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Anonymous | 138 pages | 20 May 2011 | Aziloth Books | 9781908388131 | English | Rookhope, United Kingdom [PDF] The Cloud of Unknowing Book by Anonymous Free Download ( pages)

Jump to navigation. Gallacher Editor. The Cloud of Unknowing, a masterpiece of simplicity that distills a complex mystical epistemology and discipline into engagingly readable prose, embodies a paradox. It offers a method by which the suitably disposed reader may practice an advanced and even austere form of - the divesting of the mind of all images and concepts through an encounter with a "nothing and a nowhere" that leads to the mysterious and unfathomable being of Himself. Yet as the account of this exercise unfolds, the genial and hospitable tone of the author humanizes the austerity of the method and persuasively draws the reader into what calls "the loving discernment of " Sequence, p. We can begin to understand the meaning of the Cloud by looking at what may be the most famous quotation in Western , the passage in the , IX10, where Augustine muses upon the ecstasy at Ostia, an experience that he had in a final conversation The Cloud of Unknowing his mother, Monica McGinn, p. Confessions, trans. Sheed, pp. What is striking about this passage is the combination of two movements: a sweeping review of nature, human psychology, and the world of signs, followed by the "silencing" The Cloud of Unknowing negation of everything that is not God. These two movements present us with affirmation and negation; or, in terms more proper to mystical discourse, with the kataphatic and apophatic phases of the mystical ascent. Moreover, The Cloud of Unknowing passage from Augustine, which is richly affirmative, is a fine The Cloud of Unknowing of illumination and union, which, together with purgation, are the mystic's three traditional types of experience. The Cloud of The Cloud of Unknowing, by contrast, is The Cloud of Unknowing apophatic in its emphasis and focuses almost entirely on the "silencing" described by Augustine: it collapses the on nature to brief allusion, and discusses the 's activities only in The Cloud of Unknowing most practical manner. Perhaps most important, whereas Augustine refers to "that one moment of understanding" intelligentiathe method of the Cloud emphasizes the movement described earlier when, as all things grew silent, "the very soul grew silent to herself and by not thinking of self mounted beyond self. In the Augustinian tradition, the role of the mind has considerable emphasis, but the activity of the spiritual heart, the will, is by no means neglected. Similarly in the accounts of those writers who seem to favor an affective approach almost exclusively, there is a final celebration of the mind as well. The Cloud 's de-emphasis on the activity of the intelligence represents a seemingly archetypal impulse hinted at even in Platonic texts: that the ultimate reality which the mystic seeks to experience is finally beyond the grasp of the Louth, p. On the other hand, it seems that since in Platonism there is a kinship syngeneia between the soul The Cloud of Unknowing the Ideas, the search for knowledge of the forms is a homecoming, the return of the soul to its proper nature. Such an ontological bond does seem The Cloud of Unknowing result in a significant continuity between the initial and later stages of Platonic contemplation. Platonism conceived the contemplative ascent as a process that required successive purifications until the soul regained its pristine condition, although the final vision of the supreme Forms The Cloud of Unknowing the Good and the Beautiful is outside the soul's capacity and is simply given or revealed Lees, p. An important concept in the Cloud - "the sovereinneste pointe" of the or of contemplation see lines 15; ; - The Cloud of Unknowing suggest the richness of traditional elements present in the work, and can serve to focus both the continuities and the differences in the tradition of contemplation. The concept begins in Stoic philosophy as a reference to the "single faculty of the soul from which all others were held to derive" Lees, p. In association with what is considered to be this highest part, the intellectual and affective views of contemplative experience come into focus and interact. But The Cloud of Unknowing the main tradition followed by the Cloud, the intellect and the imagination, which initiate the human ascent to God, must be abandoned so that contemplation may proceed by negation, or the apophatic method. By contrast, a competing term from Augustine - ratio superior, "the superior reason" - entailed a significantly different view of the mystical ascent, espoused especially by the twelfth-century Victorines, Hugh and Richard. Augustine believed that "an intellectual 'vision' of God is the goal of mystical contemplation" TeSelle, p. For Augustine, the superior reason is fulfilled by , just as the inferior reason is