Coaching practices for The Cloud of Unknowing Contemplation Beyond Concepts When Starting Out
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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I jumped straight into the deepest, most advanced form of contemplative prayer because it sounded profound, and now I just sit there feeling lost and like nothing is happening
- When I try to pray it turns into thinking about God
- The moment I go quiet to pray, my head fills up
- My contemplation keeps sprawling into long mental speeches and I lose the thread
- I move through my days half-asleep on autopilot, sure I already know how everything is, and the "I’ve seen this before" reflex means I stopped actually looking at my own life a long time ago
Practices that may help
- The Cloud of Unknowing: Contemplation Beyond Concepts
The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous 14th-century English mystical text that teaches a form of contemplative prayer in which the practitioner abandons all concepts, images, and thoughts of God — even holy ones — and reaches toward God by love rather than by understanding. The author distinguishes a "cloud of unknowing" between the practitioner and God, penetrable only by love, and a "cloud of forgetting" into which all other thoughts are pressed. It is a foundational text for Western apophatic mysticism; its practices are devotional and experiential, not clinically validated. - Understanding who this practice is for
Recognize that the Cloud’s method is not for beginners — it requires prior formation.
The Cloud of Unknowing: Contemplation Beyond Concepts - The naked intent: directing love without images
Reach toward God with a bare, loving intention stripped of all thought and image.
The Cloud of Unknowing: Contemplation Beyond Concepts - Pressing thoughts into the cloud of forgetting
Put every thought — including holy ones — beneath you, pressing them out of awareness.
The Cloud of Unknowing: Contemplation Beyond Concepts - Using a short word in prayer
Choose a single syllable word — "God" or "love" — and use it like a dart of longing.
The Cloud of Unknowing: Contemplation Beyond Concepts - Beginner’s mind (shoshin)
Meet each moment without the overlay of expertise, expectation, or “I already know this.”
Zen Practice (Zazen and Beyond) - Pu — simplicity and the uncarved block
Return regularly to an unconditioned, open state before adding complexity or opinion.
The Tao Te Ching, Made Practical - Bearing the darkness of not-knowing
Tolerate the felt absence of light, experience, or consolation during the practice.
The Cloud of Unknowing: Contemplation Beyond Concepts - Beginner's Mind (Shoshin), Made Practical
Beginner's mind (shoshin in Japanese) is the Zen practice of approaching experience — including familiar tasks, relationships, and ideas — as if for the first time, free of the assumptions expertise accumulates. Shunryu Suzuki articulated it as the foundation of Zen practice; in contemporary psychology it overlaps with research on actively open thinking, curiosity, and the documented cognitive costs of expert blindness. - Approaching a familiar situation with fresh eyes
Before entering a recurring conversation or task, set aside your established conclusions and look again.
Pu: Taoist Simplicity and the Uncarved Block
Related concerns
- The Cloud Of Unknowing Contemplation Beyond Concepts In A New Job
The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous 14th-century English mystical text that teaches a form of contemplative prayer in which the practitioner abandons all concepts, images, and thoughts of God — even holy ones — and reaches toward God by love rather than by understanding. The author distinguishes a "cloud of unknowing" between the practitioner and God, penetrable only by love, and a "cloud of forgetting" into which all other thoughts are pressed. It is a foundational text for Western apophatic mysticism; its practices are devotional and experiential, not clinically validated.
- Bearing Unknowing Cloud
The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous 14th-century English mystical text that teaches a form of contemplative prayer in which the practitioner abandons all concepts, images, and thoughts of God — even holy ones — and reaches toward God by love rather than by understanding. The author distinguishes a "cloud of unknowing" between the practitioner and God, penetrable only by love, and a "cloud of forgetting" into which all other thoughts are pressed. It is a foundational text for Western apophatic mysticism; its practices are devotional and experiential, not clinically validated.
- Cloud Of Unknowing
The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous 14th-century English mystical text that teaches a form of contemplative prayer in which the practitioner abandons all concepts, images, and thoughts of God — even holy ones — and reaches toward God by love rather than by understanding. The author distinguishes a "cloud of unknowing" between the practitioner and God, penetrable only by love, and a "cloud of forgetting" into which all other thoughts are pressed. It is a foundational text for Western apophatic mysticism; its practices are devotional and experiential, not clinically validated.
- Cloud Of Unknowing For Laypeople
The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous 14th-century English mystical text that teaches a form of contemplative prayer in which the practitioner abandons all concepts, images, and thoughts of God — even holy ones — and reaches toward God by love rather than by understanding. The author distinguishes a "cloud of unknowing" between the practitioner and God, penetrable only by love, and a "cloud of forgetting" into which all other thoughts are pressed. It is a foundational text for Western apophatic mysticism; its practices are devotional and experiential, not clinically validated.
- Cloud Of Unknowing Method
The Cloud of Unknowing is an anonymous 14th-century English mystical text that teaches a form of contemplative prayer in which the practitioner abandons all concepts, images, and thoughts of God — even holy ones — and reaches toward God by love rather than by understanding. The author distinguishes a "cloud of unknowing" between the practitioner and God, penetrable only by love, and a "cloud of forgetting" into which all other thoughts are pressed. It is a foundational text for Western apophatic mysticism; its practices are devotional and experiential, not clinically validated.
- Henry Cloud No
Henry Cloud argues that boundaries are the capacity to say no from a place of personal responsibility — defining what you own (your time, energy, thoughts) and what you don’t (others’ feelings about your limits). The inability to say no often stems from anxiety about relationship rupture rather than genuine generosity. The practices are grounded in clinical psychology and attachment theory; most evidence is clinical and observational rather than from controlled trials.
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