But see to it that none of this comes to the hearing of the uninformed, that is to say, to those caught up with the things of the world, who imagine that there is nothing beyond instances of individual being and who think that by their own intellectual resources they can have a direct knowledge of him who has made the shadows his hiding place. And if initiation into the divine is beyond such people, what is to be said of those others, still more uninformed, who describe the transcendent Cause of all things in terms derived from the lowest orders of being, and who claim that it is in no way superior to the godless, multiformed shapes they themselves have made? What has actually to be said about the Cause of everything is this. Since it is the Cause of all beings, we should posit and ascribe to it all the affirmations we make in regard to beings, and, more appropriately, we should negate all these affirmations, since it surpasses all being. Now we should not conclude that the negations are simply the opposites of the affirmations, but rather that the cause of all is considerably prior to this, beyond privations, beyond every denial, beyond every assertion.
It’s obvious to see where the author of the Cloud of Unknowing drew his inspiration for alerting (time and time again) the earnest adept to avoid those who approach the subject matter with profane minds. Yea, it’s not meant for anyone just out of idle curiosity. Instead, it’s meant for those Noble Ones who will apply the effort and “will” necessary to respond in body, mind, and spirit to what transcendent treasures are being freely given unto them. Are you in earnest over your own spiritual cultivation? And all this business about a “prime cause” has to do with those who are purely dualists, who have to divide everything into creator and created. They cling to the apparent created order and the creatures that dwell therein. In point of fact, the Prime Antecedent is not concerned with either affirmations or negations, for IT is beyond any such limited assertions. IT is beyond beingness itself and one needs to draw nigh and cuddle-up with this Transcendent Reality.
This, at least, is what was taught by the blessed Bartholomew. He says that the Word of God is vast and minuscule, that the Gospel is wide-ranging and yet restricted. To me it seems that in this he is extraordinarily shrewd, for he has grasped that the good cause of all is both eloquent and taciturn, indeed wordless. It has neither word nor act of understanding, since it is on a plane above all this, and it is made manifest only to those who travel through foul and fair, who pass beyond the summit of every holy ascent, who leave behind them every divine light, every voice, every word from heaven, and who plunge into the darkness where, as scripture proclaims, there dwells the One who is beyond all things. It is not for nothing that the blessed Moses is commanded to submit first to purification and then to depart from those who have not undergone this. When every purification is complete, he hears the many voiced trumpets. He sees the many lights, pure and with rays streaming abundantly. Then, standing apart from the crowds and accompanied by chosen priests, he pushes ahead to the summit of the divine ascents. And yet he does not meet God himself, but contemplates, not him who is invisible, but rather where he dwells. This means, I presume, that the holiest and highest of the things perceived with the eye of the body or the mind are but the rationale which presupposes all that lies below the Transcendent One. Through them, however, his unimaginable presence is shown, walking the heights of those holy places to which the mind at least can rise. But then he [Moses] breaks free of them, away from what sees and is seen, and he plunges into the truly mysterious darkness of unknowing. Here, renouncing all that the mind may conceive, wrapped entirely in the intangible and the invisible, he belongs completely to him who is beyond everything. Here, being neither oneself nor someone else, one is supremely united to the completely unknown by an inactivity of all knowledge, and knows beyond the mind by knowing nothing.
The reference to Bartholomew is a metaphor for religious authority. In this way his work could not be looked upon with suspicion from the dogmatic overlords. By and large he is saying here that the Truth is beyond all categorical imperatives, “indeed, it is a WORDLESS affair.” Quite in league with Lankavatarian teachings. The Wordless and Imageless-One dwells in that Primordial Darkness THAT is Prior-to any manifestations from the phenomenal world. Velvety—immersed in Holy Ascent. The one from scripture who best encapsulates this being bathed in this Divine Darkness is Moses—the one who first encountered the Unknown God on Mount Sinai in the Cloud of Unknowing Itself.
At the top of Mount Sinai, the stage is set for a plunge into what became a famous cloud of unknowing. “But then he [Moses] breaks free of them, away from what sees and is seen, and he plunges into the truly mysterious darkness of unknowing. Here, renouncing all that the mind may conceive, wrapped entirely in the intangible and the invisible, he belongs completely to him who is beyond everything. Here, being neither oneself nor someone else, one is supremely united to the completely unknown [God] by an inactivity of all knowledge, and knows beyond the mind by knowing nothing.” (Paul Rorem, The Dionysian Mystical Theology, pg. 18)
In a very authentically-real sense, Moses entered into the darkness where God was. THAT hidden place where the Absolute dwells. Bearing the markless mark of Agnosia—the luminous darkness of UN-knowing. In meditative terms a deep and abiding Samadhi—apparently asleep but fully Aware. The very tabernacle of your Spirit-within. Moses amid Sinai’s darkness became and will be exemplar for all centuries to come.