for Panikkar, hope didn’t refer to the future, but to the invisible, because it was experienced and lived ‘here and now’. In my opinion precisely his reading of The Cloud of the Unknowing offers a key to a good understanding of his interpretation of hope and probably also indicates his inspiration. The English mystical text, while treating the theme of contemplation, suggests the necessity of emptying the heart and mind of all thoughts and images that refer to creatures in order to concentrate exclusively on God, who is par excellence and by nature invisible. Right next to such a reflection
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