Timely reading: Meister Eckhart, the importance of silence
Timely reading: Meister Eckhart in German, which I should have read a long time ago. Brilliantly put in words, clear, and filled of the highest monistic thought (like Kashmir Shaivism), and with a wonderful touch of down to earth-ness. And the first thing in one of the books (Meister Eckhart Mystische Schriften and with original Mittelhochdeutsch) is him stressing “the importance of silence“: to look inside, see the darkness without fear (“Truly, it is in darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.”), turn oneself inside out and examine what does not belong there; empty oneself of all that is not God.
He also writes that, one can not imagine or think this readiness for God or desire for it unless there is God already before it… and when one is empty, God has no choice as to fill one with his grace and love, just as the sun does not have a choice but to shine when the sky is clear (no cloud ;-)).
Likewise Swamiji says that the worse sin one can commit is to think that one is not God. He says that there is not that much distance (and he is touching his thumb to his index finger) between us and God. God is as close to us as our own breath.
And when looking at all the stuff inside long enough, and turning it all inside out and upside down, it becomes clear that it is nothing but God too, because what is it that he has not created. The only problem we have is our attachment to it. Eckhart says (in “das Buch der göttlichen Tröstung“), that pain and sorrow is only possible when we have mistakenly put our attention on the images instead of the spirit that lives in them. If we can keep our focus on God and just let everything and everyone that comes into our life or minds come in and float away without any attachment, then there is no problem.
As my yoga teacher keeps reminding, “let the thoughts come and go like clouds in the sky.”
They’ll stand no chance once the ‘sun’ comes out 😉
Only drawback is that with all this reading and looking inside I have been neglecting the paintings.
Oh well, they’ll come back, as do the clouds 😉
Next Post
This a beautiful posting and blog you have created. It has really resonated with me. Lately I have gone into darkness, or darkness has descended around me, and the following words of T.S. Elliot speak a great deal to me and I think are akin to what you’ve written here:
I said to my soul be still and wait without hope.
For hope would be hope for the wrong things.
Wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong things.
There is yet faith, but the faith, the hope, and the love, are all in the waiting.
Do not think, for you are not ready for thought.
So the darkness shall be light,
and the stillness the dancing.
I was recently speaking with a retired professor of religion who, after I recited these words of Elliot said that this was mysticism and answered me with the following:
Certain medieval mystics believed that as one approached God, the less one knew, and that for them, God’s essential nature was hidden. “Their only recourse then was to continually attempt to pierce this darkness with a very sharp dart, thrown with all their greatest love and longing.”
I am beginning to sense that it is my greatest love and longing that is going to carry me through. Is this your experience at all? —tink
Thank you for your comment Tink,
“So the darkness shall be light,
and the stillness the dancing.”
Beautiful! I think you are right, we all reach a point (or enter it again and again) in our search for our “selves”, just like Eckhart and St. John and all the other mystics where darkness seems to surround us. And I found those times to be the most fruitful on the spiritual path, perhaps as you quoted because there is nothing to hold on to but God.
I am sure that your love and longing is what will carry you thru, hang on, “there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it isn’t the train” 😉
Love and light
Claudia
Dear Claudia,
Thank you for this answer. It has been something like a spring of water for me the past couple of weeks. Your whole website is. Thank you for your daily references to poetry. They and your favorite books are like bits of bread to eat. thankyou —tink