The state of the highest spiritual concentration, in which every external object has disappeared, is at the same time the state in which one knows the deepest reality.

It is then that “all is so completely present to life that nothing any longer differs from it; such a life is a whole life, the pure and perfect life… It is then that it is sufficient in itself and that it no longer seeks anything.” (Plotinus Enneads V. 3. 16)

The Philosophy of Plotinus
Émile Bréhier

Background on Plotinus

 

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Émile Bréhier
1886-1952

Émile Bréhier was a French philosopher. His interest was in classical philosophy, and the history of philosophy. He wrote a History of Philosophy, translated into English in seven volumes.

Bréhier studied at the University of Paris. In 1908 he received his doctorate at the Sorbonne with a dissertation about Philo of Alexandria. He was Henri Bergson‘s successor at the University of Paris in 1945

 

The task of ancient philosophers was to contemplate the cosmic order and its beauty, to live in harmony with it, and to transcend the limitations imposed by sense experience and discursive reasoning. Both Plato and Aristotle traced the origin of philosophy (philosophia, “the love of wisdom”) to wonder.

It was through philosophy, understood as a kind of ascetic exercise or training, that the cultivation of the natural, ethical, civic, purificatory, theoretic, paradigmatic, and hieratic virtues were to be practiced. And, it was through this noetic vision (study of the mind and intellect) that the ancient philosophers tried to awaken the divine light within, and to touch the divine Intellect in the cosmos.

By “philosophizing” ancient philosophers meant both noetic activity and spiritual practice; and, this was attributed not only to various Hellenic philosophers who belonged to different haireseis (Greek term meaning schools or theoretically founded ways of life), but also to the Egyptian priests, Chaldeans, and Indian Gymnosophists.

The Golden Chain: An Anthology of Pythagorean and Platonic Philosophy
Algis Uzdavinys

 

 

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Algis Uzdavinys
1962-2010

. Wikipedia

 

Algis Uždavinys was a prolific Lithuanian philosopher and scholar. His work pioneered the hermeneutical comparative study of Egyptian and Greek religions, especially their esoteric relations to Semitic religions, and in particular the inner aspect of Islam (Sufism). His books have been published in Lithuanian, Russian, English and French.

Uždavinys died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack on July 25, 2010 in his native village of Kabeliai, Lithuania.

Books written By Algis Uzdavinys include:

• Ascent to Heaven in Islamic and Jewish Mysticism
• Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism
• Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity 
• Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth: From Ancient Egypt to Neoplatonism
• The Golden Chain: An Anthology of Platonic and Pythagorean Philosophy 
• The Heart of Plotinus: The Essential Enneads

Twentieth- and twenty-first-century academic philosophy has largely lost sight of its ancient origin in a set of spiritual practices ranging from forms of dialogue, via meditative reflection, to theoretical contemplation.  These philosophical practices, as well as the philosophical discourses the different ancient schools developed in conjunction with them, aimed primarily to form, rather than only to inform, the philosophical student.The goal of the ancient philosophies was to cultivate a specific, constant attitude toward existence, by way of the rational comprehension of the nature of humanity and its place in the cosmos.

What is Ancient Philosophy?
Pierre Hadot

Background on Pierre Hadot