Callistus Cataphugiota

CALLISTUS CATAPHUGIOTA · NOTICE

Callistus, our most holy Father, also surnamed Cataphugiota (he perhaps obtained this surname from a certain church of the Theotokos, which was called Cataphyge), is a man whose origin, birthplace, and where he lived his anchoritic life, we have not learned from histories. However, insofar as one can conjecture from his present chapters, he was a man truly most philosophical in both secular and sacred letters, and especially, if anyone ever was, most capable of traversing the height and depth, length and breadth of intelligible contemplations. For the blessed man was so drawn by the efficacy of grace toward the hidden unity of the supernatural, superessential Trinity, and was so led to the contemplation of God, to immediate union, to spiritual silence, and to the super-ignorant ignorance—being entirely released from all things by the excellence of his purity—that he truly appeared on earth as another angel and, by grace, a god. ^A Some have indeed said that this Callistus is the Xanthopulus who was patriarch of Constantinople, I mean the one who wrote the other hundred chapters, supporting this with two proofs. For they say that those chapters pertain to the active life, while these pertain only to contemplation and the contemplative life. Since action and contemplation are united with one another, it was fitting, as is reasonable, that the same person should have discoursed on both. Add also that many things from those are translated and contained in these present chapters, things which pertain to the movement and reception of the mind, and to divine union, and to the activity and illumination of the heart. ^B Others, however, say that he is not the same person, because of the different style of the text in each. We, for our part, have judged it best to agree with the former, having no regard for the change in style. For it is very possible and quite easy for wise men to adapt their expression to the subject matter itself, and to speak of humble things humbly, and of high things in a high and lofty manner. ^C But it is truly a matter for lamentation that, of the hundred chapters—as one might guess—which (as far as I can know) surpass all others treating of the contemplative life, and which are perfect both in their thoughts, in the sublimity of their style, and in other ornaments, and indeed in the necessity of their syllogisms, only the present ones have been preserved and transmitted into our hands in this original manuscript.

FROM THE SYLLOGISTIC AND SUBLIME CHAPTERS OF CALLISTUS CATAPHUGIOTA WHICH SURVIVE, ON DIVINE UNION AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE.

1. Naturally, whatsoever lives, by its own virtue obtains both repose and ^A equal delight, in which it rejoices and by which it is moved in affection. Therefore, man, who possesses a mind and to whom it is permitted to reflect on the mode of life, especially rejoices and enjoys a participation in repose when he reflects upon the better things concerning himself, whether one wishes to call them good or beautiful. This occurs if he has God in his mind and reflects upon the virtues of Him who is supreme and above the intellect of the mind, who loves man exceedingly and more than can be conceived, and who prepares for His own supreme rewards and goods and beauties that are above the intellect; and these unto eternity.

2. If every generation makes that which is born resemble its begetter, as the Lord says: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John III, 6); if, therefore, he who is born of the Spirit is Spirit, it is evident that he will also be God according to the begetting Spirit, since that Spirit, by whom he has through grace been rendered a participant of the Holy Spirit, is also the true God. If the one thus begotten is God, he would also clearly be a contemplative by merit, for the reason that he contemplates; for God is called “contemplation.” Thus, he who does not contemplate has either not yet attained to spiritual generation and participation, or he has indeed attained it, but out of ignorance has stifled the contemplative virtue and, unskilled, turns away the intellectual rays concerning the intelligible sun of righteousness; and though he has become a participant of the contemplative power, he is unhappily deprived of its efficacy, even if he nonetheless strives toward holiness. ^{B C}

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delimited, and reached the unbounded, the uncircumscribed, the non-dimensional, and the formless, and the absolutely simple. For such is that which has been called One, that is to say, God.

^B 6. If, according to David, God makes His angels spirits, and if He likewise makes those of men whom the Holy Spirit begets into spirits, as the Lord has said, then that man who has been begotten from the manifest participation of the Spirit is another angel. But assuredly, it is the work of angels to contemplate perpetually the face of Him who is in heaven, just as the Lord also said. Therefore, one who has become a manifest partaker of the Holy Spirit ought to contemplate the face of God attentively, as is just. Hence David also teaches, saying: "Seek the Lord, and be confirmed: seek His face evermore." It does not, therefore, follow reason for one who has become a partaker of the holy, life-giving, illuminating, and love-working Spirit, and who has come to the experience of the ineffable generation from the Spirit, and has risen to the dignity of an angel, to then, through excessive scrupulosity, make his spiritual sense toward God close up, ^C and not wish to be stretched toward God and divine things, even when the Savior commands us to abide in Him, since He also abides in us, and when David says: "Come to Him, and be enlightened." And truly, if we were to perform what is required and what follows, in the light of God the Father—I mean the Holy Spirit—we would see the light which is around God, that is to say, the divine truth, if only we were not unwilling, through ignorance, to turn ourselves toward the divine rays.

7. The mind ascends to the contemplation of God in three ways: by its own motion, by the motion of another, and by a motion between both. The first mode, that of its own motion, is accomplished solely by the nature of the mind, which uses its own will through imagination, ^D the limit of which is the contemplation of the things concerning God; which the children of the Greeks also imagined in some way. The second is supernatural, being brought about by the will and illumination of God alone; whence it is also found solely by divine inspiration, and is snatched into divine revelations, tastes the secret mysteries of God, and sees the outcomes of future events. But the mode that is between these two is coupled with both in part. For it operates by its own will and imagination, and is shown to be consistent with the motion of the self; yet it shares in the motion of another, insofar as it is united to itself by divine illumination, and ineffably sees God, beyond its own intellectual union. For it then passes outside the bounds of all things that are seen and spoken of concerning God; it sees neither the goodness of the principle, nor deification, nor wisdom, nor power-producing strength, nor providence, nor any other of the divine things; becoming filled above all with intellectual light, and indeed with joy, wrought by the divine fire tempered with love.

^A 8. The mind, using its own imagination to contemplate invisible things, is guided by faith; illuminated by grace, it is strengthened by hope; and being seized by the divine light, it becomes a treasury of human love, and much more so of God Himself. Thus, the threefold order and movement of the mind—in faith, hope, and love—becomes perfect, deifying, solid, and immovable; and having reached this spaciousness of the citadel, so to speak, it has secured itself within the fortress of love. Hence it is that which is said by Paul: "Love bears all things, believes all things," ^B on account of the good of faith and hope. "Love," he says, "never falls away," on account of its fiery union and ineffable conjunction with God.

9. In no created thing is "the one" uniquely present. For it is not difficult to know that each thing differs from another in some manner of property. Yet, in as much as they are created, each does not differ from any other in that it is constrained, limited, and finite by nature, and not truly and simply one. For in the Existing One alone is that which is uncreated—as simple, as without beginning, as without end, and undefined, and for this reason infinite—which is God. ^C Toward Him, if the mind looks with the participation of the Spirit and the impulse of the Life-giver, it receives the growth proper to it every day, becoming united and simple, and obtaining the divine constitution. And indeed, it most clearly perceived that it is impossible for the mind to have itself in a better state, except through that One and its regard toward It in the Spirit. And this is because the mind is divided by that worldly distraction and is subjected to passions, and consequently has need of supernatural power, and of the gaze of the supernatural One, so that having been snatched away ^D from these distractions, it may become outside the passions and dissipation, and thus attain the divine form. Therefore, the Lord prays to the Father that we, the faithful, may be one in the Father and the Son through the Spirit, and so one, as They themselves are one (not in that perverse way as Sabellius spoke of the "one"); so that we may be, as it behooves us, perfected by the grace of the uniting Spirit and by unitary contemplation in that one God. This truly makes us better, and this is for us the end and the true and sole rest. For this reason, also, the envious and man-hating demonic assembly, dragging men toward the worship of many gods—as should not be—undermined the union of the mind and did not permit it to have the imagination of that supernatural One; so that by the contemplation and distinction of the worship of those many, it persuaded the mind to be moved against its own nature and to show itself a zealot of all kinds of passions and falsehood instead of truth and virtue. Hence the Holy Spirit exhorts through the Prophet, saying: "Come to Him," meaning to the One, "and be enlightened." And still in another place: "I am God the first, and I am after these things, and besides me there is no other God." And again: "Hear, Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one." For the threefold hypostasis of the one Divinity does not divide the single substance; but while they are indeed three persons

they are none the less one in essence, power, will, and operation, as well as in other substantial goods. To serve the unity of God, therefore, and to gaze upon Him and be united with Him as much as one is able, and to withdraw from the many, is the will of God and the improvement of the mind, as it is the discovery of truth, the work of divine love, and consequently the birth of adoption. ^B

10. If falsehood is many-sided, but truth is one, then the mind that is stretched out in the Spirit toward the One—the supernatural, that which is transcendent above all things, that from which the many spring—is stretched out toward Truth itself. But the mind cannot become free from the passions unless the Truth sets it free; thus the mind is established as free from the passions, having inclined and stretched itself in a single way toward the supernatural One. And freedom is fitting for the mind toward dispassion and a godlike state, and toward spiritual adoption, but slavery is by no means fitting, for the reason that the servant, as it is said, "knows not what his master does." If, then, there is ignorance in the servant, it is evident that he who has partaken of freedom knows the mysteries of the Father, and has attained, by means of the struggle, to the good and beautiful dignity of adoption. For just as not knowing and knowing are manifestly contrary, so too is the order of a servant manifestly contrary to the order of a son. And if he who does not know is a servant, he who knows is by no means a servant, but free—or, to put it another way, a son. For the Spirit of truth, in the very act of setting free, makes those upon whom He comes the sons of God. "For as many," He says, "as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." If, then, to gaze upon the spiritual One is natural to the truth, and if the truth grants freedom to the mind, and if freedom is the most evident sign of divine adoption, then there is nothing greater than this gift of adoption, nor anything more becoming to a rational nature. It is therefore highly reasonable and extremely necessary for the mind to be stretched out, and to gaze, and to be gathered, as much as possible, spiritually toward the supernatural One, that is, toward God. ^C

11. "The Lord," says the Holy Spirit, "is thy God, the Lord is one." Thus, then, it is the concern of the divinity of the Spirit to lead the mind toward the supernatural One; and it is not permitted to preach the One, while neglecting the mind's conversion and regard toward Him. For what the Holy Spirit says, He also wishes to be thought; and what is thought, toward that the mind must be converted. For if the mind's conversion toward the intelligible is absent, then that which the mind might understand is absent, and the preaching of the One will necessarily have been in vain, and the faith that comes through it as well. If, furthermore, this is absurd, then it is also absurd not to think that the mind is converted toward the One and stretched out toward Him. ^D

12. If nature to those things which are caused, and especially to rational beings...

is as it were a turning toward the cause, and toward watching it with attention—if, furthermore, all things depend on God as their cause, even from whom also the mind originates; for God is the supreme and simple One—then it is the nature of the mind to tend and look toward the supreme and simple One as toward its cause. ^B

13. If all things are from Him, and through Him, and into Him, and the mind is also one of all these, then it, too, is from Him and through Him, and especially and more immediately from Him and through Him because of its likeness to God; therefore, it is all the more obligated to look toward Him. And that which is said, "into Him," signifies that it must look intently toward the manifestation of the supernatural One. Toward the One, therefore, the mind ought to look.

14. From the One the many proceed, but the One does not proceed from the many. Now, the creation is the "many"; therefore, the creation clearly proceeds from the One. But that One is also above the creation, as Creator and Maker, God. Whoever, therefore, beholds the creation as he ought, will of necessity have the end of his contemplation directed toward that supernatural One, since there are in the caused things—as it were, many echoes of the Causal—through which He is known, who with art, wisdom, power, and goodness, has providently produced all things as He willed. For this reason also Isaiah says in the Spirit: "Lift up your eyes, and see who has shown forth all these things." By saying "all these things," he signifies the many things which are caused; but when he says "who," he leads the mind back toward Him from whom these things are, which is simply and by nature the One. ^C

15. Creation is also gathered into one, but it is composite and multifaceted, and not without a beginning, as it is created. But that which creates is One, not only as the harmony of many and various things into a single agreement of the whole and a creative purpose, but also as uncreated, as the primary cause. When the mind ascends toward that which lies behind, it must of necessity arrive at some one thing that is the beginning and orderer of this visible order of existing things, and of their generation, and of the harmony and agreement into the One—or, if this were not so, it would proceed to infinity, which is absurd. For everything that is moved and generated, there was a time when it was not, and when it did not exist, it began to be, and it has been moved. What need is there to seek for that which has moved and brought it into generation, which will itself be immobile, in as far as it is moving? For if it were not, what is the mover that does not fall under another principle, since it is without beginning? But if it is immobile, it is also immutable; and if it is this, it is altogether simple, lest, if it were composite, it should change, which to us appears as immutable. For composition is the beginning of discord; and this is the beginning of dissolution, which is the final limit of motion. There is not, therefore, composition in Him, lest discord should also exist within; nor discord, lest it should come to...

dissolution, ^A nor any change, lest motion should appear in that which is immutable and immovable, as if it were a mover and not moved, or leading to generation while not itself generated. If, therefore, it is immutable and unmoved, it is of necessity incomposite, and therefore most simple and one, altogether supernatural. Toward which, if the mind strives, it is established in every way outside of all things, on account of this most beautiful regard which it has toward that which is above all, and its impulse toward that which is beyond all; or rather, toward the One from which all things are, and toward which all things naturally reach. If this be done in accordance with what is fitting, then the mind is placed outside of passions. For how could a mind which tends upward and toward the most beautiful, and attains that goal, still remain in the filth of passions? For this reason, the holy law says: ^B "Him alone shall you serve," that is to say, the One. Therefore, we must strive toward that supreme One, if we wish to fulfill the law of God and be found above the passions.

16. "The Lord," he says, "alone guided them, and there was no strange god with them." Do you see the power of the One and the Singular? How was there no strange god with them, insofar as the Lord alone guided them? The Lord guides those who follow Him and are not separated from Him. Moreover, whatever one follows, to that one is he also turned. If, therefore, we do not wish to have a strange god, or a demon, or a passion with us, we must follow Him, the Alone and One, by the conversion of the mind, so that of us also it might seem fittingly said: "The Lord alone guides them, and there is no strange god with them." ^C

17. Although all things are from One, yet the many are from the One in a diverse manner; for the mode of existence by which these things proceed from the first Monad is also diverse. For some of them are caused and created, while others are uncreated and escape the rationale of a temporal beginning. And in every way, the supernatural One is the cause for all; yet for some it is the cause by way of creation, and for others by way of nature. On this account, one should not simply approach or hold fast to all things in the same way. Rather, as for those which have a beginning and are created, we must approach them not for their own sake, but for the sake of something else—for the sake of that which is represented and shown in them as in a mirror. ^D For created things are not to be approached for our improvement in any other way than for the sake of what appears in them from that supreme One. But we approach those things which are without beginning and natural not for the sake of something else, but for their own sake, and for the sake of that from which they are. For these are the things which, by their own nature, ought to be approached, and they are, in a unifying and natural way, that supreme One; or rather, they are unified with, and, as has been said, naturally belong to that supreme One. It is necessary, indeed, not only to approach them, but also to be joined to them, and through them to hasten to be imprinted with the imitation of that first and one Good, so that by the cooperation and aid of grace, we might obtain the dignity of the glory of God according to His image and likeness. To those who rightly contemplate the things caused by creation, it happens that they are led to the contemplation of the One as if by...

^A a single notion of the super-celestial One, provided that the mind contemplates these things as it ought. But to those for whom the cause is natural, and to those whose mind is actively engaged through these things or is fashioned according to them, there is the ability to unite oneself to that which is primarily the One; whence it is that from all things whatsoever, whether they be natural or creative causes, the mind is naturally accustomed to be gathered to the One which is the cause in various ways—whether naturally, or through activity, or indeed contemplatively. And whatever the mind, whether using one or many creative or natural things, might be using, if it does not use them for the sake of the One, nor so that it may carry itself, having been gathered, toward the first One, and look toward It in holy participation and by the impulse of the illuminating Spirit, simply, uniformally, and monoeidally, this is reckoned to it as sin, even if this usage appears beautiful to it. For those things which are from the One are naturally disposed to lead those who use them as is fitting back to the One; for every progress of illumination ^B bestowed by the Father, says the great Dionysius, coming to us as a divine gift, again, as a unitive power, fills us intensively and converts us to the unity of the connecting Father and to His deifying simplicity. For from Him and into Him are all things; if the use of things is not directed toward this, it falls away from the right path, and proceeds otherwise than it ought, not tending toward that.

