Sermon 86

Beautiful Sermon. The extraordinary giant M.Eckhart makes up his story as usual :) using the Biblical story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb. He makes it a story of a psychological transformation (because maybe all what he was really writing was about THAT! - I don't know bc I've read rather little of his work). Notice the change of the capital letters, him (Jesus the man) and Him (God the Universe, one unitary movement, etc.

So what is the story that M.Eckhart conceived about? Mary Magdalene loved Jesus so much that when he died, she died psychologically with him too. That means she became totally empty. That was when the God/ Universe/ joyous extraordinary Energy or whatever you want to call It was revealed/restored in her. Beautiful and true explanation of the psychological transformation using the old catholic imagery and terms (also worth noticing is a great translation).

The last part is immensely important to understand:
For the soul to find God she needs six things: First, what was sweet to her before must become bitter to her. Second, that the soul becomes too cramped for herself, so that she cannot remain within herself.8 Third, she must desire nothing but God. Fourth, that none can comfort her but God. Fifth, that she never returns to transient things. Sixth, that she has no inner peace till He is restored to her.


SERMON EIGHTY-SIX
(Q 56, Par. an. 26, Evans II, 32)1
"Mary stood at the sepulcher weeping" (John 20 : 1 1 ). It was a wonder that in such sore distress she could weep at all. 'Love was the reason of her standing, sorrow of her weeping.' She stepped forward and looked into the tomb. She sought a dead man, and found two living angels. Origen says, 'she stood.' Why did she stay when the apostles had fled? She had nothing to lose: all she had she had lost with him. When he died she died with him. When they buried him they buried her soul with him. Therefore she had nothing to lose.
She went on. Then he met her. "She thought he was the gardener,
and said, 'Where have you laid him?' " (John 20 :15). She was so
anxious about him that she only took in one word that he said.
"Where have you laid him? " that was what she said to him. Then he
revealed himself gradually to her. If he had revealed himself all at
once, while she was in the throes of longing, she would have died of joy. If the soul knew when God was coming into her, she would die of joy; and if she knew when He was leaving her, she would die of grief. She does not know when He comes or when He goes, though she can sense when He is with her. A master says His coming and His going are hidden. His presence is not concealed, for He is a light, and light is by nature revelation.
Mary sought God and God alone: that is why she found Him, and
she desired nothing but God. To the soul that seeks God, all creatures must be a pain. It was a pain for her to see the angels. Thus for the soul in quest of God, all things must be as nothing. For the soul to find God she needs six things: First, what was sweet to her before must become bitter to her. Second, that the soul becomes too cramped
for herself, so that she cannot remain within herself.8 Third, she must desire nothing but God. Fourth, that none can comfort her but God. Fifth, that she never returns to transient things. Sixth, that she has no inner peace till He is restored to her.
Let us pray, etc.

 Meister Eckhart - Unresigned People, Who are Full of Own-Will

Quitting Thyself 

‘Alas, Sir,’ people say, ‘I wish I stood as well with God, had as much devotion, were as much at peace with God as other people are. If only I could be like this, or as poor as that,’ or, ‘ It is not a bit of good unless I can be here or there or do so and so. I must live away from home, in a convent or a cell.’ - Believe me, the fault is in thyself and nowhere else. It is nothing but own will. Thou mayst not know it and it may not seem so to thee, but the only source of restlessness in thee is thy personal will, whether this is realized or not. We think we ought to flee this thing or follow that—places, people, methods, purposes, or acts—but ways and things are not to blame for hindering thee, it is thou thyself in things that is standing in thy way, cleaving to things as thou dost inordinately. Starting with thyself then, rise up and quit thyself. An thou flee not first thyself it is certain that wherever else thou mayest flee thou wilt find thou art disturbed and hindered, be it where it may. For people to seek peace in outward things—in places, persons, ways or works, in poverty or exile or despisery or anything else however important it may be - is all in vain, it will not bring peace. Those who seek in this way are looking in the wrong direction: the further out they go the less are they likely to find what they are seeking. They go like one who has missed his way: the further he walks the wider he strays. But what ought he to do? He must leave himself first; he will then have left all things. A man may give up a kingdom or the whole world but if he still clings to himself he has given up nothing.

 Ruben Feldman Gonzalez: "If you want to bring the Silence to the world , it's already gone" WHY? 

Purpose.. effort.. the illusion of the split of Reality (into subject-object) produced by thought, the horizontal conflict. It's a distortion of perception. But it's necessary to perform any action, to do something. That's why it (this mechanism of the horizontal split) evolved in the brain (by/with thought). 

