Select Works of Plotinus · 360 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Select Works, Section 343 (part 2)
Thus, is the heat of a fire really at a distance from the flesh it warms, the intermediate space remaining unmodified; is it possible to see colour over a sheer blank intervening between the colour and the eye, the organ of vision reaching to its object by its own power?
For the moment we have one certainty, that perception of things of sense belongs to the embodied soul and takes place through the body.
Themes
◇Body As Obstacleanthropology
The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.
[auto] The text attributes the variability and vicissitude of desire to the corporeal entity, contrasting it with the stable psychic faculty, implying the body is a source of instability.
All passages →◇Tripartite Soulanthropology
Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).
[auto] The passage explicitly distinguishes between the psychic faculty (reason), Nature as the lower soul-phase, and the living body, reflecting a threefold division of the human constitution.
All passages →Related passages · 5 parallels
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 2 (part 5)
“The will beholding itself in the mirror of wisdom causes its own image to appear within the groundlessness, and thus it creates a foundation in its own imagination." ( Menschwerdung , ii.
1.) "Wisdom, the eternal virgin, the playmate of Go…”
Both passages explore the nature of desire and its relationship to the self and the body. Plotinus discusses desire as a function of the corporeal entity and its vicissitudes, while the second passage delves into desire as an origin of action and a manifestation of the will, highlighting the interplay between desire, will, and the corporeal.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 3 (part 4)
“The will cannot attain this light, and the more it desires for freedom the greater will be the attraction caused by the desire." ( Six Theosophical Points , i, 38.) "There must be au opposition, for the will desires not to be dark, and this…”
Both passages explore the nature of desire and its relationship to the self and the body. They discuss how desire is influenced by external and internal factors, and how it can lead to conflict or struggle within the individual.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 9 (part 10)
“The conditions of these animal elementals in the constitution of man are some of those causes of his bodily ills of which modern medical science is entirely ignorant.
191:1 This is the way in which the "personalities" mentioned in the Book…”
Both passages explore the relationship between the body, desires, and the higher faculties of the human being. They discuss how bodily states influence desires and the role of the higher self in moderating or understanding these desires, though they come from different mystical traditions.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 12 (part 11)
“The human will refuses to submit itself entirely to the exquisite grace which offers itself out of divine love, and seeks for its own self and for the love of that self which belongs to that which is impermanent.
It loves itself and the st…”
Both passages explore the tension between the lower, bodily desires and the higher, spiritual aspirations of the human being. They discuss how the human will can be swayed by natural desires and the need for submission to a higher will or reason.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 13 (part 9)
“279 free will already in the beginning (of a desire) destroys the desire, so that it does not become substantial, then is the physician (for the cure of that disease) already born, and there will not be needed such great earnestness as will…”
Both passages discuss the nature of desire and its relationship to the body and the soul. They explore how desires are influenced by bodily states and the need for reason or spiritual awareness to control or transcend these desires.