Plotinus | A Choric Ballet

“As the One does not contain any difference, He is always present; and we are ever present to Him as soon as we contain no more difference. It is not He who is aspiring to us, or who is moving around us; on the contrary, it is we who are aspiring to Him. We resemble a chorus which always surrounds its leader, but (the members of) which do not always sing in time because they allow their attention to be distracted to some exterior object; while, if they turned towards the leader, they would sing well, and really be with him. Likewise, we always turn around the One, even when we detach ourselves from Him, and cease knowing Him. Our glance is not always fixed on the One; but when we contemplate Him, we attain the purpose of our desires, and enjoy the rest taught by Heraclitus. Then we disagree no more, and really form a divine choric ballet around Him….

…In this choric ballet, the soul sees the source of life, the source of intelligence, the principle of being, the cause of the good, and the root of love. All these entities are derived from the One without diminishing Him. He is indeed no corporeal mass, otherwise the things that are born of Him would be perishable. However, they are eternal, because their principle ever remains the same, because He does not divide himself to produce them, but remains entire. They persist, just as the light persists so long as the sun remains. Nor are we separated from the One; we are not distant from Him, though corporeal nature, by approaching us, has attracted us to it (thus drawing us away from the One). But it is in the One that we breathe and have our being. He gave us life not merely at a given moment, only to leave us later; but His giving is perpetual, so long as He remains what He is, or rather, so long as we turn towards Him. There it is that we find happiness, while to withdraw from Him is to fall. It is in Him that our soul rests; it is by rising to that place free from all evil that she is delivered from evils; there she really thinks, there she is impassible, there she really lives.”

– Plotinus, Ennead VI.9 Of the Good and the One

For Plotinus, if we fix our eyes on the One – the Source – , we can sing and dance rightly.

Plotinus | The Centre of All Souls

“In short, the divinity is not outside of any being. On the contrary, He is present to all beings, though these may be ignorant thereof. This happens because they are fugitives, wandering outside of Him or rather, outside of themselves….

…Self-knowledge reveals the fact that the soul’s natural movement is not in a straight line, unless indeed it has undergone some deviation. On the contrary, it circles around something interior, around a center. Now the center is that from which proceeds the circle, that is, the soul. The soul will therefore move around the center, that is, around the principle from which she proceeds; and, trending towards it, she will attach herself to it, as indeed all souls should do. The souls of the divinities ever direct themselves towards it; and that is the secret of their divinity; for divinity consists in being attached to the Centre (of all souls). Anyone who withdraws much therefrom is a man who has remained manifold (that is, who has never become unified)…”

– Plotinus, Ennead VI.9 Of the Good and the One

Plotinus | Do As The Artist, Interior Vision

“We must close the eyes of the body, to open another vision, which indeed all possess, but very few employ…

…But how shall we train this interior vision? At the moment of its first awakening, it cannot contemplate beauties too dazzling. Your soul must then first be accustomed to contemplate the noblest occupations of man, and then the beautiful deeds, not indeed those performed by artists, but those (good deeds) done by virtuous men. Later contemplate the souls of those who perform these beautiful actions. Nevertheless, how will you discover the beauty which their excellent soul possesses? Withdraw within yourself, and examine yourself. If you do not yet therein discover beauty, do as the artist, who cuts off, polishes, purifies until he has adorned his statue with all the marks of beauty. Remove from your soul, therefore, all that is superfluous, straighten out all that is crooked, purify and illuminate what is obscure, and do not cease perfecting your statue until the divine resplendence of virtue shines forth upon your sight, until you see temperance in its holy purity seated in your breast. When you shall have acquired perfection; when you will see it in yourself, when you will purely dwell within yourself, when you will cease to meet within yourself any obstacle to unity, when nothing foreign will any more, by its admixture, alter the simplicity of your interior essence, when within your whole being you will be a veritable light, immeasurable in size, uncircumscribed by any figure within narrow boundaries, unincreasable because reaching out to infinity, and entirely incommensurable because it transcends all measure and quantity, when you shall have become such, then, having become sight itself, you may have confidence in yourself, for you will no longer need any guide. Then must you observe carefully, for it is only by the eye that then will open itself within you that you will be able to perceive supreme Beauty.”

– Plotinus, Ennead I.6 Of Beauty

Purify yourself of all that is not beautiful. Close your eyes, dwell within yourself. “The eye will then open itself within you.” This seems to be as close as Plotinus gets to a meditative method.

Flowerly language aside, Plotinus’ emphasis on striving to perfect oneself morally as a precursor to “the contemplative experience” is another common element among the world’s contemplative traditions.

