Enneads I v: Can Well-Being Increase With Time?

[sdi]

I v: Can Well-Being Increase With Time?

We have said already that well-being is a property of the soul. But the soul exists outside of time: therefore well-being cannot accumulate over time. One might object that memory carries the past into the present, but what good is memory? Does the memory of yesterday's exquisite dinner satiate you today? No, the only way in which well-being may compound is in the alignment of the man with the soul: the more perfectly one aligns, the more perfectly the soul's innate well-being may resonate with the man.

So too with misery: misery compounds by the wearing down of the man, but it cannot touch the soul.