Often, I awaken to myself, <br />as from this earthly body lifted up; <br />and feel external to all other things, <br />myself the single knower past all thought; <br /> <br />I marvel at the beauty I then see, <br />a beauty all around, yet seen as one; <br />then, know myself to live the noblest life, <br />at one with highest being in that realm. <br /> <br />Only when, from this high state past thought, <br />I afterward descend, I ask myself <br />how can so great a thing - that soul I own, <br />take mortal body? How may these things be? <br /> <br />And this, the life of gods and blessed men: <br />alone with the All-One; none alien then!<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0051-from-plotinus-enneads-4-and-6/
