If you ever have a big inside-out upside-down self-obliterating mind-transcending woo-woo experience, you will you never again imagine that there is anything outside of THIS. You won't think the words "Ein Sof" during the experience, but afterwards there will be no doubt about what was encountered.
BTW, everything I ever read on the subject of Jewish Mysticism presented Ein Sof as a monad. Ein Sof is absolute and infinite precisely because there is nothing other than That. Until I read your posts, I assumed that all Jewish mystics were using the term as equivalent to "Source," "Self," "God," "Allah," "Buddha Nature," "The One Mind," etc.
A lot of Christian mystics see union with God as the ultimate goal, and this is understandable considering the kinds of woo-woo experiences they often write about. Plotinus had numerous such experiences, but he always came back to a "person in here" waiting to get unified again. I suspect that what happened to Plotinus is what happens to most people who have those kinds of experiences. He unconsciously refused to stop imagining that he was a separate entity who needed to get "caught up in God." His failure to see that he was NOT a human being, and his reinforcing ideas of selfhood, kept him yo-yo-ing between duality and non-duality. What he lacked was meeting a teacher who would have twisted his nose painfully while shouting, "You idiot, how could the Absolute be anywhere other than here and now?"
Of course, that might not have worked. Plotinus was very attached to his ideas. In fact, he had invested heavily in his idea for many years, and its tough to let go of a good idea.
BTW, everything I ever read on the subject of Jewish Mysticism presented Ein Sof as a monad. Ein Sof is absolute and infinite precisely because there is nothing other than That. Until I read your posts, I assumed that all Jewish mystics were using the term as equivalent to "Source," "Self," "God," "Allah," "Buddha Nature," "The One Mind," etc.
A lot of Christian mystics see union with God as the ultimate goal, and this is understandable considering the kinds of woo-woo experiences they often write about. Plotinus had numerous such experiences, but he always came back to a "person in here" waiting to get unified again. I suspect that what happened to Plotinus is what happens to most people who have those kinds of experiences. He unconsciously refused to stop imagining that he was a separate entity who needed to get "caught up in God." His failure to see that he was NOT a human being, and his reinforcing ideas of selfhood, kept him yo-yo-ing between duality and non-duality. What he lacked was meeting a teacher who would have twisted his nose painfully while shouting, "You idiot, how could the Absolute be anywhere other than here and now?"
Of course, that might not have worked. Plotinus was very attached to his ideas. In fact, he had invested heavily in his idea for many years, and its tough to let go of a good idea.
