in relation to this act, this interior speaking, this birth: whether it is more profitable to co-opcrate in it -perhaps by creating in the mind an imaginary image and disciplining oneself thereon by reflecting that God is wise, omnipotent, eternal, or whatever else one is able to excogitate about God — so that the birth may come to pass in us through our own exertion and merit; or whether it is more profitable and conducive to this birth from the Father to shun all thoughts, words and deeds as well as all mental images and empty oneself, maintaining a wholly God-receptive attitude, such that one’s own self is idle letting God work. Which conduct subserves this birth best?
The third point is the profit and how great it is, which accrues from this birth.
Note in the first jilaee that in what I am about to say I intend to avail myself of natural proofs that ye yourselves can grasp, for though I put more faith in the scriptures than myself, nevertheless it is easier and better for you to learn by means of arguments that can be vc^rified.
First we will take the words: ‘ In the midst of the silence there was spoken in me a secret word.’
— 13ut, Sir, where is the silence and where the place in which the word is spoken?
As I said just now, it is in the purest part of the soul, in the noblest, in her ground, aye in t he very essence of the soul. That is mid-silenee for thereinto no creature did ever get, nor any image, nor has the soul there either activity or understanding, therefore she is not aware of any image cither of herself or any creature. What- ever the soul effects she effects with her powers. When she under- stands she understands with her intellect. When she remembers she does so with her memory. When she loves she does so with her will. She works then with her powers and not with her essence. Now every exterior act is linked with some means. The power of seeing is brought into play only through the eyes; elsewhere she can neither do nor liestow such a thing as seeing. And so with all the other senses: their operations arc always effected through some means or other, lint there is no activity in the essence of the soul; the faculties she works with cTuanatc from the ground of the essence but in her actual ground there is mid-stillness; here alone is rest and a habitation for this birth, this act, wherein God the Father speaks his Word, for it is intrinsically receptive of naught save the divine ess:*nce, without means. Here God enters the soul with his all, not merely with a part. God enters the ground of the soul. None can touch the ground of the soul but God only. No creature is admitted into her ground, it must stop outside in her powers. There it sees the image whereby it has been SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 5 drawn in and found shelter. For when the soul-powers contact a creature they set to to make of the creature an image and likeness which they absorb. By it they know the creature. Creatures cannot go into the soul, nor can the soul know anything about a creature which she has not willingly taken the image of into herself. She approaches creatures through their present images; an image being a thing that the soul creates with her powers. Be it a stone, a rose, a man, or anything else that she wants to know about, she gets out the image of it which she has already taken in and is thus enabled to unite herself with it. But an image rceeiv^cd in this way must of necessity enter from without through the senses. Consequently there is nothing so unknown to the soul as herself. The soul, says a philosoplier, can neither create nor absorb an image of herself. So she has nothing to know liersclf by. Iniages all enter through the senses, hence she can have no image of herself. She knows other things but not hcrsell’. Of nothing does she know so little as of herself, owing to this arrangement. Now thou must know that inwardly the soul is free from means and images, that is why God can freely unite with her without form or similitude. Thou caiist not but attribute to God without measure whatever power thou dost attribute to a master. The wiser and more powerful the master the more immediately is his work effected and the simpler it is. Man requires many instruments for his external works; much preparation is needed (‘re he can bring them forth as he has imagined them. The sun and moon whose work is to give light, in their mastership perform this very swiftly: the instant their radiance is poured forth, all the ends of the world arc full of light. More exalted arc the angels, who need less means for their works and have fewer images. Tlie highest Seraph has but a single image. lie seizes as a unity all that his inferiors regard as manifold. Now God needs no image and has no image: witliout image, likeness or means does God work in the soul, aye, in Iier ground whereinto no image did ever get but only himself with his own essence. This no creature can do.
— How do(\s God the Father give birth to his Son in the soul; like creatures, in image and likeness?
No, by my faith! Imt just as he gives him birth in eternity and no otherwise.
— Well, but how docs he give him birth there?
