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Select Works of Plotinus · 67 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 74

Section 3 3. But if life is a good, is there good for all that lives? No: in the vile, life limps: it is like the eye to the dim-sighted; it fails of its task. But if the mingled strand of life is to us, though entwined with evil, still in the total a good, must not death be an evil? Evil to What? There must be a subject for the evil: but if the possible subject is no longer among beings, or, still among beings, is devoid of life... why, a stone is not more immune. If, on the contrary, after death life and soul continue, then death will be no evil but a good; Soul, disembodied, is the freer to ply its own Act. If it be taken into the All-Soul- what evil can reach it There? And as the Gods are possessed of Good and untouched by evil- so, certainly is the Soul that has preserved its essential character. And if it should lose its purity, the evil it experiences is not in its death but in its life. Suppose it to be under punishment in the lower world, even there the evil thing is its life and not its death; the misfortune is still life, a life of a definite character. Life is a partnership of a Soul and body; death is the dissolution; in either life or death, then, the Soul will feel itself at home. But, again, if life is good, how can death be anything but evil? Remember that the good of life, where it has any good at all, is not due to anything in the partnership but to the repelling of evil by virtue; death, then, must be the greater good. In a word, life in the body is of itself an evil but the Soul enters its Good through Virtue, not living the life of the Couplement but holding itself apart, even here.
Themes
◆Divine Simplicitytheology

The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.

The Good is associated with Unity and Ideal-Form, implying an undivided nature superior to the images below.

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◇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 outlines a descending chain of alignment from the Good to the Intellectual-Principle, then to Soul, and finally to the soulless Universe.

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◇Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology

Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.

[auto] Possession of the Good is achieved through orientation and intellection rather than external ritual or faith.

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◇Logoscosmology

The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.

[auto] The Intellectual-Principle functions as the mediating reason between the transcendent Good and the Soul/Universe.

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◇Monadcosmology

The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.

[auto] The 'Good' is described as the ultimate source of Unity and Existence from which all other levels derive their being.

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◇Mystical Unionsoteriology

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

[auto] The text describes the soul actually possessing the Good and having a double contact with it through life and intellection.

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◇Return To Sourcesoteriology

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

[auto] The soul is instructed to orientate itself towards the Intellectual-Principle to possess the Good, implying a return to its origin.

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◇Spiritual Ascentpraxis

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

[auto] The passage describes the necessary orientation of the Soul upward toward the Intellectual-Principle and the Good.

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◇Unity Of Beingtheology

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

[auto] The text states that everything possesses a degree of the Good by virtue of possessing a certain degree of unity and existence.

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Related passages · 4 parallels
◆christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 6, Section 1a
“144 CHAPTER VI Concerning ” Life .” 1. Now must we celebrate Eternal Life as that whence cometh very Life and all life, 392 392 The Godhead, though called Eternal Life, is really supra-vital, because life implies differentiations, and the…”
Both passages explore the nature of life and death, discussing the continuity of the soul and its relationship to the divine. They share a mystical perspective on the transcendence of the soul beyond physical existence, though they come from different religious traditions.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 14 (part 1)
“p. 289 CHAPTER XIV. DEATH AND ETERNAL LIFE. "The mystic death is the beginning of eternal life." Man is a product of three worlds His spirit is of God, his soul from the constellation of the astral elements, his body from the elements of…”
Both passages explore the concept of death and the soul's existence after death, discussing the nature of life, death, and the soul's journey. They share a mystical perspective on the continuity of the soul beyond physical death, though they come from different traditions.
◆hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 8: The Eight Sphere|Section 1b
“Now the third life - Man, after the image of the Cosmos made, [and] having mind, after the Father's will, beyond all earthly lives - not only doth have feeling with the second God <i.e., the Cosmos>, but also hath conception of the first; f…”
Both passages discuss the nature of life, death, and the soul, exploring the idea that the soul's true good lies beyond the physical life and that death can be seen as a release or a transition to a higher state. They share a mystical perspective on the immortality and purity of the soul.
◆taoism|The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters)|Book 128 (part 6)
“There is the great Mass (of nature);--I find the support of my body in it; my life is spent in toil on it; my old age seeks ease on it; at death I find rest on it:--what has made my life a good will make my death also a good. 'Here now is…”
Both passages explore the nature of life and death, suggesting that death can be a release from the constraints of life and the body. They share a mystical perspective that views the soul's existence beyond physical life as a continuation or even an improvement of its state.