annihilate separation

How long can the moth flirt

near the mouth of the flame before their lips touch

and the moth’s soul

becomes like

a sun.

And does the moth then die? No.

In serving God one is transformed into Him.

What lovers would return to us,

what lovers would not unite beyond belief and annihilate

their separation forever if they

had the power

to do so?

That power our Lord has. How long do you think

you can just flirt with Him before you

dissolve in ecstasy?

Existence spins on His potter’s wheel;

all is being shaped into the Divine.

What lovers would

not want to die

embraced?

~ Meister Eckhart

.

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It is a lie

It is a lie - any talk of God

that does not

comfort

you.

~ Meister Eckhart

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so many skins

.

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 a bear’s, 

cover the soul. 

.

Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there. 

.

~ Meister Eckhart

thanks to Blue Mountain Center of Meditation

.

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self-will

People say: "O Lord, how much I wish that I stood as well with God, that I had as much devotion and peace in God as others have.  I wish that it were so with me!"  Or "I should like to be poor." or else
Things will never go right for me till I am in this place or that, or till I act one way or another.  I must go and live in a strange land, or in a hermitage, or in a cloister."  

In fact, this is all about yourself, and nothing else at all.  This is just self-will, only you do not know it, or it does not seem so to you.  There is never any trouble that starts in you that does not come from your own will, whether people see this or not.  We can think what we like: that a man ought to shun one thing or pursue another - places and people and ways of life and environments and undertakings.  That is not the trouble; such ways of life or such matters are not what impedes you.  It is what you are in these things that causes the trouble, because in them you do not govern yourself as you should.

Therefore, make a start with yourself, and abandon yourself.  Truly, if you do not begin by getting away from yourself, wherever you run to, you will find obstacles and trouble wherever it may be.  People who seek peace in external things - be it in places or ways of life or people or activities or solitude or poverty or degradation - however great such a thing may be or whatever it may be, still it is all nothing and it gives no peace.  People who seek in that way are doing it all wrong;  the further they wander, the less will they find what they are seeking.  They go around like someone who has lost his way;  the farther he goes, the more lost he is.  Then what ought he to do?  He ought to begin by forsaking himself, because then he has forsaken everything.  Truly, if a man renounced a kingdom or the whole world but held on to himself, he would not have renounced anything.  What is more, if a man renounces himself,  whatever else he retains, riches or honors or whatever it may be, he has forsaken everything.  

About what Saint Peter said: "See, Lord, we have forsaken everything" (Matt. 19:27) - and all that he had forsaken was just a net and his little boat - there is a saint who says: "If anyone willingly gives up something little, that is not all which he has given up, but he has forsaken everything that worldly men can gain and what they can even long for; for whoever has renounced his own will and himself, has renounced everything, as truly as if he had possessed it as his own, to dispose of as he would." For what you choose not to long for, you have wholly forsaken and renounced for the love of God.  That is why our Lord said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matt 5:3)  - that is, in the will.  And no one ought to be in doubt about this; if there were a better form of living, our Lord would have said so, as he also said: "Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself" (Matt 16:24); as a beginning; everything depends on that.  Take a look at yourself, and whenever you find yourself, deny yourself.  That is the best of all.

~ Meister Eckhart

from Selections from His Essential Writings,

Counsels on Discernment

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Expands his being

All  beings

are words of God,

His music, His

art.

Sacred books we are, for the infinite camps

in our

souls.

Every act reveals God and expands His Being.

I know that may be hard

to comprehend.

All creatures are doing their best 

to help God in His birth

of Himself.

Enough talk for the night

He is laboring in me;

I need to be silent 

for a while,

worlds are forming

in my heart.

~ Meister Eckhart

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intimate

.

Knowledge always deceives.

.

It always limits the Truth, every concept and image does.

.

From cage to cage the caravan moves,

but I give thanks,

.

for at each divine juncture 

my wings expand

and I

.

touch Him more

intimately.

.

~ Meister Eckhart

.

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When I was the forest

.

When I was the stream, when I was the

forest, when I was still the field,

when I was every hoof, foot,

fin and wing, when I

was the sky

itself,

.

no one ever asked me did I have a purpose, no one ever

wondered was there anything I might need,

for there was nothing

I could not

love.

.

It was when I left all we once were that

the agony began, the fear and questions came,

and I wept, I wept. And tears

I had never known

before.

.

So I returned to the river, I returned to

the mountains. I asked for their hand in marriage again,

I begged – I begged to wed every object

and creature,

.

and when they accepted,

God was ever present in my arms.

And He did not say,

“Where have you

been?”

.

For then I knew my soul – every soul -

has always held

Him.

.

~ Meister Eckhart

.

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In work perfectly realized

.

.

In work perfectly realized 

there is no thought of reward, 

no love of procedure, 

no seeking after good, 

no clinging to goals, 

whether of attainment 

or of god himself.

.

~ Meister Eckhart 

art by Harlan Hubbard, "Below Madison," 1934

.

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What keeps us alive

.

.

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?

I think it is the hope of loving,

or being loved.

.

I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey 

to find its source, and how the moon wept

without her lover's 

warm gaze.

.

We weep when light does not reach our hearts, We wither

like fields if someone close

does not rain their

kindness

upon 

us.

.

~  Meister Eckhart

.

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Love frees

.

.

All day long a little burro labors, sometimes

with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries

about things that bother only

burros.

.

And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting

than physical labor.

.

Once in a while a kind monk comes

to her stable and brings

a pear, but more

than that,

.

he looks into th burros's eyes and touches her ears

.

and for a few seconds the burro is free

and even seems to laugh,

.

because love does

that.

.

Love frees.

.

~ Meister Eckhart

.

art by: Stephen Filarsky

.

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all objects in existence are wildly in love

.

.

They are always kissing, they can't

control themselves.

.

It is not possible

that any creature can have greater instincts

and perceptions that the 

mature human

mind.

.

God

ripened me.

So I see it is true;

all objects in existence are

 wildly in

love.

.

~ Meister Eckhart

.

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