Hi Ibsen,
I can't agree with the equation of Plato's ideas
with concepts. This is a complex issue, not to be answered in an email
message. The main point is that Plato's ideas are
virtues, properties of the divine being, communicated also to the
created existence, as already Trypho and Augustine understood. E.g. Goodness
is not just a 'form' and concept, it is the fact of being good, with
goodness elevated to its source and perfection in God. The Holy, holiness,
is not just an idea, but a reality in which all saints participate in
various degrees. Plato's ideas have their real source in Homer and the
(common in Greek life) relationship and communication between God and man.
I don't know who do you mean by 'we' ('we love to
quote mystics', etc). Avoid such generalizations. Different people quote
mystics for different reasons. The word itself (mystic, mystical, etc) comes
from the Greek word myein, mystikos, etc, meaning closing ones eyes, that
is, seeing beyond what is usually (by anyone) visible, transcending
everything that impedes our vision of what is really real. A mystic is not
someone who knows this or that, but someone who lives in a reality divine
and unapproachable to people with unclean heart (not just unlearned).
Mystical is not the secret in the sence of
wanting to be secret, but in the sence that it can not be experienced by
everyone. It is beyond words, because the words that speak about this
condition don't correspond with what the 'ordinary man' lives, so that they
sound as empty words, without meaning or with fictitious or unbelievable
meaning. This is the reason why Christ said, "don't throw the Holy to dogs".
Don't put the word wisdom inside quotes ("their
'wisdom' must come..."), it is called wisdom rightly, it is superior to what
each and everyone understands in concepts and/or life.
