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The Fourfold Path is a summary of the practices that lead one to liberation and enlightenment, and a cessation of all suffering.

The Fourfold Path consists of four practices, right imagining, right belief, right knowing, and right understanding, that parallel the stages of thinking in Plato's Cave Allegory, also called The Divided Line. In Platonism, these correspond to the four successive stages on The Divided Line. They are Eikasia or imagination, Pistis or belief, Dianoia or knowledge, and Noêsis or understanding. These stages represent the Platonic 'turning of the soul' and the esoteric ascension of the soul to a higher reality of supreme Enlightenment or oneness with God.

"The central argument is unfolded according to a fourfold interpretative strategy in which each stage in the development of the concept soul and the soul’s transcendence parallels each stage in Plato’s divided line theory (Rep. 509d-511e), namely, imagination (eikasia), belief (pistis), thought (dianoia), and intuitive understanding (noêsis).1 This is the Fourfold Path."

The Fourfold Path teaches that by emptying oneself, practicing death, purification, and mindfulness, you will attain liberation and stop all clinging, attachment, and mental delusion, thereby ending the suffering of separation.

The Fourfold Path is one of the principal teachings of The School of Platonism, taught to the disciple of Plato in order to enter into Plato's Academy of learning. In the Platonic tradition, this path is also the way of morality, happiness, and perfection. It is a way to return to your original nature, which is pure, perfect, full, whole, and complete.

The Four Divisions

The four Platonist practices in the Noble Eightfold Path are :

1. Right Imagination: Our imaginings have power to create reality. Plato taught that the successful way out of suffering is to imagine the 'way out,' and turn inward, rather than continue to view the images, shadows, and forms on the cave wall. The power of imagination is a power related to the sensible realm, while the lowest, it has the power to turn the soul to see the way out of the cave allegory. 2. Right Belief: Adopting the right belief-set is imperative to the turning of the soul and to ascension and a belief-set must be formed in order to continue to walk the path, and be set free, as this will guarantee the disciple can escape the darkness of ignorance, and walk into the light of the sensory world. 3. Right Knowledge: the third phase of right thinking is to have right knowledge of the self and the path, since the fundamental problem of suffering is self-ignorance, the solution is self-knowledge. Know Thyself is the maxim. This stage of thinking corresponds to the mathematical power in the intelligible realm. 4. Right Understanding: This power corresponds to the highest power of the mind, direct insight, which is attained by being conscious of what one is doing, or being aware. Through self-awareness, one can attain self-understanding and understanding of the Forms of the Good.

Liberation Following The Fourfold Path leads to liberation

The path to the Good is a path of love for truth. “[Philosophers] must be without falsehood–they must refuse to accept what is false, hate it, and have a love for truth” (Rep. 485c3–4). He continues, [the philosopher] moves on, he neither loses nor lessens his erotic love until he grasps the being of each nature itself with the part of his soul that is fitted to grasp it, because of its kinship with it, and that, once getting near what really is, and having intercourse with it and having begotten understanding and truth, he knows, truly lives, is nourished, and–at that point, but not before–is relieved from the pains of giving birth. (Rep. 490b1–b6).

This relief is the end of suffering.

See also

Four stages of enlightenment

References 1. Lovejoy, Magdalena. "The Fourfold Path, The True Self and Transcendence In The Human Space In Plato." Iuniverse, 2018.