A Good Man's Pleasures

9 March 2023

A Good Man’s Pleasures

“There would not be any possibility of the existence of well-being if one said that outward things were to be desired and that the good man desired them.  He would like all men to prosper and no one to be subject to any sort of evil; but if this does not happen, he is all the same well off.  But if anyone maintains that it will make the good man absurd to suppose him wanting anything like this – for it is impossible that evils should not exist – then the person who maintains this will obviously agree with us in directing the good man’s desire inwards.

“When they demand to be shown what is pleasant in a life of this kind, they will not be requiring the presence of the pleasures of debauchees, or of bodily pleasures at all – these could not be there and would abolish well-being – or of violent emotions of pleasure – why should the good man have any? – but only those pleasures which accompany the presence of goods, pleasures not consisting in movements, which are not the results of any process: for the goods are there already, and the good man is present to himself; his pleasure and happiness are at rest.  The good man is always happy; his state is tranquil, his disposition contented and undisturbed by any so-called evils – if he is really good.  If anyone looks for another kind of pleasure in life it is not the life of virtue he is looking for.”

(Plotinus, Ennead 1.4.11 & 12, Plotinus: Porphyry on Plotinus, Ennead I, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966, pages 201-203, ISBN: 9780674994843)

 

“To consider the outer world to be a field to his desire, to fancy the Sage desiring any good external, would be to deny Substantial-Existence to happiness; for the Sage would like to see all men prosperous and no evil befalling anyone; but though it prove otherwise, he is still content.

“If it be admitted that such a desire would be against reason, since evil cannot cease to be, there is no escape from agreeing with us that the Sage’s will is set always and only inward.

“The pleasure demanded for life cannot be in the enjoyments of the licentious or in any gratifications of the body – there is no place for these, and they stifle happiness – nor in any violent emotions – what could so move the Sage? – it can only be such pleasure as there must be where Good is, pleasure that does not rise from movement and is not a thing of process, for all that is good is immediately present to the Sage and the Sage is present to himself: his pleasure, his contentment, stands, immovable.

“Thus he is ever cheerful, the order of his life ever untroubled: his state is fixedly happy and nothing whatever of all that is known as evil can set it awry – given only that he is and remains a Sage.

“If anyone seeks for some other kind of pleasure in the life of the Sage, it is not the life of the Sage he is looking for.”

(Plotinus, The Enneads, translated by Stephen MacKenna and B. S. Paige, various editions between 1917 and 1930, quote is from the online edition found at sacredtexts.com)

 

1.  This is one of those passages where the ascetic ideal is highlighted.  Such passages are scattered throughout the Dialogues of Plato and the Enneads of Plotinus.  Interestingly, this passage connects asceticism with pleasure, but a particular kind of pleasure and happiness that arise from contemplation, from turning inward.  This means that there is an attractive aspect that encourages the Sage, the philosophical practitioner. 

2.  I like the use of the word ‘Sage’ in the McKenna translation.  I think it brings forth that the way of philosophy is a spiritual path. 

3.  The Sage wishes well for all people, but at the same time knows that evil is pervasive in this realm of differentiation and strife.  When evil arises, the Sage is not thrown from the path of Philosophy, already having established himself in the transcendental.  I sense an overlap with Stoicism in this teaching, though it is possible that Stoicism originally borrowed this teaching from Platonism.

4.  In my own life, as I have previously mentioned, I have had a five-steps-forward, two-, or three-steps-back motion in my journey.  I attribute this to being exceptionally prone to distraction.  Yet, overall, I can clearly see progress on the path; I mean that if I look back to ten years ago, or twenty years ago, I can observe that my stability is much greater, that some things that used to distract me no longer do so, and that my periods of dwelling in the presence of eternity are longer, much longer, and more stable.  I bring this up because the passage is, I think, a portrait of an exceptionally advanced practitioner; probably Plotinus himself.  I’m not such an exalted practitioner or Sage, but it is good to have such a portrait as an ideal to strive for and as a way of observing, and measuring, one’s own progress.

5.  This passage has a very conversational feeling to me.  I say this because of all the asides and sub-clauses; these are typical of conversation but tend to disappear in more refined literary texts.  (As an aside, it might be interesting to compare Plotinus and Plato on a literary level and on the usage of particular kinds of structures.)  Visually, the sentences look complex with the dashes, semi-colons, colons, etc.  But if you read it out loud the passage flows easily and if you imagine Plotinus speaking to a student, perhaps answering a student’s question, the flow seems natural and unforced.

6.  Once the practitioner of the Way of Philosophy has some experiences of higher hypostases, the transcendental pleasure that ascetic practice grants becomes clear.  It is true that the practitioner may still fall back, or become distracted by material sensory experiences, but at this stage that will only be temporary.  The practitioner will feel the call of the transcendent, and sense the presence of eternity, and this will lead to the practitioner becoming a Sage in whom the ascetic ideal has taken root in the glowing field of the Good and the One.