Plotinus was embarrassed to have a body. He refused to let anyone paint his portrait: "Why should I consent to leave as a desirable sight to posterity an image of the image?" He ate little, slept less, and lived entirely for the life of the mind — or rather, for what lay beyond the mind.
Born in Egypt around 204 CE, he studied in Alexandria, traveled to Persia seeking Eastern wisdom, then settled in Rome, where he taught philosophy and achieved what few philosophers achieve: actual union with the divine. According to his student Porphyry, this happened four times during the years they were together.
"The One is beyond being, beyond thought, beyond description.
From it emanates Nous — Divine Mind — containing all forms.
From Nous emanates Soul — the mediator between the intelligible and sensible.
From Soul emanates matter — the lowest level, darkness at the edge of light.
All things flow from the One; all things return to the One."
This teaching of emanation shaped all subsequent Western mysticism. The universe is not created from nothing by an external God but flows continuously from an infinite source. Creation is not a past event but an eternal present. Right now, at this moment, all things are pouring forth from the One and returning to it.
"The One does not think," Plotinus taught, "for thinking implies duality — thinker and thought. The One does not act, for action implies lack. The One simply is — infinitely full, infinitely generous, overflowing into existence simply because fullness overflows."
"Withdraw into yourself and look.
If you do not see beauty within,
Act as a sculptor does:
Cut away what is excessive,
Straighten what is crooked,
Bring light to what is in shadow.
Do not cease chiseling your statue
Until the divine splendor shines out."
The path of return is the path of purification and contemplation. We must strip away the accretions of matter, turn inward, and ascend through the levels — from the sensible world to Soul, from Soul to Mind, from Mind to the One. This ascent is not movement in space but transformation in being.
Plotinus's last words were: "I am trying to give back the divine in myself to the divine in the All." He died in 270 CE, leaving behind the Enneads — a vast philosophical meditation that would shape Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Eckhart, and the entire tradition of mystical theology.
Teaching 43
All things flow from the One and return to the One. This is not past creation but eternal present. You carry the divine within you — turn inward, purify, ascend. Chisel away what obscures the light until the divine splendor shines out. Then return what is divine in yourself to the divine in All.