Customer Reviews

Meister Eckhart: A Modern Translation

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This book is a well-chosen and remarkably comprehensive collection of Eckhart, in an absolutely enchanting translation. For someone who would like a readable and usable volume of Eckhart, this is a super choice. For someone who is a devotee of Eckhart, this volume simply can't be missed and should go on the shelf with other works of/on Eckhart. It contains the Talks of Instruction, the Book of Divine Comfort, the Aristocrat, a somewhat less well-known piece called "About Disinterest", and 28 sermons, plus an introduction to Eckhart. Also in the book are some legends concerning Eckhart that are deeply moving, and there is a copy of Eckhart's defense (which I have not seen elsewhere). As I said, the translation is marvellous and very readable. My only caveats are as follows. First, for someone entirely unfamiliar with Eckhart and needing something easier to "approach", probably the best book is "Meister Eckhart from whom God hid nothing" (compiled by Steindl-Rast), since it starts with short quotes and builds to longer excerpts from Eckhart's best works. But in the end Steindl-Rast's work leaves one wanting more of Eckhart and that's where this book satisfies (and continues to excel in its beautiful prose). And second, this edition is unfortunately done with "cheap" paper and eventually with passing years it will be yellowed, cracking, and possibly falling apart. It's a shame because it deserves good acid-free paper and a better binding. Maybe Harper and Row will come through someday, but even so this book is a gem. Enjoy!

Agree with previous reviewer's views. It is a deep read. A classic in the western Christian mystic tradition comparable to Shankara's commentaries in the Eastern tradition. Worth its price for Sermons 20 and 28 alone! I have gone back to this book several times over the years. And am currently reading it again, preceeding my morning meditations. After 45 years of meditation this book still pushes the meditation deeper. One must read this a page or two a day. It isn't really possible to absorb much more than that at a sitting. The selection of Eckhart's writings and the clarity of the translation have made this one of the most treasured books in my library.

"The Eye with which I see God
is the eye with which God sees me"

- Meister Eckhart.



Almost everyone drawn to Eckhart agrees that he makes engaging reading. The writings of this 14th c German mystic are veritable 'essen' - spiritual food. As Blakney says. . ."Eckhart breathed his own endless vitality into the juiceless formulas of orthodox theology with such charm and passion that even the most common people heard them gladly. " Eckhart's pregnant sayings function rather like Christian koans, de-centering and then re-centering the mind, elevating thought to the unthinkable.

As Blakney observed, we often think of Eckhart's age as one of juiceless aridities - viz. Nietzsche's and Heidegger's strictures against Christianity as - 'Platonism for the masses'
- pallid abstractions. A serious reading of Eckhart shows us the other side of the coin, for Eckhart breathes spiritual vitality. In this, he wasn't alone. 14th c Europe witnessed a great flowering of mysticism. . .Julian of Norwich, The 'Cloud
of Unknowing,'Catherine of Sienna - to name but a few. Eckhart epitomised this movement and remains one of its most outstanding voices.

If you haven't yet read Eckhart, you can be sure that savouring his words will change your perception of Christianity. D.T. Suzuki - who more or less paved the way for Zen in the West, had a soft spot for Eckhart ('inked' references to Eckhart even found their way into the edition of the 'Rinzai Roku' issued by Suzuki at Matsugaoka Zen Bunka).

One reviewer has criticised Blakney's translation (1941), on the grounds that it was based on dated and poorly edited material (Pfeiffer, 1857). While I would certainly recommend reading recent translations based on the Kohlhammer text (1955, ed. Josef Quint), Blakney's translation has merits of its own. The translation is lively. It has a useful preface, with a glossary explaining some of the key terms used by Eckhart. This is followed by an absorbing Introduction, giving the general reader a good idea of Eckhart's background. Rest assured, the core material Blakney has presented gives you the 'quintessential' Eckhart. The disputed parts of the Pfeiffer text play a negligible role here and are unlikely to trouble the general reader. There are now a number of handy-sized, single volume 'introductions' to Eckhart - in English, but they tend to be rather dry. Blakney's was an inspired translation, and still represents the best account of Eckhart in an affordable, single volume - with enough supplementary material to give the general reader a useful grounding in Eckhart's background. You get a good spread of material:

(1) The Talks of Instruction.(2) The Book of Divine Comfort.
(3) The Aristocrat.(4) About Disinterest. (5) Sermons.
(6) Fragments. (7) Legends.(8) The Defence.