See. God the Father has perfect insight into himself, profound and thorough knowledge of himself by means of himself, not by means of any image. And thus God the Father gives birth to his Son, in the very oneness of the divine nature. Mark, thus it is and in no other way that God the Father gives birth to his Son in the ground and essence of the soul and thus he unites himself 6 MEISTER ECKHART with her. Were any image present there would not be real union and in real union lies thy whole beatitude.
Now haply thou wilt say: ‘ But there is nothing innate in the soul save images.’ No, not so! If that were true the soul would never be happy, for God cannot make any creature wherein thou canst enjoy perfect happiness, else were God not the highest happiness and final goal, whereas it is his will and nature to be the alpha and omega of alk No creature can be happiness. And here indeed can Just as little be perfection, for perfection (perfect virtue that is to say) results from perfection of life. Therefore verily thou must sojourn and dwell in tliy essence, in thy ground, and there God shall mix thee with his simple essence without the medium of any image. No image represents and signifies itself: it stands for that of which it is the image. Now seeing that thou hast no image save of what is outside thee, therefore it is impossible for thee to be beatified by any image wliatsoevcr.
The second point is, what it does behove a man to do in order to deserv'c and procure this birth to come to pass and be (*on- summated in him: is it better for him to do his part towards it, to imagine and think about (hxl, or should ho keep still in peace and quiet so that God can speak and act in him while he merety waits on God’s operation? At the same time I rep(‘at that this speaking, this act, is only for the good and perfect, those who have so absorbed and assimilated the essence of virtue that it emanates from them naturally, witliout their seeking; and above all there must live in them the worthy life and lofty teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such are permitted to know that the very best and utmost of attainment in this life is to remain still and let God act and speak in thee. When the powa‘rs hav(' all been withdrawn from tJieir bodily forms and functions, then this \\ ord is spoken. Thus he says: ' in the midst of the silence the secret word was spoken to me.’ The more completely thou art a})lc to in-draw thy faculties and forget those things and their images which thou has taken in, the more, that is to say, thou forgetlcst the creature, the nearer thou art to this and the more susceptible thou art to it. If only thou couldst suddenly be altogether unaware of things, aye, couldst thou but ])ass into oblivion of thine own existence as St Paul did when he said: ‘ Whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knoweth! ’ Here the spirit had so entirely absorbed the faculties that it had forgotten the body: memory no longer functioned, nor understanding, nor the senses, nor even those powers whose duty it is to govern and grace the body; vital warmth and energy w(‘re arrested so that the body failed not throughout the three days during which he neither ate nor drank. Even so fared Moses when he fasted forty days on the mount and SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 7 was none the worse for it: on the last day he was as strong as on the first. Thus a man must abscond from his senses, invert his faculties and lapse into oblivion of things and of himself. Anent which a philosopher apostrophised the soul: ‘ Withdraw from the restlessness of external activities! ’ And again: ‘ Flee away and hide thee from the turmoil of outward occupations and inward thoughts for they create nothing but discord! ’ If God is to speak his Word in the soul she must be at rest and at peace; then he speaks in the soul his Word and himself: not an image but himself. Dionysius says: ‘ God has no image nor likeness of himself seeing that he is intrinsically all good, truth and being.’ God performs all his works, in himself and outside himself, simul- taneously. Do not fondly imagine that God, when he created the heavens and the earth and all creatures, lYiade one thing one day and another the next. Moses describes it thus it is true, never- theless he knew better: he did so merely on account of those who are incapable of understanding or conceiving otherwise. All God did was: he willed and they were. God works without instrument and without image. And the freer thou art from images the more receptive thou art to his interior operation; and the more introverted and oblivious thou art the nigher thou art thereto. Dionysius exhorted his disciple Timothy in this sense saying; ‘ Dear son Timothy, do thou with untroubled mind swing thyself up above thyself and above thy powers, above all modes and all existences, into the secret, still darkness, that thou mayest attain to the knowledge of the unknown super-divine God.’ All things must be forsaken. God scorns to work among images.
