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Select Works of Plotinus · 709 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 677

Section 38 38. And yet this "He Is" does not truly apply: the Supreme has no need of Being: even "He is good" does not apply since it indicates Being: the "is" should not suggest something predicated of another thing; it is to state identity. The word "good" used of him is not a predicate asserting his possession of goodness; it conveys an identification. It is not that we think it exact to call him either good or The Good: it is that sheer negation does not indicate; we use the term The Good to assert identity without the affirmation of Being. But how admit a Principle void of self-knowledge, self-awareness; surely the First must be able to say "I possess Being?" But he does not possess Being. Then, at least he must say "I am good?" No: once more, that would be an affirmation of Being. But surely he may affirm merely the goodness, adding nothing: the goodness would be taken without the being and all duality avoided? No: such self-awareness as good must inevitably carry the affirmation "I am the Good"; otherwise there would be merely the unattached conception of goodness with no recognition of identity; any such intellection would inevitably include the affirmation "I am." If that intellection were the Good, then the intellection would not be self-intellection but intellection of the Good; not the Supreme but that intellection would be the Good: if on the contrary that intellection of the Good is distinct from the Good, at once the Good exists before its knowing; all-sufficiently good in itself, it needs none of that knowing of its own nature. Thus the Supreme does not know itself as Good. As what then? No such foreign matter is present to it: it can have only an immediate intuition self-directed.
Themes
◆Apophatic Theologytheology

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

The Principle of Good is described as holding itself aloft with the 'Formless' and rejecting Matter entirely, indicating a transcendent nature beyond categories.

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◆Detachment Gelassenheitpraxis

Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.

The process of reaching the Good requires 'casting away to the utmost possible' at each stage, reflecting a practice of radical letting-go.

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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.

Form functions as the ordering principle that mediates between the Good and Matter to raise it to a nobler order.

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◆Monadcosmology

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

The 'Good' is referenced as the ultimate source from which Form derives, consistent with the first principle of existence.

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◆Return To Sourcesoteriology

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

The movement described involves ascending away from Matter towards the Good where all materiality has disappeared, implying a return to the divine origin.

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◆Spiritual Ascentpraxis

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

The passage describes a 'higher the ascent' involving cleansing and casting away Matter to reach the Good.

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◇Body As Obstacleanthropology

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

[auto] Matter is characterized as Evil or a wrong thing that must be laid aside to attain true Being, aligning with the view of materiality as an impediment.

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◇Cosmic Dualismtheology

Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.

[auto] The passage explicitly contrasts Matter (identified as Evil or a wrong thing) with Form (identified as Good), establishing an ontological opposition.

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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] References to a 'higher plane' and the 'entry of Form' raising Matter imply a structured hierarchy of being descending from the Good.

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◇Evil As Privationtheology

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.

[auto] The passage centrally debates the nature of Matter as Evil or a 'wrong thing' and defines the Good as Form, aligning with the doctrine that evil is a lack or absence of good.

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Related passages · 7 parallels
◆buddhism|The Dhammapada|Chapter XXV, Section 1b
“Nâmarûpa is here used again in its technical sense of mind and body, neither of which, however, is with the Buddhists âtman, or 'self.' Asat, 'what is not,' may therefore mean the same as nâmarûpa, or we may take it in the sense of what is…”
Both passages explore the nature of the ultimate reality and the path to attaining it. Passage A discusses the Buddhist concept of Nirvana and the practices leading to it, while Passage B delves into the nature of the Supreme in Neoplatonism and the limitations of human understanding in describing it. Both emphasize the transcendence of the ultimate reality beyond ordinary concepts and the importance of self-awareness and discipline.
◆buddhism|Vajrakkhedika (Diamond Cutter)|Section 1q
“Free from self, free from being, free from life, free from personality, that highest perfect knowledge is always the same, and thus known with all good things. And why? Because, what were preached as good things, good things indeed, O Sub…”
Both passages explore the concept of the ultimate reality or principle that transcends being and self-awareness. Plotinus discusses the Supreme as beyond being and self-knowledge, while the Buddhist text describes the Tathāgata as free from self, being, and personality, emphasizing the transcendence of conventional categories.
◆christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 9, Section 1d
“Scripture itself declares 451 451 Cf. e. g. Ps. lxxxvi. 8 . that God is Dissimilar to the world, and not to be compared therewith. It says that He is different from all things, and (what is yet more strange) that there is nothing eve…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the divine and the limitations of human language and understanding in describing the Supreme or God. They explore the idea that the divine is beyond being and traditional attributes, emphasizing the ineffable and transcendent nature of the divine.
◆christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology|Chapter Va
“That He Who is the Pre-eminent Cause of everything intelligibly perceived is not Himself any one of the things intelligibly perceived. Once more, ascending yet higher we maintain 537 537 It is not (1) a Thinking Subject; nor (2) an Act or…”
Both passages discuss the ineffable nature of the Supreme or Ultimate Reality, emphasizing that it cannot be described or known in conventional terms. They both reject the application of attributes and affirmations to the Supreme, highlighting its transcendence beyond being and knowing.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 5 (part 11)
“Man must know evil for the purpose of becoming able to realise the good, after which he returns to the latter; but as everything seeks for its own corresponding principle, he in whom evil has become paramount will remain in evil. p. 121 "…”
Both passages explore the relationship between good and evil, and the nature of evil's desire or tendency towards good. They discuss the transformation or purification process from evil to good, though from different philosophical and theological perspectives.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 13 (part 11)
“27.) No Christian should contemplate his own holiness, or fancy himself to be better than others; but he should rather realise his own unworthiness, and regret the perverted state of himself and of humanity as a whole. "No one should want…”
Both passages discuss the concept of striving for a higher, more pure state of being. Passage A from Plotinus explores the idea of Matter desiring to become Form, which is akin to the Good, while Passage B from the Christian mystical tradition speaks of the Christian striving for holiness and surrendering to the love of God, dying to the self.
◆hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 6: The All-Father|Section 1b
“So then, Asclepius, the name alone of Good is found in men, the thing itself nowhere [in them], for this can never be. For no material body doth contain It - a thing bound on all sides by bad, by labors, pains, desires and passions, by err…”
Both passages explore the relationship between good and evil, matter and form, and the ultimate nature of the Good. They share a mystical perspective that the highest good is separate from the material world and is associated with divine essence.