In this is all the travail, for this is man's travail, with help of grace. For an it so be that thou mayest have grace to destroy the pain of thine foredone special deeds, in the manner before said—or better if thou better mayest—sure be thou, that the pain of the original sin, or else the new stirrings of sin that be to come, shall but right little be able to provoke thee. These men will make angels in bodily likeness, and set them about each one with diverse minstrelsy, far more curious than ever was any seen or heard in this life. The other works attributed to the author of the Cloud have fared better than this. For sometime, men thought it meekness to say nought of their own heads, unless they affirmed it by Scripture and doctors' words: and now it is turned into curiosity, and shewing of cun- ning. And therefore saith Saint Paul of himself and many other thus; although our bodies be presently here in earth, nevertheless yet our living is in heaven. Dionise Hid Divinite still remains in MS. : but the Epistle of Prayer, the Epistle of Discretion, and the Treatise of Discerning of Spirits, together with the paraphrase of the Benjamin Minor of Richard of St. Victor which is supposed to be by the same hand, were included by Henry Pepwell, in 1521, in a little volume of seven mystical tracts. What art thou, and what hast thou merited, thus to be called of our Lord? The cloud of unknowing quotes auto. And then if thou aught shalt say, look not how much nor how little that it be, nor weigh not what it is nor what it be- meaneth... and look that nothing live in thy working mind but a naked intent stretching into God, not clothed in any special thought of God in Himself.... It is to those who feel themselves called to the true prayer of contemplation, to the search for God, whether in the cloister or the world—whose "little secret love" is at once the energizing cause of all action, and the hidden sweet savour of life—that he addresses himself. Surely this is a fact which all lovers of mysticism, all "spiritual patriots, " should be concerned to hold in remembrance.
It implies a glad and eager activity, or sometimes an energetic desire or craving: the wish and the will to do something. Xxvi., and in the case of specially obscure passages with Royal 17 C. And therefore read over twice or thrice; and ever the ofter the better, and the more thou shalt conceive thereof. And although that it be sometime called a rest, nevertheless yet they shall not think that it is any such rest as is any abiding in a place without removing therefrom. Quotes from the cloud of unknowing. Seemly cheer were full fair, with sober and demure bearing of body and mirth in manner. But not always, and never for any length of time, but when he likes, and as he likes.
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And right as this little word "fire" stirreth rather and pierceth more hastily the ears of the hearers, so doth a little word of one syllable when it is not only spoken or thought, but privily meant in the deepness of spirit; the which is the height, for in ghostliness all is one, height and deepness, length and breadth. But might these men be seen in place where they be homely, then I trow they should not be hid. For some men are so cumbered in nice curious customs in bodily bearing, that when they shall ought hear, they writhe their heads on one side quaintly, and up with the chin: they gape with their mouths as they should hear with their mouth and not with their ears. For by thine eyes thou mayest not conceive of anything, unless it be by the length and the breadth, the smallness and the greatness, the roundness and the squareness, the farness and the nearness, and the colour of it. Try looking over their shoulders, as if you're searching for something else, and you are. LOOK up now, weak wretch, and see what thou art. The cloud of unknowing free. 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. Insomuch, that if counsel will not accord that they shall work in this work, as soon they feel a manner of grumbling against their counsel, and think—yea and peradventure say to such other as they be—that they can find no man that can wit what they mean fully. AND therefore, whoso coveteth to come to cleanness that he lost for sin, and to win to that well-being where all woe wanteth, him behoveth bidingly to travail in this work, and suffer the pain thereof, whatsoever that he be: whether he have been an accustomed sinner or none.
Quotes From The Cloud Of Unknowing
And such a weening were pride. Let be this: nay, surely he may not think thus. And unless more wonder were, it should lead us into much error. The Cloud of Unknowing. I hope you'll never stop doing this loving work as long as you live. A gossip or tale-bearer. "For I tell you this: one loving, blind desire for God alone is more valuable in itself, more pleasing to God and to the saints, more beneficial to your own growth, and more helpful to your friends, both living and dead, than anything else you could do. But man can and must do his part.
The Cloud Of Unknowing Quotes Auto
And this I do for fear lest thou shouldest conceive bodily that that is meant ghostly. Reductionism also finds expression in Eastern philosophy, specifically Hinduism and its metaphysical aspect, Advaita Vedanta. BUT for this, that thou shalt not err in this working and ween that it be otherwise than it is, I shall tell thee a little more thereof, as me thinketh. For although it should be thus, truly yet me think that I am full far therefrom. Affectations of sanctity, pretense to rare mystical experiences, were a favourite means of advertisement. In the higher part of active life and the lower part of contemplative life, a man is within himself and even with himself. The noun often stands for pleasure or delight, the adverb for the willing and joyous performance of an action: the "putting of one's heart into one's work. " This second cause is perfect; for why, it shall last without end. The Cloud of Unknowing | A Cloud of Forgetting. If I take your advice, I'll end up "nowhere"! '
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And if thou wilt hold thee fast on this purpose, be thou sure, he will no while abide. And yet they ween not thus: for they purpose them in this work to think on nought but on God. Lines by heart: The Cloud of Unknowing. I SAY not this because I will that thou desist any time, if thou be stirred for to pray with thy mouth, or for to burst out for abundance of devotion in thy spirit for to speak unto God as unto man, and say some good word as thou feelest thee stirred: as be these, "Good JESU! If I would now amend it, thou wottest well, by very reason of thy words written before, it may not be after the course of nature, nor of common grace, that I should now heed or else make satisfaction, for any more times than for those that be for to come. For time is made for man, and not man for time. And no wonder: for why, she had another work to do that Martha wist not of. My object has been to produce a readable text, free from learned and critical apparatus.
