The Fate of a Mystic

The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me. Meister Eckhart

On March 27, 1329, Pope John XXII accused Johannes Eckhart of heresy and condemned him to death. Why was Meister Eckhart condemned as a heretic? He dared to make the startling declaration that God and human beings are already bonded together, already in intimate contact. The only obstacle is our consciousness and the construction of dualism that constricts our ongoing divinization. His experience led him to believe that in the secret recess of the soul is the spark of the divine, which is participating in the timeless existence of God. This mystical understanding got him in trouble with the Catholic church and condemned to die as a heretic.

The "myticism" of Meister Eckhart:

To be full of things is to be empty of the divine. To be empty of things is to be full of the divine.

God is a great underground river that no one can dam up and no one can stop.

God is creating the entire universe, fully and totally, in the present now.

There exists only the present instant... a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence.

On this anniversary of his death, his cogent and soul-stretching words, are invigorating. They nourish me and challenge me to step into the spiritual adventure in which he lived.