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The Complete Work of Meister Eckhart
Eckhart von Hochheim] commonly known as Meister Eckhart[a] or Eckehart, was a German theologian, philosopher, and mystic, born near Gotha in the Landgraviate of Thuringia (now central Germany) in the Holy Roman Empire.
Eckhart came into prominence during the Avignon Papacy at a time of increased tensions between monastic orders, diocesan clergy, the Franciscan Order, and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Preachers. In later life, he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII.[He seems to have died before his verdict was received.
Eckhart came into prominence during the Avignon Papacy at a time of increased tensions between monastic orders, diocesan clergy, the Franciscan Order, and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Preachers. In later life, he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII.[He seems to have died before his verdict was received.
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Published July 4, 2020
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Meister Eckhart
271 books505 followersEckhart von Hochheim, commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in Thuringia.
Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris. Coming into prominence during the decadent Avignon Papacy and a time of increased tensions between the Franciscans and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Preacher Friars, he was brought up on charges later in life before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition. Tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII, his "Defence" is famous for his reasoned arguments to all challenged articles of his writing and his refutation of heretical intent. He purportedly died before his verdict was received, although no record of his death or burial site has ever been discovered.
Meister Eckhart is sometimes (erroneously) referred to as "Johannes Eckhart", although Eckhart was his given name and von Hochheim was his surname.
"Perhaps no mystic in the history of Christianity has been more influential and more controversial than the Dominican Meister Eckart. Few, if any, mystics have been as challenging to modern day readers and as resistant to agreed-upon interpretation."
—Bernard McGinn, The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart
Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris. Coming into prominence during the decadent Avignon Papacy and a time of increased tensions between the Franciscans and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Preacher Friars, he was brought up on charges later in life before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition. Tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII, his "Defence" is famous for his reasoned arguments to all challenged articles of his writing and his refutation of heretical intent. He purportedly died before his verdict was received, although no record of his death or burial site has ever been discovered.
Meister Eckhart is sometimes (erroneously) referred to as "Johannes Eckhart", although Eckhart was his given name and von Hochheim was his surname.
"Perhaps no mystic in the history of Christianity has been more influential and more controversial than the Dominican Meister Eckart. Few, if any, mystics have been as challenging to modern day readers and as resistant to agreed-upon interpretation."
—Bernard McGinn, The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart
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August 4, 2024
" 'Lord, take from them their spirit and give them instead thy spirit' (Ps. 1 03 :29-30). This too was meant by the loving soul when she said, "My soul dissolved and melted away when Love spoke his word" (Song 5:6). When he entered, 'I' had to fall away."
Meister Eckhart is a figure that stands at an important junction point in regards to the current sociocultural conflicts of our time. There is a strong influence of Neoplatonism in Eckhart's thought, with many references to Augustine and Aquainas as well as Aristotle and Seneca.
Despite being a lesser known figure, Eckhart also directly influenced Jung, Heidegger, and Tillich, three seminal figures in contemporary psychology, philosophy, and theology, respectively. His ideas, although open to interpretation, elucidate an exposition of Christian thought that challenges traditional Orthodox beliefs by way of framing Christianity as a mystical tool for self-transcendence rather than just a rigid set of dogmatic beliefs. His theology is an apophatic or negative theology. His Christianity is one that bridges the gap towards Zen Buddhism in a profound sense.
Above all, reading Eckhart will provide you with a rich set of metaphors to help you write about your own personal experiences. This will help you validate and share whatever truths you have happened to stumble upon. There is a redemptive quality to entering the prison of your own mind where the only way out is surrender.
To frame why any of this is relevant in the first place, what Eckhart is preaching is to cut yourself off from everyone and everything, to forget your humanity, your corporeality, and completely and ultimately surrender yourself to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. This is precisely the foundation upon which the penitentary system was founded in the 18th century United States, which has been twisted into a system purely for exploitation and systemization. There is a deep link between the concepts of guilt, prisons, and spiritual redemption, and all of these forces converge in the eternity of time where God's only-begotten Son is birthed in the ground of the soul, according to Eckhart. It is in this ground, where all personhood has fallen away, that I become truly of the same essence as the only-begotten Son and Christ.
Overall, this might be the most impactful book I have ever read.