18. There is an action which precedes contemplation, and there is an action which follows contemplation. And the former is accomplished corporally, so that, having bridled the impulses of the body and having prepared it to move in an orderly fashion little by little, ^C it may thus allow the mind to walk freely in its own domain, which are the intelligibles, and there perform its own proper work. But the second—beginning from the mind and from intellection in the spirit—is gathered toward that which is above the mind, which is God, to whom, when the mind has drawn near, it becomes into the One. For God is the One, and indeed the mind itself is united to Him into one, and is established indivisible; for the One is the cause of unity, and is contemplated as a godlike simplicity; for it is incompatible that one contemplating the One should not also be oneself simple, since for one contemplating divided and composite things, it is necessary to be divided and varied. Yet it has been said by me, regarding the 'simple' which subsists by itself. For since whatever the mind is, it suffers changes according to its operation, but it is itself simple, it is necessary for it to be one also according to its operation, while seeing the One. But if it were to see the One, ^D while it is itself divided into at least two, what would its limb be doing, separated from that which sees the One? For it either sees something else, or it does not see, and this in two ways: either not willing, or being dulled, or perhaps being naturally inclined toward some other act of vision, but not toward seeing. But if one were to suppose it sees something else, behold that the mind does not see the One simply, but two things against reason; and while seeing two, it cannot be one. For it is divided, as has been shown, into those things which it contemplates. If, however, it does not see, if indeed it does not will to, it is impossible; for it is not possible for the mind to suffer idleness, not even for one moment of time. But

^A if it is composed, as it happens, and if it sees one thing with its limb, while it is appointed for some other kind of operation—for this is also a predicate of composition, which, as regards the simplicity of the mind, is entirely inadmissible. Therefore, on account of these things, the unified and simple, if one were to contemplate the simple one, even if it itself is in activity, and if it were simply one, it sees the simple one. Any activity whatever, or contemplation, must of necessity be carried toward the one which is above the mind; if not, it will accomplish nothing, but the mind will be seen acting or contemplating in vain. For it will be a creator of passions if it is subject to division, not being raised by the sense of the soul to the union with that one which is above the mind; which union has the power to skim off and cleanse the contemplative faculty of the mind, which is aspiring to and beholding that one, and adhering to Him from whom are all things, and through whom, and in whom are all things, and into whom it comes, and is, and subsists.

19. The summit of all desirable things is the divine and supra-mental union. Through this divine union, a divine likeness is necessary; through this divine likeness, it is necessary to act according to the mind, that is, to contemplate. For such is the divine, from which also the name God has been assigned to it. But contemplating immediately ascends to the concept of God; for God everywhere and in all things sends forth certain rays, as it were, into the contemplative mind, and the contemplating mind has God positioned opposite to it; and God is one, supernatural. ^B It is the nature of the mind to become such in its activity as those things which it sees, as the theological utterance of the most divine Gregory makes known, saying that the mind both sees and suffers the brightness of God. For what the mind sees, that it also suffers, and it becomes such. For the mind is dyed, as Peter of Damascus says, according to the things it contemplates; and as when it sees divided and various things, it is varied and divided, so when it has ascended to the contemplation of the supernatural and simply one, it consequently becomes some one thing, as has been said by me before; but after it has been made one, it sees the unoriginate and infinite and formless and simple. For such is the one. Whence truly the mind itself is also made, as it were, eternal and infinite and without ^C figure and simple by virtue. But when it has suffered this and has thus been changed, it is made into the likeness of the divine according to unity; and thence it runs to the summit of all desirable things, the divine and supra-mental and ineffable union, which is the highest limit according to God. It behooves the mind, therefore, to be strained, and in every way to strive, and by the Holy Spirit to behold the contemplation and aspect of the supernatural one.

20. When the mind is in many things, or at least in two, it is manifest that it does not see the simply one. For this reason it is finite, and limited, and dim; for those things which are not absolutely simple are such. When the mind in reality is in the contraction of this one, untouched, ^D and thus changed, it is found in the likeness of the divine according to the unity, and thence runs back to the summit of all desirable things, the divine, and supra-mental, and ineffable union, which is the highest purpose according to God. It behooves the mind, therefore, to be stretched out—to hasten with every device—and to look with the Spirit toward the contemplation and vision of the supra-mundane one.

20. When the mind is in the midst of many things, or at least in two, it is manifest that it does not see the simply one. For this reason it is limited, and finite, and dim; for those things which are not absolutely simple are of such a kind. When the mind in reality is in the contact of this true one, untouched, according to

^A a spiritual respect, rising up in this spirit without eyes, it then becomes eternal, infinite, interminate, without form and figure, and puts on an inability to speak; it learns to be silent with astonishment, and suffers the ineffable. Do not say that I have said it becomes substantially eternal and infinite and unterminated, but only through operation. For that which is changed in the mind is certainly not the substance, but the operation. For if it were substantially changed, when it sees and suffers the deification—that is, when it is deified—from the contemplation of God, the soul itself would become God through that contemplation. But it is not so, nor does this happen to the angels, nor is there any ^B who is substantially God, except the one, and supreme, and only God. If, therefore, it is absurd to say that the mind is substantially deified, it must be said that it undergoes this by the very act of seeing. Therefore, it is not the nature of the mind that is changed, but its operation. For if the mind is changed, as has been said, according to the things which it contemplates, it by no means sees the divine essence, but the divine operation; nor, therefore, will it itself be substantially changed, but according to operation.

21. All things, having shone forth from the supernatural one, have not departed from that whence they have in every way received their generation, but as they were made in it, so also do they adhere and are perfected. And there is nothing in any of all things in which there is not an efflux, and as it were a certain scent of this Creator and one. And all things which exist manifest ^C that they are not that supernatural one (for that is above all contemplation or thought), but certain rays of it. Whence, since all things call out to that one, and all things tend toward one, and that supernatural one manifests itself to the mind through all things, it is necessary that the mind be led as if by hand and foot to that supernatural one; both because it is compelled by the persuasion of all things, and because that very one, out of his excessive goodness, wishes to be seen by the mind, so that the mind may suffer life in that sight, just as that ineffable one says, "I am the life"; and: "This is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God"; and elsewhere: "Seek the Lord, and your soul shall live." For from seeking comes vision; and from that, life. And: "Let it be gladdened, and ^D illuminated, and delighted, as David says, because the habitation of all who rejoice is in thee"; and: "In thy light we shall see light." Or how did he create the mind capable of contemplating, yet disperse his own things in all whatsoever there are, through which, as through certain windows, he shows himself to the mind in spiritual splendor, drawing it illuminated toward himself?

22. God, which is the Trinitarian good one, whatsoever he has made, has made desiring; but that which God wills is the supreme good; for its nature is goodness. He has indeed made the mind capable of contemplating him, or his own things; which he knows how to gather the contemplating one

^A unto unity. Therefore, it is a thing desired by God that the mind should be one, and this is for its own sake supremely good. God is that which is truly and simply the One, toward which it is necessary to look and to be gathered in a unified manner, being supremely good, as has been demonstrated.

23. If the universal love is one and folded together, according to the teaching of the wise, then it is manifest that the lovable object is also one. For if there were at least two ^B lovable objects, there would either be two loves, or the one love would be divided in two, and it would in no way be called one and folded together. But now, since the universal love is said to be one and folded together, it must clearly be understood that the lovable object is also one. Furthermore, the lovable object precedes the love that resides around it, and it is impossible that one could possess love for it before one has grasped the lovable object in some way. But love is an intense ^C charity, which both natural law and the written law of God demand that we have toward God: the one persuading the mind, which is a lover of beauty, to lay hold of the better, which is God; the other saying: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and with all thy heart, and with all thy mind.” ^D “And the Lord thy God, the Lord is one.” Therefore, the lovable object is one, which is the Trinitarian unity; which also must be present to the mind before the love for it. The mind, therefore, must desire to tend toward that one, until, by its discovery and contemplation, the love of God shines forth, and a man may be able to become an observer of this commandment, loving, as has been said, the Lord his God.

24. It is impossible for the mind, having ascended to the One that is beyond intellect, to remain without an ^A intense love for it. For an ineffable and inscrutable beauty proceeds from it, as from an omnipotent root, and meets the mind; and like a net which is in danger of breaking from the multitude of captured fish, the mind is caught by the divine splendor and is stunned, contemplating this supernatural beauty; and it is, as it were, drunken with wine, and as one beside oneself, it exults, and suffers an admiration beyond what can be conceived, not being able to sustain the contemplation of that great beauty. ^B Whence, indeed, it is held fast by the bonds of charity, and lies as one scorched by thirst. For that supernatural One is unique: but it is proclaimed by all as the first cause of all, as the beginning, as the end, as the bond of the universe. But He himself hath produced the beauties and goodnesses of all things that are beautiful and good, by the superabundance of His beauty-making and goodness-making power, having brought it forth, established ^C as something infinitely and incomparably supernatural, above all beauty and all goodness; as the only one by nature lovable above all things lovable, as the only one truly beautiful and good, standing above every beauty and good, and the only one by the law of nature and order truly lovable, as the cause of all things, and as much as all things that are lovable and desirable, transcending through the excess of its beauty and goodness, and being one truly supernatural, as alone subsisting through itself, the Creator of all things. We must, therefore, turn, ^D with good fortune, as it is said, in spirit, toward the finding of the one alone, and reaching out toward...

the knowledge ^A of that from which the beginnings of all things come and where the ends of all things are; and the gate of divine brightness will surely be opened for us of its own accord, by the grace of Christ, and we shall enter into the rest of our Lord in gladness and great exultation; and we shall know the enjoyment of the One, and we shall taste of divine delights, having ourselves also become one, and not being split or divided into many, according to the prayer of the Savior to the Father: "That they may be one," He says, "as we are one." Then, therefore, we shall also be accurate keepers of the commandment which says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, and your neighbor as yourself"; and we shall attain to human perfection, as much as is possible. For the end of the law is love, upon which not only the whole law and the prophets, but also all those who have been perfected according to God in Christ, depend.

25. Whatever ^B is such that it can exist in the Spirit, division is its discovery; thus, consequently, even if the mind in its activity is divided by anything, it is outside that which follows for it by grace. It suffers this when it considers various things; for it is not possible not to be divided when looking upon various things. If anyone were to suppose this, he would not easily be able to provide a reason for how a tranquil mind differs from a confused mind. For he would say that the mind of those who contemplate is similar to the mind troubled by the heat of desires; which is absurd. For such a mind, having become effective in its actions, if it gazes upon composite things such as the things it sees, it is necessarily also varied ^C itself; and, losing simplicity, it cannot but be divided. But that which is subject to division is by no means free from blame; since even the very being divided is judged to be a sin by those who are able to understand such things. If, then, the intellectual faculty of the mind ought, through the upward gaze toward the supreme and transcendent One, to taste of the supernatural good with an intellectual perception in a unified way, then it must be that it [the mind] exits from the division—if it is to be beyond what is contrary to grace. Therefore, it is necessary to cling to the transcendent One, and to look toward It, and It alone, and in a unified manner with the whole soul, if we intend to escape division and otherness.

But surely, not even if the mind should look toward one thing, provided it is created, can it remain undivided. For that which is created cannot be strictly said to be simple, but is limited and composite and circumscribed; and for this ^D reason it cannot be called simply one, nor will the mind have a simple and uniform power when it looks steadfastly toward this. For its gaze will be limited and circumscribed, along with composition, just as that which is contemplated by it, and it will fall away from that divine grace which made it simple, and eternal, and without beginning, and unbounded, and uncircumscribed; and it will be outside that hidden One which is beyond thought; and it will be deprived of its own glory, which is the enjoyment of the eternal substance, and infinity, and simplicity, and the lack of variety, nor will it reach to contemplate the supernatural and ineffable beauty. It is necessary, therefore, for the mind to [gaze] toward that eternal...

simple, and indefinite [reality], and in truth to fix its attention and to be stretched forth; and from there to hasten to be illuminated, and to be united to the supreme Unity, and through this to itself; so that not only may it be loved by the superior [Being], as having been made like Him, insofar as it is possible for it to be [like Him] in indefiniteness and simplicity, and in being without form and without shape, but that it may also itself be able to love the divine and super-excellent and supernatural beauty, having run, according to what has been said, into likeness. For since a loving disposition toward similar things is naturally accustomed to arise in similar things, it is evident of course that the mind will be loved by, and will love in return, God. Since likeness holds within it the power of turning ^A back, it will certainly have in this way [a similar] affection, and there is nothing between God and the soul. For that which is like is similar to that which is like. And as is the loving, so is the being loved in return; there is no greater affection.

26. ^B The mind is above its own nature when it is entirely above the mind, being without form and without shape, and having become altogether divinely formless, without beginning and infinite, and, so to speak, above its own unity. But when it possesses its own cogitation with itself, even if it be occupied with divine and intelligible things, then it is said to be moved and to perform operations naturally, and to stand within its own nature; but the supernatural far excels the natural, and is much loftier. It is necessary, therefore, to desire to become supernatural, as being better, according to the commandment which bids us to be zealous for the better gifts. But it is clear that the mind, when it is in the supernatural, is in God; for God is beyond all nature, He who is the eternal and ^C simply One. The mind must, therefore, be extended toward the eternal and simply One, and contemplate that, and be led to it, as to the supernatural One, rising in this way above its own natural capacity, and it will be better off than if it were established in its own natural state.

27. Everything that exists rejoices and naturally rests in its own proper gifts; all of which pre-existed according to a uniform cause in the eternal Creator. Then, therefore, will the mind naturally come into true joy and will have a pleasure that is not at all brief, and will rest mightily, when, having passed by and left behind all things, it shall have been stretched forth toward that original and first cause, ^D and shall have come there through a mental turning—that [cause] from which all things and the graces of all things have been made, the beginnings, the middle things, and the ends; and in which all things subsist and are contained, and through which those things that are perfected are led to their own proper end, and through which those things that exist in this good state are well-disposed; through which the mind itself also, such as it is, was created. For in a certain way to turn the mind to itself is to turn it to that highest and all-embracing cause, which is the true original of the mind. Since, however, everything naturally loves itself, and the mind especially experiences this, as it is a super-excellent image of the unimaginable beauty of the Unity which is above thought, it loves [it] intensely through turning

^A toward its own Cause; for it sees itself looking there, and loves it exceedingly. Moreover, this is a kind of natural affection that naturally occurs in those who are from the One toward the One from whom they are, just as, conversely, love holds sway in parents toward those they have begotten. For this reason, a great and ineffable joy arises for that which turns itself back to the Cause of all things. Indeed, [it turns] toward that from which it turns, and toward itself, as has been said; for all things pre-exist there by the principle of causality, and the mind itself, as the one of all things, exists in the One who is above thought as in an original Cause.

28. ^B Just as every substance and every nature exists from that which is above essence and above nature—temporal and composite things from what is eternal and simple, and furthermore created things from the Uncreated—so too every species has been born from that which has no species, and many things from the supernatural One. Whoever, therefore, is not occupied with and looking toward that which is formless, and as it were hanging from it, but rather toward some other thing among those which are seen and created, such a one has placed that which is secondary and subject to a relative rule before that which is set above it, and perhaps stands near to the idolaters. For whatever one is preoccupied with, and toward whatever one looks, that is also what one desires; and by that which one desires, one is conquered; and to that by which one is conquered, one is enslaved. Truly, such a person serves the creature rather than the Creator; for the mind of each one is enslaved, and serves, and loves that which he is occupied with and looks toward. If, however, an occupation and contemplation outside of the simple, unified, and formless [One] causes us to slip—our diligence and the knowledge through turning and intellectual elevation must therefore be toward the the formless and simple One, where the treasures of all knowledge are, and where, having arrived, there is the rest and end of all contemplation, and the limit of thought, and silence above the mind, and an ineffable exultation in deep wonder.

29. ^C If all things that exist desire to have being, and the being of all things is, according to cause, in the One which is above being, then all things—and especially the rational beings among the things that are—if they are moved correctly and as they ought, desire that One which is above being [while] desiring existence. The mind, therefore, that does not stretch itself toward the One which is above being, nor desire it, uses a perverse and mistaken movement, and falls away from its proper dignity, which is the knowledge of the One which is above being, and the most divine, supra-mental, unified union and love according to it.

