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Select Works of Plotinus · 678 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 649

Section 10 10. But failure There? What can defensive horns serve to There? To sufficiency as living form, to completeness. That principle must be complete as living form, complete as Intellect, complete as life, so that if it is not to be one thing it may be another. Its characteristic difference is in this power of being now this, now that, so that, summing all, it may be the completest life-form, Intelligence complete, life in greatest fulness with each of the particulars complete in its degree while yet, over all that multiplicity, unity reigns. If all were one identity, the total could not contain this variety of forms; there would be nothing but a self-sufficing unity. Like every compound it must consist of things progressively differing in form and safeguarded in that form. This is in the very nature of shape and Reason-Principle; a shape, that of man let us suppose, must include a certain number of differences of part but all dominated by a unity; there will be the noble and the inferior, eye and finger, but all within a unity; the part will be inferior in comparison with the total but best in its place. The Reason-Principle, too, is at once the living form and something else, something distinct from the being of that form. It is so with virtue also; it contains at once the universal and the particular; and the total is good because the universal is not differentiated.
Themes
Divine Simplicitytheology

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

The divine stage is described as lacking nothing and containing causes inherently, suggesting an undivided nature.

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Logoscosmology

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

References to things being 'foreconceived' and existing for a 'purpose' imply a divine ordering principle or reason.

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Monadcosmology

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

The description of the source containing 'the cause of all as inherent to itself' aligns with the concept of a simple first principle.

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Pleromacosmology

The divine fullness or totality of the highest realm, populated by aeons and divine attributes, contrasted with the deficient material world.

It describes a divine stage that lacks nothing and contains all causes, matching the definition of divine fullness.

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Divine Providencetheology

Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.

[auto] The passage explicitly describes the future as foreconceived and existing for a purpose ordered by the divine cause.

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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 a 'divine stage' unfolding into a 'later stage' with succession, reflecting the downward flow of reality from eternity to time.

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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 passage explicitly states that the All presents 'succession while yet it is simultaneous,' dissolving the binary opposition between time and eternity.

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Paradox As Teachingethics

Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.

[auto] The claim that succession exists within simultaneity uses apparent contradiction to describe the ineffable nature of the divine.

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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 asserts that 'The All... contains the cause of all as inherent to itself,' suggesting a fundamental non-dual reality at the divine source.

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Related passages · 8 parallels
christian_mysticism|Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation)|VIa
SANCTIFICATION 1 1 That is separation from all outward things. St Luke x. 42 .—“One thing is needful.” I have read many writings both of heathen philosophers and inspired prophets, ancient and modern, and have sought earnestly to discover…”
Both passages discuss the concept of unity and completeness within a divine or ideal context. Passage A from Plotinus emphasizes the unity and completeness of Intellect and life, while Passage B from the Christian mystical tradition focuses on sanctification as a means to achieve unity with God. Both explore the idea of a higher, unified state of being.
christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 2 (part 3)
This other will is the sensitivity and conceivability of the primordial will, by means of which that which is nothing finds itself to be something. By so doing the inconceivable causeless will issues by means of that which it has eternally…”
Both passages discuss the nature of divine will and its manifestation. Passage A describes the eternal presence and completeness of the divine, while Passage B elaborates on the triune nature of the divine will and its self-contemplation. Both explore the concept of divine unity and the inherent causes within the divine.
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 discuss the concept of eternal existence and the unfolding of reality. Passage A describes the eternal presence of all things in the divine realm, while Passage B explores the eternal evolution and the manifestation of divine will through desire and action. Both emphasize the inherent completeness and causality within the divine.
christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 3 (part 9)
"The eternal will, the Father, conducts His heart, His eternal Son, by means of the fire into great triumph, into His kingdom of joy." ( Grace , ii. 21.) "When the Father speaks His Word—that is to say, when He generates His Son—which is d…”
Both passages discuss the eternal and simultaneous existence of all things, with Passage A focusing on the divine stage where all is present eternally, and Passage B describing the eternal generation and manifestation of the Holy Trinity. Both emphasize the unity and interconnectedness of all existence within a divine framework.
egyptian|The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani)|Chapter 6 (part 1)
THE DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL LIFE. Egyptian belief in a future life. The doctrine of eternal life in the VIth dynasty. The ideas and beliefs which the Egyptians held in reference to a future existence are not readily to be defined, owing to t…”
Both passages discuss the concept of eternal existence and the idea that all things exist simultaneously in a divine or eternal realm. Plotinus speaks of the All containing the cause of all things inherently, while the Egyptian text describes the belief in eternal life associated with the sun's existence and the renewal of youth in a future life.
hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 11: The Hymn|Section 1c
It must, then, be that such a one as this must be some one who's wholly One. 9. For as the many motions of them [all] are different, and as their bodies are not like, yet has one speed been ordered for them all, it is impossible that ther…”
Both passages discuss the nature of unity and multiplicity within a divine or cosmic framework, exploring how a single principle can encompass and govern diverse forms and lives. They share a conceptual parallel in their examination of the relationship between the One and the many, though they come from different mystical traditions.
western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter IV (part 2)
The future also does not exist—it does not exist as yet. It has not arrived, has not formed. By the present we mean the moment of transition of the future into the past, i.e., the moment of transition of a phenomenon from one non-existenc…”
Both passages explore the nature of time and existence, questioning the reality of the past, present, and future. They share a mystical perspective that challenges conventional views of time, though they come from different traditions.
western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter IV (part 5)
There results in the other case a life upon some sort of needle-point called the present , which is surrounded on all sides by an abyss of non-existence, a journey in a country which does not as yet exist , a life in a world which is born a…”
Both passages explore the concept of time and the relationship between past, present, and future, suggesting that the future is predestined but conditional, and that all moments exist simultaneously. They share a mystical perspective on the nature of time and its dimensions.