Pythagoras of Samos (560BC - 480BC)
"Through Vibration comes Motion
Through Motion comes Color
Through Color comes Tone"
(source unknown) - He was a Greek philosopher who was responsible for important developments in the history of mathematics, astronomy, and the theory of music. He founded the Pythagorean Brotherhood and formulated principles that influenced the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle. The influence of Pythagoras is so widespread, and coupled with the fact that no writings of Pythagoras exist today, this short article will attempt to guide the reader through the life of this most remarkable teacher.
He traveled widely in his youth with his father Mnesarchus, who was a gem merchant from Tyre. His family settled in the homeland of his mother, Pythais, on the island of Samos, where he studied with the philosopher Pherekydes. He was introduced to mathematical ideas and astronomy by Thales, and his pupil Anaximander in Miletus when he was between 18 and 20 years old. Thales advised Pythagoras to travel to Egypt to learn more of these subjects. Leaving Miletus, Pythagoras went first to Sidon, where he was initiated into the mysteries of Tyre and Byblos. It is claimed that Pythagoras went onto Egypt with a letter of introduction written by Polycrates, making the journey with some Egyptian sailors who believed that a god had taken passage on their ship. Arriving in Egypt, Pythagoras tried to gain entry into the Mystery Schools of that country. He applied again and again, but he was told that unless he goes through a particular training of fasting and breathing, he cannot be allowed to enter the school. Pythagoras is reported to have said, "I have come for knowledge, not any sort of discipline." But the school authorities said," we cannot give you knowledge unless you are different. And really, we are not interested in knowledge at all, we are interested in actual experience. No knowledge is knowledge unless it is lived and experienced. So you will have to go on a 40 day fast, continuously breathing in a certain manner, with a certain awareness on certain points." After 40 days of fasting and breathing, aware, attentive, he was allowed to enter the school at Diospolis. It is said that Pythagoras said,"You are not allowing Pythagoras in. I am a different man, I am reborn. You were right and I was wrong, because then my whole standpoint was intellectual. Through this purification, my center of being has changed. Before this training I could only understand through the intellect, through the head. Now I can feel. Now truth is not a concept to me, but a life."
He spent the next 22 years perfecting himself in mathematics, astronomy, music, and was initiated into the Egyptian Mysteries. When Cambyses II, the king of Persia invaded Egypt in 525BC, he made Pythagoras his prisoner and sent him to Babylon. He utilized this misfortune as an opportunity for growth, and for the next 12 years he studied with the Magi and was initiated into the Chaldean Mysteries. Leaving Babylon, he made his way through Persia to India, where he continued his education under the Brachmanes. At that time India was still feeling the effects of the spiritual revival brought about by Gautama the Buddha. Although Pythagoras arrived in India too late to come into personal contact with the Buddha, he was greatly influenced by his teachings. He went to India a student, he left it as a teacher, and even to this day he is known in that country as Pitar Guru, and as Yavanacharya, the Ionian Teacher.
Pythagoras was 56 years old when he finally returned to his homeland. When he arrived in Samos he found the island crushed and ruined, its temples and schools closed, its wise men fleeing from the tyranny and persecution of the Persian conquerors. Instead of being welcomed by his countrymen, Pythagoras found them indifferent to the wisdom he was eager to impart. He left Samos and went to southern Italy, settling in Crotona, a town situated on the Gulf of Tarentum. He was invited to speak before the Senate of Crotona, and so greatly impressed them with his wisdom, that they decided to build him an institute, which would serve as a school of philosophy and an academy of science. Although it was understood that it would be patterned after the Mystery Schools, there was nothing about the place suggesting secrecy save a statue of Hermes Trismegistus at the door of the inner school with the words on the pedestal: "Let no profane enter here."
The institute was comprised of three orders. The outer order was called the 'akoustici', who lived in their own houses only coming to the institute during the day. They were allowed their own possessions and were not required to be vegetarians. Acceptance into this outer society was granted after a 3 year probationary period. Both men and women were permitted to become members of the order, in fact 28 women were admitted to the institute. The inner order of the society was called the 'mathematikoi', who lived permanently with the society, and had no personal possessions and were vegetarians. They were taught by Pythagoras himself and obeyed strict rules. The third level of initiation within the institute was the 'electi', who were instructed in the secret processes of psychic transmutation, how to heal with sound, and lived a strict discipline in accordance with the code of the Great Mystery Schools.
