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Plotino - Tratado 23,12 (VI, 5, 12) — Não se pode encontrar o inteligível despojando-se do não-ser
terça-feira 29 de março de 2022, por
Míguez
12. ¿Cómo tiene lugar esta presencia? Como si se tratase de una vida única. En un animal, por ejemplo, la vida no llega hasta un punto a partir del cual le sea imposible seguir adelante, sino que se da en todo. Si se pretende inquirir de nuevo cómo ocurre esto, habrá que recordar que esta potencia no tiene una limitación cuantitativa, sino que puede ser dividida hasta el infinito por el pensamiento; obrando así, se encuentra siempre la misma potencia, radical y profundamente infinita. Porque es claro, además, que no tiene materia en sí misma para poder acompañar a la magnitud de la masa material cuando ésta vaya a menos. Si llegaseis a comprender la infinidad perenne que hay en ella, su naturaleza incansable, incesante y completa en todo, rebosante de vida en sí misma, ya podríais mirar atentamente porque no la encontraríais. Y ocurriría todo lo contrario: no podríais franquearla y aventajarla, ni percibiríais su detención en el punto más pequeño, como si ella nada pudiese dar al empequeñecerse paulatinamente.
Pero si fueseis capaces de alcanzarla, o mejor si penetraseis en el ser universal, nada tendríais ya que buscar. Y si renunciaseis a ello, necesitaríais entonces dirigiros hacia otro lado; mas, lo que haríais así es caer, sin percibir en modo alguno su presencia, mirando como estáis hacía otro lugar. Si, pues, vuestra búsqueda carece de objeto ¿cómo vais a creer en él? Y es que en verdad os habéis acercado al ser universal y no permanecéis en el ser particular, ni decís siquiera que vosotros sois tales, sino que abandonáis toda determinación con la vista en el ser universal. Sin embargo, ya erais este ser antes de nada; mas, como algo se os ha añadido, esto mismo produjo vuestro debilitamiento. Esta adición no provenía del ser (no es concebible que nada se le añada), sino más bien del no-ser. Este no-ser os ha particularizado, pero con ello no sois ya el ser universal que os exige el abandono del no-ser.
Vuestro engrandecimiento depende de que dejéis completamente a un lado todo lo demás, con lo cual se os hará presente el ser universal. No lo tendréis con vosotros, en cambio, mientras permanezcáis con todo lo demás. Pero ese ser no viene para estar presente, sino que sois vosotros los que os habéis alejado de él cuando él no se encuentra con vosotros. Pero si os alejáis, realmente no le habéis dejado (pues él siempre está presente), y hasta es posible que permaneciendo cerca de él le hayáis vuelto por completo la espalda. Porque así ocurre con los otros dioses, que frecuentemente no se aparecen más que a un hombre aunque muchos más estén presentes; y es que, ciertamente, este hombre es el único que puede verles. Son estos dioses también los que -presentando toda clase de formas recorren las ciudades. Pero las ciudades, el cielo todo y la tierra entera vuelven su mirada hacia aquel dios. A su lado y en él permanecen absolutamente, pues los seres verdaderos, incluidos el alma y la vida, refieren a aquél su ser y se encaminan a su unidad, atraídos por su inextensión e infinitud.
Bouillet
XII. Mais comment est-elle présente à l’univers entier? —Elle lui est présente parce qu’elle est la Vie une. En effet, dans le monde considéré comme un être vivant, la Vie ne 361 s’étend pas jusqu’à certaines limites, au delà desquelles elle ne puisse plus se répandre; elle est partout.—Mais, dirat-on, comment est-elle partout? — Qu’on se le rappelle : la puissance de la Vie n’est pas une quantité déterminée ; si, par la pensée, on la partage à l’infini, néanmoins elle se montre toujours avec son caractère fondamental d’infinité. Cette Vie ne contient point de matière (43) ; par conséquent, elle ne peut se fragmenter comme une masse et finir par se réduire à rien. Lors donc que vous avez conçu la puissance inépuisable et infinie de l’Être intelligible, sa nature incessante, infatigable, qui se suffit complètement à elle-même, au point que sa vie déborde pour ainsi dire, quel que soit le lieu sur lequel vous portiez votre regard ou arrêtiez votre attention, où trouverez-vous que l’Être intelligible ne soit pas présent (44)? Tout au contraire, vous ne pouvez ni dépasser sa grandeur ni arriver à quelque chose d’infiniment petit, comme si l’Être intelligible n’avait plus rien à donner au delà et qu’il s’épuisât peu à peu.
