Eckhart von Hochheim OP commonly known as Meister Eckhart or Eckehart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha in the Landgraviate of Thuringia (now central Germany) in the Holy Roman Empire.
Eckhart came into prominence during the Avignon Papacy at a time of increased tensions between monastic orders, diocesan clergy, the Franciscan Order, and Eckhart’s Dominican Order of Preachers. In later life, he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII. He seems to have died before his verdict was received.
He was well known for his work with pious lay groups such as the Friends of God and was succeeded by his more circumspect disciples John Tauler and Henry Suso. Since the 19th century, he has received renewed attention. He has acquired a status as a great mystic within contemporary popular spirituality, as well as considerable interest from scholars situating him within the medieval scholastic and philosophical tradition. (via Wikipedia)
On Love:
He who suffers for love does not suffer, for all suffering is forgotten.
Love is as strong as death, as hard as Hell. Death separates the soul from the body, but love separates all things from the soul.
On Life:
One person who has mastered life is better than a thousand persons who have mastered only the contents of books, but no one can get anything out of life without God.
On God:
God is at home, it’s we who have gone out for a walk.
The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.
You may call God love, you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion.
The more God is in all things, the more He is outside them. The more He is within, the more without.
The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God-seed into God.
God is at home it is we who have gone for a walk.
The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.
I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and the presence of God.
Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love a cow – for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage.
We are all meant to be mothers of God…for God is always needing to be born.
Other Quotes:
Run into peace.
I need to be silent for a while, worlds are forming in my heart.
I am what I wanted and I want what I am.
One must not always think so much about what one should do, but rather what one should be. Our works do not ennoble us; but we must ennoble our works.
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.
When the Soul wants to experience something she throws out an image in front of her and then steps into it.
Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.