completed by knowledge. The wisdom that belongs to the upper part of reason is itself the image of God and contemplates the divine reasons. Later medieval writers refined these insights, but, although it undergoes subtle variations, Augustinian wisdom, or sapientia, persists. Given the wide range of Augustine's views, however, the emphasis The Cloud of Unknowing the intellect must be qualified by his observation that the best experience of God is to be found not in knowledge but in , a view that signals his major influence on the affective mysticism of the as well. In fact, his treatment of the will and the affections is so central to his mystical thought The Cloud of Unknowing he could affirm, with considerable controversial impact, that The Cloud of Unknowing act of loving one's neighbor is an experience of God TeSelle, p. Nevertheless, continuity and "the efficacy of the purified intellect. Consequently, a principal mark of the Augustinian tradition The Cloud of Unknowing illumination, the second stage of the mystical ascent, the one that, according to Evelyn Underhill Mysticism, p. In the later Middle Ages, the two different emphases in mysticism take their place in a more widely debated controversy as to whether the intellect or the will is the primary or most noble human power. This is a difference that Dante attempts The Cloud of Unknowing reconcile in the , XI,by celebrating as complementary both the splendore that illumines the intellect and the ardore that inflames the will. At the Council of Nicaea inthe clarification of the doctrine that God created the world out of nothing, ex nihilo, had a profound impact on another strain of the Christian mystical tradition. The doctrine denies the soul's natural kinship with the divine and affirms an uncrossable ontological gap between the creator and created human nature, an opposition that does not occur in the teachings of Plato and Plotinus. In the Platonic tradition, the most important ontological distinction is between the spiritual and the material, the The Cloud of Unknowing and the body. In the Nicaean view, the most important distinction is between creator and creation, with the soul having a special kinship with the body Louth, p. Because of this radical difference, the Christian mystical ascent, as influenced by , is unlike the Platonic in that it puts greater restrictions on The Cloud of Unknowing use of the intellect, which has no The Cloud of Unknowing kinship with divinity. Ultimate reality, in this tradition, is more emphatically beyond the grasp of the human mind. Most significant, however, is the key event that bridges this gap and makes union with God possible - the Incarnation of the Word. Athanasius seems to have responded to the Council of Nicaea by rejecting the Platonic tenet that the soul can reach the divine The Cloud of Unknowing the theoria of contemplation. But Gregory of Nyssa, taking up a somewhat undeveloped pattern in , presented three overlapping stages of the mystical ascent which eventually develop into the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive Lees, p. In the unitive phase, Gregory eliminates the activity of the intellect entirely and depicts a darkness in which the mystic feels the presence of God through love; and it is this tradition to which The Cloud of Unknowing belongs primarily. Affirming the image and likeness of God in the human person, but denying any identity, Gregory insisted that man can never grasp the divine nature as it is in itself by means of the intelligence, so that final union with God must take place by a kind of unknowing, although the intellect is intensely active in the early stages of The Cloud of Unknowing ascent Louth, p. Together with love, this unknowing, or negation of knowledge in the ordinary sense, is the main activity of the apophatic method, although affirmation, the kataphatic movement, is frequently present. Gregory of Nyssa's insistence that God cannot be grasped by the mind enters into the thought of the Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a mysterious, sixth-century Syrian monk. Denis, as he is simply designated by the author of the Cloud linewas thought in the Middle Ages to have been the disciple of St. Paul mentioned in the Acts of the Apostlesand consequently his works were considered immensely authoritative. He was, however, a formidable thinker in his own right, and Aquinas in the thirteenth century quotes him about The Cloud of Unknowing Pelikan, p. A central tenet for Denis, as it was for Gregory of Nyssa, is the abandonment of the understanding in order to enter the final stage of mystical contemplation in favor of the will and the affectivity. The mysticism of Denis the Areopagite provides The Cloud of Unknowing system that becomes paradigmatic for the West. He works out a three- fold analogy between The Cloud of Unknowing of being, modes of The Cloud of Unknowing, and types of theology. That is, there are the ontological dimensions of