Meister Eckhart, a 13th-century German theologian and writer, was a controversial mystic who believed in the unity of the soul with God. He argued that the soul’s deepest ground is God Himself, and thus, the soul and God are not two but one. Eckhart’s teachings were characterized by an emphasis on the unity of the soul with God, and his concept of Gelassenheit, or letting-be-ness, was central to his teachings.
Eckhart’s approach to knowing God directly was shaped by two central insights: the One pervades the universe and resides within us all, in our souls. He believed that we should detach from all things so that we can experience the eternal birth of the Word. His teachings have been incorporated into contemporary spiritual literature, new-age tomes, and academic scholarship.
In his collection of sermons and treatises, Meister Eckhart emphasized the importance of the soul’s connection to God and the idea that the eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me. This perspective has been echoed in contemporary spiritual literature, new-age tomes, and academic scholarship.
Meister Eckhart’s life, work, and legacy have been influenced by various religious and economic philosophers, including Karl Marx. His teachings have been adapted into various forms of spirituality, including the concept of the breakthrough, which he experienced as a result of his spiritual evolution and personal discovery.
📹 Meister Eckhart & Christian Mysticism
Meister Eckhart is an influential, and often surprising, Christian theologian/philosopher/mystics whose writings & sermons have …
What type of mystic was Meister Eckhart?
Meister Eckhart, born around 1260 in Hochheim, Thuringia, was a Dominican theologian and writer who was the greatest German speculative mystic. He studied in Cologne under the influence of the great Dominican theologian Thomas Aquinas. Eckhart was nominated vicar of Thuringia in his mid-30s and taught theology at Saint-Jacques’s priory in Paris. He received a master’s degree in Paris in 1302 and was known as Meister Eckhart. He wrote four treatises in German, including the Talks of Instruction at the age of 40, which focused on self-denial, the nobility of will and intellect, and obedience to God.
Eckhart faced the Franciscans in famous disputations on theological issues and became provincial of the Dominicans in Saxony in 1303. He primarily preached to contemplative nuns in the Rhine River valley and resided in Strasbourg as a prior.
What did Meister Eckhart believe about God?
Eckhart’s vision of God is primarily fecund, with the fertile God giving birth to the Son, the Word in all of us. This idea is rooted in the Neoplatonic concept of “ebullience” and the free act of will of the triune nature of Deity. Eckhart distinguishes between God and Godhead, a state of being God, which was present in Pseudo-Dionysius’s writings and John the Scot’s De divisione naturae. He reshaped germinal metaphors into profound images of polarity between the Unmanifest and Manifest Absolute. Eckhart also taught that it is not in God to destroy anything with being, but he perfects all things, leading some scholars to conclude that he may have held to some form of universal salvation.
What are examples of mysticism?
Mysticism encompasses a range of observable behaviors, including chanting mantras, meditation, and prayer. These practices are thought to facilitate a sense of oneness or union with the divine, thereby fostering a sense of unity and connection within the individual.
What is mysticism in simple words?
The notion that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience, such as intuition or insight, is a vague and unsubstantiated speculation.
What is the theory of mysticism?
Mystics believe that their experiences reveal an extrasensory dimension of reality, which cannot be detected through sense perception. Mysticism is often mistakenly thought to be irrational due to its obscure or cryptic nature. However, other mystical traditions, like Aristotle’s, take pride in their adherence to reason. Diogenes of Apollonia, a Greek philosopher of the 5th century BCE, introduced mystical ideas into Greek philosophy, stating that all existing things are created by altering the same thing and are the same thing.
Diogenes’ ultimate substance is called Air, which is both Soul (Life) and Intelligence. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics emphasized the contemplative life, which involves the soul’s participation in the eternal through a union between the soul’s rational faculty and the nous, which imparts intelligibility to the cosmos.
How do you know if you are a mystic?
An ordinary mystic may experience moments of ego loss and absorption in the divine, such as feeling lifted out of one’s body and lost in beautiful art or nature. This can occur as a parent, creative person, or a creative person, and can lead to mystical moments that extend the boundaries of oneself and increase empathy with others.
