You can also find this article here: https://joeyamazaki.substack.com/p/what-is-the-medium-between-the-shadow Plato’s ontology proposes that our perception of the world is nothing more than the “shadow” of the real world, where the ideal forms live, but I am highly simplifying this concept to two worlds. Wolfgang Smith’s idea of the tripartite cosmos, which he also claims is explained thoroughly in the Vedas, (I am only saying that he claims that, as I have not read Vedic scriptures myself), goes beyond what I am trying to rationalize myself; however, the point of this essay is not to try to explain Plato’s analogy in the terms of these three worlds, but understand the Platonic ontology of forms. Specifically, what I am trying to get at here is the mechanism between the shadow and the ideal form, and what is between these two such that we get a very opaque signal here in our plane of existence from the ideals world of forms. In general, from the plane of where the ideals forms live, these ideal forms, with whatever mechanism they have, transmit, for a lack of better terms, information to the object or idea that we perceive. Note that when I say perceive, I am not just referring the external objects that we are aware of and interact with or the ideas that we try to understand, but also the objects we make with our own hands as well as the ideas that come to us. We perceive our own creations, even if we seemingly come up with them on our own, because they are endowed from a higher world of forms, albeit at a lesser resolution. Note that I do not know where the world of forms exists, but this lack of knowledge is another problem: Many other people have answered this question as well, so it is not my concern necessarily. What I am concerned about exploring the medium that is communicated between the shadow and the form, in which both exist on different planes of existence and where one is much realer than the other. I think it would be a mistake to think this medium is a substance made up of subatomic particles. I think looking at this medium through a material perspective, though medium might already imply material, is an unwise thing to do because our very ontology of today seems to be that we break our world of lesser resolution, or of lesser reality, to subatomic particles such that we think that whatever we perceive is all there is. And if we go further into first principle, where we even break down the subatomic particles, we might find a deeper truth. In a sense, we try to become the masters of our own reality, despite the fact that the reality we live in is something of lesser resolution. In general, Wolfgang Smith seems to have captured to problem properly, in which he explains that Weltanschauung of today leads to a sort of reductio ad absurdum with the quantum mechanics we have today. In general, with the consequences of this Weltanschauung, going through the woods of materialism seems unwise, as we might become lost and go in circles in the woods. So, what is medium, magic, power, or whatever you call it that presents us a lesser resolution of the world, which is maya according to Indian philosophy? To answer that question, let’s look at Plato’s cave a little closely: The shadows on the cave wall are produced from the puppets behind the prisoners. But these shadows appear in the first place, because there is a fire. Without the fire, there would be now way for the prisoners to see the puppets in the first place. So, is the medium between the shadow and the form consists of something analogous to a fire, or in general a light source? Let’s see if the fire was not there, how could prisoners see the shadows of the puppets in the first place? Would we even see the maya if there was no fire that casts the shadow of the form? Would there even be maya? What would become us? We would just be creatures of the dark. So, the fire seems to be part of the medium, or maybe be the medium, but let us not jump to such conclusions just yet. Besides the fire, the shadows are also cast upon the wall. Without the wall, the shadows would not exist. So, the wall is also part of the medium. The fire and the wall seem like symbols to different planes of the cosmos that are bounded to certain rules. The cave only shows the shadows that prisoner perceives, so it seems analogous to the world we live in which is just maya at the end of the day. The puppets seem to be the world of forms in which the shadows resemble. This is where the maya comes from. The world forms is a higher resolution of the maya we live in because it is not just clearer, but more real than ever because the shadows are actually just puppets. Now, what is the fire? The fire is the most real out of the maya and the form. Without it, the other two worlds exist in the cosmos but for no purpose whatsoever. They just exist, and this topic is in need of further explanation later down the line because I do not know what it means to live without the fire. I do not know what it is analogous to at the end of the day. In general, the fire is of the highest form, and is the One because it is the medium that let’s the forms exist but also transmit their essence, which is real, to a lower plane that perceives these forms as an illusion as they are not as real as the forms themselves. But, the forms would just exist and not be able to transmit their essence without the fire. So, the fire is the center of all things in Plato’s ontology it seems like. But, this explanation is just from a cursory understanding of Plato’s metaphysics. I am going to study this philosophy more and report thoughts more often later on.