The daily life of a student at Crotona followed a strict schedule. At sunrise they engaged in meditation, pronouncing a mantram on a certain tone. They reviewed all their actions of the previous day and planned the coming day in full detail. After breakfast they took a solitary walk and went to the gymnasium for exercise. The rest of the morning was spent in study. At noon the Order ate together in small groups dining on bread and honey. After lunch students could receive their relatives and friends in the gardens of the institute. This was followed by another walk in the company of other students. At the close of the day, they ate together and read aloud. Before retiring each student again meditated and chanted his evening mantram. Those who were unable to stand the discipline left the school and went out again into the world. Even in the higher degrees of the institute, some occasionally failed by breaking their pledge of secrecy or some other rule which bound them. These students were expelled from the institute, and a tomb bearing their name was erected in the garden. Pythagoras taught that such a student was dead."His body appears among men," he said, " but his soul is dead. Let us weep for it! "
In Astronomy Pythagoras taught that the Earth was a sphere at the center of the universe. He recognized that the orbit of the moon was inclined to the equator of the earth, and he was one of the first to realize that Venus as an evening star, was the same planet as the morning star. He taught that the movements of the planets traveling through the universe created sounds, and could be perceived by those who were trained to hear them. This music of the spheres could be replicated using a single stringed instrument called the monochord. Pythagoras used the monochord to explain musical intervals and harmonics to his students. He taught how harmony may be produced when tuning the high and low notes in the octave, thereby laying the foundation for many of the theories and teachings that have come down through the musical traditions.
Pythagoras observed that when a blacksmith struck his anvil, different notes were produced according to the weight of the hammer. That if you take 2 strings in the same degree of tension, and then divide one of them exactly in half, when they are plucked, the pitch of the shorter string is exactly one octave higher than the longer string. He also discovered that if the length of the 2 strings are in relation to each other 2:3, the difference in pitch is called a fifth. Pythagoras stressed that different musical modes have different effects on the person who hears them, and that music could be applied to healing illness both mental and physical. In 513BC he went to Delos to nurse his old teacher, Pherekydes who was dying. He remained at his bedside playing his lyre and feeding him until he died. In 508BC the Pythagoreon Society at Croton was attacked by Cylon, a noble of Croton itself. Pythagoras escaped to Metapontium and most authors say he died there. Evidence is unclear as to when and where the death of Pythagoras occurred.
The beliefs that Pythagoras held were:
1) that at its deepest level, reality is mathematical in nature
2) that philosophy can be used for spiritual purification
3) that the Soul can rise to union with the Divine
4) that certain symbols have a mystical significance
5) that all brothers of the Order should observe strict loyalty and secrecy
Pythagoras was the first to call the heavens a universe and the earth round. That the Soul was immortal, and that it changes from one body to another. The Pythagorean Brotherhood was one of the worlds earliest unpriestly cooperative scientific societies, if not the first, and that its members invented the multiplication table, and raised important scientific problems which were solved 15 centuries later.
Bibliography
Books:
The Book of Secrets- Osho
Healing Sounds- Jonathan Goldman
Papers:
Ancient Landmarks - Wisdom World
Greek Philosophy - Hellenism Network
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans - Arthur Fairbanks
Pythagoras and Mystic Science - Dr.Daniel Farhey
Pythagoras - Britannica
Pythagoras - Aamodt,Hatlem, and Smebye
Pythagoras:Music and Space - J. Boyd-Brent
Pythagoras of Samos - J. J. O'Conner and E.F.Robertson
Pythagoras and His School - Raghavan Iyer
9waysmysteryschool.tripod.com/sacredsoundtools/id13.html
Keely
"Fichte writes: "The will is the living principle of the world of spirit as motion is of the world of sense." Newton said that this subtle ether interpenetrates all matter and is concealed in their substance, through the strength and activity of which, bodies attract each other and adhere together when brought in contact, annihilating distance, as if objects might touch each other. Through this "life spirit" light also flows, is refracted and reflected and bodies are warmed. Pythagoras viewed this as a divine luminous principle or substance which permeates all things and at the same time contains all things. They called it the astral light. The Germans call it the "Welgeist". [Snell Manuscript - The Book, page 2]
Hughes
1871.—"There has been much written lately respecting colour and tone, but nothing bearing on your own view." "The new theories in music seem inclined to go back to the ancient faith of Pythagoras, everything being used up with the modern notions of tonality. Perhaps we may find a great change at hand; the present system, limiting, as it does, that which is illimitable, cannot be right." [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Extracts from Dr. Gauntlett's Letters1, page 48]
Osho
PYTHAGORAS was the first man to TRY THE IMPOSSIBLE, and HE SUCCEEDED!
