Reflecting and Responding
The Cloud of Unknowing
The Sharp Darts of Longing Love
If you are to experience God or see him at all, insofar as it is possible here it must always be in this “Cloud of Unknowing” and in this darkness.
THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY OPENED AS A brewing cauldron of religious and social dissent. Embroiled with France in what would become the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), England experienced the utter collapse of its political and cultural life. The social disruption intensified as the bubonic plaque ravished the English Isles, striking first in 1348 and then again in 1361, killing a third to half of the entire population. As the institutions of medieval life crumbled, the working poor organized, first for sheer survival and eventually to engage in some of the earliest efforts at collective bargaining.
With these calamities running wild it is little wonder that the fourteenth century spawned some of the finest spiritual literature in Christian history. Along with the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, three other distinguished writers produced classics: Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton and Julian of Norwich. As the garment of faith unraveled, these writers provided attractive and provocative guidance for our life with God.
The authorship of The Cloud of Unknowing remains a mystery, but wide speculation abounds. Included in the work are many parallels with Walter Hilton’s fine writings from this same period. It is unknown why the author preferred anonymity. It may be that he never dreamed it would have a wide readership. Or, even more possible, it may have been a woman whose very life would be threatened if she were perceived to be writing without the sanction of the church. Of course, many devout believers of this era valued anonymity in much the same way our society values celebrity. Perhaps the author will be discovered some day, but for now we are left to ponder its great message and its invitation to a deeper life with God.
Sharp Darts of Longing Love
For our purposes, The Cloud of Unknowing can be summarized in chart form.
Between levels I and II and between levels II and III there are two important realities: “the cloud of forgetting” and “the cloud of unknowing.” “The cloud of forgetting” shields us from the power of our former life of sin. As we move into level II, we learn to live in the power of God, leaving behind all elements of our life lived without any knowledge of him.
In a similar fashion, “the cloud of unknowing” stands between our life as a fully devoted follower of Christ and our ultimate destiny to live eternally with God. Instead of forming a shield that blocks our memories of a life we no longer want, this cloud ushers us into the presence of God. It is as “the sharp darts of longing love” are shot heavenward that our life is drawn into the eternal power that originates in God alone.
“The cloud of unknowing” is not a physical cloud but a darkness of understanding, a privation of knowledge. Our mind helps us understand that we lack knowledge and also that we will not penetrate the cloud with our mind but with our heart and the sharp darts of longing love. The cloud can be penetrated only when we quiet our mind and suspend our compulsion to prove everything rationally. The greatest temptation we face is to spend more time showing off our intellectual prowess than learning how to love God. The combined power of our intellect and pride becomes the greatest barrier to our life with God.
The Active and the Contemplative
The Cloud then raises an interesting issue: which is the highest expression of the Christian life? Gregory the Great made a compelling case that the active and contemplative life together is the highest expression of our life with God. The author of The Cloud, on the other hand, returns to the ancient teaching that the highest expression of a devotional life is a dedication to prayer and contemplation.
Here is how The Cloud makes its case. In stage I, the active life, as commonly assumed, is the lowest expression of our life with God. This is where moral virtue is cultivated and moral vice is crushed. This is also the level where we engage in works of love of neighbor and develop deeper thoughts and love for God. But we really don’t know God in any sort of sustained way.
Stage II is what the author defines as “the higher part of the active life and the lower part of the contemplative life.” He is quite specific as to what occurs here: good spiritual meditations and earnest considerations of our spiritual state apart from Christ lead us into a deeper life with God. We do not come to full knowledge of God at this level, but we make tremendous progress. We are in a transition period where we still rely on external aids for our spiritual life, but we are moving to a deeper place where prayer becomes increasingly significant and external aids to worship become less helpful.
In many respects, The Cloud articulates a reality that is obvious today: people are at different places in their walk with God and so need different forms of worship and study to facilitate their growth. No two people mature at the same rate or in the same way, but we do seem to cluster around forms of worship that minister to us. When this happens we gather into groups with others at a similar place in their spiritual journey. Ultimately, though, we are not to stop here.
The highest level, the contemplative life, consists entirely in learning how to live in the presence of God. There is darkness here, but it is not a darkness of absence, but rather a darkness of incomplete knowing. We are carried into the “cloud” by love and sustained in it by gazing on God alone. We shut out every other source of stimulation—sensual, intellectual and reflective—in order to focus on God alone. At this level, we even move beyond our thoughts of God in order to dwell in his presence without thought or distraction.
