other · religious

Cloud of Unknowing

c. 1370 CE · Medieval England (14th century CE) · England (author anonymous — likely a Carthusian monk in the East Midlands)

Chapter I — The Four Degrees of Christian Living

1Ghostly friend in God, I pray thee and I beseech thee,
2that thou wilt have a busy beholding to the course and manner of thy calling.
3For four degrees and forms of Christian men's living there be:
4Common, Special, Singular, and Perfect.
5Three of these may be begun and ended in this life;
6and the fourth may by grace be begun here, but it shall ever last without end in the bliss of Heaven.
7And right as thou seest how they be set here in order each after other;
8first Common, then Special, then Singular, and lastly Perfect,
9right so me thinketh that in the same order and in the same course, our Lord hath of His great mercy called thee.

Chapter III — The Work of This Book

10Lift up thy heart unto God with a meek stirring of love;
11and mean Himself, and none of His goods.
12And thereto, look thee loathe to think on aught but Himself.
13So that nought work in thy wit, nor in thy will, but only Himself.
14And do that in thee is to forget all the creatures that ever God made and the works of them;
15so that thy thought and thy desire be not directed nor stretched to any of them,
16neither in general nor in special.
17But let them be, and take no heed to them.
18This is the work of the soul that most pleaseth God.

Chapter IV — The Cloud of Unknowing

19And therefore, whoso listeth to have knowing and feeling of Him in this life,
20behoveth him to labour with a meek stirring of love in this cloud of unknowing.
21For it seemeth that the highest wisdom that any man may have in this life
22is to be busily occupied in the beholding of God with a meek stirring of love,
23and to leave off all curious searchings of the creatures.
24All rational creatures, angels and men, have in them, each one by himself,
25one principal working power, the which is called a knowing power,
26and another principal working power, the which is called a loving power.
27To the first, the which is a knowing power, God, that is the maker of them, is evermore incomprehensible;
28and to the second, the which is the loving power, in each one diversely He is all comprehensible to the full.
29By the failing of our knowing we are separated from Him;
30and by the might of love, we are knit unto Him.

Chapter V — The Cloud of Forgetting

31And thou shalt understand that, if thou wilt come and stand in this work,
32it needeth thee to put a cloud of forgetting beneath thee,
33betwixt thee and all the creatures that ever be made.
34For it is not enough to put beneath thee a cloud of forgetting only of thy fellow-creatures.
35Thou must forget all the creatures that ever be made; yea, and even the works and conditions of the same.
36Yea, and, if it be lawful to say it, in this work it profiteth little or nought
37to think of the kindness or the worthiness of God,
38nor on our Lady, nor on the saints or angels in heaven,
39nor yet on the joys in heaven — that is to say, with a special beholding to them.
40For although it be good to think upon the kindness of God, and to love Him and praise Him for it,
41yet it is far better to think upon the naked being of Him, and to love Him and praise Him for Himself.

Chapter VI — On Prayer

42But now thou askest me and sayest:
43"How shall I think on Himself, and what is He?"
44And to this I cannot answer thee but thus:
45"I wot never."
46For thou hast brought me with thy question into that same darkness,
47and into that same cloud of unknowing that I would thou wert in thyself.
48For of all other creatures and their works, yea, and of the works of God Himself,
49may a man through grace have full head of knowing, and well can he think of them:
50but of God Himself no man can think.
51And therefore I would leave all that thing that I can think, and choose to my love that thing that I cannot think.

Chapter VII — On the Little Word "God"

52And if thee list have this intent lapped and folden in one word,
53for thou shouldest have better hold thereupon,
54take thee but a little word of one syllable:
55for so it is better than of two, for ever the shorter it is the better it accordeth with the work of the Spirit.
56And such a word is this word GOD or this word LOVE.
57Choose thee whichever thou wilt, or another as thee list:
58which that thee liketh best of one syllable.
59And fasten this word to thine heart, so that it never go thence for anything that befalleth.
60This word shall be thy shield and thy spear,
61whether thou ridest on peace or on war.
62With this word thou shalt beat on this cloud and this darkness above thee.
63With this word thou shalt smite down all manner of thought under the cloud of forgetting.
64Insomuch, that if any thought press upon thee to ask thee what thou wouldest have,
65answer with no more words but with this one word.
66And if he offer thee of his great clergy to expound thee that word and tell thee the conditions of that word,
67say him that thou wilt have it all whole, and not broken nor undone.
68And if thou wilt hold thee fast on this purpose, be thou sure, he will no while abide.