the sensible, the intelligible, and the divine. Apprehending these dimensions are the imagination, the intellect, and a faculty "above mind. The first two are kataphatic: they affirm God "by assigning to him names derived from the properties of creatures"; the third, , is The Cloud of Unknowing and denies that any of these names can be validly applied to God, who absolutely transcends nature and the human mind. Mystical theology then, entering the darkness that is above mind, "ascends to the creator himself" Emery, p. Denis does not say what the apprehension above mind is, but the Cloud author speaks for the tradition when he asserts that the contemplative rises through love "entren with affeccioun into derknes" Hodgson p. This transcendent power of love, however, is by no means unique to the Dionysian tradition, because it plays a principal role not only in Augustine, but also in Gregory the Great, , and the Victorines, Hugh and Richard. The hierarchical ascent through the faculties, which is described in our initial quotation from Augustine and which is almost universal in the mystical tradition, appears in an elaborated yet The Cloud of Unknowing way in one of the most attractive mystical treatises of the Middle Ages, the Itinerarium Mentis in Deum The Mind's Journey unto Godby . Both Bonaventure's Mind's Journey and the Cloud are relatively short and come close to being about the same length. Bonaventure's treatise is a kind of medieval devotional summa, in that he provides a compendium of symbolism, epistemology, , theology, and prayerful exhortation. It is almost a handbook of medieval thought in its succinct offering of diverse information within what might be called a mystical ontology. Covering the three categories of the Dionysian tradition, he begins with a symbolic examination of the sensible vestiges of God in the universe, proceeds to the intelligible realm in the image of the Trinity reflected in the workings of the mind, and concludes with the divine names of being and goodness as they apply to the Trinity itself. The Mind's Journey unto God contains seven chapters, but interestingly, only the last alludes to the experience addressed by the whole of the Cloud. This contrasting proportion illustrates a central difference in scale and emphasis between the Cloud and the Mind's Journey, a difference that can also serve to distinguish the Cloud from its more immediate sources and clarify its own simplicity and power. Most important, the Cloud has, as a determining principle of structure, a practical technique for moving beyond illumination to union, a transitional praxis virtually absent from Bonaventure's treatise. On the other hand, the Cloud 's references to union as such are spelled out only in brief statements at the end of the work. Yet even though the Cloud skips the vigorous and explicit exercise of the imagination and reason that make Bonaventure's treatise The Cloud of Unknowing compelling and vital, it conveys, indirectly and by allusion, much incidental insight and information about the The Cloud of Unknowing of the senses, imagination, and intellect. The reason for this is that in order to define precisely what this non-conceptual The Cloud of Unknowing and its effects are, he must, with adequate detail, clarify what it is not. In other words, although the main concern of The Cloud of Unknowing Cloud is apophatic, kataphatic affirmations, although brief and allusive, occur The Cloud of Unknowing a persistent dialectic. The achievement of the Cloud in directness and persuasiveness becomes dramatically clear when compared to the methods of two of its more immediate sources, the works of the Victorine, , and the Carthusian, Hugh of Balma. The Cloud of Unknowing, the often subtle relationships between the faculties of knowing and loving further qualify The Cloud of Unknowing differences. Thomas Gallus, who The Cloud of Unknowing Bonaventure as well as the Cloud author, ultimately derives the different stages in the progress towards union from Denis Lees, p. For "the devoted rather than the highly educated" Walsh, in Lees, p. The combination was a more usable text than the translation made by in the ninth century, or John Saracenus in the twelfth century. Since Gallus follows Denis quite closely and since he influenced Bonaventure, a somewhat detailed look at his thought can provide a sense of the tradition in a form that directly influenced the Cloud of Unknowing and at the same time convey the intellectual calm of its contrasting simplicity. As in Denis's treatises and in Bonaventure's The Mind's Journey unto God, there are a somewhat overwhelming nine levels of ascent. This elaboration of the three phases of Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, though it comes from Denis, probably owes something to Augustine's festival of triads in the De Trinitate. The multiplication of triads exists also in Proclus, who is the immediate Neoplatonic source of Denis himself and who