/lit/ - Literature

uhh nihilistic bros???? i dont feel so good

i have a personal crusade against all expressions of monism. i'm coming after you, crypto buddhists

>It is particularly important to point this out concerning Plotinus, who, not being a Christian, might be associated with pantheistic forms of mysticism in which the highest level of achievement brings about an annihilation or loss of self. In Plotinus, however, a metaphysical identification of being and knowledge allows for the retention of the individual knowing substance and the simultaneous intentional presence to it of differing entities.
Plotinus and St. John of the Cross

>...As the nuance in Plotinus' use of a 'a few' or 'some' shows, he is not prepared to say rigidly that there are no memories at all of this life, simply to give up memories which seem so important to human individuality. Plotinus does not abandon these memories, although he abandons the function of memory.
Memory in Plotinus

>One possible misconception should be cleared up. When the human ego is reformed and integration with the second self takes place, Plotinus does not teach that the goal of mysticism has been attained. The emergence of the true personality of man is not, as in certain Indian systems, an isolation of the immortal soul apart from all things. It is, as we have seen, the felt realization of the immortality and a partaking in the Intelligible World. These two, however, are inextricably bound up together, and since the soul is then in contact with the intelligible world it will enjoy non-discursive knowledge and understanding of the nature of all things. Such understanding will involve an understanding of the utter dependence of all things on the One as first cause. Hence integration of the personality will mean not the isolation of the soul as monad, but the placing of the soul on the upward path to union with the One.
Integration and the Undescended Soul in Plotinus

>The emergence of the true personality of man is not, as in certain Indian systems, an isolation of the immortal soul apart from all things.
>hence integration of the personality will MEAN NOT THE ISOLATION OF THE SOUL AS MONAD...

pic:
>PLOTINUS DOES NOT SUPPORT SUCH ANNIHILATION

stop using Plotinus to shill buddhist nihilistic death cult.