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Meister Eckhart: The Man from Whom God Nothing Hid
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160 pages, Paperback
First published December 13, 1963
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July 14, 2016
Like any book on spirituality, this volume of Meister Eckhart's sermons and other works will appeal to some people, confuse some people, and probably bother others. Certain people might even have all of these reactions, depending on which selection they are reading and how much time they spend puzzling through Eckhart's way of writing. He is not always easy to understand, but he was quite popular both in his day and later.
Eckhart was a German mystic, born "not long" before 1260. He studied in Paris for a master's degree in theology after becoming a Dominican friar. He had a long career in the Church, but his popularity was his downfall. In 1325 he was on trial, but the introduction which mentions this does not say why the Church was persecuting the man. "Though the date of his death is unknown, his excommunication on 27 March 1329 was posthumous".
I first read this book years ago when struggling through a health crisis. I remember being quite surprised at some of the thoughts Eckhart expressed, or at least tried to express. There are some ideas and beliefs that simply cannot be conveyed with words. He gets tangled up more than once while trying to express what was most likely in his own mind a very clear truth.
In those years I was in a phase of marking passages that spoke to me personally, and when I reached the underlined parts in this re-read, I could still identify with them. I have had pretty much the same reactions to the book that I had years ago. I have never believed in any organized religion, but I do believe in an intense personal spirituality. Each person must make their own choices about this issue. I may not agree with all of what Eckhart wrote, but he had some fascinating ideas for a man of his day, and I admire the courage it took to share them publicly.
Eckhart was a German mystic, born "not long" before 1260. He studied in Paris for a master's degree in theology after becoming a Dominican friar. He had a long career in the Church, but his popularity was his downfall. In 1325 he was on trial, but the introduction which mentions this does not say why the Church was persecuting the man. "Though the date of his death is unknown, his excommunication on 27 March 1329 was posthumous".
I first read this book years ago when struggling through a health crisis. I remember being quite surprised at some of the thoughts Eckhart expressed, or at least tried to express. There are some ideas and beliefs that simply cannot be conveyed with words. He gets tangled up more than once while trying to express what was most likely in his own mind a very clear truth.
In those years I was in a phase of marking passages that spoke to me personally, and when I reached the underlined parts in this re-read, I could still identify with them. I have had pretty much the same reactions to the book that I had years ago. I have never believed in any organized religion, but I do believe in an intense personal spirituality. Each person must make their own choices about this issue. I may not agree with all of what Eckhart wrote, but he had some fascinating ideas for a man of his day, and I admire the courage it took to share them publicly.
December 3, 2012
Whenever I hear a person carry on about how religion- all religion, but especially western religion- has always been nothing more than a destructive, thought-suppressing and morality-twisting force of pure evil, or at best some sort of contagious mental disorder or metaphorical crutch or peoples' opiate, I find that I can only quietly shake my head. Had I not read Eckhart and other sky-blue souled mystics like him, I suppose my opinion would be different... but the wisdom of the man From Whom God Hid Nothing quickly became a part of me, and it is close to my heart.
Grand statements aside, I think that this one is great to take on a trip to the beach or a ride on the bus, because you can pick it up, put it down, and jump around easily in its pages. Can't recommend it strongly enough!
Grand statements aside, I think that this one is great to take on a trip to the beach or a ride on the bus, because you can pick it up, put it down, and jump around easily in its pages. Can't recommend it strongly enough!
June 20, 2015
Meister Eckhart is another name I picked up reading Huxley's Perennial Philosophy, in which he is quoted extensively. Born in the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th century, little is known of this cleric's life aside from his sermons and sayings. He was apparently revered by the common people for his wisdom and willingness to search for it anywhere, so naturally he was accused of heresy by the church. They at least had the decency to wait until after his death to make it official.
This is a short book, but its tone is immediately recognizable as part of the mystical tradition that spans many cultures and religions. It's not hard to see why he attracted the negative attention of the Papacy--Eckhart often speaks of his research into the "heathen masters," or of his respect for men like Avicenna or Origen. While it was not unusual for Catholic clergy to have extensive knowledge of such authors, you can sense Eckhart's praise is not grudging, or restrained. This is the admiration of a man who genuinely recognizes the divine in non-Christian faiths.
In the end however, I doubt it was Eckhart's interest in pagan or heretical writings that truly alarmed his peers. The jewel in this collection is one titled "Detachment," in which he elaborates on why it is the highest possible virtue--even above those most commonly cited in the Christian faith, like love or humility: "And when I search the Scriptures thoroughly, as far as my reason can fathom and know, I just find that pure detachment stands above all things, for all virtues pay some regard to the creatures, yet detachment is free from all creatures. Hence it was that our Lord said to Martha: 'One thing is needful,' that is to say, he who wishes to be untroubled and pure must have one thing, namely detachment."
Later, he argues: "I also praise detachment more than all mercy, for mercy simply means that man, going out of himself, turns to the failings of his fellow men and for this reason his heart is troubled. Detachment is free from this; it remains in itself and does not allow itself to be troubled by anything, because, as long as anything can trouble a man, it is not well with him. In short, if I consider all virtues, I find that none is so completely without defects and so applicable to God as is detachment."
Eckhart's focus on detachment is startling, even revolutionary within the context of Medieval Christianity. He states that the immovability of God essentially means that nothing about the universe would change if no one had ever done a single good deed or prayed a single prayer. This sounds fatalistic at first, but Eckhart is speaking more of the unity of all Time and Being--God has already answered and granted/refused all prayers across all times; seen all good and bad deeds and their consequences. These things only appear to have linear, chronological effect to us because we are temporal. In that sense, they DO have linear and chronological effect. Just not to God. So if we want to be more like God, we must become "detached" from this concept of cause/effect, just like Him.
This is almost exactly the message of Buddhist scriptures like the Heart Sutra; a recognition that true reality is unification. Matter and Void, Cause and Effect, Finite and Infinite--these are all names for dual sides of the same coin. The longer you stare at them, the more they blur together like lines in a 3D puzzle.
