Cloud of Unknowing: sharp dart

You are to strike that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love. —



Cloud of Unknowing (trans. Ira Progoff)

Cloud of Unknowing: I cannot think

I would therefore leave all those things of which I can think and choose for my love that thing of which I cannot think.



Cloud of Unknowing

Jean-Yves Leloup: absolutizing

The dramatic "sin" of the contemporary world is its relativizing of the absolute and its absolutizing of the relative.



Jean-Yves Leloup

Meister Eckhart: truly nothing

If you do nothing, truly nothing, God cannot help but come into you.



Meister Eckhart

Hildegard of Bingen: until we sing

There is the Music of Heaven in all things and we have forgotten how to hear it until we sing.




Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen: relatedness

Everything that is in the heavens, on the earth, & under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.



Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen: I am the rain

I am the rain coming from the dew / that causes the grasses to laugh with the joy of life.

I call forth tears, the aroma of holy work. / I am the yearning for good.



Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen: The Word

Without the Word of God no creature has meaning. / God's Word is in all creation, visible and invisible.

The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. / This Word manifests in every creature.

Now this is how the spirit is in the flesh - the Word is indivisible from God.



Hildegard of Bingen

Gospel of Mary Magdalene: my soul sang

And my soul sang: "What has bound me has been slain. What encompassed me has been vanquished. Desire has reached its end, and...

...I am freed from Ignorance. I left one world behind with the aid of another, and now as Image I have been freed from the analog. ...

...I am liberated from the chains of forgetfulness which have existed in time. From this moment onward I go forward...

...into the fullness beyond time, & there, where time rests in the stillness of Eternity, I will repose in silence.



Gospel of Mary Magdalene; translation Bauman, Bauman, Bourgeault

Thomas Merton: what God is

In the end the contemplative suffers the anguish of realizing that he no longer knows what God is.



Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton: only SUM

For the contemplative there is no cogito ("I think") and no ergo ("therefore") but only SUM, I AM.



Thomas Merton

Cynthis Bourgeault: Jesus as Tantric Master

If I were to describe the kenotic path [Jesus] laid out in its broadest generic terms, using metaphysical rather than theological language, the category that most closely fits is “tantric.” Now I know “tantra” is an immediate scare word to a lot of Christians, who think it means making a religion out of having good sex. But “tantra” in its real sense is an ancient and authentic spiritual path, based on a comprehensive metaphysical system. The symmetrical opposite of the way of the ascetic (or brahmacharya, to use the comparable generic name), it seeks the unitive state— that is the transcendence of separation and duality—through a complete self-emptying or self-outpouring.

... In the kenotic or tantric path, anything can come toward you, and you can embrace it fully; you preserve your chastity simply by not clinging. In the free flow of this coming and going (which as we saw in the last chapter belongs to the perichoresis, or “dance around,” of divine love) you dwell in safety.




Cynthis Bourgeault in ‘Wisdom Jesus’

Cynthis Bourgeault: The Trinity

The Trinity understood in a wisdom sense:

The Cappadocian fathers, however, were not looking at individual persons, but at the flow of energy between the persons. In fact, the word we translate as “person” (hypostasis in Greek) does not mean an individual at all, but more a state of being—just as water can manifest as ice, liquid, or vapor, but remains the same chemical compound throughout. The Cappadocians were interested in how this movement, or change of state, takes place. They saw it as an outpouring of love, from Father to Son, from Son to Spirit, from Spirit back to father...

The Trinity, understood in a wisdom sense, is really an icon of self-emptying love. The three persons go round and round like buckets on a watermill, constantly overspilling into one another. And as they do so, the mill turns and the energy of love becomes manifest and accessible. The Cappadocians called this complete intercirculation of love perichoresis, which literally means “the dance around.” … God reveals his own innermost nature through a continuous round dance of self-emptying. On the great watermill of the Trinity, the statement ‘God is love’ brings itself into reality





Cynthis Bourgeault in ‘Wisdom Jesus’

Cynthia Bourgeault: with a dual mind

The catch-22 for most Christians is that we're trying to do a nondual teaching with a dual mind.