In him, EAST and WEST became ONE. In him, YIN and YANG became ONE. In him, MALE and FEMALE became ONE. He was an ardhanarishwar - a TOTAL UNITY of the polar opposites - Shiva and Shakti together, INTELLECT OF THE HIGHEST CALIBER AND INTUITION OF THE DEEPEST CALIBER. Pythagoras is a peak, a sunlit peak...
And a deep, dark VALLEY too. It is a very rare combination.
But HIS WHOLE LIFE'S EFFORT was DESTROYED by THE STUPID PEOPLE, by THE MEDIOCRE MASSES.
These few verses are the only contribution left. These verses can be written on one postcard. This is ALL THAT IS LEFT of that great man's effort, endeavor. And this too is not written by his own hand. It seems ALL THAT HE HAD WRITTEN was DESTROYED.
The DAY PYTHAGORAS DIED, THOUSANDS OF HIS DISCIPLES were MASSACRED AND BURNT. Only one disciple escaped the school. His name was LYSIS. And he ESCAPED, NOT to save his life - he escaped just TO SAVE something of THE MASTER'S TEACHINGS. These GOLDEN VERSES of PYTHAGORAS were written by Lysis, the ONLY DISCIPLE WHO SURVIVED.
The WHOLE SCHOOL was BURNT, and THOUSANDS OF DISCIPLES were SIMPLY MURDERED and BUTCHERED. And ALL THAT PYTHAGORAS HAD ACCUMULATED on his journeys - great treasures, great scriptures from China, India, Tibet, Egypt, years and years of work - ALL WAS BURNT.
Lysis wrote these few verses.
And, as it has been the ANCIENT TRADITION that A REAL DISCIPLE KNOWS NO OTHER NAME THAN HIS MASTER'S, these verses are not called 'Lysis' Verses' — they are called 'Golden Verses of Pythagoras'. He has not written his name on them.
This has been happening again and again...
It happened with VYASA in INDIA, a GREAT MASTER. In his name there are so many scriptures that it is impossible that one man could write so many scriptures. It is humanly impossible. EVEN IF ONE THOUSAND PERSONS WROTE THEIR WHOLE LIVES CONTINUOUSLY, then too SO MANY SCRIPTURES COULD NOT BE WRITTEN.
Then what happened? They are ALL AUTHORED BY VYASA - they are NOT ALL WRITTEN BY VYASA, but by his DISCIPLES.
BUT THE REAL DISCIPLE KNOWS NO OTHER NAME THAN HIS MASTER'S. He has DISAPPEARED in the Master, so whatsoever he writes, he WRITES IN THE NAME OF THE MASTER.
SO MANY THEORIES have been evolved by linguists, by scholars, by professors... They think there have been so many Vyasas, many people of the same name. That is ALL NONSENSE. There has been ONLY ONE VYASA.
But down the centuries MANY PEOPLE LOVED HIM SO DEEPLY that when they wrote something, they felt it was THE MASTER WRITING THROUGH THEM - they SIGNED MASTER'S NAME because THEY WERE ONLY VEHICLES, just INSTRUMENTS, MEDIUMS.
THE SAME HAPPENED in Egypt to HERMES: many scriptures, all written by the disciples. And the same happened with ORPHEUS in Greece, and the same with LAO TZU in China and CONFUCIUS in China.
THE DISCIPLE LOSES his IDENTITY. He becomes UTTERLY ONE WITH THE MASTER.
OSHO
Philosophia Perennis
Vol 1, Ch #1: The Greatest Luxury
am in Buddha Hall
Manly Palmer Hall
"It was to follow in the foostep of Thales, who traveled far into distant lands, that Pythagoras as a youth left home; he traveled throughout the Near East, and included a pilgrimage to India. At Ellora and Elephanta he was initiated by the Hierophants into the Mysteries of the Brahmins. Up in the region of the head waters of the Ganges he studied with the Yogis and Sannyasins.
He visited Egypt also, and beat upon the gates of Thebes for admittance Until the priests let him in; and thus was he initiated into the Mysteries of Isis. He returned to Greece the most informed, the most thoroughly educated man of his day. He has since taken stature as one of the most educated men of all time. Later, in a little colony in Italy called Crotona, he established his school of philosophy. He was thus the first to found a college for the dissemination of wisdom. Seekers and thinkers from all parts of the world gathered here, to be bound in a mystical tie of brotherhood."