30. ^D Causes possess the beauties of their effects in superabundance. The Cause of all things is, in common, the supersubstantial One. If, therefore, the mind should cleave to any of the things that are after the supersubstantial One, as if to a beautiful thing, or as something worthy of spiritual attraction, its aim is manifestly false; for then it equates something [that is merely] beautiful, but not that which is the primary and principal Beauty, and from which all beautiful things are—the supersubstantial One—namely, the One

^A moving in simplicity. But the mind that has successfully reached its goal directs its gaze toward the supersubstantial One, clearly knowing that it will obtain in abundance that which it desires, by becoming in that intellectual contemplation as it were in a Cause, and that there is nothing among those things related [to it], or among whatever beautiful things there are, that communicates [its nature], if it be not the supersubstantial One. For even if certain things might appear to have the power to communicate their own properties, yet it is not in their nature to remain forever with the mind that loves them; for this is credited to the Holy Spirit alone to perform, and to work as He wills and when He wills, inasmuch as He is Lord, and by nature Almighty, and a Person of the tri-hypostatic Unity. Therefore, the mind must be turned toward the supersubstantial One; where indeed is found not only the source of whatever goods there are, but also the inalienable distribution of graces.

31. All existing things naturally desire the Good. But the Good is one in reality, even if many things are called good. For you will find nothing that is simply good and, as it were, completely perfect among the many, but rather that which is called good according to some participation in the good, participating in that one supersubstantial Good, not, however, possessing it from itself. For that alone is the supersubstantial One, the Good simply and eminently, and the source of all goodness, and that which communicates its own properties, and is naturally turned toward itself—[the source of] all substance, existence, state, power, motion, operation, quality, and of any beauty and goodness whatsoever. And, simply, whatever things exist, and all things observed in relation to existing things, received their manifestation from thence, from that supersubstantial One, ^B by way of creation. For this reason, if the mind is moved toward something else and not toward the supersubstantial simple One, it has an errant motion; for, though it may perhaps be moved toward a good, it is not moved toward that which is properly and simply the Good, nor toward that which, by an outpouring of superlatively good-making goodness, makes other things good and improves those things that are in need of being made good or of improvement.

32. The mind of the many, lying under division due to ignorance and being torn apart as if by many [distractions], does not know the Good that is simply One, nor does it seek It, nor is it occupied with It. Concerning these, the ^C Spirit says in David: "Many say: Who will show us good things?" (Ps. IV, 6) — but not "the Good"; and rightly so, for they are anxious and troubled about many [different] things, because there is need of the One, the portion of which—which has been shown to be good by the holy Word of God—they have either passed by in ignorance or have been deprived [of it] through negligence, not even bringing to mind the need to seek that which is worthy to be sought above all things. But those who have been led by David as a tutor, and have determined to follow in his footsteps, say: "The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us" (Ps. IV, 6)—that is to say, the knowledge of thy unitary glory has been signed upon us as if in a mirror. Thus the base and vast multitude rejoices in many goods. ^D Thus those who live spiritually are illumined, being supernaturally enlightened by that unitary and simply-good [God] in their minds.

33. Just as the flow of the water-bearing current

^A would be greater if it flowed uniformly than if it were divided and split into many parts, so the contemplation of the mind and its motion and impulse will be more vehement if it is not carried about in a divided way, nor through many modes, but in a unitary manner, and without separation. This is natural to it in its upward inclination towards the supracosmic, and in its simple contemplation and gaze; for the supracosmic and most simple One is truly a gathering together. And when the mind is judged worthy to behold this, it is not possible but that, as is fitting, it should be fashioned according to it, after the manner of an image, and become unitary in a unitary order, simple, colorless, without form, without quality, intangible, indefinite, infinite, without shape, and indeed, simply one supracosmic [being], adorned with the rays of divine and supracosmic love, in the revelation of mystical knowledge, crowned with an ineffable and invisible manner ^B above word and thought, luxuriating in spiritual exultation and heavenly joy. And it is changed towards the more divine, and puts on the divine form, being fashioned spiritually by that simple, and formless, and shapeless, and one [God], and by the other things previously mentioned. And indeed, if this should not happen to it, and it should not undergo such a divine transformation, it would not be in contact with, nor in vision of, that supracosmic One. For God is one, a unifier, and a mind above thought; and the mind is then, insofar as it contemplates Him in a supracosmic way, when it is with the things mentioned, and becomes even above thought through the divine imagination of the Good.

34. ^C The Trinity of the supersubstantial Godhead is brought into a unity in a supernatural way. For God is a Trinity of Persons. It is not possible, therefore, for the soul to be made in the likeness of the image of God, unless it too, which consists of three parts, should be made one in itself in a supernatural way. And I say that the soul is tripartite not according to the rational, the irascible, and the concupiscible; for the soul is not, in this respect, truly tripartite. For the rational soul does not have a relationship ^D of the sort that is very proper to desire and anger; for these are things taken from the irrational part, existing through the present animal life, irrational and dark in themselves. But the rational soul is and its nature is full of intellectual light, and one must properly call those things its own, without which it cannot manifest its own activity. But it acts indeed without anger and without desire, and it acts most truly then, when it acts without them. They are not, therefore, truly parts of it, but, as I have said, they are parts of the animal and, by an inferior fortune, powers standing alongside it. For the rational soul, intellectually gazing upon the things above, and imagining the intelligible things, and extending itself above itself, and, so to speak, leaping up, casts far away as empty trifles desire and anger, having no way to use them where there is simplicity, and formlessness, and shapelessness, and [where it is] without color and without figure, and all other things that require a mind that is free and entirely simple. For the soul is properly tripartite in its own simplicity, since it is a mind using reason and spirit, in those things which are most proper to it and least of all [damage] its simplicity.

lead; just as the Trinity of the Godhead, whose image the soul is, does not stand in the way of its own proper unity and simplicity; but the Divinity is a simple, supersubstantial One, and yet, no less, it is entirely Trinity. Therefore, the soul—namely the mind (for the mind is indeed the mind, and the soul is entirely mind), the reason, and the spirit—which has supernaturally become one thing, and provides us with a likeness of the one Godhead in three persons. But that cannot be elicited except from the contemplation and ^A gaze upon the supernatural substance of the Trinity. For it is this that has made the soul such, and has led it back when it had fallen; and without this attention and contemplation, it is impossible for this to happen to the soul. If this does not occur, and this likeness does not come about, we shall appear imperfect in this way. Let these things truly be said regarding the contemplative part and the truth, which are especially worthy of attention, and without which it is not permitted for us to lead ourselves into apathy. ^B Just as it is necessary for us to be practical in goodness so that we may be among those who are dispassionate, so also must we be contemplative toward the truth, so that we may be godlike, serving God above all things, and desiring to become gods by adoption and to be so according to the legitimate likeness of our Archetype. If, therefore, it is necessary for us to become one because of the likeness of our original supersubstantial One, then the gaze and consideration and movement, and the spiritual ^C conversion toward that supernatural One, and the ceaseless aspiration toward that One, provides this for us. Therefore, by every means, we must endeavor to gaze toward that supersubstantial One which is above thought, and to suspend ourselves there completely with all ardor, and with our whole heart and soul, and to have within ourselves the love of that single, supersubstantial, and singular One, so that this love of the One may be for us, in place of wings, our spiritual ascent toward Him. And thus, always as if lifted into the air, we shall be with the Lord in a pure and uniform state, and with that one, praising the Trinity in a threefold manner—mentally, rationally, and ^D spiritually—and yearning for Him as is worthy, admiring Him, and, as far as it is granted to us, united with Him who is one above unity.

35. A sensible monad is the beginning of every numerable multitude; and a supernatural monad is the beginning of every multitude, both visible and intelligible, and of every existing thing. Just as every number has its beginning from the unit, so everything that exists anywhere is poured forth from that supernatural One, according to a cause, whether natural or creative; but the position of the arithmetical unit, insofar as it is sensible, follows its own nature. For since it is the beginning of all numerable things, the sense, in counting, places it first. But in the case of the supernatural One, because it is above the mind, the contrary is observed. For although the unit is the first of all things, the mind places it after all things. For no mind can [understand] the supernatural One as a beginning and from it proceed to the other...

many; but on the contrary, it goes from the many to that One and is gathered together there. For the senses, the numerable one is necessary because of the progression to the many, since it is not otherwise possible to count or to proceed as one wishes; but for the mind, the many are necessary because of the elevation through them to the supernatural One, and the folding together, so to speak, of itself, not being able from anywhere else to rise as it wishes to the vision of the supernatural One. Thus, therefore, the mind, using an order and path proper to itself, begins from the many, but makes the supernatural and most consummate One its end. For since the numerable one, according to sense, is apprehensible and well-defined, the sense posits it naturally, as its nature requires, and it is prior in position. But the supernatural monad sought by the mind, being supernatural and escaping being pondered, is far from its natural position, so that the mind does not begin from it, but rather, as it is supernatural, the mind finds it supernaturally not as a beginning, but as an end following the transition and, so to speak, the enumeration of the many. For since the mind has a nature to think, and the supernatural One is in itself ungraspable and inaccessible, the habit of the mind inclines ^B towards the many; for the mind can neither be idle as regards thinking, nor does it have the strength to grasp the supreme and supernatural One. Looking, therefore, at the many, it beholds an intelligible in each of all the many—not what each is as a thing, but that it is of a certain one. And then, gathering up from each phenomenon each intelligible that appears, and seeing that these are in agreement with one another and not opposed, and that all are as it were the flowers and growth of one root, it logically proceeds from those many to the most consummate One, from which those many and all things [come], and naturally one is gathered from natural beings into a supernatural order, contemplating that supernatural and supersubstantial One in a mirror, seeing what nature that supernatural [One] has, simply through things that are according to nature. Then, therefore, the mind, seeing ineffably the overflowing effusion and constitution of all goodnesses and beauties, and rejoicing in the supernatural One, does not willingly turn back to the many, even though they are beautiful and partake of a portion ^C of the good. For as a lover of beauty by nature, it does not willingly depart from that which is above all things, unless this happens to it by some circumstance. But since the mode of beings is diverse, and the mind has a different intellectual outlook, and the mind ascends variously through these to the supernatural and supersubstantial One, it is necessary, as I suppose, to provide a method by which we may arrive through the many at that supersubstantially One; so that, as if ascending by a ladder, the mind may make its movement most secure and know whether anything is lacking to this movement, or if it is where it ought to be, and how much it rejoices in this, and what deceives it and turns it away from that beauty and ascension and divine banqueting, and how it may again be able to return ^D from whence it has fallen. Then indeed it will see both the darkness of desires and the splendor of a pure heart, and the knowledge of truth which appears as if in a mirror, as it is, of the celestial specta-

- ^A cles, and it will be a partaker of them; and it will know a divine sense, and it will not be unaware of its own growth, or of its arrival at diminution, and it will attain the knowledge of many desirable things, and it will understand what the goal of stillness is, and of the state of seclusion. We speak, then, in this way: All things that exist are divided into things sensible and created, things intelligible and created, and things intelligible and uncreated. And there is the uncreated One, which is above mind, and supersubstantial. In these things, the eye of the soul, which is the mind, revolving and frequently looking, and in its practice choosing to keep still, is raised from doing things that are ordinary and solitary, as if from a certain step, to contemplating, and to Being in its truth, and to feasting on heavenly things, and to being surrounded by the rays of truth, and to exulting, and to becoming rich in eternal things into infinity, and to being wondrously delighted and filled with sweetness. Perhaps, indeed, by the grace of cooperation, it might also be snatched up from the earth as time proceeds; and, the intellectual light having been strengthened by practice, it no longer senses the things that are on the earth, through the possession of that which is above the mind, and through the representation of this Beauty which is beyond all beauty. ^B And with this ladder divided, as it were, into five parts, and ascending by steps toward the final goal, a step does not differ from a step by place, but the difference, and that which separates one from another, is an order, as it were, of quality or of some particular property. For things are graded: sensible created things, and intelligible created things; but the latter are superior to the former by a great measure, just as the mind is superior in its own beauty to the senses. Again, intelligible uncreated things are much superior to intelligible created things, according to the order of these things as described. But intelligible uncreated things are subordinate to the uncreated One that is above the mind. And it is manifest from this, that since in that which stands above all things, after the mind has arrived there from action, and has remained in that most high hiddenness, surpassing all sensible and intelligible things, its aspect and contemplation is more powerful, just as it is humbler in created things, or rather, in action. For one who is by nature a lover of the beautiful must love that which is more beautiful, not only that he may enjoy it, but also that he may undergo a change that is better and—as is fitting—above the mind, inasmuch as, as has been said, the mind receives such a change as the things it sees and in which it rejoices are. But since the movement inherent in the nature of the mind will never cease from it as long as it is "today," and as it is said, "as long as the shadows move"—that is, as long as we pass from the present life which shows us the truth, as it were, in a mirror and in an enigma, as if in shadow—those who have slipped from this contemplation and aspect of the uncreated One above the mind must strive to rise again, so that they may approach more closely to the intelligible uncreated things, so that again a return to the uncreated One above the mind may more quickly be made for us. ^C

^A But when a thicker fog descends, darkening the intellect and pouring sloth upon it so as to hinder it from contemplation by the mind, we must turn ourselves in practice to prayers with a humble heart. And after the darkness has departed through the power of prayer and tears, we should once again make sensible created things a foundation, while the intelligible light, having previously dwelt in the heart through spiritual efficacy, occupies the mind—or, more clearly, while the strength of practice, which the mind is naturally accustomed to mount like some summit or watchtower, possesses the intellect. From there, it may contemplate those things which for many are not only invisible, but even unsearched for and inconceivable, and without which no one will see either himself or, even more so, God. Touching upon this practice in passing now is perhaps not far from the mark. ^B

36. The soul has three things within it that stand in need of action: the rational, the appetitive, and the irascible; and three things outside it: the desire for glory, for pleasure, and for more (possessions). ^C When the soul, reflecting expertly upon these two triads in the light of the incarnate life of the Lord Jesus, heals them through His four general virtues—namely, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude—by the grace of the Lord Jesus, it grants its own mind the power to ascend undisturbedly, to survey divine things, and to contemplate God. For when the Lord Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit to wrestle against the devil, He healed the appetitive through fasting, the rational through vigil and quiet prayer, and the irascible through contradiction. He resisted the desire for pleasure, vainglory, and avarice, for when He was hungry He did not seek food as the devil suggested, so that "stones might become bread"; nor did He cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple so that He might be praised by the crowd for having suffered no harm in the fall; nor was He persuaded to worship even on the promise of receiving the wealth of all kingdoms; but with an irascible, prudent, and just [or: justice], temperate, and brave contradiction He repelled Satan, in this teaching us the way to defeat his every assault. ^D One will see and know this very thing in the cross of the Savior as well. For the Savior prays at that time, withdrawing from the disciples: this is the healing of the rational part. He stays awake and does not sleep, and thus He suffers on the cross: this is the remedy for the appetitive part. He does not contradict, nor indeed does He argue or cry out, and this while being falsely accused, and He prays for those who are afflicting Him: this is the ordered state of the irascible part—to strike the devil with contradiction, but to reward men who curse, since they themselves are tormented by Satan, with silence, magnanimity, and prayer for them. He is spat upon, He receives a blow, He endures mockery and insults: this is the cure for vainglory. He is given vinegar to drink, He is fed gall, He is crucified, He is pierced by a lance: this is the healing of the love of pleasure. He is suspended naked, in the open air, homeless upon the cross, despised by all as if He were some beggar and poor man: this is the abolition of the disposition of greed. By suffering, both within and without, the Savior shows the remedy when, to be seen by the world with...

the body, he began, and when he was about to depart from the world. Whence also he who looks to him, and to his teaching, and to his cross, making himself, according to his capacity, an imitation of him, prudently ^A and justly, temperately and bravely, just as he did, will abolish the operation of these cravings toward evil, and indeed of all things through these. He will use them as he ought, and after these things he will be in all, and will be a practical man according to truth, and most ready to contemplate, and to be stretched toward God, and to have leisure for intellectual contemplation; and thus indeed the mind, having begun from its many sensible things—that is, created things—and having perceived the well-being of their own cultivation, and having understood the created intelligibles, and having passed over to the uncreated intelligibles, has already ascended four steps as on a ladder. ^B After these things, there follows for him the divine and super-mental wordlessness, and silence, and amazement, and to speak concisely, the looking away and contemplation of the super-cosmic one, and the union beyond intellection, the climax of stillness, the extreme and perfect desirable object, insofar as it is possible in the present life, the terminus of truth, the fruit of faith, the excellent splendor of the hoped-for glory, the foundation of brightness, the rule of the mind, the station of its perpetual motion, the ineffable rest, and uniform stability, an operation as if in pledge of the future age, the cause of pure joy, the treasury of peace, the quenching of the thoughts of the flesh, the contempt of the present age, the love of the future, the rejection of greedy life, the concretion of apatheia, the joyful exultation of the soul, and the gathering together of its motions and powers, rest and custody, and in one word, divine knowledge and apatheia. But one must take care, with proper ease, or if the mind is disturbed by some ^C external circumstance, that it be led back again to the contemplation of its own proper beauty through the deposition of this greed which is an obstacle, and which removes it from its own scope; and one must see how far the mind is from the supreme desirable object, and why; for whether it be separated from its purpose by sensible created things, or by created intelligible things, or by uncreated intelligible things, or by vain reasonings, or by some necessity—that which alone is in reality and is one, supernatural above all—it is necessary to repel the obstacles in this way, so that it may return again simply, as right order requires, to the contemplation and outlook of the supernatural one. For the mind, dwelling outside the supernatural, uncreated, super-mental one, is subject to division, and is not in the true beauty, even if it be in a certain beauty. For that supreme beauty is that which is the supernatural one beyond the mind, uncreated and simple, and that is in reality the highest terminus proposed to the mind. ^D Therefore, the mind, having been moved and ascending thither through the aforementioned steps, is found, and suffers union beyond the mind. Therefore, the infinite must be pursued with all one's power, and that which is beyond the mind must be investigated and the unformed one must be contemplated and that incomprehensible one must be grasped by an impetus, so that we may attain that one inheritance of the one supreme God, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the life-giving

Spirit, through whom, being illuminated, we are deemed worthy of the grace of contemplation, and become gods by adoption, deified by the gift of God.

