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Plato: Wisdom is Not Knowing
364 Plays1 year ago
In this short episode, Laura Coe shares how reading a passage from Plato as a teenager sent her on a lifelong journey of discovering one essential truth: wisdom is knowing nothing. Listen in as she and Kevin Kaiser peel back the layers of what it means to encounter life with an opening “not-knowing” and how that is the path to inner freedom and growth.
* Join us at Little Soul School, a community of people dedicated to soul growth, soul learning, and accessing the Akashic Records, a place that hold all of our souls’ histories—everything we’ve done in all of our lifetimes. If you’re looking for a deeper connection to yourself and a place to experiment and learn in a non-judgmental, open community of people, join us at https://littlesoul.school. No woo-woo, no fluff. Just fun and connection.
Come check it out at https://littlesoul.school
Follow Laura Coe:
Website: www.lauracoe.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurascoe/
Follow Kevin Kaiser:
Website: www.kevinkaiser.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinkaiser.co
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Transcript
Introduction to Soul School Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to Soul School with Laura Ko and Kevin Kaiser. On this show, we dive into life's biggest questions. Who are we? What are we here to do? And how can we fearlessly live as our truest, deepest selves? Soul School is the spiritual education you never received. So if you're ready, join us as we explore together. Soul School is in session.
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. This episode is a short one. Again, these are becoming a fan favorite and some of our favorite shows too because we get to share tidbits, poems, pieces of literature and things that have really impacted us. And today, Laura is in the hot seat. Laura, how are you feeling?
Impact of Plato's Philosophy on Laura's Life
00:00:51
Speaker
Well, when you put it like that, no, I'm excited. Good. Well, so today you're going to share with us a quote or piece, something that is really meaningful to you, and then we'll see what happens. Yeah. So I think what I'll do is I'll share it with you first and tell you a little bit about what I think it means and then, yeah, just share the story of it. But it's from Plato and it's, every seeker
00:01:20
Speaker
after wisdom knows that up to the time when philosophy takes over his soul is a helpless prisoner chained hand and foot in the body compelled to view reality not directly but only through its prison bars and wallowing in utter ignorance." Wow.
00:01:47
Speaker
Wow. So, okay. So the first image I get is of Plato's cave as you're reading that, right? Yeah. So, okay. Talk to me about how old were you when you came across this? Because you had mentioned to me before that you were pretty young and it just seemed bizarre that something like that, because I had to really concentrate as you're reading it, like how old were you and how did it really grab onto you? Why?
00:02:20
Speaker
Yeah, so I wanted to share this one today because I did the still point in the turning world, and it was similar and this was the other one. You know, Kevin, I hate to admit it and my son's older now so it's okay to go public and not feel like he'll
00:02:35
Speaker
die because he's aware, but I was like kind of a mess in high school. I was partying and didn't care about school. I was that kid that you're like, oh, I hope my kid doesn't get caught up with that kid. I had so many friends, I had so much fun, but I was not serious and I did not care about school. And if a teacher said,
00:02:59
Speaker
know, what should we do today? My hand will go up in the air and be like, recess. Like I was so annoying, right? And I just, anything to not be in school, I felt tortured by the school system. It was like a caved animal feeling for me, right? So a caged animal, excuse me. So I just, I really didn't get good grades. I was an elite school. I mean, an elite school. University of Chicago has a
00:03:23
Speaker
preschool through high school program and it's very small and it's really competitive and I didn't care about anything. So there I was getting bad report card after the next and I went into an English class and my professor, teacher, I guess had us reading Plato and usual me, I didn't care. And I read this sentence and everything in me just stopped. It's just was like a,
Wisdom and Philosophical Exploration
00:03:53
Speaker
what just happened, right? So intellectually, I don't know that I followed it because it's really deep, but I had a absolute profound awakening to the meaning that my soul was chained to my body. And the school systems and the education systems and the knowledge that was being taught, right?
00:04:16
Speaker
to know in my mind that one plus one is two and this is pink versus green. And like the, the learnings that were happening for me on a soul level, there was this feeling like I'm going to get indoctrinated into a worldview, a belief system. If I am not careful and I will end up like this quote, chained in utter ignorance. Right. And, and I, I knew it in my body. I was too young to like be able to say,
00:04:45
Speaker
more than that, I just had this epic fear that that was true. And so I went to college two years later, immediately signed up for ancient Greek philosophy and I started getting straight A's and I went to graduate school in philosophy and then late in life I came into all the spirituality and it all came together, right? But it really sort of encapsulates or summarizes two big things, which is
00:05:15
Speaker
the quote itself is deep and we can go through that. But then this other part, which is, you know, on a soul level, this resonated as true at 16 because
00:05:27
Speaker
At 16, I did not know what I was reading, but on a soul level, I woken. I woke up to the words as truth, right? Like, I've already studied this. I already know this. It was a remembering. That makes a lot of sense to me because I think most people have had that experience where they hear a piece of music.
