Soul Pilgrimage Towards God

Plotinus' life experiences, his times, and the religious and thought world he lived in, had decided the core question of his religious thought: how our soul moves towards God so that our soul and the One, the human and God could achieve oneness. The possibility of Our soul moving towards God and unifying with God lies in that soul itself issacred, our soul coming from the sacred trinity------the One, Nous andSoul. Plotinus thinks that the soul's road upwards and road downwards are the identical path, only with different directions. On the same road, our soul must run down along with a direction (the One—Intellect—Soul —the physical world ) so as to finish the emanative process of the One; at the same time , it must be going along with the opposite direction (thephysical world — Soul — Intellect------the One) so as to return to itsdivine origino that is, on the road of dropping our soul leaves its sacredsource ------ the One, and drops in turn after Intellect and Soul to thephysical world. On the road of rising, our soul runs away from the sense world to return to soul hypostasis through the purification of the virtue; then under the guidance of Beauty and Love, rises to the intellectual world; Finally relying on dialectic, in a mystical ecstasy, soul contemplates the One, and eventually unifies with God. The process of soul away from the One is that of dropping, which is the necessary result of the emanating of the one, or of God's grace. The process of rising is that of soul's returning, the accomplishment of which also results from God's grace. Although not everyone can achieve this highest mystical state to unify with the oneness, this is a necessary process for the souls that have the capability to return,Plotinus' mystic religious thought influenced the western theology ,especially the early Christian theology substantially and profoundly. On the negative side, plotinus and his school provided the...