← Home
Select Works of Plotinus · 730 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Select Works, Section 697

Section 15 15. Lovable, very love, the Supreme is also self-love in that He is lovely no otherwise than from Himself and in Himself. Self-presence can hold only in the identity of associated with associating; since, in the Supreme, associated and associating are one, seeker and sought one the sought serving as Hypostasis and substrate of the seeker- once more God's being and his seeking are identical: once more, then, the Supreme is the self-producing, sovereign of Himself, not happening to be as some extern willed but existing as He wills it. And when we say that neither does He absorb anything nor anything absorb Him, thus again we are setting Him outside of all happening- not only because we declare Him unique and untouched by all but in another way also. Suppose we found such a nature in ourselves; we are untouched by all that has gathered round us subjecting us to happening and chance; all that accruement was of the servile and lay exposed to chance: by this new state alone we acquire self-disposal and free act, the freedom of that light which belongs to the order of the good and is good in actuality, greater than anything Intellectual-Principle has to give, an actuality whose advantage over Intellection is no adventitious superiority. When we attain to this state and become This alone, what can we say but that we are more than free, more than self-disposing? And who then could link us to chance, hazard, happening, when thus we are become veritable Life, entered into That which contains no alloy but is purely itself? Isolate anything else and the being is inadequate; the Supreme in isolation is still what it was. The First cannot be in the soulless or in an unreasoning life; such a life is too feeble in being; it is reason dissipated, it is indetermination; only in the measure of approach towards reason is there liberation from happening; the rational is above chance. Ascending we come upon the Supreme, not as reason but as reason's better: thus God is far removed from all happening: the root of reason is self-springing. The Supreme is the Term of all; it is like the principle and ground of some vast tree of rational life; itself unchanging, it gives reasoned being to the growth into which it enters.
Themes
◆Active Contemplationpraxis

A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.

The Intellectual-Principle is described as self-confined and governing, implying an active intellectual state.

All passages →
◆Divine Simplicitytheology

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

The Intellectual-Principle is described as self-confined, hinting at its undivided and simple nature.

All passages →
◆Self Examinationpraxis

Daily review of thought and action as spiritual practice.

Virtue calls experiences and actions to judgement, suggesting a practice of reviewing one's conduct.

All passages →
◇Body As Obstacleanthropology

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

[auto] The text states virtue may decree the jettison of life and means, treating physical existence as subordinate to higher aims.

All passages →
◇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 text establishes a hierarchy where Intellectual-Principle and Virtue are sovereign foundations governing the soul.

All passages →
◇Kingdom Withinanthropology

The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.

[auto] The passage centrally argues that true freedom and self-disposal are internal matters of will and intellect rather than external actions.

All passages →
◇Mystical Unionsoteriology

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

[auto] The goal of virtue is to lift the soul into goodness and align with the sovereignty of the Intellectual-Principle.

All passages →
◇Renunciation Of Wealthethics

The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle.

[auto] Virtue is willing to sacrifice means, children, and country, indicating detachment from material possessions and attachments.

All passages →
◇Return To Sourcesoteriology

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

[auto] The movement of lifting the soul into goodness reflects the Neoplatonic journey back to the divine origin.

All passages →
◇Self Knowledgesoteriology

The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.

[auto] Freedom is defined by self-disposal and the dictate of will, implying recognition of one's true intellectual nature.

All passages →
◇Spiritual Ascentpraxis

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

[auto] Virtue is described as seeking to lift the soul into goodness, indicating an upward movement toward higher principles.

All passages →
◇Unity Of Beingtheology

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

[auto] Intellectual-Principle and Virtue are held as the sole foundation of self-disposal, implying a unified source of reality.

All passages →
Related passages · 7 parallels
◆christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 4, Section 1c
“The Good is beyond this distinction, for nothing (on the ultimate plane) is outside It. See Intr., p. 5. and Lifelessness an excess of Life and Its Mindless state is an excess of Wisdom, 252 252 This apparently profitless speculation rea…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the Supreme or the Good as being beyond distinction and happening, emphasizing self-realization and the transcendence of ordinary existence. They share a mystical perspective on the ultimate reality.
◆christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 4, Section 1n
“And the Divine Yearning brings ecstasy, not allowing them that are touched thereby to belong unto themselves but only to the objects of their affection. This principle is shown by superior things 106 through their providential care for the…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the divine as self-contained and self-loving, emphasizing the divine's independence and the concept of divine yearning or love. They explore the idea of the divine being both the seeker and the sought, and the divine's relationship with creation.
◆christian_mysticism|Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names|Chapter 4, Section 1o
“And herein the Divine Yearning showeth especially its beginningless and endless nature, revolving in a perpetual circle for the Good, from the Good, in the Good, and to the Good, with unerring revolution, never varying its centre or directi…”
Both passages discuss the nature of the divine and its relationship with the self and the world. They explore the concepts of self-sufficiency, yearning, and the divine's role in the order of existence, albeit within different mystical traditions.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 1 (part 5)
“' Not that a person should run away from his home, and desert his wife, child, or relatives, commit suicide, or throw away his property, so that he may not be therein corporeally; but he should kill and annihilate his self-will, the will th…”
Both passages emphasize the surrender of self-will to a higher divine principle, advocating for a state of divine union or intellectual principle where the individual's will aligns with the divine will or Intellectual-Principle. They share a common theme of transcending the limitations of the self to achieve a higher spiritual or intellectual state.
◆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 concept of will and its relationship to higher principles, such as Intellectual-Principle in Plotinus and the divine will in the second passage. They both explore the idea of will as a fundamental aspect of the self and its connection to the divine or higher realms.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 13 (part 9)
“279 free will already in the beginning (of a desire) destroys the desire, so that it does not become substantial, then is the physician (for the cure of that disease) already born, and there will not be needed such great earnestness as will…”
Both passages discuss the concept of free will and its relationship to higher principles. Passage A focuses on Intellectual-Principle and Virtue as the foundation of freedom, while Passage B emphasizes the divine spirit and the inner man's control over the outer man. Both highlight the importance of will in achieving a higher state of being.
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 13 (part 12)
“In the place which formerly was the seat of self-will there is now nothing, and wherever there is nothing there the love of God is solely active." ( Supernatural Life , xxviii.) "A true Christian knows himself to be a servant of God, whose…”
Both passages discuss the concept of freedom and will in relation to a higher principle or divine will. They emphasize the importance of aligning one's will with the higher principle to achieve true freedom and virtue.