00:05:45
Speaker
and they'll be moved and they won't even know why it moves them. It's almost like there's this essence behind it, right? Like this frequency, but literal frequency in the case of music behind it that just resonates in a different way. I mean, how does it... Because I can tell as you're talking about it, because I can see you on screen, that it did something to you, right? Physically, emotionally. How does it resonate with you now? I mean,
00:06:16
Speaker
the probably layers and layers of like other meaning, deeper meaning to you, but what does it mean to you now, like right now? I mean, the first thing is just how truthful these Akashic records, the view of the Akashic realm is the closest thing that makes sense to me, right? And it doesn't matter to me if it's not other people, but for me, this idea that we have a soul plan,
00:06:42
Speaker
that we come back here, we embody, we really don't remember our previous lives, but we have these little moments of awakenings to like the truth of who we are, which is the soul level, right? And so this for me was like the first time I think in my life, my conscious life that I can remember waking up to the truth of the soul level, Laura, right? Like this spoke to something ancient and profound in me, not this physical 16 year old, right?
00:07:10
Speaker
So there's that. And then the second part, you said that the cave parable or the allegory of the cave that Plato talks about. And for people who don't know, there's this really beautiful story that Plato has. It's really famous, but a bunch of people sitting in a cave and they're staring at the wall and they're chained and they're staring at this wall and it's all reflections.
00:07:36
Speaker
and they think they're looking at the real thing, right? So imagine there's a bird reflected on the wall or whatever, right? There's these images. One person breaks out of the chains, leaves the cave, goes outside and goes, oh my God, it's just being, the sun is reflecting in a certain way and it's going onto the cave wall. It's not real. That's not real. That's not like, that's not the reality. And so
00:08:01
Speaker
Plato is bringing up a lot of cool stuff, but one is that we don't know that we're looking at mere reflections when we're in life.
Relevance of Ancient Teachings Today
00:08:09
Speaker
We think we're looking at the reality. Two is when you break out of that view and you realize, oh my God, we just recorded another one recently around you and row, row, row your boat and life is just a dream. But it's like this idea that this life we're living in
00:08:26
Speaker
It's not maybe exactly what it is. You get out. How do you talk to people who maybe think it is truth? Right. And so this person in Plato's story lived between like, where do you live in life if you don't accept it anymore? But you don't want to be outside the cave because then you're not in life. Right. And then the last thing is this every seeker after wisdom knows that up to the time when philosophy takes over his soul.
00:08:55
Speaker
So what he means by philosophy is the idea, right, that wisdom to Plato was knowing I know nothing. That's a big one. Right. That's a big one. And so when you know you know nothing, right, that's when you have true wisdom. And when you have true wisdom in his view, you finish all your soul incarnations and you don't have to reincarnate. And that's the end of your soul evolution.
00:09:25
Speaker
which has also then been true in the Akashic records, right? So it was this, it's this multi, multi, multi-layered of, I love the philosophy, it hits home on a truth for me. And then like this beginning of my life, love of Plato, Western philosophy meets this phase of my life at 52 of the connection between these, this ancient Sanskrit, Akasha means sky, basically Eastern system,
00:09:55
Speaker
meets Western, right? And what are the odds of that, right? So it affirms,
Education and Soul Growth
00:10:01
Speaker
at least these great works are all speaking from a very similar perspective. And they speak to me. This is kind of a funny, not a tangent, but as you were talking, it reminded me of Christopher Nolan's movie Memento. Did you ever
00:10:21
Speaker
It's like one of my favorite movies. As you were describing reading that as a 16-year-old, something about that just resonated within me and I just saw the memento and this whole picture of a soul incarnating through many, many, many human lifetimes.
00:10:44
Speaker
Anytime they go to sleep and wake back up they don't remember anything but they left behind these clues you know activate memories and help them and you know if anybody listening hasn't seen momento like Christopher Nolan I'm not gonna ruin anything about it but you need to go watch and you'll see what what I'm talking about but
00:11:06
Speaker
It is like, it does drive home this idea to me that on some mysterious like soul level, we have hidden these little things along the way for ourselves to discover, to activate these, you know, these knowings that really can't even be put into words, but I really like these launch patterns for the next level of growth for us.
