MEISTER ECKHART 1260 - 1327

The most powerful prayer, one well-nigh omnipotent, 

and the worthiest work of all, is the outcome of a quiet mind.

The quieter it is the more powerful, the worthier,

the deeper, the more telling and more perfect the prayer is.

To the quiet mind, all things are possible.

 

What is a quiet mind?  A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on,

nothing worries. Which, free from ties and from all self-seeking,

is wholly merged into the will of God and dead to its own.

When we plant in the soil of contemplation, 

we shall reap in the harvest of action.

 

There is a huge silence inside each of us 

that beckons us into itself and the recovery of our own silence 

can begin to teach us the language of heaven.

 

Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world 

or by running away from things or by turning solitary and

going apart from the world, rather we must learn an inner solitude 

wherever or with whomever we may be. 

We must learn to penetrate things and find God there.

 

The very best and noblest attainment in this life is to be silent 

and let God work and speak within.  Therefore it is said: 

In the midst of silence the secret word was spoken to me.

 

People should not worry as much about what they do,

but rather about what they are. If they and their ways are good 

then their deeds are radiant. If you were righteous then what you do will also be righteous. 

We should not think that holiness is based on what we do, 

but rather on what we are. For it is not our works which sanctify us 

but rather we who sanctify our works.

 

The soul in which this birth is to take place must keep absolutely pure and must

live in noble fashion quite collected and turned entirely inward, not running

out through the five senses into the multiplicity of creatures, but all in-

turned and collected and in the purest part, there, is that place.

Be sure of this absolute stillness for as long as possible is best of all for you.

 

To be receptive to the highest truth and to live therein one must be without

before-and-after, untrammelled by all their acts, or by any images they ever

perceived, empty and free, receiving the divine gift in the eternal now and

bearing it back unhindered in the light of the same with praise and thanksgiving.

if the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you it will be enough.

 

Above thought 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

is another intellect which does not seek, but stays in its pure simple being which

is embraced in that light.

 

In silence one can most readily preserve their integrity. Be willing to be a

beginner every single morning. You may call God love you may call God

goodness but the best name for God is compassion.

The most important hour is always the present, the most significant person is

precisely the one sitting across from you right now.

The most necessary work is always love. Above all else know this, 

be prepared at all times for the gifts of God and be ready always for new ones, 

for God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to receive.

Become aware of what is in you. Announce it, pronounce it, produce it 

and give birth to it.

 

Love will never be anywhere except where equality and unity are, and there can be

no love where love does not find equality or is not busy creating equality.

Nor is there any pleasure without equality. Practice equality in human

society, learn to love, esteem, consider all people like yourself. What happens to

another, bad or good, pain or joy, ought to be as if it happened to you.

Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, secretly all nature seeks

God and works towards truth. You need seek God neither below nor above.

God is no farther away than the door of the heart. God is like a person who

clears his throat while hiding and so gives himself away. God lies in wait for

us with nothing so much as love. But God can not know itself without me.

Those who dwell in God, dwell in the eternal now.

There exists only the present instant and now which always and without end is

itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow but only now as it was a thousand years

ago and as it will be a thousand years hence.

 

Truly it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.

So when I am able to establish myself in nothing and nothing in myself, uprooting

and casting out what is in me, then I can pass into the naked being of God which

is the naked being of the Spirit. Since it is God's nature not to be like anyone,

we have to come to the state of being nothing in order to enter into the same

nature that that is.

 

There is a power in the soul which touches neither time nor flesh. Flowing

from the Spirit, remaining in the spirit, altogether spiritual.

But if you seek truth and seek it for your own profit and bliss 

then in truth you are not seeking God. We find people who like the taste of God in one way

and not in another and they want to have God only in one way of contemplation not in another.

I raised no objection, but they are quite wrong.

I declare truly that as long as anything is reflected in your mind which is not

the eternal word or which looks away from the eternal word then good as it

may be it is not the right thing.

For they alone are a good person who having said it nort all created things

stands facing straight with no side glances towards the eternal word and is

imaged and reflected there in righteousness.

The human spirit must transcend number and break through multiplicity and God

will break through them and just as that

breaks through into me, so I break through into that.

 

The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won't let go

of your life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away but they're not punishing you, they're freeing your soul.

if you're frightened of dying and you're holding on you'll see devils tearing

your life away. But if you've made your peace then the Devils are really angels

freeing you from the earth. For the person who has learned to let go and let be, nothing can ever get in the way again.

 

Treat all things as if they were loaned to you without any ownership with a body

or soul, sense or strength, external goods or honours, house or hall, everything. The

more deeply we are our true selves, the less self is in us.

To the extent that you eliminate ego from your activities, God comes into them,

but no more and no less. Begin with that and let it cost you your utter-most. In

this way and no other is true peace to be found.

Though it may be called an essence and unknowing, yet there is in it more than

all knowing and understanding without it.

For this unknowing lures and attracts you

from all understood things and from

yourself as well. For to be full of things is to be empty of

God, to be empty of things is to be full of God. The very best and highest

attainment in this life is to remain

still and let God act and speak in you.

But God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of

Subtraction.

 

Existence itself stands in need of nothing for it lacks nothing, whereas

everything else needs it because outside of it

there is nothing. Nothingness stands in need of existence as a sick man lacks

health and is in need. Health has no need

of a sick man. To want nothing, therefore,

characterizes the highest perfection, is

fullest and purest existence.

 

 When the soul wants to experience something,

she throws out an image in front of her and then steps into it.

But everything is meant to be lost that the soul may stand in unhampered

Nothingness. The shell must be cracked apart if what is in it

is to come out. For if you want the kernel you must break the shell, and therefore if you want to

discover nature's nakedness you must

destroy its symbols and the Farther you get in, the nearer you come to its essence. When you come to the one that gathers all things up into itself, there you must stay.

When a person sees the one in all things,

they are above mere understanding.

For God wants nothing from you but the gift of a peaceful heart.

-   Samaneri Jayasara