Meister Eckhart

The Nearness of the Kingdom

ST Luke xxi, 31.--" Know that the Kingdom of God is near."

OUR Lord saith that the Kingdom of God is near us. Yea, the Kingdom of God is within us as St Paul saith "our salvation is nearer than when we believed." Now we should know in what manner the Kingdom of God is near us. Therefore let us pay diligent attention to the meaning of the words. If I were a king, and did not know it, I should not really be a king. But, if I were fully convinced that I was a king, and all mankind coincided in my belief, and I knew that they shared my conviction, I should indeed be a king, and all the wealth of the king would be mine. But, if one of these three conditions were lacking, I should not really be a king.

In similar fashion our salvation depends upon our knowing and recognizing the Chief Good which is God Himself. I have a capacity in my soul for taking in God entirely. I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and presence of God. He is also near things of wood and stone, but they know it not. If a piece of wood became as aware of the nearness of God as an archangel is, the piece of wood would be as happy as an archangel. For this reason man is happier than the inanimate wood, because he knows and understands how God is near him. His happiness increases and diminishes in proportion to the increase and diminution in his knowledge of this. His happiness does not arise from this that God is near him, and in him, and that He possesses God; but from this, that he knows the nearness of God, and loves Him, and is aware that "the Kingdom of God is near." So, when I think on God's Kingdom, I am compelled to be silent because of its immensity, because God's Kingdom is none other than God Himself with all His riches. God's Kingdom is no small thing: we may survey in imagination all the worlds of God's creation, but they are not God's Kingdom. In whichever soul God's Kingdom appeareth, and which knoweth God's Kingdom, that soul needeth no human preaching or instruction; it is taught from within and assured of eternal life. Whoever knows and recognizes how near God's Kingdom is to him may say with Jacob, "God is in this place, and I knew it not."

God is equally near in all creatures. The wise man saith, "God hath spread out His net over all creatures, so that whosoever wishes to discover Him may find and recognize Him in each one." Another saith, "He knows God rightly who recognizes Him alike in all things." To serve God with fear is good; to serve Him out of love is better; but to fear and love Him together is best of all. To have a restful or peaceful life in God is good; to bear a life of pain in patience is better; but to have peace in the midst of pain is the best of all.

A man may go into the field and say his prayer and be aware of God, or, he may be in Church and be aware of God; but, if he is more aware of Him because he is in a quiet place, that is his own deficiency and not due to God, Who is alike present in all things and places, and is willing to give Himself everywhere so far as lies in Him. He knows God rightly who knows Him everywhere. St Bernard saith, "How is it that mine eye and not my foot sees heaven? Because mine eye is more like heaven than my foot is. So, if my soul is to know God, it must be God-like."

Now, how is the soul to arrive at this heavenly state that it recognizes God in itself, and knows that He is near? By copying the heavens, which can receive no impulse from without to mar their tranquillity. Thus must the soul, which would know God, be rooted and grounded in Him so steadfastly, as to suffer no perturbation of fear or hope, or joy or sorrow, or love or hate, or anything which may disturb its peace.

The heavens are everywhere alike remote from earth, so should the soul be remote from all earthly things alike so as not to be nearer to one than another. It should keep the same attitude of aloofness in love and hate, in possession and renouncement, that is, it should be simultaneously dead, resigned and lifted up. The heavens are pure and clear without shadow of stain, out of space and out of time. Nothing corporeal is found there. Their revolutions are incredibly swift and independent of time, though time depends on them. Nothing hinders the soul so much in attaining to the knowledge of God as time and place. Therefore, if the soul is to know God, it must know Him outside time and place, since God is neither in this or that, but One and above them. If the soul is to see God, it must look at nothing in time; for while the soul is occupied with time or place or any image of the kind, it cannot recognize God. If it is to know Him, it must have no fellowship with nothingness. Only he knows God who recognizes that all creatures are nothingness. For, if one creature be set over against another, it may appear to be beautiful and somewhat, but if it be set over against God, it is nothing. I say moreover: If the soul is to know God it must forget itself and lose itself, for as long as it contemplates self, it cannot contemplate God. When it has lost itself and everything in God, it finds itself again in God when it attains to the knowledge of Him, and it finds also everything which it had abandoned complete in God. If I am to know the highest good, and the everlasting Godhead, truly, I must know them as they are in themselves apart from creation. If I am to know real existence, I must know it as it is in itself, not as it is parcelled out in creatures.