At this point a modern Christian might balk at this "Zen-ification" of God, fearing a descent into apathy or withdrawal from life. Of what use are things like love, hope, or mercy if detachment outweighs them all? Eckhart anticipates this conflict like a true Eastern Sage: there is no conflict. Detachment's elevation does not denigrate these other qualities. It is merely the capstone, the highest rung on a ladder of virtues, all of which must be grasped by the faithful. Detachment here is like the detachment of the Buddha--a seeing past the surface of reality with all its suffering and vain pleasures, into a deeper peace that subsumes both.
Doing so does not make you an emotionless robot, a straw man charge leveled by many Westerners at Eastern thinkers. One who is truly detached is virtuous and compassionate because that is what a detached person does. She needs no other reason to be so. As an example Eckhart cites Mary, mother of Jesus. Praising her as a perfectly detached saint, he highlights that her detachment did not exclude emotional responses. She wept at her child's crucifixion, worried when she lost track of him, etc. His explanation for this is that detachment is rooted in a person's inner self, an unseen place of quiet that is different from the outer, visible self. You can laugh and cry and be seen laughing and crying, while your inner self, hidden from view, stands in the perfect stillness of the Divine. He likens this to a door: the door itself swings to and fro, and one can see this plainly. But the hinges on which it swings stay in place, something often overlooked.
Eckhart may have been a Christian living in Western Europe, but his mind is that of Lao Tzu. He knew that those who speak do not know, and that those who know do not speak. "When the detachment reaches its highest perfection, it becomes unknowing through knowledge, loveless through love, dark through light."
This is a short book, but its tone is immediately recognizable as part of the mystical tradition that spans many cultures and religions. It's not hard to see why he attracted the negative attention of the Papacy--Eckhart often speaks of his research into the "heathen masters," or of his respect for men like Avicenna or Origen. While it was not unusual for Catholic clergy to have extensive knowledge of such authors, you can sense Eckhart's praise is not grudging, or restrained. This is the admiration of a man who genuinely recognizes the divine in non-Christian faiths.
In the end however, I doubt it was Eckhart's interest in pagan or heretical writings that truly alarmed his peers. The jewel in this collection is one titled "Detachment," in which he elaborates on why it is the highest possible virtue--even above those most commonly cited in the Christian faith, like love or humility: "And when I search the Scriptures thoroughly, as far as my reason can fathom and know, I just find that pure detachment stands above all things, for all virtues pay some regard to the creatures, yet detachment is free from all creatures. Hence it was that our Lord said to Martha: 'One thing is needful,' that is to say, he who wishes to be untroubled and pure must have one thing, namely detachment."
Later, he argues: "I also praise detachment more than all mercy, for mercy simply means that man, going out of himself, turns to the failings of his fellow men and for this reason his heart is troubled. Detachment is free from this; it remains in itself and does not allow itself to be troubled by anything, because, as long as anything can trouble a man, it is not well with him. In short, if I consider all virtues, I find that none is so completely without defects and so applicable to God as is detachment."
Eckhart's focus on detachment is startling, even revolutionary within the context of Medieval Christianity. He states that the immovability of God essentially means that nothing about the universe would change if no one had ever done a single good deed or prayed a single prayer. This sounds fatalistic at first, but Eckhart is speaking more of the unity of all Time and Being--God has already answered and granted/refused all prayers across all times; seen all good and bad deeds and their consequences. These things only appear to have linear, chronological effect to us because we are temporal. In that sense, they DO have linear and chronological effect. Just not to God. So if we want to be more like God, we must become "detached" from this concept of cause/effect, just like Him.
This is almost exactly the message of Buddhist scriptures like the Heart Sutra; a recognition that true reality is unification. Matter and Void, Cause and Effect, Finite and Infinite--these are all names for dual sides of the same coin. The longer you stare at them, the more they blur together like lines in a 3D puzzle.
At this point a modern Christian might balk at this "Zen-ification" of God, fearing a descent into apathy or withdrawal from life. Of what use are things like love, hope, or mercy if detachment outweighs them all? Eckhart anticipates this conflict like a true Eastern Sage: there is no conflict. Detachment's elevation does not denigrate these other qualities. It is merely the capstone, the highest rung on a ladder of virtues, all of which must be grasped by the faithful. Detachment here is like the detachment of the Buddha--a seeing past the surface of reality with all its suffering and vain pleasures, into a deeper peace that subsumes both.
Doing so does not make you an emotionless robot, a straw man charge leveled by many Westerners at Eastern thinkers. One who is truly detached is virtuous and compassionate because that is what a detached person does. She needs no other reason to be so. As an example Eckhart cites Mary, mother of Jesus. Praising her as a perfectly detached saint, he highlights that her detachment did not exclude emotional responses. She wept at her child's crucifixion, worried when she lost track of him, etc. His explanation for this is that detachment is rooted in a person's inner self, an unseen place of quiet that is different from the outer, visible self. You can laugh and cry and be seen laughing and crying, while your inner self, hidden from view, stands in the perfect stillness of the Divine. He likens this to a door: the door itself swings to and fro, and one can see this plainly. But the hinges on which it swings stay in place, something often overlooked.
Eckhart may have been a Christian living in Western Europe, but his mind is that of Lao Tzu. He knew that those who speak do not know, and that those who know do not speak. "When the detachment reaches its highest perfection, it becomes unknowing through knowledge, loveless through love, dark through light."
July 21, 2021
God almighty
Of all the things God hid from meșterul Eckhart, a writing talent he hid best.
• Piss-poor propensity for successful metaphors: „Nature makes the man from the child and the hen from the egg, but God makes the man before the child and the hen before the egg.”, ”Two virtues are always better than one.”
• The feeling that he writes with/due to the disturbing sentiment that someone is breathing on his neck and that, as multiply stated, he doesn`t quite belong to himself, but to a „detached” god. It could have been an honorable form of animism or even panpsychism, but as we learn, also – ”man has in himself two natures: body and spirit. Creatures are all either body or spirit.” So none of those.
• Self-flagellating, compulsive whines –”one to one, one from one, one in one and in one one eternally”. Surely ”one” has to stretch his neurons to even begin to understand why this spectacle would be something a „detached” formless form of divine Being would have an appetite for.
