The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Platonic Mystics and Docta Ignorantia III

[ 1 ] Today we turn to a high point of medieval mysticism, to the mystic who was also one of the most eminent scholars of his time: Nikolaus Chrypff or Krebs, of Kues on the Moselle, known as the Kusaner. He was one of the most fascinating figures of his era. He lived from 1401 to 1464. He was at the forefront of his time in various fields of science. He was a mathematician, physicist, and jurist—initially a lawyer. He was also one of the leading, influential figures of his time. He was extraordinarily ahead of his time. About a hundred years later, Nicolaus Copernicus placed the worldview of astronomy on a new foundation. Yet Nicolaus of Cusa had already clearly stated that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Even more significant, it seems, is that Nicholas of Cusa was not only a profound, leading thinker but also a clear thinker. He was a thinker who had fully assimilated Scholasticism; what is expressed through Scholasticism is studied only very little. The immense clarity and precision of his conceptual framework is the essence of it. Never has there been such a sharp delineation of conceptual contours, never such a rigorous delimitation of concepts relating to intellectual life. Anyone who wishes to train themselves in clear thinking—anyone who works with firm, conceptual outlines—should immerse themselves in one of the scholastic works. Cusanus underwent this training.

[ 2 ] He also possessed a thorough understanding of the social conditions of his time. He had a broad perspective. In 1432, at the Council of Basel, he held an important position. He then undertook extensive travels through Germany and the Netherlands, which were specifically dedicated to the reform of the educational system. He emerged from the school of the “Brothers of the Common Life.” There, emphasis was placed on a thorough cultivation of the emotions and a clear development of the intellect. Cusanus undertook his journey in the service of this school. Scientifically trained, with clear and sharp thinking—he stands out as a figure of impressive character. Had he wished, he could have achieved much more in the realm of science. As a preacher, he knew how to touch his listeners in the depths of their souls through his sermons. What made his sermons so significant was the current that flowed from medieval mysticism—the current we find in Eckhart, Tauler, and Suso, and in a different form in Giordano Bruno and Paracelsus.

[ 3 ] The depth of his spirit and the fire of his soul were combined in him with a completely clear and sharp grasp of concepts. Everything that the mind can comprehend, everything that reason can survey, served only as a foundation for what Cusanus had to say to the world. He was sent by the Pope to Constantinople to bring about a union between the Greek and Roman Churches. On his journey home, he experienced an epiphany in which he sensed that there was something entirely different from intellectual knowledge. From then on, he attributed the highest value only to that which is higher than knowledge. He wrote his work De docta ignorantia out of this state of mind. The title, On Learned Ignorance, was intended to signify something that goes beyond mere sensory and intellectual knowledge—a vision, a state of enlightenment. To fully understand this, one must draw upon certain concepts that did not emerge until the 19th century.

[ 4 ] The 19th century developed a distinctive physiology of the senses, as exemplified by the famous “law of sensory energies” formulated by the physiologist Johannes Müller. He states that we are able to see a color and perceive light because our eye is constructed in a specific way. If we did not have eyes, the world that shines with light and colors would be devoid of light, without the perception of colors. The same can be said about the structure of our ear. How the external world enters our consciousness depends on the structure of our senses. How we perceive the world depends on the specific energies of our senses. Helmholtz has expressed his views on how he conceives of this relationship. He says: How can I know what light in itself, or sound in itself, is like? Our sensory perceptions are merely signs of the external world.

[ 5 ] Kusaner also refers to “knowledge” in this sense—namely, as impressions processed by the intellect.

[ 6 ] We now ask: Do our senses not have an intimate relationship with what we see, hear, and so on? We must imagine that the eye itself is formed by light, that the senses are not merely there for the external world, but are part of the external world. The eye has been formed by light. Who, then, are those who construct our senses? If human beings were not limited by the boundaries of their ordinary consciousness, they would know this.

[ 7 ] The power that forms the senses must reside within the individual. During embryonic life, light must be at work, and sound must be at work. They must be active within the individual during embryonic life and form the organs. Light opens the eye from within; sound opens the ear. We perceive external qualities only through the senses. These external qualities have also formed the senses. They are the architects of our own organs. We ourselves are light from the light of the world; we are sound from the sound of the world.

