as we climb higher

As we climb higher, we say this.

It is not soul or mind, nor does it possess

imagination, conviction, speech or understanding.

It does not live nor is it life.  It is not a 

substance, nor is it eternity or time.

It is not wisdom.

It is neither one nor oneness, divinity nor goodness.

It falls neither within the predicate of nonbeing nor being.

It is beyond assertion and denial.  We make assertions and

denials of what is next to it, but never of it, for it is both beyond

every assertion, being the perfect and unique cause of all things,

and by virtue of its pre-eminently simple and absolute nature,

free of every limitation,

beyond every limitation;

it is also beyond every denial.

~ Pseudo-Dionysius

art from Sistine Chapel images