What is at stake is nothing less than what it means to be a man: a brother, a son, a father. Without a spiritual framework ones entire manhood is flimsy, hence the necessity to build a foundation from the beginning.
I love you brother. I'm praying for you. Just know that our Father is with us. He is watching over you and guiding you to where you need to go. I may not be able to say these things to you directly but just know that I pray for you everyday, and your daughter. The strength you long for is within you. Reach for it. Through these words I'm able to say to you what I cannot in person. I know you'll never understand -- a lost cause -- yet I hold faith that your soul hears me. I know your heart is pure. Don't ever let them hold you down. We are the strong ones. There is a certain pain you cannot numb. We know the pain all too well. It is the pain one feels deep in their soul when their father abandons them. Such runs the necessity to surrender to our Lord and become one with his spirit so we can finally unite with our Father. He's waiting for you, brother. I will not rest until you feel this same love I have been so blessed to be united with. We never had much in common, but best believe we will have this. You were once my rock. My strength. Now look at you. How far man can fall without love from his father. The trick is to keep falling. His ground is there for you to land on. You special, special soul. You are so dear to my heart yet you don't even know it. I see right through you into that child that is so deeply hurt while simultaneously seeing the strength you so readily instilled in me. Where is that strength now? What happened to you? We haven't forgotten you. We haven't given up on you. I will never give up on you.
The more you distance yourself from family and friends, the more you go deeper into the pain within your soul and exist there for eternity, the closer you are to God. The only way out of this hell is to surrender your personhood to make room for God's divine love to flow into you. Without this love, we will turn to drugs and distractions to numb the pain we feel from being separated from our Father.
'34 Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own
household.’ (Matt. 10:34-36) '
This book lays out step by step how to have a personal encounter with God. This is relevant if you wish to feel the presence of our Father. But Eckhart goes a step further than the bible in this sense. The bible says to follow Christ's teaching. Eckhart says to become Christ, as Christ is within all of us. He lays out how Christ is born within our souls. "For between your human nature and his there is no difference: it is one, for it is in Christ what it is in you. In the rightous man all things are fulfilled that holy scripture and the prophets ever said of Christ: for, if you are in a right state, then all that was said in the Old and New Testaments will be fulfilled in YOU." This is a big statement. It means that we are not concerned with just the historical birth of Jesus Christ, but the eternal birth of Christ happening in all of us literally all the time. The degree to which this birth occurs in me aligns with the degree to which I exist outside of time, am detached from earthly beings, and instead have my heart set on God, the only reliable source of love in my life. Christ, in this mystical sense, is not just a historical figure, but an eternal figure that we, in essence, are one and the same with. 'When time was fulfiled, grace was born. When is the fullness of time? When time is no more. If anyone has, in time, set his heart on eternity so that in him all temporal things are dead, that is the fullnes of time.' Eckhart is of course speaking of Zen Buddhism here but in a Christian context where enlightenment or Nirvana is understood in Christ's indwelling within our soul. 'Thus, just as the inner man, in spiritual wise, loses his own being by his ground becoming one ground, so too the outer man must be deprived of his own support and rely entirely on the support of the eternal personal being which is this very personal being.' This is a very interesting statement when one considers the circumstances of the prisoner who is severed from his external support and must rely on his internal support system. What the prisoner must do is lose his own being so that the divine being may be born in him. And the initial purpose of solitary confinement was to distort the prisoner's perception of time in hopes that they would have an encounter with the divine and repent for their sins. This is what Eckhart is saying: lock yourself in a cell until you experience eternity, then surrender to it fully. Christ will be born in you. The connection between guilt, social isolation, distorted perception of time, and finally spiritual redemption, is an utterly fascinating one, especially when we consider how deeply embedded this narrative is in the very framework of what it means to be a MAN.
'What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4)'
What Eckhart shows us is that when we plunge our being into infinity, into eternity, where our perception exists outside of time, we are no longer underage, and thus we are no longer a slave to the 'guardians and trustees.' The 'time set by his father' is the eternal hell we must reside in. It is hell insofar as we are attached to it. In this state, something in you is at a standstil and so if your perception of self. This is the angst of a self that is exhausted -- it is the experiencing of self as a hallucination. Without the capacity for love, the self is like a hologram that is projected upon by external observers who decide for you who and what you are: the heir is underage. But once the only-begotten Son is born in you, it is as if you are severed from this hologrma, and now observe it from the third person. You become detached from who and what you are, and actually participate in the creation of your own being. What is human in me is divided, what is spiritual is one.
