33

Now then do you see that for the incomprehensible, instead of mind and eye and ears, they are blessed with a spirit, through which they see and hear and understand? For when all noetic activity has ceased, by what do both angels and men equal to angels see God, if not by the power of the Spirit? Therefore also this vision for them is not sensation, since they do not perceive it through the senses, nor is it intellection, since it is not through thoughts or the knowledge derived from them, but they find it through the cessation of all noetic activity. Therefore, it is neither imagination, nor discursive reason, nor opinion, nor something like the conclusion of syllogisms; nor does the mind attain this only through the ascent by way of negation. For every divine commandment and every sacred law is bounded by the purity of the heart, according to the word of the fathers, and every manner and every form of prayer ceases at pure prayer, and every word ascending from below to the one established above and detached from all stops at the removal of all beings. Not for this reason is there nothing after the divine commandments other than purity of heart, but there are, and there are very many things: the present age of the promised pledge according to the mind and the good things of the age to come (p. 190) both seen and enjoyed through it; so also after prayer, an ineffable vision and ecstasy in the vision and unutterable mysteries; in the same way also after the removal of beings, or rather also after the cessation, accomplished in us not only in word but also in deeds, and after this then, even if it is unknowing, yet it is beyond knowing, and if it is darkness, yet it is superluminous; and in that superluminous darkness are given, according to the great Dionysius, the divine things to the saints. So that the most perfect contemplation concerning God and divine things is not simply removal, but the participation in divine things after the removal, and both a giving and a receiving rather than a removal. But those things received and those things given are ineffable, for which reason even if they speak about them, it is paradigmatically and by analogy, not as these things are seen by them in this way, but as what is seen by them is not by nature to be shown otherwise. Those therefore who do not hearken with reverence to these things so spoken paradigmatically as to ineffable things, consider the all-wise knowledge foolishness and, trampling on the intelligible pearls by mocking them, will tear apart with disputes of words those who have shown them forth as much as possible.

But they nevertheless, out of love for mankind, as far as is possible, as I said, speak the unspeakable things, removing the error of those who uninitiatedly suppose that after the removal of beings there is a complete inactivity, but not an inactivity that is beyond activity. But those things again remain ineffable by their own nature. For this reason the great Dionysius says that after the removal of beings there is not speech but speechlessness, and after every ascent, he says, we will be united to the Unutterable. But it is not because they are unutterable that the mind will attain the things beyond mind only through negation; for even such an ascent is a kind of intellection of things dissimilar to God and bears an image of that formless contemplation (p. 192) and of the contemplative fulfillment according to the mind, but it is not that itself. But through this removal of all things, those united to it in an angel-like manner hymn that light, initiated from the mystical union with it, that it is super-essentially set apart from all things. And as many as are deemed worthy to receive the mystery from such persons through faithful and well-disposed hearing, these too are able from the removal of all things to hymn that divine and incomprehensible light; but they are not able to be united to it and to see it, unless, having purified themselves through the keeping of the commandments, having occupied the mind with utterly pure and immaterial prayer, they receive the supernatural power of contemplation.

