Plotino - Tratado 23,7 (VI, 5, 7) — Não possuímos os inteligíveis

7. Nuestro yo y nosotros mismos estamos dispuestos hacia el ser. Subimos hasta él lo mismo que antes descendimos. Pensamos entonces los seres sin acudir para nada a las imágenes o a las improntas. Si ello no es así, es que nosotros somos ya esos seres. Si se da realmente nuestra participación en la verdadera ciencia, somos de cierto esos seres, pero no porque los recibimos en nosotros, sino porque somos nosotros en ellos. Hay, pues, otros seres y no existimos tan sólo nosotros, pero ellos y nosotros coincidimos en esto. Todos en conjunto somos los seres y todos también constituimos una unidad. Ahora bien, desconocemos esa unidad porque tendemos nuestra vista fuera del ser del que salimos. Somos como una cabeza que presenta muchas caras hacia afuera y una sola hacia adentro. Si se pudiese dar vuelta atrás o se tuviese la suerte de ser arrastrado por la misma Atenea, podría verse a Dios, a sí mismo y al ser universal. La primera visión no sería la del ser universal, pero luego, como no hay un punto en el que puedan fijarse los límites, esto es, como si hasta un cierto lugar se diese uno mismo, abandonamos nuestra frontera del ser universal y vamos hasta él sin cambiar por ello de lugar, sino permaneciendo allí mismo donde asienta lo universal.

VII. Notre être et nous-mêmes nous sommes ramenés à l’Être; nous nous élevons à lui, nous l’avons pour principe dès l’origine. Nous pensons les intelligibles [contenus dans l’Être] sans en avoir ni des images ni des empreintes ; par conséquent, si nous pensons les intelligibles, c’est que nous sommes les intelligibles mêmes. Puisque nous participons à la véritable science, nous sommes les intelligibles, non parce que nous les recevons en nous, mais parce que nous sommes en eux (17). Comme les autres êtres sont aussi 349 bien que nous les intelligibles, nous sommes tous les intelligibles. Nous sommes tous les intelligibles en tant que subsistant avec tous les êtres à la fois ; par conséquent, tous ensemble nous formons une seule unité. Quand nous portons nos regards hors de Celui dont nous dépendons, nous ne reconnaissons plus que nous sommes une unité : nous ressemblons alors à une pluralité de visages qui [étant disposés circulairement] formeraient une pluralité vus de l’extérieur, mais qui ne formeraient à l’intérieur qu’une seule tête. Si un de ces visages pouvait se retourner, soit par lui-même, soit par le secours de Minerve (18), il verrait qu’il est lui-même Dieu, qu’il est l’Être universel; sans doute il ne se verrait pas d’abord comme étant universel, mais ne pouvant ensuite trouver un point d’arrêt pour fixer ses propres limites et déterminer jusqu’où il est lui, il renoncerait alors à se distinguer de l’Être universel, il arriverait à l’Être universel sans changer de place (19), en demeurant là même où est édifié l’Être universel.

PARABLE OF THE HEAD WITH FACES ALL AROUND.

7. Our nature and we ourselves all depend on (cosmic) being; we aspire to it, we use it as principle, from the very beginning. We think the intelligible (entities contained in essence) without having either images or impressions thereof. Consequently, when we think the intelligible (entities), the truth is that we are these very intelligible entities themselves. Since we thus participate in the genuine knowledge, we are the intelligible entities, not because we receive them in us, but because we are in them. However, as beings other than we constitute intelligible entities, as well as we, we are all the intelligibles. We are intelligible entities so far as they subsist simultaneously with all essences; consequently, all of us together form but a single unity. When we turn our gaze outside of Him from whom we depend, we no longer recognize that we are an unity; we then resemble a multitude of faces which (being disposed in a circle) would, as seen from the exterior, form a plurality, but which in the interior would form but a single head. If one of these faces could turn around, either spontaneously, or by the aid of Minerva, it would see that itself is the divinity, that it is the universal Essence. No doubt, it would not at first see itself as universal, but later, not being able to find any landmarks by which to determine its own limits, and to determine the distance to which it extends, it would have to give up the attempt to distinguish itself from the universal (Essence), and it would become the universal (Essence) without ever changing location, and by remaining in the very foundation of the universal (Essence).

7. To Real Being we go back, all that we have and are; to that we return as from that we came. Of what is There we have direct knowledge, not images or even impressions; and to know without image is to be; by our part in true knowledge we are those Beings; we do not need to bring them down into ourselves, for we are There among them. Since not only ourselves but all other things also are those Beings, we all are they; we are they while we are also one with all: therefore we and all things are one.

When we look outside of that on which we depend we ignore our unity; looking outward we see many faces; look inward and all is the one head. If man could but be turned about by his own motion or by the happy pull of Athene - he would see at once God and himself and the All. At first no doubt all will not be seen as one whole, but when we find no stop at which to declare a limit to our being we cease to rule ourselves out from the total of reality; we reach to the All as a unity - and this not by any stepping forward, but by the fact of being and abiding there where the All has its being.