"There are many more sons who are born to virgins than there are born to married women, for they give birth beyond time, in eternity." This birth takes place in the present moment when we are fully grounded and free of self.
"Remember, if you seek anything of your own, you will never find God, for you are not seeking God alone. You are looking for somewthin with God, treating God like a candle with which to look for something; and when you have found what you are looking for, you throw the candle away." When I abandon myself to God, I receive myself back. Nothing more, nothing less. And what is the point of this? It is a trust fall. A loving father does not give me anything but his love. The rest is on me. But what I do know is that when I fall away, He is there to guide me back.
'Thus in the beloved city he gave me a resting place, and in Jerusalem was my domain.' (Sirach 24:11). "If I were asked what the Holy Trinity sought altogether in all its works, I would answer: rest." Eckhart is added as a preceding figure in the heritage that sees rest as the key component in sustaining consciousness. Freud, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, Guenther, Jung. Every creature seeks its natural resting place to sustain its being. For Eckhart, this resting place is in God. And when I rest in God, His Son is born in me with His radiant love. In this sense, if I am resting in God, I am of the same essence as the Son; I am the only-begotten Son born in eternity. This love that shines in me is propagated outward into the world and thus reality manifests through love.
' "He raised his eyes up from below" (John 17:1 ). Thus he instructs us that when we would pray, we should first descend in true downcast humility beneath all creatures. Only then should we ascend before the throne of wisdom, and as far as we have descended, so far shall we be granted what we have prayed for.' I come to know God only through the destruction of order and descent into chaos. In this part of my being my essence is His essence. I am the Son of God by having the same essence that the Son has. I cast out all grief so that perpetual joy reigns in my heart. Thus the child is born. And what else can be said of the child that he is the most free of us all to create? Nietzsche’s statement that ‘God is dead’ takes on an entirely new meaning when one examines the birth of the Son in the depths of one’s own soul. Just as I am about to pass on from this tormented place, just as I thought I may finally be depleted, a magnificent light shines through the cracks and breathes new life into my roots. It is in this moment, where even the light slices my resolve, that I finally realize I am staring into my own fate. I have become the abyss that sustains the colony. If I were to sustain myself by falling away, I would be killing the colony, and this guilt tears me apart inside. There is no why to my existence. I bloom because I bloom. I revel in knowing I play my part in sustaining life. And I accept my fate here and only then do I pass by. Only once I’ve realized the true nature of my life, that of existing on this chain of sacrifice and exploitation in the name of divine love, do I pass by. The flower must be sovereign over the colony: its suffering precedes it.
'14 For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, 15 thy all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, 16 a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of thy authentic command, and stood and filled all things with death, and touched heaven while standing on the earth. (Wisd. 18:14-16)'
Meister Eckhart is a figure that stands at an important junction point in regards to the current sociocultural conflicts of our time. There is a strong influence of Neoplatonism in Eckhart's thought, with many references to Augustine and Aquainas as well as Aristotle and Seneca.
Despite being a lesser known figure, Eckhart also directly influenced Jung, Heidegger, and Tillich, three seminal figures in contemporary psychology, philosophy, and theology, respectively. His ideas, although open to interpretation, elucidate an exposition of Christian thought that challenges traditional Orthodox beliefs by way of framing Christianity as a mystical tool for self-transcendence rather than just a rigid set of dogmatic beliefs. His theology is an apophatic or negative theology. His Christianity is one that bridges the gap towards Zen Buddhism in a profound sense.
Above all, reading Eckhart will provide you with a rich set of metaphors to help you write about your own personal experiences. This will help you validate and share whatever truths you have happened to stumble upon. There is a redemptive quality to entering the prison of your own mind where the only way out is surrender.
