One has to follow this method…
this method of emptying
the faculties of their natural occupations
to make room for illumination.
Remain alone in a loving awareness,
without particular considerations,
in interior quiet,
without the acts and exercises of the faculties.
Remain only in general loving awareness,
without any particular knowledge or understanding.
The more habituated persons become to this calm,
the more their experience
of this general loving knowledge of God will increase.
The preparation for this union
is not an understanding,
nor the taste, feeling, or imagining of God or any other object,
but the stripping off
of all experiences
for God alone.
If individuals would eliminate these impediments
and live in pure nakedness,
their soul in its simplicity and purity
would then be immediately transformed
into simple and pure Wisdom.
- St John of the Cross. Ascent of Mount Carmel
