Select Works of Plotinus · 39 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 44

Section 11 11. We shall perhaps be told that in such a state the man is no longer alive: we answer that these people show themselves equally unable to understand his inner life and his happiness. If this does not satisfy them, we must ask them to keep in mind a living Sage and, under these terms, to enquire whether the man is in happiness: they must not whittle away his life and then ask whether he has the happy life; they must not take away man and then look for the happiness of a man: once they allow that the Sage lives within, they must not seek him among the outer activities, still less look to the outer world for the object of his desires. To consider the outer world to be a field to his desire, to fancy the Sage desiring any good external, would be to deny Substantial-Existence to happiness; for the Sage would like to see all men prosperous and no evil befalling anyone; but though it prove otherwise, he is still content. If it be admitted that such a desire would be against reason, since evil cannot cease to be, there is no escape from agreeing with us that the Sage's will is set always and only inward.

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Themes

Detachment Gelassenheitpraxis

Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.

The text describes the Sage's will as set inward and not seeking outer activities or external goods, reflecting a radical letting-go of external attachment.

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Kingdom Withinanthropology

The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.

[auto] The text explicitly states the Sage 'lives within' and his will is set 'always and only inward', rejecting external objects for desire.

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Love Of Neighbourethics

Active compassionate care for others as a central spiritual obligation or expression of divine love.

[auto] The Sage is described as wishing 'all men prosperous and no evil befalling anyone', indicating benevolent concern for others.

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Paradox As Teachingethics

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

[auto] The passage addresses the counter-claim that the Sage is 'no longer alive' to redefine life and happiness in a way that challenges ordinary understanding.

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Renunciation Of Wealthethics

The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle.

[auto] Desiring any 'good external' is described as denying the substantial existence of happiness, implying detachment from material goods.

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Self Knowledgesoteriology

The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.

[auto] The passage emphasizes understanding the Sage's 'inner life' and locating happiness within rather than in external activities.

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Related passages · 8 parallels

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