Plotinus

for

Carlos Antonio Fragoso Guimarães

Plotinus and Neoplatonism

A man's aspiration should not be limited to just not being

guilty, but to be God.

Plotinus

Plotinus, 205-270 A.D.

During the post-Alexandrian Hellenistic period and, later, in the period
During the Roman Empire, several schools of philosophy developed. Among them are
they highlight two cynics, two stoics, and two epicureans. Although they are
schools with very distinct characteristics, all of them had as a point of
departure of the teachings ofSocratesand/or the pre-Socratics Democritus and
Heraclitus. But undoubtedly, the most important, beautiful, and original of
schools of the late Antiquity were inspired by the genius ofPlato. That's why she
is called neoplatonism, although it is, in fact, a
extraordinary refinement of Greek philosophical thought, with nuances
much more original and structured than the Platonic thought.
the Neoplatonic school seems extremely contemporary to us today,
due to the great similarities between the vision and conception of the world that
emerge from its basic philosophical assumptions and the current worldview
what arises fromModern physics, from General Theory of Systems and ofPsychology
Transpersonal. The most important figure of the Neoplatonic movement was Plotinus.

Plotinus was born in 205 AD in Lycopolis, remaining almost all of the

youth in Alexandria until 243 AD, when he left the city to follow the
emperor Jordan in his eastern expedition. Jordan died in the midst of his
expedition, Plotinus Deicide went to Rome, where he arrived in 244 AD, founding a
school, reflecting on the example of its master and true modeler of
Neoplatonic movement: Ammonius Saccas.

From the writings of a famous disciple of Plotinus, Porphyry, we know that

Amônio was a bright young man, raised in a Christian family. But
after he started dedicating himself to philosophy, Ammonius, by inclination and will
their own, returned once again to paganism (perhaps for feeling more freedom
for seeking a personal path of understanding). According to Porphyry, he had
a deep knowledge of the philosophy of his time, and, as he would later do
Plotinus delved so deeply into the experience of philosophy that he
a direct experience either of the philosophy practiced by the Persians or of that
predominant among the Hindus" (Porphyry, Life of Plotinus). Other references to
Ammon is found in the works of Theodore, who was a Christian bishop.
Hierocles of Alexandria and Nemesius, bishop of Emesa.

Amônio preferred not to make himself public, rejecting to belong to the circle of
established celebrities of their time, perhaps feeling a certain
emotional instability in the air between Christian and pagan schools, and therefore lived
in a modest and evasive manner, distancing itself from the hustle and bustle of the world and

cultivating philosophy not only as an exercise of intelligence, but

also of life and spiritual improvement, seeking a perception
direct, of a mystical nature (in the sensetranspersonalof the term), of reality, or
from essence, from existence, together with some more disciples
identified with your message.
Just likeSocrateseJesus, Ammonius left nothing written, but his doctrine was
carried forward and perfected by the genius of Plotinus, just as, before,
the message of Socrates was perpetuated by the testimonies of Plato and
Xenophon. Ammon is presented as a philosopher who, rising above
the disputes and the polemics of other philosophical schools, I knew how to reconcile
Plato and Aristotle and transmitting to their disciples, especially to Plotinus, a
philosophy free from the spirit of controversy, often resulting from mere
vanity for intellectual competition. It is said that Plotinus, arriving in Alexandria,
I would have listened to all the celebrities of the time, Christian and pagan, but I continued
dissatisfied. Taken by a friend to Amônio, after having heard him speak.
only once, he would have said: "This is the man I was looking for!" and became his
disciple for eleven years. It is not for nothing that the relationship between
Ammonius and Plotinus have some similarity with that which existed between the
Socrates and Plato. Other famous disciples of Ammonius were Origen, the
Pagão, Longinus, Herenius, and Origins, the Christian.

After founding his school in Rome, Plotinus lived from 244 AD to 253 AD.
just teaching lessons, without writing anything, out of respect for a pact that
I would do with Erênio and Orígines, the Pagan, in the sense of not disclosing the doctrine of
Ammonius. But soon his colleagues broke the agreement, allowing Plotinus
writing treaties, in which he set down his teachings. All his writings were
later organized by his disciple Porphyry, who divided them into six groups
de nove tratados, de onde veio o títuloEnéadas(leia a tradução inglesa na
internet: The Six Enneads by Plotinus- unfortunately, these magnificent texts
have not yet been translated into Portuguese), as in Greek, nine is
write to me. These writings have come to us in full, luckily, and
they are, along with the Platonic dialogues and the esoteric writings of
Aristotle, one of the most elevated and sublime philosophical messages of
Antiquity. Through them, we can perceive the degree of spiritual depth.
of Plotinus' thought, intensely loaded with poetic images, where
we see beautifully explained phenomena such as the soul's exit from the body
(projection), the analysis of Uno (holos), how and why there is a physical world and
another spiritual, etc.

