The Cloud of Unknowing
Contemplating its teachings
Part I
There is a blank, gray slate set before you. Write on it as prescribed from your contemplations on The Cloud of Unknowing, which is a text of medieval English mysticism by an unknown 14th-century Christian monk writing to a student about contemplative prayer.
As you contemplate, you will grow from the ground of goodness into the crown of consciousness. In consciousness you ripen and mature, wanting only to know that which I AM. Wanting nothing more, you live in abundance. Receive your abundance willingly, for it is yours to give. You cannot be denied, for you are the light that feeds the world. The light within is I AM. You are that which I AM. You are the witness to the world.
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981) was a modern Indian guru whose teachings revolved around knowing oneself. He inspired his followers to look within, for therein, he says, lies your true nature. He adds, I am not my body, nor do I need it. I am the witness only. I have no shape of my own. You are so accustomed to think of yourself as bodies. Once you realize that bodily existence is but a state of mind, a movement in consciousness, that the ocean of consciousness is infinite and eternal, and that, when in touch with consciousness, you are the witness only, you will be able to withdraw beyond consciousness altogether.
You are the witness, but the witness is unknown to you. It is beyond the me of the body to know. If you believe you are your body, then you do not know the witness. To witness, you must enter the room within. As the witness, you see with the clarity of your true nature. To witness is to listen to I AM. To be aware. To observe without owning. To not judge or hope. You notice, observe, and let go of thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. None of what you observe is you. It has no meaning except what you give to it. You are not looking for answers because you have no questions. As the witness you are observing without contributing. You witness from within by contemplating in silence.
To sit in silent contemplation is to reflect, without knowing, on what you observe. You do not know. Your true nature knows. The me of the body exists in ignorance, trying to make sense of a world that has no meaning or purpose. To know, you must let your true nature be your guide. Knowledge does not come with words. It cannot be said. What is said offers direction. Words are signposts. They point the way but are not the destination. To cling to the signposts is to remain lost. You cannot cling to words and find your way.
Many read what the masters have said. Reflecting on their teachings is to repeat their message in your own words. Contemplating on the message is to let silence speak to you from within. Read and reflect, then sit in silent contemplation. These long-held steps are used by mystics to hear the voice within. The voice can also come suddenly as inspiration. It may also hide from your cleverness as you attempt to go your own way. But in the silence, it speaks without words. The words you hear are your own. They are signposts to your destination. Do not cling. You must leave the words to reach your destination. In silence you will know the way.
By the grace of your true nature, words are revealed in silence. Do not struggle to hear. Do nothing. Your true nature wishes you to remember what you never lost. There is more to you than the me of the body with its desires and expectations. It seeks to survive. You are drawn to something beyond everyday living. If only you had a higher place from which to see. It is the human quest to see further into your nature than eyes can see. What is it that lies beyond the edge of understanding? The pull is strong. Open yourself to its possibilities.
Let the world be. It is not yours to pursue. Your hunger is fed elsewhere. That place is buried in darkness. You must learn to see in darkness. Accept its presence. Feel the emptiness within. It is your treasure to behold. It is consciousness itself. To move from the world into emptiness, be aware of each moment. It is in the moment that you move inward. If you had no past, you would be in the moment eternally. There would be no future. But you exist in spacetime and cannot know in body what comes to you in the moment. The mind does not know what the heart knows. The mind rationalizes past and future. The heart lives in the present. To live in the moment without thought is joy. Live from your heart. Enter the room within to know joy. In joy, you can love in the world without fear and let it be.
Attend to the moment. It is an experience in your existence. Moment by moment life unfolds. Let the past and the future attend to themselves. The help you need in the moment lies in you. Your true nature is the power within that knows the way. Seize the moment as the door opens to the room within. Herein lies that which I AM. You are that which I AM. There is no other. To enter the room within is to detach from the world. There is an ember within that glows in darkness. Each moment that you attend to its burning it grows brighter. No effort is required. Do nothing. The mind functions in the world. The heart feeds you from within. Curb your mind and its rationalizations. Open your heart to that which I AM. The darkness in you is consciousness, which is the emptiness that is nowhere. You cannot know in daylight. Only the burning ember of darkness can be your guide.
