be as wood to a carpenter

To put it more simply, let that mysterious grace move in your spirit
 as it will and follow wherever it leads you.  Let it be the active doer 
and you the passive receiver.  Do not meddle with it, but let it be... 

Your part is to be as wood to a carpenter or a home to a dweller.
  Remain blind during this time cutting away all desire to know, 
for knowledge is a hindrance here.  Be content to feel 
this mysterious grace sweetly awaken in the 
depths of your spirit.   Forget everything...

~ The Cloud of Unknowing

by the true, loving will of your heart

For silence is not God, nor speaking; 

fasting is not God, nor eating; 

solitude is not God, nor company; 

nor any other pair of opposites.  

He is hidden between them, 

and cannot be found by anything your soul does, 

but only by the love of your heart. 

He cannot be known by reason, 

he cannot be thought, caught, or sought by understanding.  

But he can be loved and chosen by the true, loving will of your heart.

~ The Cloud of Unknowing

Written anonymously, this practical, unemotional book of instruction focuses on stripping away all earthly ways of knowing, of passing through the cloud of forgetting and piercing the cloud of unknowing that exists between himself and God.  Widely read in the fourteen century for its beauty in aiding a contemplative experience, The Cloud, is better known than the later work, The Book of Privy Counseling which also clearly written by one who has trodden the mystical path himself and offers others a helping hand.

.

let go

Let go 

this 'everywhere' and this 'everything' in exchange for this 

'nowhere' and this 'nothing.' 

Never mind if you cannot fathom this nothing,

for I love it surely so much better. 

 

It is so worthwhile in 

itself that no thinking about it will do it justice. 

One can feel this nothing more easily than see it, 

for it is completely dark and hidden to 

those who have only just begun to look at it. 

 

Yet to speak more accurately, 

it is overwhelming spiritual light that blinds the soul that is experiencing it, 

rather than actual darkness or the absence of physical light. 

 

Who is it then, who is it then, who is calling it 'nothing'? 

Our outer self, to be sure, not our inner. 

Our inner self calls it 'All', 

for through it he is learning the secret of all things, 

physical and spiritual alike, 

without having to consider every single one separately 

on it's own.

 

 

 

~ The Cloud of Unknowing

.

cannot be thought, caught, or sought by understanding

For silence is not God, nor speaking; 

fasting is not God, nor eating; 

solitude is not God, nor company; 

nor any other pair of opposites.

  He is hidden between them, 

and cannot be found by anything your soul does, 

but only by the love of your heart.  

He cannot be known by reason, 

he cannot be thought, caught, 

or sought by understanding.  

But he can be loved and 

chosen by the true, loving will of your heart.

~ the cloud of unknowing

the burden of self

Yet do not misunderstand my words, I did not say that you must desire to un-be,
 for that is madness and blasphemy against God.  I said that you must desire 
to lose the knowledge and experience of self.  This is essential
 if you are to experience God's love as fully as possible in this life.

  You must realize and experience for yourself that unless you lose self
you will never reach your goal.  For wherever you are, in whatever you do, 
or howsoever you try, that elemental sense of your own blind being
 will remain between you and your God.  It is possible, of course, 
that God may intervene at times and fill you with a transient experience
 of himself.  Yet outside these moments this naked awareness of your blind being
 will continually weigh you down and be as a barrier between you and your God..
. It is then that you will realize how heavy and painful 
is the burden of self.

~ the Cloud of Unknowing

art by Victoria Burns

only by love

For silence is not God, nor speaking;
fasting is not God, nor eating;
solitude is not God, nor company;
nor any other pair of opposites.

He is hidden between them,
and cannot be found by anything your soul does,
but only by the love of your heart.

He cannot be known by reason,
he cannot be thought, caught,
or sought by understanding.

But he can be loved and
chosen by the true, loving will of your heart.

 

 ...

To put it more simply, let that mysterious grace move in your spirit as it will and follow wherever it leads you. Let it be the active doer and you the passive receiver. Do not meddle with it, but let it be... Your part is to be as wood to a carpenter or a home to a dweller. Remain blind during this time cutting away all desire to know, for knowledge is a hindrance here. Be content to feel this mysterious grace sweetly awaken in the depths of your spirit. Forget everything...




~ The Cloud of Unknowing

When I speak of darkness, I mean the absence of knowledge

.

And so to stand firmly and avoid pitfalls, 

keep to the path you are on.  

Let your longing relentlessly beat upon the  cloud of unknowing 

that lies between you and your God.  

Pierce that cloud with the keen shaft of your love, 

spurn the thought of anything less, 

and do not give up this work for anything.  

.

For the contemplative work of love by itself will eventually heal you...

.

And so diligently persevere until you feel joy in it.  For in the beginning it is usual to feel nothing but a kind of darkness about your mind, or as it were, a cloud of unknowing.  You will seem to know nothing and to feel nothing except a naked intent toward God in the depths of your being.  Try as you might, this darkness and this cloud will remain between you and your God.  You will feel frustrated, for your mind will be unable to grasp him, and you heart will not relish the delight of his love.  But learn to be at home in this darkness. Return to it as often as you can, letting your spirit cry out to him whom you love.  

.

the fourteenth century anonymous author,

the Cloud of Unknowing

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