The Cloud of Unknowing (Shambhala Pocket Library Book 19)

by Anonymous

I call some of the powers of the soul major and others minor—not because the soul can be split into parts, because obviously it can’t, but its powers work with matters that can be analyzed into two categories: major or spiritual concerns and secondary or physical matters. Reason and will are the soul’s two major active powers. They work solely by themselves to accomplish all spiritual advancements, with no help from the secondary powers. On the other hand, imagination and sensuality work through the body’s five senses in the arena of the material, with things both present and absent, but they alone can’t help us understand creation. We need reason and will to know the virtue and nature of other creatures and their reasons for being here and for doing what they do. That’s why reason and will are called major powers, because only they work in the sphere of the spiritual. Imagination and sensuality are considered secondary because their activity is confined to the body and its five senses. The mind is also regarded as a major power because it spiritually comprehends not only all of the other powers but also all of the objects on which they work.