Return to the One (39 page)

People think that God became human only in the Incarnation, but this is not the case, for God has become human just as surely here and now as he did then, and has become human in order that he might give birth to you as his only begotten Son, and no less.
¹²

The difference between a saint and a sinner is thus, in Plotinus’s view, a matter of realization, not of capacity. The divine heights Jesus was able to attain could with sufficient effort be scaled by any person. This perspective was uncongenial to the Church, so Christian thinkers were both attracted to and repelled by Plotinus’s mystic philosophy.

Since the Church was at best ambivalent toward Platonism and Neoplatonism, it isn’t surprising that by medieval times Plotinus’s teachings were only indirectly available in the West, though copies of the
Enneads
continued to be studied in the Byzantine and Islamic worlds. Then, in 1492, Marsilio Ficino, an Italian philosopher who was one of the great Renaissance humanists, translated the
Enneads
from Greek to Latin.

Ficino’s lifelong devotion to studying and translating the works of Plato and the Neoplatonists was part of what has been called the rebirth of classical humanism. This re-discovery of neglected parts of Greek thought infused new energy and vitality into both Christianity and Western culture in general. Richard Tarnas says:

In Platonism and Neoplatonism the Humanists discovered a non-Christian spiritual tradition possessing a religious and ethical profundity seemingly comparable to that of Christianity itself. The Neoplatonic corpus implied the existence of a universal religion, of which Christianity was perhaps the ultimate but not the only manifestation.

… The classical Greeks’ sense of man’s own glory, of man’s intellectual powers and capacity for spiritual elevation seemingly uncontaminated by a biblical Original Sin, was now emerging anew in the breast of Western man.
¹³

To attempt to describe more fully the influence of Plato and Plotinus on Western religion, science, and art from the fifteenth century onward is beyond both the scope of this book and the author’s capacity. The reader is urged toward Richard Tarnas’s highly readable overview of the evolution of Western thought,
The Passion of the Western Mind,
a work cited frequently in these pages.

Suffice it to say that the teachings of Platonism and Neoplatonism in general, and Plotinus in particular, are deeply engrained in the Western mindset, though rarely recognized as such by most of us today. These ideas are mediated to us by the great mystics, theologians, scientists, and artists of Renaissance times, who serve as a bridge between the far distant shore of Greek philosophy and the present day.

To read Meister Eckhart, Nicholas of Cusa, the anonymous author of
The Cloud of Unknowing,
Marsilio Ficino, and other like-minded thinkers of that era is to hear the voice of Plotinus, for all who follow the
via negativa
speak of the spiritual path in a similar fashion. This is not so much because they share a common intellectual or theological framework, as that each has experienced, or seeks to experience, a wholly inward divine unity that transcends all outward distinctions.

There can be no more awe-inspiring conception: that the soul is in God. Or, to use more scientific-sounding language: that personal consciousness is in universal consciousness (following Plotinus, we must understand “in” not spatially, but as in the power of). This astoundingly simple idea is enormously profound. It had, and still has, the power to rattle the foundation of both individuals and entire cultures. Indeed, more than rattle—
transform.

The Platonically-inspired challenges to the prevailing Christian worldview planted the seeds of a mystical revitalization that drew many people toward an inward experience of divinity that supplanted, or at least supplemented, traditional outward modes of worship. Interestingly, the infusion of Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas also prepared the ground for the Western scientific revolution that continues apace today.

For if it was considered that man could form his consciousness into a means of knowing the secrets of God that lie within, it followed that the same consciousness could be fashioned into an instrument for knowing the mysteries of creation that lie without. The medieval Church discouraged scientific inquiry (witness Galileo’s fate) because, as Richard Tarnas says, “The truths of Christian faith were supernatural, and needed to be safeguarded against the insinuations of a naturalistic rationalism.”
¹⁴

But if the One and spirit are immanent in the creation, then the study of nature becomes, in a certain sense, the study of God. And since Plotinus and other Neoplatonists held that creation is taking place continuously in the present moment, a view shared by Meister Eckhart, then coming to understand how the laws of nature function is tantamount to gaining a vision, however veiled, of spirit’s transcendent creative intelligence.

