3 § The Eternal Ideas
In the last chapter we remarked, with regard to the assimilation of Spirit to Intellect, that it is considered altogether admissible to speak of the 'Divine Intellect', which obviously implies a transposition of the term beyond the domain of manifestation. But this point calls for further attention, for it is precisely here that is to be found the very basis for the assimilation in question. We will note at the outset that, in this respect also, standpoints can be taken at different levels, according to whether one stops short at the consideration of Being alone or whether one goes beyond Being. Needless to say, when theologians consider the Divine Intellect or the Word as the 'place of Possibilities', they have in view possibilities of manifestation only, which as such are comprised in Being. The transposition which permits the passage from Being to the Supreme Principle no longer pertains to the domain of theology, but solely to pure metaphysics.
It might be asked if this conception of the Divine Intellect and that of the 'intelligible world' of Plato are identical; or, in other words, whether the 'Ideas' understood in a Platonic sense, are the same as those contained eternally in the Word. It is clearly a question of the 'archetypes' of manifested beings in both cases. It would seem, however, at least at first glance, that the 'intelligible world' corresponds to supraformal manifestation rather than to pure Being; in other words, according to Hindu terminology, it would be Buddhi envisaged in the Universal order rather than Ātmā, even in a
perspective that limits Ātmā to pure Being. It goes without saying that both these points of view are perfectly legitimate. [1] But if such is the case, the Platonic 'ideas' cannot strictly be called 'eternal', because this word cannot be applied to anything that belongs to manifestation, even at its loftiest degree and at the level closest to the Principle, while the ideas contained in the Word are necessarily eternal as He is, everything in the Principial order being absolutely permanent and admitting no kind of succession. [2] Notwithstanding this, it seems to us probable that the passage from one of these points of view to the other must always have remained possible for Plato himself, as indeed it is in reality. We will not insist on this further, however, preferring to leave to others the task of examining this question more closely, the interest of which is after all more historical than doctrinal.
What is rather strange is that some people seem to consider the eternal ideas as mere 'virtualities' in relation to the manifested beings of which these ideas are actually the principial archetypes. There is an illusion here which is no doubt due to the profane distinction between the 'possible' and the 'real', a distinction which, as we have explained elsewhere, [3] could not have the least value from a metaphysical perspective. This illusion is all the more grave in that it involves a genuine contradiction, and it is difficult to understand why it is not perceived. In fact, there can be nothing virtual whatsoever in the Principle, but on the contrary, only the permanent actuality of all things in an 'eternal present'; and it is this actuality which constitutes the sole basis of all existence. Nevertheless, there are those who carry the mistake so far that they seem to look on the eternal ideas only as kinds of images-which, let it be noted in passing, implies yet another contradiction, that of seeking to introduce something of a formal nature even into the Principle-images that have, with manifested beings themselves, a relation that is no more real than would be their image reflected in a mirror. That is, strictly speaking, a complete reversal of the relationship of the Principle with manifestation, and it is too obvious to need further explanation. The truth is indeed remote from these erroneous conceptions. The idea in question here is the very principle of the being: it is that which gives it all its reality and without which it would be only nothingness
pure and simple. To maintain the contrary amounts to severing all links between the manifested being and the Principle; and if at the same time a real existence be attributed to this being, this existence is and cannot be anything other than independent of the Principle so that, as we have said on another occasion, [4] it all inevitably ends in the error of 'association'. Once it is recognised that the existence of manifested beings, in all their positive reality, can only be a 'participation' in principial Being, then there cannot be the least doubt about this matter. If the 'participation' and the asserted 'virtuality' of the eternal ideas should both be admitted at the same time, that would be yet another contradiction. In fact, what is virtual is in no way our reality in the Principle, but only the consciousness we have of it as manifested beings, which obviously is something altogether different; and it is only by metaphysical realisation that our consciousness of our true being, which is beyond and above all becoming, can be made effective, that is, actualised into the consciousness not of something that might pass from 'potency' to 'act', but rather of that which we are principially and eternally, and this in the most absolutely real sense possible.
Now to relate what we have said about the eternal ideas to that which concerns the manifested Intellect, we must naturally turn once again to the süträtmä doctrine, however it may be expressed, for the different symbolisms traditionally used for this purpose are basically equivalent. Returning, then, to the representation we used previously, it can be said that the Divine Intellect is the Spiritual Sun, while the manifested intellect is a ray [5] of the Sun; and there can be no more discontinuity between the Principle and manifestation than there is between the Sun and its rays. [6] It is by the Intellect, therefore, that every being in all its states of manifestation, is attached directly to the Principle, and this is because the Principle, insofar as it eternally contains the 'truth' of all beings, is itself not other than the Divine Intellect. [7]