• His works laying dormant in blessed obscurity for more than seven centuries, this bore of a writer is praised now by the European intellectual elite. This is mostly due to the shift in focus from external to internal reflection, or inwardness, with which he is credited for and some trace of resemblance to Eastern philosophy - do not be fooled, this whole ‘detachment’ business is solely for the purpose of more religious receptivity. In all honesty, the foreword made the book justice – you really have to nitpick to find decent statements, bordering on originality. I am aware of the interest personalities like Jung of Heidegger invested in this guy, and aren’t in the slightest moved by that.
• Vapid, dry, inane explorations in futility (din ciclul ”eu întreb, eu răspund”)
”The best thing about love is that it forces me to love God.
On the other hand, detachment forces God to love me.
Now it is much nobler that I should force God to myself than I should force myself to God.” (?!?)
This would go to the "one virtue is better than the other" drawer, I guess.
• He jumps untroubled from one paragraph where he advices ”detachment from oneself and other creatures” to the next where he warns that it is rather pious of someone who - ”in illness, takes comfort in thinking about those who are worse of, such as beggars.”
And so on and so forth. To use a selection of his own wit, this type of writing is indeed more suitable for the ”more void and passive of mind”.
Of all the things God hid from meșterul Eckhart, a writing talent he hid best.
• Piss-poor propensity for successful metaphors: „Nature makes the man from the child and the hen from the egg, but God makes the man before the child and the hen before the egg.”, ”Two virtues are always better than one.”
• The feeling that he writes with/due to the disturbing sentiment that someone is breathing on his neck and that, as multiply stated, he doesn`t quite belong to himself, but to a „detached” god. It could have been an honorable form of animism or even panpsychism, but as we learn, also – ”man has in himself two natures: body and spirit. Creatures are all either body or spirit.” So none of those.
• Self-flagellating, compulsive whines –”one to one, one from one, one in one and in one one eternally”. Surely ”one” has to stretch his neurons to even begin to understand why this spectacle would be something a „detached” formless form of divine Being would have an appetite for.
• His works laying dormant in blessed obscurity for more than seven centuries, this bore of a writer is praised now by the European intellectual elite. This is mostly due to the shift in focus from external to internal reflection, or inwardness, with which he is credited for and some trace of resemblance to Eastern philosophy - do not be fooled, this whole ‘detachment’ business is solely for the purpose of more religious receptivity. In all honesty, the foreword made the book justice – you really have to nitpick to find decent statements, bordering on originality. I am aware of the interest personalities like Jung of Heidegger invested in this guy, and aren’t in the slightest moved by that.
• Vapid, dry, inane explorations in futility (din ciclul ”eu întreb, eu răspund”)
”The best thing about love is that it forces me to love God.
On the other hand, detachment forces God to love me.
Now it is much nobler that I should force God to myself than I should force myself to God.” (?!?)
This would go to the "one virtue is better than the other" drawer, I guess.
• He jumps untroubled from one paragraph where he advices ”detachment from oneself and other creatures” to the next where he warns that it is rather pious of someone who - ”in illness, takes comfort in thinking about those who are worse of, such as beggars.”
And so on and so forth. To use a selection of his own wit, this type of writing is indeed more suitable for the ”more void and passive of mind”.
December 7, 2012
"What is truth? Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep to the truth and let God go."/
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January 21, 2025Not for me
June 24, 2013
Meister Eckhart is one of my favorite mystics. He does well in elucidating the subtlest intuitions with so few words. One of my favorites: "Hearer and heard are one in the eternal Word."
Eckhart's thoughts on suffering, detachment, emptiness, and culminating unity with "Godhead" are, from what I've gathered, reminiscent of eastern Vedantic and Buddhist meditative practices and phenomenology; so, if you're into comparative theology, you may find some interesting points of comparison between the three. Also, if you have stumbled upon Eckhart in the midst of a tug-of-war match between faith and reason/empiricism (as I have), you might fix your eyes on the west and investigate Soren Kierkegaard (Fear and Trembling, Sickness Unto Death, Either/Or), Descartes' Meditations, or Spinoza's Ethics...among many others! Happy hunting.
Eckhart's thoughts on suffering, detachment, emptiness, and culminating unity with "Godhead" are, from what I've gathered, reminiscent of eastern Vedantic and Buddhist meditative practices and phenomenology; so, if you're into comparative theology, you may find some interesting points of comparison between the three. Also, if you have stumbled upon Eckhart in the midst of a tug-of-war match between faith and reason/empiricism (as I have), you might fix your eyes on the west and investigate Soren Kierkegaard (Fear and Trembling, Sickness Unto Death, Either/Or), Descartes' Meditations, or Spinoza's Ethics...among many others! Happy hunting.
February 22, 2017
Sola Gloria Dei
but i can see where Heidegger got a lot of his ideas.
but i can see where Heidegger got a lot of his ideas.
October 15, 2024
An inspirational text that is often beautiful. Meister Eckhart’s words exude a palpable warmth that allows it to be digested even as it challenges. A great introduction to his voice.
April 21, 2016
Meister Eckhart was a 11th-12th century theologian whose views got him posthumously excommunicated. I've recently seen him referenced by Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, so I thought I'd have a look. He's pretty Buddhist-like for being a Catholic. He says that you should try to attain detachment and nothingness to allow God to work through you, at which point he kind of implies that you pretty much are God. He had some interesting ideas, but overall, I was bored.
"What is truth? Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep to the truth and let God go."
"What is truth? Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep to the truth and let God go."
October 22, 2023
A fun intro to Eckart. Starting from simple working into longer chunks taken from his sermons and writings, this collection eases you into his work. One of the more esoteric and mystical writers of the High Middle Ages, this book offers a basic peak into some of his thoughts. I would have really liked some more commentary explaining some of his core theological positions, as its hard to make any meaningful interpretations of the text if you're not already familiar with some of his concepts like the Ground of the soul. Overall a fun little collection that reads like a highlight reels of one of the most important Medieval theologians.
