Apr 22, 2012

Meister Eckhart

I like the contemplative practices that Meister shares. One of my all time favourite quote is from him and has been my guide for me internally since young therefore when I found it, it clicked right away:

A person who wishes to begin a good life should be like a man who draws a circle. Let him get the center in the right place and keep it so and the circumference will be good. In other words, let a man first learn to fix his heart on God, and then his good deeds will have virtue; but if a man’s heart is unsteady, even the great things he does will be of small advantage.

Source: http://www.shambhala.com/html/learn/features/newseeds/excerpts/eckhart.cfm


Excerpt from Meister Eckhart, from Whom God Hid Nothing: Sermons, Writings, and Sayings
edited by David O’Neal
What is truth? Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep to the truth and let God go.

Meister Eckhart the preacher also said this: There never was a struggle or a battle which required greater valor than that in which a man forgets or denies himself.

I have often said that a person who wishes to begin a good life should be like a man who draws a circle. Let him get the center in the right place and keep it so and the circumference will be good. In other words, let a man first learn to fix his heart on God, and then his good deeds will have virtue; but if a man’s heart is unsteady, even the great things he does will be of small advantage.

According to Meister Eckhart, God is not only the father of all good things, but he is the mother of all things as well. He is father, for he is cause of all things and their creator. He is the mother of all things as well, for when creatures have gotten their being from him he still stays with creatures to keep them in being. If God did not remain with creatures after they had started their own life, they would most speedily fall out of being. Falling from God means falling from being into nothingness. It is not so with other causes; they can with safety quit the things they cause when these things have gotten being of their own. When the house exists, its builder can depart, for it is not the builder alone that makes the house; the materials of it he draws from nature. But God provides the creature with the whole of what it is, with form as well as matter, so he is bound to stay with it, or it will promptly drop out of existence.

Whoever has three things is beloved of God: The first is riddance of possessions; the second, of friends; and the third is riddance of self.

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Some quotes from him:

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. 
Meister Eckhart 

A just person is one who is conformed and transformed into justice. 
Meister Eckhart 

All God wants of man is a peaceful heart. 
Meister Eckhart 

Do exactly what you would do if you felt most secure. 
Meister Eckhart 

Every creature is a word of God. 
Meister Eckhart 

God expects but one thing of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you are a created being made and let God be God in you. 
Meister Eckhart 

God is at home, it's we who have gone out for a walk. 
Meister Eckhart 

He who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment. 
Meister Eckhart 

If God gave the soul his whole creation she would not be filled thereby but only with himself. 
Meister Eckhart 

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. 
Meister Eckhart 
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/meister_eckhart.html#ZaFUs523w3L4wwl0.99

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