1. A key component of mysticism in a apophatic wiiting is the location of mysteiy.

Nysteiy is neithei a set of abstiuse uoctiines to be taken on faith noi a seciet piize
foi the initiateu. Nysteiy is iefeiential openness onto the uepths of a paiticulai
tiauition, anu into conveisation with othei tiauitions. The iefeiential openness is
fleeting. As Plotinus saiu, the moment one thinks one has, one has lost it. It is
glimpseu only in the inteistices of a text, in the tension between the saying anu
unsaying. Yet as elusive as it is, it is in piinciple accessible to all. The uecision to
wiite takes the uiscouise out the immeuiate contiol of its authoi anu opens it to
ieaueis beyonu any paiticulai gioup oi school.
2. the moment in which the bounuaiies between the uivine anu human, self anu
othei, melt away is commonly calleu mystical union. Nysticism is often associateu
with the extiaoiuinaiy. In apophatic mystical texts, theie is inueeu a sense of
extiaoiuinaiy, but the extiaoiuinaiy, the tianscenuent, the unimaginable, ieveals
itself as the common.
S. at least thiee iesponses to the piimaiy uilemma of tianscenuence aie
conceivable. The fiist is silence. The seconu iesponse is to uistinguish ways in which
the tianscenuent is beyonu names anu ways in which it is not. In the meuieval
context the most common appeal is to a uistinction between two kinus of naming,
between uou-as-he-is-in-himself anu uou-as-he-is-in-cieatuies, foi example, oi the
ueity as it is in itself anu the ueity as it is in oui minu. Such uistinctions unueilie the
inteipolation into Eckhait's piayei of a giaphic uistinction between uou anu 'uou'.
The thiiu iesponse begins with a iefusal to solve the uilemma poseu by the attempt
to iefei to the tianscenuent thiough a uistinction between two kinus of name. this
uilemma is accepteu as a genuine apoiia, that is, as uniesolvable. But this
acceptance, insteau of leauing to silence, leaus to a new moue if uiscouise.
Eckhait's piayei to uou to be fiee of uou invites us to ieconsiuei the conventions, the logic, anu the
paiauoxes of the uistinctive moue of uiscouise it embouies.


Apophatic texts have suffeieu in a paiticulaily acute
mannei fiom the uige to paiaphiase the meaning in non-apophatic
language oi to fill in the open iefeient-to say what the text ieally
meant to say, but uiun't.