St. John of the Cross and Emptying the Mind

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael_Mayo
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Michael_Mayo

Guest
St John of the Cross is a Doctor of the Church who spoke a great deal about the contemplative life. Quite often he seems to be talking about an emtying of the mind not just of worldly thoughts but also of spiritual thoughts and images. We are not accustomed to this and i think try to read something else into it especially when we want to contrast it with Asian spirituality. Here are just a few excerpts from Ascent of Mt Carmel which I do not think can be understood in any other way. i think we need to learn to appreciate this apophatic spirituality and not rationalize it away.

Book 2 Chapter 4 Paragraph 4
So, however much the soul aspires to be perfectly united through grace in
this life with that to which it will be united through glory in the next (which, as Saint Paul
here says, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man in
the flesh), it is clear that, in order perfectly to attain to union in this life through grace and
through love, a soul must be in darkness with respect to all that can enter through the eye,
and to all that can be received through the ear, and can be imagined with the fancy, and
understood with the heart, which here signifies the soul. And thus a soul is greatly impeded
from reaching this high estate of union with God when it clings to any understanding or
feeling or imagination or appearance or will or manner of its own, or to any other act or to
anything of its own, and cannot detach and strip itself of all these. For, as we say, the goal
which it seeks lies beyond all this, yea, beyond even the highest thing that can be known or
experienced; and thus a soul must pass beyond everything to unknowing.

Book 3 Chapter 2 Paragraph 1
Which treats of the natural apprehensions of the memory and describes how the soul
must be voided of them in order to be able to attain to union with God according to
this faculty.

It is necessary that, in each of these books, the reader should bear in mind the purpose of
which we are speaking. For otherwise there may arise within him many such questions with
respect to what he is reading as might by this time be occurring to him with respect to what
we have said of the understanding, and shall say now of the memory, and afterwards shall
say of the will. For, seeing how we annihilate the faculties with respect to their operations,
it may perhaps seem to him that we are destroying the road of spiritual practice rather than constructing it.

Book 3 Chapter 2 Paragraph 2
This would be true if we were seeking here only to instruct beginners, who are best prepared
through these apprehensible and discursive apprehensions. But, since we are here giving
instruction to those who would progress farther in contemplation, even to union with God,
to which end all of these means and exercises of sense concerning the faculties must recede
into the background, and be put to silence, to the end that God may of His own accord work
Divine union in the soul, it is necessary to proceed by this method of **disencumbering and
emptying the soul, and causing it to reject the natural jurisdiction and operations of the
faculties, **so that they may become capable of infusion and illumination from supernatural
sources; for their capacity cannot attain to so lofty an experience, but will rather hinder it,
if it be not disregarded.

Book 3 Chapter 3 Paragraph 4
You will say likewise that by so doing the soul deprives itself of many good thoughts and meditations upon God, which are of great profit to it and whereby God grants it favours. I reply that to this end purity of soul is of the greatest profit, which means that there clings to the soul no creature affection, or temporal affection, or effective advertence; which I believe cannot but cling to the soul because of the imperfection which the faculties have in their own operations. Wherefore it is best to learn to silence the faculties and to cause them to be still, so that God may speak. For, as we have said, in order to attain to this state the natural operations must be completely disregarded, and this happens, as the Prophet says, when the soul comes into solitude, according to these its faculties, and God speaks to its heart

Book 3 Chapter 4 Paragraph 1 p 260
"For the devil has no power over the soul unless it be through the operations of its faculties, principally by means of knowledge, whereupon depend almost all the other operations of the other faculties. Wherefore, if the memory be annihilated with respect to them, the devil can do naught; for he finds no foothold, and without a foothold he is powerless."

ccel.org/ccel/john_cross/ascent.pdf

He does speak of the value of images but with great caution:

Book 3 Chapter 37 Paragraph 1
Just as images are of great benefit for remembering God and the saints, and for moving the
will to devotion when they are used in the ordinary way, as is fitting, so they will lead to
great error if, when supernatural happenings come to pass in connection with them, the
soul should not be able to conduct itself as is fitting for its journey to God.
 
