In the introduction to this wonderful edition of The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Orientation, William Johnston says the following [1]:
God
can be loved but he cannot be thought. He can be grasped by love but
never by concepts. So less thinking and more loving
And
while this is true in a sense, it is only valid when the Way of Transformation makes one capable of loving without the dark barriers
of the carnal mind.
The
problem is not lack of Love, but love without humble Wisdom and Force to resist darkness. Not even the Source lacks those qualities.
The human soul (emotions) is female in relation to the silent and discerning mind–i.e Christ mind. And when the spirit/will unites them both, the loving Light descends from deeper levels making the transformation possible. But this cannot take place mechanically. The divine will must be allowed to act in oneself so the union can take place.
Now,
if one does not know how the mind and heart merge in the temple of the body, the emotional soul cannot be purified nor recognize any higher authority. She remains widow.
Without her husband, the emotional soul gets filled with pride, envy, bitterness, anger and other poisons that come from emotional love, which becomes its opposite, unlike conscious love, which engenders the same in response.
Love alone is very dangerous; when Light is blocked from below, Love becomes destructive, causing damage at the physical and psychological levels.
Without her husband, the emotional soul gets filled with pride, envy, bitterness, anger and other poisons that come from emotional love, which becomes its opposite, unlike conscious love, which engenders the same in response.
Love alone is very dangerous; when Light is blocked from below, Love becomes destructive, causing damage at the physical and psychological levels.
All
diseases and wars of humankind are due to repressed Love and Light, manifested as negative emotions.
The true
Kingdom of Heaven mentioned by Jesus is Heaven on Earth, where there is no war, death or disease, because there humans have their light body, soul and spirit restored.
Today humans are no longer the image of the Tree of Life, but we are fallen, holding a distorted image, a tree of death.
Therefore,
the Love that descends from above can be either a cure to restore the original image or the greatest nightmare.
Proof
of this is all the nonsense and killings carried out in the name of God
and under the protection of external religious paraphernalia.
Self-knowledge
at all levels is necessary to go beyond the limitations of external religion, which has value
only as an introduction or hint, but not as the ultimate means to grow, abandon the cycle of death and rebirth and
enter the Kingdom.
In
this sense we must understand the warnings of The Cloud of
Unknowing:
In
the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. To
you, whoever you are, who may have this book in your possession... I
lay this charge upon you and implore you with all the power and force
that the bond of charity can command. You are not to read it yourself
or to others, or to copy it; nor are you to allow it so to be read in
private or in public or copied willingly and deliberately, insofar as
this is possible, except by someone or to someone who, as far as you
know, has resolved with steadfast determination, truly and sincerely
to be a perfect follower of Christ [the indwelling Christ embryo, the inner Messiah and the Teaching handed down from Adam]; and this not only in the active
life, but in the contemplative life, at the highest point which a
perfect soul in this present life can possibly reach, with the help
of grace, whilst it still dwells in this mortal body. (different translation, by James Walsh).
As for the method of meditation-contemplation, it´s described in Chapter 3:
This
is what you are to do: lift your heart up to God, with a gentle
stirring of love desiring God for God’s own sake and not for any
gifts. Center all your attention and desire on God and let this be
the sole concern of your mind and heart. Do all in your power to
forget everything else […]
And so diligently persevere in it until
you feel joy in it. For in the beginning it is usual to feel nothing
but a kind of darkness about your mind, 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 cloud will remain between you and your God.
You will feel frustrated, for your mind will be unable to grasp God,
and your heart will not relish the delight of God’s love. But learn
to be at home in this darkness. Return to it as often as you can,
letting your spirit cry out to God whom you love. For if, in this
life, you hope to feel and see God as God is...it must be within this
darkness and this cloud. But if you strive to fix your love on God
forgetting all else, which is the work of contemplation I have urged
you to begin, I am confident that God in goodness will bring you to a
deep experience of Godself.
Aware
that this is not easy task, the anonymous author suggests something
not to be confused with the simple mantra that blunts the mind, but as
mere affirmation to focus on intention:
Think
only on the God who created you [gave you the opportunity to exist], redeemed you [on
the nature of your true Self] and led you to this work. Do not let
other ideas about God come into your mind. Even this is too much. It suffices with a gentle impulse towards God, the longing for Him alone. If
you want to gather all your desire into one simple word that the mind
can easily retain, choose a short word rather than a long one. A
one-syllable word such as "God" or "love" is
best. But choose one that is meaningful to you. Then fix it in your
mind so that it will remain there come what may. This word will be
your defence in conflict and in peace. Use it to beat upon the cloud
of darkness above you and to subdue all distractions, consigning them
to the cloud of forgetting beneath you. Should
some thought go on annoying you, demanding to know what you are
doing, answer with this one word alone. If your mind begins to
intellectualise over the meaning and connotations of this little
word, remind yourself that its value lies in its simplicity. Do this
and I assure you these thoughts will vanish -Chapter 7
However,
the aim is to go beyond words, as pointed out by the anonymous medieval author in his
other jewel, The Book of Privy Orientation:
This
quiet and darkness fills your mind and you're a reflection of it. For
I would have thought you have of yourself is as pure and simple as
you have of God. So you can be spiritually united to Him without
fragmentation and without dissipation of your mind. He is your being
and in Him you are what you are, not only because He is the cause and the
essence of everything that exists, but because He is the cause of your existence and
deep center of your being. [...] Remember the distinction between you
and him: He is your being, but you're not his.
As William Mening points in a clarifying interview [2]:
At the end of another interview [3], William Mening suggests that the human soul that aspires to enter Centering Prayer is like a baby that is with the mother at the foot of a staircase, and right when the baby starts to crawl up to the father up above, the father comes down to pick him up out of compassion. The same happens when a pure intention at the time to meditate, there comes a time that contemplation comes without effort as something superior in charge.
Now, to finish off for this time, it´s worth listening to Thomas Keating on Centering Prayer:
You
do this prayer through, in and with the Body of Christ. It cannot be
done as a solitary act.
At the end of another interview [3], William Mening suggests that the human soul that aspires to enter Centering Prayer is like a baby that is with the mother at the foot of a staircase, and right when the baby starts to crawl up to the father up above, the father comes down to pick him up out of compassion. The same happens when a pure intention at the time to meditate, there comes a time that contemplation comes without effort as something superior in charge.
Now, to finish off for this time, it´s worth listening to Thomas Keating on Centering Prayer:
______________
[1] In Spanish:
[2] Clarifying interview of William Mening
http://www.cpfortworth.org/resource/MeninCP.pdf[3] Another nice interview with William Mening:
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