To frame why any of this is relevant in the first place, what Eckhart is preaching is to cut yourself off from everyone and everything, to forget your humanity, your corporeality, and completely and ultimately surrender yourself to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. This is precisely the foundation upon which the penitentary system was founded in the 18th century United States, which has been twisted into a system purely for exploitation and systemization. There is a deep link between the concepts of guilt, prisons, and spiritual redemption, and all of these forces converge in the eternity of time where God's only-begotten Son is birthed in the ground of the soul, according to Eckhart. It is in this ground, where all personhood has fallen away, that I become truly of the same essence as the only-begotten Son and Christ.
Overall, this might be the most impactful book I have ever read.
What is at stake is nothing less than what it means to be a man: a brother, a son, a father. Without a spiritual framework ones entire manhood is flimsy, hence the necessity to build a foundation from the beginning.
I love you brother. I'm praying for you. Just know that our Father is with us. He is watching over you and guiding you to where you need to go. I may not be able to say these things to you directly but just know that I pray for you everyday, and your daughter. The strength you long for is within you. Reach for it. Through these words I'm able to say to you what I cannot in person. I know you'll never understand -- a lost cause -- yet I hold faith that your soul hears me. I know your heart is pure. Don't ever let them hold you down. We are the strong ones. There is a certain pain you cannot numb. We know the pain all too well. It is the pain one feels deep in their soul when their father abandons them. Such runs the necessity to surrender to our Lord and become one with his spirit so we can finally unite with our Father. He's waiting for you, brother. I will not rest until you feel this same love I have been so blessed to be united with. We never had much in common, but best believe we will have this. You were once my rock. My strength. Now look at you. How far man can fall without love from his father. The trick is to keep falling. His ground is there for you to land on. You special, special soul. You are so dear to my heart yet you don't even know it. I see right through you into that child that is so deeply hurt while simultaneously seeing the strength you so readily instilled in me. Where is that strength now? What happened to you? We haven't forgotten you. We haven't given up on you. I will never give up on you.
The more you distance yourself from family and friends, the more you go deeper into the pain within your soul and exist there for eternity, the closer you are to God. The only way out of this hell is to surrender your personhood to make room for God's divine love to flow into you. Without this love, we will turn to drugs and distractions to numb the pain we feel from being separated from our Father.
'34 Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own
household.’ (Matt. 10:34-36) '
This book lays out step by step how to have a personal encounter with God. This is relevant if you wish to feel the presence of our Father. But Eckhart goes a step further than the bible in this sense. The bible says to follow Christ's teaching. Eckhart says to become Christ, as Christ is within all of us. He lays out how Christ is born within our souls. "For between your human nature and his there is no difference: it is one, for it is in Christ what it is in you. In the rightous man all things are fulfilled that holy scripture and the prophets ever said of Christ: for, if you are in a right state, then all that was said in the Old and New Testaments will be fulfilled in YOU." This is a big statement. It means that we are not concerned with just the historical birth of Jesus Christ, but the eternal birth of Christ happening in all of us literally all the time. The degree to which this birth occurs in me aligns with the degree to which I exist outside of time, am detached from earthly beings, and instead have my heart set on God, the only reliable source of love in my life. Christ, in this mystical sense, is not just a historical figure, but an eternal figure that we, in essence, are one and the same with. 'When time was fulfiled, grace was born. When is the fullness of time? When time is no more. If anyone has, in time, set his heart on eternity so that in him all temporal things are dead, that is the fullnes of time.' Eckhart is of course speaking of Zen Buddhism here but in a Christian context where enlightenment or Nirvana is understood in Christ's indwelling within our soul. 'Thus, just as the inner man, in spiritual wise, loses his own being by his ground becoming one ground, so too the outer man must be deprived of his own support and rely entirely on the support of the eternal personal being which is this very personal being.' This is a very interesting statement when one considers the circumstances of the prisoner who is severed from his external support and must rely on his internal support system. What the prisoner must do is lose his own being so that the divine being may be born in him. And the initial purpose of solitary confinement was to distort the prisoner's perception of time in hopes that they would have an encounter with the divine and repent for their sins. This is what Eckhart is saying: lock yourself in a cell until you experience eternity, then surrender to it fully. Christ will be born in you. The connection between guilt, social isolation, distorted perception of time, and finally spiritual redemption, is an utterly fascinating one, especially when we consider how deeply embedded this narrative is in the very framework of what it means to be a MAN.