The whole Being of God is contained in God alone. The whole of humanity is not contained in one man, for one man is not all men. But in God the soul knows all humanity, and all things at their highest level of existence, since it knows them in their essence. Suppose any one to be in a beautifully adorned house: he would know much more about it than one who had never entered therein, and yet wished to speak much about it. Thus, I am as sure, as I am of my own existence and God's, that, if the soul is to know God, it must know Him outside of time and place. Such a soul will know clearly how near God's kingdom is.

Schoolmen have often asked how it is possible for the soul to know God. It is not from severity that God demands much from men in order to obtain the knowledge of Himself: it is of His kindness that He wills the soul by effort to grow capacious of receiving much, and that He may give much. Let no man think that to attain this knowledge is too difficult, although it may sound so, and indeed the commencement of it, and the renouncement of all things, is difficult. But when one attains to it, no life is easier nor more pleasant nor more lovable, since God is always endeavouring to dwell with man, and teach him in order to bring him to Himself. No man desires anything so eagerly as God desires to bring men to the knowledge of Himself. God is always ready, but we are very unready. God is near us, but we are far from Him. God is within, and we are without. God is friendly; we are estranged. The prophet saith, "God leadeth the righteous by a narrow path into a broad and wide place that is into the true freedom of those who have become one spirit with God." May God help us all to follow Him that He may bring us to Himself. Amen.

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SANCTIFICATION

St Luke 10:42. - "One thing is needful."

ST.  Luke x. 42

I HAVE read many writings both of heathen philosophers and inspired prophets, ancient and modern, and have sought earnestly to discover what is the best and highest quality whereby man may approach most nearly to union with God, and whereby he may most resemble the ideal of himself which existed in God, before God created men. And after having thoroughly searched these writings as far as my reason may penetrate, I find no higher quality than sanctification or separation from all creatures. Therefore said our Lord to Martha, "One thing is necessary," as if to say, "whoso wishes to be untroubled and content, must have one thing, that is sanctification."

Various teachers have praised love greatly, as St Paul does, when he saith, "to whatever height I may attain, if I have not love, I am nothing." But I set sanctification even above love; in the first place because the best thing in love is that it compels me to love God. Now it is a greater thing that I compel God to come to me, than that I compel myself to go to God. Sanctification compels God to come to me, and I prove this as follows:--

Everything settles in its own appropriate place; now God's proper place is that of oneness and holiness; these come from sanctification; therefore God must of necessity give Himself to a sanctified heart.

In the second place I set sanctification above love, because love compels me to suffer all things for the sake of God; sanctification compels me to be the recipient of nothing but God; now, it is a higher state to be the recipient of nothing but God than to suffer all things for God, because in suffering one must have some regard to the person who inflicts the suffering, but sanctification is independent of all creatures.  

Many teachers also praise humility as a virtue. But I set sanctification above humility for the following reason. Although humility may exist without sanctification, perfect sanctification cannot exist without perfect humility. Perfect humility tends to the annihilation of self; sanctification also is so close to self-annihilation that nothing can come between them. Therefore perfect sanctification cannot exist without humility, and to have both of these virtues is better than to have only one of them.

The second reason why I set sanctification above humility is that humility stoops to be under all creatures, and in doing so goes out of itself. But sanctification remains self-contained. But to remain contained within oneself is nobler than to go out of oneself for any purpose whatever; therefore saith the Psalmist, "The King's daughter is all glorious within," that is, all her glory is from her inwardness. Perfect sanctification has no inclination nor going-out towards any creature; it wishes neither to be above or below, neither to be like nor unlike any creature, but only to be one. Whosoever wishes to be this or that wishes to be somewhat; but sanctification wishes to be nothing.

