CONTEMPLATION is a knowing without mode,
For ever abiding above the reason.
Never can it descend therein,
And above it can the reason never ascend.
The shining forth of That which has no Mode is as a fair Mirror,
Wherein there shines the Everlasting
Light of God. It is without attributes,
And therein all the workings of the reason fail.
It is not God;
But it is that Light,
Whereby we see Him.
They, who walk in the Divine Light
Thereof, Discover in themselves the Unconfined.
That which has no Mode is above reason, not without it;
And it perceives all things without wonder.
Wonder is far beneath it,
And the Life of Contemplation is without wonder.
That which has no Mode sees, but knows not what is seen,
Since it is above all, and is neither This, nor That.
Jan Van Ruysbroeck
