Carl

“Eckhart speaks of “perfect poverty” in which man is even “without God,” and “has no place in himself for God to work” (i.e., is beyond purity of heart). “Man’s last and highest parting occurs when for God’s sake he takes leave of god. St. Paul took leave of god for God’s sake and gave up all that he might get from god as well as all he might give—together with every idea of god. In parting with these he parted with god for God’s sake and God remained in him as God is in his own nature—not as he is conceived by anyone to be—nor yet as something yet to be achieved, but more as an is-ness, as God really is. Then he and God were a unit, that is pure unity. Thus one becomes that real person for whom there can be no suffering, any more than the divine essence can suffer.”
― Thomas Merton, Zen and the Birds of Appetite