Select Works of Plotinus · 355 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Select Works, Section 339
Section 19 19. Thus what we know as pleasure and pain may be identified: pain is our perception of a body despoiled, deprived of the image of the soul; pleasure our perception of the living frame in which the image of the soul is brought back to harmonious bodily operation. The painful experience takes place in that living frame; but the perception of it belongs to the sensitive phase of the soul, which, as neighbouring the living body, feels the change and makes it known to the principle, the imaging faculty, into which the sensations finally merge; then the body feels the pain, or at least the body is affected: thus in an amputation, when the flesh is cut the cutting is an event within the material mass; but the pain felt in that mass is there felt because it is not a mass pure and simple, but a mass under certain [non-material] conditions; it is to that modified substance that the sting of the pain is present, and the soul feels it by an adoption due to what we think of as proximity. And, itself unaffected, it feels the corporeal conditions at every point of its being, and is thereby enabled to assign every condition to the exact spot at which the wound or pain occurs. Being present as a whole at every point of the body, if it were itself affected the pain would take it at every point, and it would suffer as one entire being, so that it could not know, or make known, the spot affected; it could say only that at the place of its presence there existed pain- and the place of its presence is the entire human being. As things are, when the finger pains the man is in pain because one of his members is in pain; we class him as suffering, from his finger being painful, just as we class him as fair from his eyes being blue. But the pain itself is in the part affected unless we include in the notion of pain the sensation following upon it, in which case we are saying only that distress implies the perception of distress. But [this does not mean that the soul is affected] we cannot describe the perception itself as distress; it is the knowledge of the distress and, being knowledge, is not itself affected, or it could not know and convey a true message: a messenger, affected, overwhelmed by the event, would either not convey the message or not convey it faithfully.
Themes
◆Monadcosmology
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The reference to a singular 'ordering principle' arranging from above implies the existence of an undivided source of order, though not explicitly named as the One.
All passages →◆Opposites Transcendedanthropology
The dissolution of binary oppositions (male/female, inner/outer, above/below) as a mark of spiritual completion.
The text notes that 'unity of dissimilars does occur' in the Reason-Principles, suggesting a transcendence of the separation found in the sensible realm.
All passages →◇Divine Simplicitytheology
The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.
[auto] The text describes the higher realm as having 'nothing is past' and being 'one simultaneous grouping,' indicating a lack of temporal or spatial division characteristic of divine simplicity.
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 describes an 'ordering principle arranging from above' that supports the 'engendered,' implying a hierarchical flow of being from higher principles to lower productions.
All passages →◇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 passage explicitly discusses 'Reason-Principles' and an 'ordering principle' that arranges reality from above, aligning with the definition of divine reason mediating creation.
All passages →◇Unity Of Beingtheology
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
[auto] The assertion that 'all... is one simultaneous grouping of Reason-Principles' reflects the doctrine that true existence is unified rather than fragmented.
All passages →Related passages · 11 parallels
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 2 (part 6)
“2.) "If there is to be a light, there must be a fire.
The fire produces the light, and the light renders the fire manifest; it receives the nature of the fire within itself and resides in the fire." ( Mysterium , xl.
2.) "Joy enters the s…”
Both passages discuss the interplay between unity and multiplicity, and the dynamic relationship between different aspects of the divine or ultimate reality. They explore the concepts of order, aspiration, and the interplay of opposites, though from different mystical traditions.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 7 (part 5)
“13.) Man can attain real similarity to God and perfect beatitude only by decisively willing to put his will into the Son, as the Heart or Light of the Father.
"God has the eternal and unchangeable will to generate His Heart and his Son, an…”
Both passages discuss the relationship between the soul and a higher divine principle, emphasizing the soul's aspiration towards unity with the divine. They share a conceptual parallel in the idea of the soul's movement and alignment with a transcendent order or divine will.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 7 (part 13)
“154:1 This is the difference between life in the terrestrial and life in the celestial states of nature, that the former is differentiated into forms, each of which loves to live in the consciousness of its own illusive self— i.e.
, in a s…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the soul and its relationship to higher principles. Passage A describes the soul as an ordering principle that aspires towards the Intellectual-Principle, while Passage B discusses the soul's aspiration towards unity and the divine. Both texts explore the idea of a hierarchical structure in the cosmos and the soul's role within it.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 9 (part 1)
“p.
180 CHAPTER IX.
GENERATION.
"Let every Brahman, with fixed attention, consider all nature, both visible and invisible, as existing in the Divine Spirit.
For when he contemplates the boundless universe in the Divine Spirit, he cannot…”
Both passages discuss the relationship between the divine and the soul, emphasizing the soul's aspiration towards the divine. They also explore the concepts of unity and order within the divine realm and the soul's role in it.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 11 (part 7)
“48.) "The soul and the Word are not one or one being.
The soul is born from the centre of nature, from the essences, and belongs to the body, for she issues from the essences of the body, and attracts to herself the body; but the Word is f…”
Both passages discuss the relationship between the soul, divine principles, and the nature of existence. They explore the idea of a higher, ordering principle (Intellectual-Principle in Plotinus, the Word in Jacob Boehme) that influences the soul and the material world, highlighting the interplay between the divine and the created.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 14 (part 4)
“Each person feels that according to the quality of his Turba , one in one way and another in another.
The avaricious soul, for instance, suffers from cold; the angry soul from heat; the envious soul experiences bitterness; the conceited is…”
Both passages explore the relationship between the soul and bodily experiences, particularly pain and suffering. They discuss how the soul perceives and is affected by these experiences, though from different philosophical and mystical perspectives.
◆platonism|Plato: Timaeus|Section 1
“And about all of them this has to be considered:-that the tendency of each towards its kindred element makes the body which is moved heavy, and the place towards which the motion tends below, but things which have an opposite tendency we ca…”
Both passages explore the nature of pleasure and pain, discussing how the soul or mind perceives these sensations through the body. They both describe the mechanisms by which the body and soul interact to produce these experiences, though from different philosophical and mystical traditions.
◆platonism|Plato: Timaeus|Section 1
“For a man who is in great joy or in great pain, in his unseasonable eagerness to attain the one and to avoid the other, is not able to see or to hear anything rightly; but he is mad, and is at the time utterly incapable of any participation…”
Both passages explore the relationship between the body and the soul, particularly in the context of pain and pleasure. They discuss how the soul perceives and is affected by bodily conditions, though from different philosophical and mystical traditions.
◆renaissance_hermeticism|The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part II (Gli Eroici Furori)|Third Dialoguef
“Here the eyes imprint upon the heart, that is upon the intelligence, and rouse in the will an infinite torment of love, where there is no pain because nothing is sought which is not obtained; but it is happiness, because that which is there…”
Both passages explore the relationship between the soul, body, and perception of pain or pleasure. They discuss how the soul perceives and interacts with bodily sensations, though from different mystical traditions.
◆western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter I (part 3)
“______ Since the remotest antiquity the question of our relation to the true causes of our sensations has constituted the main subject of philosophical research.
Men have always felt that they should have some solution for this question, s…”
Both passages explore the relationship between the soul/mind and the body/sensations, discussing how the soul perceives pain and how the mind interprets sensations. They both delve into the nature of perception and the distinction between the perceiving entity and the perceived object.