Enneads I 6: Beauty

[sdi]

I 6: Beauty

We call something "Beautiful" when it is unified with its Ideal Form. The Ideal Form organizes the many constituent parts of that thing into a Unity, bringing order and symmetry and communicating a Divine Thought into the material world. Ugliness is the opposite, when something is so covered in the material that the Divine Thought can't shine through, like a comely youth covered in mud.

But above the Beauty of the material world, there is a higher and more graceful Beauty of the immaterial, visible only to the sense-organs of the soul. And above that Beauty is still a higher, and on and on, all the way to the most Ideal of all Forms, Beauty itself, shining above all things.

In the same way that a sculptor looks at a chunk of marble, sees an angel within it, and chisels away every bit that isn't an angel, one should look at themselves and chisel away all parts that don't reflect the soul within. By so doing, you unify yourself with your own Ideal Form, become more Beautiful, and thereby able to perceive those higher Beauties.

I barely hazard an attempt at summarizing this tractate, as it is short and well-worth reading in it's original, especially the last few sections. Plotinus thrills in that way only one who is deeply in love can, and the feeling he evokes of that higher Beauty is that of the bounty placed upon fugitive Psyche: SEVEN SWEET KISSES FROM VENUS HERSELF, AND ONE EXQUISITELY DELICIOUS TOUCH OF HER CHARMING TONGUE.

Comments

[sdi]

I really like Plotinus' elegant arrangement of the man into threes: we have a body that exists in the material world, we have a soul that exists in the empyrean world, and we have a "life" (his term, I suppose we'd say "spirit") tying them together in the ætherial world. Making that distinction makes it a lot easier to make sense of our senses! Little wonder why I could begin to hear the divine some years into my practice: isolation clears the body, and meditation clears the spirit, and in such a state there is little to get in the way of the soul-senses that were always there but dimmed by the rest.

And once one hears the empyrean voice, how can one any longer settle for any other? One must pursue it, there is no longer any food that will satisfy either body or spirit.

[boccaderlupo]

D'accordo. Had read a quote where Simone de Beauvoir apparently said that when she became an atheist, it seemed the world had fallen silent. I would imagine so, but the opposite is surely the case: once one hears the empyrean voice, as you say, the world becomes a chorus of swelling song.

[sdi]

You make me think that the mirror principle is another solution to the problem of evil, one which generalizes both my past and present experience: evil only exists in the perceptions of those who are, themselves, evil...

[sdi]

Ha, and here I am, just starting Enneads I 8, and Plotinus himself says, "By what faculty in us could we possibly know Evil? All knowing comes by likeness."

[boccaderlupo]

There's an element of truth to that, I suspect—for the things that we reflect upon become reflected in us.

[sdi]

Just musing here... it's a difficult trade to make, giving up the evils in oneself: there's a comfort, a safety in a world in which evil exists. It allows one to be a victim, and if they are not yet strong enough, that is the only option.

Once a mighty soul is empty of evil, the evils in the world have become tests and must be won.

Once a wise soul is empty of evil, the evils in the world have become lessons and must be understood.

Once a loving soul is empty of evil, the evils in the world become gifts and must be accepted.

Going back ceases to become an option.

[boccaderlupo]

Reading the Philokalia (a series of Christian meditations, for what it's worth) and came across a line that may not be unrelated, from St. Mark the Ascetic:

"To brood on evil makes the heart brazen; but to destroy evil through self-restraint and hope breaks the heart. There is a breaking of the heart that is gentle and makes it deeply penitent, and there is a breaking that is violent and harmful, shattering it completely. Vigils, prayer, and patient acceptance of what comes constitute a breaking that does not harm but benefits the heart, provided we do not destroy the balance between them through excess. He who perseveres in them will be helped in other ways as well; but he who is slack and negligent will suffer intolerably on leaving this life. A self-indulgent heart becomes a prison and chain for the soul when it leaves this life; whereas an assiduous heart is an open door." (Emphasis mine.)

[sdi]

Yes! Thank you, that's lovely.