Prayer is the lifting up of our hearts and minds to God.
When we reach a state of contemplation, the highest level of prayer, there are no more images. We have given ourselves in total trust to God.
In meditation, we are still thinking, praying on some image from scripture. We have not quite let go and allowed ourselves into the “cloud of unknowing.”
The Jesus prayer, and other meditative types of prayer can lead us into the contemplative state.
 
Yes, this imageless and wordless state, though we come from different starting points, I think many contemplative traditions can prepare us for it,
 
Michael_Mayo said:
Yes, this imageless and wordless state, though we come from different starting points, I think many contemplative traditions can prepare us for it,
Click to expand...
The Catholic Church is a Universal Church. It is easy to become bogged down in Western thought and overlook other possibilities. Jesus was born in the Middle East, not Greece or Rome. God does speak to us in many different ways if we are willing to listen, not simply through the mind.
I think it was St. John Paul II who lamented the loss of wonder and a sense of awe when we think of God, when what we need to do is get lost in God.
 
These chapters from St. John of the Cross’ Ascent of Mount Carmel have to do with the purification of our memory. Our memory has two purposes: to remember … and to forget. Meditation is largely about the “remembering” aspect while contemplation is about the “forgetting.” In fact, “to forget” is the literal meaning behind the seemingly harsh words like “oblivion” and “void” St. John uses to describe the state we are to seek.

It is all about “letting go” of the attachments and appetites that control us. And for those who no longer derive profit from meditation and seek to remain in “loving attentiveness” to God, this “letting go” is not so much about the sensual appetites as it is the spiritual appetites: the thoughts and feelings that continually stream through our mind and serve as a barrier to contemplative simplicity.

It is a spiritual asceticism St. John teaches in these chapters … one that helps us “cultivate an attitude of silence” where we make our heart a little hermitage or cell we can take with us no matter where we go or what we do. IMO, Book 3 of The Ascent is the best theological teaching I’ve seen on this aspect of spirituality. Understanding St. John will greatly help one grasp all the other great works on recollection/acquired contemplation such as Osuna’s Third Spiritual Alphabet, The Cloud of Unknowing and Br. Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God.

My favorite quote of all is from Brother Lawrence … “Thoughts spoil everything!” That’s as good a 1 sentence summary of Book 3 of the Ascent that I can think of.

Dave 🙂
 
I enjoyed a “modernized” edition of *Ascent *by Henry L. Carrigan Jr and wish he would have done one for *Dark Night *as well.

barnesandnoble.com/w/ascent-of-mount-carmel-john-of-the-cross/1102791605?ean=9781557253064

DBT: “Meditation is largely about the “remembering” aspect while contemplation is about the “forgetting.” In fact, “to forget” is the literal meaning behind the seemingly harsh words like “oblivion” and “void” St. John uses to describe the state we are to seek.”

That is a good way to put it meditation/remembering & Contemplation/ forgetting.
 
When I think about contemplation, I think about the story of a man who everyday sat at the back of a church and gazed upon the crucifix. Curious, one day the parish priest asked him what he was doing. The man’s reply, “I look at Him and he looks at me.”
I like Michael Mayo’s description of meditation as remembering. Our focus is on what God has done, or the Life of Christ…
Contemplation on the other hand is forgetting, a return to childlike trust, a getting lost, a sense of wonder and awe, a not knowing…A going beyond the senses because we do not know.
As Michael also mentioned, we can take our prayer closet with us wherever we might be.
 
We detach ourselves from images we have of God in order to let God come to us as He is, not has we have created Him.

God dwells within and as St Teresa said, he speaks to us best in the depth of our souls.

God’s presence is all that is necessary and often what He brings us, can not be expressed in written or verbal speech.

St Teresa often had difficulty expressing herself, as she herself admits.

St John does better, but unless the soul has some experience of what he wrote about, it takes longer to grasp.

In all, it’s as the author of the Cloud of Unknowing wrote, which is my favorite,

“God can not be grasped, except through love.”

