Philosophy is a rich movement through history, and who can squeeze its many shapes into one simple definition? We may say, for instance, that philosophers investigate fundamental issues of life and reality, that they construct theories about the foundation of everything, that they use the powers of the mind and not faith or authority or empirical observation. All this is correct, but it is no more than a formal definition, a shape without spirit, without the yearning that animates it, without the inspiration that gives it life. It does not reveal the inner depths from which philosophy emerges, and the greater realms which philosophy is able to reach.

One may not care about greater realms and be satisfied with intellectual analysis. Indeed, many thinkers have done it – philosophy can be just abstract theorizing about selected phenomena; but it can also be much more. Because once you deal with the foundation, with the furthest horizons possible, with our innermost depths, you are no longer in human dimensions, and you can no longer impose the logic of your thoughts. The words may now resonate with great voices of reality, and whether or how this happens is not up to you. You are now a boat on the waves of the ocean. The impact of your words and thoughts are not fully in your control.

You may, of course, refuse to acknowledge the ocean. You may shut off your inner listening and let your intellect take over. Thus your philosophizing might remain within the boundaries of human theorizing; but on the other hand, it might not. It happens sometimes that although you think you are producing a philosophical theory, in reality you are giving voice to the grand chorus of existence.

That is why we contemplate on philosophical texts in Deep Philosophy. When we contemplate a text, the point is not what the historical writer intended to do and what he believed he was doing, but rather the voices of human reality that express themselves through his writings. Deep Philosophy in this sense is the human thinking which emerges from the yearning to touch the foundation, and which ends up giving voice to what is deeper and greater than itself.