Final Destination

8 June 2024

Final Destination

“And when the soul is so disposed then as even to despise intelligence [the noetic – my addition], which at other times it welcomes, because intelligence is a kind of movement, and the soul does not want to move.  For it says that he whom it sees does not move either; yet when this soul has become intellect [noetic] it contemplates, when it has been, so to speak made intellect and has come to be in the intelligible place [the noetic realm]; but when it has come to be in it and moves about it, it possesses the intelligible and thinks, but when it sees that god it at once lets everything go; it is as if someone went into a house richly decorated and so beautiful, and within it contemplated each and every one of the decorations and admired them before seeing the master of the house, but when he sees that master with delight, who is not of the nature of the images [in the house – translator’s addition], but worthy of genuine contemplation, he dismisses those other things and thereafter looks at him alone, and then, as he looks and does not take his eyes away, but the continuity of his contemplation he no longer sees a sight, but mingles his seeing with what he contemplates, so that what was seen before has now become sight in him, and he forgets all other objects of contemplation.”

(Plotinus, Ennead VI.7.35 The Forms and the Good, translated by A. H. Armstrong, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1988, page 195, ISBN: 9780674995154)

“Such in this union is the soul’s temper that even the act of Intellect once so intimately loved she now dismisses; Intellection is movement and she has no wish to move; the object of her vision has itself, she says, no Intellection, even though it is by means of the Intellectual-Principle that she has attained the vision, herself made over into Intellectual-Principle and becoming that principle so as to be able to take stand in that Intellectual space.  Entered there and making herself over to that, she at first contemplates that realm, but once she sees that higher still she leaves all else aside.  Thus when a man enters a house rich in beauty he might gaze about and admire the varied splendour before the master appears; but, face to face with that great person – no thing of ornament but calling for the truest attention – he would ignore everything else and look only to the master.  In this state of absorbed contemplation there is no longer question of holding an object: the vision is continuous so that seeing and seen are one thing; object and act of vision have become identical; of all that until then filled the eye no memory remains.”

(Plotinus, The Enneads, Ennead VI.7.35 The Multiplicity of Ideal Forms, translated by Stephen McKenna, Larson Publications, Burdett, New York, 1992, page 665, ISBN: 9780943914558)

1.  It is a common experience that something we were very interested in when we were young, no longer interests us as we mature.  This often happens when someone leaves home and goes to college; when they return they might find the traces of their previous interest in their room such as collections of various types.  They spot the collection and realize it has no further attraction as they have moved on to other things and purposes.

I think this is an analogy to what Plotinus is describing in the final steps of the spiritual journey.  Fascination with things, even noetic things, is put aside as we attain a vision of the One, and eventually merge with the One.

2.  The method of spiritual ascent, as described by Plotinus, is consistent throughout the journey.  It begins by turning away from material things; this allows for access to the Noetic.  The journey continues in the Noetic with the same method; that of turning away from Noetic realities no matter beautiful they are.  This allows for the ascent to the One, our Final Destination.

3.  “The soul does  not want to move.”  That’s an intriguing observation.  It indicates that the soul is our guide to the region of true peace which is found in the Good and the One.