What is Meant by Unknowing?

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Human knowledge is a mixed blessing in that it empowers us, yet fails to provide a moral compass which prevents us from misusing power.  This is humanities dilemna. The spell of life that leads us to think we a radically different from our environment is not lifted by technical advancements.  The spell organizes personal reality dualistically. Knowledge divides, as it reveals rules of nature and resources  that can serve our efforts to thrive.   The spell of life leads us to think that we are separate from each other.  This spell, however may be broken by stilling our bodies and our minds. We interrupt "knowing."    

“Unknowing” is a significant word in the Christian contemplative tradition.  The term “unknowing” is honored as a pointer to spiritual revelation, where in God is realized. The lens of unknowing reveals both the imanent presense of God in this -- the Dream Of Life -- as it does the Transcendent Dreamer, who is beyond the dream.    

This teaching is beautifully presented in the anonymously written, 14th Century Christian classic, The Cloud of Unknowing.  In the text, the author discloses: "Thought cannot comprehend God.  And so, I prefer to abandon all I can know, choosing rather to love him, whom I cannot know.”  Here, the author asserts that God is beyond all categories of human comprehension.  On that account, he dismisses all of his beliefs to remove the obstacles that obstruct communion.

The Cloud’s teaching acknowledges that automatic thoughts uninvitingly surface, and  notably so, when one meditates.  "It is inevitable” writes the author, “that ideas will arise in your mind, trying to distract you in a thousand ways.”  Wherefore, the author encourages a strategy of gathering all conceptions into a single symbol that may be useful, rather than a hindrance.  “Gather,” he prescribes, “all your desires into one simple word that the mind can easily retain. Choose a short word rather than a long one. 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. The word will be your defense in conflict and in peace.  Use it to beat upon the cloud of darkness . . . and to subdue all distractions, consigning them to the cloud of forgetting. . . .”  Interestingly, this contemplative practice, has early roots in the Christian epic.  

It was first explicated in the late 5th century by a Syrian monk, known as Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite in his work, The Mystical Theology.  _{(see Incanting Pseudo-Dionysius below.)}  This early, non-conceptual Christian teaching profoundly influenced saints like Thomas Aquinas, as well as mystics like the author of The Cloud of Unknowing._{(see Incanting The Cloud of Unknowing below.)}  This non-conceptual approach, known too, as the Via Negativa, is well organized for modern readers in Father Thomas Keating’s 1986 book Open Mind Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel.  Father Keating called this contemplative practice Centering Prayer.  Other champions of the approach include Father Mathew Fox and Father Richard Rohr.

Incanting the Prayer of Pseudo-Dionysius

Such be my prayer, Dearest Timothy,

That thou leave the senses,

And all things that the senses can perceive,

That thine understanding be laid to rest,

Clinging not to the objects of human thought.

Such be my prayer, Dearest Timothy

That thou be released from fancy,

Possessing neither speech nor understanding,

Passing through the opposition of fair and foul,

Plunging thee into the Darkness of Unknowing.

Such be my prayer, Dearest Timothy,

That through stillness of all faculties,

And by the rejection of human knowledge,

Thou leave behind heavenly utterances,

And so shalt be led to One Beyond All Things.

Amen

Incanting The Cloud of Unknowing

How shall I proceed to think of God, as he is in Himself, you ask?

To this I can only reply, “I do not know.”

For all ideas, however pious or delightful, hinder more than help.

Never knowledge, only love, can touch God.

Let no idea of God distract you.

Choose rather to love him, whom one cannot know.

Leave thoughts behind, beneath a cloud of forgetting,

And pierce the cloud of unknowing.

Inevitably, ideas arise, distracting you in a thousand ways.

Use but a simple word to regather.

The word will be your defense in subduing all distractions,

For only love, never knowledge, can touch God.

Amen