Plato's Cave

“I wish I could give a description of at least the smallest part of what I learned, but, when I try to discover a way of doing so, I find it impossible; for, while the light we see here and that other Light are both light, there is no comparison between the two and the brightness of the sun seems quite dull if compared with the other. In short, however skillful the imagination may be, it will not succeed in picturing or describing what that Light is like.” ~ Saint Teresa of Avila

The “Allegory of the Cave” appears in Book Seven of the Republic, written by the Greek philosopher Plato around 360BC. It is based on a dialogue that Plato’s teacher, Socrates, is having with two students.

• Imagine, Socrates says, that there are prisoners living in an underground cave. The cave has a long entrance that's open to the light. The prisoners, who have been there all of their lives, are sitting on the ground deep in the cave. They are chained together facing the far wall of the cave, and on that wall light and shadows are dancing back and forth. The light and shadows are all that they see because their chains prevent them from turning around. Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway with a low wall built along it, forming a sort of primitive projection booth. Men pass along this wall carrying all kinds of objects, statues and figures, and these are raised above the wall. The prisoners do not see the men or the objects, only the shadows of them which the fire throws on the screen of the cave wall in front of them. The sounds of the men talking on the walkway behind them echo off the shadowed wall and the prisoners falsely perceive these sounds to be those of the shadows.

• Now imagine further, says Socrates, that someone comes and frees one of the prisoners of his shackles. He stands up and turns around, and is astonished to see that the light in the cave is caused by the fire, and slowly he realizes that the images on the far wall, which he had always assumed were real, are just light and shadows thrown by the fire from the various objects on the walkway.

• The unshackled prisoner then looks beyond the fire and sees a much brighter light coming from the mouth of the cave at the end of a long rising tunnel. Armed with his new understanding of reality he decides to climb up to the cave entrance and the distant bright light. As he climbs, his eyes have trouble adjusting to the increasing light. It is an arduous ascent. He thinks of turning back. But the person who had released him of his shackles encourages him to continue and helps him in the trek to the cave entrance. When he finally emerges into the bright sunshine, he squints and closes his eyes from the brightness. After a while, though, his eyes begin to adjust to the light, and he is able to make out things in this new wondrous world - trees, mountains, streams, oceans, blue skies, clouds, the fresh breeze on his face, the warmth of the sun, the aroma of spring blossoms, the sounds of the birds, etc.

• The unshackled prisoner is overwhelmed in bliss by this breathtaking world. He realizes how limited and dull his existence deep in the cave has been. He feels blessed by this sublime experience. He thinks of his friends back in the cave and wants to bring them out of their pitiful world of shadows and up into this wondrous utopia outside.

• He goes back down into the cave and tells the chained prisoners that the shadows and light that they are experiencing in the cave are but a dim illusion compared to the astonishing world outside. He tries to describe the world outside the cave, but has great difficulty finding words. How do you describe trees, oceans, blue skies, mountains, the aroma of spring blossoms, etc to those whose world consists only of light and shadows on a dimly lit cave wall? The freed man has to use generic phrases like, “indescribable beauty”, “transcendent joy”, “enchanting existence”, “incomparable brightness,” “boundless space”, etc.
  

• A few of the prisoners are inspired and work to become free of their bonds so that they can see for themselves. However, most of the prisoners find the story hard to believe, particularly since the freed man is having such difficulty describing this new world to them and because, to them, the real world is obviously in front of them on the opposite wall. They start thinking that the freed man has gone mad. In fact, if the freed man persists too long in encouraging the prisoners to free themselves, they may decide to do away with him to stop him from upsetting their familiar existence.

• In turn, the freed man now finds his old life to be a pitiful existence of dim and unreal illusions and wants to return to the wondrous and blissful world outside the cave.

“It is the common experience of all the great seers, from Lao Tze to Socrates and Heraclitus, from Plotinus and al-Hallaj to Meister Eckhart and St. John of the Cross. All were cruelly tortured and persecuted for their goodness and wisdom. Jesus too found the world of men wanting in understanding.” ~ Swami Abhayananda
 
“In the world of physics we watch a shadowgraph performance of the drama of familiar life. The shadow of my elbow rests on the shadow table as the shadow ink flows over the shadow paper. It is all symbolic, and as a symbol the physicist leaves it. ... The frank realization that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances.” ~ Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (highly regarded British astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, 1882 – 1944)
 
“The outstanding achievement of twentieth century physics is not the theory of relativity with its welding together of space and time, or the theory of quanta with its present apparent negation of the laws of causation, or the dissection of the atom with the resultant discovery that things are not what they seem; it is the general recognition that we are not yet in contact with the ultimate reality. We are still imprisoned in our cave, with our backs to the light, and can only watch the shadows on the wall.” ~ Sir James Jeans (highly regarded British physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, 1877 – 1946)
  
“… Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world.” ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

This sub-section concludes with a stunning poem written by modern day mystic Swami Abhayananda who has experienced first-hand the role of the “freed man” from Plato’s Cave.

