Building on the teachings of Plato and with his profound impact on the Christian contemplative tradition, Plotinus is one of the most influential philosophers in the Western tradition. If you would like to begin studying Plotinus, this little book of selections translated by Elmer O’Brien is a great place to start – clear, crisp, accessible language with helpful introductory remarks and guiding editorial notes.

Rather than making general remarks about Plotinus’s ideas on such topics as the One or the Good, for the purposes of this review and to provide a small taste of the great philosopher’s mysticism, I will focus on the first chapter of O’Brien’s translation: Beauty. And within this critical topic and its application to our lives, I will share some personal observations based on my own practice of meditation and contemplation.

The treatise begins with the following words: “Chiefly beauty is visual. Yet in word patterns and in music (for cadences and rhythms are beautiful) it addresses itself to the hearing as well. Dedicated living, achievements, character, intellectual pursuits are beautiful to those who rise above the realm of the senses; to such ones the virtues, to, are beautiful.” So, right from the start, beauty for Plotinus is centrally the beauty we can see using our eyes and also the beauty of words and music and sounds we can hear using our ears.

Further on in this chapter, Plotinus urges spiritual seekers to transform themselves into works of beauty and pure light: “Withdraw into yourself and look. If you do not as yet see beauty within you, do as does the sculptor of a statue that is to be beautified: he cuts away here, he smooths it there, he makes this line lighter, this other one purer, until he disengages beautiful lineaments in the marble. Do you this, too. Never cease “working at the statue” until there shines out upon you from it the divine sheen of virtue, until you see perfect “goodness firmly established in stainless shrine.” Have you become like this? Do you see yourself, abiding within yourself, in pure solitude? Does nothing remain to shatter that interior unity, nor anything external cling to your authentic self? Are you entirely that sole true light, which is not contained by space, not confined to any circumscribed form, not diffused as something without term, but ever unmeasurable as something greater than all measure and something more than all quantity?” ---------- If you find this passage inspiring, congratulations! You are most definitely a candidate for the mystical, spiritual path elucidated by Plotinus.

Keeping in mind how beauty, for Plotinus, as noted above, is principally visual and secondarily audial, here is a quote from Tarthang Tulku, a contemporary Buddhist teacher from Tibet, on our working with our feelings, our senses and our body as a way to experience beauty: “The more we explore the intensifying of the senses, the more we find a great depth within our feelings. Sensations become richer, textured with subtle nuances, more deeply joyful. We can explore the creamy texture of our deeper feelings, and contact an ever subtler level of beauty within our bodies and our senses. Within the open space of meditation we can find infinite joy and perfect bliss. Once we discover that spirit of vitality, which is the essence of awareness, we find that our bodies, actually become a channel through which we are capable of contacting a higher level of awareness within ourselves.”

I cite the above quote as a point of contrast to the Western contemplative tradition. You can read and study Plotinus and hundreds of works in Western philosophy and religion going back to Plato and Aristotle and on to such thinkers as Augustine and Aquinas, but you will not find anything in any of those ancient and medieval texts like this quote from Tarthang Tulku.

And why am I including this in a review of Plotinus? Because, from my own experience, anyone on the spiritual path who attempts to minimize or discount the body does so at their own peril. With his emphasis on the intellect and the experience of beauty via seeing and hearing as a way of spiritual growth, Plotinus is nothing short of illuminating. However, one would be wise to also include a daily practice of working directly with the body through such disciplines as yoga, meditation, pranayama, tai-chi or qugong.

Returning to Plotinus, one last quote, a source of inspiration for us all: “We must close our eyes and invoke a new manner of seeing, a wakefulness that is the birthright of us all, though few put it to use.”