Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names · 1 of 12 · tr. C.E. Rolt
Chapter 5, Section 1a
131 CHAPTER V Concerning ” Existence “ and also concerning ” Exemplars .” I.
Now must we proceed to the Name of “Being” which is truly applied by the Divine Science to Him that truly Is.
But this much we must say, that it is not the purpose of our discourse to reveal the Super-Essential Being in its Super-Essential Nature 364 364 The ultimate Godhead is reached only by the Negative Path, and known only by Unknowing.
The Affirmative Path of philosophical knowledge leads only to the differentiated manifestations of the Godhead: e.g.
the Trinity, in Its creative and redemptive activities, is known by the Affirmative Method, but behind these activities and the faculty for them lies an ultimate Mystery where the Persons transcend Themselves and are fused (though not confused).
(for this is unutterable, nor can we know It, or in anywise express It, and It is beyond even the Unity 365 365 In spiritual Communion, the mind, being joined with God, distinguishes itself from Him as Self from Not-Self, Subject from Object.
And this law was fulfilled even in the Human Soul of Christ, Who distinguished Himself from His Father.
The Persons of the Trinity, though they lie deeper than this temporal world (being, in Their eternal emanative Desire, the Ground of its existence), were manifested through the Incarnation.
Hence the distinction of Father, Son, and Spirit, revealed in the Human Soul of Christ, exists eternally in the Trinity.
And those who reach the Unitive State, since they reach it only through the Spirit of Christ and are one spirit with Him, must in a lesser degree reveal the Personal Differentiations of the Trinity in their lives.
But because the eternal Differentiations of the Trinity transcend Themselves in-the Super-Essence, therefore Their manifestations in the Unitive State lead finally to a point beyond Union where all distinctions are transcended.
At that point the distinction between Self and Not-Self, Subject and Object, vanishes in the unknowable Mystery of the Divine Darkness.
The Self has disappeared and been, in a sense, merged.
But in another sense the Self remains.
This is the paradox of Personality—that it seeks (and attains) annihilation in the Supra-personal plane, and yet on the relative plane retains its own particular being.
This is the paradox of Love.
See Intr., p.
28 f., and p.8.
), but only to celebrate the Emanation of the Absolute Divine Essence into the universe of things.
For the Name of “Good” revealing all the emanations of the universal Cause, extends both to the things which 132 are, and to the things which are not, and is beyond both categories.
366 366 i.
e.
Extends both to good things and to bad things and is beyond the opposition between good and bad.
The Good extends to bad things because evil is a mere distortion of good, and no evil thing could exist but for an element of good holding it together: its existence, qua existence, is good.
See ch.
iv.
The Good is beyond the opposition between good and evil because on the ultimate plane nothing exists outside It.
It is beyond relationships.
Hence also beyond Existence, Life, and Wisdom, since these (as we know them) imply relationships.
And the title of “Existent” extends to all existent things and is beyond them.
And the title “Life” extends to all living things and is beyond them.
And the title of “Wisdom” extends to the whole realm of Intuition, Reason, and Sense-Perception, and is beyond them a11.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage describes the 'Emanation of the Absolute Divine Essence into the universe of things' as the purpose of the Name of 'Being'.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
The text argues that evil is a distortion of good and no evil thing could exist but for an element of good holding it together.
Sufi self-effacement in God — the via by which the lover is unmade as a separate ego and recovered as God's act; specifies the practice/event rather than mystical_union's resulting state.
The passage describes the Self disappearing and being merged in the unknowable Mystery of the Divine Darkness.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
The text notes that in spiritual Communion, the mind distinguishes itself from God as Self from Not-Self.