Official Social Network of The Theosophical Society in America
The One and the Many in Neo-Platonic Theosophy -- Govert Schuller
Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century CE, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists. Like Theosophy, Neoplatonism includes a detailed outline of spiritual evolution. It is interesting and probably inspirational to review and compare like elaborate spiritual systems such as Neo-Platonism and Theosophy since all of these descriptions are metaphorical, not literal, and it is helpful to approach these subtleties from different perspectives using varying images and language.
Download handouts:
Neo-Platonic Theosophy
Discussion Questions:
1- Almost all profound systems of religion and/or philosophy eventually arrive at an evaluation of the concept of virtuous. How do you define “virtuous” in everyday life?
2- What is the difference between a description of ethics and a description of virtue?
3- (Read as a group) In the ethics of Plotinus all the older schemes of virtue are taken over and arranged in a graduated series.
a. The civil virtues: adorn the life, without elevating the soul.
b. The purifying virtues: the soul is freed from sensuality and led back to itself, and thence to the nous. By means of ascetic observances the human becomes once more a spiritual and enduring being, free from all sin.
c. Divine virtue: one must become "God" through ecstatic contemplation of the primeval Being, the One. Thought cannot attain to this, for thought reaches only to the nous, and is itself a kind of motion. It is only in a state of perfect passivity and repose that the soul can recognize and touch the primeval Being. Hence the soul must first pass through a spiritual curriculum. Beginning with the contemplation of corporeal things in their multiplicity and harmony, it then retires upon itself and withdraws into the depths of its own being, rising thence to the nous, the world of ideas.
d. The last stage is reached when, in the highest tension and concentration, beholding in silence and utter forgetfulness of all things, it is able as it were to lose itself. Then it may see God, the foundation of life, the source of being, the origin of all good, the root of the soul. In that moment it enjoys the highest indescribable bliss; it is as it were swallowed up of divinity, bathed in the light of eternity.
Consider this vast schematic of virtue according to Plotinus and decide what sort of actions and practices you would prescribe for yourself or another who wishes to realize virtue according to the Plotinus system.
4- According to the Neo-Platonic paradigm of soul evolution “Along the same road by which it descended the soul must retrace its steps back to the supreme Good. It must first of all return to itself.” The mythologist, Joseph Campbell, liked to take profound spiritual axioms and imply them psychologically to the individual. Can you apply this first neo-Platonic soul step to your own spiritual life and see how your spiritual journey has and continues to be an expression of your soul returning to itself? Meditate and contemplate upon this metaphor for a few minutes and then share your thoughts with the group.
5- From Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled (II, 342): (Read as a group)
“If we study the question with a dispassionate mind, we will soon perceive that the ethics of Gautama-Buddha, Plato, Apollonius, Jesus, Ammonius Sakkas, and his disciples, were all based on the same mystic philosophy. That all worshipped one God, whether they considered Him as the “Father" of humanity, who lives in man as man lives in Him, or as the Incomprehensible Creative Principle; all led God-like lives.” In this context identified by Blavatsky, what does it mean to live a “God-like” life?
6- (Read as a group) “Neoplatonists believed human perfection and happiness were attainable in this world, without awaiting an afterlife. Perfection and happiness— seen as synonymous— could be achieved through philosophical contemplation. They did not believe in an independent existence of evil. They compared it to darkness, which does not exist in itself but only as the absence of light. So too, evil is simply the absence of good. Things are good insofar as they exist; they are evil only insofar as they are imperfect, lacking some good that they should have. It is also a cornerstone of Neoplatonism to teach that all people return to the Source. The Source, Absolute, or One is what all things spring from and, as a superconsciousness (nous), is where all things return. It can be said that all consciousness is wiped clean and returned to a blank slate when returning to the Source. All things have force or potential (dynamis) as their essence. This dynamis begets energy (energeia). When people return to the Source, their energy returns to the One, Monad, or Source and is then recycled into the cosmos, where it can be broken up and then amalgamated into other things.
The Neoplatonists believed in the pre-existence, and immortality of the soul. The human soul consists of a lower irrational soul and a higher rational soul (mind), both of which can be regarded as different powers of the one soul. It was widely held that the soul possesses a "vehicle", accounting for the human soul's immortality and allowing for its return to the One after death. After bodily death, the soul takes up a level in the afterlife corresponding with the level at which it lived during its earthly life. The Neoplatonists believed in the principle of reincarnation. Although the most pure and holy souls would dwell in the highest regions, the impure soul would undergo a purification, before descending again, to be reincarnated into a new body, perhaps into animal form. A soul which has returned to the One, achieves union with the cosmic universal soul, and does not descend again, at least, not in this world period.-Wikipedia
Highlight the similarities and differences between the Neo-Platonic system described in the above summary and the system of Theosophy (as described by the major Theosophical writers).
7- How does your present spiritual practice work toward actualizing your virtue (as you believe the concept should be defined)?
8- Have you ever had anything like a mystical experience? Can you think how this experience directly or indirectly shaped your personal belief toward ethics and or virtue?
From Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled (I, 443-444): (Read as a group)
“It was Ammonius who first taught that every religion was based on one and the same truth; which is the wisdom found in the Books of Thoth (Hermes Trismegistus), from which books Pythagoras and Plato had learned all their philosophy. And the doctrines of the former he affirmed to have been identical with the earliest teachings of the Brahmans -- now embodied in the oldest Vedas.”
9- If you were going to explain the truth on which every religion is based to a group of seven year-olds who have no or very little previous religious exposure, how would you phrase it, using four or five sentences at the most. After contemplating this, write down your answer, and share your essential-wisdom children’s story with the group.
10- If you were going to summarize the truth on which every religion is based to a group of college students taking a class in world religions, how would you phrase the essential Truth, using four or five sentences at the most. After contemplating this, write down your answer, and share your description with the group.
11- Think of a philosopher or spiritual writer who you admire and who you feel has influenced you and try to define their definition of virtue. Do you think their implied beliefs about virtue have affected you? Meditate on this for a few minutes and then share your explanation with the group.
Proposed Activities
1- Break into groups to design what you would do if you were attempting to influence the ethics of a group of incarcerated individuals using a spiritual approach, but without appearing to be shoving religion down their throats. Share your strategies.
2- Break into groups to design a simple version of spiritual or soul evolution suitable for grade school or junior high students. Base your explanation on either the Neo-Platonic scheme included in the handout, Theosophy, both, or, if your group would like, design your own. For example, you might want to decide on a number of selves (higher, middle, lower, or more) and names for each; and do the same for planes of existence. Your group might create a grid or chart for this. You may also want to include definitions of basic spiritual principles, and finally a few sentences explaining the course and principles of spiritual evolution as your group decides to define them. Take turns sharing your brief School Lessons for Spiritual Evolution with each of the other groups.
Resources:
Books
- Harris, R. Baine, The Significance of Neoplatonism, 186.4 HAR SN
- Harris, R. Baine, The Structure of Being : A Neoplatonic Approach, 186.4 HAR SB
- Laudahn, William R. The Human and Divine Universe : Platonic, Neo-Platonic and Theosophic Insight into the Nature of Reality, T T343 HDU
- Plotinus, Select Works of Plotinus, RARE
- Shorey, Paul, Platonism, Ancient and Modern, 184.1 Sho PAM
- Wilder, Alexander, New Platonism and Alchemy : A Sketch of the Doctrines and Principal Teachers of the Eclectic or Alexandrian School; also an Outline of the Interior Doctrines of the Alchemists of the Middle Ages, 184 WIL NPA
Sound recordings
(AR: audiocassette; CDA: Compact Disc)
- Bonnell, Robert, Theosophy in the Renaissance : Raphael's The School of Athens, AR 4775
- Lysy, Anton, Neoplatonism and the Theosophy of H.P. Blavatsky, AR 4892
- Lysy, Anton, Greek Religion and Philosophy through Neoplatonism, CDA 0016-6
-Woolger, Roger J, Mystical body, man of light : the Lost Secret of the Cosmic Christ,
CDA 0425
Videorecordings
- Hoeller, Stephan A., Turning-points for the West : From Pythagoras and Plato through Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, DVD 0140 v.1
Download handouts:
Neo-Platonic Theosophy
Discussion Questions:
1- Almost all profound systems of religion and/or philosophy eventually arrive at an evaluation of the concept of virtuous. How do you define “virtuous” in everyday life?
