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The Cloud of Unknowing · 48 of 80

Chapter 43. That all writing and feeling of a man’s own being must needs be lost if the perfection of this work shall verily be felt in any soul in this life

LOOK that nought work in thy wit nor in thy will but only God. And try for to fell all witting and feeling of ought under God, and tread all down full far under the cloud of forgetting. And thou shalt understand, that thou shalt not only in this work forget all other creatures than thyself, or their deeds or thine, but also thou shalt in this work forget both thyself and also thy deeds for God, as well as all other creatures and their deeds. For it is the condition of a perfect lover, not only to love that thing that he loveth more than himself; but also in a manner for to hate himself for that thing that he loveth.

Thus shalt thou do with thyself: thou shalt loathe and be weary with all that thing that worketh in thy wit and in thy will unless it be only God. For why, surely else, whatsoever that it be, it is betwixt thee and thy God. And no wonder though thou loathe and hate for to think on thyself, when thou shalt always feel sin, a foul stinking lump thou wottest never what, betwixt thee and thy God: the which lump is none other thing than thyself. For thou shalt think it oned and congealed with the substance of thy being: yea, as it were without departing.

And therefore break down all witting and feeling of all manner of creatures; but most busily of thyself. For on the witting and the feeling of thyself hangeth witting and feeling of all other creatures; for in regard of it, all other creatures be lightly forgotten. For, an thou wilt busily set thee to the proof, thou shalt find when thou hast forgotten all other creatures and all their works—yea, and thereto all thine own works—that there shall live yet after, betwixt thee and thy God, a naked witting and a feeling of thine own being: the which witting and feeling behoveth always be destroyed, ere the time be that thou feel soothfastly the perfection of this work. p. 210

Asked of Guide

Why must I forget even my own being to reach the perfection described here?

The chapter says the lover of God must lose all self-awareness so nothing stands between the soul and God: “nought work in thy wit nor in thy will but only God.” Clinging to any inner sense of self keeps other creatures and deeds alive in the heart and sustains a “naked witting and a feeling of thine own being” that blocks the soul’s full union.

Anonymous insists this forgetting is active and painful—“loathe and be weary” of what is not God—because the self functions as a perpetual intermediary. This idea echoes Meister Eckhart’s claim in sermons that God must be experienced beyond inward images and Thomas Merton’s writings on contemplative detachment.

Guide is the guide inside the Gnosis app, where every book on these shelves is free to read. Guide is the part you pay for — your guide has read all of them, and answers about the passage you’re actually on. Ask your guide your own question.