Chapter 2: PART A UNDER THE STARS: RE-ENCHANTING REALITY.

In this chapter, the author presents an account of life in ancient Greece. Born in mainland Greece, in a settlement close to Athens to an aristocratic family, the young philosopher finds himself restricted by his family and immediate circle. Going to school in Athens, where he falls under the spell of a Socratic figure to which he is deeply attached, frees him up a bit. But he does not see eye to eye with his father, who has in mind a military life for him and has lined up an arranged marriage for him to consolidate an intra-aristocratic alliance. Contrary to his father's wishes, he leaves the mainland not for a military career but for Croton in southern Italy, where he joins Pythagoras' community. He is ecstatic. For the first time there he feels truly at home. The nights and days, the discussions and celebrations have a magical quality about them. Action from this standpoint is radically free and sufficient to obtain its ends, no longer necessitated or bound by the dictates of quantum natural law or karma or the presence and efficacy of the past. In this way, the essential creativity and freedom of men and women sustain the totality of master-slave relationships and the suffering, oppression and so on that characterize the relative demi-real world of avidya.