Of course, no one in this life can sustain this highest level of concentration for long. Even the noblest monks who had the greatest opportunity and the fewest distractions could not sustain this life. But our calling is not to sidestep the opportunity but to recognize our own limits. Our goal is to be knit together with God at the very core of our being. The fact that our groping for this higher life falls short does not dismiss us from the reality that our longing for peace and contentment always leads us back to God.
Like Gregory before him, the author borrows from the wonderful story of Mary and Martha found in Luke 10. Martha exemplifies the active life, while Mary embodies the contemplative life—attentive regard for God alone. The two cannot understand each other. Mary stands for all contemplatives who send forth impulses of love. She is so occupied with the life of the spirit that she has little understanding and even less desire to please others. Martha, by contrast, stands for all actives who engage in meaningful activity but never stop long enough to know and experience the depth of God.
Awakening a Curiosity
Inevitably, every one of us reaches a point when we recognize we will die. When we reach this moment, it awakens a curiosity about whether this life is all there is and, if there is something more, how we prepare for it. When we have settled our questions about the existence of God and come to believe in him, we realize the only sustainable force in life is following God and trying to become like him. This realization doesn’t happen quickly or instantly but matures over time if we engage in the right thoughts and disciplines.
When we embark on this path we begin to reflect on the times in our life when we have failed to express the love of God or experience his presence in a compelling way. This makes us wonder about the things that distract us from this goal and especially the harmful thoughts and attitudes that originate in our own behavior. Inevitably, we come to think about the seven deadly sins and how they ruin our opportunity to enjoy the love of God. In The Cloud, the author gets very specific about the seven deadly sins and shows how they awaken and how they can be eradicated. Here is how he helps us understand ourselves.
Anger or wrath awakens when our desires are frustrated—when we are unable to control our response when a goal or desire goes unmet. Wrath is simply the result of realizing that we cannot control our world in the way we desire.
Envy is one of the most pervasive sins in the community of faith. It often exists between churches and within denominations. On an individual level, it demonstrates an inability to accept the gifts God has given us and grow in our understanding and expression of them. As a result, we are unable to embrace the gifts of others.
Sloth is a weariness of life and repugnance for physical and spiritual work. In other words, laziness. The Bible makes it clear that all of us are to work. Work is how we participate in restoring the fallen world. God also says that we find meaning through our work. It is through work that we engage with others and make a meaningful contribution with our life.
Pride is a result of an inordinate pleasure in a natural ability or intellectual talent. One of the greatest discoveries in life is to recognize that no matter how gifted we are in a particular area, there are others who are equally or even more gifted. When we realize this, it is the first step to true humility and the ability to embrace the gifts God has given us in ways that matter to him.
Covetousness or greed results from failing to learn that whatever level of wealth we enjoy, our possessions are merely tools to help us along the way. They are not the reason for the journey but aids to it. In the West, covetousness has been a perennial problem, and not just for the rich. The poor also must learn the proper place of wealth.
Gluttony seduces us into believing that satisfaction in life can come from sources other than God.
Lust typically manifests as unbridled sexual activity. Through the centuries Christianity has received a bad rap for being against sex. However, the Christian faith has never been against sex, only against sex outside the covenant of marriage. The entire tradition of Christian teaching recognizes that unbridled sex brings ruin to our life. We simply cannot sustain ourselves physically, spiritually or emotionally when we engage in this level of intimacy with multiple partners and no sustaining commitments.
The main point we need to learn from these seven deadly sins is that our ongoing participation in any or all of them will destroy our soul. But how do we overcome such strong forces?
Learning “the Exercise”
For the author of The Cloud, the only way to eradicate the deadly sins is to continue in “the exercise.” Now this term may evoke for some of us the ancient practice of self-flagellation, but this is not what The Cloud is referring to. The exercise is not a physical activity but a mental effort to express attentive regard for God alone. Advanced research teaches us that physical exercise is good for the heart, helps strengthen our circulation and renews our mind. In the same way, spiritual exercise helps destroy vice and cultivate virtue.
To develop the virtues that overcome the vices, we must engage in deliberate efforts that follow a clearly defined path. A virtue, according to The Cloud, is nothing other than an ordered and controlled affection that has God as its object and focuses on him alone. The first and chief virtue is humility. Humility involves understanding ourselves as we really are and becoming aware of the way others experience us.