Now haply thou wilt say: ‘ What is it that God docs without images in the ground and essence? ’ That I am incapable of knowing, for my soul-powers can receive only in images,* they have to recognise and lay hold of each thing in its appropriate image: they cannot recognise a bird in the image of a man. Now since images all enter from without, this is concealed from my soul, which is most salutary for her. Not-knowing makes her wonder and leads her to eager pursuit, for she knows clearly that it is but knows not how nor xvhat it is. No sooner docs a man know the reason of a thing than immediately he tires of it and goes casting about for something new. Always clamouring to know, he is ever inconstant. The soul is constant only to this unknowing knowing which keeps her pursuing.
The wise man said concerning this: " In the middle of the night when all things were in quiet silence there was spoken to me a hidden word.’ It came like a thief, by stealth. What does he mean by a word that was hidden? The nature of a word is to reveal what is hidden. It appeared before me, shining out with 8 MEISTER ECKHART 8 MEISTER ECKHART intent to reveal and giving me knowledge of God. Hence it is called a word. But what it was remained hidden from me. That was its stealthy coming ‘ in a whispering stillness to reveal itself.’ It is just because it is hidden that one is and must be always after it. It appears and disappears: we are meant to yearn and sigh for it.
St Paul says we ought to pursue this until wc espy it and not stop until we grasp it. When he returned after having been caught up into the third heaven where God was made known to him and where he beheld all things, he had forgotten nothing, but it was so deep down in his ground that his intellect could not reach it: it was veiled from him. He was therefore obliged to pursue it and search for it in himself, not outside himself. It is not outside, it is inside: wholly within. And being convinced of this he said, ‘ I am sure that neither death nor any affliction can separate me from what I find within me.’
There is a fine saying of one heathen philosopher to another about this, he says: ‘ I am aware of something in me which sparkles in my intelligence; I clearly perceive that it is somewhat but xsihat I cannot grasp. Yet methinks if I could only seize it I should know all tnith.’ To which the other philosopher replied: ‘ Follow it boldly! for if thou eanst seize it thou wilt possess the sum-total of all good and have eternal life! ’ St x\ugustine expresses himself in the same sense: ‘ 1 am conscious of something within me that plays before my soul and is as a light dancing in front of it; were this brought to steadiness and perfection in me it would surely be eternal life! ’ It hides yet it shows. It comes, but after the manner of a thief, with intent to take and to steal all things from the soul. 13y emerging and showing itself somewhat it purposes to decoy the soul and draw it towards itself to rob it and take itself from it. As saith the prophet: ^ Lord take from them their spirit and give them instead thy spirit.’ This too the loving soul meant when she said: ‘ My soul dissolved and melted away when Love spoke his word; when he entered I could not but fail.’ And Christ signified it by his words: ‘ Whoso- ever shall leave aught for my sake shall be repaid an hundredfold, and whosoever will possess me must deny himself and all things and whosoever will serve me must follow me nor go any more after his own.’
Now peradventure thou wilt say: ‘ But, Sir, you are wanting to change the natural course of the soul! It is her nature to take in through the senses, in images. Would you upset this arrangement? ’ No! But how knowest thou what nobility God has bestowed on human nature, what perfections yet uncatalogued, aye yet SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 9 undiscovered? Those who have written of the soul’s nobility have gone no further than their natural intelligence could carry them: they never entered her ground, so that much remained obscure and unknown to them. ‘ I will sit in silence and hearken to what God speaketh within me,’ said the prophet. Into this retirement steals the Word in the darkness of the night. St John says, ‘ The light shines in the darkness: it ciime unto its own and as many as received it became in authority sons ol‘ God: to them was given power to become God’s sons.’