But someone may say: "All virtues must have existed in fullness in Our Lady, therefore perfect sanctification must have been in her. If sanctification is higher than humility, why did Our Lady speak of her humility, and not of her sanctification, when she said, "For He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden?" To this I answer that God possesses both sanctification and humility, so far as we may attribute virtues to God. Now thou shouldest know that His humility brought God to stoop down to human nature, and our Lady knew that He wished for the same quality in her, and in that matter had regard to her humility alone. Therefore she made mention of her humility and not of her sanctification, in which she remained unmoved and unaffected. If she had said, "He hath regarded the sanctification of His handmaiden," her sanctification would have been disturbed, for, so to speak, would have been a going out of herself. Therefore the Psalmist said, "I will hear what the Lord God will say in me," as if to say, "If God will Speak to me, let Him come in, for I will not come out." And Boethius saith, "Men, why seek ye outside you what is inside you--salvation?"

I set also sanctification above pity, for pity is only going out of oneself to sympathize with one's fellow-creature's sorrows. From such an out-going sanctification is free and abides in itself, and does not let itself be troubled. To speak briefly: when I consider all the virtues I find none so entirely without flaw and so conducive to union with God as sanctification.

The philosopher Avicenna says, "The spirit which is truly sanctified attains to so lofty a degree that all which it sees is real, all which it desires is granted, and in all which it commands, it is obeyed." When the free spirit is stablished in true sanctification, it draws God to itself, and were it placed beyond the reach of contingencies, it would assume the properties of God. But God cannot part with those to anyone; all that He can do for the sanctified spirit is to impart Himself to it. The man who is wholly sanctified is so drawn towards the Eternal, that no transitory thing may move him, no corporeal thing affect him, no earthly thing attract him. This was the meaning of St Paul when he said, "I live; yet not I; Christ liveth in me."

Now the question arises what is sanctification, since it has so lofty a rank. Thou shouldest know that real sanctification consists in this that the spirit remain as immovable and unaffected by all impact of love or hate, joy or sorrow, honour or shame, as a huge mountain is unstirred by a gentle breeze. This immovable sanctification causes man to attain the nearest likeness to God that he is capable of. God's very essence consists of His immovable sanctity; thence springs His glory and unity and impassibility. If a man is to become as like God as a creature may, that must be by sanctification. It is this which draws men upward to glory, and from glory to unity, and from unity to impassibility, and effects a resemblance between God and men. The chief agent in this is grace, because grace draws men from the transitory and purifies them from the earthly. And thou shouldest know that to be empty of all creature's love is to be full of God, and to be full of creature-love is to be empty of God.

God has remained from everlasting in immovable sanctity, and still remains so. When He created heaven and earth and all creatures, His sanctity was as little affected thereby as though He had created nothing. I say further: God's sanctity is as little affected by men's good works and prayers, as though they had accomplished none, and He is by those means no more favourably inclined towards men than if they ceased praying and working. I say even more: when the Divine Son became man and suffered that affected the sanctity of God as little as though He had never become man at all.

Here someone may make the objection: "Are then all good works and prayers thrown away, since God is unmoved by them, and at the same time we are told to pray to Him for everything?" In answer to this I say that God from all eternity saw everything that would happen, and also when, and how He would make all creatures: He foresaw also all the prayers which would be offered, and which of them He would hear: He saw the earnest prayers which thou wilt offer tomorrow, but He will not listen to them tomorrow, because He heard them in eternity, before thou wast a man at all. If, however, thy prayer is half-hearted and not in earnest, God will not deny it now, seeing that He has denied it in eternity. Thus God remains always in His immovable sanctity, but sincere prayer and good works are not lost, for whoso doeth well, will be well rewarded.

