Míguez
34. No nos admiraremos en verdad de ver privado de toda forma, incluso de la forma inteligible, ese. objeto que produce tan arrebatados deseos. Porque cuando el alma cobra un intenso amor por El, se desprende ya de toda forma, incluida la forma inteligible que pudiera haber en ella. No puede realmente poseer ese objeto ni actuar conforme a lo que El es, si ve y se preocupa de cualquier otra cosa. Conviene que no tenga a su alcance ni bien ni mal alguno para que lo reciba en completa soledad. Y cuando al alma le cabe en suerte que ese objeto venga hacia ella, o simplemente que se le manifieste cuando ella se ha sustraído a las cosas presentes y se ha preparado para esto haciéndose más bella y más semejante al objeto, preparación y embellecimiento íntimos que son bien claros a los que los practican, entonces el alma lo ve aparecer de repente en ella, sin que medie nada entre ambos, pues no son ya dos en ese momento sino dos que forman unidad (la distinción entre ambos no tendría sentido en tanto él se halla presente, cosa que confirman aquí los amantes que desean ser uno con el ser amado), y el alma misma pierde la sensación de su cuerpo, porque El está en ella. No dirá, pues, el alma que es otra cosa, un hombre, un ser vivo, o sencillamente un ser, cualquiera que sea éste; la contemplación de estos objetos resultaría algo anómalo para ella, ya que para este acto no dispone de ocio ni de disposición voluntaria.
He aquí que el alma busca ese ser y le sale al encuentro cuando El aparece; le ve a El en lugar de verse a sí misma. Lo que es entonces el alma no podría ser para ella objeto de consideración. Por nada del mundo se cambiaría, aunque se le prometiese la totalidad del cielo, pues sabe de cierto que no encontrará nada mejor ni que supere a Aquél. Ya el alma no puede ascender más arriba y todas las demás cosas, por altas que estén, la obligarán a descender. Juzgará y conocerá entonces que es eso precisamente lo que ella deseaba, y dará por hecho que nada hay mejor que ese estado. Ahí no cabe pensar en el error, ¿pues dónde se iba a encontrar algo más verdadero que lo verdadero? Lo que ella dice existe con toda realidad; y existe aunque ella lo diga más tarde o lo diga tan sólo de una manera tácita. Ese estado de felicidad no le engaña, y afirmará por ello sin lugar a dudas que no es debido a un halago del cuerpo, sino a la vuelta a su condición de dicha anterior. Todo lo que antes producía placer al alma, cargos, poder, riqueza, belleza o ciencia, es ahora objeto de desprecio y el alma misma no se oculta de decirlo; no lo diría ciertamente ni no hubiese hallado cosas mejores que éstas. No teme ni experimenta nada malo en tanto permanece con El y viéndolo en plenitud.
Y aun más, sí todo a su alrededor pereciese, ella lo vería llena de gozo porque esto le permitiría quedar a solas con El. Tal es el grado de su felicidad 1.
Bouillet
XXXIV. Ne nous étonnons donc pas que les plus vives ardeurs soient excitées par Celui qui n’a absolument aucune forme, même intelligible, puisque l’âme elle-même, dès qu’elle brûle d’amour pour lui, dépouille toute forme, quelle qu’elle soit, même intelligible : car il est impossible d’approcher de lui tant que l’on considère quelque autre chose. L’âme doit donc écarter d’elle tout mal, tout bien même, en un mol toute chose, quelle qu’elle soit, pour recevoir Dieu seule à seul (119). Quand l’âme obtient ce bonheur et que Dieu vient à elle, ou plutôt, qu’il manifeste sa présence, parce que l’âme s’est détachée des autres choses présentes, qu’elle s’est embellie le plus possible, qu’elle est devenue semblable à lui par les moyens connus de ceux-là seuls qui sont initiés, elle le voit tout à coup apparaître en elle : plus d’intervalle, plus de dualité, tous deux ne font qu’un ; impossible de distinguer l’âme d’avec Dieu, tant qu’elle jouit de sa présence; c’est l’intimité de cette union qu’imitent ici-bas ceux qui aiment et qui sont aimés en cherchant à se fondre en un seul être. Dans cet état, l’âme ne sent plus son corps : elle ne sent plus si elle vit, si elle est homme, si elle est essence, être universel, ou quoi que ce soit au monde : car ce serait déchoir que de considérer ces choses, et l’âme n’a pas alors le temps ni la volonté de s’en occuper ; quand, après avoir cherché Dieu, elle se trouve en sa présence, elle s’élance vers lui et elle le contemple au lieu de se contempler elle-même (120). Quel est son état en ce moment? Elle n’a pas le temps de le considérer; mais elle ne l’échangerait contre aucune chose que ce fût, lui offrît-on le ciel entier, parce qu’il n’y a rien de supérieur, rien de meilleur; elle ne saurait monter plus haut. Quant aux autres choses, quelque élevées qu’elles soient, elle ne peut alors s’abaisser à les considérer. C’est en ce moment que l’âme juge et reconnaît qu’elle possède réellement là ce qu’elle désirait; elle affirme enfin qu’il n’y arien de meilleur que Lui. Elle ne saurait être dupe d’une illusion : car il n’y a rien de plus vrai que la vérité même. L’âme est alors ce qu’elle affirme, ou plutôt elle n’affirme rien que plus tard, et elle n’affirme alors qu’en gardant le silence. Tant qu’elle goûte cette béatitude, elle ne saurait se tromper en affirmant qu’elle la goûte. Si elle affirme qu’elle la goûte, ce n’est pas que son corps éprouve un agréable chatouillement, c’est qu’elle est redevenue ce qu’elle était jadis quand elle jouissait de la béatitude. Toutes les choses qui la charmaient auparavant, commandement, pouvoir, richesses, beauté, science, lui paraissent alors méprisables (121); elle ne pouvait pas les dédaigner auparavant, puisqu’elle n’avait encore rencontré rien de meilleur. Enfin, tant qu’elle est avec Lui et qu’elle le contemple, elle ne craint rien. Tout périrait autour d’elle qu’elle le verrait avec plaisir, parce qu’elle resterait seule avec Lui : tant est grande la félicité qu’elle goûte !
