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Filognosy


Filognosy is defined as love for the knowledge of self-realization as inspired by both the Western and Eastern concepts of emancipation. These concepts together make for the integrity of the different views, forms of logic and intelligence one in modern time finds in the world. We then speak of the science of self-realization because we with this love for knowledge want to live in accordance with, or agreement with, the facts, both the facts of the culture and the facts of nature. A lack of accordance or discord is what we call our problem. For because of that problem we are troubled by illusions or a wrong presentation of matters, a misconception, from which it is difficult to get a grip on our lives.

Filognosy literally means: love for knowledge. The term is used to contrast the term philosophy to indicate that the purpose is not just about the love for and development of wisdom, but in a broader sense concerns the love for the knowledge of human self-realization as it is in its entirety. It is thus about an extension of the Western spiritual notion of self-knowledge - that we e.g. know as gnosis - with the likewise notion of Eastern philosophy that, in particular in what one calls Vaishnavism (the culture of Viṣṇu), is also named ātmatattva. We are then concerned with the knowledge of the so-called 'Complete Whole' in which both the person and the universe, the spiritual and the material realm is comprised. Practically spoken the term implies the bringing about of oneness and harmony of consciousness in the fields of facts (philosophy/science), principles (analysis/spirituality) and the person (religion/politics). This is accomplished by means of contemplation/meditation, discourse and service to the natural order of time and the 'Ideal Person' who is known as the intergity therewith, existing like a separate dimension. This sixfold approach constitutes the essence of the filognostic method for countering the human trouble of not knowing - we are allways confronted with - and the delusions and madness following from it. The concept is nicely summarized in the following image:


History


Filognosy, initiated by Anand Aadhar (René P. B. A. Meijer), started as a meditation exercise in a New Age center in the late nineties of the 20th century in Enschede, the Netherlands. Later on it developed the status of a lead of scientific, spiritual and religious reform in general, based on the Vedic knowledge originating from the indian philosopher Vyāsadeva, who lived about five thousand years ago. Aadhar translated the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam faithfully, in following the example of his precurser in Holland Śrī Hayeśvar das (H. v. Teylingen - 1938-1998), and presented this most important Indian book of sacred stories on the internet. Filognosy as such is a summary and comment to this Vedic knowledge of relevance for reforming one's life to the values of yoga philosophy in a narrow sense and the whole field of western scientific thinking, spirituality and the by the person determined politics and religiousness in a broader sense.


Classical reference


The classical reference for the division is formed by the six darśanas or visions fundamental to the philosophy of India that constitutes the basis for the structure of the knowledge of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa of Vyāsadeva. As for the filognostic version of the sixfold of the philosophical method, paradigmatic science, artistic analysis, the transcending spirituality, the religiously connoted personal and the political department of comments and compromising adaptations, it is so that, as it is with the original darśanas, the visions have in common:

  • 1) The concept of a conscious and continuing self or soul.
  • 2) The concept of the cross or workload an individual, family or nation carries.
  • 3) The perspective for a solution of being liberated in service.
  • 4) The acknowledgement of the authority of an established culture of scriptural reference.

In western philosophy we find an approach likewise comprehensive with the philosopher D. Hume in his Treatise on Human nature (I.III-1 - About knowledge) where he speaks of a division in seven terms with which, more or less, filognosy can be described as
- the identity of the similarity in philosophical considerations,
- concerning the natural order of the relations of time and place,
- to which the relations of quantity, numbers, the beauty and the art of analysis,
- combined with the quality of the level of transcendence and connectedness in austerity,
- lead to the arguments of cause and effect in religion and biography of the science of the person,
- in such a way that in the end the opposition of the politics of societally assuming responsibilities is attained.
With the political opposites the filognostic is then united in his consciousness of the dualities, while the materialist by contrast is of an one-sided engagement in being identified with his material position. The filognostic oversees the structure, he sees the coherence. Ultimately the filognostic is a yoga-practicioner following the dictum: 'unity in diversity'.


Political relevance


In filognosy one arrives at an opposition between political parties and so-called election groups. Political parties founded according to whim and opinion constitute the problem and election groups, instituted according to profession and age group, constitute the solution for the difficulties of democracy, the agreed upon rule of the people. The opposition historically constitutes a reflection of the individual and social human quest for the integrity of:

  • 1) The balance between the fortune and the six basic divisions of filognosy. With that balance also the materialism is defined in detail, that one finds with the therewith associated conflict of the ego of material compensations and obscurity.
  • 2) The virtue of the quality versus the quantity in the internal and external fields of action.
  • 3) The representation of the personal versus the impersonal interest of relating to the source of knowledge in the form of teachers.
  • 4) The identity and age of status-orientation groups and degrees of experience with which the game of societal order is played by each and everyone.

Filognosy in short is politically concerned with finding the equilibrium of the virtue of the representation of identity.


Etymology


The word filognosy is derived from the greek word filo - love and gnosis - knowledge. Thus the meaning in the sense of love of knowledge.


Vedic Equivalent


The spiritual knowledge of filognosy is closest to the Vedic term āmatattva; which literally means, the principle or reality of the soul, which is also described as spiritual knowledge in general.


Philosophical Classification


Philosophically filognosy in Western terms may be described as naturalistic idealism. In terms of the Eastern Vedic school of Vedānta philosophy this approach resorts under the department of Visishtadvaita, qualified nondualism departing from the basic mantra 'acityabheda abheda tattva', inscrutable oneness in diversity. It means that both individual entities (sentient and non-sentient) and the reality of the eternal spirit are recognized as real and different, but at the same time are considered one and unified in a supreme entity (Iṣvara) or original person (puruṣa) that is considered the absolute and eternal reality to be known as a trinity of Brahman (The 'Spirit of the Absolute' or God), Supersoul (the omnipresent but localized Supreme Self) and Bhagavān (the Supreme Personality or the Lord as known in many avatāras or descents).


Theology


This type of belief in a personal God allowing free will, is characterized as 'panentheism' 'all is in God' (as opposed to pantheism saying 'All is God'), a term partly related to Spinoza's notion of "Deus sive Natura" (God or Nature): God's transcendence is attested by his infinitely many attributes, with His immanence being signified by two attributes known by human beings as 1) thought and 2) extension.


Societal interest


In the twentieth century the Eastern contribution to this conviction came to the West in the form of Vaishnavism, one of the main traditions of Hinduism engaged with Lord Viṣṇu, the so-called Maintainer, the transcendental Original Person who as the Supreme Lord appears in the form of different descents or avatāras. This tradition knows many schools of bhakti-yoga, the yoga of devotion. Filognosy is a development from within the Hare Krishna-movement ISKCON wherein in particular the leading text of the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is presented on the internet and a practice of meditation and devotional service (voluntarism) is promoted that is well integrated in modern society. The book The Person constitutes the condensation of the filognosy, the love for the knowledge of self-realization, of this direction of Vaishnavism. Filognosy creates a bridge between the old Vedic culture of India and the more modern Western convictions of spirituality and God-consciousness, and constitutes in that sense a cultural motive of integration of essential importance to a global multiculturalistic society of peace, tolerance and prosperity.


Logo


Logo: After the prayer of filognosy the integrity of the filognostic commitment being symbolically presented, looks like this:


See also



Links


Category: Definitions | English



The Person

De Persoon

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