St. John of the Cross & Stomach Flu
I’ve been down with the flu for a couple days. I have a post brewing about the connection between sacred art & the earth. In the meantime, I submit this beautiful via negativa poem for your enjoyment…
I came into the unknown
I came into the unknown
and stayed there unknowing
rising beyond all science.I did not know the door
but when I found the way,
unknowing where I was,
I learned enormous things,
but what I felt I cannot say,
for I remained unknowing,
rising beyond all science.It was the perfect realm
of holiness and peace.
In deepest solitude
I found the narrow way:
a secret giving such release
that I was stunned and stammering,
rising beyond all science.I was so far inside,
so dazed and far away
my senses were released
from feelings of my own.
My mind had found a surer way:
a knowledge of unknowing,
rising beyond all science.And he who does arrive
collapses as in sleep,
for all he knew before
now seems a lowly thing,
and so his knowledge grows so deep
that he remains unknowing,
rising beyond all science.The higher he ascends
the darker is the wood;
it is the shadowy cloud
that clarified the night,
and so the one who understood
remains always unknowing,
rising beyond all science.This knowledge by unknowing
is such a soaring force
that scholars argue long
but never leave the ground.
Their knowledge always fails the source:
to understand unknowing,
rising beyond all science.This knowledge is supreme
crossing a blazing height;
though formal reason tries
it crumbles in the dark,
but one who would control the night
by knowledge of unknowing
will rise beyond all science.And if you wish to hear:
the highest science leads
to an ecstatic feeling
of the most holy Being;
and from his mercy comes his deed:
to let us stay unknowing,
rising beyond all science.
-St John of the Cross (trans. Willis Barnstone)
Related posts:
- Happy New Year from Art of the Spirit
- St. John of the Cross & the Artist
- Tagore, St. John & the Artist
Sunday, December 16th, 2007,
by Painter of Blue and is filed under "Mysticism, Mystics, Poetry, St. John of the Cross, via negativa, Mysticism, Mystics, Poetry, St. John of the Cross, via negativa ".
Responses are currently closed, but you can send a
Trackback
from your own site.
I love John of the Cross. This is fabulous!
While I enjoy the beauty and can relate to the depth of feeling and the joy of thoughts so eloquently expressed in Art of the Spirit, as well as others of an equally spiritual nature, reality is a highway over which I travel with eyes wide open: aware of life as it should be, life as it could be but also, life as it is. Because I believe the present is the only life I will ever live, I try to do my best to make each and every day one worth living. Living does not give me much time for pondering the “unseen” nor questioning what can’t be proven.