Mark now tlie fruit and use of this mysterious Word and of this darkness. In this gloom which is his own the heavenly Father’s Son is not born alone: thou too art born lliere a cliild of the same heavenly Father and no other, and to thee also he gives power. Observe how great the use. No truth h‘arncd by any master by his own intellect and understanding, or ever to be learned this side the day of judgment, has twer been interpreted at all according to this knowh^dge, in this ground, ( all it an tliou wilt an ignorance, an unknowing, yet there is in it more than in all knowing and undc'rstanding without it, for this outward ignorance lures and attracts thee irom all understood things and from tliysclf. This is what Christ meant wlieii he said: ' Whosoever denieth not him- self and Icaveth not father and mother and is not estranged from all these, he is not worthy of me.’ As though to say: he who aliandons not creatunly externals can neither be conceived nor born in tiiis divine birth. Ihit divesting thysell'of thyself and of every- thing external thereto does indeed give it thee. And in ver}^ truth I believe, nay 1 am sure, that the man who is established herein can in no wise be at any lime separated from (xod. I hold he can in no wise lapse into mortal sin. lie would rather suffer the most slianicful death, as the saints have done before him, than commit the l(*ast of mortal sins. 1 hold that he cannot willingly commit, nor yet consent to, even a venial sin, whether in himself or in another. So strongly is he drawn and attracted to this way, so much is he habituated to it, that he eoukl ne\ er turn to any other: to this way are directed all his senses, all his powers.
May the (iod who has been born again as man assist us in this birth, continually helping us, weak man, to be born again in him as God. Amen.
II TIIIS IS ANOTHER SERMON Ubi est qiii nalus est rex Jud(voruni? (Matt. 2. 2 ). Where is he who is born King of the Jews? Now concerning this birth, mark where it befalls. I say again as I have often said before that this 10 MPnSTER ECKHART birth befalls in the soul exactly as it does in eternity, neither more nor less, for it is the same birth: this birth befalls in the ground and essence of the soul.
Certain questions arise. Granting that God is in all things as intelligence (or mind) and is more instinct in things than they are in themselves and more natural; and granting that God wherever he is is in operation, knowing himself and speaking his Word, then mark in what respects the soul is better fitted for this divine operation than other rational creatures God exists in.
God is in all things as being, as activity, as power. But he is procreative in the soul alone for though every creature is a vestige of God, the soul is the natural image of God. This image is perfected and adorned in this birth. No creature but the soul is susceptible to this birth, this act. Such perfection as enters the soul, whether it be divine light, grace or bliss, must needs enter the soul in this liirth and no otherwise. Do but foster this birth in thee and thou shalt experience all good and all comfort, all happiness, all being and all tnith. \Vhat comes to thee therein brings thee true being and stability and whatsoever thou mayst seek or grasp, without it, perishes, take it Iioav thou wilt. This alone gives life; all else eorru2)ts. Moreover, in this birth thou dost j)articipate in the divine inllux and its gifts. This is not received by creatures wherein God \s image is not found: the soul- idea belongs to the eternal birth alone and this happens only and solely in the soul, begotten of the Father in the ground and innermost recesses of the soul whercinto never image shone nor soul-power peeped.
