However, as long as you're thinking about anything, it's above you, an obstacle between you and God, and the more you have in your mind that is not God, the further you are from him. And therefore I tell thee this, for thou shalt be wary therewith in thy working, if thou be assailed therewith. It is supposed by most scholars that Dionise Hid Divinite, which—appearing as it did in an epoch of great spiritual vitality—quickly attained to a considerable circulation, is by the same hand which wrote the Cloud of Unknowing and its companion books; and that this hand also produced an English paraphrase of Richard of St. Victor's Benjamin Minor, another work of much authority on the contemplative life. You yourself are purified and become more strong in virtue by means of this work than by any other.
I mean but well: if thou canst not conceive it, lay it by thy side till God come and teach thee. And let not therefore, but travail busily in that nought with a waking desire to will to have God that no man may know. His range of experience is a wide one. Surely, this travail is all in treading down of the remembrance of all the creatures that ever God made, and in holding of them under the cloud of forgetting named before.
And therefore me thinketh that he should on nowise be evil; and if he be good, and with his sweet tales doth me so much good withal, then I have great marvel why that thou biddest me put him down and away so far under the cloud of forgetting? Active is the lower, and contemplative is the higher. Surely it is our outer man, and not our inner. For were it not that a soul were somewhat fed with a manner of comfort of his right working, else should he not be able to bear the pain that he hath of the witting and feeling of his being. And because I would that thou knewest which were perfect meekness, and settest it as a token before the love of thine heart, and didst it for thee and for me. Much more had He to her. From first to last glad and deliberate work is demanded of the initiate: an all-round wholeness of experience is insisted on. On otherwise than thus, list me not cite him, nor none other doctor, for me at this time. But wherein then is this travail, I pray thee? And no wonder though she knew not at that time how Mary was occupied; for I trow that before she had little heard of such perfection. And sometime we profit in this grace by other men's teaching, and then be we likened to Aaron, the which had it in keeping and in custom to see and feel the Ark when him pleased, that Bezaleel had wrought and made ready before to his hands.
If they be true and contain in them ghostly fruit, why should they then be despised? Neti, neti, a Sanskrit expression meaning "not this, not that", extols the path of negation, whereby the way to understand the nature of God or Brahman is by first understanding what is Brahman can never be. And no man trulier, an he be well conceived—yet for fear of deceit and bodily conceiving of his words, me list not bid thee do so. Chapter 63 – Of the powers of a soul in general, and how Memory in special is a principal power, comprehending in it all the other powers and all those things in the which they work. And it is marvellous to number the stirrings that may be in one hour wrought in a soul that is disposed to this work. And try to cover them with a thick cloud of forgetting, as they never had been done in this life of thee nor of other man either. And right as it is impossible, to man's understanding, for a man to come to the higher part of active life, but if he cease for a time of the lower part; so it is that a man shall not come to the higher part of contemplative life, but if he cease for a time of the lower part. Let Lewd Namely To hinder.
For all virtues they find and feel in God; for in Him is all thing, both by cause and by being. And yet it is the lightest work of all, when a soul is helped with grace in sensible list, and soonest done. A young disciple in God's school new turned from the world, the same weeneth that for a little time that he hath given him to penance and to prayer, taken by counsel in confession, that he be therefore able to take upon him ghostly working of the which he heareth men speak or read about him, or peradventure readeth himself. And that in this work God is loved for Himself, and above all creatures, it seemeth right well. For whoso hath ears, let him hear, and whoso is stirred for to trow, let him trow: for else, shall they not. And I trow that if they unto whom they were shewed had been so ghostly, or could have conceived their be- meanings ghostly, that then they had never been shewed bodily. And if a man list for to see in the gospel written the wonderful and the special love that our Lord had to her, in person of all accustomed sinners truly turned and called to the grace of contemplation, he shall find that our Lord might not suffer any man or woman—yea, not her own sister—speak a word against her, but if He answered for her Himself. It makes a realistic appraisal of the problems and weaknesses of individual human beings, for it regards man's imperfections as the raw material to be worked with in carrying out the discipline of spiritual development. Strike that thick cloud of unknowing with the sharp dart of longing love, and on no account whatever think of giving up…A naked intention directed to God, and himself, alone, is wholly sufficient…. Where there be any pride within, there such meek piping words be so plenteous without. Sometime, for he shall not take over presumptuously thereupon, and ween that it be in great part in his own power to have it when him list, and as him list. And thus mayest thou see that no thinking may goodly be gotten in be- ginners and profiters, without reading or hearing coming before: nor praying without thinking. For as oft as he would have a true witting and a feeling of his God in purity of spirit, as it may be here, and sithen feeleth that he may not—for he findeth evermore his witting and his feeling as it were occupied and filled with a foul stinking lump of himself, the which behoveth always be hated and be despised and forsaken, if he shall be God's perfect disciple learned of Himself in the mount of perfection—so oft, he goeth nigh mad for sorrow. The ableness to this work is oned to the work's self without departing; so that whoso feeleth this work is able thereto, and none else.
God's grace will help you roll your sleeves up for it but you still have to do it yourself. But in contemplation, you may throw caution to the wind. On the other hand, imagination and sensuality work through the body's five senses in the arena of the material, with things both present and absent but they alone can't help us to understand creation. Beware of error here, I pray thee; for ever, the nearer men touch the truth, more wary men behoveth to be of error. It comprehends and contains the powers of reason, will, imagination and sensuality, as well as their works.
So that all shall be loved plainly and nakedly for God, and as well as himself. And thus it seemeth that in this work God is perfectly loved for Himself, and that above all creatures. And if thou be willing to do this, thee needeth but meekly press upon him with prayer, and soon will He help thee. You must also know that this darkness and this cloud will always be between you and God, whatever you do. So that at the last, or ever thou wit, thou shalt be scattered thou wottest not where. This is that time of the which it is written: All time that is given to thee, it shall be asked of thee, how thou hast dispended it. But all other abnormal experiences—"comforts, sounds and gladness, and sweetness, that come from without suddenly"—should be set aside, as more often resulting in frenzies and feebleness of spirit than in genuine increase of "ghostly strength. Chapter 9 – That in the time of this work the remembrance of the holiest Creature that ever God made letteth more than it profiteth. For instance, here's Evelyn Underhill's translation of the start of chapter 3: I can't be dealing with that! Chapter 72 – That a worker in this work should not deem nor think of another worker as he feeleth in himself.
Certainly the influence of Richard is only second to that of Dionysius in this unknown mystic's own work—work, however, which owes as much to the deep personal experience, and extraordinary psychological gifts of its writer, as to the tradition that he inherited from the past. For of all other creatures and their works, yea, and of the works of God's self, may a man through grace have fullhead of knowing, and well he can think of them: but of God Himself can no man think. Now truly thou sayest well; for there would I have thee. Thus far inwards come many, but for greatness of pain that they feel and for lacking of comfort, they go back in beholding of bodily things: seeking fleshly comforts without, for lacking of ghostly they have not yet deserved, as they should if they had abided.