Meister Eckhart was a Dominican priest living in 14th century Germany. He was also a mystic. To me, that means that he was interested in more than doctrines of the church or translating scriptures from ancient languages into those of the day. To be a mystic is to press beyond the status quo of being and living, to venture into what it means to be a live, and into what is not obvious. To be a mystic is to be willing to explore the mysteries of nothing less than the universe–if one can.
Eckhart lived at a time when monasteries were in turmoil. The papacy had fled Rome and moved to Avignon. There were all kinds of rumors and reports of the apocalypse arriving at any moment. Fearful prophecies abounded, and his fellow Dominicans had been put in charge of the Inquisition–hunting down heretics all over the surrounding areas. His own Dominican brothers were becoming the harbingers of horror and fear around matters of faith.
Sound familiar? It was not the time, to say the least, to stand out as someone exploring new ideas making new and never before uttered speculations about the Divine, about what we might now call the Ultimate Concern or the Interdependent Web of All Existence. And yet, Eckhart gave voice to this:
Oh, teach me in each moment
of every Now to know that
You are the Here in all my
wandering and the Yes in
all my wondering and the Love
in nothing less than everything.*
As we make our way through these difficult and often dark times, we may find some new word coming up out of us, despite it all, to which we really just have to give voice. In the face of grim and unfathomable events, we are still living in each moment of every Now. The Spirit of Life is the Here in all of our wanderings and the Yes in all of our wondering and the Love in nothing less than everything.
~Bob Patrick
*Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart: Meditations for the Restless Soul, Jon M. Sweeney and Mark S. Burrows