Jim
 
+JMJ+

The spirituality of the Society of Mary (Marianists) also has something similar, but it could be called a more “active” spirituality than what was presented here. It is part of the “foundation virtues”, virtues that have to be learned and practiced before one can advance in the Marianist school of spirituality.

It is called the Five Silences: silence of words, silence of signs, silence of mind, silence of imagination, silence of passions. It is the consecration of our whole being to Jesus and Mary, even aspects of ourselves that we ordinarily consider as involuntary, that we may place them under our control and use them for the greater glory of God.
  • Silence of words is to be conscious of what you say always, making sure that what comes out of your mouth is always for the greater glory of God. And not just what you say, but how.
  • Silence of signs is to be conscious of body and how it sends messages to others. Your face, your gestures, your posture, your clothing must all be for the greater glory of God at all times, even when you seem to be alone, “since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1).
  • Silence of mind is to be conscious of the thoughts and ideas that constantly pervade our minds, especially what we receive from conversations and the media. All thoughts that help us become better and help us do the will of God, we retain, and all thoughts that distract us and make us worse, we let go. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).
  • Silence of imagination is to be conscious of the daydreams and scenarios our imaginations are constantly making. Those that encourage us to act in ways contrary to our life in Christ should be silenced; nevertheless, we cultivate a rich imagination that can be applied to making our lives and the world a better place.
  • Silence of passions is to be conscious of the myriad feelings and emotions inside of us. We must focus and cultivate those passions that help us live better, and to let go of those passions and emotions that are holding us back.
Once one has achieved the Five Silences, the person then is said to be “recollected”. Recollection is the virtue of having our total being in the present moment, because our myriad powers in the form of one’s mouth, body, mind, imagination, and passions are in the state of readiness to do what needs to be done for God and others.

Recollection is also the term we use when we make ourselves conscious of the presence of God. This usage of the term and the previous one’s are not mutually exclusive, for, as Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, the founder of the Marianists, said: “The practice of absolute silence is an excellent means of arriving at the constant, active presence of God.”
 
nuntym said:
+JMJ+

The spirituality of the Society of Mary (Marianists) also has something similar, but it could be called a more “active” spirituality than what was presented here. It is part of the “foundation virtues”, virtues that have to be learned and practiced before one can advance in the Marianist school of spirituality.

It is called the Five Silences: silence of words, silence of signs, silence of mind, silence of imagination, silence of passions. It is the consecration of our whole being to Jesus and Mary, even aspects of ourselves that we ordinarily consider as involuntary, that we may place them under our control and use them for the greater glory of God.
  • Silence of words is to be conscious of what you say always, making sure that what comes out of your mouth is always for the greater glory of God. And not just what you say, but how.
  • Silence of signs is to be conscious of body and how it sends messages to others. Your face, your gestures, your posture, your clothing must all be for the greater glory of God at all times, even when you seem to be alone, “since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1).
  • Silence of mind is to be conscious of the thoughts and ideas that constantly pervade our minds, especially what we receive from conversations and the media. All thoughts that help us become better and help us do the will of God, we retain, and all thoughts that distract us and make us worse, we let go. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things” (Philippians 4:8).
  • Silence of imagination is to be conscious of the daydreams and scenarios our imaginations are constantly making. Those that encourage us to act in ways contrary to our life in Christ should be silenced; nevertheless, we cultivate a rich imagination that can be applied to making our lives and the world a better place.
  • Silence of passions is to be conscious of the myriad feelings and emotions inside of us. We must focus and cultivate those passions that help us live better, and to let go of those passions and emotions that are holding us back.
Once one has achieved the Five Silences, the person then is said to be “recollected”. Recollection is the virtue of having our total being in the present moment, because our myriad powers in the form of one’s mouth, body, mind, imagination, and passions are in the state of readiness to do what needs to be done for God and others.

