Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 1: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four PeriodsPlotinus
Philosophy
Plotinos: Complete Works, v. 1: In Chronological Order, Grouped in Four Periods
Plotinus
Plotinus
Besides everything that is a mass or a magnitude could not occupy
the first rank in nature; those gross objects which are by sensation
considered beings must be ranked as inferior. In seeds, it is not the
moist element that should be valued, but the invisible principle,
number, and the (seminal) reason. Number and "pair" are only names
for the reasons (ideas) and intelligence. The "pair" is indeterminate
so far as it plays the part of substrate (in respect to unity). The
number that is derived from the pair, and the one, constitute every
kind of form, so that Intelligence has a shape which is determined by
the ideas[234] begotten within it. Its shape is derived in one respect
from the one, and in another respect, from itself, just like actualized
sight. Thought, indeed, is actualized sight, and both these entities
(the faculty and the actualization) form but one.
MYSTERY OR DERIVATION OF SECOND FROM FIRST.
6. How does Intelligence see, and what does it see? How did the Second
issue from the First, how was it born from the First, so as that the
Second might see the First? For the soul now understands that these
principles must necessarily exist. She seeks to solve the problem often
mooted by ancient philosophers. "If the nature of the One be such as
we have outlined, how does everything derive its hypostatic substance
(or, form of existence), manifoldness, duality, and number from the
First? Why did the First not remain within Himself, why did He allow
the leakage of manifoldness seen in all beings, and which we are
seeking to trace back to the First?" We shall tell it. But we must, to
begin with, invoke the Divinity, not by the utterance of words, but by
raising our souls to Him in prayer. Now the only way to pray is (for
a person), when alone, to advance towards the One, who is entirely
alone. To contemplate Unity, we must retire to our inner sanctuary,
and there remain tranquil above all things (in ecstasy); then we must
observe the statues which as it were are situated outside of (soul and
intelligence), and in front of everything, the statue that shines in
the front rank (Unity), contemplating it in a manner suitable to its
nature (in the mysteries).[235]
GENERATION IS THE RADIATION OF AN IMAGE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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