In the fourteenth century, an anonymous English mystic wrote a book for those who would approach God not through thought but through love. He called it "The Cloud of Unknowing" — and in it, he revealed a path that bypasses the intellect entirely.
"Between you and God," he wrote, "there is a cloud of unknowing. You cannot think your way through it. Every concept you form of God is not God. Every image you create must be abandoned. Only naked love, without concepts or images, can pierce this cloud."
"Beat upon this cloud with the dart of longing love.
Do not give up, whatever happens.
This cloud is dark to the intellect,
But to love it is transparent.
You cannot think your way to God.
You can only love your way."
The author warned against spiritual greed — the desire to have experiences, visions, consolations. "Some seek God for the sweetness they expect to find. This is not love but self-seeking. True love wants nothing for itself. It wants only the Beloved, even if the Beloved gives nothing in return."
He taught a practice of radical simplicity: "Take a short word — 'God' or 'Love' — and fix it in your mind. Let this word be your shield and your spear. With it, beat upon the cloud. When thoughts arise, push them down with this word. Do not analyze them. Do not fight them. Simply cover them with your word and return to the cloud."
"Thoughts will come — let them come.
Thoughts will go — let them go.
Do not struggle with them.
Simply sink beneath them
Into the loving darkness
Where God waits in silence."
Below the cloud of unknowing, the author taught, there must be another cloud — a "cloud of forgetting." "You must forget all creatures and their works. Put a cloud of forgetting between you and them. Not because they are evil, but because they are not your goal. For this time, let everything go. Even holy thoughts. Even yourself."
This teaching was dangerous. It seemed to dismiss theology, scripture, good works — everything the Church held dear. But the author was not rejecting these things. He was saying they were means, not ends. "Use them to come to the cloud. But at the cloud, leave them behind. You cannot carry baggage into the presence of God."
Teaching 19
God cannot be thought but can be loved. Between you and the divine is a cloud of unknowing — concepts cannot pierce it, only naked love. Let go of all images, all expectations, all spiritual ambitions. Sink into the darkness where love finds what thought cannot reach.