Whirlpools

 28 May 2023

Whirlpools

“But how are we related to Intellect (Mind, Spirit, Nous)?  I mean by ‘Intellect” not that state of the soul, which is one of the things which derive from Intellect, but Intellect itself.  We possess this too, as something that transcends us.  We have it either as common to all or particular to ourselves, or both common and particular; common because it is without parts and one and everywhere the same, particular to ourselves because each has the whole of it in the primary part of his soul.  So we also possess the forms in two ways, in our soul, in a manner of speaking unfolded and separated, in Intellect all together.”

(Plotinus, Ennead I.1: What is the Living Being?, translated by A. H. Armstrong, Plotinus:  Porphyry on Plotinus, Ennead I, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966, page 111, ISBN: 9780674994843)

“And towards the Intellectual-Principle what is our relation?  By this I mean not that faculty in the soul which is one of the emanations from the Intellectual-Principle, but The Intellectual Principle itself (Divine-Mind).

“This also we possess as the summit of our being.  And we have It either as common to all or as our own immediate possession: or again we may possess It in both degrees, that is in common, since It is indivisible – one, everywhere and always Its entire self – and severally in that each personality possess It entire in the First-Soul (i.e., in the Intellectual as distinguished from the lower phase of the Soul.)”

(Plotinus, The Enneads, translated by Stephen McKenna, Larson Publications, Burdett, New York, 1992, page 28, ISBN: 9780943914558)

1.  The question that I think Plotinus is addressing here is how can something that is universal reside in the particular?  In this instance, the question is how can Universal Mind (or “Intellect”) reside in, or be connected to, the individual soul.  Plotinus is not referring to the soul as an emanation of Intellect/Mind, or the participation that the individual human mind has with Intellect, but Intellect as such.  

Intellect as such exists before instantiation.  In this way Intellect resembles numbers that exist before any objects instantiate their meaning.  Intellect as such, or Mind as such, exists before there is any content of Mind; it is before thought appears.  But the Mind that appears in the individual human soul has the content of that individual; it is part of what makes the person an individual.

So what is the relationship of our soul to Mind/Intellect as such?

2.  Plotinus’s view is that Intellect as such exists within us in two ways.  Intellect/Spirit exists in us as a common heritage, or using Platonic vocabulary, by participation due to emanation from Intellect as such.  In addition, intellect exists in a localized manner within each individual; again due to emanation from Intellect as such.

3.  Analogies can, I think, be helpful in understanding what Plotinus is teaching.  A whirlpool in a stream consists entirely of water.  The whirlpool is a localized manifestation of water.  And the stream is an instantiation of water as such.  

In a similar way, our thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc., are localized whirlpools of the stream of mind.  And our mind is an instantiation of, or emanation of, Mind as such.

4.  Another analogy is one often used in Dharmic traditions.  Waves in the sea consist entirely of water; they have no existence outside of water.  The sea as a whole is water.  The relationship between an individual, or particular, mind resembles the relationship between waves and the sea.

5.  Or it is like a single image appearing in countless mirrors.  Each image in each individual mirror is particular, but the source is the image as such.

6.  In some Buddhist traditions they use the image of the moon appearing in thousands of types of water, from ponds to drops of dew.

7. The sun sends its energy and warmth to the Earth. Every living thing on earth is a result of the sun's energy. Every living thing on earth is, in a sense, a localization of the stream of solar energy pouring forth from the sun. This is true even when, at night, we cannot see the sun. Similarly, the Intellect/Mind/Spirit is present in all living things; the energy pouring forth from Intellect, combined with the differentiating power of number, allows for the particular manifestations of Intellect/Mind/Spirit in the soul, yet Intellect as such is also present in the soul, just as the energy of the sun is present for, and in, all living things.

And the One, the Spiritual Sun, is the ultimate source of all that exists, just as the material sun is the ultimate source for all living things on earth. And just as the material sun is present in all living things, and just as all living things are localizations of the energy of the material sun, so also all existing things have within them the Spiritual Sun, the One, in both the form of localization, and as a complete presence of the totality of the One.

8. The hypostases are porous to each other. There is no barrier between one hypostasis and another. It is like walking through a village. You start out in the business district. After a bit of walking you enter the region of houses and apartments. After a bit more you find yourself walking through a public park. Your walk is unhindered from one region to another even though the different regions serve particular purposes. In a similar way the overflowing of energy from the One, and subsequently from Nous (Intellect, Being, and Life), simply flows forth from one kind of manifestation to another without strain or difficulty.

9.  For Plotinus this way of looking at ourselves, and at the cosmos, has soteriological significance.  This teaching explains how human beings can access transcendental realities; because such realities, like Mind/Intellect, are not left behind in the second hypostasis.  Rather Mind/Intellect (along with Being and Life) are present within each individual by the universal participation of all souls in these higher realities.  

From this perspective, then, it is a matter of turning our attention to transcendental realities, and withdrawing from sensory realities, that is the means whereby we can unite with the One.  Normally we are not aware of transcendental realities because our individual mind is distracted by its own localized thoughts and feelings.  By withdrawing the mind from localized whirlpools of the mind, we can step into Mind as such.

10.  This also applies to the ultimately ineffable One, which Plotinus treats in the next paragraph.  In the same way the One is present in each individual both as an emanation which gives each individual the quality of being one, particular, being, and as the universal One that is shared by all existing things.  And, again, this is why turning within, into great silence and stillness, is the way to enter into this ultimately transcendental, reality.

Above I said that there is no barrier between the hypostases. But there is an interior barrier within the heart and mind of each human being. The barrier between us and these transcendental realities is the barrier of distraction and of attachment to materiality.  The removal of distraction, or at least its diminution, comes about through ascetic practice; in a sense ascetic practice is the turning away from distraction.  Through ascetic practice we learn to climb over or under, or find our way around, the barrier of distraction, and arrive at our true home, the Good, the One, the Beautiful, and the Eternal.