Plotino – Tratado 39,19 (VI, 8, 19) — Superioridade da contemplação direta do Bem

19. Con lo dicho tendremos bastante para elevarnos a El y aprehenderle. Ahora nos será posible contemplarle, sin que, no obstante, podamos decir cuanto realmente deseáramos. Si prescindimos de todo razonamiento para verle nada más que en sí mismo, propondremos que es por sí mismo lo que es y que, caso de poseer esencia, esta esencia sería dependiente de El y, por añadidura, provendría igualmente de El. Cuando le vemos no nos atrevemos ya a decir que es por accidente, y ni siquiera acertamos a pronunciar palabra alguna. A nuestro atrevimiento seguiría inmediatamente la turbación de espíritu, porque una vez lanzados hacia El no estamos en condiciones de decir dónde se encuentra. Aparece por todas partes ante los ojos de nuestra alma y, dondequiera que ella mire, allí le ve, si es que ella no ha prescindido de Dios para mirar a otra parte y concentra en El su pensamiento.

Quizás en tal sentido quepa entender la expresión enigmática de los antiguos: algo que está por encima de la esencia ¹. No quiere decir solamente que el bien engendre la esencia, sino que no es esclavo de ella ni de sí mismo, ni tiene por principio una esencia; al contrario, él mismo es principio de la esencia, que no fue hecha para El sino para algo que esté fuera de El, puesto que El no necesita de un ser que él mismo ha hecho. No diremos, por tanto, que, en tanto que es, produce lo que se dice que es.

XIX. Vous élevant a Lui à l’aide des considérations que noue venons d’exposer, saisissez-le donc : vous le contemplerez alors, et vous ne trouverez pas de termes pour exprimer sa grandeur, Quand vous le verrez, renonçant à faire usage de la parole, voue affirmerez qu’il existe par lui-même, de telle sorte que, s’il avait une essence, cette essence dépendrait de Iui et serait par lui. Quiconque l’aura vu n’aura point l’audace de soutenir qu’il est par hasard ce qu’il est; il ne proférera même pas un tel blasphème : cal il resterait lui-même confondu de sa témérité. Lorsqu’il se sera élevé jusqu’à Lui, il ne pourra même dire de Lui où il est (66) : car il apparaît partout aux yeux de l’âme ; de quelque côté que celle-ci tourne ses regards, elle le voit, à moins que, considérant un autre objet, elle n’abandonne Dieu en cessant de penser à lui.

Les anciens ont dit, mais en termes en énigmatiques, que Dieu est au-dessus de l’essence (67), Voici dans quel sens il faut Interpréter cotte assertion. Dieu est au-dessus de l’essence, non seulement parce qu’il engendre l’Essence, mais encore parce qu’il n’est point dans la dépendance de l’Essence ni de lui-même (68). Il n’a même point pour principe sa propre essence ; il est au contraire lui-même le principe de l’Essence. Or il ne l’a point faite pour lui-même, mais, l’ayant faite, il l’a laissée hors de lui, par la raison qu’il n’a pas besoin de l’existence (τὸ εἶναι) puisqu’il est celui qui l’a faite. Ainsi, même en tant qu’il est, il ne produit point ce qu’on exprime par le verbe il est (τὸ ἔστι).

NO PERSON WHO HAS SEEN THE SUPREME COULD POSSIBLY CALL HIM CHANCE.

19. By the use of the above indications (it is possible), to ascend to Him. Having done so, grasp Him. Then you will be able to contemplate Him, and you will find no terms to describe His (greatness). When you shall see Him, and resign any attempt at spoken description, you will proclaim that He exists by Himself in a way such that, if He had any being, it would be His servant, and would be derived from Him. No one who has ever seen Him would have the audacity to maintain that He is what He is by chance; nor even to utter such a blasphemy, for He would be confounded by his own temerity. Having ascended to Him, the (human observer) could not even locate His presence, as it were rising up everywhere before the eyes of his soul. Whichever way the soul directs her glances, she sees Him, unless, on considering some other object, she abandons the divinity by ceasing to think of Him.

THE SUPREME IS ABOVE BEING BECAUSE NOT DEPENDENT THEREON.

The ancient (philosophers), in enigmatical utterances, said that (the divinity) is above “being.” This must be understood to mean not only that He begets being, but because He is not dependent on “being” or on Himself. Not even His own “being” is to Him a principle; for He himself is the principle of “being.” Not for Himself did he make it; but, having made it, He left it outside of Himself, because He has no need of essence, since He himself made it. Thus, even though He exist, He does not produce that which is meant by that verb.

19. Stirred to the Supreme by what has been told, a man must strive to possess it directly; then he too will see, though still unable to tell it as he would wish.

One seeing That as it really is will lay aside all reasoning upon it and simply state it as the self-existent; such that if it had essence that essence would be subject to it and, so to speak, derived from it; none that has seen would dare to talk of its “happening to be,” or indeed be able to utter word. With all his courage he would stand astounded, unable at any venture to speak of This, with the vision everywhere before the eyes of the soul so that, look where one may, there it is seen unless one deliberately look away, ignoring God, thinking no more upon Him. So we are to understand the Beyond-Essence darkly indicated by the ancients: is not merely that He generated Essence but that He is subject neither to Essence nor to Himself; His essence is not His Principle; He is Principle to Essence and not for Himself did He make it; producing it He left it outside of Himself: He had no need of being who brought it to be. Thus His making of being is no “action in accordance with His being.”