The Cloud of Unknowing

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This article is about the medieval book. For other uses see The Cloud of Unknowing (disambiguation)

The Cloud of Unknowing is a practical spiritual guidebook thought to have been written in the latter half of the 14th century by an anonymous English monk, possibly a Carthusian, who counsels a young student to seek God not through knowledge but through what he speaks of as a "naked intent" and a "blind love."

"Our intense need to understand will always be a powerful stumbling block to our attempts to reach God in simple love [...] and must always be overcome. For if you do not overcome this need to understand, it will undermine your quest. It will replace the darkness which you have pierced to reach God with clear images of something which, however good, however beautiful, however Godlike, is not God."

In a follow-up to The Cloud, called The Book of Privy Counseling, the author characterizes the practice of contemplative unknowing as worshiping God with one's "substance," coming to rest in a "naked blind feeling of being," and ultimately finding thereby that God is one's being.

The Cloud of Unknowing draws on the mystical tradition of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, which has reputedly inspired generations of mystical searchers from John Scotus Erigena, through Book of Taliesin, Nicholas of Cusa and St. John of the Cross to Teilhard de Chardin (the latter two of whom may have been influenced by "The Cloud" itself). It has been described as Christianity with a Zen outlook, but has also been derided by some as anti-intellectual.

The practical prayer advice contained in The Cloud of Unknowing forms a primary basis for the contemporary practice of centering prayer, a form of Christian meditation developed by Trappist monks William Meninger, Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating in the 1970s.

"And so I urge you, go after experience rather than knowledge. 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."

[edit] Other works

In addition to The Cloud of Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counseling, the Cloud author is believed to be responsible for several other spiritual treatises and translations, including:

  • Deonise Hid Divinity, a free translation of the Mystical Theology by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite;
  • An Epistle of Prayer;
  • An Epistle of Discretion of Stirrings;
  • An Epistle of Discretion of Spirits, a free translation of Sermones di Diversis no. xxiii, by Bernard of Clairvaux; and
  • A Treatise of the Study of Wisdom that Men Call Benjamin, a free translation of the Benjamin Minor by Richard of St. Victor;

[edit] References

  • The Cloud of Unknowing: And The Book of Privy Counseling (1944). ed., Phyllis Hodgson. Early English Text Society. Oxford University Press, hardback: ISBN 0197222188.
  • The Cloud of Unknowing: And The Book of Privy Counseling (1973). translator, William Johnston. 1996 edition foreword, Huston Smith. Image Doubleday, paperback: ISBN 0-385-03097-5
  • The Cloud of Unknowing (1981). translator, James Walsh. Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality. 2004 HarperCollins edition, paperback: ISBN 0-06-073775-1
  • The Cloud of Unknowing (1957). translator, Ira Progoff. Dell/Doubleday. 1983 paperback: ISBN 0440319943, 1989 paperback: ISBN 0-385-28144-7
  • Deonise Hid Divinite: And Other Treatises on Contemplative Prayer Related to The Cloud of Unknowing (1955). ed., Phyllis Hodgson. Early English Text Society. Oxford University Press, 2002 paperback: 0859916987
  • Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel (2006/1986). by Thomas Keating. Continuum International Publishing Group. paperback: ISBN 0-8264-0696-3, hardback: ISBN 0-8264-1420-6.
  • The Pursuit of Wisdom: And Other Works by the Author of The Cloud of Unknowing (1988). translator, James Walsh. Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality. paperback: ISBN 0-8091-2972-8.

[edit] External links

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