Henry Suso: The Fifth Self

The first 'self', he has in common with a stone, and that is existence. The second he has in common with a plant, and that is growth. The third, with the animals, and that is feeling. The fourth, with all men, is that he has a human nature like they.

The fifth, which belongs to him individually, is his personality, both according to the essential and the accidental. Now, what is it that leads a man astray and robs him of his salvation?

Only his last 'self' by means of which a man turns away from God and towards himself... He thoughtlessly makes himself a 'self' of his own. That is to say, he blindly appropriates to himself what is God's, makes this his goal, and eventually falls into sin.

The self-abandoned man is quite dead to himself, is entirely lost in God, has passed into him, and has become one spirit with him in all respects, like a drop of water which is poured into a large portion of wine. Just as this is lost to itself, and draws to itself and into itself the taste and color of the wine, so it likewise happens to those who are in complete possession of blessedness.

Something and Nothing are the same.

~Henry Suso (1295-1366)

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