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The more you strip yourself of the products of the imagination and
involvement in external, worldly things and the objects of the
senses, the more your soul will recover its strength and its inner
senses so that it can appreciate the things which are above.
So learn to withdraw from imaginations and the images of physical
things, since what pleases God above everything is a mind bare of
those sorts of forms and objects, for it is his delight to be with
the sons of men, that is those who, at peace from such activities,
distractions and passions, seek him with a pure and simple mind,
empty themselves for him, and cleave to him. Otherwise, if your
memory, imagination and thought is often involved with such
things, you must needs be filled with the thought of new things or
memories of old ones, or identified with other changing objects.
As a result, the Holy Spirit withholds itself from thoughts bereft
of understanding.
So the true lover of Jesus Christ should be so united through good
will in his understanding with the divine will and goodness, and
be so bare of all imaginations and passions that he does not even
notice whether he is being mocked or loved, or something is being
done to him. For a good will turns everything to good and is above
everything. So if the will is good and is obedient and united to
God with pure understanding, he is not hurt even if the flesh and
the senses and the outer man is moved to evil, and is slow to
good, or even if the inner man is slow to feel devotion, but
should simply cleave to God with faith and good will in naked
understanding.
He is doing this if he is conscious of all his own imperfection
and nothingness, recognises his good to consist in his Creator
alone, abandons himself with all his faculties and powers, and all
creatures, and immerses himself wholly and completely in the
Creator, so that he directs all his actions purely and entirely in
his Lord God, and seeks nothing apart from him, in whom he
recognises all good and all joy of perfection to be found. And he
is so transformed in a certain sense into God that he cannot
think, understand, love or remember anything but God himself and
the things of God. Other creatures however and even himself he
does not see, except in God, nor does he love anything except God
alone, nor remember anything about them or himself except in God.
This knowledge of the truth always makes the soul humble, ready to
judge itself and not others, while on the contrary worldly wisdom
makes the soul proud, futile, inflated and puffed up with wind. So
let this be the fundamental spiritual doctrine leading to the
knowledge of God, his service and familiarity with him, that if
you want to truly possess God, you must strip your heart of all
love of things of the senses, not just of certain creatures, so
that you can turn to the Lord your God with a simple and whole
heart and with all your power, freely and without any
double-mindedness, care or anxiety, but with full confidence in
his providence alone about everything.
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