This is tough. In fact, it seems almost impossible. Because we often justify our own behavior and question others’ intentions, we have difficulty recognizing our strengths and limitations. The Cloud teaches us that true humility develops only when we recognize one of two realities: our own foolishness or how incredible it is to be loved by God. While I have most certainly experienced my own foolishness, my awareness of being loved by God is fleeting. Still, here is what I have come to understand in those brief moments.
When I have experienced a true knowledge of God’s love, nothing else in life has mattered. I haven’t wondered how I’m doing at work. I haven’t wondered if I’m going to miss an opportunity. I haven’t wondered about my bank account. I haven’t even wondered about my wife and kids. I have been aware only of God. Filled with this awareness, I have been able to see that what really matters in life is love. Love for God. Love for my family. Love for others. Love for life. It is this love that beats against “the cloud of unknowing.” It is this love that takes us beyond our thoughts and experiences to a fuller knowledge of ourselves and a truer knowledge of God.
Eventually, as we continue to pursue the cloud of unknowing, we find that we are encumbered by thoughts and experiences from our past. Some of these memories are noble. Others are not. Regardless, both types of memories distract us. In order to move beyond these distractions, we must live above “the cloud of forgetting.” When we live above “the cloud of forgetting,” we are able to cultivate attentive regard for God alone in such a way that we experience a stability in life found nowhere else. We can engage life. We can commit ourselves to friends and ministries. We can even sustain interest in worthwhile contributions that once annoyed us. But the stability that makes this possible is born out of living in such close proximity to God that we are drawn by his radiant love.
Steps to Life with God
The Cloud teaches us that if we want this life, we find it by following seven essential steps. First we confess our sins. Every step forward requires an acknowledgment of our past. It doesn’t require that we linger in it but that we simply recognize the times we have lived away from God and the harm we have done to others.
Second, we develop humility. We seek to achieve attentive regard for God alone. This requires concentration. It is genuinely hard work, especially in cultures such as our own where we are bombarded every day with an endless array of sensual stimuli. But the cultivation of humility and the ability to concentrate on God produces the spiritual reflexes that over time make it easier and easier to respond to our circumstances with the same spirit as Jesus.
Third, we submit to those in authority over us. One of the most obvious realities in life is how many of us lose important opportunities because of a rebellious spirit. I have found that the discipline of submission to authority is one of the most significant in determining whether a person will be a good employee. When we have learned how to submit to God, we also learn how to submit to those who have authority over us, whether it suits us or not.
Fourth, we cover all thoughts and impulses with “the cloud of forgetting.” This idea is one of the most interesting, since it reflects our need to put the past behind us. Obviously, short of the onset of dementia, this is impossible to do completely. But it is possible to put behind us the energy and power wielded by the past. It is my sense that the more we focus on God, the less we feel victimized by our past. The people in our society who are unable to move beyond devastating experiences from their past often live with a sense of affliction; they are unable to receive the love of God in a way that restores them. It is not that they lack faith but that their suffering has been so great that they cannot progress beyond it. The concept of the cloud of forgetting can be helpful to these people.
Fifth, we learn to use the spiritual disciplines of reading, reflecting and praying in order to grow in God. Over time, I have come to realize that I feel depleted if I don’t read every day. I don’t think this is true of everyone, but I know it is true of me. Most of my energy on most days is spent determining what I should do and solving problems that would keep me from doing it. My prayer life is often a combination of what I have been reading in the Bible, what I am reading from the subjects I enjoy and what is going on in my personal and professional life. Often I find that reading in these three areas awakens in me a deeper understanding of my life and a deeper commitment to walk with God. I don’t experience these elements as diversions so much as complements to the meditation and reflection that complete the work of spiritual ascent.
Sixth, we learn to align our will and desire with the will and desire of God. But how can we be sure this is occurring? Over the course of my life, I have had the opportunity to make decisions that determined my life’s destiny as well as the destiny of my family. These have always been difficult experiences, but there are guideposts along the way that have helped me. Years ago, I learned to ask the following questions regarding life decisions:
I would later discover that these principles were similar to other writings on the subject, but the important thing for me was to recognize that God makes his will known to us through a variety of sources. And it is at the point that we understand the will of God that we are able to make progress toward him.
Seventh, we learn to rest, especially in the presence of God. This is the hardest one for me to do well. I am at a period of my life where everything around me says I need to be doing, not being. And yet I have a growing appetite to spend more time in prayer, more time with my family and more time on projects unrelated to “productive” work. My best consolation is the teaching of Scripture that advocates six days of work, one day of rest. I have found that without a legitimate weekend I am less productive the next week at work. Without rest we simply cannot sustain ourselves over time. The unremitting pressure of work takes an obvious and subtle toll on us.