When God appears to be angry or to do us a kindness, it is we who are altered, while He remains unchangeable, as the same sunshine is injurious to weak eyes and beneficial to strong ones, remaining in itself the same. Regarding this Isidorus in his book concerning the highest good says, "People ask what was God doing before He created heaven and earth, or whence came the new desire in God to create?" To this he answers, "No new desire arose in God, seeing that creation was everlastingly present in Him, and in His intelligence." Moses said to God, "When Pharaoh asks me who Thou art, what shall I answer?" God said, "Say, I AM hath sent me unto you," that is to say, "He Who is unchangeable hath sent me."

Perhaps someone may ask, "Was Christ then also unchangeable, when He said, 'My soul is troubled even unto death,' or Mary when she stood under the Cross and lamented?" Here, thou shouldest know that in every man are two kinds of men, the outer and the inner man. Every man, who loves God, only uses his outer senses so far as is absolutely necessary; he takes care that they do not drag him down to the level of the beasts, as they do some who might rather he termed beasts than men. The soul of the spiritual man whom God moves to love Him with all his powers concentrates all its forces on the inner man. Therefore He saith, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." Now, there are some who waste the powers of the soul for the use of the outer man; these are they who turn all their thoughts and desires towards transitory things, and know nothing of the inner life. But a good man sometimes deprives his outer man of all power that it may have a higher object, while sensualists deprive the inner man of all power to use it for the outer man.

The outer man may go through various experiences, while the inner man is quite free and immovable. Now both in Christ and in Our Lady there was an inner and an outer man; when they spoke of outward things, they did so with the outward man, while the inner man remained immovable.

It may be asked: "What is the object of this immovable sanctity?" I answer, "Nothing": that is, so far as God has His way with a man, for He has not His way with all men.

Although God is Almighty, He can only work in a heart when He finds readiness or makes it. He works differently in men than in stones. For this we may take the following illustration: if we bake in one oven three loaves of barley-bread, of rye-bread, and of wheat, we shall find the same heat of the oven affects them differently; when one is well-baked, another will be still raw, and another yet more raw. That is not due to the heat, but to the variety of the materials. Similarly God works in all hearts not alike but in proportion as He finds them prepared and susceptible. If the heart is to be ready for the highest, it must he vacant of all other things. If I wish to write on a white tablet, whatever else is written on the tablet, however noble its purport, is a hindrance to me. If I am to write, I must wipe the tablet clean of everything, and the tablet is most suitable for my purpose when it is blank. Similarly, if God is to write on my heart, everything else must come out of it till it is really sanctified. Only so can God work His highest will, and so the sanctified heart has no outward object at all.

The question arises: But what then does the sanctified heart pray for? I answer that when truly sanctified, it prays for nothing, for whosoever prays asks God to give him some good, or to take some evil from him. But the sanctified heart desires nothing, and contains nothing that it wishes to be freed from. Therefore it is free of all want except that it wants to be like God. St Dionysius commenting on the text, "Know ye not that all run, but one receiveth the prize?" says "this running is nothing else than a turning away from all creatures and being united to the Uncreated." When the soul gets to this point, it loses its own distinctiveness, and vanishes in God as the crimson of sunrise disappears in the sun. To this goal only pure sanctification can arrive.

St Augustine says. "the strong attraction of the soul to the Divine reduces everything to nothingness: on earth this attraction is manifested as sanctification. When this process has reached its culminating point, knowledge becomes ignorance, desire indifference and light darkness. The reason why God desires a sanctified heart more than any other is apparent when we ask the question,

"What does God seek in all things?" The mouth of Wisdom says to us, "In all things I seek rest," and rest is to be found only in the sanctified heart; therein therefore God is more glad to dwell than in any other thing.

