Notes to Poem:
Found

Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

Preface: While compiling Number 42 for my niece's 42nd birthday, I found my 1964 paperback of Philip Wheelwright's Heraclitus (March 23, 2019) and wrote in Item #142: Fragment 42 "You could not discover the limits of soul, even if you traveled every road to do so; such is the depth of its meaning." Also located Romania postage stamp #1442 honoring 2500th anniversary of his birth (October 25, 1961). Noticed my yellow-marker underlines of favorite passage. Most striking of all was his Fragment 8 "I have searched myself" to which I wrote next to it "Have you found?" on page 19.
On the opposite page 18, I wrote "19 years after posing this question, I found the answer in Plotinus's Enneads, IV:8:1
"Heraclitus [wants] us to seek within ourselves as he sought for himself and found." That's how this poem was inspired.
Commentary on Poem: Found

"You could not discover the limits
of soul, even if you traveled every
road to do so; such is the depth of
its meaning." declared Heraclitus

Romania #1442: Heraclitus
(issued October 25, 1961)
for 2500th anniversary of his birth
Raphael portraying
Michelangelo as Heraclitus
in School of Athens (1511)
Heraclitus of Ephesus
(535 BC-475 BC)
by Johannes Moreelse (1630)
Heraclitus of Ephesus (535 BC-475 BC) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, and a native of the city of Ephesus, then part of the Persian Empire. He regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From the lonely life he led, and still more from the apparently riddled and allegedly paradoxical nature of his philosophy and his stress upon the heedless unconsciousness of humankind, he was called "The Obscure" and "Weeping Philosopher".
Photo Sources: Romania #1442 (colnect.com); Raphael's Portrait (wikimedia.org); Moreelse's Painting (commons.wikimedia.org)

in Fragment 42 of his Treatise
on Nature in my 1964 paperback
translated by Philip Wheelwright
highlighted with a yellow marker.

Philip Wheelwright
Heraclitus (1964)
Fragment 42
in Heraclitus (p. 58)
Found cover of Wheelwright's Heraclitus at IberLibro.com, so didn't have to scan my copy of the book.
While Fragment 42 is on Google Books, it's not the same as the book's, so I scanned page 58 above.
Photo Sources: Philip Wheelwright's Heraclitus (IberLibro.com); Fragment 42 page 58 (wisdomportal.com)

Other sayings I've marked in
yellow include Fragment 110—
"No man ever steps in
the same river twice."

Fragment 110 of Heraclitus
Flowing River
Wheelwright's actual translation of Fragment 110 is "Into the same rivers, we step and we do not step."
However, I'm citing the more familiar quote— "No man ever steps in the same river twice." The water
molecules have moved onward since you last stepped into the river. Also the person's cells have aged,
so it's a different person. One web site said both river and man are changing from moment to moment,
it's only space that remains the same. However, our Sun is carrying the entire solar sytem around the
the Milky Way galaxy, so we're in a different space zone all the time.
Photo Sources: Fragment 110 of Heraclitus (ramananju.blogspot.com); Flowing River (sharingmyreflections.com)

But the most memorable
of his quotes is Fragment 8—
"I have searched myself." on page 19
to which I wrote "Have you found?"

Heraclitus: Fragment 8
"I have searched myself" (page 19)
Flipping through Wheelwright's Heraclitus, I found the most striking quote in Fragment 8:
"I have searched myself" on page 19, to which I wrote in jest "Have you found?" as if
asking the Greek sage whether he was enlightened. I recall Zen Master of Rochester,
Philip Kapleau asked a roomful of students at the Harvard gym (1971) "How many of
you are seeking for enlightenment?" All the hands went up, and he shook his head,
“You know what Picasso said: 'I do not seek. I find.'” (See poem "MyNewMantra")
Photo Source: Pages 18-19 of Wheelwright's Heraclitus (wisdomportal.com)

Right opposite of this query
I wrote "19 years after posing
this question, I found the answer
in Plotinus's Enneads, IV:8:1"—

Comments on page 18 of Heraclitus
when I found the answer 19 years later
Plotinus The Enneads
trans. Stephen MacKenna
Plotinus (204-270) was an enlightened sage during the Roman Empire. I learned about him from
Anthony Damiani in his seminars on perennial philosophy at his bookshop American Brahmin
(1968-1970) in Ithaca when I was working on my chemistry doctorate at Cornell. My copy of
of Plotinus's The Enneads was purchased at Sphinx Bookstore near Harvard Square in 1970 for
half price @ $9.25. From my comments on page 18 of Heraclitus, you can sense the excitement
of my discovery 19 years (metonic cycle) later, when I found the answer in Plotinus's Enneads.
Photo Sources: Page 18 of Wheelwright's Heraclitus (wisdomportal.com); Cover of Enneads (wisdomportal.com)

"Heraclitus seems to teach by metaphor,
with the idea that it is for us to seek
within ourselves as he sought
for himself and found."

Meditation in Zen Circle
to find our Inner Self
Buddha's Enlightenment
under the Bodhi Tree
Plotinus Enneads IV.8.1
Heraclitus searched & found
I have scanned page 357 from Plotinus The Enneads IV:8:1 showing his remarks regarding Heraclitus.
Also images of Meditation in Zen Circle (from Enlightenment News) to find our Inner Self, or Buddha
Nature, and Buddha under the Bodhi Tree where the Blessed One experienced Enlightenment.
Photo Sources: Meditation in Zen Circle (wisdomportal.com); Buddha under Bodhi Tree (margaretjeanlangstaff.com);
Plotinus Enneads (wisdomportal.com)

This revelation came at 1:30 pm
on September 3, 1986, overjoyed
by one great sage confirming
another of his awakening.

Herclitus of Ephesus
(535 BC--475 BC)
by Johannes Moreelse?
Plotinus (204-270)
by Raphael in
School of Athens (1511)
Paul Brunton
(1898-1981)
British sage
In his biography of Plotinus, his disciple Porphyry said Plotinus had union with God four times (The Enneads, p. 17).
Paul Brunton wrote in his Notebooks "Porphyry's statement that Plotinus achieved union with God four times may be
misleading. For he qualified it with the words "during the period I passed with him." Now Plotinus was 59 years old
when Porphyry first met him, and died at 66. So seven years is the length of the period referred to. Against this must
be set the 40 earlier years of spiritual seeking and teaching during which Plotinus must have had other illuminations."
PB also wrote "What the Sage Plotinus called the First Principle, the One, is as high as enlightenment can bring the
seeker." (Notebooks, Vol. 16, 4:2:152). My favorite passage of Plotinus is Enneads I:6:9— "Withdraw into yourself
and look.. until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendour of virtue, until you shall see the perfect
goodness surely established in the stainless shrine." It's wonderful seeing the great sage Plotinus vouching for
Heraclitus searching and found his True Inner Self. It's delightful reading a contemporary sage Paul Brunton
commenting on enlightenment of Plotinus and insights of Heraclitus (Character is his fate, Karma).
Photo Sources: Heraclitus (wikimedia.org); Plotinus (soulspelunker.com); Paul Brunton (paulbrunton.org)

— Peter Y. Chou
    Mountain View, 4-12-2019

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