"The Brotherhood of Pythagoras was divided into two groups, called the exoteric and esoteric. Those in the exoteric group were those young in wisdom; after a course of study which required from five to ten years they were admitted into the esoteric groups. From behind a curtain Pythagoras taught those in the exoteric group. To the esoteric students he discoursed in their presence."
"Pythagoras bound those in the school with a great oath of patriotism and devotion, and bound them also with the strongest of all oaths, that of the Tetractys, the Oath of the Ten Principles of the Universe. A certain standard of knowledge was demanded of all Pythagoras disciples; they had to be truly informed in three sciences, mathematics, astronomy, and music. Of the three mathematics was the first; none were permitted to become esoteric students without a knowledge of numbers."
"In the teachings of Orpheus, as interpreted by Pythagoras, such is the nature of First Cause: Abiding in Space, and abiding with Space, and with Space abiding in it, is an immeasurable, inconceIvable, undefinable Reality; which may be appropriately termed, if not described, as the Absolute.
It is the Absolute in that it is the ultimate not only of magnitudes, but of multitudes. It is the Absolute not only because it contains all life within itself, but because it is the common denominator of all life. Its own extension includes not only life, but includes the innumerable forces manifested in Life. Therefore, according to Pythagoras, this eternal, Absolute Principle possesses an intelligible nature but not an intellectual one; it is intelligible because it knows; but it needs no intellectual processes to know.
According to Pythagoras, this Absolute Infinity of Being extended beyond all boundaries of created things, extended beyond all the forms and bodies that exist in nature. Properly and appropriately it may be referred to as similar to but greater than Space. This Absolute, unconditioned, unqualified, eternal Principle, which is neither born nor dies, which is subject neither to age nor youth, but is time in suspension-and for that reason the Egyptians termed it Unpassing Time-this Eternal Principle, neither male nor female, neither above nor below, neither great nor small, neither visible nor invisible, neither tangible nor intangible, may be appropriately termed Being.
It is Being in the sense that it is diversified and distributed equally throughout the entire vicissitudes of all time and all space, distributed without condition, quality, or limitation; It has neither summit nor depth; no dimension may be ascribed to it, but dimensions exist within it. It can neither be circumscribed nor bound, because it possesses within itself the principle of formless infinity. It is all Life, but not alive; but the moment we say All Life we mean alive. It does not possess any quality of One-ness or Beingness, but is eternall y a condition present in all nature and all forms.
Therefore it is properly denominated as the Absolute, the Infinite, the Summit, the Closed Eye, the Crown, That Which Is Was, and Ever Shall Be, That Which Neither Slumbers Nor Sleeps - for that First Cause, there is no appropriate, positive definition. Pythagoras simply described this First Cause by the symbol 0, nought, the circle, containing within itself all things, with the center everywhere and the circumference nowhere; and the field of the circle by its blankness inferring there is no condition present within this eternal substance. Yet, Pythagoras said, and Plato after him, this Eternal Absolute is not impoverished. It is lacking in nothing, it is abundant in all things.
Therefore it may properly be said, in the Absolute abides all forms, the lowest forms in nature to the hierarchies of the god. reside in the abyss that i, subjective, having no appearance nor form, yet capable of becoming embodied in appearance and form. Then we come to the next principle: Within the profundity of the Absolute. according to Pythagoras, there abides the ability, the capacity (the word capacity is correct, but it is difficult for us to understand what it means) the capacity for unity. Now, think of it in this way: If a thing is everything, then it may also be one.
It is all, because as Pythagoras properly said, there is the Absolute and beside the Absolute there is no other thing. The Absolute thus regarded as One for our intellectual purposes, All may be One, and One may be All. All and One have a similar meaning, because All is a term for collective unity.
Pythagoras also said, the number One is nothing but the letter I, which symbolically means, Self-ness. Therefore, the All, being not only infinitely diversified but absolutely unified, possesses the capacity of Oneness, which was symbolized by the Greeks, and later by the Hindus, by placing the dot in the circle. This dot is what we are going to term God, the unborn precipitation of the Infinite.
