Structure

How do we ascend in love?

1. Worship
We ascend in love through sacred worship of the transcendental realm of the forms and of our God, Eros. Worshipping these forms inspires the mind to live the life of philosopher, and stirs the eros in our hearts and in our souls as the foundation of our being.

2. Practice
Through the practice of philosophy we emulate the questioning, inquisitive nature of Socrates, emulated by his disciples, Plato and Aristotle, and by the Gurus.

3. Live
Living one's life under the creed of erosology means living love. Loving all beings as equal, and most importantly, learning to love ourselves, is fundamental. Through love, we reveal us to ourselves, and only then can we transcend ourselves.

The ascension to love involves three broad phases.

The three stage path to eros could be further divided into seven stages:

Worship

1. Thought

2.  View

3. Intention

Practice

4. Action

5. Speech

6.  Livelihood

Live

7.   Mindfulness

Worship

The first 3 components of the path involve Worship. They are achieved through study of the sacred scriptures. They involve the disembodied consideration of the mind and of reason. They are fundamentally dualistic, concerned with first developing the mind before the spirit can thrive in mediation with its rational faculties.

An erosologist studying sacred texts at one of our sacred centres in Barcelona

The first stage, Thought, involves studying the symposium and tantric texts. It involves an understanding of the four different types of love – agape, philia, storge and eros. There are different types of love, from love of things to love of beauty or knowledge itself. Objectively understanding this ascension process is critical to actually moving through it. Through concerted, focusessed, disembodied study we can progress to stage two.

Types of love

The second stage, View, is about achieving an outlook on the world which values knowledge and reason as beautiful, love as the ultimate truth and understands eros. Essentially, it is to take study of the written word one step further, and apply it to a world-view. What does it mean to have an erotic mind? Eroticism involves sexual satiation but is not limited to it. It means to love passionately in one’s relationship to the other. The other could be another being, an aspect of the physical world or knowledge itself. What does it mean to love passionately? That is to love without regard, unconditionally, unqualifiedly, even if unrequited. When the mind is opened to this new world-view, we progress to stage three.

The third stage, Intention, means framing our actions and reactions in the world with eros: passionate love. It is developed through involvement in symposium discussions at our sacred centres. To live with eros is to love passionately and move through the world philosophically. It means questioning our actions and performing them with compassion, We must treat others the way we want to be treated.

In order to graduate from the Worship aspect of our seven-stage path, erosologists participate in a thought practice and debate with their local gurus. This involves an active discourse with the gurus on the nature of the texts and their outlook on their world.

A Guru, Jess, connects on Skype with some Erosologists in Berlin

Practice

The second three components of the pathway could be paced under the “Practice” component of our ascension to love. They all speak to the way of life of the erosologist.

The fourth stage, then, is Action. We put philosophy into the embodied experience. We bring our understanding of eros into our physical relationships. Only once we have graduated from the Worship stage do erosologists begin to realize the sexual extension of their love. In Action, we first satiate our sexual desire and realize that the sexual act is the soul’s connection with the soul of another. We realize what it is to love fully: physically and mentally.

Action extends beyond physical love to our actions in the world. We start to approach all matter of things – our projects and endeavours, nature, our relationships with friends and colleagues – with passionate love. We give unconditionally and begin to love in a fundamentally altruistic way. Giving back to the community, through service in the sacred centre cafes and general outreach programs, is essential.

A tutoring trip and food drive run in Vietnam

The fifth stage is Speech. This means speaking the language of love to others and engaging in active dialogue with others about erosology. It means the business of philosophy: discussion, inquiry and questioning. Why do we love who we love? What does love reveal to ourselves?

The sixth stage, Livelihood, is about changing our lifestyle to mirror our philosophical world-view. We bring passionate love to our work, our personal life and our community service. We engage in further ritualistic practice, like the burning of negative thoughts, flow meditation and the sauna purification.

The burning of thoughts at a Symposium night

Live

When we truly live our spiritual experience, we combine the rational with the practical. Then we ascend to the third component fthe ascension to love, “Live”. This component is best summarized by the seventh stage, “Mindfulness”. This means being entirely present in our experiences, and mindful of our embodied experience of eros. Only then can we seek to transcend it to realize the nature of knowledge itself and join the realm of the forms occupied by the God Eros. People at this stage of erosology can practice mindful meditation and walking meditation. They love knowledge itself, the highest form of eros.