Zihnin Tanrı'ya Yolculuğu: Yükseliş Merdiveni

Since blessedness is nothing other than the fruition of the highest good, and the highest good is above us, no one can be made blessed unless he ascends above himself, not by a bodily ascent, but by a heart-felt one. But we cannot be lifted above ourselves unless by a superior power lifting us up. For however much the interior degrees are disposed, nothing happens unless the divine aid accompanies them. Now the divine aid accompanies those who ask from a humble and devout heart. Therefore, prayer is the beginning and the source of our ascent into God. For since, according to the state of our fall, the universe of things is a ladder to ascend into God, and in things some are traces, some are images, some are bodily, some spiritual, some temporal, some eternal, and because of this, some outside us, some inside us: to the end that we may reach the consideration of the First Principle, which is most spiritual and eternal and above us, it behooves us to pass through the trace, which is bodily and temporal and outside us; and this is to be led in the way of God.