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.

Comments

[boccaderlupo]

RE: happiness more generally, if you have Iamblichus's De Mysteriis (I know I drone on about this, forgive me), the closing "chapter" on happiness and the gods may be worth reading. Dan Attrell reads it here, if one is up for listening to such things, although it is rendered as "success" in this translation (a more recent translation uses "happiness").

Axé!

[sdi]

Thank you for the pointer! I tried to read it today, having gotten some space, but I fear I only have it in me to dig into one author at a time. Iamblichus will need to wait until I have cleared myself of Plotinus, I think...

[boccaderlupo]

I totally get it...despite being Platonists, two very different writers and perspectives, in their way!

[sdi]

I have made minor revisions to this summary and added thoughts here.