Knowing "The Cloud of Unknowing"

“However, there are some presently engaged in the active life who are being prepared by grace to grasp the message of this book. I am thinking of those who feel the mysterious action of the Spirit in their inmost being stirring them to love. I do not say that they continually feel this stirring, as experienced contemplatives do, but now and again they taste something of contemplative love in the very core of their being.  Should such folk read this book, I believe they will be greatly encouraged and reassured.”

- The unknown author of The Cloud of Unknowing

Considered a staple of Western literature and Christian spirituality, The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous English monk’s detailed meditation on what separates men from God and how through this separation we can grow in union with Him. This contemplative work was originally written in the 14th century, and has remained indispensable to those seeking to grow in the spiritual life. Consisting of a series of letters from a monk to his student, this piece of spiritual writing seeks to instruct the reader in the way of Divine union. The author presents a book of true counseling, more direct and firm than is custom in much of today’s literature, but written with the conviction that comes from life-long practice.

The anonymous author describes three forms of prayer: reading (contemplative reading); ordinary prayer (with words); and contemplative prayer (in silence). It is within these three forms that the book should be read; through a slow and contemplative reading that leads us to prayer with our lips and finishes with a silent union between ourselves and God. This union is exactly what the title of the book is referring to; a union by way of a cloud of unknowing. Paradoxically, the author begins to describe a spirituality where by not knowing we come to know God ever deeper. He writes that, “Thought cannot comprehend God. And so, I prefer to abandon all I can know, choosing rather to love him whom I cannot know. Though we cannot know him we can love him”[1] Often, theologians and spiritual novices alike attempt to grow in union with God through knowledge of Him, but they end up only distancing themselves. The basis for prayer and contemplation should lie within a union of love wherein we allow God to “know” us through what the author describes as a “naked intent for God.”[2] The essence of prayer is found less in thought than in love and in our will, and it is in this openness to love and not to knowledge that union is achieved.

This may sound very simple, as it at first did to me, yet the practice of self-emptying is one that is not in the beginning accompanied by spiritual joys and fruit. However, the author tells us to diligently persevere; “For in the beginning it is usual to feel nothing but a kind of darkness about your mind, or as it were, a cloud of unknowing.”[3]

The book suggests that in contemplation we should experience a kind of darkness about God as well as a “cloud of forgetting” where our sins and all earthly concerns fall away from us. The “cloud of unknowing,” may perhaps leave us feeling far from God, but in reality it is bringing us into a deeper union with Him. Though the cloud may cast a darkness over us, we become united to the cloud through such darkness. The author writes, “For if, in this life, you hope to feel and see God as He is in Himself it must be within this darkness and cloud.”[4] The concerns of this world keep us from God and, as a result, we must leave them behind (forget them) so that we are able to leave space for God to enter in their place.

The contemplative action described by the author differs vastly from the type of meditation that we often think of today, and for that reason the book can seem quite distant from modern man. In contrast modern man seeks a type of mediation that is more imaginative and driven by our senses (an example is the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius). However, The Cloud of Unknowing suggests that contemplation is apophatic and without any images. The author describes prayer as a personal, refreshing, and a silent work where the individual empties their mind and opens their heart; standing “naked before grace, Himself.”

To be sure, contemplation is God's gift to man; with God's help we are only able to stir up a longing within our hearts to pray and contemplate. The author recommends that we take a short phrases in order to stir up this longing (such as, for example, “My Lord, and My God.”) and repeat it, breathe it in, fall silent to it. He implores us: “Select only the words God nudges you toward.” Then all we have left to do is to wait with patience and persistence within the darkness of the cloud.

