The first are with his drawing The Ascent of Mount Carmel, which contained instructions for climbing to the summit of spirituality -- the clear recognition of our oneness with God.

The Ascent of Mount Carmel

To reach satisfaction in all, desire its possession in nothing.

To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge of nothing.

To come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing.

To arrive at being all, desire to be nothing.

To come to the pleasure which you have not, you must go by a way in which you enjoy not.

To come to the knowledge which you have not, you must go by a way in which you know not.

To come to the possession you have not, you must go by a way in which you possess not.

To come to be what you are not, you must go by a way in which you are not.

When you turn toward something, you cease to cast yourself upon the all.

For to go from the all to the all, you must leave yourself in all.

And when you come to the possession of the all, you must possess it without wanting anything.

In this nakedness, the spirit finds its quietude and rest.

For in coveting nothing, nothing raises it up and nothing weighs it down, because it is the center of its humility.

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It is felt by some that the following poem by St John of the Cross describes with utmost accuracy the dawning of the Gnosis of Light.

I Entered Where I Did Not Know

I entered where I did not know,
And there remained unknowing,
All reason now transcended.

I did not know the door
But when I found the way,
Unknowing where I was,
I learned unheard of things,
But what I heard I cannot say,
For I remained unknowing,
All reason now transcended.

My knowledge was fulfilled
With serenity and peace.
In deepest solitude
I found the narrow way:
A secret giving such release
That I was left there stammering,
All reason now transcended.

I was so fully drunk,
So dazed and far away,
My senses were released
From feelings of my own.
My mind had found a surer way
A knowledge of unknowing,
All reason now transcended.

And he who does arrive,
Collapses as in sleep;
For all he knew before
Now seems of little worth,
And so his knowledge grows so deep
That he remains unknowing,
All reason now transcended.

The higher he ascends,
The darker is the wood;
It is the shadowy cloud
That clarified the night,
And so the one who understood
Remains at last unknowing,
All reason now transcended.

This knowledge by unknowing
Is such a soaring force
That scholars argue long
But never leave the ground.
Their reason always fails the source:
To understand unknowing,
All reason now transcended.

This knowledge is supreme
And meets a blazing height,
Though formal reason tries,
It crumbles in the dark.
For one who would control the night,
By knowledge of unknowing
He will have all transcended.

This is my final word,
The highest learning lead
To an ecstatic feeling
Of the most holy Being;
And from his mercy comes his deed:
To make one stay unknowing,
All reason now transcended.

 ~ by St John of the Cross, I Entered Where I Did Not Know, (Entreme Donde No Supe)

Found in ... 

Spanish Poetry: A Dual-Language Anthology 16th-20th Centuries
Angel Flores. Trans. Willis Barnstone
Dover Publications; Unabridged edition, 1998
Softcover: 448 pp
ISBN-10: 9780486401713

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