Recollection is also the term we use when we make ourselves conscious of the presence of God. This usage of the term and the previous one’s are not mutually exclusive, for, as Blessed William Joseph Chaminade, the founder of the Marianists, said: “The practice of absolute silence is an excellent means of arriving at the constant, active presence of God.”
Click to expand...
It was a Marianist brother who first introduced me to St. John of the Cross. The local diocesan paper shared the difference between the Western approach of denying the senses and the Eastern approach of acceptance when it came to the disciplines such as chastity. The meeting the paper described had nothing to do with Marianists. It was a meeting between Benedictines and Zen monks.
It is easy to be caught in the past, to allow our memories to cloud our future. As the saying goes, the present is a gift that we can open.
As JimR stated so eloquently, we need to set aside the images we have created of who God is and allow God to be.
As you state, when we are conscious of where we are in the moment, we can make our decisions based on God’s Will rather than our own. In Him alone is our soul at rest. In Him alone do we find peace.
 
Michael,

If you have the Collected Works of St. John of the Cross by Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. and Otilio Rodriguez, O.C.D., you may find Letter 13 on pages 746-748 helpful in understanding what St. John of the Cross means to “empty one’s mind.”

Here are parts of the letter (with my emphasis):

from Letter 13 St. John of the Cross to a discalced Carmelite friar:

"Since the will has never tasted God as he is or known him through some gratification of the appetite, and consequently does not know what God is like, it cannot know what the pleasure of God is; nor can its being, appetite, and satisfaction know how to desire God, for he transcends all its capacity. Thus it is obvious that none of all those particular things in which it can rejoice is God. In order to be untied with him, the will must consequently be ***emptied *** of and detached from all disordered appetite and satisfaction with respect to every particular thing in which it can rejoice, whether earthly or heavenly, temporal or spiritual, so that purged and cleansed of all inordinate satisfactions, joys, and appetites it might be wholly occupied in loving God with it affections.

For if in any way the will can comprehend God and be united with him, it is through love and not through any gratification of the appetite. And since the delight, sweetness, and satisfaction that can come to the will is not love, none of the delightful feelings can be an adequate means for union of the will with God; it is the operation of the will that is the proportionate means for this union. The will’s operation is quite distinct from the will’s feeling: By its operation, which is love, the will is united with God and terminates in him, and not by the feeling and gratification of its appetite that remains in the soul and goes no further. The feelings only serve as stimulants to love, if the will desires to pass beyond them; and they serve for no more. Thus the delightful feelings do not of themselves lead the soul to God, but rather cause it to become attached to delightful feelings. But the operation of the will, which is the love of God, concentrates the affection, joy, pleasure, satisfaction, and love of the soul only on God, leaving aside all things and loving him above them all.

Hence if persons are moved to the love of God without dependence on the sweetness they feel, they leave aside this sweetness and center their love on God whom they cannot feel. Were they to love the sweetness and satisfaction, pausing and being detained in it, making an end and goal of the means, the work of the will would consequently be faulty. Since God in incomprehensible and inaccessible, the will, if it is to center its activity of love on him, must not set itself on what it can touch and apprehend with the appetite. Loving in this way, a soul loves truly and certainly according to the demands of faith; also in ***emptiness ***and darkness concerning its feelings, going beyond all the feelings it may experience in understanding its concepts. Thus it believes and loves above everything it can understand."

I hope this helps. May God bless you.

houston1
 
St. John of the Cross is quite emphatic that the memory is the principal source of all disturbances in the soul. The reason is because of what he calls our “interior tongue” through which we incessantly talk to ourselves in our mind. And these interior conversations are triggered by images, forms and ideas presented to us by our memory. Complicating matters, memories are emotionally laden. The analogy is sometimes made that if a memory is like a movie … how the memory felt at occurrence is the movie soundtrack.

So when a memory is recalled it is typically the emotion attached to it that we latch onto and savor. Thus the reason recalling things to mind over and over is so spiritually damaging … the emotion gains momentum and intensity with each successive rehashing. It is a viscous cycle that must be broken. In short, we must quell the “movies in our mind” at their first movement lest they take hold of us and rob our peace. Loss of peace is the principal reason we lose sight of the present moment … and our ability to practice recollection.