This is why The Cloud repeatedly reminds us to practice “the exercise” in which we are always learning attentive regard for God alone. This is the only way to root out the tendency to sin. The author takes this principle from Christ himself, who told Mary and Martha that only one thing is necessary—that God be loved and worshiped above anything else (Lk 10:42).
To be one with God, we need to live in the truth and depth of our spirit. We learn to resist being distracted by our senses. Further, we exercise discernment in order to see how our thoughts can be aligned to think properly of God. Ultimately, both our body and our mind help us recognize our need for God and the fact that we cannot satisfy this need on our own. The key is to sustain ourselves in a spirit of devotion. This brings all the energy of our life into alignment with God’s will and desire for us. We can know we are in the will of God by the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit that confirms in our spirit his love and presence.
REFLECTING AND RESPONDING
I have always had a love-hate relationship with The Cloud of Unknowing. It is, of course, a book on contemplative prayer of a very high order. It invites us to seek God not through knowledge but through love. “On account of pride, knowledge may often deceive you, but this gentle, loving affection will not deceive you. Knowledge tends to breed conceit, but love builds. Knowledge is full of labor, but love, full of rest.”
The love language in The Cloud truly is appealing, especially for those of a postmodern sensibility. “Beat upon the cloud of unknowing with the hammer of your love.” “Lift up your heart with a blind stirring of love.” “Pierce the cloud of unknowing with the arrow of your love.” “Humility is subtly and perfectly contained in this little blind impulse of love as it beats upon this dark cloud of unknowing.” Few books radiate such an infectious love of God.
At the same time, the author’s almost allergic reaction to any kind of knowledge or understanding of God gives me pause. Even though we cannot know everything about God, we need to know something. Love simply cannot flourish in a vacuum.
But, then, at the very moment I am ready to dismiss The Cloud as unabashed anti-intellectualism, it comes up with this notion of “the exercise,” this bringing of the mind, heart and affections into a disciplined attentiveness toward God. In The Cloud we read, “the essence of this exercise is nothing else but a simple and direct reaching out to God for himself.” So you see my puzzle.
The Cloud’s emphasis on “the exercise” arises out of a concern about how we actually free ourselves from the seven deadly sins and cultivate the seven godly virtues. It is here that we discover something of the wisdom of The Cloud. Most modern readers are likely to find this section dull and boring, but that is because we do not take the idea of purifying the heart with much seriousness today. We are captivated by the love language of The Cloud, but all this moralizing seems a bit much. Such thinking only stunts our spiritual growth.
The writer, of course, is working with us on the first stage of the threefold way: purgation. How important it is for us to deal with the deeply ingrained habits of sin. And to cultivate deeply ingrained habits of virtue. Without this double purifying of heart, mind and spirit, we can never truly enter the mystical way of love. So I urge us to give sustained attention to this middle section of The Cloud. It may lack the euphoric flights of ecstasy we often crave, but it is rock-solid guidance for a moral life. A disciplined attentiveness toward God is a deep need in our day.
In point of fact, however, the efforts of “the exercise” are purely and simply a practical outflow of our love for God. So, in reality we discover that the two experiences—our disciplined attentiveness toward God through “the exercises” and our piercing the cloud of unknowing with short darts of longing love—actually flow into one reality. The author of The Cloud reminds us that “in this exercise God is perfectly loved for himself.”
So then, how do we secure a handle on the life of pure love commended to us in The Cloud? I think it is best for us to start with this first and most basic level of purgation. Purifying the mind. Purifying the heart. Purifying the soul. But we go about it with this difference. We hold our lives into the light of God’s presence by means of love and for the sake of love. Every action, every thought, every imperfection is held up into the light of God’s love. We are surrounded by love and baptized in love. In this way we experience forgiveness and acceptance and affirmation. In this way we rise above the cloud of forgetting. And in this way, in God’s time, we too will be able to shoot short darts of longing love into the cloud of unknowing.
O God of mystery and of love, we do want to love you more fully and we sense somehow that “the exercise” of The Cloud is critical to this end. O, to always have an attentive regard for you alone. O, to have an ordered and controlled affection that is always God-directed. O, to have a heart and mind and spirit that always swing like a needle to the polestar of the Spirit.
May we, dear Lord, grow in our practice of thinking your thoughts after you. Amen.