Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky) · 149 of 225 · tr. Nicholas Bessaraboff and Claude Bragdon

Chapter XVIII (part 12)

The method of science is experiment; the method of philosophy is speculation; the method of religion and art is moral or esthetic emotional inspiration.

But both science and philosophy, religion and art, begin to serve true knowledge only when in them commence to manifest the sensing and finding of some inner property in things.

In general it is quite possible to say—and perhaps it will be most true to fact—that the aim of even purely intellectual systems of philosophy and science consists not at all in the giving to man of certain data of knowledge, but in the raising of man to such a height of thinking and feeling as to enable him to pass to those new and higher forms of knowledge to which art and religion approach more nearly.

It is necessary however to remember that these very divisions into science, philosophy, religion and art betray the poverty and incompleteness of each.

A complete religion unites in itself religion, art, philosophy and science; a complete art equally unites them, while a complete science or a complete philosophy comprehends religion and art.

A religion which contradicts science, and a science which contradicts religion are both equally false.

Footnotes 214:1 Al-Ghazzali, "The Alchemy of Happiness." 222:1 C.

H.

Hinton, "A New Era of Thought," pp.

77, 78.

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Themes

Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

[auto] True knowledge is described as arising from sensing and finding inner properties rather than receiving external data or speculation.

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Opposites Transcendedanthropology

The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion.

[auto] The passage declares that contradictions between religion and science are false, suggesting a higher unity transcends such binary oppositions.

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Spiritual Ascentpraxis

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

[auto] The text describes the aim of intellectual systems as raising man to a higher height of thinking and feeling to access new forms of knowledge.

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Unity Of Beingtheology

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

[auto] The passage argues that separate disciplines are incomplete and that a complete system unites science, philosophy, religion, and art, implying a fundamental unity of truth.

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Related passages · 2 parallels

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Shared concept: Unity Of Being — The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim. (derived)

neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter IV

“Divine divination, therefore, which is conjoined with the Gods, alone truly imparts to us a divine life; since it participates of [divine] foreknowledge, and divine intellections, and renders us in reality divine. It likewise causes us to b…”

Shared concept: Gnosis Direct Knowledge — Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone. (derived)