33

Νῦν δ᾿ ἆρα συνορᾷς ὅτι τό ἀκατάληπτον ἀντί νοῦ καί ὀφθαλμοῦ καί ὤτων εὐμοιροῦσι πνεῦμα, δι᾿ οὗ ὁρῶσι καί ἀκούουσι καί συνιᾶσι; Νοερᾶς γάρ πάσης καταπαυσαμένης ἐνεργείας, τίνι ὁρῶσιν ἄγγελοί τε καί ἄνθρωποι ἰσάγγελοι Θεόν, εἰ μή τῇ τοῦ Πνεύματος δυνάμει; ∆ιό καί ἡ ὅρασις αὐτοῖς αὕτη αἴσθησις μέν οὐκ ἔστιν, ἐπεί μή διά τῶν αἰσθητηρίων αὐτῆς ἀντιλαμβάνονται, νόησις δέ οὐκ ἔστιν, ἐπεί μή διά λογισμῶν ἤ τῆς δι᾿ αὐτῶν γνώσεως, ἀλλά κατά ἀπόπαυσιν πάσης νοερᾶς ἐνεργείας εὑρίσκουσιν αὐτήν˙ οὔκουν, οὐδέ φαντασία ἐστίν, οὐδέ διάνοια, οὐδέ δόξα, οὔθ᾿ οἷον συμπέρασμα συλλογισμῶν˙ οὐδέ διά τῆς κατά ἀπόφασιν ἀνόδου μόνης ὁ νοῦς ἐπιτυγχάνει ταύτης. Πᾶσα μέν γάρ θεία ἐντολή καί πᾶς νόμος ἱερός μέχρι τῆς καθαρότητος τῆς καρδίας ὁρίζεται, κατά τόν λόγον τῶν πατέρων, καί πᾶς τρόπος καί πᾶν εἶδος προσευχῆς μέχρι τῆς καθαρᾶς λήγει προσευχῆς, καί πᾶς λόγος κάτωθεν ἀνιών εἰς τόν ὑπερανιδρυμένον καί ἀπολελυμένον τοῦ παντός μέχρι τῆς ἀφαιρέσεως τῶν ὄτων πάντων ἵσταται. Οὐ μή διά τοῦτο μετά τάς θείας ἐντολάς οὐδέν ἐστιν ἄλλο πλήν ἡ τῆς καρδίας καθαρότης, ἀλλ᾿ εἰσί καί πλεῖστά εἰσιν˙ ὁ κατά τόν νοῦν νῦν αἰῶνα τῶν ἐπηγγελμένων ἀρραβών καί τά τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος ἀγαθά (σελ. 190) δι᾿ αὐτῆς ὁρώμενά τε καί τρυφώμενα˙ οὕτω καί μετά τήν προσευχήν, θέα ἀνεκλάλητος καί ἔκστασις ἐν τῇ θέᾳ καί ἀπόρρητα μυστήρια˙ τόν αὐτόν τρόπον καί μετά τήν ἀφαίρεσιν τῶν ὄντων, μᾶλλον δέ καί μετά τήν ἀπόπαυσιν, οὐ λόγος μόνον, ἀλλά καί ἔργοις τελουμένην ἐν ἡμῖν, καί μετά ταύτην τοίνυν, εἰ καί ἀγνωσία ἐστίν, ἀλλ᾿ ὑπέρ γνῶσιν, καί εἰ γνόφος ἐστίν, ἀλλ᾿ ὑπερφαής˙ καί ἐν τῷ ὑπερφαεῖ ἐκείνῳ γνόφῳ δοτά γίνεται, κατά τόν μέγαν ∆ιονύσιον, τά θεῖα τοῖς ἁγίοις. Ὥστε οὐκ ἀφαίρεσίς ἐστιν ἁπλῶς ἡ περί Θεοῦ καί τῶν θείων τελεωτάτη θεωρία, ἀλλ᾿ ἡ μετά τήν ἀφαίρεσιν μέθεξις τῶν θείων καί δόσις τε καί λῆψις μᾶλλον ἤ ἀφαίρεσις. Ἄρρητα δέ ἐστι τά λήμματα καί τά δόματα ἐκεῖνα, διό κἄν λέγωσι περί αὐτῶν, ἀλλά παραδειγματικῶς καί κατά ἀναλογίαν, οὐχ ὡς ὁρωμένων ἐκείνοις τούτων οὕτως, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς μή πεφυκότων ἄλλως δειχθῆναι τῶν ἐκείνοις ὁρωμένων. Οἱ τοίνυν τῶν παραδειγματικῶς οὕτω τούτων λεγομένων μή μετ᾿ εὐλαβείας ὡς ἀρρήτων ἐπαΐοντες μωρίαν ἡγοῦνται τήν ὑπέρσοφον γνῶσιν καί τούς νοητούς τῷ διασύρειν καταπατοῦντες μαργαρίτας, τούς ὡς ἔνεστι προδείξαντας αὐτούς τῇ λογομαχίᾳ διαρρήσουσιν.

Ἐκεῖνοι δ᾿ ὅμως ὑπό φιλανθρωπίας κατά τό ἐγχωροῦν, ὡς ἔφην, λέγουσι τά ἄρρητα, τήν πλάνην ἀφαιροῦντες τῶν μετά τήν ἀφαίρεσιν τῶν ὄντων ἀργίαν εἶναι τελείαν ἀμυήτως οἰομένων, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὑπέρ ἐνέργειαν ἀργίαν. Ἀλλ᾿ ἐκεῖνα πάλιν ἄρρητα τῇ ἑαυτῶν φύσει διαμένει. ∆ιά τοῦτο ὁ μέγας ∆ιονύσιος μετά τήν ἀφαίρεσιν τῶν ὄντων οὐκ εἶναί φησι λόγον ἀλλά ἀλογίαν καί μετά πᾶσαν ἄνοδον ἑνωθησόμεθα, φησί, τῷ ἀφθέγκτῳ. Ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ, ὅτι ἄφθεγκτα, δι᾿ ἀποφάσεως μόνης ἐπιτεύξεται ὁ νοῦς τῶν ὑπέρ νοῦν˙ καί ἡ τοιαύτη γάρ ἄνοδος νόησίς τίς ἐστι τῶν ἀπεμφαινόντων τῷ Θεῷ καί εἰκόνα μέν φέρει τῆς ἀνειδέου ἐκείνης θεωρίας (σελ. 192) καί τῆς κατά νοῦν θεωρητικῆς ἀποπληρώσεως, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ αὐτή ἐστιν ἐκείνη. ∆ι᾿ αὐτῆς δέ τῆς πάντων ἀφαιρέσεως ὑμνοῦσιν ἐκεῖνο τό φῶς οἱ τούτῳ ἀγγελομιμήτως ἑνωθέντες, ἀπό τῆς πρός αὐτό μυστικῆς ἑνώσεως μεμυημένοι, ὅτι πάντων ἐστίν ὑπερουσίως ἐξῃρημένον. Καί ὅσοι περ ἄν ἀπό τῶν τοιούτων δι᾿ ἀκοῆς πιστῆς καί εὐγνώμονος παραδέξασθαι καταξιωθῶσι τό μυστήριον, δύνανται μέν καί οὗτοι ἐκ τῆς τῶν πάντων ἀφαιρέσεως ὑμνεῖν τό θεῖον καί ἀπερινόητον ἐκεῖνο φῶς˙ ἑνοῦσθαι δέ αὐτῷ καί ὁρᾶν οὐ δύνανται, ἄν μή, διά τῆς τῶν ἐντολῶν φυλακῆς ἑαυτούς καθάραντες, τῇ ἀπειλικρινημένῃ καί ἀΰλῳ προσευχῇ τόν νοῦν ἀπασχολήσαντες, τήν ὑπερφυᾶ δύναμιν τῆς θεωρίας δέξωνται.