Observations placeholder
Meister Eckhart - Selected writings - If you wish to discover and possess complete joy
Identifier
000688
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Eckhart’s love was simply an appreciation of the qualities of the thing without any attempt to own it. It was the love of what somebody or something was, meaning that if it was lost, sadness may follow because it was the removal of something that was lovely from our lives, but it would not be the bitterness of the loss of a possession.
A description of the experience
Meister Eckhart selected writings – edited and translated by Oliver Davies
If you wish to discover and possess complete joy ………. you must ensure that you are free of all creatures and of all the consolation which they provide. Certainly, for as long as the creature can comfort you and does so, you will never find true consolation. But when nothing can console you except [your higher spirit] alone, then indeed he will console you and with him and in him all that gives delight. If you are comforted by what is not, you will find no consolation either in this life or the next. But if creatures do not give you comfort or pleasure, then you will find consolation both now and hereafter.