Another question is: If this birth befalls in the ground and essence of the soul, then it happens alike in sinner and in saint, so what use or good is it to me? The ground of nature is the same in both, nay even in hell the nobility of nature persists eternally. — It is characteristic of this birth that it always comes with fresh light. It always brings great (mlightcnment to the soul because it is the nature of good to diffuse itself. In this birth (iod pours into the soul in such abundance of light, the ground and essence of the soul arc so Hooded with it, that it nins over into her powers and into the outward man as well. Thus it befell Paul when iqion his journey God touched him with his light and spake to him: the reflection of this light showed outwardly so that his companions saw it surrounding Paul like the saints. The sujjerfluitv of light in the ground of the soul wells over into the body which is tilled with radiance. No sinner can receive this light nor is he worthy to, being full of sin and wickedness, or darkness. As he (John) says, ‘ The darkness neither receives nor comprehends the light.’ Because the SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 11 avenues by which the li^^ht would enter are choked and obstmeted with guile and darkness. Light and darkness are incompatible, like God and creatures. Enter God, exit creatures. Man is quite conscious of this light. Directly he turns to God this light begins to glint and sparkle in him, telling him what to do and what to leave undone, with many a shrewd hint to boot of things he hitherto ignored and knew nothing of. — IIow dost thou know? — Suppose thy heart is vehemently moved to retire from the world. IJow could that be if not by this light? It is so cEarming, so delightful, it makes other tbings so tiresome which are not God or God’s. It attracts thee to God and thou art sensible of many a virtuous impulse all)cit uncertain whence it comes. This interior mood is in no wise due to creatures nor is it any of their bidding, for what creatures effect and direct comes in from without. But thy ground alone is stirred by this force and the freer thou dost keep the more truth and discernment are thine. No man w^as ever lost save for tbc reason that once having left his ground he has let himself become too permanently settled abroad. St Augustine says: Many there be that have sought light and truth but only abroad where they arc not. They linally go out so far that they never get back nor find their way in again. Neither have these found the truth for the truth is within in their ground, not without. So he who means to see this light and find out the whole truth must foster the awarciK^ss of this birth within himself, in his ground, so shall his powers all be lighted up and his outer man as well. I)ire(dly God inwardly stirs his ground with the truth its light darts into his powers, and lo, that man knows more than anyone could teach liim. As the prophet says, ‘ I know more than I was ever taught.’ It is because this light cannot lighten and shine in sinners that this birth cannot occur in them. This birth is inconsistent with darkness and sin therefore it befalls not in the powers but in the ground and essence of the soul.
Then conu'S the question: If God the Father labours only in the ground and essence of the soul, not in her powers, what have the powers got to do w ith it? How do they help by being idle and taking holiday? What is the use, seeing this birth befalls not in the powxrs? — It is w(‘ll asked. But consider. Every creature works towards some end. The end is ever the first in intention and the last in execution. And God too works for a wholly blessed end, to wit, himself: to bring the soul and all her powers into that end, into himself. For this God’s w^orks are wrought, for this the Father brings his Son to birth in the soul, that all the powers of the soul may end in this. lie lies in wait for all the soul contains, all arc bidden to his royal feast. Here, the soul is scattered abroad among her powers and dissipated in the act of 12 MEISTER ECKHART 12 MEISTER ECKHART each: the power of seeing in the eye, the power of hearing in the ear, the power of tasting in the tongue, and her powers arc accord- ingly enfeebled for their interior work, scattered forces being imperfect. It follows that for her interior work to be effective, she must call ill all her powers, recollecting them out of extended things to one interior act. St Augustine says, ‘ The soul is where she loves rather than where she animates the body.’ Once upon a time thci’c was a heathen philosopher who studied mathematics. He was sitting by the embers making (‘alculations in pursuance of his art when there came along a man brandishing a sword, who, not witting that it was the master, cried out, ‘ Quick, thy name, or I shall slay thee! ’ The master was too much absorbed to see or hear his enemy and failed to cat(‘h the threat. So after hailing him several times the enemy cut off his head. And tliis to acquire a mere natural science! How much more does it behove us to withdraw from things in order to concentrate our powers on perceiving and knowing the one infinite and immortal truth! To this end do thou assemble thy entire mind and memory; turn them into the ground where thy treasure lies hid. Hut for this thou must drop all other activities; thou must get to unknowing to find it.
