From St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. J. Jung, Part II, Chapter 4. Inner Growth Books, 1986.

Mysticism in the Time of St. John

The heart of the question of acquired or active contemplation is whether St. John actually taught such a doctrine. Ironically, it is partially because of the great care he took in describing the transition to contemplative prayer and the subtle descriptions he gave of it precisely because he did not want it misunderstood, that have occasioned its misunderstanding. The very intricate structure of this doctrine and its psychological acuity make it liable to be misinterpreted in a lesser and more human manner.

There are a number of points that govern the interpretation of St. John's writings on this crucial time of transformation, which can be summed up under the following headings: meditation, contemplation, activity and passivity, perceptibility, difficult texts and loving attentiveness.

What does he mean by meditation? Does he limit it to the use of the imagination and thus distinguish it from other kinds of working of the faculties? For example, is there a purely intellectual kind of intuition so that someone could stop meditating and still be doing something?

What is contemplation? Can we find in St. John any grounds for distinguishing two kinds of contemplation?

Meditation and contemplation are the beginning and the end of the process that St. John is describing, but what of the activity of the person during these changes? Can they be said to be active, or are they passively receiving this new experience?

Perceptibility. Is contemplation a real experience that is actually perceived, or can it remain hidden?

There are several problem texts which seem to point to the existence of an active contemplation and have been construed often in that sense.
Loving attentiveness. Is loving attentiveness a particular act by which a person takes up an attitude of attention to God Whom he believes present, or is it part and parcel of infused contemplation itself?

What is at stake here is not some fine points of scholastic theology but two very different conceptions of St. John which have many important practical ramifications for living out the interior life.