The soul in its nature loves God and longs to be at one with Him in the noble love of a daughter for a noble father; but coming to human birth and lured by the courtships of this sphere, she takes up with another love, a mortal, leaves her father and falls.
Interpretation
The soul inherently seeks a connection with the divine but can become distracted by earthly desires.
In this quote, Plotinus explores the idea that the soul's true essence is to love and connect with the divine, likening this relationship to that of a loving daughter and her noble father. However, he points out that upon entering the physical realm, the soul may become enchanted by worldly attractions and mortal relationships, leading it away from its true source, resulting in a fall from grace.
In practice
This quote could be used in a spiritual discussion to illustrate the tension between divine aspiration and earthly distractions.
Beauty addresses itself chiefly to sight, but there is a beauty for the hearing too, as in certain combinations so words and in all kinds of music; for melodies and cadences are beautiful; and minds that lift themselves above the realm of sense to a higher order are aware of beauty in the conduct of life, in actions, in character, in the pursuits of the intellect; and there is the beauty of the virtues.
Knowledge, if it does not determine action, is dead to us.
The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky. Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together.
I am striving to give back the Divine in myself to the Divine in the All.
All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.
The Soul of each one of us is sent, that the universe may be complete.
If your religion doesn't teach you the difference between good and evil, your religion is worse than useless.
An artist has an obligation to tell the truth. [...] that the true horrors of human history derive not from orcs and Dark Lords, but from ourselves. We are the monsters. (And the heroes too). Each of us has within himself the capacity for great good, and great evil.
I don't think most people are aware of the exotic and extreme tools at the disposal of the most powerful and wealthy men of America when they are bent at silencing accusations against them.
Ignoring the mind is a beautiful sadhana. This is what many of the sages did. They ignored the mind out of existence. It loses its influence and its potency when it is ignored.
Human affairs inspire in noble hearts only two feelings-admiration or pity.
We are all born like Catholics, aren't we—in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God?
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