Mesiter Eckhart, the 14th cent. German Christian mystic, is a wonderful example of the adage, "all mystics speak the same language." His words sound as if they could have come from the mouths of zen masters and I wanted to share some of them here now, (they are extracted from a book written by D T Suzuki-a zen master who was so struck by the parallels between Eckhart & Mahayna he wrote a book re that in the late 1950's entitled, "Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist-" I'll attach the website & end of this for those who'd like to read the book on-line).
"Thou shat know him, (God), without image, without semblance and without means...but, for me to knoe God thus, with nothing between, i must be all but he, he all but me-I say God must be very I, I very God, so consummately one that this he and this I are one 'is', in this is-ness working one work eternally; but as long as this he and this I, to with God and soul, are not one single here, one single now, the I cannot work with nor be one with that he...God's is-ness is my is-ness, neither more nor less."
"While I subsusted in the ground, in the bottom, in the river and fount of Godhead, no one asked me where I was going or what I was doing; there was no one to ask me. When I was flowing, all creatures spake God. If I am asked, Brother Eckhart, when went ye out of your house? Then I must have been in. Even so do all creatures speak God. And why do they not speak Godhead? Everything in the Godhead is one, and of that there is nothing to be said. Godhead does no work, there is nothing to do, in it is no activity. It never envisaged any work. God and Godhead are as different as active and inactive. On my return to God, where I am formless, my breaking through will be far nobler than my emanation. I alone take all creatures out of their sense inot my mind and make them one in me. When i go back into the ground, into the depths, into the well-spring of Godhead, no one will ask me whence I came or whither I went. No one missed me: God passes away."
"Emoty yourself of everything. that is to say, empty yourself of ego and empty yourself of all things and of all that your are in yourself and consider yourself what you are in God. God is a being beyond being and a nothingness beyond being. There, be still and do not flinch from this emptiness."
Finally, in accord with my "univerasalistic/mystic mentality," this quote from the dude:
"All the different religious traditions can be traced b ack to an experience of Communion with the Ultimate by their founders or reformers. Historic circumstances lead then to the diversity of religious traditions. Yet all those diversities are only so many expressions of the one and the same mystical core-expressions of the sense of ultimate belonging. This mystical core needs to bring forth so many different myths and teachings, needs to be celebrated in so many different rituals, because it is inexhaustible."
Website for Suzuki book is:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/mcb/mcb00.htm
Take care, Earl
"Thou shat know him, (God), without image, without semblance and without means...but, for me to knoe God thus, with nothing between, i must be all but he, he all but me-I say God must be very I, I very God, so consummately one that this he and this I are one 'is', in this is-ness working one work eternally; but as long as this he and this I, to with God and soul, are not one single here, one single now, the I cannot work with nor be one with that he...God's is-ness is my is-ness, neither more nor less."
"While I subsusted in the ground, in the bottom, in the river and fount of Godhead, no one asked me where I was going or what I was doing; there was no one to ask me. When I was flowing, all creatures spake God. If I am asked, Brother Eckhart, when went ye out of your house? Then I must have been in. Even so do all creatures speak God. And why do they not speak Godhead? Everything in the Godhead is one, and of that there is nothing to be said. Godhead does no work, there is nothing to do, in it is no activity. It never envisaged any work. God and Godhead are as different as active and inactive. On my return to God, where I am formless, my breaking through will be far nobler than my emanation. I alone take all creatures out of their sense inot my mind and make them one in me. When i go back into the ground, into the depths, into the well-spring of Godhead, no one will ask me whence I came or whither I went. No one missed me: God passes away."
"Emoty yourself of everything. that is to say, empty yourself of ego and empty yourself of all things and of all that your are in yourself and consider yourself what you are in God. God is a being beyond being and a nothingness beyond being. There, be still and do not flinch from this emptiness."
Finally, in accord with my "univerasalistic/mystic mentality," this quote from the dude:
"All the different religious traditions can be traced b ack to an experience of Communion with the Ultimate by their founders or reformers. Historic circumstances lead then to the diversity of religious traditions. Yet all those diversities are only so many expressions of the one and the same mystical core-expressions of the sense of ultimate belonging. This mystical core needs to bring forth so many different myths and teachings, needs to be celebrated in so many different rituals, because it is inexhaustible."
Website for Suzuki book is:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/mcb/mcb00.htm
Take care, Earl