February 21, 2022
This was a disappointing read. I have great appreciation for Meister Eckhart, but this book does not reveal his mystical depth. Because of how the translated sayings are situated, it is confusing and misleading. The Forward by Brother David Steindl-Rast offers more insight than the chapters that follow. I love mystical writing, but this book did not draw me into my soul, rather it left me questioning the editor.
August 6, 2016
holy f, this is the best megabus reading. currently i am at least a few sacred moments closer to giving myself up to the ultimate unknown. goals-
to be both knowing and unknowing
to be objectless in eternity and in time
get out of (GOD __)s way
do all i do without a single why
always making first rate progress
to be both knowing and unknowing
to be objectless in eternity and in time
get out of (GOD __)s way
do all i do without a single why
always making first rate progress
May 10, 2010
They forgot to give credit to Bizarro and Yoda for translating this from Medieval German. Yikes! I didn't finish, but I could see the writing on the wall...and even there the syntax was terrible! A different edition I get will now? ;/
July 16, 2015
Simply wonderful. Surely a book to read over and over again.
November 29, 2016
I wanted to like him more than I did, but let's just face it: he's not my favorite desert father.
June 26, 2026
One of the greatest Christian mystics of medieval Europe was a Catholic friar of the Dominican order, known as Meister Eckhart (circa 1260 — circa 1327). An important selection from his body of work appears within Meister Eckhart, from Whom God Hid Nothing (1996). After a Foreword from the American Catholic Benedictine monk, David Steindl-Rast, the sermons, writings, and sayings of Eckhart will exemplify a non-ordinary language for mystic experience. “The language of mystics,” according to Steindl-Rast, “explodes ordinary language.” This linguistic or conceptual explosion is a general consequence for mystic theology.
The selection of Meister Eckhart, from Whom God Hid Nothing contains a mystic language for human experience. The God who is unrepresentable has plenty of representations, it is only that he transcends all our images. In a saying from Eckhart, “God needs no image and has no image.” (1996, page 50) Every image of God has a parallax error, even in thought.
“We ought not to have or let ourselves be satisfied with any thought of God. When the thought goes, our God goes with it.” (page 18, “Solitude and God-Getting”)
In the familiar language for “finding” God, Eckhart offers mystic advice for inwardness, to look where you last had him. “What to do on missing God who is in hiding […] Man’s best chance of finding God is to look in the place where he left him.” (22) The confidence of Eckhart stems from his mystic sense for the nearness of God, who is hidden without being absent from inner experience.
Turning Inwards
Mystics have a knack for finding solitude with whomever, and practicing an inexhaustible stillness anywhere because the source is inwards (19). On having God, Eckhart insists, you do not obtain God from elsewhere, “from outside” — God is “within:”
“But anyone for whom God is not really within like this, who must always go and fetch him from outside, from this or that, seeking him in changing modes, perhaps in work or in places or people, that person is easily distracted, for […] he is hindered not merely by bad company but also good […] The hindrance is in him […]” (1996, page 17)
Inwardness means more than the introverted will to self-isolate. For a balance of mind, the rigor of contemplative life has a welcome respite in the active life (page 4). A spiritual mentality combines mental prayer with practical activity, and silent meditating should not be confused with passive contemplation.
The Surrender of Will
Without contradicting the relative need for silence and prayer, Eckhart discourages anyone from waiting around for an answer from God. “God will not answer the call and prayer tomorrow, for he has already answered it in eternity before you ever became man.” (114) In prayer, what is there to ask from God? Desire of him what he freely gives (9). In difficult times, Eckhart prays for this, “give me the will to will:”
“Seneca, a pagan master, asks: What is the best comfort in suffering and tribulation? And he answers: It is this, that a man should take all things as if he had desired and asked for them. For if you had known that all things happen from, with, and in the will of God, you would indeed have wished for them.” (34, “The Book of Divine Consolation”)
Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, reflects the Ancient Roman influence which is typical for the tradition of Eckhart. Earlier Christian mystics led scholastic efforts to assimilate the pre-Christian heritage of Greek and Roman literature. According to the historian, Harry J. Magoulias, “in the Greek East from the fourth century on, the classics became the possession of both pagans and Christians.” (1970, page 18, Byzantine Christianity: Emperor, Church and the West)
Sources of Christian Mysticism
The Stoics produced a body of work which was influential for Christian ascetics, who established monastic doctrines on the basis of Ancient Greek philosophy. The Christian mystic concept for the surrender of will has neo-Platonic origins from what the historian Magoulias terms “the dual movement of beings: their repulsion from the first principle and their return to it.” (1970, page 69) The spiritual experience of losing yourself has the dual or double sense of “repulsion,” whose contradiction is in also returning to the self. The surrender of will promises nothing new, except for an original process of theosis (74).
In a double sense, theosis or becoming divine is also a process of becoming more human. The Jesuit theologian, George A. Maloney (1924–2005) declares, “all humans are called to be mystics.” The Breath of the Mystic (1974) names a number of significant sources for Christian mysticism: Origen, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Pseudo-Dionysius, St. Teresa of Avila, and Meister Eckhart.
“These mystics were not neurotic people who took particular delight in suffering for love of God. They had entered into their deepest self where they began to lose the most precious possession that a human being has before he learns to surrender himself in love to the Other, the control of his own little world of reality.” (Maloney, pages 54–55)
Christian mystics endure difficult experiences without idealizing suffering for its own sake. Spiritual life addresses an inner source of suffering from the neurotic ambition for control, which is quite understandable as a need for relief, but also leads to perpetual distraction.
“Knowingly or unknowingly they want something definite, some experience of higher things. They are set on this condition or that boon. It is nothing whatever but self-will. Abandon to God altogether your self and all things without any qualms as to what he will do with his own. […] One Ave Maria said thus with self-forgetfulness is better than a thousand said without; better one step in this way than a journey overseas in any other.” (Eckhart, page 23, “What to Do on Missing God Who Is in Hiding”)
The surrender of will should not be confused with self-neglect. Rather than reckless abandon, the careful process of “self-forgetfulness” clears a path for loving the unlovable fragment of the self. From the beginning of a sermon titled “The Spark,” Eckhart admits to needing help with an inner part he cannot love himself.