Thou shouldest also know that the more a man sets himself to be receptive of divine influence, the happier he is: who most sets himself so, is the happiest. Now no man can reach this condition of receptivity except by conformity with God, which comes from submission to God. This is what Saint Paul means when he says, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ," that is "be conformed to Christ." Whosoever wishes to comprehend the lofty rank and benefit of sanctification must mark Christ's words to His disciples regarding His humanity, "It is profitable for you, that I go away, for, if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you." As if to say, "Ye have so much desire towards my natural outward form, that ye cannot fully desire the Holy Spirit." Therefore put away forms and unite yourselves with formless Being, for God's spiritual comfort is only offered to those who despise earthly comfort.

Now, all thoughtful folk, mark me! no one can be truly happy, except he who abides in the strictest sanctification. No bodily and fleshly delight can ever take place without spiritual loss, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Therefore, the more a man fleeth from the created, the more the Creator hastens to him. And consider this: if the pleasure we take in the outward image of our Lord Jesus Christ diminishes our capacity for receiving the Holy Spirit, how much more must our unbridled desire for earthly comforts diminish it!

Therefore sanctification is the best of all things, for it cleanses the soul, and illuminates the conscience, and kindles the heart, and wakens the spirit, and girds up the loins, and glorifies virtue and separates us from creatures, and unites us with God. The quickest means to bring us to perfection is suffering; none enjoy everlasting blessedness more than those who share with Christ the bitterest pangs. Nothing is sharper than suffering, nothing is sweeter than to have suffered. The surest foundation in which this perfection may rest is humility; whatever here crawls in the deepest abjectness, that the Spirit lifts to the very heights of God, for love brings suffering and suffering brings love. Ways of living are many; one lives thus, and another thus; but whosoever will reach the highest life, let him in a few words hear the conclusion of the whole matter: keep thyself clear of all men, keep thyself from all imaginations that crowd upon the mind, free thyself from all that is contingent, entangling, and cumbersome and direct thy mind always to gazing upon God in thy heart with a steadfast look that never wavers: as for other spiritual exercises--fasting, watching and prayer--direct them all to this one end, and practice them so far as they may be helpful thereto, so wilt thou win to perfection. Here someone may ask, "Who can thus gaze always without wavering at a divine object?" I answer: "No one who now lives." This has only been said to thee that thou mightest know what the highest is, and that thou mightest have desires after it. But when thou losest sight of the Divine, thou shouldest feel as if bereft of thine eternal salvation, and shouldest long to recover it, and watch over thyself at all times, and direct thy aims and longing towards it. May God be blessed forever. Amen.

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SERMON NINETEEN

SURREXIT AUTEM SAULUS DE TERRA

APERTISQUE OCULIS NIHIL VIDEBAT

(Acts 9 : 8 )

This text which I have quoted in Latin is written by St. Luke in Acts

about St. Paul. It means "Paul rose from the ground and with open

eyes saw nothing."

I think this text has a fourfold sense. One is that when he rose up

from the ground with open eyes he saw Nothing, and the Nothing

was God; for when he saw God he calls that Nothing. The second:

when he got up he saw nothing but God. The third: in all things

he saw nothing but God. The fourth: when he saw God, he saw all

things as nothing.

He previously told how a light came suddenly from heaven and

felled him to the ground. Note, he says that a light came from heaven

( Acts 9 : 3 ). Our best masters say that heaven has light within itself,

and yet does not shine. The sun also has light within itself, and does

shine. The stars too have light, though it is conveyed to them .3 Our

masters say fire in its simple, natural purity gives no light at its highest

place. Its nature (there) is so pure that no eye can see it in any way. It

is so subtle and so alien to the eyes, that if it were down here before

the eyes, they could not touch it by the power of sight. But in an alien

object one can easily see it, where it has been caught by a piece of

wood or a lump of coal.

By the light of heaven we mean the light that is God, to which no

man's senses can attain. Hence St. Paul says, " God dwells in a light

that no man can approach" ( 1 Tim. 6 : 1 6 ) . He says God is a light to

which there is no approach. There is no way in to God. No man still

on the way up, still on the increase in grace and light, ever yet got

into God. God is not a growing light, yet one must have got to Him

by growing. During the growing we do not see God. If God is to be

seen, it must be in the light that is God Himself. A master says, 'In

God there is no less or more, no this or that.' As long as we are on

the approaches, we cannot get in.

