German Theology

inner man, and neither of them depends on the other. ☛ Now the created soul of man also has two eyes. One is the power to look into eternity. The other is to look into time and into the creatures original: creaturn — all created things, including people, nature, and the material world., to recognize the distinction therein as was spoken of before / and to give life to the body. But these two eyes of the human soul cannot perform their work together / rather, if the soul is to look with the right eye into eternity / then the left eye must renounce all its works / and hold itself as if it were dead. And if the left eye is to perform its work according to externals (that is, dealing with time and creatures) / then the right eye must be hindered in its contemplation contemplation: beschawung, a state of focused spiritual vision..

Chapter Eight.

¶ It is asked: Whether it is possible that the soul, while it is in the body / might reach a point where it takes a glimpse into eternity / and there receives a foretaste of eternal life and eternal blessedness. People commonly say no / and that is true in this sense. As long as the soul has a view toward the body / and the things that belong to the body / and toward time and other creatures / and identifies original: verpilder — literally "to form images," meaning the soul fills itself with mental representations of the material world. and mixes itself with them / then it cannot be. For if the soul is to look or see there / it must be pure and bare of all images / and detached from all creatures / and first and foremost from itself. And this, one thinks, does not happen in time meaning during this mortal life.. But Saint Dionysius Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a 5th-6th century theologian whose mystical writings were foundational for medieval thought. insists it is possible / as one understands from his words that he writes to Timothy: "For the contemplation of divine mystery original: göttlicher heimlichkeit — referring to the hidden, transcendent nature of God., you should leave behind the senses and sensuality / and everything that the senses can grasp / and reason reason: vernunfft, the logical or intellectual faculty. / rational activity / and everything that reason can grasp and recognize / created and uncreated / and stand upon a departure from yourself / and in an ignorance of all these things spoken of before / and come into a union original: einigunge — the mystical state of oneness with God. with that which is above all being and knowledge." If he did not hold this to be possible in time / why would he teach it / or speak [of it?]