β Scribed by Meister Eckhart; Simon Parke
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
In many ways, Meister Eckhart has had to wait seven centuries to be heard. Born in 13th century Germany, much of his life was spent in a monastery.
βMeisterβ means βMasterβ, and is an academic title from the University of Paris. An admired member of the Dominican Order, he was often sent to reform ailing priories. He was known as a spiritual counsellor; a safe haven for many who sought God in their life, but found themselves troubled by the state of the institutional church.
He was best known, however, as a preacher β who used his native German language to startling effect. Eckhart preached a spiritual vision which distrusted both ritual and church dogma. Instead, he aimed at nothing less than the spiritual and psychological transformation of those given to his care. To this end, Eckhart made the disposition of the human heart the key to all things.
βConversations with Meister Eckhartβ is an imagined conversation with this 13th century mystic, around such themes as detachment, which he famously placed above love; spirituality, God, the soul and suffering. But while the conversation is imagined, Eckhartβs words are not; they are authentically his own.
One of his controversial claims was that God cannot be described. Indeed, in one sermon, he went so far as to say βWe must take leave of God.β βThe church became very hostile towards him,β says Simon Parke, βaccusing him of heresy; and he spent his last days on trial before the pope. They also tried to ensure heβd be forgotten when he died, and nearly succeeded. But heβs more popular now than ever.β
Eckhartβs teaching is an adventure, not a system; a call, not a creed. The depth and universality of his work means it can be contained by no established religion, but draws to itself seekers of truth from all backgrounds. βHere we have a teaching open to all, but possessed by none,β says Parke. βAnd therefore free like a butterfly, in the garden of the soul. Its perhaps my most challenging and rewarding conversation.β
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