Plotinus had a special charisma and enjoyed great prestige in his

era. And its fascination was such that it came to exert a profound influence
sobre a própria teologia cristã, como sabemos pelos testemunhos de Eusébio,
Bishop Theodoret, etc. His lessons were attended even by
Emperor Gallienus and his wife Solonina, and the impact was such that Plotinus
exercised over them that the emperor even considered a project to establish
a city of philosophers that should have been called Platonopolis. The project was not
ahead due to the schemes of the courtiers.

Plotinus died at the age of sixty-five, in 270 AD. His last words
to the doctor Eustóquio were: "Always seek to merge the divine that is within you
with the divine that exists in the universe.

According to Reale & Antiseri, Plotinus's school resembled none.

of previous philosophical schools: Plato had founded the Academy for the
training of men who could renew the State; Aristotle had
founded the Lyceum to organize and systematize the pursuit of knowledge; Epicurus had
founded his movement aiming to give men peace and tranquility of
soul. The school of Plotinus aimed to teach men a way to enter
in direct contact with a broader reality, and come together with the
divine, in a way that today we would call a direct experience of
stamptranspersonal. He said that mere intellectual knowledge will amount to little.
diante da certeza, da experiência direta das realidades supra-sensíveis. Estas
they had a wealth and a transformative power over human perception that
They could hardly be put into words. In fact, this is also what they say.
all the great and true mystics, saints, and thinkers of humanity,
howMaster Eckhart, Saint John of the Cross, etc. The fact is that, just as it happens
in some forms of psychotherapy, notably Jungian psychology and the
existential approaches, there are significant factors in our development
psychic phenomena that are positioned as indefinable, but highly significant on a level
intuitive, since abstract terms are not sufficient to describe them.
While for the majority of people, in our days, the only approach
understandable reality is based on the definition of everything through
literal, linear, rational and impersonal conceptions, some others
they rediscover that the intuitive universe can be as broad or broader than
this causal rational universe. Among these people we can mention Albert
Einstein andCarl Gustav Jung. By the way, Jung believed that intuition and feeling
indispensable faculties for an adequate experience of the psyche, as it is
only through all its elements (thought, feeling,
sensation and intuition) that we can try to understand it. The difficulties that the
modern person finds when trying to understand the true
"mystical" approach (not the easy and simplistic mysticism that we see being
sold everywhere at every corner and at newsstands, but the
real mysticism that comes from within the soul) is based on the fact that, as
reaction to the highly introverted, superstitious trend and to obscurantism of
Medieval church, recent Western scientific development emphasized
excessively the abstract, linear, and rational objective thinking. This
development focused exclusively on the practical use of
external objects and external needs, and in our days, culminated in the
extreme logical rationalism and impersonal nature of our society. Thus, the
the ability to feel and to intuit are not valued or not taken into consideration
consideration; feelings are even considered as something
disposable, and intuitions are viewed with suspicion. This is a
an approach that has been showing to be faulty for a long time, since it is not
capable, among other things, of understanding the basic motivation of
moral behavior of human beings, for example, based on foundations
emotional. These areas can even be rationalized, but reason itself
it is hardly achievable, because if it were so, the scientists would have already solved it.
problems such as violence, suicide, apathy, depression (which today has already become
epidemic) and other ills of the soul. Rational appeals are of little efficiency.
when compared to the emotional ones. Our culture is focused on logic,
but when dealing with deeper problems, this same logic is incapable of
to provide us with appropriate answers to the understanding of life and its mysteries.
Then why do we deny the phenomena as fantasies or unrealities?
mystics? Perhaps the waking state - considered the normal baseline state -
be just one of several possible levels of consciousness in the psyche
human. For more details, seeaTranspersonal Psychology.

