Meister Eckhart: The celebrated 14th Century mystic and scholastic: A central source and inspiration of dominant currents in philosophy and theology since Aquinas, w/the text of his historic Defense

I highly suggest this book. It is one you will enjoy as a "keeper". You, as have I, will enjoy coming back to this book over and over again, even if it is to just open the book and read the page your eyes fall on for the day.

It wasn't exactly what I expected and the translation was a little hard for me to understand, but I am still happy I purchased it.

Good book on Meister Eckhart. Cover not like that shown at left.

Yes, what he says is similar to other Mystics. Isn't this wonderfu?.

This book is deep and insightful.

This little book is rather special, for a start it shows that by Zen reckoning of Bodhidharma that a Christian monastic has reached the ultimate end of Zen... the unconscious, a word which Eckhart uses much in this book and on which Bodhidharma wrote. the unconscious mind is where one is neither conscious nor unconscious. neither emptiness nor form, and neither of these are seen. where there is neither attainment nor non attainment, neither self nor no self.when This/That has dropped off, no longer is suchness (This) seen nor is it not seen. blind one still sort of sees. when the unconscious is arrived at enlightenment has dropped away and one is no longer enlightened, but nor is one any longer deluded. there is not a thing to be seen or grasped.the state of unconsciousness is arrived at after a thorough analysis and awareness of "This"/suchness followed with vows and intention to drop the discriminating consciousness (Mano-vijnana). when the 6th consciousness drops away then no longer are the five senses, five sensory vijnanas operable any longer. blind, one still sees, but it is no longer possible to grasp visual impressions. life is dreamlike.Suzuki (Daisetz) in his Essays in Zen Buddhism, Third Series, includes a rare Tun Huang Cave manuscript of Bodhidharma on unconsciousness. i quote Bodhidharma: "We know that when the Unconsciousness is realized, all things cease to trouble us." (but thats not my experience!, was it his?)in Suzuki's Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra we have the following quote from the Lankavatara: p193: "My Nirvana has nothing to do with Substance (bhava), nor with Action (kriya), nor with Appearance (Lakshana). With the cessation of the Vijnana which is caused by discrimination, there is my cessation [ie. Nirvana].we also have from the Lankavatara: "As when the great flood runs its course there are no more waves, so with the extinction [of manovijnana] all the vijnanas cease to rise."and on page 192 of the Studies in the Lankavatara Suzuki quotes the Lankavatara: "therefore, o Mahamati, the seven Vijnanas cease with the cessation of Manovijnana.the Manovijnana is the discriminating consciousness, it tends to judge the Manas or thinking mind as well as enable the five senses and process them. if love and hate are renounced and manovijnana is relinquished: one arrives at a position where there is no longer any discrimination of love and hate, liking or disliking. this is enlighenment without remainder; one has realized non attachment or detachment as it may be called.detachment is not so easy to begin with. one feels that perhaps other people think one does not care. this is because emotions of love are not expressed by oneself. it is possible however to feel the love of another in ones heart. one no longer generates the emotion of love, however one does still love, only it is mental love/compassion. Eckhart calls this detachment and has written a large article on it. he says that detachment is a higher virtue than even love and that it makes room for God's love/being within the empty person. Eckhart also talks of death/dropping of self. he is very Zen indeed. When one is emotionally detached, there is no need to avoid the world, this is since it no longer clings to one self any longer. one is just detached.on page 99 of Meister Eckhart, translation by Blakney Eckhart says: "If you could only become unconscious of everything all at once and ignore your own life, as st Paul when he could say: "Whether in the body or out of it, I cannot tell: God knoweth" His spirit had so far withdrawn all its agents [five senses] that the body was forgotten."Unconscious detachment is realized when This/That is dropped with the cessation of manovijnana, the 6th Consciousness. love and hate have ceased, this is known as enlightnment without remainder. And, it is amazing that Meister Eckhart and other Christian monks have attained it.i think that Vedantins and Sufis would also arrive at unconciousness if they rigorousy continue to follow their paths. renunciation is the most powerful tool of development on the mystical path, and it is common to most of the great mystical traditions. i think that DT Suzuki was wrong to dismiss Christian Mysticism in his later life. it clearly arrives at the same postion that Bodhidhara arrived at.we cant any longer say there is a mind, but neither can we say that there is no mind.i hope this is helpful.best wishes, Tom.

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice."Wow.I love that. I really, really love that because it really allows me to know, to feel, to sense at such a deep and centered level of my being, that really, God has given me everything that I could possibly want or need or desire; it's always right where I am because the Holy (the Whole of) Spirit is within me and around me now.And because this is True of me, I know this to be True of you, as well.This is such a great read. It's heavy duty stuff. It's passionate, it's alive, it's filled with vibrancy and Light...but what do you expect from a man who also said that "The eye with which I see God, is the same eye with which God sees me."People didn't get Meister Eckhart. People still don't get Meister Eckhart. But then again, people don't get people who really know and feel and sense God with every breath in...and with every breath out. It's funny how we make it okay to believe in God, but the moment you claim to say that God is within you and you are within God, people begin to get a little weirded out.Why? Because we have this invested interest in somehow thinking we're separate from the Divine. We can't begin to think that everyone is an incarnation of the Spirit, can we? Afterall, man is a "sinner"...Yes, we are sinners...but to sin means to make a mistake in judgment, to err, to miss the mark and we have made the biggest mistake of them all by thinking we are only human."The knower and the known are one. Simple people imagine that they should see God as if he stood there and they here. This is not so. God and I, we are one in knowledge."God is right where we are! Always! We must abandon these ideas that we are "worms of the dust" that God is displeased with us, that God is always ready to condemn us. Jesus said, "God is Love". God is Love...think about that for the next twenty years of your life...if God is Love, then it must mean we are Love, too, for it clearly states in Genesis, "Let us them make him in our Image and Likeness..."The religionists do not want you to hear things like this. They will tell you it is blasphemy. They will tell you it is propaganda. They will quote all sorts of verses to you from scripture telling you that you are wrong.Go with the peace you came in with and peacefully and quietly shake the dust from your sandals and move onward. Leave their church and their overcrowded parking lots. The only reason why their message is heard is because FEAR sells; it always did and sadly, it always will.Meister Eckhart was almost tried for heresy. Fortunately, he died before he was tried. Fortunately, some of his writings survived. You can kill a person, but you cannot kill the truth because the Truth is forever and it will forever assert itself. Not out of brute force, but from a quiet and still place.If you are ready to know that God is really for you, and could never be against you, I suggest getting this book. Like one reader suggested, he takes one reading a day and meditates upon it. I promise you, if you are open to God, God will open Itself to you in ways too wondrous to even try to explain."A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don't know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox's or bear's, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there."Go into the depths of your being and begin to know the Living God that knows you only as It knows Itself.Peace and Blessings...

Perfect

I`ve only read 50 pages so far. I`m enjoying reading it in small dosage!!