St. John of the Cross describes the interplay of thoughts and emotions as triggered by memory this way:
Ascent Book 3:
The soul is incapable of truly acquiring control of the passions and restriction of the inordinate appetites without forgetting and withdrawing from the sources of these emotions. Disturbances never arise in a soul unless through the apprehensions of the memory. When all things are forgotten, nothing disturbs the peace or stirs the appetites. As the saying goes: What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t want. We experience this all the time. We observe that as often as people begin to think about some matter, they are moved and aroused over it, little or much, according to the kind of apprehension. If the apprehension is bothersome and annoying, they feel sadness or hatred, and so on; if agreeable, they experience desire and joy and so on.
Click to expand...
So the means by which we turn off these “movies in our mind” is precisely the emptying Michael raised in the OP. As already mentioned, St. John of the Cross uses some pretty harsh terms to describe the emptying we must do … annihilate, oblivion, void etc. Taken literally, though, words like this might give us the wrong impression of what the saint means. He does not mean we try to “erase” our memories or create some sort of “blankness” in our mind through the effort not to think. On the contrary, we are simply to strive to lessen the hold thoughts and feelings have over us by restricting their use.

So in this context we can come up with a variety of terms and expressions to describe what emptying means and how we are to conduct ourselves with regard to the thoughts and feelings that stream through our mind: forget, let go, disengage, divert, turn away from, reroute, withdraw … to name just a few. As one spiritual writer says, we are to treat them as nothing more than leaves floating down a river. Pay them no attention … and no harm will be done.

Tranquility of soul is what awaits the individual who learns to walk away from the “movies in our mind.” We become interiorly quiet … capable of attending to the presence of God in everything we do. We can hear his voice at all times because the noise and din of the unruly mind has been stilled … the clamor of which drowns out His soft whispering oh so easily. We change our monologue with self … into a continual dialogue with God. We use our memory as it was meant to be used … to remember and forget with the mind of God.

Dave 🙂
 
I am really appreciating all these posts, a lot to ponder.

Thanks

and keep 'em coming. 👍
 
Great conversation. Does anyone have any suggestions on reading material applicable to the concepts being described, specifically for a newbie? Thanks so much.
 
The Collected Works of Edith Stein
VI THE SCIENCE OF THE CROSS
Edith Stein Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Discalced Carmelite

Chapter 5

In the natural world, the intellect grasps objects through the forms and images that the senses perceive. These cannot serve to lead forward on the way to God. As well, whatever of the supernatural world is accessible to the intellect here cannot help it attain any certain knowledge of God. The intellect, therefore, in its own insights cannot construct an adequate concept of God. The memory out of all its fantasy cannot create a form or picture that could portray God; the will cannot taste any joy or delight that is at all similar to God himself.

Therefore, in order to attain to God, one must “rather strive . . . not to understand as to understand . . . rather to be blind and transport oneself into darkness . . . than to open the eyes.” This is why the Areopagite calls contemplation mystical theology, that is, secret knowledge of God and a ray of darkness. The darkness that leads to God is, as we already know, faith. It is the only means that leads to union because it sets God before our eyes as he is: as infinite, as triune. Faith resembles God in that both blind the intellect and appear to it as darkness. “The greater one’s faith the closer is one’s union with God.”

Stein, Edith (2011-03-17). The Science of the Cross (The Collected Works of Edith Stein Vol. 6) (Kindle Locations 1370-1375). ICS Publications. Kindle Edition.

Peace
 
I good book that is recent in how to learn the contemplative practice is

“Into the Silent Land,” by Fr Martin Laird.

Jim
 
Another book recommendation …

icspublications.org/bookstore/cross/b_cross04.html

This is a very recent book and it’s the best commentary on St. John of the Cross’ Ascent of Mount Carmel I’ve ever seen. Father breaks the “language barrier” that can make St. John of the Cross very daunting to those not familiar with his terminology. This is a very accessible and easy to understand book. Readers from all points on the spiritual journey can find at least some aspects of St. John’s teaching that are applicable to their lives.

Dave 🙂
 
I’ve read Fr Marc Foley, OCD in the Carmel Clarion.

He’s a good writer.

Jim
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top