^B 37. When the mind has ascended into the place of divine hiddenness, it naturally keeps silence, united with the simple one, and consequently is illuminated in the One who is beyond thought through participation in the Spirit. For what could it say, having arrived above its own intellect, and having stood outside every thought, and being altogether naked, seeing that it is placed above thought? For if reason, so to speak, still remains to it, it is clear that it also thinks; for every reason comes after the thought. And if it thinks anything, how does it stand in the place of hiddenness? For that is not truly hidden which the mind itself sees, while another does not see it. For in this way many things might be called hidden, because there are very many; or, that I may say it thus, all things that the mind sees while another does not know that it sees—this would be the definition of the hidden—and near to the infinite; which is absurd. For that is properly hidden *one*, into which the mind departs after all things, as into that from which all things are, whether visible or conceived. Indeed, when it itself has run up into that which is above all—both visible, and spoken, and conceived—it is established outside of thinking, and seeing, and speaking; and it has not yet ascended so far, nor has it come to be in the divine hiddenness, as long as it has the power to speak; for it is still thinking. But surely the hidden is inconceivable, and therefore it is also above reason. Does the mind, having ascended into the place of divine hiddenness and been united, consequently practice silence—not by intent, but naturally, ^C being illuminated in a unified way by the One who is beyond thought?

38. If reasons are by nature such as to cause the mind to proceed forward and to make progress, then they raise up the one who has progressed to where reason does not arrive, in a matter, clearly, that is brought to completion in silence. But if reasons were always with the mind, and the soul were always in need of them, I do not see what this spiritual progress by means of speaking is. For speaking is not only useful for acting, but also for contemplating. In which part, indeed, the mind ascends from the reasons that have form, to that which is without form and above every reason, and strictly and incomparably one, when every reason seems superfluous, or, to speak more truly, an obstacle; for reasons are in transition from one thought to another. As for that which is simple, and absolute, and infinite, and without form, and simply one and placed above reason, how will it need reasons in order to ascend somewhere? Or how could it be circumscribed?—for reason is accustomed to work by circumscription. But that which is uncircumscribed, as being interminable and without form and simply one, if reason does not befit it—that hidden, uncircumscribed, and formless one above the mind—then silence will befit it. Therefore, it behooves those who have progressed to keep silence, in as much as they have proceeded toward simple contemplation, formless and without shape.

^A

40. Just as those who practice tranquility, when they go out from their cell, learn by experience the difference between sitting and walking, so too those who keep silence and return to speaking, and who approach the glory of God through contemplation, know in what state they are when they are silent by nature and not by will, and what they are when they return to speaking. For when silence comes upon them, they pray that it may never happen to them at all to open their mouths while abiding in this state. They are like angels upon the earth. Simply, without form, invisibly, without figure, they adhere absolutely to the truth with the firm gazes of the mind, having only admiration and amazement with them, thinking nothing at all—or rather, not even seeing that they are bringing themselves to divine and eternal illuminations. For thence, as the mind descends, being possessed of inconstancy, they run to speaking and are changed by many and various conversions. And that the state of silence might return to them again—which is much better than speaking—they embrace tranquility, and they guard their senses from sensible things, and use every artifice so that they might flee from speaking and from thought itself, that they might be able to say with David: "I was dumb, and humbled, and held my peace from good things." ^B For indeed, even to speak of good things is below silence with reason.

41. The divine is not altogether revealed, nor yet again is it hidden; but that it exists is revealed and most clearly so, whereas what that being is, is hidden. ^C It makes the greatest difference to know *what it is* and to know *that it is*. For the latter is known from its operations, but the former, what it is, is from its substance—which it is not permitted even for the angels to know regarding God. For God is infinitely and beyond all measure above any being, and above every mind and act of thought. When, therefore, the mind might come to those things which demonstrate that God is, then it has much to say, and can philosophize most excellently; and such a one can be called a philosopher and a theologian. But when, having risen above and ascended from this degree in which it knows itself to be surrounded by the divine obscurity, it is moved by the imagination of "what it is," and becomes altogether ^D without form, and untouchable, and without image, according as it is meet through grace, then every reason which is able to say something about God remains idle, and the mind is united and unmoved, and has entered into the unthinkable. And then it becomes entirely that which is above all things, where there is no reason, no thought, no conception progressing toward various things, but there is present simplicity, and the impossibility of perception.

^A It sees—in a strange way, that of the invisible—the vision of the invisible; it sees the formless form, itself absolute and become formless in straightforwardness, and according to those things invisibly contemplated by it, and laid upon it without eyes, to speak in summary: it reflects the divine and supernatural beauty back into itself, and honors that God who created it as such.

42. ^B It is not only that God happens to be simple, placed above every composition, that He is called one; but because, also, He is truly being, He alone Himself is in all things that are said to be, and have their existence through Him. For that which does not exist by itself and simply, is not truly and simply one; and likewise, as Being everywhere without being circumscribed, and as alone unlike all things, and purely outside of everything, ^C and as eternal, having neither begun nor being about to cease, and as in all things purely shining out the divine ray of His providence equally, even if not all things receive it in the same way; furthermore, as being known to all things without relation, drawing the mind, varied, formless, unshaped, timeless, untouched by all things that are in any way, and altogether absolute, into a boundlessness of indefiniteness—of time, and of place, and of nature, and of those things that transcend nature—to the contemplation, in a way ineffable, of the intelligible union ^D that is above all.

43. ^A Since the spiritual conjunction that occurs between God and the mind is said to be above thought, the mind at that time, by a spiritual sense, considers that supernatural one absolutely, as being in that which is above its own nature; yet the mind itself experiences this according to the nature of the mind [which has been] purified by grace. For this to the mind is thinking, just as seeing is to the eye. Therefore, just as one seeing inside in darkness sees nothing, except that he sees as it were that darkness, and sees that he does not see—for if his eyes were covered, he might perhaps have thought that there was light around him, and certain things—so now, seeing, ^B he sees clearly that he does not see. And that the optical power should penetrate inside the darkness and know secret things is above the nature of the eye, but to see that one does not see is not; so it is also with the mind fleeing into the divine obscurity and established beyond thought. For it sees nothing; for how could it? Yet it sees that it does not see; and it also sees that which it does not see, as one hidden by certain darkness, out of which flows everything that exists, whether visible or thought, whether numbered among creatures, ^C or eternally being and uncreated. And if it were not contemplating that, it would not see itself extended beyond itself. But now, contemplating, it contemplates most clearly that it does not see, since it is above contemplation, and it is impossible to contemplate that which is not contemplated; and to enter into that divine and supra-mental obscurity and to contemplate it is above the nature of the mind; but to look toward the divine darkness of this obscurity and to imagine that ineffable unity, placed in an ineffable mystery ^D above

^A all things, and that it sees nothing within the divine darkness, is the characteristic of a pure mind contemplating in the Spirit. For the mind does not have a closed and shuttered spiritual vision—nor is it idle—when it contemplates that it sees nothing save the Divine, and simply One in ^B deep secrecy; for this is a sign of ignorance. But when it contemplates more manifestly, then it runs toward that which is above the mind, and then it beholds its own blindness, contemplating within the secrecy of the simplest One; yet it sees quite clearly that the One is that from which all things are, and that it is hidden. But what it is, it does not see, and the mind is said to be above its own nature to the extent that it looks into the simplest secrecy of God; and this is natural to it, now that it has become pure. And, so to speak, it is natural for it to be in that which is above nature, without eyes—that is, incomprehensibly—impinging upon the divine and ultra-simplified, supra-mental, unitary secrecy; for it does not then have any cognitive perception, except that of the inaccessible One. And indeed, having arrived there ^C by a motion proper to itself, it ends in a state and a cessation; I do not mean a state that is without contemplation—for that would be insanity—but a state and rest which comes to pass when it no longer passes from thought to thought or contemplation to contemplation. For when the mind has ascended there, having fallen into the abyss of infinity and indeterminacy in the spiritual light, surrounded by the incomprehensibility of that divine invisible obscurity, it fails, so to speak, and stays, suffering nothing else but amazement in the spiritual splendor. And indeed, it is affected by the converted spiritual light, looking immovably into the supernatural obscurity, unitively and simply permeating the inaccessible interior of this splendor which does not go forth, and being adorned by it. But if it were idle from contemplating, how could it suffer amazement and splendor? But in this way the mind is said to stand, having arrived there, because it is immovable, contemplating the One and affected by the splendor of the One, and rejoicing and being brightened; and to stand without being moved, not suppressing its own fruit of contemplation—for such an affectation is to be shunned, nor is it to be praised, as it is filled with the darkness of ignorance, to contemplate in no way whatsoever. The aforementioned state of the mind occurs by the inaccessible illumination of the light, and it is a contemplation ^D that does not seek a transition, but a cessation and a state. For that which is above nature, the hidden mystical supersubstantial One, is infinite and inaccessible to every mind; nor is the mind that contemplates allowed to contemplate in any other way, except in the measure that it has become a partaker of the purification and divine union proper to it. And it adheres to this divine contemplation and radiant beauty and infinity in no other way than by being attracted and affected by it, either by [divine] assumption or by the natural conversion which it undergoes.

44. To the mind, thinking is nature; and thought is in motion and transition. But since the mind, having come to be in God, is found to be above thought and above motion, then the mind would rightly be said to be above its own nature

^A absolutely imagining God (for it is clear that every concept is naturally produced from a thing; but where a thing is not contemplated, a concept is neither generated nor found). The God, therefore, who in no way has the property of being seen realistically, presents to the mind those things which are about Him—that is to say, those things which He operates; these hold the place of power, proceeding from a certain potentiality. Inasmuch, then, as the mind is accustomed to contemplate powers together with possible things in all other cases, it seeks to experience this also in the case of God; and becoming unable to do so—for this is above the nature of every created mind—it contemplates the things around God. And it imagines God in an eyeless manner, as they say, simply and by a sudden impulse. Having grasped a tranquil air and having become successful in divine favor, and with the divine and adorable Spirit working within it, by more continuous thinking ^B it is snatched into an imageless, quality-less, and simple state, entering within the heart as quickly as possible by the supernatural power of the Spirit. And standing in the contemplation of God, and thinking of nothing, but coming to be above thinking—from which it follows that from thinking of the things around God, it ascends to a divine contemplation—it is said, as has been said, that being established as simple, it attains to that which is above its own nature, because it becomes above thinking.

45. Whatever, therefore, is called hidden, must necessarily have something manifest, from which this is suspected to be hidden; for if not, it would resemble that which does not exist at all. For that which entirely gives no manifestation of its existence might be thought to be not existing at all. ^C Indeed, there also exist together with the hiddenness of God certain things that appear first, to which, as if tracing footprints, the mind receives a sense of the divine hiddenness, ascending by what is capable of being grasped of God to that which is incapable of being grasped; in which state it realizes that there is precisely something which eludes its own natural grasp, lying above every intellectual apprehension, and any angelic one whatever, as being supernatural; and that it is the cause, and principle, and end of every nature, and substance, and of all that exists, and itself supernatural and supersubstantial, infinitely dwelling above all things that exist; unbegotten and without beginning, and unbounded, and simply uncircumscribed by nature, and place, and time—and this is the hidden One above the mind. And ^D the divine apprehension is naturally proceeding from Him, being very manifold, and extending us again upon Himself, and, as it were, guiding us around with intellectual leadings, and turnings, and elevations, since the primal hidden One is a supernatural unity; so much unit-ing us with this, as to understand that It exists, and that It is one; and furthermore, that in every way It is inconceivable, so that to know what this hidden One is, is impossible. That which is found above the mind and escapes the understanding, how might reason be able to traverse it? But that which reason cannot traverse, the mind, without voice and word and in silence, is able simply to behold as the hidden One, above apprehension, and to rejoice in it as the Cause, and to contemplate it; and to be struck with awe as [at] the supernatural light, and the super-good, and the super-wise, and the super-powerful, and the divine.

^A To enjoy exultation from this, as being infinite and unbounded to all to whom the supersubstantial hidden One is seen, is truly the consequence of the rational nature. It is therefore inconsistent for the mind that is engaged in these things to use discursive arguments and to proceed by changing from one to another. Whoever, therefore, does not use silence, but voice, fails to reach the supreme state of the mind; for this is its supreme state, as might be confessed even by those who put forward nothing of the truth, that the mind should be established at the highest degree of its own energy. And the highest degree is the looking toward its highest, which is also said to be accomplished without eyes; and therefore, by much better reason, without voice and words.

46. ^B When the mind approaches the divine hiddenness without eyes, the reception—and this also is without eyes—issues forth from there upon the mind, forming it and making it one-like, filled with an ineffable brightness that is above beauty and above light; and it invites the mind into an abyss of wonder and astonishment in silence, having pre-occupied the heart with spiritual energy and sweet joy. That becomes for the mind a noetic illumination, a radiance, and according to analogy, a divine love and bright exultation. It has its origin from God, whence comes every good gift, through the purity of the mind; and it has, if one may say so, its matter from the divine manifestations through the Scriptures, and [from] beings intelligently and with a right heart considered in tranquility and prayer. ^C For the hidden and innermost One of the Divinity, which is above thought, is not looked upon in any casual way, but [is seen] in the radiance proceeding from thence, which fills the noetic aspect and contemplation. He who does not experience this, but ascends to the supernatural, hidden, simple One rationally and knowingly from without, is neither moved in his heart, nor is he enlightened noetically.

47. The most clear, one-like, and uniform contemplation of the mind in God, which reaches toward that one divine darkness and receives the divine far-shining radiance flashing from it, of the beginningless and infinite emission of light, ^D demands silence not only of the mouth, but also of the mind. For it is permitted, even while keeping silence of the mouth, for the mind to be inwardly disposed, and to move into reasonings and thoughts, and to be varied; which would be the reason of the interior word, from which the mind has retreated, ascending into the unformatted hiddenness of the divine Unity, which is spread out above all things. For the mind’s contemplating is one thing, and its being disposed and thinking—which is [the way] of the interior word—is another. Hence, when the mind has become involved in created and composite, or otherwise varied things, it first contemplates, and then afterwards thinks, being varied. And indeed, concerning one thing, one might find not a few thoughts. But in that one and simple and intimate divine darkness, it does indeed stretch and unfold its own eye, and is illumined by the simplicity of the divine radiance. But it cannot at all think when thus disposed. For that one simplicity and darkness flees from spiritual conversion or varied disposition, and what is thought cannot be described or told by word of mouth.

For which reason man exercises silence naturally, both with his mouth and mind, having fled ^A mentally into the single, most glorious divine hiddenness.

48. When the conversion of the mind tends entirely toward God, and is swallowed up by that which contemplates Him through the most radiant rays of divine beauty, and rises up formlessly into the simplicity and indeterminacy of the hidden, imageless One, and becomes one with itself in its tension and gaze toward that One, and looks out in the inspiration of the Spirit, then it becomes clearly established in that childlike state. It perceives that very thing, and tastes of the ineffable and supernatural kingdom of God, according to the Lord’s word, who says: “Unless you turn and become as children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” ^B For the mind is then absolute, and detached in every way from all things, established apart from all knowledge, from any thought whatsoever, and from all composition, having transcended the bounds of multiplicity and stretched upward to the unutterable and unknown beyond mind. Hence, indeed, it keeps silence naturally, because its state is not only beyond reason, but even beyond its own mental operation; possessing, together with the hidden and the imageless, that which is supernatural, graceful, and sweet, as much as is necessary for mental enjoyment.