2- What is the difference between a description of ethics and a description of virtue?
3- (Read as a group) In the ethics of Plotinus all the older schemes of virtue are taken over and arranged in a graduated series.
a. The civil virtues: adorn the life, without elevating the soul.
b. The purifying virtues: the soul is freed from sensuality and led back to itself, and thence to the nous. By means of ascetic observances the human becomes once more a spiritual and enduring being, free from all sin.
c. Divine virtue: one must become "God" through ecstatic contemplation of the primeval Being, the One. Thought cannot attain to this, for thought reaches only to the nous, and is itself a kind of motion. It is only in a state of perfect passivity and repose that the soul can recognize and touch the primeval Being. Hence the soul must first pass through a spiritual curriculum. Beginning with the contemplation of corporeal things in their multiplicity and harmony, it then retires upon itself and withdraws into the depths of its own being, rising thence to the nous, the world of ideas.
d. The last stage is reached when, in the highest tension and concentration, beholding in silence and utter forgetfulness of all things, it is able as it were to lose itself. Then it may see God, the foundation of life, the source of being, the origin of all good, the root of the soul. In that moment it enjoys the highest indescribable bliss; it is as it were swallowed up of divinity, bathed in the light of eternity.
Consider this vast schematic of virtue according to Plotinus and decide what sort of actions and practices you would prescribe for yourself or another who wishes to realize virtue according to the Plotinus system.
4- According to the Neo-Platonic paradigm of soul evolution “Along the same road by which it descended the soul must retrace its steps back to the supreme Good. It must first of all return to itself.” The mythologist, Joseph Campbell, liked to take profound spiritual axioms and imply them psychologically to the individual. Can you apply this first neo-Platonic soul step to your own spiritual life and see how your spiritual journey has and continues to be an expression of your soul returning to itself? Meditate and contemplate upon this metaphor for a few minutes and then share your thoughts with the group.
5- From Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled (II, 342): (Read as a group)
“If we study the question with a dispassionate mind, we will soon perceive that the ethics of Gautama-Buddha, Plato, Apollonius, Jesus, Ammonius Sakkas, and his disciples, were all based on the same mystic philosophy. That all worshipped one God, whether they considered Him as the “Father" of humanity, who lives in man as man lives in Him, or as the Incomprehensible Creative Principle; all led God-like lives.” In this context identified by Blavatsky, what does it mean to live a “God-like” life?
6- (Read as a group) “Neoplatonists believed human perfection and happiness were attainable in this world, without awaiting an afterlife. Perfection and happiness— seen as synonymous— could be achieved through philosophical contemplation. They did not believe in an independent existence of evil. They compared it to darkness, which does not exist in itself but only as the absence of light. So too, evil is simply the absence of good. Things are good insofar as they exist; they are evil only insofar as they are imperfect, lacking some good that they should have. It is also a cornerstone of Neoplatonism to teach that all people return to the Source. The Source, Absolute, or One is what all things spring from and, as a superconsciousness (nous), is where all things return. It can be said that all consciousness is wiped clean and returned to a blank slate when returning to the Source. All things have force or potential (dynamis) as their essence. This dynamis begets energy (energeia). When people return to the Source, their energy returns to the One, Monad, or Source and is then recycled into the cosmos, where it can be broken up and then amalgamated into other things.
The Neoplatonists believed in the pre-existence, and immortality of the soul. The human soul consists of a lower irrational soul and a higher rational soul (mind), both of which can be regarded as different powers of the one soul. It was widely held that the soul possesses a "vehicle", accounting for the human soul's immortality and allowing for its return to the One after death. After bodily death, the soul takes up a level in the afterlife corresponding with the level at which it lived during its earthly life. The Neoplatonists believed in the principle of reincarnation. Although the most pure and holy souls would dwell in the highest regions, the impure soul would undergo a purification, before descending again, to be reincarnated into a new body, perhaps into animal form. A soul which has returned to the One, achieves union with the cosmic universal soul, and does not descend again, at least, not in this world period.-Wikipedia
Highlight the similarities and differences between the Neo-Platonic system described in the above summary and the system of Theosophy (as described by the major Theosophical writers).
