Meditation Class: A Mystic’s Journal, January 12, 2005

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Meditation Class: The Mind’s Journey to God, end of Chapter V. : A Mystic’s Journal, January 12, 2005

Thursday, January 12

Last night in class, we finished reading Chapter V of St. Bonaventure’s thin volume A Mind’s Journey to God. As usual, I will put Bonaventure’s words in quotation marks.

We began with the beautiful sentence: "Thus, because being is simple, it is also primary; because it is primary it cannot be made by another or even produce itself, and thus it is eternal." Bonaventure then shows how the previous sentence leads us to being as also actual and perfect - and therefore also one. Bonaventure says: "Therefore, if God is understood as primary, eternal, simple actual perfect being it cannot be made by another or even produce itself, and thus it is eternal." Bonaventure then ends this section with the very poetic and important sentence: "If you grasp these things in the pure simplicity of your mind you will bathe in the radiance of eternal light."

"in the pure simplicity of your mind" we took to mean within deep contemplation. For we might be able to grasp these ideas through the use of our intellect, and even achieve a sort of genius - but while standing in the intellect, our minds will not be bathed in the radiance of eternal light; this can only be achieved in the level of deep contemplation as described in Chapter V.

Bonaventure continues: "There is more here that should cause great wonder. That being which is first is also last ... By grasping this with a pure mind you will penetrate with yet greater clarity to see that it is final because it is first." Bonaventure here shows how the Eternal is both the Alpha and the Omega. The eternal does not arise from another, has no lack within it, nor does it change; therefore, it has no past or future - it is always present as being. So this first being does not arise from something other than itself, it is not dependent on any other thing for its existence. Whereas, within manifestation, every form and every creature is dependent on other factors for its very being. For instance, a lamp is dependent on its parts: the pieces of metal and glass, the people who put it together in the workshop or factory. If we take the lamp apart - it no longer is a lamp, it is but various smaller pieces of metal and glass. The lamp itself does not possess inherent being. On the other hand, pure being is not dependent on others factors for its existence, nor does it have parts: therefore, it does not change.

And that in our deepest contemplations, on this fifth level: "By grasping this with a pure mind you will penetrate with yet greater clarity to see that it is final because it is first." Within the mystical experience of this fifth level, we will be shown this to be true.

Saint Bonaventure goes on to rationally show that which is perfect, pure being also encompasses all, and is "all inclusive because it is one. For what is one is the general source of all multiplicity." From this One will manifest all things, i.e. all multiplicity, all forms. Therefore, this being which is first is also all encompassing. All that exists and has existed and will exist within manifestation flows from this pure being - therefore It is both the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.

"Pure being is all inclusive" and therefore "is the essence of everything" and also "the universal cause of all essences." Bonaventure then says: "The power of this is infinite, multiple in its effects, and totally one in its essence." We decided that these poetic sentences describe the outpouring of the Divine or Pure Being into manifestation, both as the source and substratum of the material world, and as the essence of all material forms. And that because this Pure Being is the cause of all essences, and the essence of all things - pure being remains always One. Pure Being cannot be divided up within Itself, cannot Itself be divided into parts.

Bonaventure then goes on to say: "Because it is eternal and ever present (and, thus, surrounding and penetrating all duration) it is the center and the boundary of everything." And in this sense, there is no true multiplicity: that perfect Being is always One, whether in Itself or within the multiplicity of manifested or pre-manifested forms. We also discussed that the human mind cannot truly comprehend the concept of eternity, for the human mind experiences the material world within a time/space framework. It is only in deep mystical experience that the human mind can understand this "eternal and ever present" and "surrounding and penetrating all duration" that Bonaventure speaks of.

"Because it is most perfect and immense it is within everything but not bound, outside but not excluded, above everything but not remote, beneath everything but not oppressed." This began a discussion on the Omniscience of God, and we said that God alone could be omniscient because nothing was outside of God. All is already and eternally within Him, and therefore God does not need to look outside of Himself in order to know or to see or to comprehend. i.e. for Pure Being, Omniscience is a mere knowing of Itself - for there is nothing outside of It. And that this is why no created being could be omniscient, whether angelic or human, or of any other species.

Bonaventure ends this chapter with a quote from Romans,11,36 : "from him, in him and through him are all things." And finally: "Beatitude consists in seeing this as God promised Moses: "I will show you every good" (Exodus, 33, 19).