If religion is defined as a strong sense of the divine, daily mysticism contributes to this sense by drawing one out of oneself and into nature and beyond. It is important to take these experiences seriously and make something of them, weaving them into one’s thinking, feeling, and relating. These experiences become part of one’s life and identity, leaving the mystic empty and lost in a positive way, yet alert and ready for the next revelation and opportunity.
Religion begins with the sense that life makes sense within a larger one, with a bond between oneself and the world, and that happiness depends on the happiness of the beings around them. The mystic may even realize that their soul participates in the world’s soul.
Is Meister Eckhart heretical?
Meister Eckhart, a German Dominican mystic, was investigated for being a heretic during the Inquisition and some of his works were found to be heretical. However, he was never personally condemned as a heretic. According to Father John Hardon’s Catholic Encyclopedia, Eckhart was believed to have been born between 1250 and 1260 in the German Landgraviate of Thuringia. He joined the Dominican order at the age of 18 and studied at Cologne and possibly at the University of Paris.
Investigations of his doctrine have indicated Eckhart’s personal orthodoxy, while admitting indiscretion in language and the fact that his writings have been used by persons unfavorable to the Church, such as Kant to defend agnostic idealism, Hegel to defend pantheism, and Rosenberg to defend Nazism.
What is the main practice of mysticism?
Mysticism, a term with Ancient Greek origins, refers to the pursuit of union with the Absolute, the Infinite, or God. It can encompass various forms of ecstasy, altered states of consciousness, and human transformation. The term has historically defined the biblical, liturgical, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity. In the early modern period, mysticism encompassed a broad range of beliefs and ideologies related to extraordinary experiences and states of mind.
In modern times, mysticism has gained a limited definition, aiming for the union with the Absolute, the Infinite, or God, and has been applied to various religious traditions and practices, valuing “mystical experience” as a key element. This limited definition has been applied to a wide range of religious traditions and practices, emphasizing the importance of mystical experiences in mysticism.
Was Meister Eckhart a universalist?
Meister Eckhart, a renowned theologian and mystic, was born around 1260 and died around 1327. He became a friar at 15 and served as a vicar. Eckhart was a prolific author, preacher, and teacher, influencing his audiences with controversial answers to questions like “Who is God?” and “What is the goal of humanity?” He incorporated universalism as a Christian doctrine, similar to Origen. Franz Pfeiffer has collected and published many of Eckhart’s writings.
What are the 4 aspects of mysticism?
The mystical phenomenology is distinguished by a set of characteristics, including ineffability, a mystical quality, transiency, and passivity. James posits that this latter quality represents the most challenging aspect to convey in verbal form.
What was Meister Eckhart’s famous quote?
Meister Eckhart, a German Monist philosopher, mystic, and theologian of the Catholic Church, espoused the conviction that the eye through which one beholds the divine is the same eye through which the divine beholds the individual. This notion fosters the concept of a unified vision encompassing sight, knowledge, and love.
📹 Meister Eckhart~ 𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐨𝐝 ~ Christian Mystics
Selected verses and teachings taken from The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart – translated by Maurice Walshe …
Great, unbiased introduction to a subject I didn’t know much about — it made me want to read more about Meister Eckhart. I loved the open mindedness of the conclusion, which emphasises why he’s so interesting and worth learning about, regardless of which category of thinker one would like to place him. Such an open-minded and non-judgemental approach to religious thinkers (and ideas in general) is refreshing! Thanks 👍
This is an excellent description and analysis of Meister Eckhart’s teachings. It is greatly appreciated because it is difficult to understand many of his concepts and ideas when I read his writings. I now understand why Eckhart Tolle took his name as his own. Meister Eckhart’s teachings are truly profound and absolutely mind blowing, enlightening, inspiring and life changing.
This article is astonishingly good. It gives all the important aspects of Eckhart’s experience accurately and completely. When he talks of the Word being born in us he has broken through to the essence of Christianity. There is no need for a Jesus. (He himself probably never thought this).The preposition in the Vulgate is “in” which can mean “among”, but really the Word was made flesh and dwelt in us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. More personally I believe but cannot prove, that he reincarnated three times, having no need to do so for his own sake, but to help me “break through”.