49. ^C In the imageless, most radiant, immaterial, and non-composite beauty, and in the simplest aspect, the contemplative ones behold God uniformly as One, surrounded by infinite goods, adorned with countless beauties, bright with light-like rays, as if illuminating the whole mind, a wealth ineffable and indescribable; a fountain of goods and beauties, an infinite and ever-flowing abundance, a bottomless, inexhaustible treasure-house of glory; filling the inward eyes ^D of the mind most abundantly with delight; and with joy and gladness, together with a pure cheerfulness, flowing mystically as a constant stream from that divine and supernatural unity, which lies in the unapproachable, hidden darkness. They see also how vast and unfathomable is the sea that pours forth from that source—from that, I say, ineffable goodness and inexplicable charity and inscrutable providence, in infinite power and ineffable wisdom; all of which are, even to the angels and the Seraphim themselves, incomprehensible, as being established above every mind; which are indeed gathered in us from this present time in an ineffable way, but in the time to come shall be restored, and as it were regenerated and perfected; which even the Cherubic mind surpasses, to which, however, it is given only to think obscurely thereof. O the goodness, and counsel of God, and charity, and kindness, and power, and wisdom, and divine providence! Truly blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered! And blessed is the man whom God shall instruct, and whom He shall teach out of His law and Spirit!

^A In Spirit and in truth are revealed those things which are unseen to those in the world, who cannot receive the Holy Spirit, as the Lord has declared. But as for those for whom to withdraw from the world is the most important thing, and to sit far from the world and from the things that are in the world, through divine grace, the spiritual light, the rising of the intelligible sun from on high, has illuminated the eyes of their heart, and there has occurred for them a reception from God, by which to set ^B ascents in their hearts, and to be made radiant with the visions of God—as is fitting, for these folks also see most clearly very many other things, divine and intelligible, and worthy of spiritual contemplation; in addition to these, there is the future, eternal, and unchangeable restoration for those who have lived piously, so that it will be not only not sensible, but even beyond the mind. For they will be entirely transformed, and having become wholly part of that which is beyond the mind, and of the life and delights which are beyond all thought; having become "gods" by adoption, they will exult before God, rejoicing in the supernatural goods proceeding from the highest and only God by nature. Standing around Him, and acting most holily, purely, and as well as possible, let us establish that the divine and supra-mental festival, the most pleasant delight of this blessed joy, is the sole and true solemnity, together with all the spiritual orders of angels. ^C There is a great and ineffable stream of sincere exultation over that beauty. For if sensible beauty, approaching the mind through the senses, although it is finite and fleeting, neither simple nor uncreated, is yet accustomed to provide a not ungrateful pleasure to the soul, it is not difficult for those who have a mind and are able to compare, to conceive what it would be like in the spiritual realm, and in those things which are infinite and beyond the mind, and no longer dwelling in those fleeting things that flow from God—from whom all things beautiful and good spring forth—but in the uncreated and the infinite; and all these things with joy and exultation, and divine life, and as befits that age and that restoration.

51. After the mind has bidden farewell to temporal and local intervals, and has passed through them, it becomes naked, in the simplicity of unity and in a life motionless and invisible, and without any veil or hindrance, with the impossibility of being thought or appearing; for indeed it has reached the eternity and incomprehensibility, the infinity and ^D indeterminateness in a supernatural way, in the divine and spiritual power and illumination of the heart, which seems to extend toward infinity with the very contemplation of the mind. Then the peace of God rises in the soul, and the ineffable joy and exultation of the Holy Spirit is poured into it; and a stupor that is beyond cognition contains it, leading it to sing. God is not "seen" [as an object], but the God of gods is "seen" in Sion, in a mind that is contemplative and looking upward. "O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in Thee!"

52. When the mind lies in stupor, enlightened by the ineffable quality of that which is beyond thought, between God and the divine, it finds itself...

^A regarding itself and divine things, then it eats, as is permitted, the true fruits of spiritual knowledge; and it is deified, and rejoices, and progresses into divine loves, speaking absolutely nothing, nor passing through anything—neither inwardly nor within through discourse—nor even pondering, but seeing intellectually and unitively in the light of truth and of the Spirit, and making that which is seen an unchangeable reality.

53. When the countenance of the mind, inclining toward the interior of the heart, sees the illumination of the Spirit perpetually springing forth from it, then is exceedingly the time to be silent.

54. When the whole intellectual countenance sees God—or rather, when the whole mind becomes interior to God, or, to put it this way, when God becomes within the whole mind—then it is ^B altogether and in the highest degree naturally the time to be silent.

55. When the mind, standing contemplatively before God according to the circumstances, enjoys in a manner permitted the glory from the face of God and its splendor, one must then especially be silent, and see tranquilly and without disturbance. But if any mist of darkness should fall between the mind and God, it is then necessary to launch, suddenly, as if some light-bearing and fiery reason ^C burning by natural capacity against these darknesses, a word—brief, indeed, yet of divine revelation—so that, by quickly dissipating the darkness with light and melting the cold with heat, and illuminating and warming the mind in contrast, it may again be able to converse with God as before, and to contemplate His beauty, and as is fitting to enjoy Him, and to be adorned, and to suffer, to speak briefly, those things which are according to the spiritual impulse through the reception of the life-giving Spirit from God, and indeed to be spread out and to be dissolved in ^D truth and spirit within God, away from all things, even those things which are about God. This is the lot of the contemplative, justly and fittingly; but he who attends only to action falls far short of such a state, as he is not yet united to himself and through himself to God. It is not, therefore, a marvel that such a one should sing of divine things, or discourse in some way much and often with frequent impetuses, and raging and revering Him who, for the most part, battles ardently within us. For the time will come for one who endures, by spiritual inspiration, when the scintillating flashes of many hymns and reasons are gathered into one torch, when he will easily and opportunely strike the enemy, kindling and dividing—or rather, dissipating—his darkness, while illuminating and warming himself with that fire, and moving himself most of all toward divine love, and directing a hymn and wonder toward God Himself in silence, and showing forth to himself the stupendous miracles of the mysteries. For not without reason are those who wait for the Lord rendered blessed; or rather, as time proceeds, they shall inherit, like the meek, the intellectual land of promise, in Christ our Lord.

56. When the mind, by each of the effusions of light of the

^A Spirit, is illuminated, it is dazed and penetrated, and thinks of itself as extended and transformed toward the infinite and interminable; then is the time for silence.

57. When, however, it notices that it is exhausted by the most manifest of visions, yet desires to penetrate further, so that, by slackening the tension, it may in some way obtain rest, then it is naturally the time for speaking, though only briefly, and in a way befitting divine illumination.

58. When the mind, fleeing through the midst of the waters, escapes the intellectual Pharaoh, and puts its own night to flight with the light of fire, and passes its own day under the protection of a cloud, then again there arrives a time of blessed silence and peace, and the beginning of the soul’s purification. But when the terrible intellectual Amalek and the nations that follow him resist this, preventing the mind from possessing the land of promise, then is the time meet for speaking—not, however, at random, but directing itself toward God in intellectual action and befitting contemplation, just as Moses formerly held his hands up ^B with the help of Aaron and Hur.

59. When from the fountainous abyss and intellectual intuition there gushes forth a spiritual power from the heart, there naturally arrives the time for silence. For then, ineffably, worship and adoration to God are performed in spirit and in truth, and this in a true intellectual sense.

60. When, by means of an intellectual intuition toward God, the reasoning faculty of the soul is wholly filled with divine awe, and the intellect with vision, and the soul with exultation, then, undoubtedly, is the time for silence. For the mind, in the Spirit, perceives the truth sensibly and compactly, and worships and reveres in awe the God who shines forth within it ^C.

61. Those who, in spirit and in truth, worship God as is fitting, and serve Him, not only do not worship and serve Him in a place, but they do not do so by means of any competing ratiocination, nor by discourse of language. For just as the intellectual sense, raised up from plain simplicity, does not desire to worship in a place that which is uncircumscribed and for which there is no place of rest; so too, maintaining what is fitting and being united to the truth, it does not endure at all to worship and consequently serve the infinite, the interminable, the eternal, the formless, and the perfectly simple—to speak in one word, Him who is above the mind—through a variety of words and an enunciation of speech ^D. When the time comes for the mind to be simply illuminated by the inspiration of the Spirit with the knowledge of divine truth, at which time the mind, released from all things and withdrawing from itself, puts off not only phantasy but even thought—inasmuch as it has clung with joy and awe to those things which are above reason and mind by means of spiritual light—and has contemplated them, becoming immobile and immutable, in a way having become, through that spiritual effort, a union that is above itself.

62. The mind must, while attending to itself, prudently and carefully direct its own intellectual state

^A with justice; and when it perceives itself contemplating the simple and unfigured mysteries of theology, it should not immediately cease to stand in quiet silence, with wonder, nor should it wander far from its own heart, which is active in the spirit and, in some way, illuminated. For then is the time not only for the silencing of all senses from sensible things, but also for silence itself, with no word intervening; or rather, for those who are initiated, it is then a time—if one should say so—of intellectual practice, of rest, and of reflection. For in all respects, one must strive for immobility in the senses, in words, and in thoughts, so that the mind may, with a straight aim and as it ought, exist ^B most alone in a uniform and single-aspected gaze upon the one and only triune God, freely and in a lawful manner, beholding that infinity and lack of beginning which is above thought—and, indeed, that incomprehensibility—and, in short, to say it all, the divine, immutable, and absolute things, and to be united, having been changed by this contemplation, and to have become simple, and, in sum, to have become godlike through divine grace, with joy and wonder. But since the mind would wish to possess such a state if it were possible, yet it cannot—being mutable, and living and joined with mutable things, and united with the body and subject to distracting affairs—it must, scientifically, not stray far from that uniform gaze, nor speak much, but say things sparingly, and these only ^C of divine illuminations, so that it may not only be able to return more quickly to the union with God that is above the mind, but also perceive that union more clearly, and, no less, hold it more enduringly. For insofar as the mind preserves its concentration and remains in any way undistracted, by so much is its turning toward divine union achieved more quickly, and it is united with brighter splendors, and these prove more fruitful through the constant habituation to divine things.

63. When the mind, being transformed by the divine, uniform manifestation through its intellectual gaze, is irradiated by the unknown darkness ^D that is beyond all knowledge, it is established as indivisible, simple, and indeterminate, as if illuminated unitarily under a cloud, contemplating a beauty incomprehensible in its excess of simplicity, surpassing every form and every essence, and above any origin whatsoever. That beauty itself is incomprehensible, yet, drawing into itself the boundaries of all things and every kind of containment, it fills all things as being most full, and is itself infinite, to speak in one word. When, therefore, the mind, through the contempt of all things, sees everything in the glance of the One by an ineffable reason of spiritual power that surpasses thought, then is the time to be silent and to enjoy, mystically and supernaturally, or, if I may so say, sightlessly and wordlessly, the uniform delight in a more divine initiation into the truth. But when the aforementioned things are absent from the mind and division is seen within it, then it is the time to speak; yet, one must speak of things that can lead back to silence. For silence that is beyond reason, and also timely—if one might call it so—is far better than any discourse; just as Solomon the Wise, [original-script column: see facsimile] who set this first, says, "A time to keep silence, and then a time to speak."

says: "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak." To maintain silence is indeed optimal when it is opportune. But if that is not yet present, if the mind has not yet reached those simple truths which are above reason, and it is opportune to speak, then that must suffice. Let speaking be such that it is akin and near to silence, just as to be silent is commended, so indeed let speaking opportunely be commended. And let us hasten to attain stillness by speaking of divine things, by constantly meditating, by contemplating creation and looking at its Creator as much as we are able, and by hearing the creature ^A narrating the praises of God. That is to speak opportunely. It is necessary, therefore, to signify this intelligently.

64. When the mind has passed through all things here below, and in a natural way has transcended them, and has lovingly kept silence, then is the time to enjoy what is supernatural and to enjoy it in silence. It is a time of illumination and spiritual light, of union of the mind, and of simple contemplation, of infinity, of indeterminacy, and of super-luminous knowledge; and, to speak briefly, it is a time of comprehension and reception of spiritual wisdom, through which the mind is perfected in quiet and silence, feeling an ineffable exultation in wonder.

65. When the soul, by a sense of truth, feels itself, as it were, intoxicated by the cup of grace and becomes beside itself, it is manifest that it is then the time for silence.

66. When the disposition of the inner man desires to cry out: "O Lord, why are they multiplied that afflict me? Many rise up against me," then is the time to speak; yet to speak as is fitting, not randomly, but moderately and conveniently against the enemies, as is required. ^B

67. When the light of the Lord’s countenance is marked upon the soul, so that it is adorned and brightened by it, and an outpouring of divine joy flows into it, then, indeed, it is the time for silence.

68. When it sees unjust witnesses rising up against it and asking those things it does not know, and disturbing it, then it is truly the time to speak and to bring forth words.

69. The most lofty, and one might say the outermost, or rather the highest good and beauty, is God indeed, in all things that exist and are thought of; yet in all that is seen, man is better by no small interval and incomparably greater; for by grace he is truly above the angels. ^C In these very many things which are between God and men, the contemplative mind, drawing near to that which is above thought, retreats in astonishment when it has not yet been tested by abundant grace. But when it has tasted this grace through the spiritual power working in the heart, I would say it soon ascends to the highest beautiful and good, namely God, and by a diviner gift enters into it. And it ^D sees uniformly and is stupified, dwelling in silence in that abyss which is above the mind. And this is, as one might say, the pledge of the first sabbatismos; the type of which was in the creation, the sabbatismos of God; but as for the second, of which the true exemplar is the rest of the sabbati-

sabbatismos ^A reserved for the people of God, it manifestly enjoys a greater and distinct sabbatismos, turning upon itself from God, and knowing itself as an image after the prototype. And, furthermore, [it knows] what is between God and men; since it not only proceeds toward things beyond mind and thought, in a manner appropriate to it, with admirable astonishment, but it is also filled with joy—not such as one might have words to express—and with spiritual exultation, taking delight in silence in the theoptic illuminations and theourgies directed upon it from above itself, and being united to this unity of the divine and supernatural Godhead, in Christ Jesus.

70. When it makes an abstraction ^B of whatsoever exists, as if the things that exist did not exist, then it ineffably imagines that which truly is, contemplating beyond intellectual energy and union, the mind in truth and spirit by an infinite transcendence, regarding the divine things which can be seen in creatures; and it becomes idea-like, or one, if I may so say, ineffably possessing a speechless silencing, full of love, full of joy—not simply so, however, but from the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, enjoying delights that are similar to the delights of the angels.

