Select Works of Plotinus · 30 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Select Works, Section 35 (part 2)
For, on this admission, its perfection cannot reside in any such planning and providing: its perfection will be something quite different, something of quite another class: Reason cannot be itself one of those first needs of nature; it cannot even be a cause of those first needs of nature or at all belong to that order: it must be nobler than any and all of such things: otherwise it is not easy to see how we can be asked to rate it so highly.
Until these people light upon some nobler principle than any at which they still halt, they must be left where they are and where they choose to be, never understanding what the Good of Life is to those that can make it theirs, never knowing to what kind of beings it is accessible.
What then is happiness?
Let us try basing it upon Life.
Themes
◇Apophatic Theologytheology
Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.
[auto] Perfection is defined by negation, stating it cannot reside in planning or providing and is of quite another class.
All passages →◇Emanation Hierarchycosmology
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
[auto] The passage explicitly establishes a hierarchy where Reason is nobler than the first needs of nature and belongs to a different class.
All passages →Related passages · 4 parallels
◆christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 2, Section 1i
“The Godhead is not a Whole because it is indivisible, nor a Part because there is nothing, on the ultimate plane, outside It.
Yet It is a Whole because It includes the true existence of all things, and is Partitive because It contains the…”
Both passages explore the nature of ultimate reality and perfection, with Passage A discussing the Good and happiness in terms of a nobler principle, and Passage B describing the Godhead as transcending all forms and perfections. Both emphasize the transcendent and ineffable nature of the ultimate principle.
◆platonism|Plato: Timaeus|Section 1i
“And being free from jealousy, he desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be.
This is in the truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do well in believing on the testimony of wise men: God de…”
Both passages explore the nature of the Good or the divine, emphasizing the perfection and order brought about by a higher principle or creator. They share a conceptual parallel in their focus on the nobility and superiority of the divine or rational principle over material needs and disorder.
◆taoism|Tao Te Ching|Chapter 2
“All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what ugliness is; they all know the skill of the skilful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what the want of skill is. So it is that existe…”
Both passages explore the nature of perfection and the good life, emphasizing the importance of a higher principle or understanding that transcends ordinary human concerns. They both touch on the idea of a sage or enlightened individual who understands and embodies this higher principle.
◆western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter XXII (part 8)
“Permanency also suffers no change of its nature, because it is not mingled with the unstable.
And the beautiful there is beautiful, because it does not subsist in beauty (as in a subject).
Each thing too is there p.
280 established, not…”
Both passages explore the nature of ultimate reality and the highest form of knowledge or wisdom. Passage A discusses the perfection of Reason and the Good of Life, while Passage B describes the permanent, beautiful, and intellectual nature of ultimate reality, emphasizing the insatiable and unceasing contemplation of wisdom.