Holy shit is this guy awesome. Some of the most simultaneously beautiful and theoretically sound thought ever written. I can't pretend like I don't fall under the charms of his arguments, as they really do feel like gears clicking into place, especially during a spiritual crisis, seemingly managing to guide you to solutions to a myriad of metaphysical problems. I can understand why Islamic neoplatonist Avicenna's grand opus was named ''The Book of Healing'', as neoplatonic thought does seem to serve a soothing purpose, to a certain extent. The versatility and compatibility of this school of thought with almost every single tradition leads me to believe that there is a golden core underneath it all.
BUT. How the fuck did he manage to arrive to this line of thinking? How can I be sure that he wasn't fed a bunch of pretty little thoughts by malevolent and parasitic spirits? What did he ever say about the existence and the actions of non-human entities (demons, djinns, aliens, machine elves, ''spirits''...etc) and their status as evil due to their, as traditionally understood, distance from God? And finally, how do you fit this line of thinking into a practical mode of living?
>Just read
I am trying, but I don't want to spend 10 years rummaging through tomes of excruciatingly difficult jargon so I can finally locate when they addressed the questions that I've been asking myself for decades on end.

call me when a philosophizing nigga properly explains shit like kundalini

>>40771489 (OP)
neoplatonism is non reproducible, hence even his direct followers came up with vastly different ideas and methods.
same as buddhism.
I don't want answers, I want a method that works.

Plato, Plotinus and Pleithon are the same guy.

>>40771991
Right, but where the fuck did the method come from? It couldn't just be the result of a concentrated effort of pure reason

Does anyone have any favourite Plotinus quotes or excerpts? It seems like many anons are into him.

The soul that beholds beauty becomes beautiful

>>40771991
>I want a method that works.
Neville Goddard or John Paolucci. The science of Demiurgy, and therefore of Salvation/Liberation, implicitly, is no more complex than having the certainty of you being the substrate, Identically, not in likeness, but in absolute Identity.
There's no other technique. Any ritual/discipline/asceticism/bullshittery is just time waste.

>>40772765
sounds right.

I am certain, under God, indivisible, for the pursuit of liberty for all.

>>40771489 (OP)
>I can understand why Islamic neoplatonist Avicenna's grand opus was named ''The Book of Healing''
:) and his Logic textbook is called "Deliverance" thanks for reminding me OP I started reading this a while back
https://archive.org/details/avicennasdeliver0000avic

>>40771489 (OP)
>What did he ever say about the existence and the actions of non-human entities (demons, djinns, aliens, machine elves, ''spirits''...etc) and their status as evil due to their, as traditionally understood, distance from God?
wait what? neoplatonism has the most sophisticated theory of invisible entities there is, you must be joking
btw his personal daimon was a god not a daimon

Porphyry narrates in his biography of Plotinus (Vita Plotini, ch.10):
>An Egyptian priest came to Rome once and made acquaintance with Plotinus through a friend; the priest wanted to test his powers and suggested Plotinus to make the daimon that was born with him visible by conjuring. Plotinus gave a ready assent and conjuration took place in the Temple of Isis; because it was, as it is told, the only 'pure' place the Egyptian could find in Rome. When the daimon was conjured to reveal itself, a god appeared who was not one of the daimons. And the Egyptian is said to have called out: "Blessed are you, because a god is by you as your daimon and not some low class daimon!" But there was no opportunity to ask anything from the apparition or look at it longer; because a friend who was watching and holding birds in his hands to keep the purity of the place, squeezed them to death, be it out of envy or vague fear.
https://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol9/plotinus.htm
https://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol9/pdf/plotinus.pdf

>>40771996
Could you elaborate on this please? You think all these works were written at a much later date, under pseudonyms? Where can I read more about this?

Was listening to an audiobook of The Enneads a little bit and so far it's not super impressive. What's the appeal of this system to one aquainted with the limitations of Plato?

>>40772765
Neville goddard is a faggot

Use it as a building block to unlock other truths, and add on to when learning new truths from other thinkers. You can spend your life accumulating ideas and truths, but if you don't have an inner core of Spirit then what is it all for?

>>40771489 (OP)

Check out Proclus. He brings Neoplatonism to its highest achievement.

>>40774009
How so?

>>40773927
Ya think this is some kind of game? This ain't Morrowind, kid.

>>40773880
some translations are shit. you might be listening to the stephen mckenna translation (which is a shit one). the best one you'll get is the thomas taylor one, but the english is a bit antiquated.

>>40771489 (OP)
I definitely know the feeling. I had the same reaction a few years ago when I first read Plotinus.
>BUT. How the fuck did he manage to arrive to this line of thinking?
Didn't you read Porphyry's "Life of Plotinus"? He was a god.
>What did he ever say about the existence and the actions of non-human entities
Uh... I thought you read him? He talks about this a lot. Read it yourself.
>I am trying, but I don't want to spend 10 years rummaging through tomes of excruciatingly difficult jargon
1. More like 2 months.
2. The "jargon" is not that difficult.
3. The parts where he talks about daimons and souls have very little "jargon".
I guess if you are lazy and shameless enough to depend on the reading of another person, the gist is that God's power is so massive that it imbues life and power into everything and every kind of soul. Some souls are smart, others very dumb. Some souls are pure, others polluted by twisted desire. Some souls naturally gravitate towards heavenly things, others towards hellish ones. This applies to humans and to non-human beings. There are pure deities in heaven and pure deities in the bodies of human beings, just like there are corrupted demon beings in the cosmos and corrupted demon beings in human form.
>And finally, how do you fit this line of thinking into a practical mode of living?
There are as many ways as there are people. But you haven't even read the book, and have asked a very non-specific question, so I can't answer this for you.
>>40771637
There's an almost infinite amount of material on this subject. Maybe considering doing the bare minimum of research.
>>40774009
Plotinus is better t b h.

>>40775019
Thanks for the heads up.

>>40771637
>And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
https://youtu.be/z6XujdKL30o?si=6D8srvKIIL31KbgQ

>>40775187
>He was a god
This is why anybody who takes philosophy and the study of metaphysics seriously likes to make fun of neoplatonists

>>40776241
>"Tee-hee I am gonna make fun of you!!"
Ah yes, the kindergartener school of metaphysical inquiry.

>>40776402
Yep, keep clowning around

>>40773513
They all emerged at the same time, during the renaissance. There are no originals, the texts are all copies. Three different characters, we dont know who is the original. Probably Pleisthon who is the most recent, but he was certainly not a christian (christianity only appeared in the 14th century, it was all mithraism before it).

double digit iqs nigga be like i took fent and saw the universe tf bro yappin about tho

>>40777188
Nobody argues that Gemistos Plethon was a christian. He was only hiding under a cloak of christianity in Byzantium so as to gain power in the court and subtly bring about the hellenistic revival he always dreamed of.

>>40773422
He was, to my understanding, an avatar of the Demiurge. So were Plato, Proclus, Hermes, Enoch, St. John, and the Johannine-Sethian tradition in Christianity. The Demiurge repented long ago.

>>40775019
Thomas Taylor had great taste in his appreciation of Ancient Greek philosophy. Everything he devotes attention to is gold.

>>40776241
Few endeavors are more wrongheaded than atheistic metaphysics.

>>40772009
G I Gurdgieff