The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1839 page)

 
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Plainsong
or Plainchant
.

The traditional
music
of the Latin Christian
rite
. It is generally known as ‘Gregorian’ chant, though its exact connection with St
Gregory
the Great is debated.

 
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see
LIU-TSU-TA-SHIH FA-PAO-T’AN-CHING
.

 
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Platonism
.

The philosophical system found in Plato's writings or derived therefrom. Fundamental to Platonism is the conviction that truth cannot be found in everyday life and sensible reality, but in a (more real) ideal realm (of the ‘Forms’). To attain that, purification, both moral and intellectual (through dialectic and becoming accustomed to abstract thought), is necessary. Middle Platonism (1st cent. BCE–2nd cent. CE) developed a religious cosmology from the
Timaeus
, whereas
Plotinus
found inspiration for his doctrine of the One in the
Parmenides
. In addition to the ideal realm (of intellect) and the realm of ordinary life (of soul), Plotinus posited the One from which all else proceeds, which is unknowable except in ecstatic union. Such
Neoplatonism
was developed in particular by
Porphyry
, Iamblichus, and
Proclus
and had a great influence on later thought, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim.

 
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see
MIKI TOKUHARU
.

 
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(
c.
205–70).
Founder of
Neoplatonism
and mystic. His works were published after his death by his pupil
Porphyry
in six ‘Enneads’ (Groups of Nine). The major theme of Plotinus' thought is the relation of the One (
to hen
) or the Good at the summit of the chain of beings to the realm of multiplicity. Beneath the undifferentiated One is the intelligible world of ideas (
nous
) and, beneath it, the World Soul (
psyche
). This latter is the creator and orderer of the material world. The aim of the Plotinian scheme is to attain knowledge of the One by a return to it through
contemplation
.