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.
________________________________________________________________________
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.
_______________________________________________________________
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
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!