The Cloud Of Unknowing Free
And because that ever the whiles thou livest in this wretched life, thee behoveth al- ways feel in some part this foul stinking lump of sin, as it were oned and congealed with the substance of thy being, therefore shalt thou changeably mean these two words—sin and God. For out of this original sin will all day spring new and fresh stirrings of sin: the which thee behoveth all day to smite down, and be busy to shear away with a sharp double- edged dreadful sword of discretion. But to the sovereignest wisdom of His Godhead lapped in the dark words of His manhood, thither beheld she with all the love of her heart. For peradventure thou thinkest that an it were destroyed, all other lettings were destroyed: and if thou thinkest thus, thou thinkest right truly. Let be such falsehood. Take good heed of this device I pray thee, for me think in the proof of this device thou shouldest melt all to water.
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In this same course, God's word either written or spoken is likened to a mirror. And how answered He? And let not therefore, but travail busily in that nought with a waking desire to will to have God that no man may know. And here may men shortly conceive the manner of this working, and clearly know that it is far from any fantasy, or any false imagination or quaint opinion: the which be brought in, not by such a devout and a meek blind stirring of love, but by a proud, curious, and an imaginative wit. For truly I mean not thus, and God forbid that I should depart that which God hath coupled, the body and the spirit. It's a very accessible translation and avoids the awkwardness of the Middle English of the original. And this He doth, for He will not reverse the order or the ordinal course in the cause of His creation. Look on nowise that thou be within thyself. And surely I trow that he that feeleth the perfection of this will, as it may be had here, there may no sweetness nor no comfort fall to any man in this life, that he is not as fain and as glad to lack it at God's will, as to feel it and have it. For they think that an they had God they had all good, and therefore they covet nothing with special beholding, but only good God. Insomuch, that when thou weenest best to abide in this darkness, and that nought is in thy mind but only God; an thou look truly thou shalt find thy mind not occupied in this darkness, but in a clear beholding of some thing beneath God. Beware, thou wretch, in this while with thine enemy; and hold thee never the holier nor the better, for the worthiness of this calling and for the singular form of living that thou art in. It destroyeth not only the ground and the root of sin as it may be here, but thereto it getteth virtues. For by Mary is understood all contemplatives; for they should conform their living after hers.
AND if thou say aught touching the ascension of our Lord, for that was done bodily, and for a bodily bemeaning as well as for a ghostly, for both He ascended very God and very man: to this will I answer thee, that He had been dead, and was clad with undeadliness, and so shall we be at the Day of Doom. For when he appeareth in body, he fig- ureth in some quality of his body what his servants be in spirit. And not only that, but in pain of the original sin it shall evermore see and feel that some of all the creatures that ever God made, or some of their works, will evermore press in remembrance betwixt it and God. And if thee list have this intent lapped and folden in one word, for thou shouldest have better hold thereupon, take thee but a little word of one syllable: for so it is better than of two, for ever the shorter it is the better it accordeth with the work of the Spirit. GHOSTLY FRIEND IN GOD, I pray thee and I beseech thee that thou wilt have a busy beholding to the course and the manner of thy calling. First, there are the virtues to be acquired: those "ornaments of the Spiritual Marriage" with which no mystic can dispense. And Saint Gregory to witness, that all holy desires grow by delays: and if they wane by delays, then were they never holy desires. That part that is the higher part of active life, that same part is the lower part of contemplative life. GHOSTLY friend in God, thou shalt well understand that I find, in my boisterous beholding, four degrees and forms of Christian men's living: and they be these, Common, Special, Singular, and Perfect.
And therefore lift up thine heart with a blind stirring of love; and mean now sin, and now God. Which of these be holier or more dear with God, one than another, God wots and I. He wills, thou do but look on Him and let Him alone. Yea, and moreover well I wot by very proof, that of those that be to come I shall on no wise, for abundance of frailty and slowness of spirits, be able to observe one of an hundred.
And if he proffer thee of his great clergy to expound thee that word and to tell thee the conditions of that word, say him: That thou wilt have it all whole, and not broken nor undone. And thus they reverse them against the course of nature, and with this curiosity they travail their imagination so indiscreetly, that at the last they turn their brain in their heads, and then as fast the devil hath power for to feign some false light or sounds, sweet smells in their noses, wonderful tastes in their mouths; and many quaint heats and burnings in their bodily breasts or in their bowels, in their backs and in their reins and in their members. And truly, whoso will look in Denis' books, he shall find that his words will clearly affirm all that I have said or shall say, from the beginning of this treatise to the end. I mean if we be stirred of the work of our spirit, and else not.
His range of experience is a wide one. Ye wot not what them aileth: let them sit in their rest and in their play, with the third and the best part of Mary. " But far greater travail have those that have been sinners than they that have been none; and that is great reason. And no wonder though thou loathe and hate for to think on thyself, when thou shalt always feel sin, a foul stinking lump thou wottest never what, betwixt thee and thy God: the which lump is none other thing than thyself. And hereto I think to answer thee right shortly: "Get that thou get mayest. " But that that Moses might not come to see but seldom, and that not without great long travail, Aaron had in his power because of his office, for to see it in the Temple within the Veil as oft as him liked for to enter. And first it is to wit, what meekness is in itself, if this matter shall clearly be seen and conceived; and thereafter may it more verily be conceived in truth of spirit what is the cause thereof. I now disagree for how could it be possible to have multifarious interpretations of the all-pervading, undifferentiated whole?
And therefore be wary, for surely what beastly heart that presumeth for to touch the high mount of this work, it shall be beaten away with stones. Let Lewd Namely To hinder. T. Eliot: A Man Out of Time. Work hard but a short while, and you will soon find the vastness and the difficulty of this work begin to ease.