Knowing More Reliably
The knowing that is unknowing is arguably the highest knowing of all
Mystical knowing, which we are used to seeing as unclear and uncertain, is actually more reliable than deductive knowing. —Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle, SJ1
The Jesuit father Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle (1898-1990) traveled from his native Germany to Japan to bring Christianity to the Japanese. But instead of just being a missionary, he found Zen there, and discerning that it was compatible with the Christian faith, devoted his life to exploring the rich places of connection between the path of Jesus and the path of the Buddha.
In his book Living in the New Consciousness (1988), he makes a fascinating observation while commenting on the thought of the great German mystic Meister Eckhart: “Mystical knowing, which we are used to seeing as unclear and uncertain, is actually more reliable than deductive knowing.” This provocative statement clearly echoes the wisdom of earlier mystics, like John of the Cross, Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, and the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing. The “deductive knowing” of our rational mind and our cognitive capacity for reason is never the most direct or most efficient route toward divine intimacy.
This is not to suggest that rational knowing has no place in the spiritual life — of course it does. But the mystics want us to be clear in our understanding of the relationship between mystical knowing and analytical thinking. We cannot think our way to God, even though it may be spiritually nourishing for us to apply our intellectual skills toward understanding our experience of the divine. But it is always the experience that must come first. Perhaps we will never think our way to God, but we can most certainly love God fully and completely — and that love is simultaneously the means by which God cares for us and draws us into the intimacy of the mystical life.
Like all Zen practitioners, Enomiya-Lassalle commends the practice of meditation to us as a way to dive into that direct, mystical encounter with the divine. Whether your “style” of meditation is closer to Zen, or the Prayer of the Heart, or Centering Prayer, is ultimately less important than simply the fact that you are meditating. A desert elder once wisely commented to a young disciple, “Go and sit in your cell and the cell will teach you everything.” Meditation works the same way. Go and meditate on the loving presence of God, and this practice of meditation will teach you about all things.
Enomiya-Lassalle, Hugo. Living in the New Consciousness (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1988), p. 20.