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Plotinus was one of the most influential philosophers in antiquity after Plato and Aristotle.He disliked talking about his own life, disapproved of meat, and refused medications containing animal substances. Long before his physical departure from this world, the philosopher entrusted two of his closest disciples, Porphyry and Amelius, with the extensive task of collecting, revising, and compiling his writings. Thus, “The Six Enneads” was published to share Plotinus’precious insights with countless generations. Today, we are delighted to share with our intelligent viewers a beautiful gem selected from The Six Enneads by Plotinus (vegetarian), The First Ennead, Fourth Tractate - On True Happiness. “There is certainly no reason to deny well-being to any of them as long as their lot allows them to flourish unhindered after their kind. Whether we make welfare consist in pleasant conditions of life, or in the accomplishment of some appropriate task, by either account, it may fall to them as to us.”“Those that deny the happy life to the plants on the ground that they lack sensation are really denying it to all living things.”“Now, if we draw no distinction as to kinds of life, everything that lives will be capable of happiness, and those will be effectively happy who possess that one common gift of which every living thing is by nature receptive. We could not deny it to the irrational whilst allowing it to the rational. If happiness were inherent in merely being-alive, the common ground in which the cause of happiness could always take root would be simply, life.”“If then, the perfect life is within human reach, the man attaining it attains happiness: if not, happiness must be made over to the Gods, for the perfect life is for them alone. But since we hold that happiness is for human beings too, we must consider what this perfect life is.” “Once the man is a sage, the means of happiness, the way to good, are within, for nothing is good that lies outside him.”
