Friday, April 2nd, 1982

One Outline

by Anthony J. Damiani

Paper V09MP

3-LETTER CODE: ASN

TOPIC: Astronoesis

SUBJECT: One

ORIGINAL LOCATION & FILE NAME (of PDF used for typing): 1982 0402a V12rp. Plotinus - One.DOC & PDF

BOOKS QUOTED FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Plotinus, The Enneads (MacKenna translation, 4th ed.)

PLOTINUS QUOTES REFERENCED: See Astronoesis, Chapter One, "The One, for Plotinus references.

AD HANDWRITING: This retyped version is almost exactly the same (with a few minor variations) as all the alternate versions mentioned below; both PDFs are typewriter typed and have AD edits

COMPLETENESS: Full Paper

PUBLISHABILITY: No, already published in Astronoesis in a different form

ALTERNATE VERSIONS: ASN ALT The One Outline AD Hand.PDF (pp. 1-2) (typewriter typed with extensive AD edits); AD SUPPG 1-10.PDF (pp. 1-2) (typewriter typed with a few AD edits); One Outline as read in WG Class 1982 0312a

DATES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS PAPER: 1982 0312, 0402

VERSION OF PAPER IN ASTRONOESIS: This outline per se is not in Astronoesis but the ideas in it are scattered throughout the chapter on The One

RETYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2024

NOTES:

• RETYPED AD PAPER presented in class (V09MP).

• This is 1982 04/02b, One Outline, and the second entry associated with this date. 1982 04/02a = Plotinus; One Class. 1982 04/02c = Nature Outline. 1982 04/02d = The One: The Only Perfection Paper. 1982 04/02e = Astrology; Nature Seminar, for which we have no audio, just JF notes.

• This Outline is very similar to 1982 0312b V09MP but has some differences and so has been retyped separately here.

ONE OUTLINE

[Paper as read by AS in WG Class 1982 0402a Begins]

1. The Philosopher's wisdom-knowledge first expresses to us a view of Supreme Reality as Simplex, Absolute, Alone, utterly Self-Sufficing, the One-Only. This simplicity is not that of a spatial point or blank homogeneity nor a numerical one to be numbered in with the others. It is super-knowledge, Pure Intelligence, and is so complex in Its undifferentiated simplicity as to include all and everything within its universal essentiality.

2. Plotinus identifies the infinite and indeterminate power of the One as not distinct or apart from the pure Undifferenced Knowledge itself. It must remain a simplex, and yet be the source of all distinctions. To elicit the distinctions within metaphysical infinity requires this power--the Shakti of Brahman.

3. This power is spoken of as the indeterminate Dyad and is the basis for indeterminate "matter," or substratum of all the Unities. It is what imparts to each of the Unities their characteristic uniqueness: Being and Form in a distinctionless mode within the One. They are therefore super-essential, super-gnostic, and super-vital.

4. The One in its interaction with the Dyad exhibits Infinity and Bound, or Repose and Act. The double act in the Divine Mind is non-dual. The Unities which express or constitute the inner nature of the One are no new production.

5. The totality of all possible arrangements and combinations of these unities which are rooted in the One still leaves the Oneness untouched. This view of the One as the Unities established in and by the power of the One in the One leaves the One intact. This is the basis for the Platonic theory of participation. So in the Unity of Unities are the transcendental principles of Nous and Being, of Ideas and Numbers, the totality of infinite possibilities. The power of the One establishes distinct real principles, levels of Being, or a variety of spiritual principles which are yet not separated from their source. We must repeat that this power when identified with the One, or as extending from the One, this sheer indeterminacy, forces us into the perception of the One as transcendent and as immanent.

[Paper as read by AS in WG Class 1982 0402a Ends]