True Hearing
by Meister Johannes Eckhart,
Dominican Mystic
 The
Everlasting and Paternal Wisdom saith,
"Whoso Heareth Me is not Ashamed". If he is Ashamed-of anything, he is Ashamed-of being Ashamed. Whoso
Worketh in Me, Sineth not. Whoso
Confesseth Me and
Feareth Me, shall have Eternal
Life. Whoso will Hear the Wisdom
of the Father must Dwell Deep, and Abide at Home, and be at Unity with himself.
Three (3) Things hinder us from Hearing the Everlasting
Word. The First is
Fleshliness, the Second is Distraction,
the Third is the Illusion of
Time. If a Man could get Free-of these, he would Dwell in Eternity, and in the
Spirit, and in Solitude, and in the Desert, and there would Hear the
Everlasting Word. Our Lord
saith, "No Man can Hear My Word, nor my Teaching, without Renouncing himself". All that the
Eternal Father Teaches and Reveals is His Being,
His Nature, and His Godhead, which
He Manifests-to us in His Son, and Teaches us that We are also
His Son.
All that God Worketh and Teacheth, He
Worketh in His Son. All His Work is
Directed-to this End, that we also may be His Son. When
God sees that we are indeed His Son,
He Yearns-after us, and in the Depth-of His
Divine Being, Waves-of Longing Break-forth, to Reveal-to us the
Abyss of His Godhead, and the
Fullness of His Essence; He
Hastens-to Identify Himself with us. Herein He
hath Joy and Gladness in Full Measure.
God Loveth Men not-less than He Loveth Himself. If thou
really Lovest thyself, thou Lovest all
Men as thyself; as long as thou Lovest any one less than thyself, thou dost not
really Love thyself. That Man is Right, who
Loves all Men as himself.
Some folk say: "I Love my friends, who do me Kindness, more than other people". Such
Love is Imperfect and Incomplete;
it is like having your Sails only Half-filled with Wind. When I Love anyone as much as myself, I would
just as soon that Joy or Sorrow,
Death or Life were Mine, as well as His. That would be the Dictate-of
Right Reason.
Saint Paul felt such Love when he said, "I would that I were Cut-off
from God for my Friends' Sake". Now to be Cut-off from God is Equivalent-to
Suffering the Pains of
Hell. Some ask whether Saint Paul was on the Way-to Perfection or was
Perfect. I answer, he was Perfect, or he would
have spoken otherwise.
I wish further to Elucidate this Saying-of Saint Paul, that he was Willing to be Cut-off from
God. The Highest Act of Renunciation for Man is for
God's Sake, to Give-up God, and that is what Saint Paul was
Willing to do; to Give-up all the Blessings that he might Receive-from
God. When for God's Sake he Gave-up
God, God still Remained-with him, since
God's Essence is Himself, not any Impression or
Reception-of Himself. He who does so is a True Man
to whom no Grief may happen, any more than it Happens-to the
Divine Being. There is a Somewhat-in the Soul that is, as it were, a Blood-Relative
of God. It is One (1), it has nothing in Common-with
Nothing (0), nor is it like Nothingness (0),
Nothing (0). All that is Created is Nothing (0), all Far-from and Foreign-to the
Soul. Could I but find myself One (1) Instant in that
Sphere of Pure Existence, I should Regard myself as Little-as a Worm.
A Question Arises regarding the Angels who Dwell-with us, Serve us and Protect us, whether their
Joys are Equal-to those of the Angels in
Heaven, or whether they are Diminished by the fact that
they Protect and Serve us. No, they are certainly not; for the Work-of the Angels is the
Will-of-God, and the Will-of-God is the Work-of the
Angels; their Service to us does not Hinder their
Joy, nor their Working. If God told an
Angel to go to a Tree and pluck Caterpillars off it, the
Angel would be quite ready to do so, and it would be his Happiness, if it
were the Will-of-God.
The Man who Abides-in the Will-of-God, Wills
Nothing-else than what God is, and what He Wills.
If he were Ill, he would not wish to be Well. If
he really Abides-in God's Will, all Pain is to
him a Joy, all Complication, simple:
Yea, even the Pains of Hell would be a
Joy to Him. He is Free and Gone-out from himself, and from all that he Receives, he must be Free.
If my Eye is to Discern Color, it must itself be Free from all Color. The Eye with which I See God is the same with
which God Sees me. My Eye and God's Eye is One (1)
Eye, and One (1) Sight, and One (1)
Knowledge, and One (1)
Love.
The Man who Abides-in God's Love must be
Dead to Himself and all Created Things, and Regard-Himself as a mere
Unit (1) among a Thousand Million (109).
Such a Man must Renounce-Himself and all the World. Supposing a Man Possessed all the World, and gave it
Back-to God Intact, just as he Received it, God would
give him back, all the World and Everlasting Life to-Boot. And
supposing there were another Man who had nothing, but a Good Will, and he thought in his
Heart, "Lord, were all this World Mine, and Two Worlds more beside it,
I would give them and myself also Back to Thee as I Received them from thee"; to that Man,
God would Give-back as much as he had Given-away. And, Supposing a Man had Renounced himself for
Twenty (20) Years, if he took himself back for a Moment,
that Man's Renunciation would be as Nothing (0). The Man who has Truly
Renounced himself and does not Once (1) Cast-a-Glance on what he has
Renounced, and thus remains Immovable and Unalterable, that Man alone has really
Renounced-Self.
May God and the Eternal Wisdom grant us to remain
equally Immovable and Unalterable with Himself.
Amen
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Father