Now he says, "A light from heaven shone about him. " That means

that everything pertaining to his soul was enveloped. A master says

that in this light all the soul's powers are lifted up and exalted: the

outer senses we see and hear with, and the inner senses we call

thoughts. The reach of these and their profundity is amazing. I can

think as easily of a thing overseas as of something close at hand.

Above thoughts is the intellect which still seeks. It goes about looking,

spies out here and there, picks up and drops. But above the

intellect that seeks there is another intellect which does not seek, but

stays in its pure, simple being, which is embraced in that light. And I

say that it is in this light that all the powers of the soul are exalted.

The senses rise up into the thoughts. How high and how fathomless

these are, none knows but God and the soul.

Our masters say - and it is a knotty question - that even the

angels know nothing about thoughts unless they break out and rise

into the questing intellect,4 and this seeking intellect springs up into

the intellect that does not seek, which is pure light in itself. This light

embraces in itself all the powers of the soul. Therefore he says, "The

light of heaven shone about him . "

A master says that all things that have a n emanation receive nothing

from things below them. God flows into all creatures, and yet

remains untouched by them all. He has no need of them. God gives

nature the power to work, and her first work is the heart. And so

some masters held that the soul is entirely in the heart and flows out

thence, giving life to the other members.

That is not so. The soul is entire in every single member. It is true

that her first work is in the heart. The heart lies in the middle, and

needs protecting on all sides, just as heaven suffers no alien influence

and receives nothing from anywhere, for it possesses all things. It

touches all things and remains untouched. Even fire, exalted as it is

in its highest part, cannot touch heaven.

In the encircling light he fell to earth and his eyes were opened, so

that with open eyes he saw all things as naught. And when he saw 

all things as naught, h e saw God. Now note a word spoken b y the soul

in the Book of Love: "In my bed at night I have sought him whom

my soul loves, and not found him" (Song 3 : 1 }. She sought him in

her bed, which means that whoever clings or hangs on to anything

less than God, his bed is too narrow. All that God can create is too

narrow. She says, "I sought him all through the night." There is no

night that is without light, but it is veiled. The sun shines in the night,

but is hidden from view. By day it shines, and eclipses all other lights.

So does the light of God; it eclipses all other lights. Whatever we seek

in creatures, all that is night. I mean this: whatever we seek in any

creature is but a shadow and is night. Even the highest angel's light,

exalted though it be, does not illumine the soul. Whatever is not the

first light is all darkness and night. Therefore she cannot find God. " I

arose and sought him all about, and ran through the broad ways and

the narrow. Then the watchmen - they were the angels - found me,

and I asked them if they had seen him whom my soul loves. But they

were silent" (Song 3 : 2-3 ) . Perhaps they could not name him. "When

I had passed on a little further, I found him that I sought" (Song 3: 4} .

The little, the trifle that she missed him b y i s a thing I have spoken of

before. He to whom all transient things are not trivial and as nothing

will not find God. Hence she said, “Having passed on a little further,

I found him that I sought. “When God takes form in the soul and

infuses it, if you then take Him as a light or a being or as goodness if

you recognize anything of Him - that is not God. See, we have to

pass over that little and discard all that is adventitious and know God

as One. Therefore she says, "When I had passed on a little further, I

found him that my soul loves. "

We very often say, 'Him m y soul loves.' Why does she say, 'Him

my soul loves'? For He is far above the soul, and she did not name

Him she loved. There are four reasons why she did not name Him.

One reason is that God is nameless. Had she given Him a name,

that would have had to be imagined.5 God is above all names; none

can get so far as to be able to express Him. The second reason why

she gave Him no name is that when the soul swoons away into God

with love, she is aware of nothing but love. She thinks that everyone

knows Him as she does. She is amazed that anyone should recognize

anything but God. The third reason is, she had no time to name Him.