'What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2 The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. 4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4)'
What Eckhart shows us is that when we plunge our being into infinity, into eternity, where our perception exists outside of time, we are no longer underage, and thus we are no longer a slave to the 'guardians and trustees.' The 'time set by his father' is the eternal hell we must reside in. It is hell insofar as we are attached to it. In this state, something in you is at a standstil and so if your perception of self. This is the angst of a self that is exhausted -- it is the experiencing of self as a hallucination. Without the capacity for love, the self is like a hologram that is projected upon by external observers who decide for you who and what you are: the heir is underage. But once the only-begotten Son is born in you, it is as if you are severed from this hologrma, and now observe it from the third person. You become detached from who and what you are, and actually participate in the creation of your own being. What is human in me is divided, what is spiritual is one.
"There are many more sons who are born to virgins than there are born to married women, for they give birth beyond time, in eternity." This birth takes place in the present moment when we are fully grounded and free of self.
"Remember, if you seek anything of your own, you will never find God, for you are not seeking God alone. You are looking for somewthin with God, treating God like a candle with which to look for something; and when you have found what you are looking for, you throw the candle away." When I abandon myself to God, I receive myself back. Nothing more, nothing less. And what is the point of this? It is a trust fall. A loving father does not give me anything but his love. The rest is on me. But what I do know is that when I fall away, He is there to guide me back.
'Thus in the beloved city he gave me a resting place, and in Jerusalem was my domain.' (Sirach 24:11). "If I were asked what the Holy Trinity sought altogether in all its works, I would answer: rest." Eckhart is added as a preceding figure in the heritage that sees rest as the key component in sustaining consciousness. Freud, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, Guenther, Jung. Every creature seeks its natural resting place to sustain its being. For Eckhart, this resting place is in God. And when I rest in God, His Son is born in me with His radiant love. In this sense, if I am resting in God, I am of the same essence as the Son; I am the only-begotten Son born in eternity. This love that shines in me is propagated outward into the world and thus reality manifests through love.
' "He raised his eyes up from below" (John 17:1 ). Thus he instructs us that when we would pray, we should first descend in true downcast humility beneath all creatures. Only then should we ascend before the throne of wisdom, and as far as we have descended, so far shall we be granted what we have prayed for.' I come to know God only through the destruction of order and descent into chaos. In this part of my being my essence is His essence. I am the Son of God by having the same essence that the Son has. I cast out all grief so that perpetual joy reigns in my heart. Thus the child is born. And what else can be said of the child that he is the most free of us all to create? Nietzsche’s statement that ‘God is dead’ takes on an entirely new meaning when one examines the birth of the Son in the depths of one’s own soul. Just as I am about to pass on from this tormented place, just as I thought I may finally be depleted, a magnificent light shines through the cracks and breathes new life into my roots. It is in this moment, where even the light slices my resolve, that I finally realize I am staring into my own fate. I have become the abyss that sustains the colony. If I were to sustain myself by falling away, I would be killing the colony, and this guilt tears me apart inside. There is no why to my existence. I bloom because I bloom. I revel in knowing I play my part in sustaining life. And I accept my fate here and only then do I pass by. Only once I’ve realized the true nature of my life, that of existing on this chain of sacrifice and exploitation in the name of divine love, do I pass by. The flower must be sovereign over the colony: its suffering precedes it.
'14 For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, 15 thy all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, 16 a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of thy authentic command, and stood and filled all things with death, and touched heaven while standing on the earth. (Wisd. 18:14-16)'
January 2, 2023
I doubt there has ever been a greater Mystic than Meister Eckhart. My absolute favorite. The man was a genius whose work Carl Jung stood on the shoulders of when beginning to formulate his Jungian Depth Psychology. The "grundt" or ground of being, the G_dhead and the method of going out while staying in, Eckhart revolutionized Christian thought with his beautiful prose and keen intellect. He was able to basically connect Christian ideas to multiple Faith's outside his own without ever having met them. He is a definite bridge to interfaith monologues. Just don't mix him up with that spiritual charlatan that appropriated his name----Eckhart Tolle.
November 28, 2023
I think that I have finally read enough Eckhart to mark his collected works as 'read.' I have a few pieces of writing that are soon coming out on Eckhart; he has been quite the partner to think with.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews