Select Works, Section 275 (part 1)

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

The text identifies Reason-Principles as the cause that makes lives thoughts, functioning as the ordering principle of existence.

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

The description of the Supreme as 'a Seeing that lives, not an object of vision' presents a paradoxical formulation of divine reality.

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

The identity of Knower and Known implies that knowing the divine principle is equivalent to knowing one's own true nature.

The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.

The text notes that the Whither is less good than the Whence, indicating a degradation or distance from the original Unity.

The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.

The Soul is described as rising to become one with the Intellectual-Principle, effectively partaking in the divine nature.

Describing the divine only by negation—God transcends all positive categories and concepts; the via negativa.

[auto] The text negates diversity and parts in the Supreme ('we cannot stop at a principle containing separate parts'), using negation to describe the higher principle.

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

[auto] The text states that in the Intellectual-Principle and Supreme 'no distinction exists between Being and Knowing' and there are no separate parts.

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 text describes a structured progression from Nature to Soul to Intellectual-Principle to the Supreme, implying a hierarchical order of being.

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

[auto] The passage focuses on 'Contemplation' where the object of knowledge becomes identical with the knower, indicating direct experiential knowledge.

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

[auto] It states that in the advanced Soul 'objects of knowledge... are close to identity with their container', suggesting the divine is internal.

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

[auto] The Supreme is described as 'a Seeing that lives', characterizing the divine as active and living rather than a static object.

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

[auto] The 'Supreme' is described as an entity where distinctions vanish and no separate parts exist, fitting the definition of a simple first principle.

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

[auto] The passage explicitly describes the 'complete identity of Knower and Known' and objects becoming 'one thing with them' in advanced contemplation.

The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion.

[auto] The passage states that in the Intellectual-Principle 'no distinction exists between Being and Knowing', dissolving binary oppositions.

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

[auto] The 'advancing stages of Contemplation rising' implies a journey back up the hierarchy toward the Intellectual-Principle and Supreme.

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

[auto] The passage outlines 'advancing stages of Contemplation rising from that in Nature, to that in the Soul and thence again to that in the Intellectual-Principle'.

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

[auto] The core argument is that in the Supreme 'the two are one' and there is 'complete identity of Knower and Known', emphasizing non-duality.