On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology — trans. C. E. Rolt
The translator’s English as printed (C. E. Rolt). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
V.—CONTEMPLATION
So far this doctrine of a dual state belonging to all things may seem an unprofitable speculation. We now come to the point where its true value will be seen. For it underlies a profound theory of Personality and a rich method of Contemplation. This part of the subject is difficult, and will need close attention.
The process of Creation advances from the simple to the complex as Life is added to mere Being, and Consciousness to Life, and Rationality to Consciousness. But from this point there begins a new phase in the process. Man, having as it were floated into the world down the Universal stream of Emanation, now enters into his spirit, and so plunges beneath the stream, and there below its surface finds an undercurrent which begins to sweep him in a contrary direction towards the Source. By the downward movement his personality has been produced, by this upward movement it will be transformed.
So man presses on towards God, and the method of his journey is a concentration of all his spiritual powers. By this method he g s himself together | being. And thus he gradually becomes unified and Re Se nes non Doe as able to place at the very commencement of the developing temporal order—precisely because their nature is of this utterly simple and concentrated kind. And, because the process of advance is one of spiritual concentration, and moves more and more from external things into the hidden depths of the \\ forms of those elements which he thus draws from the circumference into the centre of his personal spirit. Having sucked the nourishment from the various fruits growing severally in their different proper zones by the margin of the stream up which he presses, he assimilates those vitalizing elements into his own tissues (finding each food suited in turn to his advancing strength) and casts the rind away as a thing no longer needed. And this rejection of the husk in which the nourishing fruit had grown is the process described by Dionysius as the Via Negativa.
V.—CONTEMPLATION
So far, this doctrine of a dual state belonging to all things may seem an unprofitable speculation. We now come to the point where its true value will appear. For it underlies a profound theory of Personality and a rich method of Contemplation. This part of the subject is difficult and will need close attention.
The process of Creation advances from the simple to the complex, as Life is added to mere Being, Consciousness to Life, and Rationality to Consciousness. But from this point a new phase of the process begins. Man, having floated, as it were, into the world down the Universal stream of Emanation, now enters into his spirit, and so plunges beneath the stream; and there, below its surface, he finds an undercurrent that begins to sweep him in the opposite direction, towards the Source. By the downward movement his personality has been produced; by this upward movement it will be transformed.
So man presses on towards God, and the method of his journey is a concentration of all his spiritual powers. By this method he gathers himself together … being. And so he gradually becomes unified and … able to place at the very beginning of the developing temporal order—precisely because their nature is of this utterly simple and concentrated kind. And because the process of advance is one of spiritual concentration, and moves more and more from external things into the hidden depths of the … forms of those elements which he thus draws from the circumference into the centre of his personal spirit.
Having sucked the nourishment from the various fruits growing, each in its own proper zone, along the margin of the stream up which he presses, he assimilates those vitalizing elements into his own tissues (finding each food suited in turn to his advancing strength), and casts the rind away as something no longer needed. And this rejection of the husk in which the nourishing fruit had grown is the process that Dionysius describes as the Negative Way (Via Negativa).