In contrast to the Church’s focus on God’s power to perform unique and almost capricious miracles, Plotinus and Plato emphasized the universality and regularity of the divine design. Thus Platonism harmonized nicely with scientific inquiry, which focuses more on learning the causes of recurring patterns in the cosmos rather than what creates irreproducible unique instances.

Hence, says Tarnas, “The scientific ramifications of the Platonic revival were no less significant than the religious…. Neoplatonist mathematics, added to the rationalism and nascent empiricism of the late Scholastics, provided one of the final components necessary for the emergence of the Scientific Revolution.”
¹⁵

Our Great Experiment with Truth

I
T SEEMS, THEN
, entirely fitting to close with some final observations about the scientific character of Plotinus’s mystical philosophy. For what he urges us to pursue, above all other priorities, is the study of our own selves as soul. And this investigation takes place nowhere else but in the laboratory of our individual consciousness which, when purified of all that is physical or personal, will be found to be virtually identical with the universal consciousness of spirit and the One.

There is so much to admire in this conception of spirituality. It hews to the original root meaning of “religion,”
religare
, to bind back to God. Yet it avoids the divisiveness and rancor of what so often falsely passes for religion in the world today. By teaching that the pursuit of spirituality involves an inward transformation of the
psyche
, or soul, rather than any sort of outward action of body or mind, Plotinus asks us to focus on the only relationship that really counts, the connection between us and divinity.

That connection is established by contemplating higher spiritual realities, not the lower reaches of matter in which we find ourselves firmly planted now. The mystic philosopher detaches from everything connected with this world so that he or she may become attached to the wisdom, beauty, and truth of the spiritual world. To forsake things and thoughts is to embrace spirit and the One.

So each of us might do well to examine our commitment to spirituality or religion from this perspective: Assuming we want to try to know God now, before we die, what do we take with us into the laboratory of spirit where, in whatever fashion we choose, we attempt to perform this great experiment with truth? What instruments, if any, are needed there? What thoughts and actions, if any, are essential to our work, and what thoughts and actions must be left outside the laboratory of consciousness to avoid contaminating the experiment?

I would suggest that Plotinus, in common with all great mystics, asks us to carefully differentiate between what might be aptly termed the laboratory, lecture hall, and university of spirit. The laboratory is where our experiment with truth is actually carried out. Thus it is essential to keep this place, our innermost consciousness, empty of confounding elements during the time of contemplation in which we seek to know God. For the
Enneads
proclaim that the radiance of spirit and the One is reflected in the soul only when consciousness is still and clear.

Hence, in this laboratory we can’t even take our notes from the lecture hall, where spiritual books are read, teachers of spiritual science speak, and spiritual discussions are held. These are great aids to learning how to conduct our experiment, to be sure. But what transpires in the lecture hall—physical sights and sounds, mental thoughts and emotions—cannot be brought into the laboratory without ruining our experiment with pure truth.

This is why Plotinus tells us, over and over again, in so many different ways, that the One is ineffable and beyond conception. He wants us to understand why the break between what might be called the theory and the practice of spirituality has to be complete. An accomplished teacher of spiritual science can tell us how to properly conduct the experiment within our consciousnesses. But the telling must not be confused with the experiment, which, unfortunately, happens all too often.

That is, we wrongly believe that we have gained some knowledge of spirituality after hearing or reading an explanation of how this knowledge is to be realized and what that mystic realization generally consists of. In fact, we know nothing. And, as the mystics of the
via negativa
(the negative way) tell us, it is only by entering into the nothing we truly are that we will ever know anything of spiritual matters.

Even worse is to believe that merely being enrolled in a university leads to any sort of spiritual understanding. If we look upon spirituality as a science, as I am suggesting Plotinus would have us do, then aligning ourselves with a specific source of instruction, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, whatever, is akin to enrolling at Harvard, Yale, Oxford, wherever. It seems unarguable that some schools are a better fit for certain students than other schools, but it also is unarguable that a place of study mustn’t be confused with what one learns there.

