I really like the Platonic explanation of being, which I hope to share with you here.
Understanding Ousia
Ousia (οὐσία) is an ancient Greek terms that loosely is equivalent to our English word ‘being’. It has subtle but important differences, so I would encourage you to use its original word when exploring being from a philosophical viewpoint.
Ousia is a kind of overflowing where awareness arises and flows into the senses and mind. This overflowing proceeds out of itself, called procession to fully engages with its experiences, given them meaning before returning to itself. Through this return (to itself), called recession, it develops intelligence about this experience.
Being is therefore said to have intelligence which directs how it responds and interacts with its experiences. It gives the inanimate elemental matter from which our bodies are formed vitality – i.e. life. Without being to impart this vitality, life cannot occur.
The Hypostasis
Whilst ‘Hypostasis’ is a Platonic term, it is similar to the Gnostic and Buddhist concepts of ‘layers’ of reality. Our normal, waking reality is driven by mundane experiences. Through meditation, drugs or exceptional states of being we might experience realities beyond the mundane. These differing levels of reality are called hypostasis.
According to Neoplatonic philosophy ousia arises initially as divine awareness. The concept of God is ineffable – that is, almost nothing can be said of this God except that it is Good and One. Both of these terms are complicated, and generally we cannot say anything meaningful of the ultimate.
Ousia is the process that creates the first and highest being. The One and Good is beyond being, but from the Good and the One ousia proceeds and recedes. This procession and recession, results in the ultimate being or Demiurgos – divine creator. A rather poetic description of the demiurgos is the idea in mind of God.
The Five Hypostases
The Demiurgos Creates the material reality that we experience. Unless we are experienced spiritual practitioners we are unlikely to directly experience this raw, intelligence. The Anima Mundis A universal, world soul that creates universal life. This universal soul is the third hypostasis, arising both simultaneously and through the hypostasis of the Good and the One, and that of the Demiurgos. Body and Soul The fourth hypostasis, representing individual souls that create individual bodies in temporal existence. The Material World The fifth hypostasis, including all matter no longer associated with living beings, rocks, plants and dead things.
Ousia and Normal Existence
The governing principle that binds the hypostasis together is ‘likeness’. The Demiurgos arises as an idea in the mind of God and is perfected through the perfection of the One and the Good. This is why we hear that mankind was build in the image of God – image here meaning Idea or imagination.
The Nature of Being: A Simplified Guide to Ousia
Core Concept
Ousia (οὐσία) represents a dynamic form of being that flows in three movements:
- Proceeds outward from pure awareness
- Engages with experience
- Returns to itself with understanding
Modern Relevance
- Consciousness as a fundamental aspect of reality
- The layered nature of experience
- The relationship between mind and matter
© 2024 Dr Simon Robinson
Further Reading
Wikipedia Articles
- Ousia – Philosophical and theological concept of essence and being
- Neoplatonism – Philosophical and religious system developed by Plotinus
- Demiurge – Divine creator concept in Platonic philosophy
- Hypostasis (philosophy and religion) – Fundamental state of reality
YouTube Videos
- “Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity” by Pierre Grimes
- “The Nature of Being: Pierre Grimes on Plato’s Philosophy”
- “Understanding Ousia and Divine Essence”
- “Hypostasis and the Levels of Reality”
philosophy, metaphysics, ousia, being, Plato, neoplatonism, hypostasis, consciousness, Greek philosophy, ontology, essence, existence, demiurge, Pierre Grimes, divine awareness, spiritual philosophy, metaphysical reality, consciousness studies, philosophical theology, ancient wisdom