In prayer we need both humility and patience. Humility should not only be a recognition of our sinfulness, but also a knowledge of God’s superabundant love for us. Glenn Young, in his article on self-awareness in The Cloud of Unknowing, sees humility as an example of the correlation between the mysticism of the text along with our growth in self-knowledge. The cultivation of humility that focuses purely on our sinfulness is imperfect as it arises solely from an awareness and evaluation of oneself as a sinful being. “This division of humility into perfect and imperfect experiences is important because it is only imperfect humility which arises from reflection upon the nature of the self, a nature which is fundamentally characterized by sin. In contrast, perfect humility results not from awareness of oneself, but rather through attention to the divine nature.”[5] The author goes so far as to say that the movement from imperfect to perfect humility is marked by a complete, though temporary, loss of self-knowledge and self-awareness. In its imperfect form, the virtue of humility does involve awareness of self to the extent that one is conscious of one's sinfulness. Humility is brought to perfection, however, only when knowledge of self is superseded by awareness of God. This is not a matter of thinking less of oneself, but thinking of one's self less.

Though speaking with authority and firmness, the author gives evidence of his own humility by offering a caveat to the strict demands he makes of his spiritual students. Robert Hale points out how the author of The Cloud of Unknowing hesitates to give specific recommendations to his disciple. Hale suggests he does so for two reasons: the first is that he doesn’t want us to rely on his view of contemplation as absolutely true; the other is that he doesn’t know our own personal spirituality and temperaments enough to give adequate advice.[6]

This recognition that each person has a different manner of contemplation, while coming towards the end of the book, brought me some comfort and relief. I was able to appreciate all that the author had to suggest on contemplation, yet I found him rather persistent in his own method of alterity. I was not convinced that this was the best method in general or for my own spiritual life. However, he humbles himself and suggests that in anything that we do we should examine both extremes and choose something in the middle. What is that something? It is God, “for whose sake you are quiet if you should be quiet, for whose sake you speak if you have to speak, for whose sake you fast if you ought to fast, and so on. Then choose God, and you will speak by your silence, and there will be a silence in your speech, you will be fasting while you eat, and eating when you fast, and all the rest.”[7] This middle way, at its deepest is the author’s way to be one with God, the God who is known and loved by unknowing.

The anonymous author states that The Cloud of Unknowing will not be for everyone. He did not write for the curious or disinterested but rather for those who sense the grace-filled call to this intimate prayer and work. The Cloud of Unknowing is one English monk’s spiritual path to union with God and offers his own advice and reflections on it. Though wordy and direct in his intention, the author does bring his readers along to reflect on their own relationship with God and examine what steps we can personally take towards achieving a higher union.

I would recommend this book only to those who are firm enough in their own spiritual life to be able to pick and choose from what the author has to suggest. Were a novice of prayer to read this they may find themselves quite distressed and disappointed at their personal prayer life when they need not be. The book's claim that one must reach a mystical union with God through complete emptiness deserves more thought and must be handled delicately. Admittedly difficult to read and follow, this book does offer many useful meditations on our own relationship with God if one is able to slowly digest and think about what is being suggested. The Cloud of Unknowing is available in many different translations and from a wide variety of publishers. However, one of the more prominent versions is published by Shambhala Publications for around $19. A link is posted at the bottom of the page.

Whether we prefer more of an Ignatian way of images or the image-less way of “The Cloud,” all prayer is a simple reaching out to God and allowing God to take hold of us. What I most appreciated about the book was the author’s recognition that God tailors contemplative prayer to us personally. In the end, as the author insists: “If you want to find your soul, look at what you love.”[8]

[1] Anonymous, “The Cloud of Unkowing,” Translated by Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Shambhala Publications, (Boston, 2009), 14.
[2] Anonymous, “The Cloud of Unkowing,” 17.
[3] Anonymous, “The Cloud of Unkowing,” 34.
[4] Anonymous, “The Cloud of Unkowing,” 28.
[5] Glenn Young, “Forget yourself and your deeds for God: Awareness and Transcendence of Self in the Cloud of Unknowing,” Mystics Quarterly, Vol. 31 Issue 1/2, (Mar/Jun 2005), p9-22.
[6]Robert Hale, “The Author of the Cloud of Unknowing as Teacher and Disciple,” Religion East & West, Issue 6, (Oct 2006), p53-60. 8p.
[7] Anonymous, “The Cloud of Unkowing,” 36.
[8] Anonymous, “The Cloud of Unkowing,” 47.

Purchase The Cloud of Unknowing HERE