Charles would often share the wisdom contained within a book he recommended to his meditators, The Cloud of Unknowing.
The Cloud of Unknowing is a medieval Christian mystical text, written in Middle English. Its author is unknown, but it is believed to have been written in the late 14th century. The text presents a spiritual approach to contemplative prayer, focusing on the use of a “cloud of forgetting” to quiet the mind and move beyond intellectual understanding to a deeper experience of life. Here are some of the teachings by Charles from The Cloud of Unknowing:
- The most important thing in the spiritual life is to seek meaning with a pure heart and a single-minded intention.
- The mind is our primary obstacle in seeking this wonder, because it is always busy with thoughts and distractions. To quiet the mind, we must use a “cloud of forgetting” to block out all thoughts and focus our attention on loving unity alone.
- In prayer, we must let go of all concepts, symbols and images of God, including those we find in scripture, and simply rest in the awareness of a divine presence.
- God cannot be grasped or understood by the intellect, but can only be known through love.
- To love this presence, we must let go of our own desires and attachments, and surrender ourselves completely to this greater will.
- We must be humble and recognize our own limitations, realizing that we can never fully know God or achieve perfection in this life.
- The path is not a matter of following rules or performing specific religious practices, but of developing a deep personal relationship with this benign presence through contemplative prayer.
- In prayer, we must be patient and persistent, even when we feel dry or discouraged, trusting that this loving kind essence is always present and working in us.
- The ultimate goal of the spiritual life is to be in a state of ecstatic love and union, which is beyond words and concepts.
- The contemplative life is not just for monks and nuns, but is open to anyone who desires to know this essence more deeply and live in a state of continual prayer and awareness of divine presence.