extensively develops the traditional threefold ontology of the One, the Intelligence, and the Soul Louth, p. More precisely, in Gallus there are The Cloud of Unknowing groups of levels, or mansions, and each group itself contains three subdivisions. Paralleling each of the nine levels in Gallus are the nine orders of the Celestial Hierarchy - angels, archangels, principalities, powers, , dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim. The justification of such an elaborate schema, which occurs also in Bonaventure's mystical treatise, would seem to lie in how effectively it presents the transcendence of God, and its insistence that the ascent does not take place all at once, but by deliberate and careful gradations, a point suggested by the use of the Latin passus in Bonaventure. Interestingly, this term also describes the stages of the Middle English poem, Piers Plowman. In startling contrast is the simplicity of the Cloud, where avoiding such complexities seems to be a principal aim. In spite of the numerical complexity of these schemas, the pattern is fundamentally and even The Cloud of Unknowing determined by a dialectical emphasis on nature and grace, reason and affectivity. In the first mansion of the Temple of God which is the soul, understanding and affectivity operate naturally in the natural sphere, although helped by illuminating grace. In the second mansion, nature and grace work together. In the third mansion, the understanding and affectivity are illuminated and supported by grace alone. This final mansion is governed by synderesis, a widely used term "given to intellect and will as they work together in the way of contemplation" Walsh, in Lees, p. Historically synonymous with two other Stoic terms for the principal part of the soul, to hegemonikon and to anotaton meros, it becomes in the Christian tradition "the natural impulse by of which the soul is the image of the Sovereign Good and naturally adheres to it. This impulse, when perfectly purified by the love of God, is called the scintilla, or 'spark' of the synderesis - a phrase used by Bonaventure also, for it flies above the soul like the spark above the The Cloud of Unknowing Walsh, in Lees, p. A similar image is used in the Cloud line and Book Three, poem 9, of 's Consolation of Philosophy, where the First Mover calls back the scattered throughout the universe "like leaping flames" trans. Green, p. This final stage of union, which is where much of the diversity in the tradition comes, is subdivided into three further gradations, once more determined by a dialectical emphasis on grace, affectivity, and types of understanding: the first, corresponding to those angels called Thrones, is the reception of infused grace and the divine attraction of the intellect. The second, a point on which Hugh of Balma will strongly disagree with Gallus, is the perfection of intellectual knowledge by infused illumination. In Hugh of Balma, by contrast, the intellect The Cloud of Unknowing no initiative at all in what corresponds to these last three subdivisions. The third gradation of the last stage in Gallus is the perfection of union in the apex affectus, the "summit of the emotions" Lees, p. Although the loving The Cloud of Unknowing is non-conceptual, Gallus insists that it is nevertheless cognitive. The Cloud of Unknowing - Wikipedia

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you The Cloud of Unknowing to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — The Cloud of Unknowing by Anonymous. The Cloud of Unknowing Cloud of Unknowing by Anonymous. James Walsh Translator. Tim Farrington Goodreads Author Foreword. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published September 1st by HarperCollins first published More Details Original Title. Other Editions 2. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Cloud of Unknowingplease sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Cloud of Unknowing. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Cloud of Unknowing. Sep 20, Edvard Taylor rated it it was amazing. This beautiful, extraordinary and timeless book by an anonymous 14th century author is one of the greatest mystical treatises of any time in any . It is to be most warmly recommended to all true and sincere students of mysticism. It radiates the warmth of St. , touches in a uniquely loving and gentle way on the sufferings on the soul immersed in the dark night of the spirit, offers guidance on ways of contemplation and the attainment of true humility, which, as The Cloud of Unknowing author This beautiful, extraordinary and timeless book by an anonymous 14th century author is one of the greatest mystical treatises of any time in any religion. Francis de Sales, touches in a uniquely loving and gentle way on the sufferings on the soul immersed in the dark night of the spirit, offers guidance on ways of contemplation and the attainment of true humility, which, as the author asserts, is the prerequisite