The text has extensive notes, which are placed unobtrusively at the back of the book. There is a useful bibliography.

What Eckhart says about 'disinterest' (abgescheidenheit) colours just about everything else he had to say. It is the opposite of clinging to the truth. It is not 'disinterest' in the common sense, but signifies humility, poverty of spirit, self-emptying. He sometimes used the term 'sich lassen' - 'letting go' - to find the truth, just as Zen masters speak of 'opening the hand of thought.' One strain of Christian feeling comes over as very much 'clinging bound,' and with his characteristic humour, Eckhart once said that 'men wish to use God - as they use a cow.' They want to 'squeeze' something out of the spirit. Alas, the 'clinging-bound' view of religion comes very much to the fore in the material titled the 'Defense.' It is Eckhart's reply to those who accused him of 'heresy.' Having savoured the sublimity of Eckhart's thought and teaching, the 'Defence' makes painful reading. It arguably exemplifies everything that was then wrong with the Church. Reading this material, it is evident that Eckhart's accusers betrayed a pathetic lack of understanding. In some cases, they even made quite orthodox elements of Christian doctrine or scripture - seem 'heretical' - and you can sense Eckhart's frustration, as he labours to point out that 'such-and-such was said in this gospel,' 'but does not Our Lord say. . .' etc. Still, that certain elements of Eckhart's thought did border on heresy, according to the understanding of the day - is what got him into trouble. . .

"I Therefore pray God, that he may set
me free from god" (Hier umbe so bitte ich
got, daz er mich quit mache gotes)

- although in fact, St.Paul had said much the same thing. The outcome of this sorry business was messy. Eckhart appealed against the charges brought before him, clearing himself to an extent in a preliminary hearing, but the Church delayed a further hearing, and finally denied Eckhart's appeal for one. He died before getting news of it. The Church hit him from behind - and condemned his writings, which thereafter languished for centuries, more or less unread. On an ironic note, and rather like 'Spy v Spy' in 'Mad' magazine, the Pope responsible for having the charges brought against Eckhart, was eventually charged with heresy, himself. These days, it seems, few in the Church would bat an eyelid over Eckhart's ideas. The revival of interest in Eckhart is one good thing about the age we live in. If Christianity is about the pursuit of disinterested truth, Eckhart should have been 'canonised' centuries ago.

Worth it if you're new to Eckhart and want a primary text. But if you're looking for the best introduction, you want Bernard McGinn's text: Meister Eckhart, the Man from whom God hid Nothing.

Yes, this translation is dated, which makes some passages harder than necessary; but this little classic is still being used even in places like Yale, where I first read it three years ago.

All Meister Eckhart is good Meister Eckhart. People are often astonished to discover him: Christianity too once had spiritual teachers whose words soar.

Now the bad news. This little book was first published in 1941. (A Modern Translation. Right.) I'm amazed it's not only still in print but still the easiest book of Eckhart to find. It has introduced many, many people to Eckhart, and that's good. But I don't understand how it ever got printed in the first place, because this is a BAD translation.

I don't mean a version that "fails to capture the fire and verve of the original". Oh no. I'm talking about glaring schoolboy errors on every page. One classic example. In German, "Herr" means "Lord", but also "Sir". So when Eckhart says, "O Lord" or "Dear Lord", Blakney often translates as "O Sir" or "Dear Sir". Eckhart was a theologian, for Pete's sake, how hard could it be to guess Whom he was addressing?

So now you expect me to tell you which Eckhart book you Should buy...
Sigh...

The Penguin Classic and the New Seeds book "Meister Eckhart: From Whom God Hid Nothing" are both more recommendable than this. Both are cheaper. Their contents on the whole are tamer and less interesting than Blakney's, but they were translated by people who could actually read Middle High German. However both are too short.
The two volumes published by Paulist Press have the drawbacks of that whole series: too much paper, too little text, too many notes, too much introduction. Large, impressive to look at, the contents boil down to less than you'd think.
Matthew Fox's "Passion for Creation" enrols Eckhart, the most abstract and Platonist of Christian mystics, in Fox's own New Age "Creation Spirituality". Yick.

