The world has its problems, for sure. If you get caught up with all these, it can seem depressing, even overwhelming. Plotinus may have a solution for us.
Plotinus said: 'Let all these [worldly] things go and do not look. Shut your eyes and change to and wake another way of seeing which everyone has but few use.' Sounds like having your head in the sand? But Plotinus goes on to describe a spiritual ascent based on the love of beauty.
Matthew Roscoe talks about the inspiration he's had from Plotinus, starting with this quote:
'And what does this inner sight see? When it is just awakened it is not at all able to look at the brilliance before it. So that the soul must be trained, first of all to look at beautiful ways of life: then at beautiful works… the works of people who have a name for goodness: then look at the souls of the people who produce the beautiful works.'
But it's not until later that Plotinus tells you how to do this:
'Go back into yourself and look; and if you do not yet see yourself beautiful, then, just as someone making a statue which has to be beautiful cuts away here and polishes there and makes one part smooth and clears another till they have given their statue a beautiful face, so you too must cut away excess and straighten the crooked and clear the dark and make it bright, and never stop “working on your statue" '
Matthew is a tutor in the School in Auckland New Zealand: www.philosophy.nz
The School of Philosophy and Economic Science offers courses in practical philosophy and economics with justice as well as other subjects. It aims to approach philosophy in a practical way, encouraging students to apply philosophy in their lives. The School also introduces a mindfulness-type exercise leading eventually to mantra meditation.
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#plotinus #neoplatonism #ennead #practicalphilosophy #spirituality
4 сен 2024
