[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Curt Steinmetz]

Richard Hayes wrote:
> On Sat, 2009-01-10 at 15:32 -0500, Curt Steinmetz wrote:
>
>   
>> In fact, Socrates encouraged his friends to consult and heed oracles. 
>> Indeed "gnothi seauton", as everyone knows, is associated with the 
>> oracle of Apollo at Delphi (the same oracle that declared Socrates to be 
>> the wisest of men).
>>     
>
> You are talking, I presume, of the same Socrates who made fun of the
> oracle for saying that Socrates was the wisest of men. Ridiculing an
> oracle hardly constitutes encouragement to consult oracles.
>   

That might be your own Unverified Personal Gnosis, to which you are 
entitled, but as far any objective evidence available to the rest of us 
- none of it indicates that Socrates ever "ridiculed" any oracle. You 
aren't by any chance channeling Meletus, Anytus, or Lycon, are you? Or 
possibly Aristophanes?

In fact, ridicule of any kind would have been wildly out of character 
for Socrates.

>   
>> Socrates also, according to his own account, relied heavily on guidance 
>> from his personal daimon - what new age type people today refer to as a 
>> "spirit guide".
>>     
>
> Probably a better translation for "daimon" is "critical thinking."
>
>   

That is what the Jungians call "projection". Socrates, for his part, 
never confused critical thinking with spiritual guidance. But one has to 
have some familiarity with both in order to be able to make the 
distinction reliably.

Curt