The dot is that which abides within the Infinite, and that which is the Infinite in the sense of One. As we realize God in One, because God is All, then One and AlI have a common meaning. The dot that is established in the center of the circle is termed He Who Stands, That Which Endures, That Which is Established, the Firstborn of the Infinite, That Which Is. And this dot is the Opened Eye, the Crown, the First of Those That Stand, the One Which Is Emerged From the Many, the First Condition Which Arises From the Unconditioned, the Beginning and Foundation of Existence, the Dawn of the Cosmic Day, the Beginning of all Life -and so is properly termed God, whose Being and Soul are composed of Truth, said Pythagoras, and whose Body is composed of Reality.
Now, in the manifestation of the One, the Father who stands forth out of the Abyss, the One that rises from the No Number--from this emerges the First Duality.
The Duality is properly termed the Son, or that which is born of the Father. (Remember, we are now speaking of Pythagoras, but you begin to trace a parallelism to some of the common beliefs we have in our modern Christian world.) It is said that the Son, the Second Person of the Great Creative Power, is peculiarly born; and no other creature in nature or in the universe can be born in the same way; for the Son emerges from the Father.
And, according to Pythagoras and Orphic groups, the Son who comes forth is the Bound and the Infinity, Aether and Chaos, Light and Darkness, Spirit and Matter.
This Duality which emerges from Infinity is the number Two, which according to Pythagoras, is neither a true number nor the lack of number, but represents Duality born of Unity.
The Second Principle, the Son born of the Father, He Who Shall Stand, is born mysteriously out of Unity, and exists as Duality, Spirit and Matter, the Root of Heaven and the Root of the Earth, the Above and Below manifested, the Golden Egg with its upper part of Gold and its lower part of silver; the World; the First Born of the Father, the Universe, which is the Second Logos, the Second Power of the Triad. From the Universe is born the Third Power. This Power is born by the union of Spirit and Matter, no longer immersed in mystery, but born of a union of two Principles, the beginning of all matter and form.
The name of the Third Logos is Mind. The Mind is that which the Bible calls the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, That Which Is to Come and Bring Peace is the Mind; Cosmic Mind, Phanes that springs from Chaos; and the world established. Not only is the world thus established, according to the doctrine of Pythagoras, but Mind has divided the firmament from the water.
Mind goes then to work on the Second Logos, which is Spirit and Matter, and from the blending of these two principles Form is organized. Form is the mingling of Spirit and Matter, Light and Earth, and Man is the form which may be perceived visibly, the normal form. Therefore Man may be regarded as between Heaven and Earth. The Mind represents the personification of form, and Man is the fourth part of the Creative power. It is a Triad until man is born, then a Quaternary.
Now, we have the ladder: The Father is the One. The Son is the Two. The Mind is the Three. And Man is the Four. It was declared by Pythagoras that Four is the first of the terrestrial numbers, and it is most worthy of veneration by man. It is the symbol of pattern or form, and it is symbolized by the four-sided form, the least sided geometrical form, the tetragon."
"This great thought possibly came first to some man in the dawn of time. He looked at the sky and saw the infinite host of stars flowing across the great darkness that for a short distance surrounds our little world and binds it about with a girdle of oblivion; in the furthermost parts of this great darkness, in the uttermost recesses of being in Space, is the Absolute, the Absolute which can not be pictured and cannot be imagined. All we know is, it is the Father of Fathers, the Cause of Causes, the Soul of Souls, and it abides forever. Solar systems come and go with it, galaxies fade away and disappear, but the Absolute never grows old, never changes, never dies.
This realization adds permanency, a sense of sufficiency to all the little purposes of man, reminding man too of the littleness of human purpose. According to astronomers, out of this dark mystery may flare forth a single beam of radiant life, and a star is born; according to the old philosophers, within the immense fecundity of the Above, worlds are constantly growing up in. Space itself. God is the first manifestation upon that Absolute Surface, the first tangible, unified thing that appears in the midst of this Infinite Diversity.
It is as though a little seed sprouted in the terrestial earth, releasing an identity into being. So God, according to Pythagoras, the proper object for human veneration, as the cause for all human existence, shines forth from the deep mystery of the AbsoluteFather of gods and There is but ,one superiori to God, and that is the Absolute itself, and Deity, with its universal chain of planets and suns, floats in Infinite Being. It floats, lives, and moves within, and is supported and sustained by the very Cause itself." [Pythagoras "The Substance of Absolute Being", "Horizon Vol. 2, No. 5, January 1943" Journal Published by Manly Palmer Hall]
See Also
Forty-seventh Proposition of Pythagoras
Golden Verses of Pythagoras
Pythagoras Kepler School
Pythagorean Comma
Pythagorean Komma
Pythagorean Tuning