Eckhart - Appelbaum - Parabola

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F o u r M e d i t a t i o n s o n S e e i n g

w i t h r e f e r e n c e t o M e i s t e r E c k h a r t

D a v i d p p e l b a u m

THE MYSTERY OF SEEING

THIS IS WHAT MEISTER ECKHART BRlNGS for our

edífication. There is no skill or method to attaio the act

of seeing, even though m e means may have value ín

themselves, The student of seeing has to unlock the mystery fírst,

Eckhart tells us, and ir begins=-here, now=-wirh the question of

who is seeíng, Until the question is raised to a new pirch, the

intensíty needcd to undcrgo the mystery will be wanting.

The gateway is to be found in the releasement from what

Eckhart calls the me and mine, the ego and its collection of

thíngs thar define its territory, As SOO11 as one relaxes and becomes

human, endowed wirh a sensírivi ty to what is real , the peculiar role

assigned to humanity in creation presents itself. Ir is here that

Eckhart tíes deansing the eye ofvision to a view of'the cosmos, the

starry heavens above and here below The dívine and me human,

God and myself. Seeing must travei the breadth ofthe relation,

TI1e turning point of Eckhart' s thought has to do wirh

transforrnation. The potentiality ofthe human being is very high.

P R O l Encaustic icon of Chtist sixth century. St. Catherine s Monastery Sinai

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M e is te r E c kh a rt

Angels are envious ofthe place given to

os to occupy, he says. To open the doors

of perception and to release vision from

its hidden attachments: that 5 the parh

that his thought traces. It is a path of

knowing,gl1osis, where the act of

thinking and the act of being are one and

the same, Hís gnosís is special because of

the claríty and símplícíty of sight, and also

for íts specifícs. It tells us that our deep

identifications revolve around erroneous

representaríons of reality, Without

knowing ir we hold a místaken world

view inherited frorn our upbringing, It is

up to us to radically change these

habitual modes of reception,

In the still deep moment of

medítation, one comes to the ground of

intelligence. This, higher mind, the

spark or scintilla of the soul, iswhere

thought is void of object, Dwelling in

this releasement there is witness to the

unfolding creative process, whích, i11

Eckhart's Christology, pours forth from

the Pather, creator God, to hís Son, the

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intelligible presence to thís

world. It means, 11 1 strict

terms, being present to how

the world emerges from

nothing, and is nothing in

relation to the creator, the Ali.

SEEING 15 A PATIi

SEElNG IS A P úHWAY to

Iíberatíon, both the

greater and the lesser,

This thought we owe to

Eckhart. Furtherrnore, the

pathway is there to be

discovered. In this moment,

thought opens the ínânítude

of its potential to yield ataste

of another W.ly of being. It

would be in the freedom ofhope that one is able to go forward

without a map or preconceptiou.

VVithaut a why, Eckhart says, Seeing is

that look forward.

He rerninds lIS ofthe extreme

diligence needed for the task. lhe path

i5 not ready-made, waiting there ahead

of one's arrival. Seeíng unveils it. When

it is actualized, seeing is both means and

end, as well as the pathway irself

Extreme díligence: the rhetoric seems to

suggest a rigíd application of attention,like pouríng over a ledger. Eckhart is

careful to state that the work of seeing-

both seeing's work and work's seeíng=-

is more of an undoing of blockages and

freeing the attention, A vision ís

constricted because is riddled by

negation, When a pickpocket looks ar a

saint, he sees pockers. The path is

therefore one of negating negation,

unbínding the atrachments that

constitute one's preferences, desires, or

inclinations. A person refuses the me

and mine and lets go. The discovery of

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not thís, not thar, that m nor who take myself'to be, follows the seeing,

Repeating the recognition over a

lifetime defines a path.