So work/action has to be BALANCED with complete non-action in complete unobstructed Freedom/Peace, silence and stillness without any choice or effort. If not, the META Process with its horizontal split can drive one "crazy" bit by bit (e.g. fear, obsessions, stress, lack of sleep, desires, addictions, etc).

All of this, the very simple mechanism how the META process of thought produces this illusion of the horizontal conflict/split (so has to multiply division), is re-learned, re-discovered, has to be re-discovered in the brain, from the ground up. NOT in the books (only). Re-discovered over and over again, maybe from different points of view. But it happens all by itself for a monk (some one vitally interested in this) and this is correct, the best what can happen to any one.

WHO cares? The Universe in all those brains that have awakened is the same one intelligence, because there is no division.. And the intelligence wants intelligent solutions (not like wars and the rat race).

So that is also the "Will of God".. So the whole issue if the world will be destroyed by the fools is not yet completely determined. Yes there are wars, bc of thought and it's imaginary products. BUT thought has also created magnificent technology.. It is limited and it creates deadly problems but it wasn't ALL bad from the Universe to allow for the mechanism of the horizontal conflict to develop in the brain...

.. Not only intelligent solutions for "problems" but they already are living in the undivided way so they don't create the problems in the first place.

Stillness and Silence is the Ground of that living, it's being one with the Void, Nothingness, complete boundless Peace, complete Ecstasy that is the Universe, the kernel of the Universe.

UP/Yoga/Zazen/Dhjana, etc. = letting everything go as the Universe wants (so called "God's will" :). Let  everything go completely as It wants!

Complete denial/ negation of the Self (everything that it wants). The negation includes "UP" (the idea of it)!

That means it is best "done" by silence and stillness. 

In (functional or non-functional) work it may not be possible. It's because the horizontal conflict  (the illusory product of thought that is the split into the subject and object) may be necessary  to perform it (operate on the so called objects of the "environment"). That is why whatever "we" "do" is so often the cause of so much stress, fear, effort, conflict, anguish, etc. The horizontal conflict is the root of it, the root of stress.

Meister Eckhart was a great Giant! (you can substitute "The Universe", "Void" or "Sunya" for "God" and "the world of the human society - all products of thought" for "creatures" in the passage):

"If therefore you want to have and find full joy and consolation in God, see to it that you are stripped of all creatures, of all consolation from creatures. For certainly, as long as creatures comfort you, you will never find true comfort. But if nothing can comfort you save God, truly God will console you, and with him and in him all that is delight. If you are consoled by what is not God, you will have comfort neither here nor there. If however creatures do not console you and you don't enjoy them, you will find comfort both here and there"

Regarding the so called "Will of God" :), the so called "religious" people might have not understood that war is also "the will of God" (the will of the Universe). Very simply because war is obviously currently happening, that is all the "reason" behind it why it's the "Will of God" currently. The thought of the people has obviously always have thought that "God" is some "being" somewhere (in "Heavens" :) who can choose and control what's going on in the world (what a funtastic product of thought! :) because of their catholic upbringing and all the conditioning in the society. But "God" (The Universe, Sunyata, Void, etc.) is simply THAT what IS (all of It, the whole unitary movement) that is happening. It does not mean that we - the monks.. should participate in war, it's an activity of the fools.. The task of the monks is stillness and silence. 

Suffering is the expression of the imaginary product of thought called the Self. Stillness and silence is the expression of understanding.

 Let me ask you a question, OK?

If there is only one unitary undivided movement ("THAT"), what can be tried or attempted? Who attempts it? What can be achieved?

Attempt is a rather unfortunate word to use in this context, of B.

UP is not a positive thing! It's a negation (negative!) of all illusions, including the "UP" (the Idol).

An "attempt" can only be made in C, where there is an ILLUSION of a limited movement (the me/ the Self/ the horizontal conflict). So ALL attempts are things of C, can only "take place" in the illusion of C (sometimes functional, like work, etc.)

 UP/Yoga/Dhjana/Zazen/the Universe fills an empty brain immediately, without time. It's seamless, so to speak, it can be said that it's the same, one movement..

In fact the energy of the Universe IS already in the brain, in the Posterior brain. But thought in the Anterior brain blocks it when it invents the horizontal conflict, so the purpose, direction, and the self.

UP cannot be initiated, tried, attempted bc to initiate it, there would have to be knowledge and image (a definition) of what to pursue, so.. a purpose/ a goal, so we're in the same old circle of thought..