Introducing the Ancient Wisdom Network
One reason ancient wisdom has perpetually expressed itself anew is because culture adapts to contemporary trends. To borrow from our Ark metaphor, the ship’s contents may remain the same through time, but the technology of the vessel must change. If the Ark fails to adapt to contemporary needs, it becomes outdated and drowns in the floods of time.
Guided by this rule of thumb, I have carefully built an online network that would host Ark in Time. After all, writing a book should go hand in hand with administering its publication and distribution. I have, therefore, constructed an online network that can provide a larger context for the book Ark in Time and can exhibit it to like-minded readers.
Pillars of Ancient Wisdom
Ark in Time – An Odyssey of the Great Ark of Ancient Wisdom
I have used the analogy of an Ark in Time to convey two cosmoses: the challenging passage of mankind’s wisdom through the ages and the challenging feat of man to maintain his lofty aims. Because man mirrors the world and the world mirrors man, their histories are bound to turn out similar. Whoever strives to outline the story of one will, inadvertently, be outlining the story of the other.
Ark in Time is a story of a contemporary odyssey. By a series of fortunate events, a seeker of self-knowledge finds himself on a journey to know both himself and the world around him. Parallel to discovering truths about himself, he gradually unveils the reality that his own story mirrors that of the world above him, and that it is an ancient story told in innumerable variations by all traditions. For more, visit the official site: Ark in Time
Know Thyself – The Touchstone of Wisdom
Wisdom, so it seems, is a blend of knowledge and practical application. Wisdom, therefore, leans on self-knowledge. A man is deemed ‘wise’ who has made knowledge his own. Since the call to ‘know thyself’ is ancient, and since Ark in Time documents the author’s parallel learning of himself and the world, I have gathered reflections by eminent men on the ancient adage and have set them as a pillar to the Ancient Wisdom Network on this site: Know Thyself.
In right order, the acquisition of knowledge must follow the principle of relativity. The value of knowledge must be measured by its relation to man, by its ability to teach him about himself. Hence, ‘Know Thyself’, and hence, Socrates became famous for being considered by the Oracle to be the wisest man in Greece, on account of his admitting that he didn’t know anything.
As Above so Below – Hermetic Wisdom
“Knowledge means knowing all,” says an ancient aphorism: “Knowing a part means not knowing. To know all, one must know very little. But to know that little, one must know a great deal.” To know all one must first know oneself. As long as man remains ignorant of himself, he will be ignorant of everything around him. Man’s path to knowledge, therefore, lies in a blend between studying himself and studying the world.
Man mirrors the worlds around him. This echoes the Hermetic principle of scale, according to which wisdom manifests identically in all cosmoses. As Above so Below and As Within so Without: what the uninitiated takes to be a diverse collection of different phenomena proves to the wise to be unified and identical. Since a hallmark of wisdom is the ability to perceive unity in multiplicity, I have gathered reflections on this Hermetic aphorism and have set them as a pillar to the Ancient Wisdom Network titled: As Above so Below.
George Gurdjieff – Gatherer of Ancient Wisdom
George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff was an Armenian-Greek who grew up at the end of the nineteenth century in a pre-modern environment where the ancient world still prevailed. In the late 1800’s, he visited temples and monasteries that were still active, and managed to glean the tail end of their wisdom, before it was irretrievably lost in the turbulence of the twentieth century.
In the early twentieth century, Gurdjieff migrated to Russia and forged his findings into a unique teaching. He called it the Fourth Way, an alternative path to the traditional ways of the fakir, the monk and the yogi. He gathered a following of students and taught them in a language palatable to their age and location. Consequently, he expressed ancient wisdom in a new form, serving as a twentieth century agent of the Great Ark. George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff thus forms a pillar of the Ancient Wisdom Network titled: Gurdjieff.
Peter Ouspensky – Translator of the Ancient into the Modern
Peter Demianovitch Ouspensky became a pupil of Gurdjieff in 1915. He was introduced to the system of ancient wisdom that Gurdjieff had gathered, and began practically applying it under Gurdjieff’s guidance. Social unrest and the world wars disrupted their work, and Ouspensky eventually severed his connection with Gurdjieff on account of fundamental disagreements.
Ouspensky would play a significant role in formalizing Gurdjieff’s wisdom. He branded it “The Fourth Way” and published books that, to this day, remain the most authoritative expositions of Gurdjieff’s work. He thus contributed to the Great Ark and serves as a pillar to the Ancient Wisdom Network on this site: Ouspensky.