In a book am currently writing, I have shown how philosophy, through such great philosophers like Socrates, helped lay the groundwork for Western systems of logic and philosophy.
This discipline (philosophy) was first practiced by the Greeks who were very educated at the time.
Through this discipline, the Greeks were deeply involved in the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.
They questioned on matters relating to reality and determined to know what was reality. They questioned on our consciousness on whether we are not actually in a dream state of mind.
It is through this quest for knowledge through this discipline, which is said to be a comprehensive system of ideas about human nature and the nature of reality that we live in, that compelled the early philosophers, who regarded the knowledge brought by the discipline as a guide for living, because the issues it addressed were basic and pervasive, to guide the Western society in determining the course they took in life and how to treat other people.
It is said that Plato, one of Socrates' students, was inspired by his emphasis on the importance of the mind over the relative unimportance of the human body. This emphasis inspired Plato to divide the reality into two separate realms- the world of senses and the world of ideas.
Amazingly this was the same doctrine that St. Paul had been given, in the three years that he stayed in the desert, to take to the gentiles (this is after Jesus told the Jews that He was come that they (the gentiles) must have life and have it in abundance: John 10:10).
It is no wonder that Paul's doctrine was more acceptable and easier to grasp by the Greeks than the disciples of Christ, including Peter and Mathew, who had proclaimed that they could not comprehend the doctrine that Paul was giving them, prompting Paul to take it to the Greeks- the gentiles.
The similarity in the two doctrines is found in that Paul came proclaiming of the duality of man and called upon man to focus his mind on higher things. This 'higher things,' is what Plato, as seen above had classified as the world of ideas. It is the world of thought also known as the world of the spiritual realm.
Paul has shown, in all his 14 books in the New Testament, that it is only through focusing our mind on the realm of higher things, that we can attain to righteousness. (The emphasis on this fact is seen in the yoke of Christ, which He is asking us to take as it is light).
This doctrine of Paul is what he terms as the mature food. It is mature food in that it shows us that the kingdom of God is in the realm of mind. It also shows that we can only attain to righteousness, which leads us to the finding of the kingdom of God, through meditating upon the principles of Christ, also known as the yoke of Christ, which includes righteousness, purity of mind, Gentleness, humility, love, meekness and renunciation of self.
In turn, in these principles of Christ, is found the straight and narrow way that leads to the kingdom of God.
Equally, we find Paul struggling with his lower self in the last part of chapter 7 of the book of Romans because he is unspiritual. As a result, we see him failing to understand what he does, because the things he want to do, he does not do them, but the things he hates, he do them.
The struggle with the lower self and the desires of the body is also depicted in a poem by Rabidranath Tagore:
“Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches when I try to break them. Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it I feel ashamed. I am certain that priceless wealth is in thee, and that thou art my best friend, but I have not the heart to sweep away the tinsel that fills my room.
The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and death; I hate it, yet hug it in love. My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.”It is also depicted in the classical passage in St. Augustine's confessions:
"Often does a man, when heavy sleepiness is on his limbs, defer to shake it off, and, though not approving, encourage it; even so was I sure it was better to surrender to thy love than to yield to my own lusts; yet though the former course convinced me, the latter pleased and held me back. There is nothing in me to answer thy call, ' Awake! Thou sleeper,' but only drawling, drowsy words, ' Presently, yes, presently; wait a little while.' But the ' presently ' had no present, and the ' little while ' grew long, for I was afraid thou wouldst hear me too soon, and heal me at once of my disease of lust, which I wished to satiate rather than to see extinguished ."
A keen observation on verses 21- 23 will show that in one of his two personalities, the higher self, which he calls his inner being, Paul delights in God's law. But in his other personality, the lower self, which is contained in the members of his body, another law is waging war against the law of his mind.
Paul also finds that this is making him a prisoner of the law of sin at work within his members of the body.
We also find Paul telling the Corinthians in chapter 4 of the book of 1 Corinthians that he is giving them milk and not solid food, because they are still worldly. This means that they are still conforming to the world due to the fact that they have not understood the duality of man and are as a result dealing with the lower self.
Research has also shown that when missionaries brought Christianity to Africa, they observed the brain of Africans and came to the ill- conceived notion that it had not fully formed.
The result of this conclusion is found in that Africans were then fed with milk instead of mature food. One example of this wrong doctrine is found in that we are made to understand that God physically lives in the heavens, somewhere beyond the solar system in the interstellar space!
This wrong doctrine is detrimental to our faith, on the basis that we then worship a god of the without, rather than the God of the within- the Omnipresent God, but a god who is out there and sometimes we have to shout very loudly and call upon his name for him to hear us.
It is sometimes not surprising to hear a pastor in a church telling the congregants that 'today God will come down.'
This is also why sometimes people think that scientists, while sending their spaceships, like Voyager one, which has already left our solar system and is headed for interstellar space, has the danger of going to God's kingdom and may cause Him to be upset and bring calamity to the world.
Africans, must therefore wake up to this lie and come to terms that we live in two worlds:- the world of senses, which means the physical world as well as the world of ideas- the world of thought also known as the world of the spiritual realm.
They must also come to terms with the fact that the world of thoughts is the real world, as it is the world of causes, whereas the physical world is the unreal world, as it is the world of effects. This will in turn have the good results in that our people will stop fearing to think and will instead start thinking deeply. They will spend more time in their mind, their realm of thought and in the silence of their secluded places, they will start to hear the small still voice of God, also known as intuition or the sixth sense; the same voice that guided Elijah telling him go there turn here...
We must be more afraid to the fact that our lack of embracing the philosophy of the senses, as well as the idea world, is our downfall.
But more so, we must wake up to the harsh reality that we were also fed with the wrong doctrine that when you think too hard you lose it, you go mad, while we now know that nothing could be further from the truth.
By Joe Mwai
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