Mystik

This chapter offers a comprehensive description of the mystical perspective that pervades the Plotinian conception concerning the contact and union with the One-Good. It begins with the issue of the First Principle as radical transcendence in relation to all things. This implies its absolute super-excellence over being and thought itself. Consequently, as is shown, union with the One-Good can only occur through a form of self-suspension of thought. The final part of the chapter examines the nature of ekstasis (literally, ‘going out of oneself’) in Plotinus as overcoming the self, since union with the One-Good requires overcoming the subject-object distinction: contact with it entails becoming one with the Principle and identical with it.