Plotinus had such a captivating perspective on the world and how we fit into it. His vision for one transcendent being which emanates all of reality can’t help but be true in one way or another.
What do you think of his idea that aligning oneself with the universal is the path to happiness? I want to believe that being fully immersed in the universe (including full compassion for others) is the path to happiness, but sometimes I doubt. Is there a limit to the infinite sacrifice we can give on behalf of the universal?
From your thesis, it is clear that Plotinus was not a Christian. Christianity states clearly that, if you take Christ as your lord and savior, that you as an individual, will be saved and will live eternally with God the father and Jesus, His resurrected son. This is in clear opposition to what your description of Plotinus, "Plotinus believed that just as everything came from the One, everything seeks to return to union with the One". This says that you will return, not as an individual but as the source or substance from which you came.
It’s interesting how Plotinus kind of blurs the line between pagan and Christian thinking. His idea of uniting the soul with the One feels almost mystical, and you can see echoes of it in later Christian thought. Shows how ideas can travel and connect, even across worlds that seem totally separate.
Plotinus was an intellectual mystic who reported and expounded upon a type of awareness that had been somewhat known and popular in ancient Judaism (e.g. Genesis 1 and the "Moses revelation") and especially in early Christianity (especially Jesus) and early Gnosticism.
Plotinus' version would spread to the East, where it combined with ancient Upanishadic wisdom to form the new basis of several schools of Hinduism. It would also later spread to the near east to be the basis of Sufism (in Islam). And back to Christianity (and especially to Meister Eckhart), and again to Judaism in the Middle Ages as the Kabbalah..
Plotinus described, somewhat obliquely, the "radical" "mystical" type of consciousness -- in the two "highest" stages of "sacred One-ing". These are NEVER described directly. Why? Because the whole "state of One" (in two states) is the result of a complete "letting go" of all thought, expectations, and needs. So no "thinking OF" the state, which regular consciousness is, can adequately contain and portray this radical state. It's not a "thought OF" state at all. .
Plotinus had such a captivating perspective on the world and how we fit into it. His vision for one transcendent being which emanates all of reality can’t help but be true in one way or another.
What do you think of his idea that aligning oneself with the universal is the path to happiness? I want to believe that being fully immersed in the universe (including full compassion for others) is the path to happiness, but sometimes I doubt. Is there a limit to the infinite sacrifice we can give on behalf of the universal?
For Plotinus, Nous emanates from One before the World Soul. Mind or understanding is superior to the Soul.
From your thesis, it is clear that Plotinus was not a Christian. Christianity states clearly that, if you take Christ as your lord and savior, that you as an individual, will be saved and will live eternally with God the father and Jesus, His resurrected son. This is in clear opposition to what your description of Plotinus, "Plotinus believed that just as everything came from the One, everything seeks to return to union with the One". This says that you will return, not as an individual but as the source or substance from which you came.
It’s interesting how Plotinus kind of blurs the line between pagan and Christian thinking. His idea of uniting the soul with the One feels almost mystical, and you can see echoes of it in later Christian thought. Shows how ideas can travel and connect, even across worlds that seem totally separate.
Thank you.
Plotinus was an intellectual mystic who reported and expounded upon a type of awareness that had been somewhat known and popular in ancient Judaism (e.g. Genesis 1 and the "Moses revelation") and especially in early Christianity (especially Jesus) and early Gnosticism.
Plotinus' version would spread to the East, where it combined with ancient Upanishadic wisdom to form the new basis of several schools of Hinduism. It would also later spread to the near east to be the basis of Sufism (in Islam). And back to Christianity (and especially to Meister Eckhart), and again to Judaism in the Middle Ages as the Kabbalah..
Plotinus described, somewhat obliquely, the "radical" "mystical" type of consciousness -- in the two "highest" stages of "sacred One-ing". These are NEVER described directly. Why? Because the whole "state of One" (in two states) is the result of a complete "letting go" of all thought, expectations, and needs. So no "thinking OF" the state, which regular consciousness is, can adequately contain and portray this radical state. It's not a "thought OF" state at all. .