Cino-Hellenica (AKA Hi!)

[Aithrobates]

Hi everybody.

 

I discovered this forum yesterday, and had not enough sleep as I spent a good part of the night reading

 

I fancy myself a seeker of wisdom, and my main interrest is in Greek philosophy, as I believe that each civilisation has the responsability to take care of its own traditions. But obviously all traditions are connected, have allways worked together.

 

We should not have that extreme position: that there is only one universal tradition and that we're free to cook our own eclectic new-age mix, but on the other hand thinking that Pythagorism, Mazadaism, Buddhisms, Manicheism, Daoism, Bön, etc, etc... are entirely separated fields is equally extreme. We have plenty of affinities to meditate on, and plenty of historical sources telling us about actual conctacts.

 

When it comes to the greeks we have that oldest of the old kind of philosophers, sometimes called the "Hyperboreans". Hyperborea is a mythical land, a kind of Northern Otherworld, that you can see elsewhere in Indo-European mythologies (the islands north of the world in Irish lore, etc...). But the greeks tended to identify it with actual places they travelled to and lived in all around Eurasia. So in that context, the hyperborean place where those early philosphers were said to travel is a wide region corresponding to Northern China, Mongolia, Tibet.

 

So IMO Far East traditions are "sister-traditions" to the western lore. And as greek philosophy turned to the intellectual chit-chat we all know (and it happend early in the antiquity), I feel it is important to seek fresh air in the East. I mean in order to find the missing pieces of the puzzle (and it is really a puzzle: ancient philosophy is preserved in fragments, and of course all lineages died centuries ago).

 

This is getting long So after years of seeking the pieces in ancient lores (mainly Middle East) I landed in Daoist territory. And well, we'll talk more about this in future posts. I hope.

 

Have a nice day/evening/night (depending on when/where you read that).

 

AB

Edited May 27, 2015 by Aithrobates

[soaring crane]

Hello Aithrobates, and welcome to the forums!

 

Glad you found your way to us and thank you for the very intriguing intro :-)

 

Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started.

 

For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day.

 

Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you,

 

SC and the TDB team

[Jeff]

Welcome!

[MooNiNite]

im interested in the north pole, and what actually is going on there. THey dont show it on any maps. and many ancient maps show four islands there with a mountain in the middle. know about this?

[Aithrobates]

In mythologies the Far North is often associated with the limit of the cosmos, the most distant place you can travel to.  A paradoxical place, because there you reach the limit of this world, and the border of the next. So the cosmic levels tends to merge there, the North of the Earth being confused with the Celestial North (Pole Star, Dipper, etc...). Not to speak about the Underworld. Another paradox: this margin is also some kind of center (since you are close to the Cosmic Axis, which runs through the Pole Star). So cosmic images are common, like a mountain for the Axis, and four island for the four directions... In the Irish lore I was talking about there are effectively four island North of the world.

[soaring crane]

In mythologies the Far North is often associated with the limit of the cosmos, the most distant place you can travel to.  A paradoxical place, because there you reach the limit of this world, and the border of the next. So the cosmic levels tends to merge there, the North of the Earth being confused with the Celestial North (Pole Star, Dipper, etc...). Not to speak about the Underworld. Another paradox: this margin is also some kind of center (since you are close to the Cosmic Axis, which runs through the Pole Star). So cosmic images are common, like a mountain for the Axis, and four island for the four directions... In the Irish lore I was talking about there are effectively four island North of the world.

 

Thank you very much for your contributions thus far. You're free to post anywhere (and anything) you wish, but I would urge you to move your discussion out of the Welcome area and into the more popular forums, to make sure everyone sees your posts.

 

I would suggest posting something of interest to yourself and simply asking if anyone else shares that interest. I expect you to attract a lot of attention :-)

[Aithrobates]

@soaring crane: Yep. I was just answering to MooNiNite

@NooNiNite: If you want to talk more about cosmology, North and so on, we can start a thread on that elsewere ?

[soaring crane]

@soaring crane: Yep. I was just answering to MooNiNite

 

Oh, I understood that completely, sorry if I was unclear. I just wanted to jump in early to help you out because new members sometimes get caught up in the their intro posts without realizing that not all that many members actually read this forum.

[Aithrobates]

Anyway I would personally prefer not to elaborate on anything other than presentation here.

I'm totally for keeping the right topics in the right subforums.

 

And I don't really care about many people reading my answer, as long as the member asking the question gets it.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Aithrobates

[Aetherous]

Welcome!

[Songtsan]

You are neat!