l.,ETTING GO REQUIRES A WHOLE

NEW WAY OF THINKING D N EW L AN GU AG E. It is a

challenge to understand what

eeds release and wbat needs to

be re1eased. On the one hand, it just

happens, and 011 the other, the greatest

rigor cannot be avoidcd. One must

rernember the moment, as Dogen the

Zen master put it (at about the same

time in the late Middle Ages as the

Rhineland mystíc), Eckhart S 3 y s it in a

similar rhought. One must agree to the

flow, as it rushes forth from the

unmanifest, and be buoyant enough to

keep up with its unfolding. Nothíng ean

snag or delay the person awakened to the

simple matter of rising to this life. The

repetition of seeing Involves lívíng tife as

a seer who is purified by the seeing,

Why purifled? This is an important

questiono Seeing is purification. Each

moment that an active visíon takes place,

the work gifted to hwnan beings from

above is engaged, This rneans, seeing

occurs in deep releasement. One has let

go of self-irnage and faces without excuses

the question of his or her existence. There

the first light of seeing dawns. Once

contamination by the ego has been

undone, lifecan be embraced as ir comes

to be its becoming. lu this, there is real

freedom, whích i.sthe ai m of al l teachings.

There is a work meant for a human

being, the species b omo s ep ie ns . It

involves re1ating to the higher part of the

mind and trusting the intelligence of

letting go. This is a movement toward

bearing witness to the formless void=-

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whích isthe Godhead, in Eckhart's

language, into whích even God cannot

enter until he surrenders his powers and

possessions, There is this astounding

thought: God too must work at

releasement in order to see reality, Here,

Eckhart will tell us, lies the height of

seeing, when the eye through whíeh see is the same ey e through whlch God

sees. The human being and the deity

share an identieal effort, Seeíng iswitness

for the sake of that highest purpose.

What i s tha. t? It is to provide a lens onto

realiry through whích the Creator ean

see the creatíon, That we actually share

in the common work of keeping the

uníverse lighted within the absolute

blackness of empty space.

THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS IN THE

PROCESS OF LETTING GO

TH I S h i FA N s. C O M IN G OUT of

hidíng and into the light.

Reality is guided by the

movement of epiphany,

This is the thought of the IJadith,

God is a hidden treasure wanting to be

known. 111e unveiling of reality

coincides with lettíng the blocks and

Iimits go, holding back no longer,

Presence appears from absence anddisappears back into it. This ismarked

by an outbreak of meanlnglessness=-for

Eckhart, the call from on high to be

empty of ali knowíedge. For him,

empriness is the comíng of an ever-

present relaxatíon, Nothíng happens, yet

everything does. This is how Meister

Eckhart's uníverse works.

It is wírh this common cosmic

process that we join whenever we are

gifted wírh seeing. In the same instant,

we are given to see who we are and what

we serve.•

W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 1 4 I 1 1

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_ E H I le O J . N I _

Chrlst cruclfed 1632 D ieg< l Ve lásquez P rado Museum Madr id

EU EU IRmR SlJbRchthRni?(.~ he neared death the cross, Jesus críed,

My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me )

RO to d ie, p rop erZ r u lId ersto od , is tlo th in g o th er th a« th e ce ssa tio n o f

ali tlsa is . I do not m ean that: the being of tlJe soul falls into mere

tJath;1W1U:SJ.. rather Ive should u,uierstand this cessation ta be tbe

er adic atio n a f p asse ssin g a nd h av in g. H ere th e so ul fa rsa ke s a li th i1 Jg s,

G ad a 1td ali c re atu re s. O f c ou rs e, sounds astM lishing ta say that the soul

slJ ou ld fo rsa ke G od , b ut ... the so u m us t ex is t in a fre e n oth i1 Jg tles s. T ba t

IPC sh ou ld flrsa ke G od is alto ge tlJ er to hat C od in ten d« ; fo r a s 1 01 1ga s tlJe

s ou l h as C od [ in a p os se ss iv e lJ a ,o j, k 1to 1l SG o d as a concept and is aJVa1 e

of C od a s a ll objea1 s he is far fi om God Tbis thm i s G o d s d es ir e- th at

G o d s ho uld r ed uc e Himself to tl otl JÍ ll g; l1 t he s ou l . .. .-Meister Eckhart

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Eckhart - Appelbaum - Parabola

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