The Eckhart who connects to modern readers is the Eckhart of the sermons preached in German to ordinary people. The Latin theological works were written for his peers: you have to know Scripture, Scholastic theology, Plato, Aristotle, even the Arabs, to understand them. The world is crying out for a good complete modern translation of the vernacular sermons or at least a substantial selection. Until that appears there is no First Recommendation.

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice."

Wow.

I love that. I really, really love that because it really allows me to know, to feel, to sense at such a deep and centered level of my being, that really, God has given me everything that I could possibly want or need or desire; it's always right where I am because the Holy (the Whole of) Spirit is within me and around me now.

And because this is True of me, I know this to be True of you, as well.

This is such a great read. It's heavy duty stuff. It's passionate, it's alive, it's filled with vibrancy and Light...but what do you expect from a man who also said that "The eye with which I see God, is the same eye with which God sees me."

People didn't get Meister Eckhart. People still don't get Meister Eckhart. But then again, people don't get people who really know and feel and sense God with every breath in...and with every breath out. It's funny how we make it okay to believe in God, but the moment you claim to say that God is within you and you are within God, people begin to get a little weirded out.

Why? Because we have this invested interest in somehow thinking we're separate from the Divine. We can't begin to think that everyone is an incarnation of the Spirit, can we? Afterall, man is a "sinner"...

Yes, we are sinners...but to sin means to make a mistake in judgment, to err, to miss the mark and we have made the biggest mistake of them all by thinking we are only human.

"The knower and the known are one. Simple people imagine that they should see God as if he stood there and they here. This is not so. God and I, we are one in knowledge."

God is right where we are! Always! We must abandon these ideas that we are "worms of the dust" that God is displeased with us, that God is always ready to condemn us. Jesus said, "God is Love". God is Love...think about that for the next twenty years of your life...if God is Love, then it must mean we are Love, too, for it clearly states in Genesis, "Let us them make him in our Image and Likeness..."

The religionists do not want you to hear things like this. They will tell you it is blasphemy. They will tell you it is propaganda. They will quote all sorts of verses to you from scripture telling you that you are wrong.

Go with the peace you came in with and peacefully and quietly shake the dust from your sandals and move onward. Leave their church and their overcrowded parking lots. The only reason why their message is heard is because FEAR sells; it always did and sadly, it always will.

Meister Eckhart was almost tried for heresy. Fortunately, he died before he was tried. Fortunately, some of his writings survived. You can kill a person, but you cannot kill the truth because the Truth is forever and it will forever assert itself. Not out of brute force, but from a quiet and still place.

If you are ready to know that God is really for you, and could never be against you, I suggest getting this book. Like one reader suggested, he takes one reading a day and meditates upon it. I promise you, if you are open to God, God will open Itself to you in ways too wondrous to even try to explain.

"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."

Go into the depths of your being and begin to know the Living God that knows you only as It knows Itself.

Peace and Blessings...

This is honestly the best book I have ever read. I will go back to it again and again because there is so much depth to it.

Blessedness opened its mouth to wisdom and said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs" (Mt 5:3).

All angels and saints and all who were ever born must keep silent when the Wisdom of the Father speaks, for all the Wisdom of the angels and of all created beings is mere folly before the unfathomable Wisdom of God. It has said that the poor are blessed.

Meister Eckhart was a 13th and 14th century mystic in the Dominican Order whose writings, while fascinating, at times have been seen as troubling or differentiating from what is commonly understood as orthodox Christian spirituality. The challenging nature of his thought can be seen clearly in Sermon Fifty-Two, where he comments on Jesus' call in the Beatitudes to be poor in spirit., and what exactly being poor in spirit consists of.

Most readers of the Gospel are able to grasp that when Jesus speaks of being poor in spirit, he is not speaking of physical poverty. While a life of living the gospel and preaching the gospel through physical poverty can be a laudable way of life for a Christian, with St. Francis of Assisi as a prime example, poverty of spirit is something different. As Eckhart says, "there are two kinds of poverty. There is an external poverty, which is good and is greatly esteemed in a man who voluntarily practices it for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ...But there is a different poverty, an inward poverty, and it is of this that we must understand that our Lord is speaking: `Blessed are the poor in spirit.'"