71. Just as in no way at all, Lord, is your essence ^C graspable by any rational and spiritual nature, nor by any simply created intellect, not even by a cherub, but it infinitely transcends all intellect; so too, O Master, those things that are around you are altogether infinite and unbounded. You commanded the legislator of the Old Testament, Moses, to proclaim him who is, and you yourself speaking thus with insuperable care. But you yourself again, O most truthful and only supreme truth, said of some of your own, that although seen by them, you did not reveal your name to them. For there is a name above every name, and not only of those that are on the earth, but also of those that are in heaven. For they who are full of your light denote that you are essence, but quite without any underlying subject, so that you may consequently appear supernatural, and an intellect having no underlying subject; so that manifestly, and beyond thought and all things that can be known, you are known as infinitely ^D unknown and supreme; you appear prior to time, eternal, very life itself, and infinite; you entirely escape local thought, you who are everywhere present at once, and above everything, as the sole creator of all. And yet, though you are the compass of spiritual natures and an impenetrable place, immediately surpassing the mind and anticipating the thought of it, inasmuch as you are above all things, and an omnipotent hand finding out the impenetrable manner of all things: for you are never subject to the terms of nature. For you are infinite, not only in nature as being supernaturally incomprehensible, but also in the attributes that are around you, such as wisdom—as one who is supersapient—and power—as one who is prepotent—and love and goodness above every thought of love and goodness. What could anyone call you? That which is called light is not inaccessible; so that you are above light. He who is called judge does not know all things, even before their generation? Where are these

^A judgments? You stand far above a judge! And what kind of creator shall one call you, who create by the mere impulse of your will, and that, too, with a single impulse, the many and diverse material things? But in the immaterial things—O the depth of that pre-eminence!—to speak thus: with a single impulse of the Spirit, you create things of one nature, because they are spiritual; yet they are many, and very many, with differences of dispositions, and, if you will, of persons, which is altogether most wonderful. And every thought that considers this, you surpass by far; are these therefore the work of the Creator indeed? By no means. So are you then named above a creator and an artificer? And what builder builds without a foundation and upon no base, even the smallest thing, as you do, Lord, this great earth with its mountains and rocks, and other material, founding it on nothing, and yet doing so ^B securely? Or what artificer produces things out of nothing at all, and that too, in an instant, according to a design, of such a magnitude, such as those that are fashioned by art, as you produce them? If one were to call your works those of a creator or an artificer, would he be speaking the truth? By no means at all. Therefore, you are truly far beyond a creator and an artificer, by an infinite distance, O God. And what kind of appearance of love could one ever know, or hear of, or imagine, as great as that which your most wonderful goodness has shown us in your Incarnation, altogether and beyond hope, mercifully? Those indeed who contemplate this, who are permitted to contemplate through grace, enter into an infinite ocean of love and marvelous providence, and become truly outside themselves, full of the most vivid love in return, nor can they ^C name the acts of this providence as they really are; for the mysteries of your Incarnation, O best God, surpass mind and reason and all hearing and thought. You are called the Father of all; but you ineffably surpass every sort of fatherhood, both by cause and by patience, and by solicitude, and by counsel, and by magnanimity, and by long-suffering. You are named King; but not more in the present time, and less in the future, nor yet in any way according to the past. But how? In a wondrous, absolute, and simple manner. For your kingdom is the kingdom of all ages, and now, and in the past time, and in the future; and your dominion is in every generation and generation. Thus, in all things, simply and through all things, you are infinitely and absolutely ^D pre-eminent, and, to speak briefly, you are excessively and infinitely, incomparably exalted, and you yourself, O incomprehensible Lord, and the things that are around you. The mind which has an introduction to the vision of your accessible [aspect], imagines this, and, aided by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, enters into mystical darkness, not yet being able to see you perfectly on account of your infinite and inaccessible glory. In this supernatural quiet, you ineffably and wondrously recreate those who love you, not bringing them to perfection, except insofar as they gaze upon you. Whence you refresh them with divine and supernatural rest, O ineffable, unthinkable, uncircumscribed, incomprehensible, and, in a word, infinitely [infinite in] substance and efficacy. Amen. 72. When the mind is far from curiosity, the

^A mind, having withdrawn from foreign and multiform thoughts, finds itself above mental distraction by the inspiration and participation of the Holy Spirit, who continually unifies it and breathes into it perennially. Dwelling constantly in divine places, it is, so to speak, watered by these thoughts, and, as with a spiritual gaze, it suddenly desires to behold in unity all the great things concerning God, and this in an ineffable and loving way. Then it manifestly partakes of divine rest, enjoying profound and divine peace, and the holy, quiet, and manifold recreation of the heart, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

73. When the mind converses with God and prays as a son to a most affectionate Father, it rejoices ineffably at seeing the light of Jesus in its own way. ^B Captivated by love, it clearly senses divine love and the supernatural efficacy of the Holy Spirit in its heart, and it wishes to soar mystically and supernaturally above divine manifestations and perfections. Then it truly rests from all its works, being above thought after it has thought of the effects, and experiencing a wondrous sweetness of sense, and in reality resting in the peace of the life-giving Spirit of Christ.

74. God rested from all the works which He began to make, but only after He had completed the things that were made in the Word and the Spirit. In the same way, the God-like mind rests from all the works which it began to do at the start for the completion of the intelligible world according to virtue; but this is after it has investigated ^C and, as it were, perfected in the Word of God and the life-giving Spirit the whole world and the intelligible things within it, and has ascended again in the Word and the Spirit to those things which some call metaphysical, and has entered into the simple and absolute spectacles of mystical theology. For then, in the retreat of all things, in quiet and peace, it enjoys in the spiritual truth the greatest delights, and it is deified in the light of knowledge and the participation of the life-giving Spirit, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

75. Just as God, having rested, did not rest from all His works, but only from those which He began to make—yet He did not rest from the eternal and uncreated works, which ^D were, so to speak, natural to Him; so the mind, imitating God, having passed on through the divine Word and the life-giving Spirit, and having passed through visible creation, does not in the least rest from the works that are natural to it, nor from those which have no beginning or end; but it rests from those visible works which have a beginning and an end. Hence, while immobility follows bodily rest, the contrary follows the constitution of the mind. For unless it were perpetually moved by the constant, life-giving inspiration of the Spirit in the cognitive contemplation of the things it sees, it would not even know what spiritual rest is, as it exists uniformly in perpetual motion around God, and deifies the one who participates in it, in that ineffable and inexpressible recreation with Christ.

^A “Be not speedy,” says Solomon, “to bring a word before the face of the Lord; for God is in heaven above, and you upon the earth below.” In this he very clearly and aptly gives and defines what is the time to be silent. ^B For he says plainly: "Since you, being below upon the earth, appear before the face of the Lord who is in heaven above, and have been deemed worthy of such grace, that you who are below may consider and survey the things above, and with your intellect stand before the face of the Lord, do not be hasty to bring forth a word; for it is the time for silence." Do not wish, while being moved intellectually by the Truth, and in a unified and God-like manner—for this is what it means to be before the face of the Lord, when the mind contemplates the many things concerning God in a unified way by a simple and single impulse in God—do not, therefore, while experiencing this and standing before the face of the Lord, be hasty to bring forth a word; or if you do speak, do not hasten to descend and fall from that state skillfully and voluntarily. This should indeed be said to those who explain that verse. ^C There was a time when human nature was happy, and thus far from evils, near to God, and contemplating God, and enjoying with joy in our first parent Adam the glory of the beauty of His face, and perceiving with wonder immaterial, spiritual, heavenly, and incorruptible delights. For a great grace was poured out upon the soul of the first man, and his God-like mind was enriched with many certain contemplative visions and with up-liftings toward God, in a perceptible paradise, enjoying the intelligible; and that I may call it so, he rejoiced in a blessed life, truly united to himself and converted to God, remaining in himself and at the same time in the One, and participating in a simple constitution, and deservedly so, since it had been made in the image of God. These things were thus among men, to speak briefly, good things from God. ^D But this was intolerable to the most wicked demon who envied our happiness and glory. How, then? That fatal one surely showed himself a deceiver, and wished to inflate our hopes with flattering counsels and to raise our desire to a higher contemplation of the divine command than we possessed, disparaging the simplicity of the command, he—the first author of evil. From that time, therefore, we have miserably suffered the ruin that arose from this deception, and we have become exiles from God and divine delight, and we have miserably fallen from that simple and spiritual life of the mind, from the contemplation of God’s face, from that glory, and from those rays of divine beauty by which we had been transformed, and we were found, as we ought not to have been, divided and split into many things, and using a divided and varied life, whereas we should have done otherwise, so that we preferred to worship many gods, rather than to serve the one God in three persons, many, I say, not in reality gods, but deceiving, corrupting, and wicked demons; we lost the one true God, and the uniform life and order, and we were divided into many and diverse things, and our spiritual power and effort, or rather, to speak more properly, our intent, has deservedly left us, and we have come into the deep abyss of immense evil.

^A We chose, foolishly, to think of lower things, although we were images of God and worthy of the life above and of the heavenly abode. But since we are not immutable, nor indeed inflexible, it is altogether possible—and reasonable—that just as we slipped pitiably from that abundant glory into the furthest dishonor, we may run back and look up, and again see the most venerable countenance of God; not, however, as close as before, yet we must see Him from further away, and endure the splendor of His beauty. ^B Therefore, the most divine Moses, and the whole order of the prophets, and those before them—Abraham, clearly, and those of his time—saw this as far as it was possible, and very clearly; and they enjoyed the radiance from that beauty abundantly, and were struck by the inaccessibility of His glory. Some of them lamented, others deemed and called themselves earth and ash, while others were not even able to open their mouths because of the excess of the glory of Him who was seen. Then, indeed, they recognized their own speechlessness and tonguetiedness, and endured many other blessed states in an illustrious manner.

^C Then, truly, David the inspired, longing for the radiance of the beauty of the Lord’s face, crying out toward God, is deeply moved: "When shall I come and appear before the face of my God?" And wishing to show in what state of soul the face of the Lord is seen, he says, "The upright shall dwell with thy countenance." And wisely demonstrating the strength which the beheld face of God provides to the soul, he says, "Thou didst turn away thy face, and I became troubled." If trouble occurs from the withdrawal of the divine face, then peace of soul—that greatest gift, which follows divine love and joy, whether one should call them the manifestations of the Spirit, or fruits—surely follows His presence and visitation. And he shows that those who live holily and piously walk in the light of the Lord’s face, saying, "O Lord, in the light of thy countenance they shall walk, and in thy name they shall exult all the day"—that spiritual day, clearly, insofar as the intelligible and ineffable Sun sends forth to the inner man His immaculate and life-giving rays, and the perception of the transcendent is poured into the mind; at which time every memory of the soul is lifted from the earth and transferred to heaven. ^D And the man rejoices, and leaps, and sings songs of praise, as is fitting, and is delighted in exultation, and mirth, and cheerfulness—how great, who could say?—being gladdened and illumined by the splendor of the Lord’s face. Whence he entreats God elsewhere: "Turn not away," he says, "thy face from me, and I shall be like those who go down into the pit." For the withdrawal of the Lord’s face is the cause of darkness, but its return is the cause of every intellectual light.

^A With good reason, then, and with spiritual joy, as he says also concerning himself: "The light of your face has been marked upon me," and he adds, "You have given gladness to my heart." Again, bearing witness that the spiritual gift of divine grace has come to be in him from the illumination of the Lord’s face, he asks who, then, are those who stand before the face of the Lord and supplicate him, saying that they are the spiritually rich of God’s people. For while there are indeed many saints and men of God, is it permitted for everyone simply to behold the face of God and to live an angelic life while yet living in the prime of life on earth? Far from it. For it is given only to those who believe that the Deity must be worshipped and honored in truth and in spirit with divine wisdom and knowledge; and these indeed can rightly be called the rich of the people of God, having been illuminated by many contemplations concerning the mysteries, and possessing, as Paul says—which is not for everyone—a depth of wealth in divine and spiritual wisdom and knowledge. Hence the wonderful David says to God, as has been said: ^B "Your face, the rich of the people shall supplicate." Solomon the Great, knowing this better than all, and being filled with divine wisdom, teaches most aptly, saying: "Do not be hasty to speak a word before the face of the Lord, for God is in heaven above, and you are on earth below." When, by divine gift, you have been brought before the face of the Lord in a divine and intellect-like vision, contemplation of the mind having evidently ascended, it is the time to be silent. Do not, therefore, hasten to bring forth a word, nor even rashly follow the habit of speaking, because it is not then the time for speaking. For you are becoming God, even while you are still on earth, beholding the face of God who is in the heavens in an angel-like manner. For indeed, the angels, as the Savior said, always behold the face of the Father who is in the heavens. ^C When, therefore, you hear Solomon in another place saying, "Light is perpetual for the just," you should believe that this happens to them from the outpouring of light from the face of the Lord, since they behold the face of the Lord always, in the manner of angels, by divine grace, from which the welling light is poured forth. For a man becomes another angel—not to say a god—on the earth. And you return to the iconic gift of the Lord's grace, becoming on earth what God is above—that is to say, god—the wondrous thing, not proceeding by reason, nor running forward with thought, nor moving one's own ratiocination as if divided spiritually, but ascending uniformly, and seeing after the manner of God without eyes, and immovably through a simple and single gaze, and the shining and inaccessible splendor erupting from the face of the Lord. This, therefore, is the highest and most enviable state of the mind towards God for the prudent; ^D and, so to speak, the flower of intellectual purity; the desirable unity of faith, being perfected in the communion of the Spirit; the glorious fruit of divine and deifying wisdom; the pinnacle of spiritual peace; the dwelling-place of sincere joy; the door of divine charity; the sprout of illumination; the source of the failing waters of the Spirit erupting from the heart; and the true manna, food and delight of the soul, and its growth and transformation; the beginning of the revelation of divine and ineffable mysteries; the consequence of the one and primary truth; the dissipation of all ratiocinations; the cessation of all thoughts; the assumption above thought; the rise of astonishment; the conversion of the soul above the mind to the simple, and

^A indeterminable on all sides, infinite, and uncircumscribed, without form, figure, quality, variety, or quantity, absolute and supernatural; a change of the soul and an absolute restoration to the divine. Do not therefore, out of imprudence, when you have arrived at that state, and have in some manner become a god by the mercy of grace, hasten to utter even one word before the face of the Lord; for to Him belongs one and simple glory for ever and ever.

^B 77. The mind that wishes to contemplate things above itself, unless it has the divine grace working along with it toward this, and has its own heart [prepared], sees things as sluggish, unillumined, and confused. For this reason it lacks its own joy—that which is truly dominant—even if, through ignorance, it seems to feel joy, as if, not having yet tasted it, it were experiencing it. Just as, in a way, one who eats coarse bread seems to be enjoying himself, although he is very far from the pleasurable taste of wheat bread, for the very reason that, in his ignorance, he has not yet tasted the bread made of fine flour.

78. After the intellectual union of the heart through grace, the mind sees without error in spiritual light, and stretches forth to its own object of desire, which is God, becoming in every way outside of sensation, that is to say, without color and without quantity, and free from all imaginations of sensible things.

^C 79. The mind, being led by grace to contemplation, truly eats manna spiritually. For the sensible manna, which Israel ate, had a delightful and estimable power that nourished the body; but as to what it was in its substance, it was unknown. Hence it was also called “manna,” the word signifying ignorance. For what is this? the word signifies. And because they saw what they were eating, but did not know its substance, they asked in perplexity, saying, “What is this?” So, too, does the contemplative mind continually fall into a state of astonishment, and says to itself, “What is this?” That which delights it as it contemplates, and fattens the mind as it eats spiritually, transcends being grasped in itself. As a thing that is divine and supernatural, ^D and which nourishes and waters the mind in a wondrous way, it escapes the natural condition of the mind, not only as being incomprehensible in its substance, but also as being infinite and unbounded.

80. There are three things that bear testimony to the truth, as I myself would say not without reason: creation, Scripture in the Spirit (for from Scripture and creation viewed spiritually, the one simple truth is discerned), and that which is compounded from these [the first two]. And he who through the three things mentioned has become [fully formed] in the two subsequent ones and stands firm in them, finds a safe way by the grace of Christ; for he encounters, from the simple truth, a spiritual height, depth, and infinite breadth; at which, being cast into astonishment, he reverently sings hymns. And from that which is compounded, besides the two others of which we have spoken, and [of] the heart’s

^A peace, and love, and joy, he finds. Whence, being struck with astonishment, he sings with love. But man is in need of a great interval of time, and of labor, and of patience, so that, in a certain manner casting off the senses and rending the sensible world from the mind, he may stand among the intelligible things; after which the contemplation of truth shines forth in the soul. I do not say that the truth itself requires such things as a long interval of time, or labor, or patience, for its own discovery or apprehension; but that man has need of these things. For the truth is one and simple, even if it is shown to be viewed in a twofold manner, and it cries out, as it were, from every side, commanding those who wish to contemplate it to behold itself. But man, since he is composite, and bound to the senses, and subject to change and movement, at times departs from himself in a certain way, and becomes ^B against himself—even if he is unaware of it—having become corrupted by opinion and by the power of diseases, and suffering from unbelief. And truly, through these three things—I mean opinion, wickedness, and unbelief—he falls miserably from this truth which is witnessed to by these three: from Scripture, from creation, and, clearly, from the Spirit. Therefore, he also has need, for the sake of casting out this fatal opinion and the other things which I have previously said he has need of, that the mind, humiliated in simplicity, may believe. And thereupon, he may immediately know clearly, through Scripture and creation in the Spirit, not only the most simple truth, but also that which is composite from it. And further, he sees what it is that separates it from the contemplation of truth, and, I might add, what divides it from enjoyment. Therefore, truth is one and alone by nature simple, from which is that which, through us who are composite, is composite. And that is the ultimate and best object of our ^C mind, towards which every life and exercise of those who are led according to the goal of the Spirit hastens; so that the mind, being naked, may, as far as possible, see and enjoy the brightness from the first and only truth, and that which is compounded from it in a wonderful way. Which could never happen in any other way than through humility, and simplicity in faith, through the testimony of Scripture and creation in the Spirit. But when the mind beholds the truth in its three powers through the testimony of the three aforementioned things, then, in turn, as if reflecting from this, it becomes itself much more humble, and simpler, and firmly faithful. And from thence, with a generous step, as has been said, it proceeds to the contemplation of truth, being brilliantly illuminated by these steps; through which, turned in upon itself by the greatness of the glory ^D which it contemplates, it descends to something more humble and simpler, and is seized and captivated by faith. And thus, as if traversing a certain divine circle, it is surrounded by humility, simplicity, and faith, ascending and seeing the truth, and being led by the splendor of the truth to greater humility, and becoming yet simpler in faith. It does not cease to pursue its own course, until it might be said of it, "Today," in humility and simplicity and faith, contemplating through the testimony of Scripture and creation in the Spirit, and returning again to the things from which it began. And thus, being deified daily by grace, and illuminated by those things that are above the mind, and [living] a life full of every joy in Christ, our Lord, [it continues...]

tastes of the enjoyment of the future eternal goods as [in] a pledge.