The Message of Plotinus

Plotinus, according to Jostein Gaarder, saw the phenomenal and human world as
something that is between two poles: At one end is the divine, from where everything
who comes and where everything goes, which he called One. Plotinus embraced a
conceptionholisticof the universe (it's a shame that the word 'palvraholismo' is, today in
day, mixed with a fallacy of pseudo-mystical junk, that takes away from you the
real meaning). Sometimes Plotinus referred to the One as God. In the other
the extremity would be what Plotinus called the realm of shadows, where
only a tiny fraction of divine light was reaching. But Plotinus used these
metaphors only as a didactic figure. He said, for example, that
these darknesses had no concrete existence. They were just the absence
momentary of the Divine Light, like latereMaster EckhartI would say that the subject
it was the condensation of something spiritual. Thus, being this extreme only
absence of light, the darkness is not. They are simply in the dark. The only
real existence is the existence of the implicit order that causes the phenomenal world
mutable. Thus, only God is the real. But, just like a source of light little to
little is lost in the darkness, we can also imagine a place where the
divine rays arrive very weak, which Plotinus identified with matter.
But even matter has a bit of divine light. We know today in
Day, through Physics, that matter is nothing more than a condensation of something
but subtle: the energy.

Here is a beautiful summary of the poetic analogies in the work of Plotinus (and, by connection,
of Amônio Sacas) given by Jostein Gaarder:
Imagine a huge bonfire creeping in the middle of the night. From the middle of the fire
sparks jump in all directions. In a wide circle around the fire a
night is illuminated, and a few kilometers away it is still possible to see the
leve brilho desta fogueira. À medida que nos afastamos, a fogueira vai se
transforming into a tiny point of light, like a weak lantern in the night.
And if we pull away even further, we will reach a point where the light of the fire
can no longer reach us. Somewhere the luminous rays get lost
at night, and if it is very dark, we won't see anything. At that moment,
contours and shadows cease to exist.
Now imagine reality as this huge bonfire. What burns is
God - and the darkness that is out there is the cold matter, where the light is weak,
what are made of men and animals. Next to God are the eternal ideas,
causes of all creatures. Above all, the human soul is a 'spark of the
fire. But all over nature, a little of this divine light appears.
We can see it in all living beings; yes, even a rose or a
bellflowers have a divine glow. At the farthest point from the living God
inanimate matter.

I say that everything we see has a bit of the divine mystery. We can see the
brightness of something in a sunflower or in a poppy. We realize a
a little more of this unfathomable mystery in a butterfly that landed on a branch,
or a little golden fish swimming in the aquarium. But the closest point in
what we find of God is within our own soul. Only there is it that
we can reunite with the great mystery of life. Indeed, in some rare
moments" - as they sayJungeMaslowwe can feel that we are, we
same, this divine mystery." The American psychologist Abraham Maslow did
exhaustive studies proving the existence of these culminating experiences,
frequently impossible to express in words without it
gain a large part of its extraordinarily beautiful and radiant strength, and the
where the feeling of intimate encounter with something transcendent is
dominant motif.

The images that Plotinus uses, and that Jostein Gaarder has just summarized, lead us
refer to the myth of the cave ofPlato. But while Plato is dualist,
distinguished in a stagnant way the opposition between spirit and matter, Plotinus
it points us to the reality that this is also linked to that (like
Buddha also said that the universe is a vast network of relationships.
everything has its reason for being in the whole, in the noholos. Everything is connected to everything, and

everything is One, for everything contributes to the work of God. Even

the shadows have a faint part of this "Unity"((holism)).

At certain moments in his life, Plotinus experienced the vivid sensation of

unite, merge your soul with God. In our century, Abraham Maslow made a
huge research to prove that healthier and more charismatic people
experienced, at least once in their life, a kind of experience of
peak (as Peak Experiences of Maslow) where the divisions seem to
conventional aspects of human intellect seem to lose all meaning, and the person
feel a fullness of peace and a closer connection with something
transcendental. We call this type of experience mystical experience.
Plotinus, however, as we know, was not the only one to live this experience. As
Jostein Gaarder tells us, people of all cultures, throughout all times,
have reported similar experiences. Today the study of these experiences is
made byTranspersonal Psychology. And a basic point of these reports is that
that, although there are variations in the description of these phenomena - due to the
cultural background and the beliefs of the subject -, these accounts have many and
surprising common points.
 Mysticism