of self-knowledge preparing the way for the love of God which the purified soul must enter through the cloud of unknowing. View 1 comment. Recommended to David by: Found it hidden away in a second hand bookstore. Shelves: christian. An esoteric medieval The Cloud of Unknowing text 17 January Well, most authors that I know want as many people to read their book as possible, yet with this guy whoever he was, though it is believed that he was a monk opens, and closes, the book with who he doesn't want to read this book, which is basically anybody who does not have some intense spiritual epiphany. Okay, the version I read was a translation from the Middle English text, and I am told in the introduction that a lot of the The Cloud of Unknowing an An esoteric medieval Christian text 17 January Well, most authors that I know want as many people to read their book as possible, yet with this guy whoever he was, though it is believed that he was a monk opens, and closes, the book with who he doesn't want to read this book, which is basically anybody who does not have some intense spiritual epiphany. Okay, the version I read was a translation from the Middle English text, and I am told in the introduction that a lot of the beautiful and flowery language has been lost in the translation not surprisingly so I am unable to really comment on the poetic form. However, I must say that I am probably one of those people that he didn't really want reading this book because, well, I didn't think all that much of it. In a way, I am not surprised that it was written by a monk because the entire book is an exposition on God that is the Christian god and seems to be stuck entirely in the esoteric world. Personally, I really do not find any benefit from reading such books that have no connection to the The Cloud of Unknowing in which we live, not to say that I do not like esoteric writings — some of them can be quite good — but this seems to be clearly written by somebody who had no understanding of what the world was like outside the walls of his monastery. The reason that I rate the book so low is because I find good Christian writers are able to actively engage in the world around them, and while I do not necessarily agree with what a lot of them write, I do know that the good ones live in the world and interact with real people, as opposed to the monks of the medieval world who shut themselves away to spend their lives contemplating the nature of God. It reminds me of the story of this guy back in Roman times who built himself a column and sat on top of it so that he could escape sin, yet it did not matter how high the column was he could not escape the world. It is not that I have a thing against the monks of the medieval world though because they were active in preserving many of the texts that have been passed down to us from the classical world of the Greeks and Romans. Without these monks we would not have Homer or Cicero nor would have we have, surprisingly, Aristophanes though it was suggested that as they transcribed his plays they would make comments about how dirty some of them were. As for this book though, while it may be short, it is The Cloud of Unknowing one to give a miss because, beyond giving us an idea of how some monks spent their life contemplating God, there is The Cloud of Unknowing really all that much that I got out of it. View all 5 comments. Oct The Cloud of Unknowing, Gary Guinn rated The Cloud of Unknowing it was amazing. He writes particularly for an unidentified younger monk who is considering the call to a contemplative life. The little book about pages is the first such work in the English language, and has become a classic, influencing such later masters as St. and Teilhard de Chardin. In down-to-earth but articulate prose that is often beautiful, the monk admonishes, warns, and encourages his younger colleague, from a decidedly Augustinian view of the world. The true contemplative must, The Cloud of Unknowing says, when he practices contemplation, shut out the external world and all thoughts of that world and turn his mind entirely on the God of pure The Cloud of Unknowing. The God of love, of all creation, cannot be known, cannot be conceived of with the human mind, which Augustine tells us is utterly depraved and cannot do anything pure. And that is why all thoughts, images, desires of the outside world must be left under a cloud of forgetting. Anyone interested in meditation--Christian, The Cloud of Unknowing, or whatever--should read The Cloud of Unknowing. View 2 comments. Fleshly janglers, open praisers and blamers of themselves or of any other, tellers of trifles, ronners and tattlers of tales, and all manner of pinchers, cared I never that they saw this book. This book was not meant for me, and it certainly was not meant for YOU. After a short description of the work I will entertain you with a mangled version of text snippets. The Cloud of Unknowing can be fairly seen as a philosophy