Cloud of Unknowing

Kind of like how Taoist’s would believe, this passage declares that we are to do nothing. We are to remain unknowing. We are best if we have a cloud of unknowing between us and God, and a cloud of forgetting between us and all of the creatures made. “This is the lightest work of all…But it is hard, and a miracle if you can do it.”
I’d have to agree when he states that “you feel in your will a naked intent toward God.” This is obviously true, since almost every formed and unformed society has attempted to acknowledge or create a higher being to be in control of their lives. Whether there is only one higher being, or multiple, or if the higher being is within, or just resides in nature, humans continue to acknowledge it.
The author in this passage urges us to seek God through the darkness that we are in, only by dwelling on Him and nothing more. Thinking will not bring us to behold him, but only pure love has the ability to smite the thick cloud of unknowing. If we work hard at doing nothing for God’s love and have a desire to have God, then it is better than wrestling with a blind nothing.

I don’t think that this way of thinking has much impact on Christians of our time. People are so preoccupied with their appearance of being “spiritual” or “religious”, and don’t even realize that they have corrupted those words to leave a bitter taste in our mouths. Instead of being still, and knowing that He is God, they are so busy running around proving that they have good works to accompany their faith, and that they can save souls and clear a path to Heaven.
Jason made a statement in class today, about how Christians would not be believers if they found that the resurrection of Christ was false. Isn’t that a bit sad- that all of Jesus’ good teachings and moral standards aren’t enough for being to believe. Blind faith doesn’t seem to exist. In reality, if humans were to be told that there was no Heaven, and if in reality, there was no Heaven…would people have a religion still?

In Gazing Upon His Own Purity, He Will See the Archetype Within the Image

For some reason I can’t seem to get into the Christian teachings. I think it’s because I’m just so familiar with them. I want to learn more about other religions and their beliefs and dig deeper into understanding those. Because of this, I leaned more towards the excerpts that allowed me to generalize “A God” as opposed to God- The Father, of Christians.
Gregory of Nyssa seems to incorporate the idea of the God being within us. All we must do is seek within ourselves, and we will find what we are seeking. I like to believe this. I like to think that each of us has this innate goodness, call it what you want- God, virtue, purity, etc.-either way, what we ultimately seek and will find by searching ourselves is this.
He says that we cannot gain any knowledge of our nature by looking to others, or by searching the substances that have been created. But we can look into the artistic skill that has been impressed in the works that have been created.
So to understand this…I am to understand that I will not comprehend this God by looking to others, or by looking to the Bible or Mother Mary, but that I will find this God by looking at the love that went into the creation of Bible and Mary and people in general. This is a concept that seems easy, but I’m finding so hard to put into words.
We are told that when God made me, he endowed my nature with the perfection of his own nature, but that I must cleanse myself from any wickedness that I have let accumulate upon myself. And that when I can see from the eye of my soul, then I “will see clearly within the pure brilliance of my own heart.” Which will be purity, holiness, simplicity, and other brilliant reflections of the nature of God.