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The Cloud of Unknowing

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The Cloud of Unknowing

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:

  1. The most important thing in the spiritual life is to seek meaning with a pure heart and a single-minded intention.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. God cannot be grasped or understood by the intellect, but can only be known through love.
  5. To love this presence, we must let go of our own desires and attachments, and surrender ourselves completely to this greater will.
  6. We must be humble and recognize our own limitations, realizing that we can never fully know God or achieve perfection in this life.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. The ultimate goal of the spiritual life is to be in a state of ecstatic love and union, which is beyond words and concepts.
  10. 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.

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