00:11:35
Speaker
You know, Kevin, it's like, I'm even gonna go a step further and say, yes, and I wonder if our education system and our cultural norms were different. And when you're born, there's a belief that we understand,
Cultural Influence on Self-Worth and Authenticity
00:11:51
Speaker
right? You're a father, I'm a mother. We understand that while I gave birth to my son, I don't actually know the soul within this flesh that showed up, right? This little package of eight pounds.
00:12:04
Speaker
that has blue eyes and looks a certain way, but I don't know where the soul has been. I just see him day one. And if we could think that way as we raise our children and as we put them into the school systems and we can encourage the alchemist, the Nolan movie you just mentioned, this idea of following the breadcrumbs, watching as life
00:12:32
Speaker
leaves you these incredible clues as to exactly what you decided to do before you came here and you wanted to do in this life and what speaks to you and wakes you up and makes you feel most alive. It's already here and
00:12:49
Speaker
there's these knowings, there's these breadcrumbs dropped all over for you to wake back up to the endlessness of yourself, right? Um, but we're trained to not trust that we're trained to think and learn and study. And there's nothing wrong with that. And I'm not saying don't get an education, but to know that the education is just information. It's not this other part, which is,
00:13:16
Speaker
I sometimes think about compass and radar. The compass that's setting the path of my life is coming from this place and it's so abundant if we know it's there and we're willing to listen. But the mind is like, no. It just drives us in all sorts of weird directions. Then we wake up and say, why is my life so frustrating and I'm so heavy and I'm lost and stuck?
00:13:44
Speaker
I've been there many times in my life and it's because I'm not attuned to the realities of what's available and just listening.
Unconditional Love and Societal Pressures
00:13:52
Speaker
It's so easy. Yeah, in your own inner wild essential nature because I think most people and not just people listening to this would agree that
00:14:04
Speaker
Like at a young age, we're domesticated, mostly through our educational system, through culture, as a means of keeping us productive within the dream, within the game. And that's why you said something about what makes you come alive.
00:14:26
Speaker
And that's really what the world needs. And we've just been told not to trust that sense, like the feelings of, oh, this makes me come alive. Well, yeah, but there's not a high ROI on that, or you can't make a lot of money doing that thing. And so people immediately start categorizing what they're allowed to feel and know and be and do.
00:14:50
Speaker
And what you're saying, Plato's reminding us through you and you sharing this is, no man, you're uncontainable. Let those things awaken in you. Yeah, Kevin, and it's so serious, right? Because I'm gonna get my serious hat on, but it's not just that culture domesticates us,
00:15:15
Speaker
you know, like an animal is domesticated. We are domesticated with a threat of love, right? It's like, and any sense of self worth, right? So I show my son a spoon and he says fork and I say no.
00:15:32
Speaker
No, spoon, right? And then if they get it wrong too many times, parents withhold affection and love. And if they go to the school systems and they don't say it the way they need to, they don't get an A. And if you don't get an A, you're not going to get a job. And if you don't get a job, you can't pay for your bills. And it's like, oh my God, right? And it's fine. We have to agree that a fork is a fork and a spoon is a spoon. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. Let's agree to some norms so we can all function.
00:15:58
Speaker
there's this next level of a belief of who I am that's also put into this domestication where it's the switch to make me do it is the withholding of love, right? And the worthiness of the love, right? And so everybody's walking around, right? All of us, don't lie. Every single one of us wonders if we're lovable, if we don't do something, wonders if we're worthy to step out to do something.
00:16:27
Speaker
to what? Be ourself, to be unconditional, flowing love. And how do you put a worth on the essential soul that is love, right? I mean, it's just,
Conclusion and Invitation to Little Soul School
00:16:40
Speaker
it's so upside down. It is, yeah. And that's, hopefully, you know, we're doing our part to help remind everybody that it doesn't have to be that way, so.
00:16:51
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you for sharing your beautiful gold nugget with us. And I can't wait for the next one because these are these are becoming not the other conversations are bad. I love those. I just love these bite sized pieces and I hope everybody else does too. So thank you, Laura.
00:17:12
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this week's episode and I really hope that you consider checking out the Little Soul School, LittleSoul.school, where there's a community of people dedicated to soul growth, soul learning, and the Akashic energy.
00:17:28
Speaker
a space that holds all of our soul's histories, everything we've ever done in all of our lifetimes. Because they're looking for a deeper connection to themselves, a place to experiment and play with spirituality in a non-judgmental, vulnerable, open community of people. No woo-woo, no fluff, just fun and connection. Come check it out, littlesoul.school.