“[I]n declaring the dignity of the contemplative work above all others, we must first distinguish the fruits of [a person’s] ultimate perfection. These fruits are the virtues which ought to abound in every [person]…you will discover that all the virtues are clearly and completely contained in contemplation itself…It is the cloud of unknowing, the secret love planted deep in an undivided heart…It is what leads you to silence beyond thought and words..[I]t is what teaches you to forsake and repudiate your very self according to the Gospel’s demands.”
—Privy Counsel Ch. 11
This is the “by their fruits you will know them” wisdom. I suppose it is possible that a person could develop high levels of concentration (a byproduct of meditation), and still be unchanged on an emotional and spiritual level. But to genuinely make progress as a meditator leads inevitably to a metanoia of the spirit. Peering deeply into the inner depths of our being, we eventually begin to see the whole universe unfold there in the quiet darkness of our heart. We gaze directly at the face of God. It is not possible to come face to face with the Ultimate Reality contained within ourselves without being transformed on a fundamental level. And the deepest breakthrough is when we allow the “wall” that separates the “self” from that Reality to finally fall.
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