Select Works of Plotinus · 528 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor
Select Works, Section 505
Section 13 13. It remains to decide whether only what is known in sense exists There or whether, on the contrary, as Absolute-Man differs from individual man, so there is in the Supreme an Absolute-Soul differing from Soul and an Absolute-Intellect differing from Intellectual-Principle. It must be stated at the outset that we cannot take all that is here to be image of archetype, or Soul to be an image of Absolute-Soul: one soul, doubtless, ranks higher than another, but here too, though perhaps not as identified with this realm, is the Absolute-Soul. Every soul, authentically a soul, has some form of rightness and moral wisdom; in the souls within ourselves there is true knowing: and these attributes are no images or copies from the Supreme, as in the sense-world, but actually are those very originals in a mode peculiar to this sphere. For those Beings are not set apart in some defined place; wherever there is a soul that has risen from body, there too these are: the world of sense is one- where, the Intellectual Kosmos is everywhere. Whatever the freed soul attains to here, that it is There. Thus, if by the content of the sense-world we mean simply the visible objects, then the Supreme contains not only what is in the realm of sense but more: if in the content of the kosmos we mean to include Soul and the Soul-things, then all is here that is There.
Related passages · 8 parallels
◆christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 5, Section 1k
“Hence the soul possessing God is in a state of “having nothing and yet possessing all things.” Cf.
Dante, cio che per l’universa si squaderna, etc.
382 Cf.
Section 5.
383 i.
e.
The Platonic ideas of things—their ultimate essences.
Bu…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the soul and its relationship to higher realities, such as the Absolute or Supreme. They explore the idea that the soul contains essences or forms that are reflections of a higher, more universal reality.
◆christian_mysticism|Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation)|IIb
“So, if my soul is to know God, it must be God-like.” Now, how is the soul to arrive at this heavenly state that it recognizes God in itself, and knows that He is near?
By copying the heavens, which can receive no impulse from without to ma…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the soul's connection to the divine and the transcendence of the material world. They emphasize the soul's need to rise above bodily concerns and temporal constraints to attain true knowledge of the divine, showing a genuine conceptual parallel across different mystical traditions.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 3 (part 1)
“p.
71 CHAPTER III.
THE SEVEN PROPERTIES OR QUALITIES OF ETERNAL NATURE.
1 I.
♄ ☾ II.
☿ ♃ III.
♂ ♀ IV.
☉ V.
♀ ♂ VI.
♃ ☿ VII.
☾ ♄ When the Eternal One, in its aspect as a Trinity and with reference to divine wisdom, reveals itself o…”
Both passages discuss the concept of a unified principle that contains multiple distinct elements or qualities. Plotinus describes the Intellectual-Principle as containing all authentic existences in a unified yet distinct manner, while Boehme discusses the seven properties of eternal nature as different forms of divine manifestation that are interconnected and interdependent.
◆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…”
Both passages discuss the nature of divine principles and their relationship to creation. Plotinus describes the Intellectual-Principle as containing all authentic existences in a unified yet distinct manner, while Boehme explains the divine creation of powers and the distinction between God and the world. Both explore the concept of divine emanation and the hierarchy of existence.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 8 (part 8)
“For the internal being is continually labouring to manifest itself outwardly.
Thus everything has its own mouth for the purpose of revealing itself, and therein is based the language of nature, by means of which each thing speaks out of it…”
Both passages discuss the manifestation of inner principles or powers in the external world, and the interconnectedness of all things within a universal framework. Boehme's passage emphasizes the internal being manifesting outwardly and the unity of nature and man, while Plotinus' passage describes the Intellectual-Principle containing all authentic existences in a unified yet distinct manner.
◆hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres|Section 1b
“But when He raised His head, I see in Mind the Light, [but] now in Powers no man could number, and Cosmos grown beyond all bounds, and that the Fire was compassed round about by a most mighty Power, and [now] subdued had come unto a stand.…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the Intellectual-Principle or Mind, describing it as a unified yet multifaceted entity that contains and governs all existence. They also explore the concept of emanation and the hierarchical structure of reality, though from different mystical traditions.
◆western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter XXII (part 3)
“These Eleatic ideas—namely that there is and there can be only One Absolute Being, infinite., unchangeable, without a second, without parts and passions—are the same ideas which underlie the Upanishads and have been fully worked out in the…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the soul and its relationship to a higher, absolute reality. Passage A from Plotinus explores the concept of Absolute-Soul and Intellectual-Principle, while Passage B from the Upanishads and Vedânta-Sutras discusses the unity of Brahman and Atman. Both texts emphasize the idea of an ultimate, unchangeable reality and the soul's connection to it.
◆western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter XXII (part 5)
“______ Whatever we may think of this philosophy, we cannot deny its metaphysical boldness and its logical consistency.
If Brahman is all in all, the One without a second, nothing can be said to exist that is not Brahman .
there is no room…”
Both passages discuss the nature of ultimate reality and the relationship between the individual soul and the divine. They explore the idea that the divine is not separate from the individual but is present within, and that the phenomenal world is a manifestation of this ultimate reality.