10. Why does the soul which has risen on high not stay there? Because
she has not yet entirely detached herself from things here below. But
a time will come when she will uninterruptedly enjoy the vision of the
divinity, that is, when she will no longer be troubled by the passions
of the body. The part of the soul that sees the divinity is not the
one that is troubled (the irrational soul), but the other part (the
rational soul). Now she loses the sight of the divinity when she does
not lose this knowledge which consists in demonstratings, conjectures
and reasonings. In the vision of the divinity, indeed, that which sees
is not the reason, but something prior and superior to reason; if that
which sees be still united to reason, it then is as that which is seen.
When he who sees himself sees, he will see himself as simple, being
united to himself as simple, and will feel himself as simple. We should
not even say that he will see, but only that he will be what he sees,
in case that it would still here be possible to distinguish that which
sees from that which is seen, or to assert that these two things do
not form a single one. This assertion, however, would be rash, for in
this condition he who sees does not, in the strict sense of the word,
see; nor does he imagine two things. He becomes other, he ceases to be
himself, he retains nothing of himself. Absorbed in the divinity, he is
one with it, like a centre that coincides with another centre. While
they coincide, they form but one, though they form two in so far as
they remain distinct. In this sense only do we here say that the soul
is other than the divinity. Consequently this manner of vision is very
difficult to describe. How indeed could we depict as different from
us Him who, while we were contemplating Him, did not seem other than
ourselves, having come into perfect at-one-ment with us?