p. 151-2
“

Next follows the seventh step, the noblest and most elevated that it is possible to realize in the life of time or eternity. It is attained when, above all knowledge and science, we find within us a limitless ignorance; when, passing beyond every name given to God or creatures we expire and pass to an eternal Unnamable where we are lost; when, further than any practice of Virtue, we contemplate and discover within us everlasting Repose, or immeasurable Beatitude where none can act; when we contemplate above all blessed Spirits an essential Beatitude where all are one, melted, lost, in their Superessence in the bosom of a darkness defying all determination or knowledge.

— John Ruysbroeck

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Next follows the seventh step, the noblest and most elevated that it is possible to realize in the life of time or eternity. It is attained when, above all knowledge and science, we find within us a limitless ignorance; when, passing beyond every name given to God or creatures we expire and pass to an eternal Unnamable where we are lost; when, further than any practice of Virtue, we contemplate and discover within us everlasting Repose, or immeasurable Beatitude where none can act; when we contemplate above all blessed Spirits an essential Beatitude where all are one, melted, lost, in their Superessence in the bosom of a darkness defying all determination or knowledge." in the context of "p. 151-2" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "John Ruysbroeck" (Quotes, The Seven Steps of the Ladder of Spiritual Love: Love's Gradatory, translated by Mother St. Jerome (1914)) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
John Ruysbroeck

About John Ruysbroeck

The Blessed John of Ruysbroeck (1293 or 1294 – 2 December 1381), "the Admirable" also known as John Ruusbroec, Jan van Ruusbroec or Jan van Ruysbroeck, was one of the Flemish mystics of the medieval Catholic Church.