A Path to Enduring Happiness: A Plotinian Platonist Perspective [Seeking critical discourse about the matter].

Alright, by now if any of you cool cats and naughty kittens have seen my posts on Digg, you’d know and have inferred I am interested in creating or joining a Neoplatonist community. I made a post about it on the /AskDigg community to see if anyone was interested in the song and dance that is Neoplatonism. Crickets! All I heard were crickets. I made two posts in this community also, trying to stir up interest in the community I was trying to create or join. The first post was to introduce individuals to the spirit of the community I intended to create or join. If individuals shared the same spirit, they’d be interested in the particular community I intended to create or join. The second post was to introduce individuals to a tool that would allow anyone to partake in the aforementioned spirit without having to resort to a “mysticism”. The second post received more likes than the first post, but no engagement at all. Both posts received a poor number of Diggs. lol. Meh. You take what you get, I guess. “Beggars cannot be choosers”.

So, as one final effort to stir up interest in Neoplatonism, and to either get individuals to create a Neoplatonist Community, or to get enough interest and engagement to initiate me to create such a community myself: I thought I’d create a post that goes to the heart of what individuals as such are interested in: “Enduring Happiness!”

So, everyone wants enduring happiness? Right? I want it. So, I am assuming you want it too. So, here’s the thing. What one claims the way to attain “enduring happiness” is based implicitly on what one believes the nature of existence is and what one believes the nature of the human being is. And thus emerges what one believes a human being needs to do to actualize that sweet, delicious, and succulent enduring happiness! Yum! You want that yummy in your tummy! Right? I know I do.

So, let’s outline what the nature of existence is considered to be. Let’s outline what the nature of human existence is considered to be. And then, finally, based on the aforementioned two, let’s outline the claims that are the path. All these considerations are Plotinian Platonist.

So, the nature of existence is considered to be one where our universe is in a state of becoming. Our universe is in a state of change. There’s always change at play. But, as much as that may be the case, our World of Becoming participates and communicates a particular World of Being. What that means is that our Universe allows particular things to exist, and those particular things are only allowed to exist in particular ways. There are things that could exist in our universe, like a purple cow with giant wings that allows it to fly like an eagle! Yes! That could exist. But our universe will never allow such glory to exist. And then, there are things that can never exist, like a five-sided square. Sad. I know. But we can still imagine the impossible existing, so I guess there’s some solace there. My point is that our World of Becoming (our universe) is a particular expression of a particular World of Being (the necessities and possibilities of form that is our universe). Now, if any of you cool cats & naughty kittens have created anything, you know you gotta have an idea. You need to ideate the form. Yes? And then, after ideating it, you need to give being to that form, and you need to also provide all that must exist that allows it to exist. And that’s where the Being comes in. The Being is what defines the particular World of Being that our World of Becoming participates and communicates. And for the Being to exist, there must exist the Necessary Being.

Thus, we have the nature of existence from a Plotinian Platonist perspective: The World of Becoming exists within the World of Being. The World of Being exists within the Being. The Being exists within the Necessary Being. The Necessary Being is what is understood as The One. The Being is understood as the Intellect. The World of Being is understood as The Forms. And The World of Becoming is Hyle (Material). The Hyle is pure potential existence. It’s never actual. The One (the Necessary Being) is the only actual existence. The Intellect uses the One as a reference to imagine the Forms. And our Universe is a particular expression of the infinite possible universes that may exist. Then, there is the concept of Soul. The Soul is the principle of desire. If something exists, it exists out of desire. The only thing that does not exist out of desire is the One. Because the One is that existence that is, was, and always will be, and is total and complete. Nothing exists outside it, and it contains and has everything. The One is the only real cool dude there is, was, and ever will be. It’s the Good. It’s the Idea of the Good. It’s pretty rad. So, everything is in activity but The One. The One is just totally chill. The Intellect is in activity creating the Forms, allowing the Hyle to exist. And allowing our particular universe to exist. And everything that exists is in activity. The activity that makes a thing what it is is the thing’s soul. Everything that exists has a soul.

So, by now, you’re totally informed about the Plotinian Platonist Perspective about The One, The Intellect, and The Soul and their existence, and how they are ontological realities, and explanatory principles that are actual, and that may be used to explain why our universe is the way it is. Cool. You get a sense of the Plotinian Platonist Perspective about the nature of existence. Right? I am going to assume you do. Because now we’re going to move onto the next point. The nature of human existence!

The nature of human existence is that our souls have two aspects to it. One part of our soul belongs to The Intellect. The other aspect of our soul belongs to the Hyle. Now, our Form is such that our hyle part of existence will end! But that part of one’s soul that belongs to the Intellect continues to exist after this cycle of existence ends. And what part is that? It’s that very part that allows the ability for us to be self-conscious; that allows us to as if step outside the flow of material deterministic causal flow; to assess the consequences of choice; and then as if return back down to the material deterministic causal flow that one is in to make a choice to direct what one seeks actualized. There is a part of us that allows us to not just be a simple animal. There is a part of us that allows us to be a rational animal. Now, as you may already know: I am a cat. But I am not just any cat. I’m a cool cat. I’m a rational animal. I am just like you cool cats, and naughty kittens reading this! So human existence is one where we find ourselves in a particular material destiny; and within that particular destiny there is a particular choice, movement, and change allowed. The aforementioned is possible via that part of the soul that belongs to The Intellect. Via our Acquired Intellects we are able to be Human.

Now. Knowing the aforementioned, we are able to see how the claims to an “Enduring Happiness” are evident via a Plotinian Platonist Perspective. A Plotinian Platonist will state that one can never find one’s enduring happiness in materiality. Because materials are in a state of Becoming. One’s enduring happiness is found by having access to the World of Being via the Being (having access to the Forms via the Intellect).

Thus, the method is to partake in intellectual virtue, and all that will facilitate intellectual virtue; the intellectual virtue that will reduce one’s dependence on materiality, and also the intellectual virtue that will allow one to actualize one’s material well-being, and also the intellectual virtue that will allow realization that allows a serenity of being. Basically, finding one’s joy in giving things their due; which means that one is to find one’s joy in being rational. This rationality amounts to being as one realizes to be rational. Which is pretty much: to love oneself, and to value what is real because one cannot find one’s interest in delusion, and that one must treat the other as one would oneself.

You may ask: why is it rational to treat the other as I would treat myself? Can’t I treat the other like trash for my interest? No. You cannot. Well, technically you can. But not if you intend on actualizing actual happiness. Because via a Plotinian Platonist Perspective one only actualizes an enduring happiness when one is like The Intellect. The Intellect values The One. And thinks of The One. And thinking of The One unites with all The Forms. And thus, such World Soul that is the aforementioned activity is one where things are given their due. And in this state of being is the enduring happiness. The Intellect is in Enduring Happiness. Enduring Happiness is only found in The One (in reality, and not delusion). And thus, to deny that one is like the other; to deny that one, and the other did not choose to exist. And consequently to deny the other is deserving of the same rights as one is: is to not value The One (the actual, the real), and is to not give things their due. And thus, to find oneself in such state of desire (soul) where one does not treat the other as one would oneself would amount to a suffering. One’s enduring happiness is found in moving with reality, and not against it. Thus, not treating the other as one would oneself would result in suffering not only for this cycle of existence, but also the one to follow till one’s soul is purified.    

Okay. I need to conclude. A lot of things that have not been done. What’s provided are the means to comprehend what is claimed to exist. And what is consequently the case as approach. This post only allows so much. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Unlikely. i know. It was long & verbose. Even I got bored writing it. But I hope it is of some value to someone. And I hope it achieves something of the intent that initiated it being written.