{"id":5812,"date":"2017-06-21T09:38:02","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T16:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=5812"},"modified":"2017-06-21T09:51:55","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T16:51:55","slug":"hadewijch-you-who-want-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/21\/hadewijch-you-who-want-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Hadewijch – You who want knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

You who want
\nby Hadewijch<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Jane Hirshfield<\/font><\/p>\n

You who want
\nknowledge,
\nseek the Oneness
\nwithin<\/p>\n

There you
\nwill find
\nthe clear mirror
\nalready waiting<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women<\/a>, Edited by Jane Hirshfield<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Lea Chvrl<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

\u201cYou who want
\nknowledge\u2026\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

I suppose that is all of us. We all want knowledge.<\/p>\n

Society tells us that \u201cknowledge is power,\u201d but we don\u2019t really have a clear sense of what knowledge is. In the modern era, we tend to think of knowledge as information, data. We think of knowledge as the feeding and exercise of the intellect. All of that is certainly important, but real knowledge is something else.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t think our way into heaven.<\/p>\n

When mystics speak of \u201cknowledge\u201d they speak of gnosis. This is not information, but a profound Knowing. The knowledge we are talking about has more to do with full awareness. It is as if one floats in the vast ocean of knowingness itself. This \u201cknowledge\u201d is an all-encompassing recognition of meaning and interrelationship. It is direct and permeates one\u2019s whole being. It is the full bodied perception that living meaning somehow flows through all of existence, unifying everything within a living self-awareness. <\/p>\n

Information is observational, external, and always limited. This is not to say that gnostic knowledge has nothing to do with informational knowledge, however. In spiritually open states, one\u2019s intuition may be refined and heightened. Clear insight about a certain person or situation may just pop into your mind as a fully formed understanding, as if you suddenly see the whole pattern without having to work so hard to connect all of the individual bits of information. But this is more of a byproduct, an ornamentation on the face of knowledge, not the knowledge itself.<\/p>\n

Real knowing, gnosis, is alive, all-permeating, all-unifying. It reconnects us within the living whole\u2026 and leads us into ecstasy.<\/p>\n

\u2026seek the Oneness
\nwithin<\/i><\/p>\n

This is why, real knowing is about seeking oneness, turning within, learning to see ourselves honestly, truly, clearly.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, none of this knowledge is ever acquired. It isn\u2019t a new possession or experience or even a new thought. It is already here, at rest in the center of things. When it is found, it is as familiar as our bones. It is our very nature. It is already waiting.<\/p>\n

There you
\nwill find
\nthe clear mirror
\nalready waiting<\/i><\/p>\n

Have a beautiful day!<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Hadewijch<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Shambhala Anthology of Women\u2019s Spiritual Poetry<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nHadewijch: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality) <\/a><\/small><\/td>\nChristian Mystics: Their Lives and Legacies throughout the Ages<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nMeister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics: Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"Hadewijch,<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nHadewijch<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Belgium (13th Century) Timeline<\/a>
\nChristian<\/a> : Catholic<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Hadewijch \u2014 often called Hadewijch of Brabant or sometimes Hadewijch of Antwerp \u2014 lived in the 13th century in what is now Belgium. She is rightly called one of the greatest names in medieval Flemish and Dutch literature.<\/p>\n

Little can be said for certain about the life of Hadewijch. Unlike many other women mystics of the time, no biography was written about her, so all we know is what scholars have been able to deduce from her writings themselves. <\/p>\n

Hadewijch was probably the head of a Beguine community. The Beguines were a sect of devout women in Belgium, Holland, Germany and northern France. Beguines did not take vows, but they gathered together to live in simplicity and service. Many Beguines were mystics and poets of the highest order.<\/p>\n

Hadewijch\u2019s poetry has a rich love mysticism. Like her contemporary, St. Francis of Assisi, Hadewijch was clearly inspired by the courtly love poetry of the Troubadours and Minnensingers. The fact that she was familiar with this courtly art form suggests that Hadewijch was probably born to a noble family.<\/p>\n

The writings of Hadewijch were gathered and studied by the Flemish Christian mystic John Ruusbroec in the 1300s, but later fell into obscurity until rediscovered in the 1800s by scholars.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Hadewijch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You who want by Hadewijch English version by Jane Hirshfield You who want knowledge, seek the Oneness within There you will find the clear mirror already waiting \u2014 from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Edited by Jane Hirshfield \/ Image by Lea Chvrl \/ \u201cYou who want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[809,353,460,675,368],"class_list":["post-5812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-christian-mysticism","tag-gnosis","tag-hadewijch","tag-knowledge","tag-mirror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5812"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5816,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions\/5816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}