Hugo de São Victor — Os Três Modos de Ver da Alma
Excertos de Hugh Of Saint Victor Selected Spiritual Writings
The Soul’s Three Ways of Seeing
“Vanity of vanities, said the Preacher, “all is vanity”
Now where do you suppose that this man’s mind was, when he said all this ? He was certainly a man, yet he was above men. For, had he not been above men, he would not have seen that all men are liars. This is why we, when we come to these reflections, must ourselves first reflect, and differentiate between the kinds of spiritual sight. Thinking, meditating, and contemplating are the rational soul’s three ways of seeing.
Thinking occurs when the mind becomes aware of things passing through it, when the image of some real thing, entering through the senses or rising up out of the memory, is suddenly presented to it.
Meditation is the concentrated and judicious reconsideration of thought, that tries to unravel something complicated or scrutinizes sqmething obscure to get at the truth of it.
Contemplation is thee piercing and spontaneous intuition of the soul, which embraces every aspect of the objects of understanding.
Between meditation and contemplation there appears to be this difference: meditation always has to do with things that are obscure to our intelligence, whereas contemplation is concerned with things that are clear, either of their nature or in relation to our intellectual capacity. Again, while meditation is always exercised in the investigation of one matter, contemplation embraces the complete understanding of many, or even of everything. Meditation is, then, a certain inquisitive power of the soul, that shrewdly tries to find out things that are obscure and to disentangle those that are involved. Contemplation is the alertness of the understanding which, finding everything plain, grasps it clearly with entire comprehension. Thus in some ways contemplation possesses that for which meditation seeks.
There are, however, two kinds of contemplation. That which comes first and is proper to beginners, consists in the consideration of created things; the other, which comes later and is proper to the mature, consists in the contemplation of the Creator. In the Book of Proverbs, Solomon begins as it were at the stage of meditation. In Ecclesiastes, he rises to the first degree of contemplation. In the Song of Songs, he betakes himself to the highest.
In meditation, a sort of wrestling-match goes on between ignorance and knowledge, and the light of truth somehow flickers in the midst of the darkness of error. It is then rather like fire in green wood, which gets a hold at first only with difficulty; but, when it is fanned by a stronger draught and begins to catch on more fiercely, then we see great billows of black smoke arise,, and smother the flame, which so far is still only fairly bright and leaping out here and there, until at last, as the fire gradually grows, all the smoke clears, the darkness is dispelled, and a bright blaze appears. Then the conquering flame, spreading throughout the crackling pyre, gains ready mastery and, leaping round the fuel, with lightest touches of its glancing tongues consumes and penetrates it. Nor does it rest until, reaching the very centre, it has so to speak absorbed into itself everything that it had found outside itself.
But once that which was to be burnt up has been devoured by the fire, and so has been entirely transmuted from its own nature into the nature and the likeness of the fire, then all the noise dies down, the roar is hushed, the darting flames are withdrawn, and that fierce, greedy fire, having brought everything beneath its own control and bound it up together in a sort of friendly likeness to itself, sinks down in deep peace and silence. For it no longer finds anything other than itself, nor anything in opposition to itself.
The fire, then, appeared at first in flame and smoke, then in flame without smoke, and lastly as pure fire, without flame or smoke. Even so the carnal heart is like. green wood which has not yet had the sap of fleshly concupiscence dried out of It* If it should conceive a spark of the divine love or fear, at first the smoke of its passions and fears arises, because of the resistance of its wrong desires. Then, when the mind is strengthened with the flame of love and this begins to burn more steadily and shine more brightly, all the darkness of its upheavals quickly disappears, and then the soul, with a pure heart, gives itself over to the contemplation of the truth. And finally, when diligent beholding of the truth has pierced the heart, and it has entered with its whole desire totally into the very fount of truth supreme, then, being as it were completely set on fire with the sweetness of the same, and itself transmuted into the fire of love, it sinks down to rest in utter peace from every conflict and disturbance.
In the first stage, then, since right counsel must be sought amid the perils of temptations, there is in meditation as it were smoke and flame together. In the second, since the heart’s attention is given purely to the contemplation of the truth, there is at the beginning of contemplation so to speak flame without smoke. At the third stage, since the truth has now been found and charity made perfect, nothing but the one thing is sought; in the pure fire of love, with the utmost peace and joy, the soul is gently beaten back. Then, the whole heart being turned into the fire of love, God is known truly to be all in all. For He is received with a love so deep that apart from Him nothing is left to the heart, even of itself.
In order, therefore, to distinguish these three things by proper names, the first is meditation, the second admiration, and the third contemplation. In meditation, the inopportune disturbance that arises from the fleshly passions clouds the mind that a loving devotion has enkindled. In admiration, the novelty of the unwonted vision lifts up the soul in wonder. In contemplation, the taste of a wondrous sweetness changes everything to joy and gladness.
In meditation, therefore, there is care, in admiration wonder, in contemplation sweetness. Yet even a true spiritual admiration can refresh the heart with a great gladness when, after the struggle with temptations and the darkness of error, it suddenly composes the soul in an unlooked-for state of peace, and floods it with an unaccustomed light. In this light, therefore, being rapt in spirit above all transient and perishable things, this man perceived that, among all that is, there is nothing that lasts, and, as if stricken with fear at this new and unfamiliar sight exclaimed, ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity’.