of ignor Fleshly janglers, open praisers and blamers of themselves or of any other, tellers of trifles, ronners and tattlers The Cloud of Unknowing tales, and all manner of pinchers, cared I never that they saw this book. The Cloud of Unknowing can be fairly seen as a philosophy of ignorance, or so it would seem to those of us who are beastly and unghostly. The author writes to the true contemplatives of the church, and advises that the best way to God, for those who are able, is to direct their full attention, love, and effort to addressing themselves, in all meekness, to the cloud of unknowing that permanently stands between them and their God. To do so effectively, one must give no more thought or concern to this earth, the The Cloud of Unknowing in it, the past, sin, or even oneself or the goodness of God. It is a great travail, with both ecstasies and torments, and yet God can never be fully known in this life. But if we are in condition to receive his grace, and God grants it, we can be oned with God to the degree that it is permitted within this life, and that oneness, if it be achieved, is the only thing to persist in the eternal, while the duration of this life is so brief. Language: Reading The Cloud of Unknowing was a good experience in terms of exposure to a dialect of Middle English. It seems likely that someone at some time modernized some spellings while retaining the Middle English grammar and diction. Musings: The author engages in an interesting bit of grammar analysis to arrive at one part of his The Cloud of Unknowing. He spends some time relating a lesson from the story of and her sister Mary not to be confused with the various other Marys of the New testament. Jesus visits the two sisters, Martha makes herself busy in preparing to feed and entertain Jesus, and Mary only sits at his feet adoring him. There must be three parts, of which Mary chose the best. I could probably make an infinity of additional observations the relationship between ghostly and bodily resembles method acting, achieving results by not caring about results is like good poker play, and the bodily workings of the contemplative are like the jnani whose outer self carries out The Cloud of Unknowing tasks mindlessly while the true self is realized Keep thou the windows and the door, for flies and enemies assailing. All men living in earth be wonderfully holpen of this work, thou wottest not how. Whoso heareth this work either be read or spoken of, and weeneth that it may, or should, be come to by travail in their wits, shall fall either into frenzies, or else into other great mischiefs of ghostly sins and devils' deceits; through the which he may lightly be lost, both life and soul, without any end. It is but a sudden stirring, and as it were unadvised, speedily sprinting unto God as a sparkle from the coal. Such a proud, The Cloud of Unknowing wit behoveth always be borne down and stiffly trodden down under foot. I would leave all that thing that I can think, and choose to my love that thing that I cannot think. Love The Cloud of Unknowing reach to God in this life, but not knowing. All the whiles that the soul dwelleth in this deadly body, evermore is the sharpness of our understanding in beholding of all ghostly things, but most specially of God, mingled with some manner of The Cloud of Unknowing for the which our work should be unclean. Yeah, and if it were lawful to do—as it is not—put out thine eyes, cut thou out thy tongue of thy mouth, stop thou thine ears and thy nose never so fast, though thou shear away thy members, and do all the pain to thy body that thou mayest or canst think: all this would help thee right nought. Yet will stirring The Cloud of Unknowing rising of sin be in thee. Meekness in itself is nought else, but a true knowing and feeling of a man's self as he is. And therefore swink and sweat in all that thou canst and mayest, for to get thee a true knowing and a feeling of thyself as thou art. They say, that God sendeth the cow, but The Cloud of Unknowing by the horn. Virtue is nought else but an ordained and a measured affection, plainly directed unto God for Himself. Although it be good to think upon the of God, and to love Him and praise Him for it, yet it is far better to think upon the naked being of Him, and to love Him and praise Him for Himself. As it were a The Cloud of Unknowing of unknowing, thou knowest not what, saving that thou feelest in thy will a naked intent unto God. Ween not, for I call it a darkness or a cloud, that it be any cloud congealed of the humours that flee in the air, nor yet any darkness such as is in thine house on nights when the candle is out. Thou art well further from Him when thou hast no cloud of forgetting betwixt thee and all the creatures that ever be made. Time is made for man, and not man for time. Work info: Cloud of Unknowing - Christian Classics Ethereal Library