Quand vous aurez donc embrassé l’Être universel et que vous reposerez dans son sein, ne cherchez rien au delà. Sinon, vous vous éloignerez de lui, et, attachant vos regards sur un objet étranger, vous ne verrez pas ce qui vous est présent. Si au contraire vous ne cherchez rien au delà, vous serez ainsi semblable à l’Être universel. Comment? C’est que vous serez uni à lui tout entier, que vous ne vous serez pas arrêté à une de ses parties, que vous ne vous direz même pas : Voilà ce que je suis. En oubliant l’être particuculier que vous êtes, vous deviendrez l’Être universel. Vous étiez bien déjà l’Être universel, mais vous étiez quelque chose en outre; vous étiez par cela même inférieur, 362 parce que ce que vous possédiez outre l’Être universel ne vous venait pas de l’Être universel (car on ne peut rien lui ajouter), mais bien plutôt de ce qui n’est pas universel. Lorsque vous devenez un être déterminé, parce que vous empruntez quelque chose au non-être, vous cessez d’être universel. Mais, si vous abandonnez le non-être, vous vous augmenterez vous-même. C’est en écartant tout le reste qu’on trouve l’Être universel : car tant qu’on est avec le reste, l’Être universel ne se manifeste pas. Il n’approche pas de vous pour vous faire jouir de sa présence : c’est vous qui vous écartez de lui quand il n’est pas présent (45). Il y a plus : quand vous voua écartez, vous ne vous écartez pas proprement de lui (car il continue d’être présent), vous n’en êtes pas éloigné, mais, tout en étant près de l’Être, vous vous êtes détourné de lui (46). C’est ainsi que les autres dieux mêmes, quoiqu’ils soient présents à beaucoup d’hommes, ne se révèlent souvent qu’à un seul, parce que celui-là seul peut les contempler. Ces dieux [dit le poète], prenant mille aspects divers, parcourent les cités (47). Mais c’est vers le Dieu suprême que se tournent toutes les cités ainsi que toute la terre et tout le ciel : car c’est par lui et en lui que l’univers subsiste. C’est également de lui que tiennent leur existence les êtres véritables; c’est à lui que tous sont suspendus, jusqu’à l’Ame et à la Vie universelle; c’est enfin à son unité infinie qu’ils viennent tous aboutir, unité qui est infinie précisément parce qu’elle n’a pas d’étendue (48).
Guthrie
LIFE INTERPENETRATES ALL; AND KNOWS NO LIMITS.
12. But how does this (primary Nature) make itself present to the whole universe? It is present to the universe because it is the one Life. Indeed, in the world considered as a living being, the life does not extend to certain limits, beyond which it cannot spread; for it is present everywhere.
But how can it be everywhere? Remember, the power of life is not a determinate quantity; if, by thought, it be infinitely divided, still it never alters its fundamental characteristic of infinity. This Life does not contain any matter; consequently, it cannot be split up like a mass, and end in being reduced to nothing. When you have succeeded in gaining a conception of the inexhaustible and infinite power of the intelligible Essence; of its nature that is unceasing, indefatigable; that suffices itself completely, to the point that its life, so to speak, overflows, whatever be the place on which you fix your gaze, or direct your attention; where will you find absence of that intelligible Essence? On the contrary, you can neither surpass its greatness, nor arrive at anything infinitely small, as if the intelligible Essence had nothing further to give, and as if it were gradually becoming exhausted.
IF YOU SEE ANYTHING BEYOND IT, YOU DEPART FROM IT.