 
     Plato’s Cave    by Swami Abhayananda (2014)
 
I lay in chains like all the rest, but even in my youth
I sought a way beyond this gloomy labyrinthine cave.
I’d heard the legends of a land of light, and one day
Broke my chains and began my search, exploring paths
Both dark and narrow where very few had gone before.
 
Alone, I felt my way through winding passageways,
Leading always upwards toward a dim but beckoning light;
And at last broke free, all unexpectedly bathed in light.
For suddenly, as though lifted on a wind divine,
I was elevated to a heavenly plane
Where I was not the man I’d been before.
The life I’d known beneath the surface,
Where only darkness reigned, was but a distant memory;
As now I beheld a glorious radiance of white engulfing me
And into which I blent.
 
No flickering fires, no shadowed walls, nor separate
Dancing figures differentiated here; for all was
One free vastness irradiated from above
And bright with clarity so intense I saw for miles
An endless horizon spreading everywhere at once.
 
In breathless awe I took it in, marveling at the breadth
And scope of this unexpected land to which I’d come,
And breathed the light-filled air so sweet and pure.
 
There, the very earth was mine and all the starry heavens;
And I was at the center, still, containing all.
I had become the one great light,
Begetting and illuminating every thing and beast;
There was no other to behold, as all combined in me.
 
And all was perfect everywhere,
Moving toward its perfect end.
No trace of self remained, but only this one eternal Beauty
I beheld shining endlessly in all.
 
How expansive was the freedom that I felt!
How flawless my delight!
I saw with intimate clarity Eternity’s joy-filled peace,
And witnessed the breath-like ebb and flow
Of cosmic birth and death.
For, somehow, I was made to see that all revolved in me;
That I was part and whole, and yet was much, much more:
The still, unchanging eye unbound by time
That watched while time unfurled its transient array.
 
How long I stood there I cannot know;
Lost in vision’s trance, I clung with all my power
To the tenuous gift of sight.
But thoughts rushed back to pull me down,
And I descended from the whiteness into dark once more.
My mind descended once again to self and those I’d left
Still struggling in the darkened cave,
Still unimagining what bright place lay just above.
 
I vowed to tell them all what place I’d found and how
They too might rise above their dungeon-life below.
That such a place existed was still unknown to all;
That life held so much more of joy and light
And endless vision none had dared to dream.
And soon I found myself returned to the world I’d known,
Below, unlit, where only artificial shadows produced the show.
 
And yet, sustained within my mind was what I’d seen above;
And it was this which fired my blood
And brought to these familiar scenes illumination
From my memory’s so newly acquired delight.
 
And as I went among the dreary folk,
My eyes still brightened by the light I’d found,
I told them of my discovered land, and of the brightness there,
And how I’d made my way by following the upward trail.
 
But none believed me. I was an embarrassment
To friends and family who thought I’d lost my mind.
“That’s very interesting”, they said; “And now it’s time for lunch”.
While others said, “Everyone has their own ideas, you know;
I have my own beliefs as well.”
And so I learned to keep my knowledge to myself, and spend
My quiet hours alone, remembering where I’d been.
 
And even now, my heart is drawn there still!
My eyes, still filled with vision of the light I’d seen,
Were unaccustomed now to dark;
And though I tried to focus on the customary tasks
Incumbent on the dwellers here below,
I could not wholly give myself to thoughts
And purposes of men enslaved,
Nor take delight in shadows playing on the walls.
 
My briefly tasted freedom rendered me unfit
For chains and games that others loved;
My heart was up above.
And so they ask, “What benefit did you derive from your escape?
You journeyed there, or so you say,
And what have you gained but blindness and disdain
For what all men hold dear?”
 
I have no answer to these taunts. I only know that I have gone
Where I was meant to go, and saw a world
More real, more glorious than this shadowed one below.
I’ve known the joyful promise which my soul desired;
I reached the goal, the source of joy and light.
And, though I’m here among the rest, I stand there still,
Immersed in light, delighting in the far-flung landscape that I saw.
For in my heart my home is there; I’ll live there evermore.

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