In practically all accounts of the so-called mystical ecstasies, since

Plotinus (and even before him) to this day with patients/clients of the
transpersonal psychotherapy, what we see is a kind of intimate union with
something that transcends our concepts of reality, which is difficult to put into
words. In our Christian culture - although Christ himself reported
many times he felt one with the Father, saying that 'you are gods' and
that "The Kingdom is within you" - the priests, pastors, and various theologians to us
we instill that God made the world without getting involved with the world, that is,
that there is an abyss between God and his creation. God would have made things and
I would just be observing the course of the universal drama, sometimes
interfering momentarily in something, in the so-called miracles. But in the
east, especially in Buddhism and Taoism, and in the west, in religions
originals of the Celts and Gauls (Druids), as well as in some of our
Indians of North and South America, in mystical emblems of any
religion, what is experienced is a feeling of union, where this abyss is
unknown (see the accounts of Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross). What
ele - ou ela - conhece é uma elevação a Deuss (Gaarder, 1995; Grof, 1988;
LeShan, 1994).

Carl Gustav JungtheJoseph Campbell, as well as Plotinus, tell us that that

what we commonly call 'I' is not our true self, it is just a
máscara, o ego. Em momentos de profundo amor e/ou emoção ou paz
we can quickly feel a kind of contact with a more self
deep, which Jung called deself, and which some mystics call Christ
interior. Some go even further, feeling united with God Himself, or with
a "cosmic consciousness" - a term widely used in Transpersonal Psychology.
The Christian mystic Angelus Silesius (1624-1677) expressed himself this way about this
experiência: "A pequena gota (o indivíduo) se transforma em mar quando
it reaches him; and thus the soul is transformed into God when it is received in him
(Gaarder, 1995, p. 154).
Now, the ego may rebel against the possibility of losing control and the
a person "loses themselves" in this intimate fusion with cosmic consciousness,
But, as Jostein Gaarder rightly said, this pseudo-loss (in fact the
the ego is not eliminated, it continues to exist) is something very insignificant in the face of
from what is gained (see the parable of Jesus about the sower who
find a pearl in the field, and sell everything you have to buy it
the mystical perceives that his ego is just a tiny part of himself
even. Understand that the real 'I' is something infinitely greater. Understand
that is part of the whole universe, which is God. That is why Hindus say
that the I is the greatest friend of the ego, but the ego is the worst enemy of the I. Now, how
Jostein Gaarder tells us, if we are afraid of losing ourselves as individuals in a
a world that for us is reality (the common world) may serve as comfort and
It is encouraging to know that one day we will have to lose this 'I' in any case.
"everyday" in one way or another. Why not try to experiment with the
true I managing to liberate oneself from the yoke of an egoic self? "That one
whoever wants to preserve his life will lose it, and whoever wants to lose his life,
"for the love of truth, it will win," said Christ.

Jostein Gaarder points out with great authority that we find strands
mystics in all the major religions of the world. "And everything that mystics
they write about their experiences showing visible similarities, despite
of all cultural differences. Only when the mystical tries a
religious or philosophical interpretation of your experience is what is evidenced
"cultural background". (Jostein Gaarder, The World of Sofia, 1995, p. 155).

Through the works in Psychology, especially in Jungian Psychology, at

Gestalt Therapy and in humanistic therapies, and mainly in Psychotherapies
From a Transpersonal perspective, we know that people who do not belong to
no religion has had a past and reported mystical experiences. They
spontaneously experiment with something they call, among other things,
"cosmic consciousness" or, as Freud called it, "oceanic experiences":
at this moment, time and space and other physical limitations are nothing more than
fantastical representations of human perception. The only thing that exists is the
feeling of completeness and awareness of being immersed and lucid in a
greater and more beautiful reality.

Suggested Bibliography

Campbell, Joseph,O Poder do Mito, Palas Athenas São Paulo, 1990

Porphyry. Life of Plotinus/Enneads I-II, Gredos Publishing, Madrid, 1996.
Grof, Stanislav. Beyond the Brain - Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy,
McGraw-Hill, São Paulo, 1988
Reale, Giovanni & Antiseri, [Link]ória da FilosofiaVol. I, Ed. Paulus, São Paulo, 1990
Gaarder, Jostein.O Mundo de Sofia, Companhia das Letras, São Paulo, 1995

LeSham, Lawrence. The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist, Summus Editorial, São Paulo, 1993