When contemplation makes you one with God in spirit, love, and will, you’re “above” yourself because you’ve only reached that state by grace and not by your own efforts. You’re also “under” God then, even though contemplative prayer makes you one with God in spirit, no longer two. In this unity, which is the height of contemplation, you can be thought of as godlike, as Scripture says.1 Still, you’re below God because he’s naturally eternal and you’re not. God has no beginning, but there was a time when you didn’t even exist.