“Saint Augustine cries, Lord I cannot love you, but come in and love yourself in me. According to Saint Paul, we must put off our own natural form and put on the form of God, and Saint Augustine tells us to discard our own mode of nature.” (81)
For a sense of changing human nature, Eckhart evokes a spiritual experience of having nothing. “To be stripped poor, to have nothing, to be empty — this transforms nature; the void causes water to climb mountains” (36). The Breath of the Mystic refers to a process of “kenosis,” or emptying, “in order that God may fill the void.” (1974, page 25) Mystic meditation requires “a slowing down of your mental activities” (65) Maloney terms “an interior silence of the heart.” (162)
“The accent is on the existential encounter with the Absolute, not in images, concepts or through a reasoning process, but through a reverent, silent listening.” (Breath of the Mystic, page 69)
The effect of mystic experience dissolves the difference between having nothing and having everything because the familiar sense for “having God” is the only possession you can never lose. A genuine mystic can expect to lose everything else. In a saying from Eckhart: “I put more faith in the scriptures than myself.” (1996, 47) The externalization of trust from self to scripture requires enough confidence and humility to forgive the least-forgivable part, the unlovable self from an earlier trauma. In his work, Psychoanalysis and Religion (1950), the German-American social psychologist, Erich Fromm admits the spiritual significance of an encounter with the unconscious.
“When we get in touch with this dissociated part […] We must approach the unconscious not as if it were a God whom we must worship or a dragon we must slay but in humility, with a profound sense of humor, in which we see that other part of ourselves as it is, neither with horror nor with awe.” (Fromm, pages 93–94)
The unconscious God of Psychoanalysis and Religion descends as low as the most irreconcilable parts of self repression, “desires, fears, ideas, insights which have been excluded” (94). From the perspective of “modern man,” his religion lacks consciousness of his own idolatry, the fault he finds in everyone else’s religion, except his own. In a psychoanalytic critique of secular modernity, Fromm provides the diagnosis for a competitive society of “Commodity man,” who idolizes “the economic machine” over everything else, even over human happiness. The immoderate pursuit of technological and economic development for its own sake is a modern pretension which Eckhart anticipates. “It is nothing whatever but self-will.”
Work should humble and unify, not alienate and exploit:
“Work must be done simply for the work’s sake and not for any why. One heathen philosopher claims that whatever you work at, whatever you do, if it wrests you from pride and multiplicity to humility and unity, without doubt it is good.” (Eckhart’s Sermons, page 84, “The Spark”)
On the necessity of experience to change yourself:
“This too is what our Lord meant when he said, “a nobleman went out.” For man has to go out of all forms and of himself, and to all such he must be wholly foreign and remote if he really means and is to be a son; to become the Son in his Father’s heart.” (97, “The Nobleman”)
“If, then, you would like to be God’s son and yet not suffer, you are very wrong.” (40, “The Book of Divine Consolation”)
Higher than the virtue of love, Eckhart praises detachment as nearness to God:
“I praise detachment more than love because love forces me to suffer all things for the sake of God, but detachment makes me receptive of nothing but God.” (108, “On Detachment”)
“For when the detached heart has the highest aim, it must be toward the Nothing, because in this there is the greatest receptivity.” (119)
Nothingness or “the Nothing” has been a feature of apophatic mysticism or negative theology from as early as Origen of Alexandria (185 A.D. — 254 A.D.). “None of the names we attribute to God are really suitable; this is apophatic (negative) theology. All we can say is what God is not.” (Magoulias 1970, page 68) Byzantine Christianity credits Pseudo-Dionysios (5th-6th century A.D.) for what amounts to “an attempt to combine neo-Platonic theories and Christian dogma into a unified system of Christian mysticism.” (1970, page 68)
“Christianity and neo-Platonism, in fact, were two almost contemporary movements — two analogous answers to almost the same spiritual problems” (1970, page 69)
Eckhart on the truth of suffering and sorrow turning into joy:
“A man should also think in his suffering that God speaks the truth and makes promises in his own name as being the Truth. […] Now his word is that our sorrow shall be turned into joy. Surely, if I knew for certain that all my stones should be changed into gold, the more and the larger stones I had, the better I should be pleased.” (35, “The Book of Divine Consolation)
“Suffering is bitter as gall, but to have suffered is honey-sweet:”
“[…] no one will enjoy more eternal bliss than those who stand with Christ in the greatest bitterness. Suffering is bitter as gall, but to have suffered is honey-sweet. […] For while the natural man crawls here in the deepest lowliness, his spirit flies up into the heights of the Godhead, for joy brings sorrow and sorrow brings joy.” (124, “On Detachment”)
Eckhart dares so far as to compare the necessity of death with the repayment of a debt:
“Since all that is good or consoling or temporal is given to man as a loan, what has he to complain of when he, who has lent it, will take it back? He ought to thank God that he has lent it to him […] that which never belonged to him, of which he never was the master.” (37–38, “The Book of Divine Consolation”)
“On Detachment:”
“[…] take notice of the words of Christ, speaking of his humanity to his disciples: “It is expedient for you that I go away from you, for if I go not away, the Holy Spirit cannot come to you.” It was as if he had said: “You have taken too much joy in my physical presence, hence the perfect joy of the Holy Spirit cannot be imparted to you.” Therefore strip yourselves of the images and unite yourselves with the formless Being, for God’s spiritual consolation is gentle.” (123)
The selection of Meister Eckhart, from Whom God Hid Nothing contains a mystic language for human experience. The God who is unrepresentable has plenty of representations, it is only that he transcends all our images. In a saying from Eckhart, “God needs no image and has no image.” (1996, page 50) Every image of God has a parallax error, even in thought.
“We ought not to have or let ourselves be satisfied with any thought of God. When the thought goes, our God goes with it.” (page 18, “Solitude and God-Getting”)
In the familiar language for “finding” God, Eckhart offers mystic advice for inwardness, to look where you last had him. “What to do on missing God who is in hiding […] Man’s best chance of finding God is to look in the place where he left him.” (22) The confidence of Eckhart stems from his mystic sense for the nearness of God, who is hidden without being absent from inner experience.