Cynthia Bourgeault

Cynthis Bourgeault: koans

[Jesus's] parables are much closer to what in the Zen tradition would be koans... that are intended to turn the egoic mind upside down.



Cynthis Bourgeault

Cynthia Bourgeault: nondual consciousness

The Kingdom of Heaven is Jesus's own favorite way of describing a state we would nowadays call a “nondual consciousness”



Cynthia Bourgeault

Cynthis Bourgeault: Kingdom of Heaven

The Kingdom of Heaven is really a metaphor for a state of consciousness; it is not a place you go to, but a place you come from.



Cynthis Bourgeault

Jean-Yves Leloup : Miriam

Yeshua loved John or Miriam not more than he loved Peter or Judas, but differently. He loved them all with a universal and unconditional love, but he also loved each of them in a unique and particular fashion. Human love can still function while being subsumed in a divine love that includes all beings, even our enemies. It was this love that he proposed to all who would walk with him. Human love consists of preferences, affinities, particular resonances, and intimacies that are not possible with all.

When Miriam realized this divine Love, she was no longer a woman who could be possessed, either by man or by demon. She became the faithful, blessedly happy friend of the one who had delivered her. Henceforth she could not be “had,” not even by death itself, for her lover remained faithful to the great life that spoke through him. This new desire of hers was one that he would never betray.

This is how it is with those who give themselves to love. How can they think of anything better, how can they have any concern other than loving even more, giving themselves with no expectation of return?

"When you make the two into One,
when you make the inner like the outer and
the high like the low; when you
make male and female into single One,
so that the male is not male and the female is not female;
when you have eyes in your eyes, a hand in your hand,
a foot in your foot, and an icon in your icon,
then you will enter into the Kingdom."




from 'The Sacred Embrace of Jesus and Mary: The Sexual Mystery at the Heart of the Christian Tradition'

By Jean-Yves Leloup

J-Y LeLoup: the Annunciator

[Yeshua] was the Annunciator, Witness, & some... say the Incarnation of the possible reign of the Spirit in the heart of this space-time

the manifestation of the Infinite in the very heart of our finitude, the voice of the Other within the speech of human-ness.



J-Y LeLoup

Gospel Mary: rules

Do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed for you, & do not give a law like the lawgiver lest you be constrained by it.



Gospel Mary

G.K. Chesterton: Christianity

Christianity isn't a failure; it just hasn't been tried yet.


G.K. Chesterton

Abhishiktananda: no matter

There is no matter which doesn't shout aloud the presence of the spirit.


Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]

Thomas Merton: one awareness

The life of contemplation implies two levels of awareness: first, awareness of the question, and second, awareness of the answer.

Though these are two distinct and enormously different levels, yet they are in fact an awareness of the same thing.

The question is, itself, the answer. & we ourselves are both. But we cannot know this until we have moved into the 2nd kind of awareness.

We awaken, not to find an answer absolutely distinct from the question, but to realize that the question is its own answer.

And all is summed up in one awareness—not a proposition, but an experience: "I AM."




Thomas Merton

Apocryphon of James: want of reason

Become full of the Spirit, but be in want of reason.




The Apocryphon of James

Abhishiktananda: God

God is everywhere, God alone is both hidden and unveiled in his manifestation.



Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]

Abhishiktananda: face

Jesus is God's face turned towards man and man's face turned towards God.



Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]

Abhishiktananda: form

God has no form. God is beyond every form. Precisely for that reason God can reveal and manifest himself under any form.



Abhishiktananda

Thomas Merton: an impostor

We must become conscious of the fact that the person who we think we are, here and now, is at best an impostor and a stranger.




Thomas Merton

Nicholas of Cusa: beyond nothing

God is beyond nothing and beyond something, for nothing obeys God in order that something may come into being.



Nicholas of Cusa

Abhishiktananda: no other to name it

In this annihilating experience one is no longer able to project in front of oneself anything whatsoever, to recognize any other “pole” to which to refer oneself and to give the name of God. Once one has reached that innermost center, one is so forcibly seized by the mystery that one can no longer utter a “Thou” or an “I.” Engulfed in the abyss, we disappear to our own eyes, to our own consciousness. The proximity of that mystery which the prophetic traditions name “God” burns us so completely that there is no longer any question of discovering it in the depths of oneself or oneself in the depths of it. In the very engulfing, the gulf has vanished. If a cry was still possible— at the moment perhaps of disappearing into the abyss—it would be paradoxically: “but there is no abyss, no gulf, no distance!” There is no face-to-face, for there is only That-Which-Is, and no other to name it.



Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]

Bede Griffiths: God in everything

God had brought me to my knees and made me acknowledge my own nothingness, and out of that knowledge I had been reborn.

I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything. -



Bede Griffiths

Gospel of Thomas: divider

I'm not a divider, am I?



Gospel of Thomas

Abhishiktananda: I and a Thou

Whoever still utters an I and a Thou which set him apart from his brothers has not yet left this world nor himself,

nor has he passed to the level of the Real.




-Swami Abhishiktananda [Fr Henri le Saux]

Abhishiktananda: OM

OM the mystery of the Spirit. But ultimately there is no name for the Father, for the Father can never be known in himself.

He is known only through his self-manifestation in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

The Father is that last or fourth part of the OM, which is pure Silence.



Abhishiktananda

Meister Eckhart: and evil praise God

Everything praises God. Darkness, privations, defects, and evil praise God and bless God.



Meister Eckhart

Meister Eckhart: God be God

God expects but 1 thing of you, & that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you are a created being & let God be God in you.



Meister Eckhart

Gospel of Thomas: person of light

There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world.



Gospel of Thomas

Matthew Fox: Divine womb

I see the universe as a Divine womb and we're all swimming around in this soup.



Matthew Fox

Hildegard of Bingen: all reality

I, the highest and fiery power, have kindled every spark of life, and I emit nothing that is deadly. I decide on all reality.



Hildegard of Bingen

Cloud of Unknowing: in this nothing

And therefore work in this nothing, and this nowhere,

Leave your outward thoughts and all that they work in for I tell you truly, that this work may not be conceived by them.



Cloud of Unknowing

Meister Eckhart: gums

Be silent and quit flapping your gums about God.



Meister Eckhart

Sayings from the Desert Fathers: what else

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph & sd: "Abba, as much as I am able I practice a small rule, a little fasting, some prayer & meditation (...)

(...) and remain quiet, and as much as possible I keep my thought clean. What else should I do?" (...)

(...) Then the old man stood up and stretched out his hands toward heaven, and his fingers became like ten torches of flame. (...)

(...) And he said: "If you wish, you can become all flame.”




–Desert Wisdom: Sayings from the Desert Fathers

Gospel of Thomas: upon the earth

The Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it.



Gospel of Thomas

Julian of Norwich: Immediately

Immediately is the soul made at one with God when it is truly set at peace in itself.



Julian of Norwich

Meister Eckhart: everything that is

Relation is the essence of everthing that is.



Meister Eckhart

Mechthild of Magdeburg: my lover

Lord, you are my lover, / My longing, / My flowing stream, / My sun, / And I am your reflection.



Mechthild of Magdeburg

The Cloud of Unknowing: of God

but of God Himself can no man think.



The Cloud of Unknowing

Hildegard of Bingen: divine wisdom

I, the fiery life of divine wisdom, I ignite the beauty of the plains, I sparkle the waters, I burn in the sun, and the moon, and the stars.



Hildegard of Bingen

The Gospel of Truth: unity

In time unity will make the spaces complete. By means of unity each one will understand itself.



The Gospel of Truth

Meister Eckhart: mothers of God

We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.



Meister Eckhart

Julian of Norwich: no doer

As well as the best and highest deed that is done, so well is the least deed done,... for there is no doer but He.



Julian of Norwich

Meister Eckhart: Isness

Isness is God.



Meister Eckhart

The Gospel of Truth: completeness

For where there is envy and strife, there is an incompleteness; but where there is unity, there is completeness.



The Gospel of Truth

Thomas Merton on Julian of Norwich

The theology of Lady Julian [of Norwich] is a theology of the all- embracing totality and fullness of the divine love. This is, for her, the ultimate Reality, in the light of which all created being and all the vicissitudes of life and of history fade into unimportance. Not that the world and time, the cosmos and history are unreal: but their reality is only a revelation of love.