The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative in the late Middle Ages. The underlying message of this work suggests that the way to know The Cloud of Unknowing is to abandon consideration of God's particular activities and attributes, and be courageous enough to surrender one's mind and ego to the realm of "unknowing", at which point one may begin to glimpse the nature of God. The Cloud of Unknowing draws on the mystical tradition of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Christian [1] which focuses on the via negativa road to discovering God as a pure entity, beyond any The Cloud of Unknowing of mental conception and so without any definitive image or form. This tradition has reputedly inspired generations of mystics, from John Scotus EriugenaNicholas of Cusaand John of the Crossto Pierre Teilhard de Chardin the latter two of whom may have been influenced by The Cloud itself. Prior The Cloud of Unknowing this, the theme of The Cloud had appeared in the Confessions of St. Augustine IX, 10 written in AD The author is unknown. The English Augustinian mystic has at times been suggested, but this is generally doubted. A second major work by the The Cloud of Unknowing author, The Book of Privy Counseling originally titled Prive Counsellingcontinues the themes discussed in the Cloud. It is less than half the size of the Cloudappears to be the author's final work, and clarifies and deepens some of its teachings. Experience, in keeping with the mystical tradition, is considered the ultimate means by which a Christian can and should relate to God, and the practice of contemplation in The Cloud is thus focused on the The Cloud of Unknowing of God by the contemplative. This relationship between God and the contemplative takes place within continual conflict between the spirit and the physical. God is spirit in the purest sense; therefore, no matter intensity of desire or fervor of love, the movement toward God by body-bound contemplatives will ever be halted by the cloud of unknowing that hides God from understanding and prevent fullest and truest experience The Cloud of Unknowing God's being. The object of the contemplative experience is to know God, as much as possible, from within this cloud of unknowing. The Cloud of Unknowing is written specifically The Cloud of Unknowing a student, and the author strongly commands the student in the Prologue, "do not willingly and deliberately read it, copy it, speak of it, or allow it to be read, copied, or spoken of, by anyone or to anyone, except by or to a person who, in your opinion, has undertaken truly and without reservation to be a perfect follower of Christ. The book counsels the young student to seek The Cloud of Unknowing, not through knowledge and intellection faculty of the human mindbut through intense contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought. This is brought about by putting all thoughts and desires under a "cloud of forgetting," and thereby piercing God's cloud of unknowing with a "dart of longing love" from the heart. This form of contemplation is not directed by the intellect, but involves spiritual union with God through the heart:. For He can The Cloud of Unknowing be loved, but he cannot be thought. By love he can be grasped and held, but by thought, neither grasped nor held. The Cloud of Unknowing therefore, though it may be good at times to think specifically of the kindness and excellence of God, and though this may be a light and a part of contemplation, The Cloud of Unknowing the same, in the work of contemplation itself, it must be cast down and covered with a cloud of forgetting. And you must step above it stoutly but deftly, with a devout and delightful stirring of love, and struggle to pierce that darkness above you; and beat on that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love, and do not give up, whatever happens. As one pursues the beating of the cloud of unknowing as compelled by spiritual stirrings of love in the The Cloud of Unknowing, the intellect and sinful stirrings will often pull the contemplatives focus away from God and back to the things of physical world and of the self. The author thus enjoins the contemplative to "vigorously trample on [any new thoughts or sinful stirrings] with a fervent stirring of love, and tread them down The Cloud of Unknowing your feet. And try to cover them with a thick cloud of forgetting, as if they had never been done by you or anyone else on earth. The The Cloud of Unknowing draws a strong distinction in Chapters between the active and contemplative Christian life. He illustrates the distinction by drawing heavily from the account of Mary and Martha in the Gospel of Lukewriting that "[By] Mary all contemplatives are understood, so that they should model their way of life on hers; and similarly by Martha, all actives, with the same consequent resemblance. Chapter 23 of The Book of Privy Counseling glorifies experience over The Cloud of Unknowing. On account of pride, knowledge may often deceive you, but this gentle, loving