The Divine Names

Chapter 5. Concerning 'existence' and Also Concerning 'exemplars.' · Part 1 of 3

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] (for this is unutterable, nor can we know It, or in anywise express It, and It is beyond even the Unity^[365]), 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 are, and to the things which are not, and is beyond both categories.^[366] 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.^[367]

2. These Names which reveal the Providence of God our Discourse would now consider. For we make no promise to express the Absolute Super-Essential Goodness and Being and Life and Wisdom of the Absolute Super-Essential Godhead which (as saith the Scripture) hath Its foundation in a secret place^[368] beyond all Goodness, Godhead, Being, Wisdom, and Life; but we are considering the benignant Providence which is revealed to us and are celebrating It as Transcendent Goodness and Cause of all good things, and as Existent as Life and as Wisdom, and as productive Cause of. Existence and of Life and the Giver of Wisdom, in those creatures which partake of Existence, Life, Intelligence, and Perception. We do not regard the Good as one thing, the Existent as another, and Life or Wisdom as another; nor do we hold that there are many causes and different Godheads producing different effects and subordinate one to another; but we hold that one God is the universal Source of the emanations,^[369] and the Possessor of all the Divine Names we declare; and that the first Name expresses the perfect Providence of the one God, and the other names express certain more general or more particular modes of His Providence.^[370]

3. Now, some one may say: “How is it, since Existence transcends Life, and Life transcends Wisdom, that living things are higher than things which merely exist, and sentient things than those which merely live, and reasoning things than those which merely feel, and intelligences than those which have only reason?^[371] Why do the creatures rise in this order to the Presence of God and to a closer relationship with Him? You would have expected those which participate in God’s greater gifts to be the higher, and to surpass the rest.” Now if intelligent beings were defined as having no Existence or Life, the argument would be sound; but since the divine Intelligences do exist in a manner surpassing other existences, and live in a manner surpassing other living things, and understand and know in a manner beyond perception and reason, and in a manner beyond all existent things participate in the Beautiful and Good, they have a nearer place to the Good in that they especially participate therein, and have from It received both more and greater gifts, even as creatures possessed of Reason are exalted, by the superiority of Reason, above those which have but Perception, and these are exalted through having Perception and others through having Life. And the truth, I think, is that the more anything participates in the One infinitely-bountiful God the more is it brought near to Him and made diviner than the rest.^[372]

4. Having now dealt with this matter, let us consider the Good as that which really Is and gives their being to all things that exist. The Existent God is, by the nature of His power, super-essentially above all existence; He is the substantial Cause and Creator of Being, Existence, Substance and Nature, the Beginning and the Measuring Principle of ages; the Reality underlying time and the Eternity underlying existences; the time in which created things pass,^[373] the Existence of those that have any kind of existence, the Life-Process of those which in any way pass through that process. From Him that Is come Eternity, Essence, Being, Time, Life-Process; and that which passes through such Process, the things which inhere in existent things^[374] and those which under any power whatever possess an independent subsistence. For God is not Existent in any ordinary sense, but in a simple and undefinable manner embracing and anticipating all existence in Himself. Hence He is called “King of the Ages,” because in Him and around Him all Being is and subsists, and He neither was, nor will be, nor hath entered the life-process, nor is doing so, nor ever will, or rather He doth not even exist, but is the Essence of existence in things that exist; and not only the things that exist but also their very existence comes from Him that Is before the ages. For He Himself is the Eternity of the ages and subsists before the ages.

Translator’s notes (C. E. Rolt)

[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).

[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.

[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.

[367] Sense-perception is a direct apprehension of that which we actually touch, see, hear, taste, or smell; Reason or Inference is an indirect apprehension of that which we do not actually touch, see, etc. Intuition is a direct apprehension of that which (by its very nature) we do not touch, see, etc. Sense perception, Reason, and Intuition are refractions from the perfect Light of Divine Wisdom; but the Divine Wisdom is beyond them because God apprehends all things, not as existent outside Himself, but as existent in Himself, under the form of a single Unity which is identical with His own Being.

The Godhead is a Single Desire wherein alt the souls eternally exist as fused and inseparable elements.

[368] See Ps. xvii. 22.

[369] i. e. Is the Source of Goodness, existence, life, wisdom, etc.

[370] The title “Good” applies to all God’s providential activity, for everything that He makes is good. And even evil is good depraved; and exists as good in the Good (see p. 132, n. i). Or, rather, evil possesses not an existence but a non-existence in the Good. It is (according to D.) a kind of non-existent good. Hence the title “Existent” is not quite so general as the title “Good.” “Living” is a less general title still (since a stone, for instance, has no life), and “Wise” is yet less general (since a plant is not wise). Thus we get the following table of emanating activity:

(1) Good (including and transcending existent and non-existent things, viz. “good,” and “evil”).

(2) Existent (existent things, viz. good).

(3) Life (plants, animals, men, angels).

(4) Wisdom (men and angels).

[371] Intuition is the faculty of the Intelligences or Angels, by which are meant, of course, angels and spiritual men; Discursive Reason is that of natural men.

[372] The more universal a Title is, the more truly it is applicable to God (see end of Section 2). Thus Existence is more applicable than Life, and Life than Wisdom, as involving in each case less that needs to be discarded. Thus Wisdom implies both a time-process and also a certain finite mode of consciousness, neither of which belong to the eternal and infinite God: Life implies a time-process though not a finite consciousness: Existence implies neither time-process nor finite consciousness. Thus we reach the highest conception of God by a process of abstraction in which we cast aside all particular elements (cf. St. Augustine on the Bonum bonum).

This is the philosophical basis of the Via Negativa. But this abstraction is not mere abstraction nor this negation mere negation. Existence in God subsumes and so includes all that is real in Life; and Life in Him subsumes all that is real in Wisdom. Hence the creatures, as they advance in the scale of creation, draw from Him more and more particular qualities and progress by becoming more concrete and individual instead of more abstract. All the rich variety of creation exists as a simple Unity in God, and the higher a creature stands in the scale, the more does it draw fresh forces from this simple Unity and convert them into its own multiplicity. D. would have understood Evolution very well. This passage exactly fits in with D’s. psychological doctrine of the Via Negativa. That which is reached by the spiritual act of Contemplation explains the principles underlying the whole creative process, the growing diversity of the world-process and of human life. In God there is a rich Unity, and we must leave all diversity behind to reach It. Thus we shall have richness without diversity.

[373] Eternity is a totum simul. It may thus be symbolized by a point revolving round a centre at infinite speed. Time would be symbolized by a point revolving round a centre at a finite speed. Thus eternity is time made perfect. Time is thus subsumed in eternity as the incomplete in the complete. Hence time, like existence, life, etc., exists in God as transcended. Hence the temporal-process is a manifestation of Him. This might had to Pantheism, but D. is saved from such a result by his hold on the complementary truth of Transcendence. All the properties, etc., of each thing exist outside that thing as an element in the Transcendent Being of God.

[374] i. e. The qualities of things.

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Source: The Divine Names (CCEL)