Select Works of Plotinus · 48 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Select Works, Section 54
Section 4 4. Still the one life has known pleasure longer than the other? But pleasure cannot be fairly reckoned in with Happiness- unless indeed by pleasure is meant the unhindered Act [of the true man], in which case this pleasure is simply our "Happiness." And even pleasure, though it exist continuously, has never anything but the present; its past is over and done with.
Themes
◆Kingdom Withinanthropology
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
Happiness is described as internal ('our Happiness'), suggesting the divine state resides within the individual rather than externally.
All passages →◆Self Knowledgesoteriology
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The reference to the 'true man' implies a distinction between the empirical self and the higher spiritual identity that must be recognized.
All passages →