John of Ruysbroeck Quotes

AND thus the Fourth Mode is a state of emptiness, made one with God in bare love and in Divine Light, free and empty of all the observances of love, above actions, and enduring a pure and simple love, which consumes and annihilates in itself the spirit of a man, so that he forgets himself, and knows neither himself nor God, nor any creature, nor aught else but Love alone, which he tastes and feels and possesses in simple emptiness. He feels himself one Breadth with Love, Which is measureless, comprehending all things, and Itself for ever remaining incomprehensible. He sees himself made one with the eternal Length, which is immovable, without beginning or ending, going before and following after all created things

As much as is iron, so much is fire; And as much as is fire, so much is iron; Yet the iron doth not become fire, Nor the fire iron, But each retains its substance and nature. So likewise the spirit of man doth not become God, But is deified, And knows itself breadth, length, height and depth: And as far as God is God, So far the loving spirit is made one with Him In love.

The Love of God is a consuming Fire, Which draws us out of ourselves And swallows us up in unity with God, Where we are satisfied and overflowing, And with Him, beyond ourselves, Eternally fulfilled.

And its seeing is Unconditioned, Being without manner, And it is neither thus nor thus, Neither here nor there; For that which is Unconditioned hath enveloped all, And the vision is made high and wide. It knows not itself where That is which it sees; and it cannot come thereto, for its seeing is in no wise, and passes on, beyond, for ever, and without return. That which it apprehends it cannot realise in full, Nor wholly attain, for its apprehension is wayless, and without manner, And therefore it is apprehended of God in a higher way than it can apprehend Him. Behold! such a following of the Way that is Wayless, Is intermediary between contemplation In images and similitudes of the intellect, And unveiled contemplation Beyond all images in the Light of God.

He shows Himself to the soul in the living mirror of her intelligence; Not as He is in His nature, But in images and similitudes, And in the degree in which the illuminated reason can grasp and understand Him. And the wise reason, enlightened of God, sees clearly And without error in images of the understanding All that she has heard of God, Of faith, of truth, according to her longing. But that image which is God Himself, Although it is held before her, she cannot comprehend; For the eyes of her understanding Must fail before that Incomparable Light.

Even though the eagle, King of birds, Can with his powerful sight Gaze steadfastly upon The brightness of the sun; Yet do the weaker eyes of the bat Fail and falter in the same.

And the Light floweth forth in similitude, And indraweth Itself in unity; Which we perceive, beyond the reason, In that high point of our understanding Which is bare and turned within.

There is a distinction and differentiation, According to our reason, Between God and the Godhead, Between action and rest. The fruitful nature of the Persons (Trinity) Ever worketh in a living differentiation. But the simple Being of God, According to the nature thereof, Is an eternal Rest of God And of all created things

Contemplation is a knowing that is unconditioned, For ever dwelling above the Reason. Never can it sink down into the Reason, And above it can the Reason never climb. The shining forth of That which is Unconditioned is as a fair mirror. Wherein shines the Eternal Light of God. It has no attributes, And here all the works of Reason fail. It is not God, But it is the Light whereby we see Him. Those who walk in the Divine Light of it Discover in themselves the Unwalled. That which Unconditioned, Is above the Reason, not without it: It beholds all things without amazement. Amazement is far beneath it: The contemplative life is without amazement. That which is Unconditioned, it knows not what; For it is above all, and is neither This nor That.

Christ’s prayer is fulfilled in those united to God in this threefold manner. With God they will ebb and flow, and will always be in repose, Iin possessing and enjoying (Him). They will go out and in and find nourishment both within and without. They are drunk with love And have passed away into God in a dark luminosity.

Christ prayed that He should be in us, and we in Him. This we find in many passages in the Gospel. And this is the union that is without intermediary, for the love of God is not only out-flowing, but it is also drawing into unity. And those who feel and experience this become interior, enlightened men. There the faculties are raised above all practices to the bareness of their very essence. There the faculties become simplified above reason in their essence and because of this they are filled and overflowing. For in this simplicity the spirit finds itself united with God without intermediary. And this union, together with the exercise, which is proper to it, will endure eternally, as I have already said.

See, here the beatitude is so simple And so without mode that therein all essential gazing, Inclination and distinction of creatures Pass away. For all spirits thus raised up melt away and are annihilated by reason of enjoyment in God’s essence which is the superessence of all essence. There they fall away from themselves and are lost in a bottomless unknowing. There all clarity is turned back to darkness, there where the three Persons give way to the essential unity and without distinction enjoy essential beatitude.

Hereafter follows the “unity without difference,” For the love of God Is not only to be considered as flowing out With all good and drawing in into unity, But it is also above all distinction In essential enjoyment according to The bare essence of the Divinity. And for this reason enlightened people Have found within themselves An essential inward gazing Above reason and without reason, And an enjoyable inclination Surpassing all modes (methods or systems) And all essence, Sinking away from themselves Into a modeless abyss of fathomless beatitude, Where the Trinity of the divine Persons Possess their nature in essential unity.

And though the union is without intermediary, The manifold works that God does In heaven and earth are, however, Hidden from the spirit. For though God gives Himself as He is with a clear distinction, He gives Himself in the soul’s essence, Where the soul’s powers are unified Above reason And undergo God’s transformation In simplicity. In this place all is full And overflowing, for the spirit feels itself As one truth and one richness And one unity with God.

These same interior, enlightened persons Have the love of God before them in their inward vision Whenever they want, as drawing or calling in towards unity. For they see and feel that the Father with the Son by means of the Holy Spirit stand embraced with all the elect and are brought back with eternal love into the unity of their nature. This unity is constantly drawing or calling in all that has been born out of it naturally or by grace. And therefore these enlightened people are lifted up with free mind above reason to a bare vision devoid of images (The imageless place of spirit vision). There lives the eternal invitation of God’s unity, and with imageless naked understanding they go beyond all works and all practices and all things to the summit of their spirit. There their naked understanding is penetrated with eternal clarity as the air is penetrated by the light of the sun. The bare elevated will is transformed and penetrated with fathomless love just as iron is penetrated by the fire. And the bare elevated memory finds itself caught and established In a fathomless absence of images. Thus the created image is united threefold wise above reason to its eternal image, Which is the source of its being and of its life.