Remove yourself from the ways of the world. Forget the past. Pay it no heed. The past consumes you with judgment and hope. You lose the moment to desire and expectation. To enter the room within is to forget the past and remember the moment. Fix your gaze on the ember within. Do not remove yourself from the joy that is your true nature. Sit in the still silence without thought. It is best to have no words. This is the way of the path.
You do not know as the me of the body. The body is wrapped in ignorance. You cannot know in form what lies beyond. Your body’s senses are inadequate for the task. You cannot rationalize your non-existence. Release all attempts to know. Instead, enter the room within. Remember that which I AM. Sit in the still silence without words. Receive what is already yours. You are the way, the truth, and the light. Wisdom and joy prevail in the realm within you.
It is time to move on. Do not linger where you are tied down. To move on, do nothing. It is your own true nature that leads you to knowing. It is your own true nature that guides you on the path. You are that which I AM. Open to I AM. You are the way. Sit in the still silence of the room within. Clarity comes without effort in silence. When your attention waives, hold steady. Come back to the moment. Do not let your awareness of I AM be scattered to the four winds. Be witness to your thoughts and emotions without making them your own. They are not you. They are only passing through. Bring your attention to the silence. Enter naked into darkness without the coverings of judgment and desire. Hold to your true nature. You are that which I AM. There is no separation. There is no other.
Be the witness. Do not judge. Do not give power to thoughts and emotions. They are not you. They are only passing through like ponies in a field to be observed and not ridden. To ride is to be carried off to where you do not wish to go. Remain at the edge of the field watching as a humble witness.
To know, set aside your cleverness. It does not serve you well. To be clever is to control the river of existence on your own. The result is to drown in self-identity. You expect the world to conform to your desires and wishes. You will die trying. You do not know the way as the me of the body. Do nothing. Enter the room within. Herein you remember your true nature, which knows the way. You are the river’s flowing. Stop being so clever. Leave yourself free to follow your natural course to the sea. To flow naturally is to be your true self and to be at peace always.
Your life of self-action begins and ends in the world. To live from within is to touch the eternal. To touch the eternal is to sit in contemplation with the emptiness that is nowhere, which is consciousness. In contemplation you come to know your true nature. There is nothing profound, holy, or divine about this. There is no god separate from you in the reality that is consciousness. Do not let rites and rituals, prayers and worship interfere in your contemplative life. These are illusions within the illusion of existence. The transitory me of the body lives in illusion. You are eternal.
Enter the room within with an empty mind. Do not bring with you the ways of the world. They cannot pass over the threshold. To conceive on your own is fruitless. Do nothing. Your cleverness and imagery only provide a veil between you and your true nature. Remove the veil. Gain eyes that see. Peer into the darkness with vision and clarity. See the glowing ember that beckons your return. In the empty darkness you touch the eternal.
Pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow fall on the heels of the past. Turn your attention away. Bring your awareness into the moment. Do not linger with desire and expectation. Focus on now and the presence of I AM. Remember to be the witness to your thoughts and emotions. Do not act on them. They are ponies in the field to be observed not ridden. Watch the ponies wander out to pasture as you contemplate your presence in the moment.
Focus your heart on the joy within. Reside with your true nature. To live in joy is to remove yourself from the ways of the world. Bring joy to the world by doing nothing. Open your heart to its possibility. Exchange love with all without fear. This is joy. Love in the world is tainted by fear, but to see all clearly in unity and harmony is to know joy. Live in joy with simplicity and humility.
To live humbly, look within. Be at ease with yourself. To be humble is to acknowledge your worthiness without demeaning others. You cannot add to yourself by diminishing those around you. All of consciousness in existence is whole, complete, perfect. Be humble before the door of the room within. Put arrogance and judgment in the bucket to be hauled away. You do not know. Rise above your own pride to recognize unity and harmony in the whole of the all.
Denigrating yourself is not humility. It is self-destruction. You are imperfect only in your self-perceptions. To not see yourself as whole, complete, perfect is a false perception of yours as the me of the body. True knowledge of yourself is remembering that you are not your body or its personality. You are that which I AM. There is no separation in consciousness. You believe you are separate from others when you are not. Pride and arrogance form as you judge and compare you and me, us and them. You are putting boundaries around this and that to prove your perceptions of separation. Stop deceiving yourself. You do not know. Enter the room within. Sit silently and humbly. You will remember your true nature and know.
