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quinta-feira 25 de janeiro de 2024

  

[The way within ourselves from Soul to Noûs and the One. Our discursive reasoning about the right and good requires as its base something in us which is in intuitive possession of absolute Tightness; this is Noûs. And from Noûs we can reach its source, the One or God. He is not, as Noûs is, part of our individual personalities (or, rather, they are parts of Noûs). He is absolutely One, immanent by His very transcendence, present to each and all according to their capacity to receive Him.]

Since there exists soul which reasons about what is right and good, and discursive reasoning which inquires about the Tightness and goodness of this or that particular thing, there must be some further permanent lightness from which arises the discursive reasoning in the realm of soul. How else would soul manage to reason ? And if soul sometimes reasons about the right and good and sometimes does not, there must be in us Noûs, which does not reason discursively but always holds the absolute right. There must be, too, the Source and Cause and God of Noûs. He is not divided, but abides: and as He does not abide in place, He is contemplated in many things, according to the capacity of each to receive Him, as if He was now one thing and now another. It is just as the centre of a circle exists by itself, but every point of the circle contains the centre in it, and the radii bring to the centre each its own particular property. By this sort of disposition in ourselves we are in contact with God and are with Him and depend upon Him: those of us who converge towards Him are firmly established in Him. (Armstrong   selection and translation, Ennead V. I. II)