The Cloud Of Unknowing

It's frequently said that the method of centering prayer is based on the text of the Cloud, but to me, they express very differently. While centering prayer typically emphasizes the kenotic letting go or emptying, the Cloud retains the crucial element of loving devotion, or what the Bhakti path in Yoga calls Bhāva.

Transcript

Hello,

And welcome to Methods of Contemplation,

An exploration and guided prayer and meditation.

The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous 14th century work on the practice of contemplative prayer.

It's been a constant companion of Christian mystics through the ages and outlines an incredibly powerful way of disposing ourselves to the gift of contemplation.

In modern circles,

It might be recognized as a source of inspiration for the contemporary method of Centering Prayer,

Popularized by Fathers Thomas Keating,

Basil Pennington,

And William Menninger.

But the practice of Centering Prayer is a bit different than the method from which it takes its inspiration.

Whereas Centering Prayer is primarily a receptive method based on the act of surrender or letting go,

The Cloud is an affective method based on the posture of devotion or love toward the Divine.

In the Method of the Cloud,

The author combines the apophatic mysticism of Pseudo-Dionysius as well as the affective power of desire.

What results is the ease of practice and stripping us of attachments as we are transformed into the love with which we seek for love itself.

Similar to the Bhagavad Gita,

The author of the Cloud posits that the path of love is the supreme path.

He says this,

God may well be loved,

But he may not be thought of.

He may be reached and held close by means of love,

But by means of thought,

Never.

Saint Bonaventure in The Theophany of Saint Francis describes the soul's faculties as sensation,

Imagination,

Reason,

Intelligence,

Understanding,

And awareness going from lower to higher.

It's for this reason that the apophatic way of contemplative prayer endures to put all these faculties to rest,

So that we can rise above them to behold the pure being of God with the naked desire of a purified heart.

Ultimately,

The cloud is a practice of pure faith as John of the Cross describes in the Ascent of Mount Carmel where we are lifted up the back staircase,

So to speak,

To the divine under the cover of night,

Without our knowledge.

There are primarily three parts to the cloud,

And the first deals with the relinquishing of all our thoughts,

Feelings,

Emotions,

Perceptions,

Memories,

And desires when it comes to creation or the world of form.

This is called the cloud of forgetting,

And it's meant to stop our awareness and attention from going out into the world of form,

Or the world of creatures as the cloud calls it.

The author tells us that in the depths of this prayer,

We are to forget even the awareness of our own being,

Giving fully over the transitory and unreal nature of our finite and separate self,

Or what the Buddhist tradition calls anatta,

Or no self.

The next part is the cloud of unknowing,

Where we are aware of a dark cloud between us and God.

This might sound ominous,

But it's meant to convey that the essence of the beloved is unknowable as an object.

Any qualities that we might ascribe to God are ways that our mental faculties like reason and understanding can latch onto and create concepts out of,

Making an object of God to conquer with wisdom.

Once we create a concept as a symbol for the thing,

We very seldom ever relate to anything but that concept.

We don't relate to the thing itself anymore.

So for that reason,

The cloud of unknowing stays,

Preventing us from trying to place a box or define God intellectually.

The third and final part is when we take our pure desire for God alone and direct it like an arrow straight into the heart of that dark cloud.

This dart of longing love is the concentration of our innermost will,

Sharpened to a fine point.

It's here where we fully dispose ourselves to the gift of contemplation.

In a way,

Our will is the last thing that we surrender.

John Roysbrook,

A Finnish mystic,

Describes this as our enlightened sharing in the loving embrace of the Trinity.

When this happens,

He says those souls that have been illumined by the radiant love of God are lifted up with free mind above reason to a bare vision devoid of images.

There lives the eternal invitation of God's unity,

And with imageless,

Naked understanding,

They go beyond all works and all practices and all things to the summit of their spirit.

The method goes like this.

Fall into your contemplative prayer position,

Whether that's sitting on the edge of a chair or on the floor with your legs crossed.

Bring your attention to your breath,

Watching it naturally flow in and out a few times,

Not trying to force or slow it down.

Bring an absolute sense of effortlessness to everything in this prayer.

As you center on the breath,

Allow the tension in the body to relax,

Bringing a sense of spaciousness to the mind.

And now with your eyes closed,

As any exterior sounds,

Smells,

Or other sensations arise,

Simply withdraw your attention from them completely.

Our attention is the energy that focuses our awareness and sends it out to the world of things.

Just by withholding our attention,

We're simply not going out.

Place a thick cloud of forgetting between all those sensations and yourself.

There may be a particularly loud or potent distraction that might try to assault you,

Might try to break through that cloud,

But your attention and your desire is completely withdrawn from them,

So their strength doesn't really matter.

Place again that cloud of forgetting between you and everything both beneath and outside of you.

This is symbolic of Matthew 6-6 and going into our inner room within us,

Where the kingdom of God is located.

Now likewise,

As any interior thoughts,

Images,

Concepts,

Feelings,

Emotions,

Or insights arise,

Place a cloud of forgetting between them as well.

Whether it's a memory of something interesting someone said earlier,

A task you need to check off,

Leftover emotions from an argument with a spouse,

Or a genuine spiritual breakthrough.

No matter how negatively charged or alluring and divine the image may seem,

It's not what you're here for,

So simply let it go.

And finally,

Place a cloud of unknowing between you and God,

Because God cannot be grasped by the mind.

The more we recline into our basic trust of God,

Not trying to fit him into our heads,

The more of her is revealed to us within the depths of our heart.

So direct a completely stripped and naked desire toward the beloved.

Anytime an exterior or interior thing auditions for your attention,

Simply let that cloud of forgetting envelop it completely.

And anytime you feel your rational mind trying to dissect or understand God,

Or what you're experiencing in this prayer,

Let the cloud of unknowing press it back.

If you start asking yourself,

Am I doing this right,

Place that beneath the cloud as well,

Because the only thing we need here is our devotion.

창과ondo.

Com You You You You You You You You You And return to that piercing dart of love toward God allowing everything within your heart to send it out And for your heart to open Wider and wider and wider Think of it like a stream of love that you're directing toward that cloud You'll never run out of it The more love you direct towards the beloved the more you have That burning desire just grows and grows until it envelops everything Including you Including the cloud Including the cloud Realize that that overwhelming love within you is the divine itself The love that burns away all that you thought you were is placed there by grace To draw you back to the divine where your true identity is hidden Then it's just love loving love And then nothing's happening anymore It's just this Slowly bring your attention back into the room and move your body around a little bit See if you can stay with that sense of pure loving devotion throughout your day Allowing it to transform and alchemize your very experience of yourself,

The world,

And the divine Thank you for watching!

Reviews

Thank you for this meditation that guides me on the journey to understand more deeply “The Cloud of Unknowing.”

Namaste 🙏

Thank you🙏

Thank uou for this.

I love the visualizations around the dart of longing love and opening our hearts until it’s just love loving love. ❤️‍🔥

Beautiful. Would love a track with the meditation only.

Thank you for sharing, this was a really connective process. 🪷

It feels like this is the meditation I’ve been searching for for ages.
I’ve read the cloud of unknowing before, but never experienced. It explained so clearly.

This is one of the most powerful meditations I have ever done. Practicing this meditation enabled me to experience a profound connection to God‘s unconditional love.

I feel so much ease, peace, spaciousness and truth. Thank you.

Loved it, great content, great pacing, perfect! 😊 thanks

This is an important contribution to My practice, I will be exploring this further
Thank you.