Who am I? and happy Solstice

[Guest guest]

[Please note: Following are a number of comments of Meister Eckhart. He was a

medieval Christian church man whose exuberant realizations and utterances often

got him in hot water with his " Superiors. " While he seemed required to use the

word " God " where we nondualists of today might simply say, the Reality, Not-Two,

Sat-Chit-Ananda, or etc, clearly his seeing of the oneness of being is clear in

his many attempts to convey his love and vision and spiritual awe.] Happy

holidays to all!

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" Here in time we make holiday because the eternal birth which God the Father

bore and bears unceasingly in eternity is now born in time, in human

nature.....We intend therefore to speak of this birth as taking place in us, as

being consummated in the virtuous soul, for it is in the perfect soul that God

speaks His word. "

 

" What is truth? Truth is something so noble that if God could turn away from it,

I could keep to the truth and let God go.....when we leave everything

conceivable, everything expressible, everything audible, everything

visible--then and then only we become flooded with light, exceedingly bright

with God. "

 

" The most powerful prayer, one well nigh omnipotent, and the worthiest work of

all is the outcome of a quiet mind. "

 

" Some people shun all company and like to be alone; their peace depends upon it.

Would they not be better in the bosom of the Church? I say no, one who truly has

God has Him in all places, in the streets and in the world no less than in the

Church. He is ever bearing God alone in mind in all his acts as well as in all

places, and all his works are being done by God. He who has God thus, in

reality, to him God is apparent in all things.....And so this man in virtue of

God's presence goes on shining without effort. What is more, he is alive to one

pure nature in all things. "

 

" Abandon to God altogether your self and all things without any qualms as to

what he will do with his own. Since all that is good or consoling or temporal is

given to man as a loan, what has he to complain of when He who has lent it, will

take it back? He ought to thank God that He has lent it to him for so long. "

 

" Now you must know that inwardly the soul is free from means and images; that is

why God can freely unite with her without form or image.....therefore you truly

must sojourn and dwell in your essence, in your ground, and there God shall mix

you with his simple essence without the medium of any image. "

 

" Do not fondly imagine that God, when he created the heavens, and the earth and

all creatures, made one thing one day and another the next.....all God did was:

he willed and they were. "

 

" Dear children you must know that true spiritual life leads to perfect freedom

from self and from all things. One cares nothing, seeks nothing, has nothing,

wants nothing for oneself.....the highest knowing and seeing is, unknowing and

unseeing.....therefore we can not speak of God in a true sense, because there is

nothing above God, and God has no cause.....one can not really speak of God

because nothing is equal to him. Life is its own reason for being, springs from

its own Source, and goes on and on, without ever asking why--just because it IS

life. "

 

" The really virtuous man does not need God. What I have I don't lack. He makes

no plans, he sets no store by things. As God is higher than man, so is He

readier to give than man is to receive.....THERE IS PERFECT DAY IN THE SOUL WHEN

THE SOUL IS FULL OF LIGHT DIVINE. The abode of the soul, which God is, is

unnamed. I say, God is unspoken. We say God is a spirit. Not so. If God were

really a spirit, he would be spoken. "

 

" O sweet nature of the unborn light, purify my mind and enlighten my

understanding so that I may be conscious of you..... Intuition is the light of

the soul, and all men by nature desire this knowledge. No better thing exists.

Intuition is good. "

 

" I praise detachment more than love because love causes me to suffer all things

for the sake of God, but detachment makes me receptive of nothing but God. Now

it is far nobler to be receptive of nothing but God than to suffer all things

for the sake of God. "

 

" If the heart is to find preparedness for the highest of all flights, it must

aim at a pure nothing, and in this there is the greatest possibility that can

exist.....when the heart has the highest aim, it must be toward the Nothing.

What is the prayer of the detached heart? I answer that detachment and purity

cannot pray. The detached heart does not ask for anything at all, nor does it

have anything at all that it would like to be rid of. Therefore it is free of

all prayer, and its prayer is nothing else than to be uniform with God. There is

nowhere complete rest except in the detached heart alone. For this reason God

would rather be there than in any other things or virtues. Therefore, detachment

is the very best thing. It purifies the soul, cleanses the conscience, inflames

the heart, arouses the spirit, quickens desire, and makes God known.....it

unites the soul with God. If anyone wishes to attain perfect detachment, let him

strive for perfect humility, then he will find and know God. "

 

" May the highest detachment, that is, God himself, assist us to achieve this.

Amen. "