“God’s light an ocean is.”

Last updated on: July 20, 2015 at 9:57 am by Annie Mueller

“God’s light an ocean is.” 2015-07-20T09:57:21-05:00 Annie Mueller

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Bible: Genesis 1:1-5

King James Version (KJV)

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

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The Divine and the Physical Light

Selections from Rumi

The light of God illumes the light of sense,
And then the soul aspires to meet its God;
A steed without a rider knows no way,
It wants a king to know the royal road.
Behold the sense which governed is by light,
A fine companion is this light to sense.
God’s light adorns the sensual light,
This is the meaning of Light on light.*
Light physical drags down to earth beneath,
But light divine exalts to heavenly bliss.
All things of senses in a base world are,
God’s light an ocean is, but sense a drop of dew.
Although this motor cannot be perceived,
Unless in virtuous effects and in speech.
The sensual light is ponderous, inert,
Concealed within the eye’s recess.
As you the sensual eye-light cannot see,
How find you light which is not of the eye?

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The Cloud of Unknowing

Evelyn Underhill

BUT now thou askest me and sayest, “How shall I think on Himself, and what is He?” and to this I cannot answer thee but thus: “I wot not.”

For thou hast brought me with thy question into that same darkness, and into that same cloud of unknowing, that I would thou wert in thyself. For of all other creatures and their works, yea, and of the works of God’s self, may a man through grace have fullhead of knowing, and well he can think of them: but of God Himself can no man think.

And therefore I would leave all that thing that I can think, and choose to my love that thing that I cannot think. For why; He may well be loved, but not thought. By love may He be gotten and holden; but by thought never. And therefore, although it be good sometime to think of the kindness and the worthiness of God in special, and although it be a light and a part of contemplation: nevertheless yet in this work it shall be cast down and covered with a cloud of forgetting. And thou shalt step above it stalwartly, but Mistily, with a devout and a pleasing stirring of love, and try for to pierce that darkness above thee. And smite upon that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing love; and go not thence for thing that befalleth.

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