Plotino – Tratado 10,1 (V, 1, 1) — A alma deve se conhecer a si mesma para reencontrar “o deus que é seu pai”

1. ¿Cómo podremos explicar que las almas hayan olvidado a Dios, su padre, y que, siendo como son partes de él y que a él pertenecen por entero, se ignoren a sí mismas y le ignoren a él?. Digamos que el principio del mal es para ellas la audacia, la generación, la diferenciación primera ¹ y el deseo de ser ellas mismas. Pues queriendo gozar de su independencia, se sirven del movimiento que ellas poseen para dirigirse al lugar contrario al que ocupa la divinidad. Llegadas a este punto, desconocen ya por completo de dónde provienen y, al igual que unos hijos arrancados a sus padres y educados por largo tiempo lejos de ellos, se ignoran verdaderamente a sí mismas e ignoran a quienes les dieron el ser. Como no ven (a Dios), ni siquiera se ven a sí mismas, estas almas se menosprecian por desconocimiento de su linaje. Estiman, por el contrario, todo lo demás y nada les llena en mayor grado que la admiración de sí mismas. Se dejan llevar de la admiración y de la pasión hacia todas las otras cosas, suspendidas como están de ellas, y, naturalmente, en cuanto les es posible rompen con todo aquello de lo que se alejaron en virtud de su menosprecio. De modo que acontece en realidad que la causa de su total desconocimiento de Dios es su misma estima de las cosas de aquí y su desdén por ellas mismas. Porque perseguir y admirar una cosa es, para el que la persigue y la admira, sentirse en todo inferior a ella. Y así, quien se sitúa por debajo de lo sujeto a generación y destrucción, por estimarse la cosa más despreciable y mortal de cuantas él distingue, no puede nunca imaginar en su espíritu cuál sea realmente la naturaleza y el poder de Dios. De ahí que debamos usar de un doble razonamiento si hemos de dirigirnos a los que se encuentran en esta disposición con el deseo de que retornen al lugar contrario y de que asciendan hacia los seres primitivos para alcanzar así el ser más alto, que es el Uno o el Primero. ¿Qué significa cada una de estas dos cosas? La una nos muestra la infamia de lo que ahora es honrado por el alma, según tendremos ocasión de probar más adelante; la otra alecciona al alma y le recuerda en cierto modo cuál es su linaje y su dignidad. Esta cuestión es, naturalmente, anterior a la primera y por su misma luz se obtiene la iluminación de la otra. Tratémosla, pues, ya que se encuentra próxima al objeto de la búsqueda y ha de ser muy útil a él. Porque quien busca, en definitiva, es el alma y lo que ha de conocer es qué clase de ser ella es para poder, antes de nada, conocerse a sí misma y saber igualmente si tiene posibilidad de realizar esa búsqueda y si cuenta con un ojo capaz de ello, o lo que es lo mismo, si le conviene tal investigación. Ya que si lo que busca, en realidad, es algo extraño, ¿qué provecho sacará de aquí? En tanto si lo que sea es algo afín a ella, no hay duda de que le convendrá buscarlo y que incluso podrá encontrarlo.

Comment se fait-il que les âmes oublient Dieu, leur père? Comment se fait-il qu’ayant une nature divine, qu’étant issues de Dieu, elles le méconnaissent et se méconnaissent elles-mêmes? L’origine de leur mal, c’est l’audace (τόλμα) ², la génération, la première diversité, le désir de n’appartenir qu’à elles-mêmes [c’est-à-dire le désir qui a conduit les âmes à se séparer primitivement de Dieu et à s’unir aux corps]. Dès qu’elles ont goûté du plaisir de posséder une vie indépendante, usant largement du pouvoir qu’elles avaient de se mouvoir elles-mêmes, elles se sont avancées dans la route qui les écartait de leur principe, et maintenant elles sont arrivées à un Ici éloignement de Dieu (ἀπόστασις) ³ qu’elles ignorent même qu’elles en ont reçu la vie. De même que des enfants séparés de leurs familles dès leur naissance et nourris longtemps loin d’elles en arrivent à méconnaître leurs parents ainsi qu’eux-mêmes ; de même les âmes, ne voyant plus ni Dieu ni elles-mêmes, se sont dégradées par l’oubli de leur origine, se sont attachées à d’autres objets, ont admiré tout plutôt qu’elles-mêmes, ont prodigué leur estime et leur amour aux choses extérieures, et, brisant le lien qui les unissait aux choses divines, s’en sont écartées avec dédain. L’ignorance où elles sont de Dieu a donc pour cause leur estime des objets sensibles et leur mépris d’elles-mêmes. Comme chacune d’elles admire et recherche ce qui lui est étranger, elle reconnaît par là même qu’elle vaut moins. Or, dès qu’elle croit moins valoir que ce qui naît et périt, qu’elle se regarde comme plus méprisable et plus périssable que les objets qu’elle admire, elle ne saurait plus concevoir la nature ni la puissance de Dieu.