The question is, Were it not better for each power to go on with its own work, then none would hinder the otlu rs in their work nor yet God in his V Can there not be ercaturely knowledge in me that is no hindrance, as God knows all things without hindrance and so do the saints? — 1 answer: The saints behold God in a simple image and in that im.agc they discca’n all things; and God himself secs himself thus, perceiving all things in himself. He need not turn, as wc do, from one thing to another. Supposing that in this life w(* were always confronted with a mirror wherein we see and recognise all things at a glance in one single image: neither act nor knowledge would be a hindrance then. At present we must turn from one thing to anotlua’: we can only mind one thing at the expense of all tlic others. And the soul is bound so straitly to her powers that where they How she must flow with them; the soul must be present at everything they do, and attentive too, or nothing would <?ome of their exertions. The drain of attending to external acts is bound to weaken her interior operation. For this nativity God wants, and he must have, a vacant, free and unencumbered soul wherein is nothing but himself alone, w^hich waits for naught and nobody but him. As Christ says: ‘ Whoso lovcth aught but me, whoso eleaveth to father or mother, or many other things, he is not worthy of me. I came not upon earth to bring peace but a sword; to cut away all things, to part thee from brother, child, mother and friend, which are really thy foes.’ For verily thy comforts arc thy foes. Doth SERMONS AND COLLATIONS 13 thine eye see all things and thine ear hear all things and thy heart remember them all, then in these things thy soul is destroyed.
A master says, ‘ To achieve the interior act one must assemble all one’s powers as it were into one corner of one’s soul, where, secreted from images and forms one is able to work. We must sink into oblivion and ignorance. In this silence, this quiet, the Word is heard. There is no better method of approaching this Word than in silence, in quiet: we hear it and know it aright in unknowing. To one who knows naught it is clearly revealed.
Haply thou wilt object: ‘You place our salvation in ignorance. Sir. That seems a mistake. God made man to know: “ Lord make them to know,” says the prophet. Where there is ignorance there is defect and illusion: he is a brutish man, an ape, a fool, and so remains as long as he is ignorant.’ But this is transformed knowledge, not ignorance which comes from lack of knowing; it is by knowing that we get to this unknowing. Then we know with divine knowing, then our ignorance is ennobled and adorned with supernatural knowledge. Then in our passion we are more perfect than in action. According to one authority, the sense of hearing is much nobler than the sense of sight, for we learn wisdom more by car than eye and live this life more wisely. We read about a heathen philosopher who was lying at death’s door while his pupils were discussing in his presence some noble science, that, lifting up his dying head and listening, he ex(;laimed, ‘ O teach me even now this art that I may practise it eternally! ’ Hearing draws in more, seeing leads out more, the very act of seeing. In eternal life we are far more ha})py in our ability to hear than in our power to see, because the act of hearing the eternal Word is in me, whereas the act of seeing goes forth from me: hearing, I am receptive; seeing, I am active. But our bliss docs not consist in being active but in being receptive to God. As God excels creature, so is God’s work more excellent than mine. It was out of love that God did set our happiness in suffering, for we undergo far more than we do and receive incomparably more than n return we give; moreover, each divine gift is the preparation for some new and richer gift, each gift increasing our capacity and our desire to receive a greater still. Some theologians say that the soul is symmetrical with God in this respect. For as God is infinite in giving, so the soul is infinite in receiving or conceiving. And the soul is as profound to suffer as God is omnipotent to act, hence her transformation by God into God. God must act and the soul must suffer; for him to know and love himself in her, for her to know with his knowledge, love with his love; and since she is far happier in his than hers it follows that her happiness depends upon his work more than on her own.
14 MEISTER ECKHART The pupils of St Dionysius asked him why Timothy outstripped them in perfection? Dionysius said, ‘ Timothy is a God-receptive man. He who is expert at this outstrippeth all men.’ In this sense thy unknowing is not a defect but thy chief perfection, and suffering thy highest activity. Kill thy activities and still thy faculties if thou wouldst realise this birth in thee. To find the newborn King in thee all else thou mightest find must be passed by and left behind thee. May we outstrip and leave behind such things as are not pleasing to the newborn King. So help us thou who didst become the child of man that we might become the children of God. Amen.
HI THIS TOO IS MEISTER ECKHART WHO ALWAYS TAUGHT THE TRUTH In hisy quee patris rnei sunt, oportet me esse (l,nc, 2jy). ‘ I must be about my Father’s business.’ This text is opportune to what we have to say concerning the eternal birth which took place here in time and is still happening daily in the innermost recesses of the soul, in her ground, remote from all comers. To become aware of this interior birth it is above all necessary to be about our Father’s business.