Turning Inwards
Mystics have a knack for finding solitude with whomever, and practicing an inexhaustible stillness anywhere because the source is inwards (19). On having God, Eckhart insists, you do not obtain God from elsewhere, “from outside” — God is “within:”
“But anyone for whom God is not really within like this, who must always go and fetch him from outside, from this or that, seeking him in changing modes, perhaps in work or in places or people, that person is easily distracted, for […] he is hindered not merely by bad company but also good […] The hindrance is in him […]” (1996, page 17)
Inwardness means more than the introverted will to self-isolate. For a balance of mind, the rigor of contemplative life has a welcome respite in the active life (page 4). A spiritual mentality combines mental prayer with practical activity, and silent meditating should not be confused with passive contemplation.
The Surrender of Will
Without contradicting the relative need for silence and prayer, Eckhart discourages anyone from waiting around for an answer from God. “God will not answer the call and prayer tomorrow, for he has already answered it in eternity before you ever became man.” (114) In prayer, what is there to ask from God? Desire of him what he freely gives (9). In difficult times, Eckhart prays for this, “give me the will to will:”
“Seneca, a pagan master, asks: What is the best comfort in suffering and tribulation? And he answers: It is this, that a man should take all things as if he had desired and asked for them. For if you had known that all things happen from, with, and in the will of God, you would indeed have wished for them.” (34, “The Book of Divine Consolation”)
Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, reflects the Ancient Roman influence which is typical for the tradition of Eckhart. Earlier Christian mystics led scholastic efforts to assimilate the pre-Christian heritage of Greek and Roman literature. According to the historian, Harry J. Magoulias, “in the Greek East from the fourth century on, the classics became the possession of both pagans and Christians.” (1970, page 18, Byzantine Christianity: Emperor, Church and the West)
Sources of Christian Mysticism
The Stoics produced a body of work which was influential for Christian ascetics, who established monastic doctrines on the basis of Ancient Greek philosophy. The Christian mystic concept for the surrender of will has neo-Platonic origins from what the historian Magoulias terms “the dual movement of beings: their repulsion from the first principle and their return to it.” (1970, page 69) The spiritual experience of losing yourself has the dual or double sense of “repulsion,” whose contradiction is in also returning to the self. The surrender of will promises nothing new, except for an original process of theosis (74).
In a double sense, theosis or becoming divine is also a process of becoming more human. The Jesuit theologian, George A. Maloney (1924–2005) declares, “all humans are called to be mystics.” The Breath of the Mystic (1974) names a number of significant sources for Christian mysticism: Origen, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Pseudo-Dionysius, St. Teresa of Avila, and Meister Eckhart.
“These mystics were not neurotic people who took particular delight in suffering for love of God. They had entered into their deepest self where they began to lose the most precious possession that a human being has before he learns to surrender himself in love to the Other, the control of his own little world of reality.” (Maloney, pages 54–55)
Christian mystics endure difficult experiences without idealizing suffering for its own sake. Spiritual life addresses an inner source of suffering from the neurotic ambition for control, which is quite understandable as a need for relief, but also leads to perpetual distraction.
“Knowingly or unknowingly they want something definite, some experience of higher things. They are set on this condition or that boon. It is nothing whatever but self-will. Abandon to God altogether your self and all things without any qualms as to what he will do with his own. […] One Ave Maria said thus with self-forgetfulness is better than a thousand said without; better one step in this way than a journey overseas in any other.” (Eckhart, page 23, “What to Do on Missing God Who Is in Hiding”)
The surrender of will should not be confused with self-neglect. Rather than reckless abandon, the careful process of “self-forgetfulness” clears a path for loving the unlovable fragment of the self. From the beginning of a sermon titled “The Spark,” Eckhart admits to needing help with an inner part he cannot love himself.
“Saint Augustine cries, Lord I cannot love you, but come in and love yourself in me. According to Saint Paul, we must put off our own natural form and put on the form of God, and Saint Augustine tells us to discard our own mode of nature.” (81)
For a sense of changing human nature, Eckhart evokes a spiritual experience of having nothing. “To be stripped poor, to have nothing, to be empty — this transforms nature; the void causes water to climb mountains” (36). The Breath of the Mystic refers to a process of “kenosis,” or emptying, “in order that God may fill the void.” (1974, page 25) Mystic meditation requires “a slowing down of your mental activities” (65) Maloney terms “an interior silence of the heart.” (162)
“The accent is on the existential encounter with the Absolute, not in images, concepts or through a reasoning process, but through a reverent, silent listening.” (Breath of the Mystic, page 69)
The effect of mystic experience dissolves the difference between having nothing and having everything because the familiar sense for “having God” is the only possession you can never lose. A genuine mystic can expect to lose everything else. In a saying from Eckhart: “I put more faith in the scriptures than myself.” (1996, 47) The externalization of trust from self to scripture requires enough confidence and humility to forgive the least-forgivable part, the unlovable self from an earlier trauma. In his work, Psychoanalysis and Religion (1950), the German-American social psychologist, Erich Fromm admits the spiritual significance of an encounter with the unconscious.
“When we get in touch with this dissociated part […] We must approach the unconscious not as if it were a God whom we must worship or a dragon we must slay but in humility, with a profound sense of humor, in which we see that other part of ourselves as it is, neither with horror nor with awe.” (Fromm, pages 93–94)
The unconscious God of Psychoanalysis and Religion descends as low as the most irreconcilable parts of self repression, “desires, fears, ideas, insights which have been excluded” (94). From the perspective of “modern man,” his religion lacks consciousness of his own idolatry, the fault he finds in everyone else’s religion, except his own. In a psychoanalytic critique of secular modernity, Fromm provides the diagnosis for a competitive society of “Commodity man,” who idolizes “the economic machine” over everything else, even over human happiness. The immoderate pursuit of technological and economic development for its own sake is a modern pretension which Eckhart anticipates. “It is nothing whatever but self-will.”
