The pythagorean teachings

CYTHAGCREAN TERCRINESS "FIRST: WORLD CONGRESS ‘OF‘PYTHAGOREAN |ORGANIZATIONS . COMMEMORATING THE “sde ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF “ PYTHAGORAS'school, ON SAMOS’ BC. $45— A.D. 1955 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONGRESS HELD IN ATHENS, SAMOS, AND BRUSSELS JULY-AUGUST 1955 Edited by D"- GEORGE SAKELLARIOU sti ONU

at his disposal, avoid (spiritual) death. Man must, by all devices and means from his mind. and eliminate sickness from his body and ignorance rse and its creatures are Unive the God and the Kosmos are a unity, and THE PYTHAGOREAN TEACHINGS By Dr. JoHN H. Manas an entity. President, Pythagorean Society ” The i er parts of rnaetue and culture and that of Europe, the Americas and the world are founded upon the philosop i hical, teal, rel elie! cational system of Pythagoras of Sam os, the Father of Greek spat Phil s ial the Pythagoreans. ' Socrates wa s a Pythagorean, his teacher havinad e Pythagon ei rean philoso Peta pher ies Diotiima. Plat 0 is conside i redeam the disciple ilb, abet isci i ninth in = ‘ ‘ le - mes moro and wisdom the Christian religion derived its : rinity of God, the Logos, as the Demi i Oe the hell from the ancient Greek Tartarus, and the Paradi Goad haere i Fields. Purificatory rites simiilar to our lents, confession,a baptiee i nion were were practiced in the Eleusinian M ysteries. f The religiou tigi e s e i ecclesiastical hierarc i h y, the choirs i s in our churches, ; even the : dress re and the h mee gear of our priests were copied from the temples of Apollo in Cl ca ak Artemis in Ephesus. ; Most of the divine ivi names which Pin w ta i tieni e our Saviour, > Jesus, ; the Christ, , a and the Virgin irgi Mary are th ecluacne res vlntp the priests of these two m ost famous temples of ancient ee Grs eece on used in i he the ae of Apollo, the God of Light, and Artemis, the divine mother Nat (For more details see our book ; Divination ) -_ 7Wwro sa rent i the Great, the Roman| emperor, ordered the destruction ae p es, ibraries and the persecution of priests, and after the burnin seh ae scone of Alexandria with its 400.000 volumes of ancient ta ee ae oe ae A. D., the intellectual and spiritual darkness of the Ai . The Renaissance, which saved Eur th i dition of decadence, A was th e result of the spreading ofa th perneny i mae thagorean knowledge and wisdom in the West. ° oe Here are some of the fiundamental Pythagorean teachings wh i been preserved through the centuries down to our time : mene 1. Religion and Philosophy Know Thyself and thou shalt know the Universe and God. God only is wise. Men at their best are merely lovers of wisdom fees . The Kosm os is a living es lee with intelligence. To love Truth is to practice Truth. To love wisno bli 0 live consistently with wisdom. There is no eye like the understanding ; aie : indness like ignorance ; no enemy like sickness ; nothing so dreaded as of the body, and not All things are changing; nothing dies. Death is only of the Soul ; for the Soul is immortal. of all beings. There All come from One. This All-One is the First Cause ngeable. Cod embraces all and is but One God; perfect unity, indivisible, uncha God is one and is perfect Good. actuates all, and is but One. All life is one, and no end, being immortal and As He is God from the beginning, so He has eternal. Man is prone to make God in his own image, gives God its peculiar characteristics. and each race of men His efflux was formed the First, there was the essence of God, and from by which all being is formed, Soul of the World, the Logos, of Which and nce, so that God is in all, ordered, and sustained. All being is of one substa is produced by Cause and around all, above all, and sustains all. Everything Logos, and being corEffect. The Kosmos was framed by God, through the poreal, is obvious to the senses. has constantly risen Mankind has never fallen from high estate to low. But under universal damnafrom low degree to high. Nor has mankind ever been tion, because such a state would be inconsistent with the nature of God. God mns no man. Rather is kindly disposed towards all his creatures. God conde it is man who condemns himself. crimes he did not commit. No one is fated to suffer eternally in Hades for l consequences of fore- But many are compelled to suffer in this life the natura bearers’ Cause and Effect. errors. This is under the universal principle of The Kosmos is governed from the beginning for all changeable and unerring laws, by which all being eternity by fixed, unis brought to harmony, order; ion, Order, and Harand balance. The eternal regimen of the Kosmos is Evolut are geometrically symmetrical mony. The Kosmos and its governing principles ter, and geometrizes contiand harmonious. For God is the Perfect Geome and is never vindicative. nuously. Divine Justice is strictly compensatory orders. The only valid holy God has never, at any time, instituted holy and wise Soul is the proorder is the Order of Pure Men. The erudite, chaste, is also a god among God of y phet of the Truth of God. The man that is worth men. upon God, but are Temples built with earthly hands confer no glory only acceptable offering to God unstable monuments to man’s vanity. The and He may be worshipped is a pure heart and a chaste life. God is Spirit attempt to enlighten the stupid, only in spirit and in righteous living. Do not nor to cast pearl before the swine.

