Libro Primero — Capítulo 10
The Distress of Transition
The soul suffers in the dark night because it mistakes the shift from discursive meditation to passive contemplation for a loss of God's presence.
How these souls should conduct themselves in this dark night 1. So then, in the time of the dry spells of this night of the senses (in which God makes the exchange we spoke of above, drawing the soul out of the life of the senses into the life of the spirit—that is, from meditation into contemplation—where the soul can no longer work or reason about the things of God with its faculties, as has already been said), spiritual people suffer great distress, not so much from the dryness they undergo as from the fear that they are lost on the way, thinking that their spiritual good has come to an end and that God has left them, since they find no support or pleasure in anything good.1 Then they wear themselves out and try, as they have been used to doing, to fix the faculties with some pleasure on some object for discursive thought, thinking that when they don't do this and don't feel themselves at work, nothing is happening—which they do not without a great deal of reluctance and interior resistance in the soul, which would rather remain in that quiet and rest without working with the faculties.23 In this they spoil the one and make no progress in the other; because by seeking spirit they lose the spirit of quiet and peace they already had. They are like someone who abandons a finished task to start it over, or someone who leaves the city only to turn back, or a hunter who lets go of the game they’ve already caught to go chasing after it again. And this, in this respect, is unnecessary, because nothing will be found anymore by that first way of proceeding, as has already been said.4 2. If there's no one to understand them at this stage, these people turn back, leave the path, grow slack, or at least hinder their own progress. This happens because they try so hard to stick to the path of meditation and discursive reasoning, overworking and exhausting their natural powers, all while imagining that their struggle is due to their own negligence or sins. All of that is unnecessary, because God is already leading them by a different path—that of contemplation—which is completely unlike the first. The one is a path of meditation and discursive reasoning, while the other doesn't involve imagination or discursive reasoning at all.5
Trusting the Path of Quiet
The soul is encouraged to abandon active striving and rest in a loving, passive attention to God, allowing infused contemplation to take root.
3. Those in this condition should take comfort by persevering in patience, without fretting. Let them trust in God, who doesn't abandon those who seek him with a simple and upright heart, and who won't fail to provide what they need for the journey until he leads them into the clear and pure light of love—a light he will give them through the dark night of the spirit, if they merit God placing them in it.✦ 4. The way they should conduct themselves in this night of the senses is not to care at all about discursive reasoning and meditation, for that time is already past. Instead, they should let the soul rest in stillness and quiet—even if it seems clear to them that they're doing nothing and wasting time, and even if it seems that out of their own laziness they have no desire to think about anything there. They will be doing quite enough if they keep patience and persevere in prayer without doing anything themselves. All they need to do is leave the soul free, unencumbered, and at rest from every idea and thought, without fretting over what they should think or meditate on. They should simply content themselves with a loving, quiet attention to God, remaining free of care, free of striving, and free of any hunger to taste or feel Him. Any such pretensions only disturb the soul and pull it away from the calm quiet and gentle repose of contemplation that is being offered here.67 5. And no matter how many more scruples come—that you're wasting time, and that it would be better to do something else, since in prayer you can't do or think anything—bear with them and stay at peace, as if you were going there for nothing more than to rest at your ease and in freedom of spirit; because if, on your own, you try to work with the interior faculties, you will only hinder and lose the goods that God, through that peace and rest of the soul, is settling and impressing upon it—just as if a painter were painting or varnishing a face: if the face moved, wanting to do something, it would keep the painter from doing anything, and would disturb what he was doing.8 Therefore, when the soul wants to remain in peace and interior rest, any operation, affection, or attention it tries to exercise will only distract and unsettle it, making it feel the dryness and emptiness of the senses. The more it tries to hold onto some support of feeling or knowledge, the more it will feel the lack—a lack that can no longer be filled by that path.9 6. So for a soul like this, it is best not to mind that the operations of the faculties are lost to her here; rather, she should be glad they are lost quickly, because—by not obstructing the working of the infused contemplation God is giving—she can receive it in fuller, more peaceful abundance, and leave room for the love this dark and secret contemplation brings with it and fixes in the soul to burn and catch fire in the spirit. For contemplation is nothing other than a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion of God which, if they give it room, inflames the soul in a spirit of love, as she makes known in the following verse, namely:10 Inflamed with longings of love.
Read the original Latin
Del modo que se han de haber éstos en esta noche oscura
1. En el tiempo, pues, de las sequedades de esta noche sensitiva (en la cual hace Dios el trueque que habemos dicho arriba sacando el alma de la vida del sentido a la del espíritu que es de la meditación a contemplación, donde ya no hay poder obrar ni discurrir en las cosas de Dios el alma con sus potencias, como queda dicho) padecen los espirituales grandes penas, no tanto por las sequedades que padecen, como por el recelo que tienen de que van perdidos en el camino, pensando que se les ha acabo el bien espiritual y que los ha dejado Dios, pues no hallan arrimo ni gusto en cosa buena. Entonces se fatigan y procuran, como lo han habido de costumbre, arrimar con algún gusto las potencias a algún objeto de discurso, pensando ellos que, cuando no hacen esto y se sienten obrar, no se hace nada; lo cual hacen no sin harta desgana y repugnancia interior del alma, que gustaba de estarse en aquella quietud y ocio, sin obrar con las potencias. En lo cual, estragándose en lo uno, no aprovechan en lo otro; porque, por buscar espíritu, pierden el espíritu que tenían de tranquilidad y paz. Y así son semejantes al que deja lo hecho para volverlo a hacer, o al que se sale de la ciudad para volver a entrar en ella, o al que deja la caza que tiene para volver a andar a caza. Y esto en esta parte es excusado, porque no hallará nada ya por aquel primer estilo de proceder, como queda dicho.