Thomas Merton

Julian of Norwich: no between

Between God and the soul there is no between.



Julian of Norwich

Hildegard of Bingen: who you are

O, human, you do not even know who you are.



Hildegard of Bingen

Gospel of Thomas: personal deficiency

If one who knows the all still feels a personal deficiency, he is completely deficient.



Gospel of Thomas

Julian of Norwich: mid-point

God is in the mid-point of everything.



Julian of Norwich

Book of Thomas the Contender: the truth

Blessed is the wise man who sought after the truth, and when he found it, he rested upon it forever



Book of Thomas the Contender

Meister Eckhart: dare to re-enter

Only those that have dared to let go can dare to re-enter



Meister Eckhart

Gospel of Thomas: the keystone

Show me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone.



Gospel of Thomas

Nicholas of Cusa: Divine Mind

The absolute, Divine Mind, is all that is in everything that is



Nicholas of Cusa

Meister Eckhart: express God

All creatures are gladly doing the best they can to express God



Meister Eckhart

Julian of Norwich: amiss?

I lead everything toward the purpose for which I ordained it, without beginning... How could anything be amiss?




Julian of Norwich

Julian of Norwich: See!

See! I am God. See! I am in everything. See! I never lift my hands from my works, nor will I ever. See!



Julian of Norwich

Gospel of Thomas: if one is divided

If one is whole, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness.




-Gospel of Thomas

Meister Eckhart: in this present now

I have often said God is creating this entire world full and entire in this present now.



Meister Eckhart

The Gospel of Truth: you are this understanding

Raise up and awaken those who sleep. For you are this understanding which encourages.



The Gospel of Truth

The Gospel of Truth: without knowing him

It was a great wonder that they were in the Father without knowing him.



The Gospel of Truth

Julian of Norwich: This I am. This I am.

This I am. This I am. I am what you love. I am what you enjoy. I am what you serve.

I am what you long for. I am what you desire. I am what you intend.
I am all that is.




-Julian of Norwich

Gospel of Thomas: I am all

I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.




Gospel of Thomas trans. Patterson and Meyer

The Book of Thomas: the wheel that turns

Woe to you because of the wheel that turns in your minds!



The Book of Thomas

Mechtild of Magdeburg: my spiritual awakening

The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things.



Mechtild of Magdeburg

the fire, the fire inside!

There in the lucky dark, / none to observe me, darkness far and wide; / no sign for me to mark, / (...)

(...) no other light, no guide / except for my heart – the fire, the fire inside!



John of the Cross

John of the Cross: although it is night

1. That eternal spring is hidden, / for I know well where it has its rise, / although it is night.

2. I do not know its origin, nor has it one, / but I know that every origin has come from it, / although it is night.

3. I know that nothing else is so beautiful, / and that the heavens and the earth drink there, / although it is night.

4. I know well that it is bottomless / and no one is able to cross it, / although it is night.

5. Its clarity is never darkened, / and I know that every light has come from it, / although it is night.

6. I know that its streams are so brimming / they water the lands of hell, the heavens, and earth, / although it is night.

7. I know well the stream that flows from this spring / is mighty in compass and power, / although it is night.

8. I know the stream proceeding from these two, / that neither of them in fact precedes it, / although it is night.

9. This eternal spring is hidden / in this living bread for our life's sake, / although it is night.

10. It is here calling out to creatures; / and they satisfy their thirst, although in darkness, / because it is night.

11. This living spring that I long for, / I see in this bread of life, / although it is night.



-John of the Cross : "Song of the soul that rejoices in knowing God by faith"

precisely there - Meister Eckhart

Everything is full and pure at its source and precisely there, not outside.



-Meister Eckhart

from The Gospel of the Egyptians

This great name of yours is upon me, O self-begotten Perfect one, who is not outside me. I see you, O you who are visible to everyone.

Now that I have known you, I have mixed myself with the immutable. I have armed myself with an armor of light; I have become light!



The Gospel of the Egyptians trans. Bohlig and Wisse

am truly in you

I who am Divine am truly in you. / I can never be sundered from you: /

However far we be parted, never can we be separated. / I am in you and you are in Me.


-Mechtild of Magdeburg