narrative. The narrative “talks” and “tells” itself to the novice reader. The reader and novice are interchangeable, perhaps even identical as soon as the counsel finds entrance into him or her.
As soon as the counsel begins, the dialogue has already started. If the reader can identify herself with the addressee or can recognize herself as ‘My dear friend in God’, the dialogue will be mutually understood.
Then the reader is embraced as ‘my dear friend in God’, for whom this book is personally meant. The reader does not have to take others into consideration or to worry about the world around, since the book is intended to discuss the reader’s own interior work of contemplation as both, the counsel and the reader, have come to understand it. The reader already has an understanding of her interior work of contemplation. The reader is in a contemplative state of being in a way which she is aware of.
The focus is entirely on the reader, even though others are addressed as well. The open address gives room for everybody reading the book to enter the counselling process. It supplies an open invitation to continue reading and to remain involved in the process. The open and focussed attention invites the reader to enter. The counsel and the reader are already very closely and “privy” related:351
I am writing for you alone …. it is you alone I have in mind right now, and I …….intend to discuss your interior work of contemplation as I have come to understand it and you.. (P.C. p. 149)
Anyone else sharing the interior dispositions and likely to profit from this book, is very welcome to it and the counsel will be delighted. So, reading this book is permitted to everybody, including the reader. The book is privy, but not exclusive. Anybody can enter into the relation in privy counselling. This means that it is the reader who takes the step into the continuation of the process of The Book of Privy Counselling, into which she is drawn. Therefore it is a matter of feeling, being called or drawn into the process and it is a matter of choice, taking part in it or not.
Before the reader has ended the foreword she has already decided to proceed or not. Whoever the reader is:
It is you alone I have in mind right now, and your interior life, as I have come to understand it. And so, to you (and others like you) I address the following pages. (P.C. p. 149)
The reader is very welcome and free to accept the invitation to enter the counsel which directly starts instructing immediately after the foreword. The reader has the same spiritual reference concerning prayer as the counsel. The reader knows which posture is suitable for praying and which words to choose to express prayer. But now the prayer should be empty, meaning wordless and completely silent. This might be new to the reader. The prayer changes from expression to impression. It changes from verbal praying to empty silence, in which all thoughts have to be rejected, whether they are good or bad. All the words which have been learned to use for prayer, have to be deleted or erased. Nothing, not a single word should remain in the conscious mind, except:
a naked intent stretching out toward God. (P.C. p. 149)
This means, that the first condition before starting the work is to let everything go which might stand between man and God: complete detachment.
The reader recognises this orientation: to empty the mind nakedly stretching out toward God without any intention. In case the reader does not know the way, the counsel shows the way step by step by using do’s and don’ts, e.g. do not pray with words, do not weigh their meaning, do not be concerned. If the reader does not follow the instructions, this will be the end of the counsel. However, the instructions initiate something which is worthwhile: stretching out toward God. They include a promise: coming close to God. The reader has to give up any ideas about God and be aware that God is as he is. This is completely opposite to what the reader(s) may have done before. The reader can stop searching and researching God, stop forcing and shaping God in any concept or idea, but rest in faith which is in itself the solid ground. Here, the reader has to leave everything behind, except the naked thought and blind feeling of her own being.
Her being is transformed into a pure longing desire, detached and independently rooted in faith in God, saying:
That which I am I offer to you, O Lord, without looking to any quality of your being but only to the fact that you are as you are; this, and nothing more. (P.C. p. 150)
All this is blind and formlessly dark and this darkness seeks admission to fill her whole mind which is a mirror to oneself, in order to think of the self in the same way as it thinks of God: naked, so that one may be spiritually united to God without any fragmentation and scattering of your mind. (P.C. p. 150)
The reader has already become aware of the goal of the counsel: being spiritually united to God. This may be achieved and therefore it is a promise, worthwhile to live after, since:
He is your being and in him, you are what you are, not only because he is the cause and being of all that exists, but because he is your cause and the deep centre of your being. Therefore, in this contemplative work think of yourself and of him in the same way: that is, with the simple awareness that he is as he is, and that you are as you are. (P.C. p. 150)