[ 8 ] The mystic immerses himself in what lives and weaves around him and within him. He senses the creative light that works outside and creates within. He himself is radiant and resonant in a radiant and resonant world. When he lives in the creative light, lives in the creative sound, then he has a mystical life. Then something overtakes the person that is different from the light from without and the sound from without. Whoever has experienced this once perceives it as truth. The Gnostics, the Egyptian mystics, and the mystics of the Middle Ages speak of this creative light. They call it the light of the Aeons. It is a light that, emanating from the mystic, awakens the objects around him to living life. This is the Pleroma of the Gnostics. Thus the mystic feels blissful in the light of the world. He feels blissfully interwoven with this light of the Aeons. There he is not separated from the essence of things; there he partakes in the immediate creative power. This is what the mystic describes as his bliss in the creative light. Vedanta wisdom refers to the wisdom of the world as Chit, but the bliss in which the mystic immerses himself in things—where the soul merges completely with them—is described by the Vedanta doctrine as Anânda. Chit is universal wisdom; Anânda is the wisdom that merges directly with the light of the Aeons, that feels itself to be one with the All-Light illuminating the world. The Kusaner refers to this state of mind as “Docta ignorantia.”

[ 9 ] Just as a person can experience merging with the Aeon Light to become one with the Pleroma, so too can he merge with the cosmic World-Thought. Then he feels the World-Thoughts resound within his own inner being. When a person becomes aware of the Thought that brings the law of existence into being in all things, and feels this law welling up within themselves as their own, then things resonate in their very essence within the person’s soul, so that they become intimately united with them, just as a friend becomes intimately united with another friend. The Pythagoreans referred to this perception of the entire world as the harmony of the spheres. This is the resonance of the essence of things within a person’s own soul. There, he feels united with the divine power. This is the hearing of the harmony of the spheres, of the creative law of the world; this is the interweaving with the being of things; this is where things themselves speak, and things speak through the language of his soul from within himself. Then he has attained what Kusaner says no words are capable of expressing.

[ 10 ] That which is, is that which is seen. This does not express the sublime existence that is ascribed to things as a predicate when the mystic unites with them in the deepest way. This sublime existence is the Sat of the Indians.

[ 11 ] The Pythagorean school distinguishes three levels: First, external perception = Chit; second, the Pleroma = Anânda; third, the harmony of the spheres = Sat.

[ 12 ] These are the three stages of knowledge according to Cusanus: first, knowledge; second, transcendent knowledge or beatification; third, deification. This is how he refers to them in Docta ignorantia.

[ 13 ] The fact that he is familiar with these states lends his writings a certain charm and tenderness; one might even say they are utterly sweet with ripeness. Moreover, his writings are wonderfully clear, transparent, and full of powerful ideas.

[ 14 ] He was a leading thinker. All who follow him stand on the foundation he laid. This is also true of Giordano Bruno. Cusanus drew his wisdom from the Pythagorean school. He understood what was meant by the Pleroma, the light of the Aeons, and the harmony of the spheres. — Ruysbroek and Suso, too, in their subtle and spiritually intoxicated manner, were the precursors of Cusanus.

[ 15 ] The Theologia deutsch reads like an overture to what Kusanus wrote. Franz Pfeiffer has edited a reprint of it based on a manuscript from 1497. This work contains profound, heartfelt insights from a figure who has remained historically unknown. If one wishes to understand Sat in Vedanta philosophy, one must, just as one must pour oneself out into the world in the case of Anânda, pour out one’s will entirely in the case of Sat. In deification (Sat), selfless will must be present; one’s will must have become impersonal. — The author of Theologia deutsch ensured that his name would not be known to posterity. He calls himself simply “the man from Frankfurt.” Man must surrender his will to the Divine, as a messenger of the Deity, and what man wills of his own accord, he calls the Scripture, a response.

[ 16 ] Before Cusanus, mysticism sought to move beyond mere knowledge toward an initiation into the Pleroma, the creative light of the world. Within the context of learned ignorance, this then emerged in a learned and astute manner. Knowledge and reason were awakened to a new, immediate life.

[ 17 ] The Kusanian’s ignorance is, at the same time, a form of transcendent knowledge. He distinguishes three stages: knowledge, bliss, and deification—Chit, Anânda, Sat. He is both the greatest scholar and one of the most profound thinkers.