Part III B
Plato, Parables and Paradox

It seems to me that if one is "in the Work", it's always going to be something. As I look back over my Fourth Way years, I can see that I thought that the Path was supposed to be fun. Now, I can see that the Work will always be an uphill climb. It's bad enough that a student of this Work never graduates, but when you begin to realize what you're up against, that can stop you dead in your tracks. Not only are we facing the wrong way 'round, forever confusing our own shadow with anything real, we are also, so sound asleep, that we cannot even process the objective world.

The problem with understanding the principles/precepts of Real Objective Art, lies not in whether Real Objective Art has unusual healing properties, but Rather the problem remains that we lack the eyes to 'see' the contents of the real objective world. The real objective realm surrounds us all continuously; yet it is we, who cannot see beyond our own subjectivity. Real Objective Art remains a beacon on a storm-tossed sea. Real Objective Art is a light that shines in the darkness, '[yet]…the darkness comprehended it not' (John 1:2). Real Objective Art, in whatever form it is found, always contains the principle of the crossroad; a signpost which always points North.

Real Objective Art could be seen as a parable, which aptly illustrates a divine paradox. Real Objective Art contains a thread of eternal wisdom that only a few ever manage to follow. Long before the individual will be able to see, much less 'digest' the contents of Real Objective Art, they must become teachable. The first lessons that all initiates will face begin within Plato's Cave.

"And now,' I said, 'let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: Behold human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and neck chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads.

You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.' 'Like ourselves,' I replied; 'and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?' 'True,' he said. 'How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?' 'And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?' 'Yes,' he said. 'And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?' 'Very true.' 'And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?' 'No question,' he replied. 'To them,' I said, 'the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images'. 'That is certain.' 'And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck 'round and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, - what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, - will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he is forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.' 'Not all in a moment,' he said. 'He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects on the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?' 'Certainly.' 'Last of all he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.' (Dialogues of Plato, Rep. VIII. 514: Jowett's Translation. Oxford University Press.)

As Plato illustrates so well, one of the first lessons we all must learn is how to get ourselves out of the way. The Work, as a process, forms the actual technique of taking back one's own projections. Only those few students who attempt to do the Work, ever have a prayer of ever being able to work beyond their own imagination. Only those students who learn how to work on themselves, by going against their mechanical nature, earn the right to face the light.

Even though Real Objective Art is a 'thing' or principle, in and of itself, Real Objective Art can only be accessed by recognition, alongside a level of being which resonates to the Real Objective Art contents. No matter how great or how obvious nor how simply put the message of Real Objective Art may be, one's capacity for perception of the art, lies in the various internal, as well as external levels of correspondence which exist between the two. The ability to learn from one's own experiences lies at the core of work upon oneself.

The parable of the Prodigal Son as well as the parable of Man In The Public House begins within Plato's Cave. In Plato's Cave, the observers are unable to distinguish between their own projections from the 'thing', in and of itself. One of the first lessons of being "in the Work" is that the more one is able to objectify oneself, the more a person becomes able to "see."

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