Tweede deel — V. Zes trappen ter godsgenieting
The Three Foundations of Enjoyment
The soul must establish true peace, inward silence, and loving adherence to God to begin the journey of enjoyment.
If a person is to enjoy God, three things are required for that: true peace, inward silence, and loving adherence. Whoever is to find true peace between himself and God must love God so much that, with a free will and for God's honor, he can renounce everything he practices or loves in a disordered way, and everything he possesses or might possess against God's honor. This is the first point, and it's necessary for everyone. The second point is an inward silence: that he be empty and free of images of everything he has ever seen or heard.1 The third point is a loving attachment to God; and that attachment itself is enjoyment.✦2 For anyone who clings to God out of pure love, rather than for their own benefit, truly enjoys God, and feels that they love and are loved by Him.✦✦3
The Three Higher Steps of Union
Beyond the initial steps, the soul ascends into resting in God, falling asleep in Him, and entering the darkness of divine union.
There are three other higher points that steady a person, enabling them to always enjoy and feel God whenever they want to focus on Him.4 The first of these points is resting in the One you enjoy: that is where the beloved is overcome by the beloved, and the beloved is possessed by the beloved, in bare essential love.5 There, the beloved has fallen into the beloved through love, and each is wholly and entirely the other's, in possessing and in resting. Next comes the second point, and it is called falling asleep in God: that is where the spirit sinks away from itself and does not know who, or where, or how.6 And after this follows the third point, and the last one can reach: that is where the spirit contemplates a darkness into which it cannot enter by reason. And therein he feels himself dead and lost and one with God without distinction.7 And where it feels itself one with God, there God himself is its peace, its enjoyment, and its rest.8
The Fruit of the Interior Life
Dying to self in the depths of God leads to a life of virtue and the realization of the common life of love.
And for this reason it is all bottomless where he must die to himself in blessedness, and come alive again in the virtues as love commands and her stirring.910 See, if you felt these six11 points in yourself, then you would feel everything I've already said to you, or could say. And in your inward turning, contemplating and enjoying are as easy and as ready for you as living by nature.12 This richness leads to a common life, which I promised to tell you about at the beginning.13
Read the original Latin
Sal de mensce gods ghebruken, daer-toe behoren drie poente, dat es: ghewarich vrede, inwindich swighen, minlijc aencleven.
Die tuschen hem ende gode gewarighen vrede vinden sal, hy moet gode alsoe liefhebben, dat hy met vryen moede ende omme die eere gods alles vertyen mach dat hi onordelijc oefent ochte mint, ende jeghen die eere gods besit ochte besitten mochte. Dit es dat eerste poent, dat noot es allen menschen.
Dat ander poent, dat es een inwindich swighen; dat es dat hi ledich sy ende onghebeelt van allen dien dinghen die hi je ghesach ochte ghehoorde.
Dat derde poent es een minlijc aencleven ane gode; ende dat selve aencleven es ghebruken. Want die ane gode cleeft van puerer minnen, ende niet om sinen eyghenen orbore, hi ghebruyct gode inder waerheit, ende hi ghevoelt dat hy mint ende ghemint wert van gode. Noch zijn drie ander poente, die hoghere zijn, die den mensce stadighen ende hebbelijc maken altoes te ghebrukene ende gods te ghevoelne als hi hem daer-toe voeghen wilt.
Dat eerste poent van desen, dat es rasten inden gheenen dies men ghebruyct; dat es daer lief van lieve verwonnen wert, ende lief van lieve beseten wert in bloeter weselijcker minnen. Daer es lief in lief met liefden ghevallen, ende yeghewelc es des anders al-gheheel, in besittene ende in rasten.
Hier-na volcht dat ander poent, ende dat heedt een ontslapen in gode; dat es daer die gheest hem-selven ontsinct, hi en weet wie noch waer noch hoe.
Ende hier-na volcht dat derde poent ende dat leste datmen ghewaerden can, dat es daer de gheest scouwet eene duysternisse daer hi met redenen niet inne en mach. Ende daer-inne ghevoelt hi hem ghestorven ende verloren ende één met gode sonder differencie. Ende daer hi hem één met gode ghevoelt, daer es god selve zijn vrede, zijn ghebruken ende zijn rasten.
Ende hieromme eest al grondeloes daer hi sijns selfs in sterven moet in zalicheiden, ende weder levende werden in doechden alst minne ghebiedt ende haer berueren.
Siet, ghevoeldi dese . vj. poente in u, soe ghevoeldi al dat ic u vore gheseghet hebbe ochte seggen mochte. Ende in uwen inkeere, so es u alsoe licht ende alsoe ghereet scouwen ende ghebruken, als dat ghi leeft inder natueren.
Ende ute deser rijcheit comt een ghemein leven daer ic u ave gheloefde te segghen inden beghinne.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.73.28;1Cor.6.17 — But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may proclaim all your works. 1Cor.6.17 — But the one who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
- ↩1Cor.6.17;Ps.73.28 — But the one who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Ps.73.28 — But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may proclaim all your works.
- ↩1John.4.16 — And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Notes
- 1 ↩Middle Dutch onghebeelt is a technical Ruusbroec term: free of formed mental images of creatures and experiences, not mere absence of pictures.
- 2 ↩ghebruken is Ruusbroec's technical term for mystical fruition/enjoyment of God; rendered here as 'enjoyment' to keep the modern register while preserving the contemplative sense.
- 3 ↩orbore = benefit/advantage/utility; rendered 'benefit' rather than 'profit' to avoid commercial overtones while keeping the contrast with pure love.
- 4 ↩hebbelijc maken = make capable/fit, with a habitus sense (able by disposition, not merely momentarily); rendered 'make him able' for plain modern English. stadighen = make steady/constant.
- 5 ↩Middle Dutch bloeter weselijcker minnen: Ruusbroec's technical phrase for imageless, formless love at the level of being (wesen), not mere affection or feeling.
- 6 ↩Middle Dutch ontslapen (falling asleep / passing away) and ontsinct (sinks away) are technical mystical terms here: the spirit’s loss of self-hold in God, not ordinary sleep.
- 7 ↩sonder differencie: Ruusbroec's formula for unitive experience without division between self and God; rendered 'without distinction' rather than a looser paraphrase.
- 8 ↩ghebruken: Middle Dutch technical term for the soul's blissful fruition/enjoyment of God (cf. chapter's godsgenieting); rendered 'enjoyment' for modern readability.
- 9 ↩Middle Dutch 'grondeloes' is Ruusbroec’s term for abyssal groundlessness (without creaturely ground), not mere emptiness or futility.
- 10 ↩'haer berueren' is love’s touch/stirring (minne as feminine); rendered as 'her stirring' to keep that agency without over-paraphrasing.
- 11 ↩vj. is the Roman numeral six, labeling the six points/steps (cf. chapter title: zes trappen ter godsgenieting).
- 12 ↩inkeere = turning inward / introversion of the soul; scouwen = contemplative beholding; ghebruken = mystical enjoyment/fruition of God (not mere use). inder natueren = by/in nature: as natural as ordinary natural life.
- 13 ↩Ruusbroec’s technical term ghemein/ghemeyn leven (the ‘common life’): the integrated life in which contemplation and action are equally ready, as the next chapter develops.
The Sparkling Stone (Vanden blinkenden steen) 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