Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Meister Eckhart understood., July 3, 1999
By A Customer
The great Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart, has puzzled scholars for 650 years. Robert Forman has found a way to unlock his writings. In "high ramification" or stilted language, Eckhart develops his philosophical ideas. But in "low ramification" or ordinary language, Eckhart communicates his mystical experience. By using this method of sorting out Eckhart's writings, Forman is able to chart out the stages in Eckhart's mystical development. At the highest mystical level, Eckhart elaborates ideas that are a great achievement for the Christian tradition - letting go, living in the eternal Now, and being empty and free. Eckhart's ideas have provided fruitful ground for dialogue with other religious traditions. We should be thankful that Robert Forman has made Meister Eckhart understandable to all.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What you really want to know., September 1, 2001
What a superlative organization of Eckhart's thought regarding the experiential side of his mysticism! While we should be wary of the hair splitting and eel wriggling of theologians, philosophers and Scholars, Mr. Forman's elucidation of the stages of Eckhart's mystical path is orderly, sensible, scholarly, and convincing. Since we are all enlightened to some degree or other, there seems little point in debating wether or not Eckhart had the mystical experience of which he spoke. If the depth of the "birth in the soul" or the level of enlightenment could somehow be definitively measured, There seems little doubt that many would be amazed at who is and is not, and who is more and who is less, spiritually developed. In this regard, we might remember Christ's teaching, "But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first". That being said, Forman supports, in his introduction, the notion that Eckhart undoubtedly spoke from deep, legitimate, religious experience. This reviewer finds numerous expressions in Eckhart's sermons which do lend support to that probability. Forman writes with perspective and humility, never making large claims or long reaches. This skillfully crafted and well researched book is a must read for anyone with more than a passing interest in arguably the greatest mystic in the western tradition. Where was Forman when I was reading Dogen?
Don
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by Michael Demkovich
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