Material scientists are considerably wiser in this regard. They identify to some extent with their school or university but have a much stronger identification with their field of study, such as physics, chemistry, or geology. And most scientists realize that their chosen field is set offfrom the much larger expanse of human knowledge by largely arbitrary distinctions. The line between physics and chemistry for example, is blurry

But the situation is much different in spirituality. Ask someone about God, and you are much more likely to hear, “I’m a Catholic” or “I’m a Buddhist” than “I’m a seeker of the divine.” Wouldn’t it be strange to have a physicist say, throughout his career, “I’m a Harvard man,” when queried about his profession? So Plotinus’s non-sectarian and universal approach to metaphysics is to be emulated even by those who profess allegiance to some particular spiritual school.

It isn’t the school that is important. It isn’t the professors that are important. It isn’t the books, readings, and discussions in the lecture hall that are important. What’s important is the
experiment,
our great experiment with truth. For in the laboratory of our elevated consciousness the mystery will be revealed of what lies beyond the cave of illusion in which we presently reside.

Death also will bring us to the edge of discovery, but there is no guarantee that we will be able to permanently remain with truth after the falsehoods of this world are dispelled. Reincarnation, says Plotinus, is reality, at least for those who have not been able to return to the One.

Mystics such as Plotinus urge us to live life with one goal in mind: that we die well. May we be inspired by what Plotinus told a disciple in his last moments:

I am trying to make what is most divine in me rise back up to what is divine in the universe.
¹

The body of this book ends with some thoughts from Meister Eckhart, the Christian mystic who melded so wonderfully the spiritual teachings of Jesus and Plotinus. We can ask for no clearer summary of the ageless
via negativa
that transcends every distinction of creed or religion.

Now take note of what we must have if we are to dwell in him, that is in God. There are three things we must have. The first is that we should take leave of ourselves and of all things and be attached to nothing external which acts upon the senses within, and also that we should not remain in any creature which is either in time or in eternity.

The second is that we should not love this or that good thing but rather goodness as such from which all good things flow, for things are only desirable and delightful in so far as God is in them.

… The third is that we should not take God as he is good or just, but should take him in the pure and clear substance in which he possesses himself. For goodness and justice are a garment of God, since they enfold him.

Strip away from God therefore everything which clothes him and take him in his dressing room where he is naked and bare in himself. Thus you will remain in him.
²

Conclusion

W
E EXIST
. All that exists emanates from the One. So the soul, the enduring spiritual aspect of us, has an inherent inclination to return to the source, somewhat as drops of water in a river naturally flow downhill until they merge in the ocean.

However, the unfortunate difference between this metaphor and reality is that spiritual realization generally takes a lot of work, leaving aside the few fortunate souls who are reported either to have been born with knowledge of God, or able to acquire this wisdom without much effort. They are the exceptions, not the rule, as evidenced by the mystics who, throughout the ages, engaged in great exterior and interior struggles to reveal the mystery of hidden divinity.

Thus returning to the One is more like climbing a mountain than floating down a stream. This is almost universally true, at least, of the early stages of spiritual ascent, for here we have to fight against the considerable pulling power of the myriad attractions of matter and mind, much as a rocket straining to escape the earth’s gravity expends most of its fuel shortly after liftoff when the forces trying to keep it earthbound are at their strongest.

When I considered how my study of Plotinus’s teachings had affected my attitude toward spirituality and my spiritual practice, this image came to mind: I have been comfortably camping at Lake Partway, enjoying only the lowest reaches of Mount Spirit, still far from the summit of One. Then Plotinus came along and jolted me out of my complacency. He raised the bar, set a higher standard, challenged me to play the spiritual game as well as I can talk about it.

The following fable builds on this image, and is my attempt to convey something of what Plotinus has come to mean to me. He is a guide to regions of reality that are rarely explored. I’m sure that he is not the only guide, and he may not be the best guide, but this is not for me to judge. I’m simply grateful that mystics such as Plotinus are willing to give us even a veiled description of the spiritual heights to which they have ascended, and, more importantly, offer to show us the path that leads to the summit so we can see for ourselves.

This tale necessarily has a personal flavor because it reflects my own impression of Plotinus and his teachings. Yet it also serves as a rough and ready reflection of the general thrust of those teachings themselves. After reading
Return to the One
, you should be able to recognize how the central elements of this tale relate to Plotinus’s philosophy. If this isn’t the case, just take the story as it strikes you.