somnum

Hi - I am wondering if there are detailed descriptions of the kind of meditative/ritual processes that people like Iamblichus and Plotinus used. Sara Rappe did a great analysis of non-discursive Neoplatonic thought. By non-discursive, of course I mean non-propositional; somewhat akin to thoughts without words (or sentence structures), but of course meditating on the word 'God' over and over again would count as non-discursive.

In any case, she did this wonderful analysis of the importance of such thought to them, but I was not able to find *exactly* what their practices were. There were a few thought experiments on behalf of Plotinus where he encouraged his readers to use their imaginations to picture existence and the spheres, etc, but that was a small example. I am wondering if there is anything similar to the documentation of Buddhism, which has exhaustive accounts of meditative practice.

I am just curious as to what sort of mental states, and the methods they chose to achieve those mental states, that the Neoplatonists were interested in. If you have the knowledge to attempt an answer to this question, would you mind giving me your sources, so that I might read up? This is a topic I'm very interested in, so I would like to know all that I can.

Thank you for your time.

Dromon

I'm not an expert but I advise you to read about the Sufis, the Bektashi Order, Mevlana Rumi and the likes. These are spiritual movements that are partially based on neoplatonism and survived till 20th c. They developed in middle ages in remote areas of the then Byzantine Empire, far from the persecution of the Church and the State. Plato was warshiped as a "Saint" by those religious (quasi muslim) sects till recently. They were forbidden in modern Turkey (during the Kemal period) but survived in other countries. There is online somewhere in the web at least one good book describing Platonism as a cult in the former Ottoman Empire till 19th c. I will try to find the link.