2. Estos, en este tiempo, si no hay quien los entienda, vuelven atrás, dejando el camino, aflojando, o, a lo menos, se estorban de ir adelante, por las muchas diligencias que ponen de ir por el camino de meditación y discurso, fatigando y trabajando demasiadamente el natural, imaginando que queda por su negligencia o pecados. Lo cual les es escusado, porque los lleva ya Dios por otro camino, que es de contemplación, diferentísimo del primero; porque el uno es de meditación y discurso, y el otro no cae en imaginación ni discurso.
3. Los que de esta manera se vieren, conviéneles que se consuelen perseverando en paciencia, no teniendo pena; confíen en Dios, que no deja a los que con sencillo y recto corazón le buscan, ni los dejará de dar lo necesario para el camino, hasta llevarlos a la clara y pura luz de amor, que les dará por medio de la noche oscura del espíritu, si merecieren que Dios los ponga en ella.
4. El estilo que han de tener en ésta del sentido es que no se den nada por el discurso y meditación, pues ya no es tiempo de eso, sino que dejen estar el alma en sosiego y quietud, aunque les parezca claro que no hacen nada y que pierden tiempo, y aunque les parezca que por su flojedad no tienen gana de pensar allí nada; que harto harán en tener paciencia en perseverar en la oración sin hacer ellos nada. Sólo lo que aquí han de hacer es dejar el alma libre y desembarazada y descansada de todas las noticias y pensamientos, no teniendo cuidado allí de qué pensarán y meditarán, contentándose sólo con una advertencia amorosa y sosegada en Dios, y estar sin cuidado y sin eficacia y sin gana de gustarle o de sentirle; porque todas estas pretensiones desquietan y distraen el alma de la sosegada quietud y ocio suave de contemplación que aquí se da.
5. Y aunque más escrúpulos se vengan de que pierde tiempo y que sería bueno hacer otra cosa, pues en la oración no puede hacer ni pensar nada, súfrase y estése sosegado, como que no va allí más que a estarse a su placer y anchura de espíritu; porque, si de suyo quiere algo obrar con las potencias interiores, será estorbar y perder los bienes que Dios por medio de aquella paz y ocio del alma está asentando e imprimiendo en ella; bien así como si algún pintor estuviera pintando o alcoholando un rostro, que si el rostro se menease en querer hacer algo, no dejaría hacer nada al pintor, y deturbaría lo que estaba haciendo. Y así, cuando el alma se quiere estar en paz y ocio interior, cualquiera operación o afición o advertencia que ella quiera entonces tener, la distraerá y desquietará y hará sentir la sequedad y vacío del sentido, porque, cuanto más pretendiere tener algún arrimo de afecto y noticia, tanto más sentirá la falta, de la cual no puede ya ser suplida por aquella vía.
6. De donde a esta tal alma le conviene no hacer aquí caso que se le pierdan las operaciones de las potencias, antes ha de gustar que se le pierdan presto, porque, no estorbando la operación de la contemplación infusa que va Dios dando, con más abundancia pacífica la reciba, y dé lugar a que arda y se encienda en el espíritu el amor que esta oscura y secreta contemplación trae consigo y pega al alma. Porque contemplación no es otra cosa que infusión secreta, pacífica y amorosa de Dios, que, si la dan lugar, inflama al alma en espíritu de amor, según ella da a entender en el verso siguiente, es a saber.
Con ansias en amores inflamada.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.9.10 — And may the LORD be a refuge for the crushed, a refuge in times of trouble.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source has 'se les ha acabo'; read as 'se les ha acabado' ('has come to an end for them').
- 2 ↩'ocio' rendered as contemplative rest/repose, not lazy idleness; parallel to 'quietud'.
- 3 ↩'cuando no hacen esto y se sienten obrar' is awkward; sense taken as when they neither force discursive work nor feel the faculties operating, they think nothing is being done (probable missing negation before 'se sienten obrar').
- 4 ↩'excusado' rendered as needless/superfluous (not 'excused' as forgiven), matching the following section's 'escusado'.
- 5 ↩Older Spanish escusado/excusado here means unnecessary or useless to attempt, not morally excused; rendered as 'unnecessary' to match the prior section's use of the same term.
- 6 ↩Spanish *eficacia* here means active interior striving or effort to produce an effect, not 'effectiveness' in the ordinary modern sense.
- 7 ↩Spanish *noticias* in San Juan denotes conceptual contents or acts of knowing; rendered as 'ideas' rather than 'news' or 'notices.'
- 8 ↩Golden Age painting term: applying alcohol/varnish or finishing polish to a portrait face; rendered as 'varnishing' rather than modern 'alcohol'.
- 9 ↩Sanjuanine 'noticia' is not mere information but cognitive apprehension/knowledge of God by the discursive faculties; rendered as 'knowledge'.
- 10 ↩Spanish «si la dan lugar» is impersonal/plural (‘if they give it room’); rendered generally rather than forcing a singular subject. «ella» most naturally refers to the soul speaking in the next verse.
Dark Night of the Soul companion
A daily portion of stillness
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