^A 81. Contemplative life must consist of these three things, and [be] flawless and irreprehensible: I mean faith, clear participation in the Holy Spirit, and the knowledge of wisdom. For contemplation is, to speak as if by definition, the knowledge of intelligible things within sensible things. But sometimes, it is also [the knowledge] of pure intelligible things separated from sense in those who are advancing; hence, there is a need for faith. For, "Unless you believe," He says, "you shall not understand." There is also a need for the Spirit, in as much as "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." Whence the divine Job said: "The inspiration of the Almighty is that which taught me." Then that divine efficacy, being inbreathed into the heart, and, so to speak, living and consequently supernaturally vivifying, bringing the mind to itself, strikes it ineffably, and removing it from all vanity, and granting to it peace and joy and consolation and divine charity, so that it can easily see the divine things and turn around them and imagine God in a new way, and consequently rejoice with greater charity and similar exultation. There is need also of wisdom, as I said; because "Wisdom," says Scripture, "illuminates the face of a man." It illuminates him so that he may be carried rapidly from the senses to thought; and may return from sensible things to intelligible and divine spectacles; and in spiritual revelation may see ineffable things; it illuminates him that he may manifestly contemplate and uniformly imagine the supersubstantial God. For it is said somewhere: ^B "Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, and teach him from your law," because he is in truth wise, proceeding by doctrine to faith and learning the arcane things of God by the erudition of the Spirit; truly it is a great thing, [to be] wise through faith in the union and supernatural participation of the Holy Spirit. And truly there are three, as it is said, unattainable: God, and angel, and wise man; because an angel is another, in a new way, upon the earth; a contemplator of the entire creation, and a sincere teacher of the uncreated ways of God, or, if it is better to say, of the divine gifts, providing to himself without doubt the knowledge of the invisible God Himself through frequent motions, in the manner of the angels. Such is he whom we have described, who through faith in the Holy Spirit is wise, and thus blessed. But to me it suffices, in order to be released from all care, to relate the power and praises of wisdom and grace which Luke recounts in the Gospels concerning Jesus the Lord. For so he speaks in a certain place of Scripture: ^C "In which He was advancing in wisdom and age and grace." And again, that "He grew and was strengthened in the Spirit, being full of wisdom." Now, however, wishing to speak more clearly concerning the things proposed, I set forth also that which the holy Solomon says to God:

^A "Who has searched out the things in heaven? And who has known Your counsel, unless You gave wisdom and sent Your holy Spirit from on high? And thus the paths of those upon earth were saved, and men were taught Your pleasing things, and by Your wisdom they were saved." Do you see to what extent wisdom, with the participation of the Spirit, reaches in power? And how he who does not possess wisdom and the Spirit from God, and is not instructed by one who is wise and a participant of the Spirit, is cast out from the contemplation of salvation? If such things are written concerning the Savior, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt, and if, consequently, it is not possible to overlook the whole race of men in order to discern how necessary wisdom is with the impulse of the Spirit, and how much the spiritual wise man, searching out the things in heaven and advancing toward the knowledge of the counsel of the Most High ^B by the mercy, power, and progress he has obtained from the loving God, has attained—it is a marvelous thing. But having discussed these matters as they stand concerning the contemplative life, and having set forth contemplation and produced it in part, so that the reason of a rightly disposed listener might be moved, it would be necessary to speak, and not to hesitate in any way. For God commands those who are endowed with reason to make those who are situated below them abundant participants, and to receive prudently from those who are higher the things which can be approached regarding divine illumination and spiritual matters; but with peers, to have conversations communally and humbly regarding spiritual things and God. For thus, not only would that simple and certain light in the Church of the living God shine forth brightly, but also the holy and most beautiful face of charity—the mark of the disciples of Christ—would perpetually beam into our hearts, poured out through the Holy Spirit unto a perfect and simple love of God and men. And thus we might seek upon earth a life similar to that of the angels, and truly blessed and most pleasant; that life, namely, upon which hang all the law and the prophets, the divine and deifying dual-natured charity, than which there is nothing at all sweeter to the soul, especially ^C when it has its impulse from the contemplation and knowledge of God and divine things—that is to say, from divine grace. Whoever, therefore, sets as his target to rise well and beautifully toward God, so as to be united with Him and, by the things occurring, to be deified—which is the same as to say, to be saved; for since, according to the declaration of the God-speaking fathers, it is not possible for a man to be saved without his mind being deified—he proceeds, together with the practicable execution of the Lord’s commandments, toward the contemplation of beings and of visible things, being able to do so, neither having his action blind, as being isolated from contemplation, nor, indeed, possessing contemplation soulless, as if it were without action. Thence, thus, with wisdom according to reason and intellect, and with the science of sacred scripture, he begins—in a good course, as it is said—to gaze intently and accurately ^D upon the world, together with the word, as a manifestation of the infinitely powerful and infinitely wise Creator through the visible examples. And consequently, he proceeds into the infinite power and the collective difference, as far as it is...

^A possible to see, and delights and is nourished in a way comparable to the mind according to what is hidden through things that are hidden. And indeed, as time goes on, and he leads a life without noise, quietly, philosophizing only on divine things through the Scriptures and the things seen, he brings about by deed, as much as possible, a harmonious spiritual contemplation of creation with Scripture, and of the symbols with the truth through a more unitive vision; and this having happened, the mind from then on, with the benevolence of the adorable Spirit and the energy according to it, is led up to the vision and knowledge of sacred truth, as the great Dionysius says: to a sacred grade of contemplation, to speak generally, a second one, to divine sights and thoughts, that is to say, without veils and types. From then on, indeed, the naked mind, as it were, pressing towards ^B naked intelligible realities, and making the divine manifestations its own through its own purity and striving towards God, carries within itself, as in a most brilliant mirror, the sun’s shining rays, having been nourished along the way by grace for what is attainable, proceeds to a third kind of grade, those many blessed sights and divine processions, more unively and compactly, leading from the many differences to the ineffable love of the immutable and hidden unit, with all spiritual sense informed, just as the contemplative, by the truth and memory of the illuminating Spirit, is transformed into fire and into the inward vivifying and unceasing love of God. And this is, according to the great Dionysius again, the participation of the simple one, as much as possible. In such grades, therefore, of the three-personed, unitary participation, the God-bearing and God-minded mind flies up most blessedly, and ^C clearly and visibly enjoying the unbearable goads of divine bacchic frenzy, and the maddening loves according to it, and being wounded by love, and seeing itself as if burned up clearly from the resulting disposition, it is inspired and truly goes into ecstasy, having stepped into the apophatic mysteries of theology with a bright face, feasting on imageless graspings upon that which is without beginning and infinite, incomprehensible, and totally ineffable, and in every way unthinkable. And imagining the ocean of God’s essence as a kind of infinite and impassable sea, going beyond all thought, and time, and nature, according to the Theologian who says it. And this is, as the holy Dionysius still says, the feast of the vision, nourishing intellectually and deifying everyone who reaches out to it; beginning, however, from the contemplation and knowledge ^D of beings, as that hierophant says in that place where he purifies the sacred things of our hierarchy with symbols. Just as, therefore, the great Basil also explains, saying: "Since if any one, contemplatively, having passed beyond the beauty in visible things, stands before God himself, whose sight is naturally suited to appear only to pure hearts, then having progressed to higher things of theology, he is able also to become a visionary." And again: "In the morning I will stand before you and I will see," the great David recited of what he said in the Spirit, when he says: "I shall stand before you, and to the contemplation of you yourself I shall approach through the mind; then I shall receive the power of seeing through the light of knowledge." One may also hear the blessed Maximus saying similar things, and manifesting clearly how great a progress the contemplation and knowledge of God through Scripture and creation is: that the light of knowledge is born from thence, from where that vivid and blessed contemplation begins; which always and even now has been rare, and difficult to find in the peaceful, because there is lacking one who, by the reception of grace, might teach through experience, as the supreme doctor of peace, holy Isaac the Syrian, [the subject of which book is De spirituali sensu].

^A And I shall draw near to the very vision concerning Thee through my intellect, then I shall receive the contemplative energy through the illumination that is according to knowledge. ^B Can one hear such things from one who is a peer? From holy Maximus, who shows quite clearly ^C how great is the progress of the vision and knowledge of God through Scripture and creation; and that the illumination of knowledge is accustomed to come from this, through which the blessed deification by way of approach—a thing nowadays rare and difficult for those who are at rest to find, because of a lack of one who might teach through experience by the attainment of grace—is produced, as the supreme guide of stillness, holy Isaac the Syrian, says in the discourse where he straightway begins to speak concerning spiritual perception and contemplative power. Maximus the holy says, therefore: "We call the doctrines of the saints 'theurgic lights,' as they produce the light of knowledge and deify those who are persuaded," ^D clearly harmonizing with the most holy Dionysius, who says: "Whatever other theurgic lights the hidden tradition—the instructor of our divinely inspired [fathers]—has bestowed upon us, in accordance with the scriptures, these we also preserve." And elsewhere he says: "Divine knowledge extends itself proportionately to those who look up to it as is meet, and unites them according to its own simplifying unity." And again: "Every procession of light-manifestation moved by the Father, flowing towards us in benevolence, again as a unifying power creates us anew by drawing us upward, and turns us towards the unity of the Father who gathers [all things], and [towards] his deifying simplicity. For from Him and to Him are all things." You understand how, through an upward drawing by way of a return, that is to say, by wisely unfolding a divine approach towards God, whether one contemplates God by being drawn upward from existing things, or from Scripture, whether symbolic or however divine, one is united to God and is deified, and such an one is even called "God" by name. For, he says, as many of the intellectual and rational [beings] as have turned wholly towards the union of the arch-divine hiddenness, as much as is in their power, and are drawn upward towards its divine illuminations as far as is possible, without ceasing, by a god-mimicry—if it is permitted to say so—are judged worthy of the divine namesake. Just as the tongue of Gregory the Theologian, who is "the Great," says clearly, speaking concerning man: "A creature here managed by providence, and elsewhere translated," and [it is] the end of the mystery, being deified by the inclination towards God. And holy Maximus says: "The intelligible form of divine Scripture, he says, transforms the gnostics towards deification through the transformation of the Word in them, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face." This contemplative life requires those three things of which I spoke: faith, and participation of the Spirit, and the wisdom of knowledge, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

82. The contemplative life, with the life-giving Spirit, fills the one who contemplates with many and admirable spiritual spectacles in the mystery; not suddenly nor all at once, but through time and long philosophy; so that one must proceed in order and step by step. And now, indeed, you might hear the prophet contemplating the grace of stillness, and flight from all [things] except God: "I am alone, until I pass by." And elsewhere again, on account of the spiritual return to creatures: "How magnified are thy works, O Lord! in wisdom thou hast made them all." And that: "The smell of thy garments is like the smell of a full field which [the Lord has] blessed, O Lord." And sometimes to look more keenly upward

and inciting to spiritual ascent, he persuades us to say to the Lord: "We will run after the ^A fragrance of thy ointments." And that: "I will exalt thee, O my God, my king, and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and of his greatness there is no end." And: "Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me; it is strengthened, I cannot attain to it." And elsewhere also: "But thou, O Lord, art most high for evermore, and thy memorial is unto generation and generation. Thou art exalted far above all gods." By the loftiness of contemplation, he stirs up those who contemplate to celebrate God with hymns. Elsewhere he brings them into a clear declaration, crying out: "There is no one like to thee among the gods, O Lord, and there are none according to thy works." And he points out the mountain of knowledge and the holy place of God, spiritually showing to those who contemplate where they ascend and where those who have innocent hands and a pure heart stand; ^B or rather, he allows them to see the ascents even unto the heavens, and the descents even unto the abysses—that is to say, of the high and deep mysteries of the Spirit. And sometimes indeed, he marvels at the vision of the personal spectacle concerning the Trinity, at other times he is busied in the contemplation of Jesus, and of His incarnate economy, and of the supernatural mysteries following upon it, looking on in amazement. And then, after many and blessed spectacles, he does not abandon the one who contemplates, unless he has led him, in a new way—O ineffable grace!—illuminated into the very bosom of God, in true quiet and ineffable peace and spiritual and supernatural delights—not to say the drunkenness of the beauty of God—and a diviner ecstasy, into that ^C blessed bosom, possessing the great depth of divine mysteries and approaching the sense of the supersubstantial God sufficiently; which bosom Abraham had as a heavenly inheritance, since God Himself became the inheritance of Abraham, according to that: "I am the God of Abraham." Since therefore God is the God of Abraham in an eminent way, the bosom of God is the bosom of Abraham. And into the bosom of God, therefore, or into the bosom of Abraham, if one desires to say, he brings and introduces him in all simplicity, with most loving joy, and the contemplative life deifies and makes blessed in the pleasure of the soul and ineffable delights him who has participated in wisdom in the Spirit, and has the chief care to look upward, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

83

of the mercy of the Lord," that is, of the power moved by the Spirit, and of the energy and motion, sensible and manifest. But before the mind perceives that energy and power and motion in the heart, not only will it not possess the stability which is brought about by the spiritual contemplation of creation and of Holy Scripture, while we reduce into one reason what is in them, but there is also very great fear that it may be utterly destroyed, having been deceived by phantasy. Therefore, if we are concerned to contemplate God from Scripture and creation, simply and uniformly folding the many reasons and spectacles of things into one reason and spirit, using a uniform, simple, and non-figurative contemplation in infinity, in immensity, and in eternity, let us first endeavor to find the treasure within our own heart, and let us pray to the holy God to fill our earth with his mercy. And then, if any power be present, let us raise our mind to the contemplation of God—simple, as has been said, uniform, non-figurative, eternal, immense, and infinite—in the contemplation and aid of the Word and the Spirit. ^B

84. When a person completes the course of virtue with upright and simple dispositions of the soul, while traversing the path according to virtues with humble perception in patience and hope born of faith, and when the vivifying and perpetually flowing power and efficacy of the Holy Spirit penetrates the heart, truly illuminating the powers of the soul, moving it manifestly and inciting it, ^C it invites the mind to itself, because it is immediately and ineffably united to it, so that in truth the mind and grace at that moment undoubtedly become one spirit. Then, indeed, the mind comes of its own accord, aided by the help of grace, to contemplation, its error and wandering ceasing ineffably by the virtue and illumination of the holy and vivifying Spirit, and it hastens toward the revelation of the spiritual mysteries of God. And with all manner of peaceful silence, it attempts to enter into the supernatural and ineffable with its proper and natural sight, and tries, as much as possible, to see God more silently with the knowledge of divine things ^D drawn from the sacred Readings, the more it has left itself behind, humbled and praying, moved by the holy Spirit of God. Then, therefore, it is not placed outside of theology, but is at once itself a theologian; and it cannot endure not to speak of God, and that perpetually. But without that heavenly gift which we have mentioned, and without the Spirit always moving and inspiring the heart, alas! whatever the mind sees is phantasy, and whatever it speaks about God are words diffused in empty air, not exciting the sense of the soul as they ought. For from hearing and from words coming from without—whence the most deadly error draws its miserable origin for spiritual things and for theology itself, since it is not produced from the heart by the virtue of the Holy Spirit—from this comes the simple and immutable truth of spiritual things and of theology, in which we must entirely speak. For in the heart where the vivifying and illuminating [grace] is not present as manifestly participated in...

in it, and operating ceaselessly—whether one wishes to call it breathing or flowing—there is no intellectual union, but rather division, nor power and stability, but weakness and mutability, nor indeed light and the vision of truth, but rather darkness and a vain fabrication of imagination, and the whole path of irrationality and error. For the mind can pass through three orders, or paths, according to the Fathers: naturally, that is, supernaturally, and contrary to nature. When the mind contemplates some intellectual object in a subject, it contemplates according to nature, yet with the supernatural efficacy of the Spirit; but when it contemplates hypostatically and not in a subject—a demon, perhaps, or an angel—if the mind is united in peace, and the torch of the Holy Spirit is kindled more vividly, it contemplates supernaturally, clearly, and without error. If, however, while observing visible things, the mind is divided and weakened, and the vivifying power is extinguished, then it sees contrary to nature, and this is the contemplation of error. Therefore, it is not proper for the mind to stretch itself toward a hypostatic spiritual vision, nor to trust in any vision whatsoever, unless the heart is moved and affected by the power of the Holy Spirit according to the aforementioned things, if we wish to be of a sound and sober mind.