Great stuff! Would you possibly be interested in msking a article about the Franciscan idea of mysticism? Perhaps it would be a good “foil”, so to speak, in contrast to this intriguing Dominican view of the mystic side of Christianity. Regardless, keep up the great work! Thoroughly enjoying your content.
A very inspiring piece of news. I like what he believed in and what he was trying to convey to others. His work somewhat reminds me of Eckhart Tolli…he too is a great teacher and explains himself very well. However both teachers seem to come from the same direction and it’s not surprising that they are Christian believers who would shudder, reject or oppose their teachings..even the very interlect including clergy etc.
Excellent! Truly excellent article! Thank you so much! Yes, mysticism in all religions (Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, so many other religions, and Christianity too – oh, so little understood by the Church itself!) all come to the same conclusions! Thank you for exposing Meister Eckhart’s ideas so beautifully!
The thing that academic students of comparative religion seem to not-understand when encountering a similarity of viewpoints among the mystics is that the mystics have a similarity of INNER EXPERIENCE — not that they’re copying each other. This similarity in mystics’ descriptions is greater where they do not feel obligated to align their discourse with a religious doctrine.
Yes, the eastern religions definitely have deities and light beings. 🙏 As a Christian turned Occultist and YogaTeacher (still am), and then Christian again, I have a very deep and sophisticated understanding of the layers of meaning and metaphor in the Bible now. Most people are operating as you said, even Christians, at a very shallow level of discernment surrounding what the Bible truly IS. It’s more of an exposé on human character and cycles and psychology. It is actually extremely hard to explain to a lay-person without them having had historical context or some intermediate introductory to the inner workings of other belief systems. I’m still just a student myself. The more I study, the more sophisticated my understanding and the less I feel like there is a human capacity to hold the breadth and depth of these experiences within the Monad.
Fantastic article, thank you! Can you comment on whether the McGinn books you cited have much of his writings directly? My pastor gave a homily about Meister Eckhart some months ago and I would like to learn more about him and his theology. Thanks also for addressing the ways in which this is similar to buddhism and sufism.
First, I am always impressed with the amount of work you put into these articles. Next, when a sage brings out a teaching it is not understood by his followers. We have seen this throughout history. People need to do their own work to find out what the truth is; just listening to a sage or his followers does nothing at all in the way of transformation. Next, God is consciousness, not nothingness. Nothingness is what the Hindus call the Absolute. This can be known through enough self-enquiry but cannot be conveyed in words. That which has existence, including God, is not nothingness. This must be personally realized; otherwise we are only playing with ideas and those who like to argue the point have never been through self-enquiry, so it becomes a futile discussion.
Emptiness is a non affirming negative in Buddhism. In madhyamaka philosophy emptiness isn’t a thesis it’s is that which remains after every other possible mode of existence has been eliminated through analysis. No form has inherent existence. Thus thru practice a mind with no inherent existence awakens to “emptiness” like water merging with water. Anyway as one lama said there is no true comparative studies in religion when this is attempted potentially false parallels are drawn. If all is empty of inherent existence no God or other entity can be especially empty kind of like some animals being more equal than others in animal farm and there cannot be something to merge with only lack of inherent existence to awaken to. Anyway, great website!
I have been looking for God for a long time now but have not been able to find him. But for some reason I can not bring myself to give up on him, it as if deep down I know God is real and out there somewhere. Maybe God just doesn’t want ME to find him. I am so jealous of the ppl I see on here that say they are on fire for God and have a relationship with him and get little signs he is around. I want that so bad!!! Why does he not answer when I call?? When I was a child I use to imagine that I had a real room inside my heart and when I would go into the room God was there, however one day the room was empty and it’s been empty since. God please let me know if you are here for me.
I know very little about theology or mysticism, either Christian or other. But your description of Eckhart’s views on being reminded me of Heidegger, who, as you may know, begins his book Sein und Zeit, first published in 1927 and usually referred to as his magnum opus, with the observation that the question of being has become forgotten.