Work should humble and unify, not alienate and exploit:
“Work must be done simply for the work’s sake and not for any why. One heathen philosopher claims that whatever you work at, whatever you do, if it wrests you from pride and multiplicity to humility and unity, without doubt it is good.” (Eckhart’s Sermons, page 84, “The Spark”)
On the necessity of experience to change yourself:
“This too is what our Lord meant when he said, “a nobleman went out.” For man has to go out of all forms and of himself, and to all such he must be wholly foreign and remote if he really means and is to be a son; to become the Son in his Father’s heart.” (97, “The Nobleman”)
“If, then, you would like to be God’s son and yet not suffer, you are very wrong.” (40, “The Book of Divine Consolation”)
Higher than the virtue of love, Eckhart praises detachment as nearness to God:
“I praise detachment more than love because love forces me to suffer all things for the sake of God, but detachment makes me receptive of nothing but God.” (108, “On Detachment”)
“For when the detached heart has the highest aim, it must be toward the Nothing, because in this there is the greatest receptivity.” (119)
Nothingness or “the Nothing” has been a feature of apophatic mysticism or negative theology from as early as Origen of Alexandria (185 A.D. — 254 A.D.). “None of the names we attribute to God are really suitable; this is apophatic (negative) theology. All we can say is what God is not.” (Magoulias 1970, page 68) Byzantine Christianity credits Pseudo-Dionysios (5th-6th century A.D.) for what amounts to “an attempt to combine neo-Platonic theories and Christian dogma into a unified system of Christian mysticism.” (1970, page 68)
“Christianity and neo-Platonism, in fact, were two almost contemporary movements — two analogous answers to almost the same spiritual problems” (1970, page 69)
Eckhart on the truth of suffering and sorrow turning into joy:
“A man should also think in his suffering that God speaks the truth and makes promises in his own name as being the Truth. […] Now his word is that our sorrow shall be turned into joy. Surely, if I knew for certain that all my stones should be changed into gold, the more and the larger stones I had, the better I should be pleased.” (35, “The Book of Divine Consolation)
“Suffering is bitter as gall, but to have suffered is honey-sweet:”
“[…] no one will enjoy more eternal bliss than those who stand with Christ in the greatest bitterness. Suffering is bitter as gall, but to have suffered is honey-sweet. […] For while the natural man crawls here in the deepest lowliness, his spirit flies up into the heights of the Godhead, for joy brings sorrow and sorrow brings joy.” (124, “On Detachment”)
Eckhart dares so far as to compare the necessity of death with the repayment of a debt:
“Since all that is good or consoling or temporal is given to man as a loan, what has he to complain of when he, who has lent it, will take it back? He ought to thank God that he has lent it to him […] that which never belonged to him, of which he never was the master.” (37–38, “The Book of Divine Consolation”)
“On Detachment:”
“[…] take notice of the words of Christ, speaking of his humanity to his disciples: “It is expedient for you that I go away from you, for if I go not away, the Holy Spirit cannot come to you.” It was as if he had said: “You have taken too much joy in my physical presence, hence the perfect joy of the Holy Spirit cannot be imparted to you.” Therefore strip yourselves of the images and unite yourselves with the formless Being, for God’s spiritual consolation is gentle.” (123)
October 16, 2020
You can tell Meister Eckhart was a monk I tell you that. I love this approach to life though, and many of these writings found within this book are priceless. Out of the "sayings" (there is a section called sayings which is a verse by verse format of short insights of his) my favorite ones are 1 and 12.
Here is #1
Like an old friend of mine mentioned concerning another Meister Ekhart compilation, "I was expecting some medieval type logic". Rather... I found something very timeless, a remnant of that flickering flame that has never gone out. I found this to be very a hybrid Hermetic / Christian philosophy, without the usual cruft. Good book.
Here is #1
What is truth? Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep to the truth and let God go.
Like an old friend of mine mentioned concerning another Meister Ekhart compilation, "I was expecting some medieval type logic". Rather... I found something very timeless, a remnant of that flickering flame that has never gone out. I found this to be very a hybrid Hermetic / Christian philosophy, without the usual cruft. Good book.
Read
June 22, 2026“Man’s best chance of finding God is to look in the place where he left him.”
re Whitman’s: If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. / You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, /But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, / And filter and fibre your blood. / Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, / Missing me one place search another, / I stop somewhere waiting for you.
“Jacob rested in the place which is nameless. By not naming it, it is named. On getting to this nameless place the soul will rest, where all things are being God in God, there shall she rest. The abode of the soul, which God is, is unnamed. I say, God is unspoken. But Saint Augustine says that god is not unspoken; were he unspoken, even that would be speech, and he is more silence than speech.”
re Whitman’s: If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. / You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, /But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, / And filter and fibre your blood. / Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, / Missing me one place search another, / I stop somewhere waiting for you.
“Jacob rested in the place which is nameless. By not naming it, it is named. On getting to this nameless place the soul will rest, where all things are being God in God, there shall she rest. The abode of the soul, which God is, is unnamed. I say, God is unspoken. But Saint Augustine says that god is not unspoken; were he unspoken, even that would be speech, and he is more silence than speech.”
March 23, 2026
A well of wisdom, the teachings of Meister Eckhart are worth the first read and the future reread. This collection of Eckhart’s work lends well to picking up and putting down (for the past nine months, in my experience). For that I feel scattered in my thoughts on it though I do think the wide breadth of theology addressed, and perhaps convolution introduced, would take a lifetime and/or careful study to understand and live.
Become nothing, he says, not to abstain from emotion but to incline and align one’s will with God’s will. What a bold and prudent prayer.
Become nothing, he says, not to abstain from emotion but to incline and align one’s will with God’s will. What a bold and prudent prayer.
May 22, 2022
Like a kind of wisdom so distant and lofty I have to squint to see it. It's hard for me to evaluate since I don't quite know how he gets to all his conclusions, which sometimes (not always) seem dubious to me. Still, it challenges me to consider things from different angles, and at least for that reason, I found myself enjoying it.
October 12, 2024
The depth of his saying is very profound.
Also, his writing contains nuances that every spiritual aspirant can find value in.
This was my introduction to Meister. Looking forward to learning more.
Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep the truth and let God go.
Also, his writing contains nuances that every spiritual aspirant can find value in.
This was my introduction to Meister. Looking forward to learning more.
Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep the truth and let God go.
September 12, 2020
Good
Longish with good advice. Takes love of God as our primary concern. Love of fellow man not dealt with. Read
Longish with good advice. Takes love of God as our primary concern. Love of fellow man not dealt with. Read
January 9, 2022
Wonderful, thought-provoking, rational & mystical.
October 21, 2024
In the Forward David Steindl-Rast, OSB writes that with Eckhart there are two types of books: collections of short quotations & editions of longer texts. This is a work of the longer texts.
February 5, 2026
As spiritual and philosophical as it can be, his words take me to a different beautiful realm
April 10, 2025
I first read this about 25, maybe 26 or 27, years ago. Till now I hadn't gone back to read it through again, though I did from time to time pick it up and flip to one of the heavily underlined sections to find a quote for a paper or essay or just to refresh my memory.
I first came across Eckhart through Thomas Merton, who referred to him repeatedly (if I remember correctly) in his book "Zen and the Birds of Appetite."
My first read of this book back in the late 90s just blew me away. It may have been my first exposure (outside of Merton) to Christian mysticism, a style of Christianity that sits with me a whole lot better than most popular Christian theology.
Having just read a book touching on Jewish mystic traditions ("The Jew in the Lotus"), I decided to pick this up again.
I have to admit that I wasn't as blow away this time around, mostly because this (the specific book, but also the general topic) just wasn't "new" to me anymore. But this was still good, still beautiful, still important.
Eckhart's Christianity isn't Buddhism, isn't Taoism. He may have been posthumously excommunicated, but what he offers here is definitely mystic CHRISTIANITY.
That said, at the core there's so much that connects this to other mystic traditions like Taoism and Buddhism (and other traditions about which I know much less). Deep down there's a universality to the mystic tradition.
Definitely a book worth reading.
I can't help but pull out a few quotes, things I underlined 25+ years ago that still feel so powerful to me.
Regarding that unnameable sense of longing, that "almost there-ness" of the spiritual life (what I referred to in songs of my youth as "the Unattainable"):
"No sooner does a man know the reason of a thing than immediately he tires of it and goes casting about for something new. Always clamoring to know, he is ever inconstant. The soul is constant only to this unknowing knowing which keeps her pursuing."
And:
"I am aware of something in me which sparkles in my intelligence; I clearly perceive THAT it is something, but WHAT I cannot grasp. Yet it seems if I could only seize it I should know all truth."
About the mystery, the inexplicability and uknowability of the ultimate reality (of "God") and the limitations of mere words:
"All those who want to make statements about God or wrong, for they fail to say anything about him. Those who want to say nothing about him are right, for no word can express God; but he expresses himself in himself."
And then this, the "why" of it all, the only answer to that quest for meaning that has ever made sense to me:
"For if Life were questioned a thousand years and asked: 'Why live?' and if there were an answer, it could be no more than this: 'I live only to live!' And that is because Life is its own reason for being, springs from its own Source, and goes on and on, without ever asking why-- just because it is life."
I first came across Eckhart through Thomas Merton, who referred to him repeatedly (if I remember correctly) in his book "Zen and the Birds of Appetite."
My first read of this book back in the late 90s just blew me away. It may have been my first exposure (outside of Merton) to Christian mysticism, a style of Christianity that sits with me a whole lot better than most popular Christian theology.
Having just read a book touching on Jewish mystic traditions ("The Jew in the Lotus"), I decided to pick this up again.
I have to admit that I wasn't as blow away this time around, mostly because this (the specific book, but also the general topic) just wasn't "new" to me anymore. But this was still good, still beautiful, still important.
Eckhart's Christianity isn't Buddhism, isn't Taoism. He may have been posthumously excommunicated, but what he offers here is definitely mystic CHRISTIANITY.
That said, at the core there's so much that connects this to other mystic traditions like Taoism and Buddhism (and other traditions about which I know much less). Deep down there's a universality to the mystic tradition.
Definitely a book worth reading.
I can't help but pull out a few quotes, things I underlined 25+ years ago that still feel so powerful to me.
Regarding that unnameable sense of longing, that "almost there-ness" of the spiritual life (what I referred to in songs of my youth as "the Unattainable"):
"No sooner does a man know the reason of a thing than immediately he tires of it and goes casting about for something new. Always clamoring to know, he is ever inconstant. The soul is constant only to this unknowing knowing which keeps her pursuing."
And:
"I am aware of something in me which sparkles in my intelligence; I clearly perceive THAT it is something, but WHAT I cannot grasp. Yet it seems if I could only seize it I should know all truth."
About the mystery, the inexplicability and uknowability of the ultimate reality (of "God") and the limitations of mere words:
"All those who want to make statements about God or wrong, for they fail to say anything about him. Those who want to say nothing about him are right, for no word can express God; but he expresses himself in himself."
And then this, the "why" of it all, the only answer to that quest for meaning that has ever made sense to me:
"For if Life were questioned a thousand years and asked: 'Why live?' and if there were an answer, it could be no more than this: 'I live only to live!' And that is because Life is its own reason for being, springs from its own Source, and goes on and on, without ever asking why-- just because it is life."
July 13, 2015
I really enjoyed the writings of Meister Eckhart, but found the introduction very superficial and lacking much detail. I also felt there was only a small sampling of his teachings and writings, so I'm buying a much larger comprehensive book containing much more of his writings, which I thought this book would have included. It's a very small book, just enough to wet the appetite, but not satisfy. Brett Folkman, Doctor of Ministry
April 1, 2016
I got this book after listening to an interview with John O'Donohoue on On Being. He suggested it as source material. I just couldn't get into it this time around. I'll have to stick to rereading Anam Cara for now.
July 18, 2015
Blech! Forget this guy. If you want a good medieval Christian mystic, read John of the Cross.
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