read, “Observe justice in all your actions and words; neither use yourself, in any manner, to act without reason. But always make this reflection, that it is ordained by destiny for all men to die; and that the goods of fortune are uncertain; and that, as they may be acquired, they may likewise be lost.”