When, therefore, you will have embraced the universal Essence and will be resting within it, you must not seek anything beyond it. Otherwise, you will be withdrawing from it; and, directing your glance on something foreign, you will fail to see what is near you. If, on the contrary, you seek nothing beyond it, you will be similar to a universal Essence. How? You will be entirely united to it, you will not be held back by any of its parts, and you will not even be saying, "This is what I am!" By forgetting the particular being that you are, you will be becoming the universal Being. You had, indeed, already been the universal Essence, but you were something besides; you were inferior by that very circumstance; because that which you possessed beyond the universal Essence did not proceed from the universal Essence, for nothing can be added thereto; but rather had come from that which is not universal. When you become a determined being, because you borrow something from non-essence, you cease being universal. But if you abandon non-essence, you will be increasing yourself. It is by setting aside all the rest that the universal Essence may be discovered; for essence does not reveal itself so long as one remains with the rest. It does not approach you to make you enjoy its presence; it is you who are straying from it, when it ceases to be present. Besides, when you stray away, you are not actually straying away from it, as it continues to be present; you are not distant from it, but, though being near Essence, you have turned away from it. Thus even the other divinities, though they be present to many human beings, often reveal themselves only to some one person, because he alone is able (or, knows how) to contemplate them. These divinities (according to Homer), assume many different forms, and haunt the cities. But it is to the supreme Divinity that all the cities, all the earth, and all the heavens turn; for the universe subsists by Him, and in Him. From Him also do all real essences derive their existence; it is from Him that all depend, even the (universal) Soul, and the universal Life; it is to His infinite unity that they all turn as to their goal; a unity which is infinite precisely because it has no extension.
MacKenna
12. To return: How is that Power present to the universe? As a One Life.
Consider the life in any living thing; it does not reach only to some fixed point, unable to permeate the entire being; it is omnipresent. If on this again we are asked How, we appeal to the character of this power, not subject to quantity but such that though you divide it mentally for ever you still have the same power, infinite to the core; in it there is no Matter to make it grow less and less according to the measured mass.
Conceive it as a power of an ever-fresh infinity, a principle unfailing, inexhaustible, at no point giving out, brimming over with its own vitality. If you look to some definite spot and seek to fasten on some definite thing, you will not find it. The contrary is your only way; you cannot pass on to where it is not; you will never halt at a dwindling point where it fails at last and can no longer give; you will always be able to move with it - better, to be in its entirety - and so seek no further; denying it, you have strayed away to something of another order and you fall; looking elsewhere you do not see what stands there before you.
But supposing you do thus "seek no further," how do you experience it?
In that you have entered into the All, no longer content with the part; you cease to think of yourself as under limit but, laying all such determination aside, you become an All. No doubt you were always that, but there has been an addition and by that addition you are diminished; for the addition was not from the realm of Being - you can add nothing to Being - but from non-Being. It is not by some admixture of non-Being that one becomes an entire, but by putting non-Being away. By the lessening of the alien in you, you increase. Cast it aside and there is the All within you; engaged in the alien, you will not find the All. Not that it has to come and so be present to you; it is you that have turned from it. And turn though you may, you have not severed yourself; it is there; you are not in some far region: still there before it, you have faced to its contrary.
It is so with the lesser gods; of many standing in their presence it is often one alone that sees them; that one alone was alone in the power to see. These are the gods who "in many guises seek our cities"; but there is That Other whom the cities seek, and all the earth and heaven, everywhere with God and in Him, possessing through Him their Being and the Real Beings about them, down to soul and life, all bound to Him and so moving to that unity which by its very lack of extension is infinite.
Ver online : Plotino
- Plotino - Tratado 23,1 (VI, 5, 1) — Temos todos a noção de um deus que está por toda parte presente
- Plotino - Tratado 23,2 (VI, 5, 2) — É necessário discutir do inteligível
- Plotino - Tratado 23,3 (VI, 5, 3) — A unidade verdadeira resta nela mesma
- Plotino - Tratado 23,4 (VI, 5, 4) — Vem ao mesmo crer em deus e crer que a mesma coisa é por toda parte idêntica
- Plotino - Tratado 23,5 (VI, 5, 5) — Prevenções contra a metáfora do círculo e dos raios
- Plotino - Tratado 23,6 (VI, 5, 6) — O inteligível é uno, múltiplo e ilimitado
- Plotino - Tratado 23,7 (VI, 5, 7) — Não possuímos os inteligíveis
- Plotino - Tratado 23,8 (VI, 5, 8) — Participação da matéria nas formas
- Plotino - Tratado 23,9 (VI, 5, 9) — A esfera sensível não possui senão uma única coisa, uma única vida e uma única alma
- Plotino - Tratado 23,10 (VI, 5, 10) — É em permanecendo nela mesma que a unidade verdadeira pode estar presente
- Plotino - Tratado 23,11 (VI, 5, 11) — O inteligível é ilimitado