The Naked Intent of Love

69For why? For thou wilt not let him feed him on such sweet meditations of God touched before.
70Look that nothing live in thy working mind but a naked intent stretching unto God.
71Not clothed in any special thought of God in Himself, how He is in Himself or in any of His works,
72but only that He is as He is.
73Let Him be so, I pray thee, and make Him none otherwise.
74Seek no further in Him by subtlety of wit;
75let that belief be thy ground.
76This nakedness and this darkness must ever be above thee,
77betwixt thee and thy God.

notes

The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English by an unknown 14th-century author, probably a Carthusian priest of the English East Midlands. It survives in seventeen medieval manuscripts and was written for a young disciple entering the contemplative life. The Cloud is the classical English statement of the apophatic (or negative) tradition of Christian mysticism, deriving ultimately from Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (5th-6th century) via the Latin translations of John Scotus Eriugena and the Victorines. Its central image — the "cloud of unknowing" between the soul and God, which cannot be pierced by intellect but only by love — became one of the most powerful metaphors in Christian contemplative literature. The practical instruction of Chapter VII — to fasten on a single monosyllabic word ("GOD" or "LOVE") and use it to "beat on this cloud and this darkness" — is a documented ancestor of the "centering prayer" movement revived by Thomas Keating and William Meninger in the 1970s, which has become the most widely practiced form of Christian meditation in the modern English-speaking world. The anonymity of the author, unusual for a work of this influence, was intentional. He explicitly instructs his disciple not to seek out his name. Translation: Evelyn Underhill, "A Book of Contemplation the Which Is Called The Cloud of Unknowing," London: John M. Watkins, 1912. Public domain.

MysticalChristianContemplationMeditation

related texts

Masnavi of Rumi — The Spiritual Coupletsother · c. 1258–1273 CE

## Book I — The Song of the Reed [1] Hearken to this Reed forlorn, [2] Breathing, ever since it was torn [3] From its rushy bed, a strain [4] Of impassioned love and pain. [5] "The secret of my song, though near, [6] None can see and none can hear. [7] Oh, for a friend to know the sign [8] And mi…

Imitation of Christlatin · c. 1418–1427 CE

## Book I — Admonitions Useful for a Spiritual Life [1] He who follows Me, shall not walk in darkness, saith the Lord. [2] These are the words of Christ, by which we are admonished [3] to imitate His life and manners, [4] if we would be truly enlightened and delivered from all blindness of heart.…

Heart Sutra — Prajnaparamita Hridayaother · c. 100 BCE–100 CE (Sanskrit); Chinese translation c. 7th century CE

## The Heart Sutra — Complete Text [1] Thus have I heard at one time. [2] The Lord was staying at Rajagriha on the Vulture Peak together with a great assembly of monks and Bodhisattvas. [3] At that time the Lord entered the Samadhi called "Profound Illumination," [4] and at the same time the nobl…

Tao Te Chingother · c. 400–300 BCE (traditional: 6th century BCE)

## Chapter 1 — The Tao That Can Be Named [1] The Tao that can be told of is not the eternal Tao; [2] The name that can be named is not the eternal name. [3] The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth; [4] The Named is the mother of all things. [5] Therefore let there always be non-being, [6]…

Confessions of Augustinelatin · c. 397–400 CE

## Book I — Prayer of Beginning [1] Great art thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; [2] great is thy power, and thy wisdom is infinite. [3] And thee would man praise; man, but a particle of thy creation; [4] man, that bears about him his mortality, the witness of his sin; [5] the witness that…