Guthrie
THE FORMLESSNESS OF THE SUPREME IS PROVED BY THE FACT THAT THE SOUL WHEN APPROACHING HIM SPONTANEOUSLY RIDS HERSELF OF FORMS.
34. We shall not be surprised that the soul’s liveliest transports of love are aroused by Him, who has no form, not even an intelligible one, when we observe that the soul herself, as soon as she burns with love for Him, lays aside all forms soever, even if intelligible; for it is impossible to approach Him so long as one considers anything else. The soul must therefore put aside all evil, and even all good; in a word, everything, of whatever nature, to receive the divinity, alone with the alone. When the soul obtains this happiness, and when (the divinity) comes to her, or rather, when He manifests His presence, because the soul has detached herself from other present things, when she has embellished herself as far as possible, when she has become assimilated to Him by means known only to the initiated, she suddenly sees Him appear in her. No more interval between them, no more doubleness; the two fuse in one. It is impossible to distinguish the soul from the divinity, so much does she enjoy His presence; and it is the intimacy of this union that is here below imitated by those who love and are loved, when they consummate union. In this condition the soul no longer feels (her body); she no more feels whether she be alive, human, essence, universality, or anything else. Consideration of objects would be a degradation, and the soul then has neither the leisure nor the desire to busy herself with them. When, after having sought the divinity, she finds herself in His presence, she rushes towards Him, and contemplates Him instead of herself. What is her condition at the time? She has not the leisure to consider it; but she would not exchange it for anything whatever, not even for the whole heaven; for there is nothing superior or better; she could not rise any higher. As to other things, however elevated they be, she cannot at that time stoop to consider them. It is at this moment that the soul starts to move, and recognizes that she really possesses what she desired; she at last affirms that there is nothing better than Him. No illusion could occur there; for where could she find anything truer than truth itself? The soul then is what she affirms; (or rather), she asserts it (only), later, and then she asserts it by keeping silence. While tasting this beatitude she could not err in the assertion that she tastes it. If she assert that she tastes it, it is not that her body experiences an agreeable titillation, for she has only become again what she formerly used to be when she became happy. All the things that formerly charmed her, such as commanding others, power, wealth, beauty, science, now seem to her despicable; she could not scorn them earlier, for she had not met anything better. Now she fears nothing, so long as she is with Him, and contemplates Him. Even with pleasure would she witness the destruction of everything, for she would remain alone with Him; so great is her felicity.
MacKenna
34. No longer can we wonder that the principle evoking such longing should be utterly free from shape. The very soul, once it has conceived the straining love towards this, lays aside all the shape it has taken, even to the Intellectual shape that has informed it. There is no vision, no union, for those handling or acting by any thing other; the soul must see before it neither evil nor good nor anything else, that alone it may receive the Alone.
Suppose the soul to have attained: the highest has come to her, or rather has revealed its presence; she has turned away from all about her and made herself apt, beautiful to the utmost, brought into likeness with the divine by those preparings and adornings which come unbidden to those growing ready for the vision – she has seen that presence suddenly manifesting within her, for there is nothing between: here is no longer a duality but a two in one; for, so long as the presence holds, all distinction fades: it is as lover and beloved here, in a copy of that union, long to blend; the soul has now no further awareness of being in body and will give herself no foreign name, not “man,” not “living being,” not “being,” not “all”; any observation of such things falls away; the soul has neither time nor taste for them; This she sought and This she has found and on This she looks and not upon herself; and who she is that looks she has not leisure to know. Once There she will barter for This nothing the universe holds; not though one would make over the heavens entire to her; than This there is nothing higher, nothing of more good; above This there is no passing; all the rest, however lofty, lies on the downgoing path: she is of perfect judgement and knows that This was her quest, that nothing higher is. Here can be no deceit; where could she come upon truer than the truth? and the truth she affirms, that she is, herself; but all the affirmation is later and is silent. In this happiness she knows beyond delusion that she is happy; for this is no affirmation of an excited body but of a soul become again what she was in the time of her early joy. All that she had welcomed of old-office, power, wealth, beauty, knowledge of all she tells her scorn as she never could had she not found their better; linked to This she can fear no disaster nor even know it; let all about her fall to pieces, so she would have it that she may be wholly with This, so huge the happiness she has won to.