This `poverty of spirit' that Jesus speaks of is often interpreted to be humility. Yet, for Eckhart, it goes much deeper than that. One who is poor in spirit "wants nothing, and knows nothing, and has nothing." One who "wants to fulfill God's dearest will, he has not the poverty of which we want to talk."4 That is, Eckhart is saying that even if we get rid of all of our own desires, and only wish to do God's will, yet still, we desire to do God's will, we have not yet reached poverty of spirit. It is not enough to get rid of one's own will. A person must not even seek God's will, because to seek God's will is to seek something and want something. One must want nothing in order to be poor in spirit. Eckhart's call is so radical, that he calls us to "pray to God that we may be free of `God'" so that we may "desire as little as little as [we] wanted and desired when [we] did not exist."5 We should desire as if we did not exist, for before we came into existence we did not have any desires, even the desire to do God's will.

Beyond not even wanting God's will, one must, for Eckhart, one must not want to know nothing, such that he is "so free of all knowing that he does not know or experience or grasp that God lives in him."6 We must not only eliminate all desires, even the desire to serve God, but also eliminate the knowledge inside us of God's will, for knowing God's will may encourage us to seek God's will. Yet, even not desiring God's will and not knowing God's will is still not enough. For one to truly have poverty of spirit, Eckhart says, he must "keep so free of God and of all his works that if God wishes to work in the soul, he himself is the place in which he wants to work."7 Poverty of spirit means not even leaving room for God to work in your soul.

This teaching of Eckhart appears very troubling. The traditional Christian understanding of poverty of spirit is transforming our desires so that they mirror God's will. But, Eckhart is asking us to go beyond that, and eliminate all desire, all will. This is very similar Buddhist teaching. For Buddhists, desire is the cause of suffering, and the way to end suffering is to end desire. Is Eckhart really calling us to embrace a philosophy that-while rightly seeing our own desires devoid from God as inadequate-tells us all desire, even desiring God's will, is an impediment to poverty of spirit?

We could easily dismiss Eckhart as an `Eastern or Buddhist mystic' wolf hiding in `Catholic Dominican Order' sheep's clothing. We could call him a covert "heretic" teaching under the guise of authentic faith, with the intention of subliminally poisoning and corrupting the faithful into believing what is not church teaching to be true. That would be a bit haste, though. For, I do not believe that Eckhart need be seen as a subversive, or as one who stretched the limits. We just need to look deeper to recognize what Eckhart is truly telling us.

Christianity does teach that poverty of spirit is achieved through a transformation of our desires to fit God's will. Yet, Eckhart is right to criticize an unexamined acceptance of this. For, none of us have a "God's-eye-view." No one sees things as God sees things, as they truly are. Each person sees from his own perspective. I am not promoting subjectivism or relativism or the idea that each person creates his own truth. There is objective truth. I am just saying that only God sees truth entirely as it is; we all see things from a personal perspective and not from God's objective perspective. When we shed our personal desires and "put on Christ", or will what God wills, there is a danger that in trying to will God's will, we will only be willing our skewed interpretation of God's will. Eckhart wisely sees this danger. He calls us to let go of all of this, even of desiring God's will. This is important, I believe, because each of us, in our lives, go through spiritual `highs' and spiritual `lows'. We have times when we strongly feel God's presence and it is easy to do God's will. There is a danger here, though, for people to "become obsessed with their own goodness and pursuit of perfection" and to ask God "`Why cannot others be holy like me?'"8 During these times, we can be like the Pharisees and, when we seek to impose God's will, we are only imposing our own will on others. Conversely, we have times when no matter how hard we pray or seek God, God does not seem to be there and we do not feel his presence. From "the darkness of [our] soul [we] cry out god. But he still seems not to listen."9 It is during this `dark night of the soul' that we see if we truly have faith; that is if we have faith even when it is not easy or does not feel good. By living "as if [we do] not even know or experience or grasp that God lives within [us]"10 during the `high' spiritual times when we easily feel God's presence, we prepare ourselves to be able to experience God's grace even during our `dark night of the soul.'

Eckhart shows us a unique way to look at Jesus' call to live in spiritual poverty. By letting go of our desires, even our desire to seek, know, and have God's will-a desire that is skewed by our flawed understanding of God's will-we are thus able to `let go, and let God.'