Pour convertir à Dieu les âmes qui se trouvent dans de pareilles dispositions, pour les élever au Principe suprême, à l’Un, au Premier, il faut raisonner avec elles de deux manières. D’abord, on doit leur faire voir la bassesse des objets qu’elles estiment maintenant (nous en avons parlé suffisamment ailleurs) ; puis, il faut leur rappeler l’origine et la dignité de l’âme. La démonstration de ce second point est [logiquement] antérieure à celle du premier; exposée avec clarté, elle sert à l’établir.

Nous allons donc aborder la discussion du second point.

Elle se rattache et se lie à l’étude de l’objet que nous désirons connaître : car c’est l’âme qui cherche à connaître cet objet ; or elle doit examiner d’abord sa propre nature pour savoir si elle a la faculté de contempler Dieu, s’il lui convient de l’étudier et si elle peut espérer de voir ses recherches couronnées de succès. En effet, si l’âme est étrangère aux choses divines, pourquoi tenter d’en pénétrer la nature ? Si au contraire elle a une étroite affinité avec elles, elle peut et elle doit chercher à les connaître.

AUDACITY THE CAUSE OF HUMAN APOSTASY FROM THE DIVINITY.

1. How does it happen that souls forget their paternal divinity? Having a divine nature, and having originated from the divinity, how could they ever misconceive the divinity or themselves? The origin of their evil is “audacity,” generation, the primary diversity, and the desire to belong to none but themselves. As soon as they have enjoyed the pleasure of an independent life, and by largely making use of their power of self-direction, they advanced on the road that led them astray from their principle, and now they have arrived at such an “apostasy” (distance) from the Divinity, that they are even ignorant that they derive their life from Him. Like children that were separated from their family since birth, and that were long educated away from home finally lose knowledge of their parents and of themselves, so our souls, no longer seeing either the divinity or themselves, have become degraded by forgetfulness of their origin, have attached themselves to other objects, have admired anything rather than themselves, have like prodigals scattered their esteem and love on exterior objects, and have, by breaking the bond that united them to the divinities, disdainfully wandered away from it. Their ignorance of the divinity is therefore caused by excessive valuation of external objects, and their scorn of themselves. The mere admiration and quest after what is foreign implies, on the soul’s part, an acknowledgment of self-depreciation. As soon as a soul thinks that she is worth less than that which is born and which perishes, and considers herself as more despicable and perishable than the object she admires, she could no longer even conceive of the nature and power of the divinity.

CONVERSION IS EFFECTED BY DEPRECIATION OF EXTERNALITIES, AND APPRECIATION OF THE SOUL HERSELF.

Souls in such conditions may be converted to the Divinity, and raised to the supreme Principle, to the One, to the First, by being reasoned with in two ways. First, they may be led to see the worthlessness of the objects they at present esteem; then they must be reminded of the origin and dignity of the soul. The demonstration of the latter point logically precedes that of the former; and if clearly done, should support it.

KINSHIP OF THE HUMAN SOUL WITH THE DIVINE.

It is the second point, therefore, that we shall here discuss. It is related to the study of the object we desire to know; for it is the soul that desires to know that object. Now the soul must first examine her own nature in order to know whether she possess the faculty of contemplating the divinity, if this study be suited to her, and if she may hope for success therein. For indeed if the soul be foreign to divine things, the soul has no business to ferret out their nature. If however a close kinship obtains between them, she both can and should seek to know them.

1. What can it be that has brought the souls to forget the father, God, and, though members of the Divine and entirely of that world, to ignore at once themselves and It?

The evil that has overtaken them has its source in self-will, in the entry into the sphere of process, and in the primal differentiation with the desire for self ownership. They conceived a pleasure in this freedom and largely indulged their own motion; thus they were hurried down the wrong path, and in the end, drifting further and further, they came to lose even the thought of their origin in the Divine. A child wrenched young from home and brought up during many years at a distance will fail in knowledge of its father and of itself: the souls, in the same way, no longer discern either the divinity or their own nature; ignorance of their rank brings self-depreciation; they misplace their respect, honouring everything more than themselves; all their awe and admiration is for the alien, and, clinging to this, they have broken apart, as far as a soul may, and they make light of what they have deserted; their regard for the mundane and their disregard of themselves bring about their utter ignoring of the divine.

Admiring pursuit of the external is a confession of inferiority; and nothing thus holding itself inferior to things that rise and perish, nothing counting itself less honourable and less enduring than all else it admires could ever form any notion of either the nature or the power of God.

A double discipline must be applied if human beings in this pass are to be reclaimed, and brought back to their origins, lifted once more towards the Supreme and One and First.

There is the method, which we amply exhibit elsewhere, declaring the dishonour of the objects which the Soul holds here in honour; the second teaches or recalls to the soul its race and worth; this latter is the leading truth, and, clearly brought out, is the evidence of the other.

It must occupy us now for it bears closely upon our enquiry to which it is the natural preliminary: the seeker is soul and it must start from a true notion of the nature and quality by which soul may undertake the search; it must study itself in order to learn whether it has the faculty for the enquiry, the eye for the object proposed, whether in fact we ought to seek; for if the object is alien the search must be futile, while if there is relationship the solution of our problem is at once desirable and possible.

I. What is the reason that souls become oblivious of divinity, being ignorant both of themselves and him, though their allotment is from thence, and they in short partake of God ? The principle therefore of evil to them is audacity, generation, the first difference,[[The five genera of being are, essence, sameness, difference, motion and permanency. This difference, therefore,.which ranks as the first, and which is the source of all diversity, causes souls by predominating in them to he forgetful of deity, and themselves.] and the wish to exercise an unrestrained freedom of the will. When, therefore, they began to be delighted with this unbounded liberty, abundantly employing the power of being moved from themselves, they ran in a direction contrary [to their first course], and thus becoming most distant from their source, they were at length ignorant that they were thence derived. Just as children who are immediately torn from their parents, and have for a long time been nurtured at a great distance from them, become ignorant both of themselves and their parents. Hence, souls neither seeing their father, nor themselves, despise themselves through ignorance of their race, but honour other things, and admiring every thing rather than themselves, being vehemently astonished about, and adhering to sensible natures, they as much as possible hurl themselves [from their true parents], and thus despise the beings from which they have become elongated. Hence, the honour which they pay to sensible objects, and the contempt of themselves,, happen to be the causes of their all-perfect ignorance. For at the same time they pursue and admire something else, and acknowledge themselves to be inferior to that which they admire and pursue. But the soul admitting that it is something subordinate to things which are generated and corrupted, and apprehending that it is the most ignoble and mortal of every thing which it honours, neither believes in the nature nor power of God. Hence, it is necessary that there should be a twofold discourse to those who are thus affected, in order to convert them to the contraries [to the things they admire], and to first natures, and to elevate them as far as to that which is highest, and one, and the first. What, therefore, is each of these discourses ? One of them, indeed, is that which shows the cause why the soul honours these sensible objects, which we have elsewhere largely discussed ; but the other teaches and reminds the soul of the greatness of its origin, and its true dignity; which discussion is prior to the former, and when manifested will render that manifest. Of this, therefore, we must now speak. For this is proximate and conducive to the object of enquiry. For that which is investigated is soul; and what it investigates should be known by it, in order that it may in the first place learn whether it has the power of investigating things of this kind; and also whether it has such an eye as is able to see them, and whether they are properly objects of its enquiry. For if they are foreign to its nature, why should it investigate them ? But if they are allied to it, it is expedient and possible to discover them.