Plotinus | We Must No Longer Rush At Them

“How shall we start, and later arrive at the contemplation of this ineffable beauty which, like the divinity in the mysteries, remains hidden in the recesses of a sanctuary, and does not show itself outside, where it might be perceived by the profane? We must advance into this sanctuary, penetrating into it, if we have the strength to do so, closing our eyes to the spectacle of terrestrial things, without throwing a backward glance on the bodies whose graces formerly charmed us. If we do still see corporeal beauties, we must no longer rush at them, but, knowing that they are only images, traces and adumbrations of a superior principle, we will flee from them, to approach Him of whom they are merely reflections. Whoever would let himself be misled by the pursuit of those vain shadows, mistaking them for realities, would grasp only an image as fugitive as the fluctuating form reflected by the waters, and would resemble that senseless (Narcissus) who, wishing to grasp that image himself, according to the fable, disappeared, carried away by the current.”

– Plotinus, Ennead I.6 Of Beauty

Here Plotinus echoes many of the contemplative traditions in encouraging “fleeing the things of the world.” The things of this world are merely shadows, “as fugitive as the fluctuating form reflected by the waters.” Whether they must be rejected/given up completely, or merely abstained from for a time so that the heart may become unattached, is a matter of debate within the traditions, and perhaps among each individual seeker.

To engage in the world without attachment, to appreciate all the beauty in the world – but without seeing its forms as absolute, or coming to them with craving or need – is sometimes seen as characteristic of one who has matured on the contemplative path. The final stage of the Zen Oxherding Pictures (Returning to the Marketplace with Helping Hands) may be one way of expressing this.

Plotinus | Alone With Him Who is Alone, The Supreme Goal of Souls, Beauty Face to Face

“Thus, in her ascension towards divinity, the soul advances until, having risen above everything that is foreign to her, she alone with Him who is alone, beholds, in all His simplicity and purity, Him from whom all depends, to whom all aspires, from whom everything draws its existence, life and thought. He who beholds him is overwhelmed with love; with ardor desiring to unite himself with Him, entranced with ecstasy. Men who have not yet seen Him desire Him as the Good; those who have, admire Him as sovereign beauty, struck simultaneously with stupor and pleasure, thrilling in a painless orgasm, loving with a genuine emotion, with an ardor without equal, scorning all other affections, and disdaining those things which formerly they characterized as beautiful. This is the experience of those to whom divinities and guardians have appeared; they reck no longer of the beauty of other bodies. Imagine, if you can, the experiences of those who behold Beauty itself, the pure Beauty, which, because of its very purity, is fleshless and bodiless, outside of earth and heaven. All these things, indeed are contingent and composite, they are not principles, they are derived from Him. What beauty could one still wish to see after having arrived at vision of Him who gives perfection to all beings, though himself remains unmoved, without receiving anything; after finding rest in this contemplation, and enjoying it by becoming assimilated to Him? Being supreme beauty, and the first beauty, He beautifies those who love Him, and thereby they become worthy of love. This is the great, the supreme goal of souls; this is the goal which arouses all their efforts, if they do not wish to be disinherited of that sublime contemplation the enjoyment of which confers blessedness, and privation of which is the greatest of earthy misfortunes. Real misfortune is not to lack beautiful colors, nor beautiful bodies, nor power, nor domination, nor royalty. It is quite sufficient to see oneself excluded from no more than possession of beauty. This possession is precious enough to render worthless domination of a kingdom, if not the whole earth, of the sea, or even of the heavens – if indeed it were possible, while abandoning and scorning all that (natural beauty) to succeed in contemplating beauty face to face.”

– Plotinus, Ennead I.6 Of Beauty

“Alone with the Alone” is perhaps the most widely quoted language from Plotinus, which he uses more famously at the end of his essay Of The Good and The One.

Plotinus | We Must Ascend to the Good

“We must ascend to the Good to which every soul aspires. Whoever has seen it knows what I still have to say, and knows the beauty of the Good. Indeed, the Good is desirable for its own sake; it is the goal of our desires. To attain it, we have to ascend to the higher regions, turn towards them, and lay aside the garment which we put on when descending here below; just as in the (Eleusynian, or Isiac) mysteries, those who are admitted to penetrate the recesses of the sanctuary, after having purified themselves, lay aside every garment, and advance stark naked.”

– Plotinus, Ennead I.6 Of Beauty

The writings of Plotinus (204-271 CE) represent a major strand of Neoplatonic thought. In Neoplatonic thought, the soul’s ultimate good is sometimes conceptualized as “a return to the One” – alternatively referenced as the One, Divinity, Unity, the Good, the Beautiful – the Ultimate Principle from which all emanates. Personally, I view Neoplatonism as a development in the Platonic Theory of Forms, but more explicitly unified in a vision of God or the Absolute. Neoplatonism likely influenced Christian and other forms of mysticism, especially through Pseudo-Dionysius.

In Neoplatonic thought, matter (referenced above in the idea of “descending here below”) is generally regarded as evil, or at least inconsequential to the soul’s task. Plotinus also here references the Greek “Mystery Religions,” and sometimes uses their rituals as demonstrative analogies.

The following posts will be a series of quotations from Plotinus’ Of Beauty and Of the Good and the One.