Select Works of Plotinus · 465 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 442 (part 2)

Similarly the knowing principle itself cannot remain simplex, especially in the act of self-knowing: all silent though its self-perception be, it is dual to itself.

Of course it has no need of minute self-handling since it has nothing to learn by its intellective act; before it is [effectively] Intellect, it holds knowledge of its own content.

Knowledge implies desire, for it is, so to speak, discovery crowning a search; the utterly undifferentiated remains self-centred and makes no enquiry about that self: anything capable of analysing its content, must be a manifold.

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Themes

Divine Simplicitytheology

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

[auto] By asserting the act is itself and the object is itself, the passage implies a lack of composite parts or divisions within the Principle.

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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] The passage describes a state of direct intellectual knowledge where the knower and known are one, aligning with experiential divine knowledge.

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Monadcosmology

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

The reference to the 'Principle itself' aligns with the concept of a singular, undivided first principle.

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Mystical Unionsoteriology

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

The identity of the intellectual act with the Principle suggests a merging or union of the self with the divine reality.

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Opposites Transcendedanthropology

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

[auto] The distinction between the intellectual act and its object is dissolved into identity, transcending the binary of subject and object.

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Self Knowledgesoteriology

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

[auto] The passage explicitly states that the Principle possesses self-knowledge on every count and operates through an act identical to itself.

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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 describes intellection, the intellectual object, and the Principle as identical, emphasizing a non-dual reality.

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Related passages · 5 parallels

christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 5, Section 1i

“364 The ultimate Godhead is reached only by the Negative Path, and known only by Unknowing. The Affirmative Path of philosophical knowledge leads only to the differentiated manifestations of the Godhead: e.g. the Trinity, in Its creative…”

Shared concept: Mystical Union — The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity. (derived)

theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 3 (part 7)

“Herbert Spencer has of late so far modified his Agnosticism, as to assert that the nature of the "First Cause,"* which the Occultist more logically derives from the "Causeless Cause," the "Eternal," and the "Unknowable," may be essentially…”

Shared concept: Unity Of Being — The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim. (derived)

christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 4 (part 1)

“p. 89 CHAPTER IV. CREATION. Everything we see in nature is manifested truth; only we are not able to recognise it as such, unless the truth is manifest within ourselves. God is the supreme, fundamental, universal, self-existent eternal…”

Shared concept: Unity Of Being — The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim. (derived)

christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 1 (part 4)

“Let them, therefore, again go out with their will from their wilful ignorance or malignity and enter again into the will of God." ( Menschwerdung , 3, 5.) All this goes to show that it is useless and vain to seek for divine wisdom, meaning…”

Shared concept: Self Knowledge — The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology. (derived)

western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Mysteries and Their Emissaries-a

“DID that divine knowledge which constituted the supreme possession of the pagan priestcrafts survive the destruction of their temples? Is it yet accessible to mankind, or does it lie buried beneath the rubbish of ages, entombed within the…”

Shared concept: Gnosis Direct Knowledge — Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone. (derived)