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In order that there may be no confusion in this
instruction it will be meet in this chapter to
explain at what time and season it behoves the
spiritual person to lay aside the task of discursive
meditation as carried on through the imaginations and
forms and figures above mentioned, in order that he
may lay them aside neither sooner nor later than when
the Spirit bids him; for, although it is meet for him
to lay them aside at the proper time in order that he
may journey to God and not be hindered by them, it is
no less needful for him not to lay aside the said
imaginative meditation before the proper time lest he
should turn backward.
For, although the apprehensions of these faculties
serve not as proximate means of union to the
proficient, they serve nevertheless as remote means
to beginners in order to dispose and habituate the
spirit to spirituality by means of sense, and in
order to void the sense, in the meantime, of all the
other low forms and images, temporal, worldly and
natural. We shall therefore speak here of certain
signs and examples which the spiritual person will
find in himself, whereby he may know whether or not
it will be meet for him to lay them aside at this
season.
2. The first sign is his realization that he can
no longer meditate or reason with his imagination,
neither can take pleasure therein as he was wont to
do aforetime; he rather finds aridity in that which
aforetime was wont to captivate his senses and to
bring him sweetness. But, for as long as he finds
sweetness in meditation, and is able to reason, he
should not abandon this, save when his soul is led
into the peace and quietness[298] which is described
under the third head.
3. The second sign is a realization that he has no
desire to fix his mediation or his sense upon other
particular objects, exterior or interior. I do not
mean that the imagination neither comes nor goes (for
even at times of deep[299] recollection it is apt to
move freely), but that the soul has no pleasure in
fixing it of set purpose upon other objects.
4. The third and surest sign is that the soul
takes pleasure in being alone, and waits with loving
attentiveness upon God, without making any particular
meditation, in inward peace and quietness and rest,
and without acts and exercises of the faculties --
memory, understanding and will -- at least, without
discursive acts, that is, without passing from one
thing to another; the soul is alone, with an
attentiveness and a knowledge, general and loving, as
we said, but without any particular understanding,
and adverting not to that which it is contemplating.
5. These three signs, at least, the spiritual
person must observe in himself, all together, before
he can venture safely to abandon the state of
meditation and sense,[300] and to enter that of
contemplation and spirit.
6. And it suffices not for a man to have the first
alone without the second, for it might be that the
reason for his being unable to imagine and meditate
upon the things of God, as he did aforetime, was
distraction on his part and lack of diligence; for
the which cause he must observe in himself the second
likewise, which is the absence of inclination or
desire to think upon other things; for, when the
inability to fix the imagination and sense upon the
things of God proceeds from distraction or
lukewarmness, the soul then has the desire and
inclination to fix it upon other and different
things, which lead it thence altogether.
Neither does it suffice that he should observe in
himself the first and second signs, if he observe not
likewise, together with these, the third; for,
although he observe his inability to reason and think
upon the things of God, and likewise his distaste for
thinking upon other and different things, this might
proceed from melancholy or from some other kind of
humour in the brain or the heart, which habitually
produces a certain absorption and suspension of the
senses, causing the soul to think not at all, nor to
desire or be inclined to think, but rather to remain
in that pleasant state of reverie.[301] Against this
must be set the third sign, which is loving
attentiveness and knowledge, in peace, etc., as we
have said.
7. It is true, however, that, when this condition
first begins, the soul is hardly aware of this loving
knowledge, and that for two reasons. First, this
loving knowledge is apt at the beginning to be very
subtle and delicate, and almost imperceptible to the
senses. Secondly, when the soul has been accustomed
to that other exercise of meditation, which is wholly
perceptible, it is unaware, and hardly conscious, of
this other new and imperceptible condition, which is
purely spiritual; especially when, not understanding
it, the soul allows not itself to rest in it, but
strives after the former, which is more readily
perceptible; so that abundant though the loving
interior peace may be, the soul has no opportunity of
experiencing and enjoying it. But the more accustomed
the soul grows to this, by allowing itself to rest,
the more it will grow therein and the more conscious
it will become of that loving general knowledge of
God, in which it has greater enjoyment than in aught
else, since this knowledge causes it peace, rest,
pleasure and delight without labour.
8. And, to the end that what has been said may be
the clearer, we shall give, in this chapter
following, the causes and reasons why the three signs
aforementioned appear to be necessary for the soul
that is journeying to pure spirit.[302] |
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298. |
E.p. omits: 'and quietness.' The
Saint's description of this first sign at which a soul should
pass from meditation to contemplation was denounced as
disagreeing with Catholic doctrine, particularly the phrase:
'that he can no longer meditate or reason with his
imagination, neither can take pleasure therein as he was wont
to do aforetime.' This language, however, is common to mystics
and theologians, not excluding St. Thomas (2a 2ae, q. 180, a.
6) and Su�rez (De Oratione, Bk. II, Chap. x), as is proved,
with eloquence and erudition, by P. Basilio Ponce de Le�n and
the Elucidatio, in their refutations of the Saint's critics.
All agree that, in the act of contemplation of which St. John
of the Cross here speaks, the understanding must be stripped
of forms and species of the imagination and that the
reasonings and reflections of meditation must be set aside.
This is to be understood, both of the contemplation that
transcends all human methods, and also of that which is
practised according to these human methods with the ordinary
aid of grace. But there is this important difference, that
those who enjoy the first kind of contemplation set aside all
intellectual reasoning as well as processes of the fancy and
the imagination, whereas, for the second kind, reasoning prior
to the act of contemplation is normally necessary, though it
ceases at the act of contemplation, and there is then
substituted for it simple and loving intuition of eternal
truth. It should be clearly understood that this is not of
habitual occurrence in the contemplative soul, but occurs only
during the act of contemplation, which is commonly of short
duration. St. Teresa makes this clear in Chap. xxvii of her
Life, and treats this same doctrinal question in many other
parts of her works--e.g., Life, Chaps. x, xii; Way of
Perfection, Chap. xxvi; Interior Castle, IV, Chap. iii, etc. |
299. |
[Lit., 'much.'] |
300. |
E.p. omits: 'and sense.' Since
sense plays so great a part in meditation, St. John of the
Cross places it in contradistinction to contemplation, which,
the more nearly it attains perfection, becomes the more
sublime and spiritual and the more completely freed from the
bonds of nature. Cf. Elucidatio, Pt. II, Chap. iii, p. 180. |
301. |
[embelesamiento, a word denoting a
pleasurable condition somewhere between a reverie and a
swoon.] |
302. |
[Lit., 'appear to be necessary in
order to journey to spirit.'] |
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