Noûs: Inteligência e Contemplação

V. 5. 7-8
(Armstrong Selection and Translation from the Enneads)

[Noûs sees the One in a contemplation higher than its normal activity of intelligence, as when the eye looks at light, not at the objects illuminated. In this contemplation it, so to speak, stands still, but has to return from it to its normal activity of intelligence, which is a sort of movement though not in space; it has a twofold life, of intelligence and of contemplation of the One with that in it which is higher than Intelligence.]

So Noûs, veiling itself from other things and drawing itself inward, when it is not looking at anything will see a Light, not illuminating something else different from It, but suddenly appearing, alone by Itself in independent purity. Noûs is at a loss to know whence It has appeared, whether It has come from outside or is within, and after going away from It will say, ‘ It was within, and yet It was not within.’ But one should not inquire whence It comes, for there is no’ whence’, and It does not really come or go away anywhere, but appears or does not appear. So one must not chase after It, but wait quietly till It appears, preparing oneself to contemplate It, as the eye awaits the rising of the sun: and the sun rising over the horizon (from Ocean, the poets say), gives itself to the eyes to see. But from where does He of Whom the sun is an image rise? What is the horizon which He mounts above when He appears? He is above Noûs which contemplates Him. Noûs stands turned to its contemplation, looking to nothing but the Beautiful, all turned and giving itself up to Him: motionless and filled with strength, it sees first of all itself become more beautiful, all glittering, because He is near. But He does not come as one expected; his coming is without approach. He appears not as having come but as being there before all things, and even before Noûs came. It is Noûs which comes and goes, because it does not know where to stay and where He stays, for He is in nothing. If it was possible for Noûs to abide in that nowhere — I do not mean that Noûs is in place; it is no more in place than He is, but in that sense absolutely nowhere — it would always behold Him or, rather, not behold Him but be one with Him, not two. But as it is, because it is Noûs, it contemplates Him, when it does contemplate, with that in it which is not Noûs.