7- How does your present spiritual practice work toward actualizing your virtue (as you believe the concept should be defined)?
8- Have you ever had anything like a mystical experience? Can you think how this experience directly or indirectly shaped your personal belief toward ethics and or virtue?
From Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled (I, 443-444): (Read as a group)
“It was Ammonius who first taught that every religion was based on one and the same truth; which is the wisdom found in the Books of Thoth (Hermes Trismegistus), from which books Pythagoras and Plato had learned all their philosophy. And the doctrines of the former he affirmed to have been identical with the earliest teachings of the Brahmans -- now embodied in the oldest Vedas.”
9- If you were going to explain the truth on which every religion is based to a group of seven year-olds who have no or very little previous religious exposure, how would you phrase it, using four or five sentences at the most. After contemplating this, write down your answer, and share your essential-wisdom children’s story with the group.
10- If you were going to summarize the truth on which every religion is based to a group of college students taking a class in world religions, how would you phrase the essential Truth, using four or five sentences at the most. After contemplating this, write down your answer, and share your description with the group.
11- Think of a philosopher or spiritual writer who you admire and who you feel has influenced you and try to define their definition of virtue. Do you think their implied beliefs about virtue have affected you? Meditate on this for a few minutes and then share your explanation with the group.
Proposed Activities
1- Break into groups to design what you would do if you were attempting to influence the ethics of a group of incarcerated individuals using a spiritual approach, but without appearing to be shoving religion down their throats. Share your strategies.
2- Break into groups to design a simple version of spiritual or soul evolution suitable for grade school or junior high students. Base your explanation on either the Neo-Platonic scheme included in the handout, Theosophy, both, or, if your group would like, design your own. For example, you might want to decide on a number of selves (higher, middle, lower, or more) and names for each; and do the same for planes of existence. Your group might create a grid or chart for this. You may also want to include definitions of basic spiritual principles, and finally a few sentences explaining the course and principles of spiritual evolution as your group decides to define them. Take turns sharing your brief School Lessons for Spiritual Evolution with each of the other groups.
Resources:
Books
- Harris, R. Baine, The Significance of Neoplatonism, 186.4 HAR SN
- Harris, R. Baine, The Structure of Being : A Neoplatonic Approach, 186.4 HAR SB
- Laudahn, William R. The Human and Divine Universe : Platonic, Neo-Platonic and Theosophic Insight into the Nature of Reality, T T343 HDU
- Plotinus, Select Works of Plotinus, RARE
- Shorey, Paul, Platonism, Ancient and Modern, 184.1 Sho PAM
- Wilder, Alexander, New Platonism and Alchemy : A Sketch of the Doctrines and Principal Teachers of the Eclectic or Alexandrian School; also an Outline of the Interior Doctrines of the Alchemists of the Middle Ages, 184 WIL NPA
Sound recordings
(AR: audiocassette; CDA: Compact Disc)
- Bonnell, Robert, Theosophy in the Renaissance : Raphael's The School of Athens, AR 4775
- Lysy, Anton, Neoplatonism and the Theosophy of H.P. Blavatsky, AR 4892
- Lysy, Anton, Greek Religion and Philosophy through Neoplatonism, CDA 0016-6
-Woolger, Roger J, Mystical body, man of light : the Lost Secret of the Cosmic Christ,
CDA 0425
Videorecordings
- Hoeller, Stephan A., Turning-points for the West : From Pythagoras and Plato through Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, DVD 0140 v.1
Tags: neoplatonism
Read our Guide to Community Features to learn your way around!
Also, check out our Guidelines for Community Conduct to review our rules.
Have a question or issue to report? Send a message to the moderators and let them know.
Do you enjoy using this site and other online resources provided by the Theosophical Society in America? Would you like to contribute to these efforts? Click below to make a monetary donation. Your support is appreciated and will help us to add to the resources we offer online.
Events
© 2009 Created by The Theosophical Society