You are not your errors or mistakes, nor are you your good deeds or kindness. You are that which I AM. You are not the trappings of separation. Do not make the past real. Be its witness, not its victim. You are experiencing separation as the me of the body where there is no me or body. There is only thought of separation in consciousness where there can be none. You are consciousness—whole, complete, perfect. The me of the body does not know this and suffers in ignorance and fear. Seek solace in the moment. The moment holds the key to your knowing that you are that which I AM. There is no other.
To know your true nature is to know joy. You cannot wallow in joy like you can in your sorrows. Joy reaches out to all. It consumes all. Joy is the fruit of the vine. Joy has no desire or expectation. It does not suffer pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow. Joy has no opposite. Joy is the whole of the all. Joy is consciousness in existence. You are joy. There is no other. The me of the body cannot perceive joy through its ignorance and fear. To know joy, enter the room within. To know joy from within is to live with peace of heart always.
Sit in the still, dark silence of the room within. That knocking at the door is the world wanting to follow you in. Ignore the din. Focus inward. Do not wander about judging and hoping. Bring full awareness to the moment. In that moment is all. To stay in the moment is joy. Good works may bring pleasure and happiness, but these are transitory. They are linked by desire and expectation to pain and sorrow. Good works and evilness do not last. Joy is eternal.
The me of the body is ignorant of joy. It grumbles about those who turn inward and seem to be doing nothing to help. Jesus and some followers were visiting at the home of sisters Martha and Mary. Martha was busy providing for the guests and grumbled that Mary was idle at the feet of her Lord. Mary knew joy in the presence of her own true nature. Martha was consumed by good deeds and kindness. She struggled to provide without knowing I AM. Martha was a good person living kindly as the me of the body in ignorance of her own true nature. In ignorance she feared lack. She feared there would not be enough if she did not do her good works. She worked hard so that others had what they needed. Mary did nothing and found true joy.
Like Martha, you might think you are the me of the body. The me of the body is ignorant of your true nature. It is not aware. It does not know. Turn from the world. Enter the room within. Do not abandon the world but release it from your grip. Drop all attachments to this and that. The world is illusion. It has no meaning or purpose but what you give to it. Live in the world from within. Offer unity and harmony to all. Like Mary, sit in still silence at the feet of I AM. Follow your inner nature. Manage your worldly affairs from within. Maintain peace of heart always. Know from within your outward journey. This is the way of the path.
Speak up! Let your voice be known. Who are you to be hiding your true nature? You are not the me of the body. You are joy. Experience love in the world without fear. There is no loss in the eternal. There is no need for mercy. No one lacks who walks the way of the path. You who are whole, complete, perfect live in perfect abundance. The world of loving-kindness exists in separation. There is need for kindness when love is tainted by fear. You who walk in joy are without fear. Do not hide your love. Speak it! It is joy in the world. Turn within to know the way.
To love without fear is joy. Joy is found at home. Jesus was at home in Galilee, which was his place of awakening. Jesus had gone ahead in his awakening and asked for his disciples to follow him. But those who knew this told no one. Return to Galilee and there you will find the risen Lord. When you enter the room within you will encounter your true nature, which is joy. Joy is the pure love of the Christ. The Christ is one name for your true nature, as is Atman, the Buddha, the Tao, and all other answers to the quest to know that which I AM. There is no other than I AM, by any name.
Live simply. Do nothing. Do not cling to worldly ways. The ways of the world are built on desire and expectation. Live in the moment without thoughts of this and that. The past is gone. The future is yet to be. Let your true nature be your guide without attachment to outcomes. You do not know the way. I AM knows. With humility, listen in the moment with ears that hear. You will come to know the way of the path as humility breaks through the stubborn attachments of the world. With humility comes acceptance. Accept that you do not know. Accept the moment for what it is. From within the moment, you will know peace of heart always.
