Enneads V 2: The Origin and Order of Beings Following on the First

[sdi]

V 2: The Origin and Order of Beings Following on the First

As we have stated elsewhere, the One is everything and the origin of everything. The byproduct of the One's self-completeness is the divine Mind. The byproduct of the Mind's self-contemplation is the Soul. The byproduct of the Soul's motion is Nature. But note that none of these are separate: everything is composed of its priors, just as its posteriors are composed of it. At the highest levels, there is only the barest distinction between them.

What's more, spatial extent and position is below all of them. Suppose one cuts off the limb of a tree: what becomes of the soul that was "within" it? Well, the soul remains where it was: it is the body that it severed. In the exact same way, the bodies of material beings are all distinct, but the souls "within" them are all connected. Ultimately, all life is one Life, even if it manifests in many and varied ways.

Comments

[boccaderlupo]

Very nice. It's this subtle (and not so subtle) monism that I think some folks, looking at Platonism from afar, tend to miss—the assumption seems to be that anything that isn't physicalist monism must imply some kind of mind-body dualism or the like.

Axé and all blessings,
Fra' Lupo

[sdi]

I think you're right, and it's not just those looking at Platonism afar... I was reading up on the tradition in an encyclopedia of religion, which you think would be authoritative, and it very distinctly referred to Neoplatonism as "dualistic," and I did a double-take.

(On the other hand, it referred to the soul as "amphibious"—living in two worlds as it does—which I thought was just the best.)