affection will not deceive you. Knowledge tends to breed conceit, but love builds. Knowledge is full of labor, but love, full of rest. Chapters 39 and 40 recommend the focus on a single word as the means to invoke the fullness of God:. When we intend to pray for goodness, let all our thought and desire be contained in the one small word "God. Immerse yourself in the spiritual reality it speaks of yet without precise ideas of God's works whether small or The Cloud of Unknowing, spiritual or material. Do not consider any particular virtue which God may teach you through grace, whether it is humility, , , , , , moderation, chastity, or evangelical poverty. For to a contemplative they are, in a sense, all the same. Let this little word represent to you God in all his fullness and nothing less than the fullness of God. While the author presents many methods of his own for effective contemplation of God, he often leaves the teaching of method to God himself. In Chapter 40, for example, he advises a contemplative who is struggling with sin to "[ And then shout continuously in spirit, 'Sin, sin, sin! While the practice of contemplation in The Cloud is focused upon the experience of spiritual reality by the soul, the author also The Cloud of Unknowing some provision for the needs of the body, going so far as to say that care for the body is an important element of spiritual contemplation if only to prevent hindrance of its practice. He writes in Chapter And so, for the love of God, guard against sickness as much as you reasonably can, so that, as far as you may, you are not the cause of The Cloud of Unknowing own weakness. For I tell you that this work demands the greatest tranquility, and a of health and purity in body as much as in soul. And so, for the love of God, regulate your conduct with moderation in body and in soul, and keep yourself as healthy as possible. In addition to The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselingthe Cloud author is believed to be responsible for a few other spiritual treatises and translations, including:. The Cloud of Unknowing has The Cloud of Unknowing known manuscripts. These contain all seven of the works attributed to the The Cloud of Unknowing author, the former extensively glossed in Latin. Given its survival in only seventeen manuscripts, The Cloud of Unknowing was not as popular in late medieval England as the works of or Walter Hiltonperhaps because the Cloud is addressed to solitaries and concentrates on the advanced levels of the mystical path. Two Latin translations of the Cloud were made in the late fifteenth century. Neither, however, enjoyed wide dissemination. This work became known to English Catholics in the mid 17th century, when the Benedictine monk, Augustine Baker —wrote an exposition on its doctrine based on a manuscript copy in the library of the monastery of Cambrai in . The original work itself, however, was not published until English mystic Evelyn Underhill edited an important version of The Cloud of Unknowing work in The work has become increasingly popular over the course of the twentieth century, with nine English translations or modernisations produced in this period. In particular, The Cloud has influenced recent contemplative prayer practices. The practical prayer advice contained in The Cloud of Unknowing forms a primary basis for the contemporary practice of Centering Prayera form of developed by Trappist monks William MeningerBasil Pennington and in the s. The contemplation method urged in The Cloud is similar to and modern transcendental meditation. If you want to gather all your desire into one The Cloud of Unknowing 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 The Cloud of Unknowing 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. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the medieval book. For other uses, see The Cloud of Unknowing disambiguation. People by era or century. . Contemporary papal views. Aspects of meditation Orationis Formas Translated by A. London: Penguin. ISBN London: Penguin Publishers. This section needs The Cloud of Unknowing citations for verification. Please help The Cloud of Unknowing this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. May Learn how and when to remove this template message. Christianity portal. It's possible either that the author of the Cloud was influenced by Aquinas, or correspondingly, both the author and Aquinas were influenced by Pseudo- Dionysius. Orthodox Christian philosophy is also influenced by Pseudo-Dionysius. For why, in God be all good. What recks this in contemplatives?. Do thou. For whi in God ben alle goodes. What thar reche in contemplatyves?. The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works. London: Penguin Books. New York: Paulist Press,p. Penguin Classics. Spearing London: Penguin,p. Continuum International Publishing Group. Appears at Retrieved 8 June History of . Key figures. Constantine to . Counter-Reformation.