3. Social order and peace The aim of the Pythagorean Schools was to make their disciples « Theodidactoi», or divinely taught. The Christian Church calls this « the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples ». 2. Science of Living Eat moderately, bathe plentifully, exercise much in the open air. Above all things, /earn to keep silence. Hear all and speak little. Like all the rest, diet is governed by scientific laws, and should not be taken at haphazard. Each kind of food introduced into the body becomes the cause of a certain peculiar disposition. Each food has its own properties which help or hinder some particular of the body and bring about disorders and disease. But other foods bring health and increase of power both of brain and brawn. The simple and most natural foods, partaken of as nearly as possible in their virginal state, are best for men. Green foods strengthen the teeth, give glow to the cheek, and aid elimination. Above all, abstain from meat and all flesh of animals. Such is not a natural food for man. No one can truly love God without, at the same time, loving all His creatures. No one can love his fellow- creatures and shed their blood without stern necessity, much less eat them. For those accustomed to condemn the slaughter of other animals as unjust and unnatural, will think it yet more unjust and unlawful to kill a man, or to engage in war. Violence and bloodshed contain in themselves the seeds of never - ending future wars. In particular, rulers, and legislators should abstain from eating flesh. O mortals ! do not pollute your bodies with so impious a food. O how criminal it is for flesh to be stored away in flesh ! For one greedy body to grow fat with food gained from another. For one live creature to go on living through the destruction of another living thing. And this in the midst of the wealth of food which Earth, the best of mothers, has produced. It is your pleasure to chew the piteous flesh of slaughtered animals with your savage teeth. And you cannot without destroying another life, appease the cravings of your greedy and insatiable appetite ! Always eat to live and never live to eat. Avoid gluttony. Superfluity is gluttony. Avoid excess. Intoxication is the preparation for insanity. Drunkenness and ruin ; they are identical. Strong drink is a snare. Fly from intoxication as you would from insanity. A man should not possess more than enough for his needs. Everything which is more than sufficient for man is hostile to him. The self - sufficient and needy philosopher lives a life truly similar to Divinity. Deem nothing your own ; for you are a sojourner, and many are yet to follow you. Soul has no sex. Man and woman are equal in dignity before God ». as follows : « The Pythagoras taught the real relationship among men he who knows less is my son, man who knows more than I do is my father ; my brother » and the man who knows as much as I know, is For the establishment of a permanent world order it is imperative that ated as they were in ancient religion, science, and philosophy be again integr mental, and soulless occutimes. Science without religion becomes a cold, ophy is an anachronism. It pation and religion without science and philos ing the progress of becomes a mere lip ritual in the places of worship, retard of science. Knowledge the people and inviting indifference to and the shunning ty for its abuse or sibili without moral discipline and the feeling or respon religion without misuse, is more dangerous than blissful ignorance. Thus, to religious fanaticism and scientific and philosophical enlightenment, leads religious sentiment becomes to racial and national bigotry, and science without the tyrant of mankind, which it is supposed to serve. Philosophy blends relisystem for all men, for all gion and science into an harmonious, workable world. creeds, for all races and for all nations of the on Cosmic Laws, are based are which , Truths n Unless these Pythagorea y; contentment, harmony, understood and practised by the members of societ ished among men. establ friendship, peace, and happiness can never