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The Cloud of Unknowing · 74 of 80
Chapter 69. How that a man’s affection is marvelously changed in ghostly feeling of this nought, when it is nowhere wrought
WONDERFULLY is a man’s affection varied in ghostly feeling of this nought when it is nowhere wrought. For at the first time that a soul looketh thereupon, it shall find all the special deeds of sin that ever he did since he was born, bodily or ghostly, privily or darkly painted thereupon. And howsoever that he turneth it about, evermore they will appear before his eyes; until the time be, that with much hard travail, many sore sighings, and many bitter weepings, he have in great part washed them away. Sometime in this travail him think that it is to look thereupon as on hell; for him think that he despaireth to win to perfection of ghostly rest out of that pairs Thus far inwards come many, but for greatness of pain that they feel and for lacking of comfort, they go back in beholding of bodily things: seeking fleshly comforts without, for lacking of ghostly they have not yet deserved, as they should if they had abided.
For he that abideth feeleth sometime some comfort, and hath some hope of perfection; for he feeleth and seeth that many of his fordone special sins be in great part by help of grace rubbed away. Nevertheless yet ever among he feeleth pain, but he thinketh that it shall have an end, for it waxeth ever less and less. And therefore he calleth it nought else but purgatory. Sometime he can find no special sin written thereupon, but yet him think that sin is a lump, he wot never what, none other thing than himself; and then it may be called the base and the pain of the original sin. Sometime him think that it is paradise or heaven, for diverse wonderful sweetness and comforts, joys and blessed virtues that he findeth therein. Sometime him think it God, for peace and rest that he findeth therein.
Yea! think what he think will; for evermore he shall find it a cloud of unknowing, that is betwixt him and his God. p. 295
Asked of Guide
Why does the soul first see all its past sins when it looks at 'this nought'?
Because the “nought” acts like a mirror of the soul’s hidden life: when the soul first turns to it, every special deed of sin appears “privily or darkly painted thereupon,” forcing the soul to reckon with what it has avoided. The text says this unveiling leads to “much hard travail, many sore sighings, and many bitter weepings,” which are the beginning of cleansing by grace.
As that travail proceeds, the affections change and the felt presence shifts—sometimes feeling like purgatory, sometimes like paradise, sometimes like the pain of original sin—yet it remains “a cloud of unknowing” between the seeker and God. This echoes Dante’s purgatorial purification in the Purgatorio, where seeing one’s sins is the route to eventual ascent.
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