Give no special regard for this or that. There is I AM and no other. You are not here to pray for others. To whom would you beseech anyway? What is it to implore an emptiness that is nowhere? There is no vendor in the heavens to provide for your wishes. You do not know, so stop trying to shift the river’s course with your desires. Accept in the moment, with all humility, the way of the path. Live in the whole of the all with unity and harmony. There is no you and me, or them and us. There is consciousness, the emptiness that is nowhere, which is whole, complete, perfect, eternal, though it cannot be described. You are this consciousness. You are that which I AM. You are love without fear. Live as the joy that you are with peace of heart in all situations.
The moment is the door to the way inward. It is through the moment that you enter the room within. It is in the moment that you sit in still silence. It is in the moment that your true nature arises to welcome you home. The moment is without past or future. It holds no judgment or hope. It is without desire and expectation. The moment connects you to the eternal. To live in the moment, do nothing. All will be revealed. You will know the way. You are the light on the path. Choose to follow your true nature when you are ready. The moment awaits.
Part II
Begin by letting go of the past. Bring your awareness into the moment. Live from within. The me of the body does not know. It clings to the past hoping for a better future. To enter the room within is not difficult. First, do nothing. Entering is not for you to do. Your true nature knows the way. The body cannot know. It is but a vehicle of existence. You may understand the ways of the world, but the inward journey is unknown and eternal. You have separated the eternal into past and future. You have placed yourself as an object in spacetime with a soul. This is the way of the world. Let it go. Live in the moment. Touch the eternal.
To change your life, enter the room within. From within you begin anew. The room within has no past or future. Cleanse yourself of judgment and hope by witnessing your thoughts and emotions. Receive clear vision from your true nature to see the whole of the all. Let its river of unity and harmony flow freely. Give up all control by the me of the body. It does not know. You have a choice to either move forward in the world as the me of the body or to enter the room within to follow the river to the sea. One leads to death, the other to eternal joy. It is your choice.
Be the witness. Be resolute in observing thoughts and emotions rather than owning them. They are not you. They are the me of the body with its struggle to survive. You are that which I AM. Enter the room within and know your true nature. From the room within hold to the moment with an empty mind. Relax into the embrace of I AM. To accept the embrace, do nothing. It is by the grace of your own true nature that you receive. You cannot earn the presence of your true nature. It is always present. Pull away the veil. Enter the room within. Sit in the still, dark silence and know that you are that which I AM.
Be humble. Accept without pride and arrogance that you are the one. Bring your awareness into the moment. Be fully engaged with nothing. Just be! Let your true nature work in you without interference. Do not hinder or divert the flow of the river. You do not know. Let it be. You are the flowing. Follow your own true nature to the sea. It knows the way.
One word, one syllable, is all that it takes to bring awareness into focus. Focus your attention on a single sound. Even one note from a symphony brings the moment into clarity. You find yourself slipping inward. Your heart is activated. Your mind empties. You are open to receiving. The way of the path is revealed. Follow your true nature. Find the sound, syllable, or word that brings you back to peace of heart in all situations. Use it to keep your awareness focused on I AM. You are that which I AM. There is no other.
Do not consider your abundance to be found in this or that. Find fulfillment within. The world is full of spun sugar that is sweet and unnourishing. Satisfaction fades quickly. The room within nourishes with joy. Joy is your abundance. Joy provides all everlasting. Do not desire this and that. Turn inward to joy. Do not seek. Joy is revealed in the still silence. It is the ember that glows in darkness. Attend to the fire within and you will light up the world.
Be kind to yourself. Be gentle in your ways. Find solace in small things. Joy comes quietly. Be mindful of your actions. Do not harm. Live simply. Keep close to the ground of your being. You are limited in form only. Do not judge. Do not hope. Accept all things in the moment with peace of heart. Peace of heart is key to living in the world without suffering. From within you know how to begin and end. To live from within is to give less meaning and attachment to the world.
You are joy. To know joy is to hold peace of heart always. Give less emphasis to the me of the body. It does not know. It lives in ignorance and fear. It is limited by its nature in spacetime. You are not your body, its personality, or its thoughts and emotions. They are transitory. You are eternal. Remove the past. Attend to the moment. In the moment all is accomplished. Do not let your personality drive your existence. The me of the body is a hinderance to the way within. It fights the abandonment of desire, judgment, and hope. Be aware of the me of the body but do not accept it as your true nature. It is your transitory identity in the world of existence. It is not real.