She cannot turn away from love for long enough to utter another word 

but 'love.' The fourth is, perhaps she thinks He has no other

name but 'love.' With 'love' she pronounces all names. Therefore she

says, "I rose up, I went through the broad ways and the narrow. And

when I had passed on a little further, I found him I sought. "

"Paul rose from the ground and with open eyes saw nothing. " I

cannot see what is one. He saw nothing, that is: God. God is a nothing

and God is a something.6 What is something is also nothing. What

God is, that He is entirely. Concerning this the illumined Dionysius,

in writing about God, says, 'He is above being, above life, above

light.' He attributes to Him neither this nor that, but makes Him out

to be I know not what that far transcends these. Anything you see, or

anything that comes within your ken, that is not God, just because

God is neither this nor that. Whoever says God is here or there, do not

believe him. The light that God is shines in the darkness. God is the

true light: to see it, one must be blind and must strip from God all that

is 'something.' A master says whoever speaks of God in any likeness,

speaks impurely of Him. But to speak of God with nothing is to speak

of Him correctly. When the soul is unified and there enters into total

self-abnegation, then she finds God as in Nothing. It appeared to

a man as in a dream - it was a waking dream - that he became

pregnant with Nothing like a woman with child, and in that Nothing

God was born; He was the fruit of nothing. God was born in the

Nothing.? Therefore he says, "He arose from the ground with open

eyes, seeing nothing." He saw God, where all creatures are nothing.

He saw all creatures as nothing, for He has the essence of all creatures

within Him. He is an essence that contains all essence.

A second thing he means by saying "He saw nothing. " Our masters

say that whoever perceives external things, something must enter into

him, at least an impression. If I want to get an image of anything,

such as a stone, I draw the coarsest part of it into myself, stripping

it off externally. But as it is in the ground of my soul, there it is at

its highest and noblest, there it is nothing but an image. Whatever

my soul perceives from without, an alien element enters in. But when

I perceive creatures in God, nothing enters but God alone, for in

God there is nothing but God. When I see all creatures in God, I see

nothing. He saw God, in Whom all creatures are nothing.

The third reason why he saw nothing: the nothing was God. A

master says, all creatures are in God as naught, for He has in Him

the essence of all creatures. He is the essence that contains all essence.

A master says there is nothing under God, however near it may be to

Him, but has some alien taint. A master says an angel knows himself

and God without means. But into all else he knows, there comes an

outside element - there is an impression, however slight. If we are

to know God it must be without means, and then nothing alien can

enter in. If we do see God in this light, it must be quite private and

indrawn, without the intrusion of anything created. Then we have an

immediate knowledge of eternal life.

"Seeing nothing, he saw God. " The light that is God flows out and

darkens every light. The light in which Paul saw revealed God to him

and nothing else. Therefore Job says, "He commands the sun not to

shine and has sealed up the stars beneath Him as with a seal" (Job

9 : 7) . Being enveloped in this light, he could see nothing else, for all

pertaining to his soul was troubled and preoccupied with the light

that is God, so that he could take in nothing else. And that is a good

lesson for us, for when we concern ourselves with God we are little

concerned with things from without.

Fourthly, why he saw nothing: the light that is God is unmingled,

no admixture comes in. This was a sign that it was the true light

he saw, which is Nothing. By the light he meant quite simply that

with his eyes open he saw nothing. In seeing nothing, he saw the

divine Nothing. St. Augustine says: 'When he saw nothing, he saw

God. ' He who sees nothing else and is blind, sees God. Concerning

this, St. Augustine says, 'Since God is a true light and a support for

the soul, and closer to her than the soul is to herself, when the soul

turns from things become, it must be that God gleams and shines

within her.'

The soul cannot experience love or fear without knowing their

occasion. If the soul does not go out into external things, she has come

home, and dwells in her simple, pure light. There she does not love,

nor does she know anxiety or fear. Understanding is a foundation and

support of all being. Love has no anchor except in understanding.

