The two and seventy chapitre. That a worcher in this werk schuld not deme ne think of another worcher as he feleth in himself.
The Danger of Judging Others by One's Own Experience
A warning that those who find the work difficult—or easy—must not presume that others share the same experience.
Look! By this you can see that anyone who can come to see and feel the perfection of this work only with great labor—and even then only seldom—can easily be deceived if he speaks of, thinks about, and judges other people by what he feels in himself, concluding that they too can come to it only seldom, and that not without great labor. And in the same way, someone who can have it whenever he wants may be deceived if he judges everyone else by that standard, saying that they can have it whenever they want.
Leave Judgment to God's Grace
The reader is told not to judge others, because God can transform a struggling soul into one who contemplates freely, just as Moses saw the ark pattern only rarely on the mountain but later whenever he wished in the valley.
Leave that alone. No—he certainly must not think that way.1 For perhaps, when it pleases God, those who at first can have it only seldom—and that not without great labor—will afterward have it whenever they want, as often as they like. We have an example of this in Moses, who at first could see the pattern of the ark only seldom, and not without great labor on the mountain; and afterward, as often as he liked, he saw it in the valley.
Read the original Middle English
Lo! herby maist thou see that he that may not com to for to see and fele the perfeccion of this werk, bot with grete travayle, and yit is it bot seeldom, and may lightly be disceyvid yif he speke, think and deme other men as he felith in himself, that thei mowe not com to it bot seeldom, and that not withouten greet travaile. And on the same maner may he be deceyvid that may have it whan he wil, yif he deme alle other therafter, seiing that thei mowe have it when thei wile. Lat be this: nay, sekirly he may not think thus. For paraventure, whan it likith unto God, thoo that mowe not at the first tyme have it bot seeldom and that not withouten grete travayle, sithen after thei schulen have it whan thei wile, as ofte as hem likith. Ensaumple of this we have of Moyses, that first bot seeldome, and nought withouten grete travayle in the mounte, might not see the maner of the arke; and sithen after, as ofte as hym likid, sawe it in the vaale.
Notes
- 1 ↩ME 'may not' here carries prohibitive force ('must not / ought not'), not mere inability.
The Cloud of Unknowing companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent