Select Works, Section 695 (part 2)

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

The author suggests that 'Freedom may of course be an inappropriate term' for the divine reality, indicating the limits of positive language.

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.

The text explicitly states that the Intellectual-Principle is referred to a 'yet higher' principle (the Good), establishing a hierarchical relationship.

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.

Servitude and the involuntary are defined as being powerless to move towards one's good or motion away from a good, reflecting evil as a lack of good.

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

The description of the 'undivided Principle' and 'simplex Activity' aligns with the concept of the Monad as the simple first principle.

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

The text asserts that in the Principle there is 'no difference of potentiality and act,' transcending the duality between being and efficiency.

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

The passage mentions that the act is 'directed towards the Principle from which it proceeds,' implying a movement back to the origin.

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

[auto] The passage centrally defines the higher principle as an 'undivided Principle, a simplex Activity' where being and act are identical without distinction.