85. Some attempt to heal the ^B inflammation of their own passions by means of the heavenly dew of grace, behaving themselves most excellently; concerning whom it is written: "The dew that is from thee shall be a healing for us." To some, however, this aforementioned dew is united with a greater divine perception, and is transformed into manna, and as though produced from some grain, it is made into bread, through the contrition of heart-felt humility, and the water of tears, and the fire of spiritual knowledge, having suffered this worthily and most reasonably, and having become bread meet for angelic consumption, of whom it is aptly said for the most part: "Man ate the bread of angels." There are also those to whom, by a higher advancement, their own nature becomes and is seen clearly as manna; of whom the Gospels say: "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The first order is of wise hesychasts; the second is of those who practice silence together with divine knowledge; the third is of those who have been thoroughly simplified and transformed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

86. Having escaped through grace, as is fitting, Pharaoh ^C and Egypt, and the terrible and laborious things there, the mind, in an intellectual sense, and truly the life of the flesh of bitter malice, agitated by the waves of bitterness, finds itself in an intellectual desert, clearly having been delivered from the intellectual Pharaohites; and to speak in summary, having intellectually suffered and been delivered from all those things which happened to the Hebrews in a sensible way, it eats the intellectual manna that follows, with a secure sense of the soul, of which Israel of old ate the sensible figure. And in the beginning, it sometimes remembers

sensible meats, Egyptian victims, ^A usually with danger and indeed not securely, and suffers an aversion from God until, by the medicine of converting repentance, it seeks the divine again. And certainly, if this flesh were eaten more frequently than manna—with peace—as time progresses and grace adds to it significance and strength, the mind sees clearly and most evidently its intellectual flesh transformed in some manner into the nature of manna. But for such a mind that eats manna, there are spiritual yokes and scourges, by using which as a weight for the manna, it rejects what is superfluous to daily food, lest perhaps by growing fat beyond measure it should perish entirely and, together with it, the mind that has not kept the measure should perish from the lack of nourishment. ^B It is clear that the mind eating manna, for which it clearly lives a better life than anyone eating anything at all—I mean intellectually—is indeed changed somehow even itself by the habit of this nourishment into the quality, so to speak, of the manna; a sign of this is the lack of appetite for any alien things whatsoever, which it used to desire before. And when it has manna to eat on all sides and has become as an infant, attached to piety, and indeed it is no marvel that someone is changed into the habit of that which he constantly tastes and is nurtured by for a long time, nor would the transformation of the mind to the habit of this manna be in any way contrary to reason. For naturally, food taken frequently and incessantly is accustomed to be converted into that which is nourished. Then, therefore, the mind not only holds the order of an angel, but is made a participant in divine adoption, worthily transferred from spiritual glory to glory, looking not only toward the one, but being made itself one thing in itself, and living in that, and enjoying the supernatural world, and, so to speak, delighted by ineffable mysteries, divinely and pleasing to God in the Holy Spirit. And it is transformed in a certain way according to the aspects and celebrations, and contemplates itself in the nature of manna. This order is indeed higher and much more honorable, when ^C the mind has known itself to be eating manna and to have transformed itself into a certain nature of manna. For the former happens, when at the beginning the mind is folded into itself in an intellectual union; the latter, however, is a clear evidence of a more manifest union and of the revelation of spiritual mysteries, and of the extreme release from all things, and of the super-extended intellectual power.

87. The mind is simple by nature, because that of which it is an image is also simple; which is clearly the divine. Being, therefore, such, it is also accustomed to operate simply. For it loves ^D everything that is of its same nature. It varies, however, not through itself, but through the senses and sensible things, through which spiritual perceptions are made for it. But when it establishes its own proper reason between itself and the senses—with the sensible things—judging and discerning skillfully as it is possible, neither rendering the senses duller than is proper, nor sluggishly obscuring the beauties of sensible things, or immoderately extolling them and neglecting the power of the mind, and

^A diligently submitting to them, but wisely distributing to each what is fitting, then the mind straightway becomes unified within itself, and simple according to its own nature, restored and separated from divided things; and again it naturally begins to love the one, and the simple, and to act in a unified and simple manner. Loving this, it seeks, and seeking, it carries its flight above every composition, until it finds that which is truly and properly One and Simple, which is God. When, indeed, it is shaded by the wings of this One, now being overshadowed, now being caught up, it rejoices, as it is fitting for a mind guarded and carried by God to rejoice.

^B 88. To the contemplative faculty of the soul, something like a misty thickness that had fallen upon it from the passions, made it see other things instead of the Being. But when, through frequent prayer and the fulfillment of the commandments and the stretching forth toward the contemplation of God through grace, the mind has dissipated the aforementioned misty thickness, it sees God manifest to itself, in no way needing an interpreter, just as he who sees sensibly does not need one who teaches, if nothing obstructs the pupil of the eye. Just as sensible things are fitted to the senses that are functioning rightly, so are intelligible things fitted to the intellects that have been cleansed from the cloud of the passions. And just as comprehension comes from the sensory perception of sensible things, so the vision of intelligible things is wont to occur from the intellectual gaze; after which the simple contemplation of God through grace, free of figure and quality and image, holding the mind subject, frees it from whatever is sensible and intelligible, enclosing it, in a way that cannot be told in speech, in an abyss of immensity and uncircumscribed infinity with ecstasy and admiration.

^C 89. O Master, who art the omnipotent principle of all that is seen and understood, having as beginning that which is without beginning, uncreated; and as limit that which is limitless, infinite; and as nature that which is supernatural, uncircumscribed; and as substance that which is supersubstantial, unbegotten; and as form that which is formless, invisible; and as property that which admits no property, incorruptible; and as habit that which is not a habit, inscrutable; and as place, immensity, uncircumscribed; and as comprehension, incomprehensibility, hidden; and as knowledge and contemplation, that which cannot be known or seen, inaccessible and inconceivable; ^D and as reason, that which is above reason, ineffable; and as interpretation, that which no one can interpret, unspeakable; and as thought, that which cannot be thought, unthinkable; and, in sum, Thou art a position that is an abstraction above all things, beyond divinity; Thou art wholly a miracle, and peace, and confidence, and love, and sweetness, and joy, and assurance in all things, and in truth, freedom from care and gladness, the only hypostatic glory and kingdom and wisdom and power. Therefore, departure from all visible things and cessation from all intelligible things naturally becomes an ineffable state in Thee, and a wondrous rest in Thee for those who contemplate Thee through participation in the Holy Spirit, O ineffable God.

90. And that which is gazed upon, that is, the Divine, is desired ^A

desired, it purifies, as the theological voice of Gregory says; and being purified, it makes them godlike, and having become such, it already converses with them as with its own. Not only thus, however, is God, but those who are also purified by Him encounter the Divine and God in Spirit and in truth as their own. Whence the Theologian also adds: “God united with gods and known by them.” Do you see the wondrous nature of the union? For God, he says, is united with gods. If there is a union of the same, it is manifest that the dispositions and delights arising from the union are likewise the same. Whence he says, “and known”; therefore, in the same way, those who are godlike and gods by grace converse with the Divine as with their own, and know God, just as God analogously contemplates, converses with, and is united to those who, according to what has been said, reach perfection as godlike beings and gods. ^B Whence the great man adds, and not without reason, by way of clarification: “And perhaps God is known by these pure and divine ones only as much as He already knows them, in an analogous manner, He who is God by nature knowing those who are gods by adoption.” How much, therefore, can we conjecture? By considering what is probable? Many times more blessed are they who are appropriately stretched toward the visions and contemplations of God with the whole of their soul and spiritual knowledge, as they see the God who is incomprehensible because of His nature as having no beginning, His boundlessness, His limitless nature, and His absolute eternity and infinity, and as they behold all who have become in God objects of a wondrous and superlative amazement, and of such an astonishment that their soul is lovingly attached behind God, and they suffer an unbearable longing, as it were, while contemplating the divine face and its exceptional beauty, and [the word ‘and’ is redundant] they are consumed and blissfully suffer. And then, indeed, they are consequently purified by this, and become godlike through divine operation; and they are gods and are united to God in knowledge—He who, by the superabundance of those deified and by the consequence of their supernatural gift of deification and divine union, showing Himself known to them, ^C in a wondrous way carries off their whole intellectual sense and all their longing with that immense beauty, and holds them drawn around Him like other angels, singing wondrously and worthily: “God stood in the assembly of the gods; and in the midst He judges the gods [Ps. LXXXI, 1]”; and that: “The God of gods, the Lord, hath spoken, and hath called the earth [Ps. XLIX, 1],” that is, the earthly ones, “from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof [Ps. XLIX, 1].” Whence also the princes of the peoples were gathered together with the God of Abraham, and consequently they stood around God, as the Seraphim stood around Him, receiving divine illuminations of supernatural mysteries, and being held inseparably by God, who is infinitely exalted above all things. If, therefore, the pure in heart, according to the Lord’s declaration, are blessed because they shall see God, how should those not be manifestly blessed who contemplate God, having been purified by the wonder which proceeds from the knowledge of God, and who ascend through progress to the dignity of God? ^D It is necessary, therefore, for those who have experienced beatitude also to experience deification and thus to stand immovably, in the manner of the Cherubim, around God, and to cultivate with all diligence contemplation, as well as knowledge and action, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

41 I desire, above all, to behold you and, following upon this, to sing your praises, O Life-giver, Life of all who behold you, O Lord my God; but I know not how, in my desire, to speak in a manner worthy of you, and I am truly at a loss and in distress. O how fittingly does the mind approach you, O Master, O all-wise Creator, and beholding you alone, it enjoys peace and a rest that is innate to it! For the mind naturally desires, once liberated from the circumstances of the outer and phenomenal world and having retreated into itself, to think—and in particular to contemplate with natural swiftness—the higher realities, and to apply itself to the more subtle things belonging to its own immateriality. Indeed, as one running by natural instinct, it hastens upward toward that which is above all things and higher than every immaterial substance. And it is manifest that you, above all, while it is assisted by the impulse of the Holy Spirit through faith as is fitting, and is by this means indeed raised up—or rather, becomes as mind—being drawn up by the intelligible things concerning you as if by some kindred forces, it longs to behold you with all the zeal of the soul.

And what wonderful and blessed things it experiences! For its nature is, as I have said, intellectual, and it is winged and swift, more so than all created things, and it has a natural desire for the intelligible; it needs to think, just as living creatures need to eat the sensible things, for this thinking is in a way comparable for the mind to what eating is for those animals that have sensation. For from thinking, the mind truly lives, grows, enjoys, and delights, just as it is for the sensitive animals from eating. Such things, then, it experiences indeed from the act of doing—that is, from thinking in an overflowing manner—and especially when, through your spiritual goodness, its desire arrives in an ineffable way, having been merged with you into the attraction of your unspeakable glory. For what at all might a desire that has a specific object of longing experience when it encounters something that attracts it, and especially something such as you are, and that, too, by your Providence, directed toward an object of longing as great as you are? For you, O all-wise, almighty, and supremely good King and Lord, having created the mind as a thinking creature, have fashioned it to be such that it is naturally able to rejoice in you and to enter ineffably into the possession of your divinity, with a stupor of love, and to be ardently disposed toward you out of that sort of frenzied admiration.

And the mind, having been created so supremely beauty-loving, indeed possesses this love of beauty in strict accordance with its nature; and by Providence, it has a desire to think of the best things that follow, and it always longs for things higher and further ahead, and rejoices in the progress made toward better things. But what do you appear to be to it, and how do you snatch it up, so wisely in all respects, as it is charmed by the love of your contemplation and—shunning all things absolutely, except you alone—is disposed with the whole power of the soul? For you do not appear as one thing, O sweetest, nor as contained, nor as uncontained, nor as terrible, nor as gentle, but now as this, now as that; so that the movement of the mind—from where it is moved and toward where it turns—might not have anything to incline toward in any of the things outside you, on account of variety or simplicity, on account of terror or sweetness; and in general, since you are the One Good and the One Beautiful in a comprehensive way, and you yourself are the most good and most beautiful cause that brings about all goods, it is permitted to the mind to contemplate and dwell in no other.

^A nor to take delight in a varied and manifold way, except in you. For you have all things causally within yourself, and you are found to be above all things, as a supremely beautiful creator, infinitely and boundlessly ^B. Hence, being one, you are beheld in diverse ways by your energies, on account of the multitude of them, and again, by reason of their magnitude, you are many; and it is most wonderful and astonishing that even by those things through which you are indeed grasped, by that very fact you are again established as ungraspable by him. For in your essence you are entirely incomprehensible, and according to your energy, and in addition to this, your power is not enclosed in any way; for who has discovered the measure of your power? Or who has known your wisdom? And who has investigated the ocean of your goodness? And altogether, who has understood anything of yours? And yet, according to these things, you are in another way in some manner comprehensible. For the mind, which begins to contemplate from those things that exist within what is perceptible, ascends by consequence to that which surrounds you, O Savior, which is one and incomprehensible, and which is comprehensible by sweetness and by delight; and, because it is a lover of the beautiful, it hastens with all eagerness, and strives in some way to advance as far as possible beyond. But since it cannot search further, reflecting, as is proper, on that which escapes it as being positioned above and elevated over it, it is gripped by a certain ardent love, and fervently exults around you, and snatches up burning desires into the soul, making the graspable part of the incomprehensible a fuel for divine love, and turning its own destitution into an abundance of loves. What can be grasped of you does not attract it more than the fact that what escapes it inflames it, and compels it—by the impossibility of knowledge—to wonder and to desire; I would even add that it persuades it to inquire not what you are substantially—for that is absolutely impossible due to your supreme elevation—but what the substantial power and operation of God ^C might be, and whatever of those things that are around you it is permitted to contemplate, of the spiritual and theological things, which are—as we have said—incomprehensible, since they are, on account of their magnitude, infinite, and on account of their multitude, unsearchable. For even if it is impossible to arrive at an end, since they are infinite, it is, however, possible—by approaching you with purity and rising up toward your beauty—to reach more manifest and more clear sights of those things which surround you, and thus to be deified. Hence you also kindle with the wound of love the mind that dwells near you, illuminating it, or rather, subsequently introducing it into certain inaccessible and mystical spectacles of the heavens. O Unit to be celebrated with hymns, and Trinity most honored, abyss of power and wisdom most profound! ^D How do you, from that very servitude, if one might wish to speak this way, or from that ascription, introduce the legitimately purified mind into those divine clouds, transmitting it from glory to glory, most often remaining, however, lucid within these shadows. I do not know, as you know, whether that cloud into which Moses was introduced was an image of this one, or if this one is of that; but this is evidently a spiritual cloud, and in it divinely and su

^Apernaturally in the mystery and ineffably the mysteries of spiritual union and love are perfected; into which [the initiated], having been introduced with the torch of the illuminating Spirit, know this very well and manifestly.

^B 12. Who, O Lord Trinity, contemplating You as is fitting, does not rejoice, when he considers You the King and unceasing Guide, and the dispenser of every good and beautiful thing, and the fountain of wealth? And who, before the vision of Your omnipotent dominion, would not enjoy true joy? It is manifest that no one at all is not joyful. Therefore, in truth, «Blessed are the pure in heart», because they shall see You with the eyes of the soul, filled with much spiritual joy, and they rejoice with exultation and much pleasure, and are filled with unbearable longings, often even while struggling against bodily obstacles and suffering the assaults of demons. For the spiritual light of the beauty of Your countenance, O Lord, is infinitely separated from the sadness of this world, with which light the mind is illuminated by grace. Therefore, an immense sweetness is provided for it, desire, holy movements, ineffable love; whence the mind, having been wounded by the supernatural and sharp goads of Your love, repels those who see You according to some conception; whence, toward the fragrance of Your ointments, the souls of those by whom You are beheld, O Ineffable God, run following after You with vehement and unceasing ardor, and attempt with every effort to draw You into themselves, being entirely conquered and consumed in a wonderful way by the desire for You. ^C Whence they cannot forget You, their mind being suspended by Your supernatural beauty. Indeed, You possess their hearts even more perpetually and spiritually, both by night and by day, and sleep flees from their eyes; and the sweetness—

Not indeed yet to them.

But even while they are sleeping for a time, nevertheless their heart keeps watch, exulting, as the prophet says, upon their beds. And they contemplate and understand, and they do not know what is happening, and they are distraught, and they are carried into ecstasy on account of the manifestation of the splendor of Your countenance, on account of the magnitude of the glory of Your holiness, on account of the supernatural ascents of Yours which You dispose within them, and the mystical revelations, on account of the countless hidden and ineffable, most beautiful and most good gifts, which are about You, Father. . . . and You will establish those who dwell in uprightness with Your countenance.