Noetic Life

1 June 2024

Noetic Life

“This [Noetic – my addition] life then, multiple and universal and primary and one – who is there who when he sees it does not delight to be in it, despising every other life?  For the other lives, the lives below [in the material dimension of the third level or hypostasis – my addition], are darkness and little and dim and cheap; they are not pure and pollute the pure lives.  And if you look at them you no longer either see or live the pure lives, those lives all together in which there is nothing which does not live, and live purely, having no evil.  For the evils are here below, because there is [only – translator’s addition] a trace of life and a trace of Intellect; but there, Plato says, is the archetype, which ‘has the form of good’ [Republic 509A3] because it possesses the Good in the Forms.”

(Plotinus, Ennead VI.7, The Forms and the Good, translated by A. H. Armstrong, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1988, page 135, ISBN: 9780674995154)

“That Life [the Noetic Life – my addition], the various, the all-including, the primal and one, who can consider it without longing to be of it, disdaining all the other?

“All other life is darkness, petty and dim and poor; it is unclean and polluting the clean, for if you do but look upon it you no longer see nor live this life which includes all living, in which there is nothing that does not live and live in a life of purity and void of all that is ill.  For evil is here where life is in copy and Intellect in copy; There is the archetype (the Intellectual-Principle) which has the form of Good – we read – as holding the Good in its Forms (or Ideas).”

(Plotinus, The Enneads, Ennead VI.7, The Multiplicity of Ideal-Forms, translated by Stephen MacKenna, Larson Publications, Burdett, New York, 1992, pages 648-649, ISBN: 9780943914558)

1.  In the writings of Plotinus the reader will find passages that are appreciative of the material domain, particularly the possibility of transcendence offered by the appearance of beauty in the material domain; on the other hand, the reader will find passages that are highly critical of the material domain and its limitations.  I don’t think this is a contradiction.  I think both are true and true simultaneously.  I look at it this way: we can have a deep and positive appreciation for music while at the same time realizing that some music is really awful and we can express these seemingly contradictory views at different times depending on the context.  In a similar way, Plotinus understands the possibilities for liberation that the material world offers, such as beauty and mathematics and virtues and asceticism, while simultaneously observing the decidedly negative aspects.  This passage highlights those negative aspects.

2.  Highlighting the negative aspects of material existence is necessary because we tend to obscure them, or refuse to come to terms with them.  Plotinus states that life in the third level is cheap and small; Plotinus adds that in Noetic life there is no evil, implying that evil is found only in the material dimension.  It is hard to argue with Plotinus about the realities of the third level, the lowest metaphysical level, in which we live. 

3.  One of the reasons for passages like this is that they give the practitioner a sense of urgency for doing what one can to exit this material domain, to transcend it and leave it behind.

4.  Plotinus writes that merely looking at life as it manifests in the material dimension will harm us; personally, I think this is addressed to practitioners of philosophy in particular.  Why is this so?  I understand this to be referring to the understanding that we become what we focus our attention on.  If we are constantly imbibing the strife and bitterness of the world that tends to shape our mind so that it resembles what we have imbibed.  For example, we will tend to get agitated and take sides over a conflict that does not even involve us and over which we have no control or influence.  This can happen very easily and it is necessary for practitioners to take care about succumbing to these kinds of influences.

That is one reason why it is helpful to engage with teachings about spiritual matters, and the reality of the transcendental, on a regular basis; I would say on a daily basis.  We need the antidote to the darkness, smallness, and casual evil that circulates in the world.  Such antidotes are not easy to find, but they do exist.  One of the simplest antidotes is simply to practice daily reading of the Platonic classics.  Another antidote is to cultivate the virtues.  And a third antidote is to cultivate asceses.

5.  There is a trace of the transcendental in the material world, a trace of the Good, a trace of the One.  If these traces did not exist it would not be possible to transcend the limitations of material existence.  But since there are such traces, such as beauty, such as that which is Good found in the soul, it is possible, though not easy, to find our way to the Noetic realities of Beauty, Life, Being, and Mind.  And beyond that, to the ineffable One itself.