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Bruno, Giordano – Cause, principle and unity - 09 The Fifth Dialogue
Identifier
016157
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Giordano Bruno – from Cause, principle and unity
The universe is one, infinite and immobile.
I say that the absolute possibility is one, that the act is one; the form, or soul, is one, the matter, or body, is one, the thing is one, being is one.
The maximum, and the optimum, is one: it cannot be comprehended and is therefore indeterminable and not limitable, and hence infinite and limitless, and consequently immobile.
It has no local movement since there is nothing outside of it to which it can be moved, given that it is the whole.
It does not engender itself because there is no other being that it could anticipate or desire, since it possesses all being.
It is not corrupted because there is no other thing into which it could change itself, given that it is everything.
It cannot diminish or grow because it is an infinity to or from which nothing can be added or subtracted, since the infinite has no measurable parts.
It is not alterable in terms of disposition, since it possesses no outside to which it might be subject and by which it might be affected. Moreover, since it comprehends all contraries in its being in unity and harmony, and since it can have no propensity for another and new being, or even for one manner of being and then for another it cannot be subject to change according to any quality whatsoever, nor can it admit any contrary or different thing that can alter it, because in it everything is concordant.
It is not matter, because it is not configured or configurable, nor it is limited or limitable.
It is not form, because it neither informs nor figures anything else, given that it is all, that it is maximum, that it is one, that it is universal.
It is neither measurable nor a measure.
It does not contain itself, since it is not greater than itself.
It is not contained, since it is not less than itself.
It is not equal to itself, because it is not one thing and another, but one and the same thing.
Being one and the same, it does not have distinct beings; because it does not have distinct beings, it has no distinct parts; because it has no distinct parts, it is not composite.
It is limit such that it is not limit, form such that it is not form, matter such that it is not matter, soul such that it is not soul: for it is all indifferently, and hence is one; the universe is one.