An Esoteric Commentary on Meister Eckhart's Sermon 3: part 4

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An Esoteric Commentary on Meister Eckhart's Sermon 3: part 4

For God is not a destroyer of nature: rather He perfects it, and God does this ever more and more, the more you are fitted for it. 

Here Meister Eckhart subtly draws a connection between nature and The Perfection, that is, the vision of God glimpsed within material creation, in the same way that He appears to the inhabitants of the Holy Planet Purgatory. Nature, in Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson and Eckhart’s conception, is a vehicle for the expression of Perfection. That Perfection exists beyond time; and yet to the extent that creation is prepared to receive it, so does it express itself within it. 

This is not just an external expression of The Perfection as in Beelzebub’s planet Purgatory, a place of ineffable and perhaps even intolerable beauty; it is first and foremost an inner expression of The Perfection, because only the inward preparation (”the more you are fitted for it”) can make the outward expression possible. 

The outward expression is entirely dependent upon the receptivity of the inward faculty. 

Let’s remind ourselves of the necessity for passivity on the part of the inward faculty in order for this to take place; because it is the very next thing that Meister Eckhart discusses; and in doing so, he examines the contradiction it presents.

But you might say, 'Oh sir, if this requires a mind free of all images and all works (which lie in the powers by their very nature), then how about those outward works we must do sometimes, works of charity which all take place without, such as teaching or comforting the needy? Should people be deprived of this ? 

As our Lord's disciples were so much occupied with such things, as (according to St. Augustine) St. Paul was so burdened and preoccupied with people's cares as if he were their father—shall we then be deprived of this great good because we are engaged in works of charity?' 

The concern expressed here is how to inhabit the outer in an honorable way in the midst of a practice that demands a certain kind of absolute abandonment of both inner and outer. The crux of this question lies in the nature of the separation between the action of God Himself, which lies beyond creation, and the action of inner and outer Being, which substantially (materially) exist within it. Abandonment is not the same as banishment; and this becomes a critical proposition. To see is not to get rid of; it is to separate and yet at the same time consciously unite. Meister Eckhart brings us directly to this understanding:

Now note the answer to such questions. The one thing is noblest, the other very profitable. Mary was praised for choosing the best; but Martha's life was of very great profit, for she served Christ and his disciples. Master Thomas says the active life is better than the contemplative, insofar as in action one pours out for love that which one has gained in contemplation. It is actually the same thing, for we take only from the same ground of contemplation and make it fruitful in works, and thus the object of contemplation is achieved. Though there is motion, yet it is all one; it comes from one end, which is God, and returns to the same, as if I were to go from one end of this house to the other; that would indeed be motion, but only of one in the same. 

Something that is noble is highborn; the word itself comes from an Indo-European root shared by the word know, that is, to be intelligent and understand at the same time. Nobility is of knowing.

What is profitable comes from the Latin root proficere, which means to advance — in turn derived from -pro, “on behalf of,” and facere, to “do.” In this way we understand that the highest action of passivity and the receiving of God’s will is what makes the act of agency, of doing on behalf of God, possible. Meister Eckhart seems to have seen nearly equal value in these two acts of Being, because he uses the word but— a term of contradiction— when he says, “ Mary was praised for choosing the best; but Martha's life was of very great profit, for she served Christ and his disciples.” 

And indeed he brings the two together in unity: “Though there is motion, yet it is all one; it comes from one end, which is God, and returns to the same…” This represents a deft (and what will probably be unappreciated) segue into the Buddhist world of non-dualistic thinking, demonstrating a consonance between high medieval Christian thought and that particular aspect of Buddhist practice. Nor does he ultimately takes sides in the documented tensions between actives and contemplatives which exists to this day:

Thus too, in this activity, we remain in a state of contemplation in God. The one rests in the other, and perfects the other. For God's purpose in the union of contemplation is fruitfulness in works: for in contemplation you serve yourself alone, but in works of charity you serve the many. 

This passage brings to mind Gurdjieff’s law of reciprocal feeding. Reciprocal feeding takes place on a spiritual, as well as material, level; and the reciprocal feeding between active and contemplative states engenders a further rich exchange on either end: God feeds contemplation, and contemplation feeds God; this exchange, in turn, is served by action, which serves yet others still, providing further exchange of substances between the inner act of agency and its beneficiaries in the outer world:

To this Christ admonishes us by his whole life and those of all his saints, every one of whom he drove forth into the world to teach the multitude. St. Paul said to Timothy, "Beloved, preach the Word" (2 Tim. 4:2 ) . Did he mean the outward word that beats the air? Surely not. He meant the inwardly born and yet hidden Word that lies secreted in the soul. That was what he bade him preach aloud, that it might be made known to and might nourish the (soul's) powers, so that a man might give himself out in all those aspects of external life in which his fellow men had need of it—and that all this may be found in you to accomplish to the best of your ability. It must be within you in thought, in intellect, and in will, and it must shine forth, too, in your deeds. 

To “admonish” comes from the Latin admonere, to urge by warning. Meister Eckhart thus assigns great importance to the outer action; yet here he very specifically reminds us that the outer action must be informed by the inner.

As Christ said, " Let your light shine forth before men" (Matt. 5: 6 ) . He had in mind those who care only for the contemplative life and neglect the practice of charity, which, they say, they have no further need for, having passed that stage. It was not these that Christ meant when he said, "The seed fell on good soil and yielded fruit a hundredfold" (Matt. 13:8 ) . He meant them when he said, "The tree that bears no fruit shall be cut down" (Matt. 3:10, 7:19) .

The word charity comes from the Latin caritas via carus, meaning “to care.” And indeed, in late old English (and, by direct inference, its high and late medieval linguistic antecedents) the word was understood to mean “Christian love of one’s fellows.” It is not, in other words, just a material action, consisting (for example) of food for the poor or good public works, but an inner action of love for others. Understanding the source of this love from Meister Eckhart’s point of view, it ultimately arises from the privileged and brief contact with God which one may be afforded through spiritual effort; and so care for others, such a vital feature of outer works, is wholly dependent on inner understanding.

In this particular passage, Meister Eckhart brings not only an esoteric understanding of the relationship between inner contemplation and outer work; it is also a subtle and covert condemnation of those who would shut themselves away from the world in contemplation. Gurdjieff includes a literary critique of this type of practice in the chapter “Beelzebub’s First Time in Tibet,” where he introduces the reader to the “monstrous” cells of the monastery of the “Orthodoxhydooraki sect” of the Buddhist religion. 

What makes the practice monstrous, in Gurdjieff’s eyes, is the rejection of relationship with other humans: it is the diametric opposite of the practice of brotherly love, and represents his own colorful mythological expression of the quote from Matthew, “the tree that bears no fruit shall be cut down.” 

The fruit of relationship with God, in Meister Eckhart’s eyes, is relationship with others.

The quotations from Meister Eckhart's Sermons 3 are reprinted with the kind permission of The Sangha Trust, and are taken from The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart.

 May you be well within today.

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.