Select Works, Section 549 (part 2)

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

The nature of Unity-Absolute is partially defined by negation, stating it could never yield discrete plurality.

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

Bodies are characterized as multiplicity and divergence from Reality, suggesting they are less real than the unifying Soul.

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

The text implies that defect or multiplicity in bodies represents a divergence from Reality and Unity, aligning with the privation theory of evil.

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 passage describes bodies as taking rise from unity but involving a divergence from Reality, indicating an ontological separation.

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

[auto] The passage contrasts the undivided nature of Unity with the composite multiplicity of bodies founded on parts, shape, and magnitude.

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 outlines a downward flow of existence where bodies derive from Soul (a pluralized unity), which in turn derives from Unity-Absolute.

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

[auto] Soul is identified as the creative principle composed of Reason-Principles that order the multiplicity found in material bodies.

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

[auto] The concept of 'Unity-Absolute' is presented as the undivided source from which all multiplicity and existence flows.

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

[auto] The passage centrally argues that all bodily elements spring from a single unity and that divergence from unity constitutes a divergence from Reality itself.