The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Treatises [The Epistle of Privy Counsel]

2014 Reprint of 1952 Revised Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. "The Cloud of Unknowing" is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. Along with "The Cloud" were written six accompanying treaties. Chief among these is "Epistle of Privy Counsel" which is also reproduced in this text. "The Cloud" is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer. The underlying message of this work proposes that the only way to truly "know" God is to abandon all preconceived notions and beliefs or "knowledge" about God and be courageous enough to surrender your mind and ego to the realm of "unknowingness," at which point, you begin to glimpse the true nature of God. The book counsels a young student to seek God, not through knowledge and intellection (faculty of the human mind), but through intense contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought. This is brought about by putting all thoughts and desires under a "cloud of forgetting", and thereby piercing God's cloud of unknowing with a "dart of longing love" from the heart. This form of contemplation is not directed by the intellect, but involves spiritual union with God through the heart.