meister eckhart
Meister Eckhart, also known as Eckhart of Hochheim, was born around 1260, most likely in or near the German village of Tambach near the Thuringian capital of Erfurt, where he probably entered into the Dominican order sometime during his late teenage years. It is unclear where Eckhart completed his initial studies, but the obvious influence of Albert the Great on his intellectual formation indicates that he may have studied in Cologne sometime before Albert’s death in 1280 (Sturlese 2013: 125–26). What is certain is that Eckhart eventually made his way to study theology in Paris, where he was made a lecturer on Peter Lombard’s Sentences in 1293. Fresh from the university at Paris, the new baccalaureus theologiae returned to Erfurt in 1293–4, this time as the prior of the Dominican monastery where he had spent his early years.
“Some people prefer solitude. They say their peace of mind depends on this.
Others say they would be better off in church. If you do well, you do well wherever you are. If you fail, you fail wherever you are. Your surroundings don't matter. God is with you everywhere -- in the market place as well as in seclusion or in the church. If you look for nothing but God, nothing or no one can disturb you. God is not distracted by a multitude of things. Nor can we be.”
― Meister Eckhart
Others say they would be better off in church. If you do well, you do well wherever you are. If you fail, you fail wherever you are. Your surroundings don't matter. God is with you everywhere -- in the market place as well as in seclusion or in the church. If you look for nothing but God, nothing or no one can disturb you. God is not distracted by a multitude of things. Nor can we be.”
― Meister Eckhart
“If I had a friend and loved him because of the benefits which this brought me and because of getting my own way, then it would not be my friend that I loved but myself. I should love my friend on account of his own goodness and virtues and account of all that he is in himself. Only if I love my friend in this way do I love him properly.”
― Meister Eckhart, Selected Writings
“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. ”
― Meister Eckhart
“The more you are able to completely withdraw all your powers and forget all things―along with whatever images they have left in you―the farther you will travel away from created things and their images, and the closer and more receptive you will be to this birth. Were you to forget everything completely and be unaware of them, you would lose even the awareness of your own body, just as it occurred with St. Paul when he said, ". . . whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth. . ." (2 Corinthians 12:2)”
― Meister Eckhart, The Kingdom of Heaven Within You, Vol 2: The Teachings of Meister Eckhart
― Meister Eckhart, The Kingdom of Heaven Within You, Vol 2: The Teachings of Meister Eckhart