Remove yourself from the world. It does not serve your spiritual needs. The world is concerned with survival and its attachments. Release all attachments. Prepare yourself for the room within. To enter the room within is to be aware of your true nature. Sorrow and suffering prepare you. Fall into the depths of darkness. At the bottom of the pit lies your true nature, which is joy. It is in joy that you shall awaken to the eternal. This is the symbolism of Jesus dying in agony on the cross, descending into hell, and rising on the third day. Sorrow clears the brambles from the doorway that you might see your way in. When you come to know your own existence as illusion you will have eyes that see the whole of the all. Awareness will overcome you. You witness life instead of owning it as real. You awaken to joy as your true nature. The joy you are is the joy of all.
Do nothing. Sit in still silence. Receive the grace of your true nature as the joy that it is. Joy is your abundance. Let all things come to you in joy. Embrace joy without religious fervor. Live simply, close to the ground. Find unity and harmony in all things. You cannot run headlong into joy. Your inner nature does not respond to brute force. It cannot be bullied. Approach the door with humility. Empty all thought. The ways of the world are not meant for your inward journey. Remove all desire and attachment. You cannot drag them across the threshold like Marley’s chains. Approach as an empty vessel. Open yourself to receiving.
There is unity and harmony in the whole of the all. The whole of the all is consciousness in existence. There is no separation in consciousness. You perceive separation in the world where there is none. Separation is illusion. Consciousness is reality. Bring your attention away from the world toward the room within. Move from perceiving illusion to witnessing reality. See the world with the vision of your true nature. Consign desire and attachment to the dustbin. The more you expose judgment and hope to the light the less you struggle. Your struggle in the world is lessened by the vision of your true nature. From within you see the whole of the all and accept joy as your guide. Struggle subsides when you hold peace of heart always.
Keep focused on what others say, want, and do. Their desires are gifts to you. From others you learn the way. The way home is through the whole of the all. In truth there is no other. There is I AM. I AM lights the way. Words and actions serve a purpose in the world. Expression is a guide to understanding. Serve others by understanding their expressions so that you meet them in their moment. There is natural good in all. Do not be suspicious of intents. Accept all situations with peace of heart. Love your neighbor without fear. Bring joy into the world. You are the way. You are I AM. There is no other.
Life flows in a natural order, if you allow it. Too often you take charge of your life without knowing the way. The true course of life lies within. The me of the body is shaped by the world. If you live as the me of the body you suffer through pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow which are fed by desire and expectation. You form attachments and cling to them for fulfillment. This is the way of the world. The way of the path is to allow the river of life to flow freely from within. You are the flowing. You are the energy of existence. To live from within is to have vision to see the way. Follow your natural course like a free-flowing river as it journeys to the sea.
Love stirs within you. It seeks full awareness. Release all other pleasures. Undo attachments. Love is not for gain; comfort is not its aim. Leave behind your treasures. They will fail you. They have no permanence. Follow the stirrings of your heart. The heart within does not pump blood. It is your true nature. It has no form, nor do eyes that see and ears that hear have form. Your true nature is not of the body. The love that stirs within is joy. Love in form is tainted by fear. Love without fear is joy. This is the love that stirs you and awakens you to the eternal.
The whole of the all is nothingness. It is not a thing to be described. It cannot be measured or located. The whole of the all is consciousness in existence. You are the whole of the all. The eyes of the world are blind to its reality, but you have the vision to see. To see, do nothing. Vision will come to you in darkness. You cannot know in the light of day. The light of separation gives off false images of this and that. Knowing comes when you cannot see. You are blind but wise beyond belief. You do not lack. You are the joy within. You may labor. You may search. Your efforts are for naught. Do nothing. In the end it is revealed. Stay out of your own way. Turn your awareness inward. Look behind the veil. Out of darkness comes knowledge.
Yours is a humble journey. A stirring of the heart. Joy becomes your guide. You live a simple life of love without fear. Simplicity comes from lack of worldly desires and attachments. You listen to the voice from within. Your actions benefit the whole of the all. Pleasure and pain, happiness and sorrow come and go without your owning them. They are not you. You are their witness. You observe and do nothing. Wisdom and joy become your companions. You have renounced the ways of the world and follow the way of the path. You are that which I AM. There is no other.