When the soul is blind and sees nothing else, she sees God, and this

must be so. A master says, 'The eye at its clearest, where it is colorless,

there sees all colors.' Not only where it is in itself bare of all colors,

but in its place in the body it must be without color if we are to

recognize colors. Whatever is without color, with that we can see all

colors, even if it were down in our feet. God is an essence that

embraces all essence. For God to be perceived by the soul, she must be

blind. Therefore he says, " He saw the Nothing," from whose light all

lights come, from whose essence all essence comes. And so the bride

says in the Book of Love, "When I had passed on a little further, I

found Him that my soul loves." The little that she passed by was all

creatures. Whoever does not put them behind him will not find God.

She also means that however subtle, however pure a thing is that I

know God by, yet it must go. Even the light that is truly God, if I take

it where it touches my soul, that is still not right. I must take it there,

where it wells forth. I could not properly see the light that shines on

the wall unless I turned my gaze to where it comes from. And even

then, if I take it where it wells forth, I must be free of this welling

forth: I must take it where it rests in itself. And yet I say even that

is wrong. I must take it neither where it touches nor where it wells

forth nor where it rests in itself, for these are still all modes. We must

take God as mode without mode, and essence without essence, for

He has no modes. Therefore St. Bernard says, 'He who would know

thee, God, must measure thee without measure.'

Let us pray to our Lord that we may come to that understanding

that is wholly without mode and without measure. May God help us

to this. Amen.

Notes

1 . St. Luke. Like other writers of the period, Eckhart frequently leaves the reader

to sort out the reference of personal pronouns.

2. E.g. Albertus Magnus.

3. Albertus Magnus again: the stars were not clearly distinguished from the

planets. The ultimate source for this and the following remarks about fire is Aristotle.

4. Because angels do not have the lower 'soul powers.'

5 . An imaginary, arbitrary name.

6. Quint supplies iht 'something' after ein. The sense requires it, as was perceived

by Lasson in 1 868.

7. Quint, while rightly denying any connection with the anecdote of the 'pregnant

monk,' thinks this story is an ad hoc illustrative invention of Eckhart's. I think

it is the record of a personal experience. Eckhart probably uses the third person form

just as St. Paul does in 2 Cor. 1 2 : 2ff.

__________________________________________

THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED

When all began

(beyond mind's span)

the Word aye is

Oh what bliss

When source at first gave birth to source!

Oh Father's heart

from which did start

that same Word:

yet 'tis averred,

the Word's still kept in womb perforce.

From both doth flow

a loving glow:

in double troth known to both

comes forth from them the Holy Ghost,

of equal state

inseparate

The three are one:

who grasps it? None!

Itself it knows itself the most.

The threefold clasp

we cannot grasp,

the circle's span

no mind can scan:

for here's a mystery fathomless.

Check and mate,

time, form, estate!

The wondrous ring

holds everything,

its central point stands motionless.

The peak sublime

deedless climb

if thou art wise!

Thy way then lies

through desert very strange to see,

so deep, so wide,

no bound's descried.

This desert's bare

of Then or There

in modeless singularity.

This desert place

no foot did pace,

no creature mind

ingress can find.

It is, yet truly none knows what.

'Tis there, 'tis here,

'tis far, 'tis near,

'tis high, 'tis low,

yet all we know

is: This it's not and That it's not.

 It's clear, it's bright,

it's dark as night;

no name or sign

can it define,

beginningless, of ceasing free.

Immobile, bare,

'tis flowing there.

Where it may dwell,

whoso can tell,

should teach us what its form may be.

As a child become,

both blind and dumb.

Thy own self's aught

must turn to naught.

Both aught and naught thou must reject,

without a trace

of image, time, or space.

Go quite astray

the pathless way,

Introduction to Part One

the desert thou mayst then detect.

My soul within,

come out, God in!

Sink all my aught

in God's own naught,

sink down in bottomless abyss.

Should I flee thee,

thou wilt come to me;

when self is done,

then Thou art won,

thou transcendental highest bliss!