Meister Eckhart on concentration and animitta samadhi

 

Therefore the soul in which this birth is to take place must keep absolutely pure and must live in noble fashion, quite collected and turned entirely inward, not running out through the five senses into the multiplicity of creatures, but all in turned and collected and in the purest part -there is His place; He disdains anything less.
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-As I said just now, it is in the purest thing that the soul is capable of, in the noblest part, the ground - indeed, in the very essence of the soul which is the soul's most secret part. There is the silent 'middle,' for no creature ever entered there and no image, nor has the soul there either activity or understanding; therefore she is not aware there of any image, whether of herself or of any other creature.
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In consequence, there is nothing so unknown to the soul as herself. Accordingly, one master says that the soul can neither create nor obtain an image of herself.
Therefore she has no way of knowing herself, for images all enter through the senses, and hence she can have no image of herself. And so she knows all other things, but not herself. Of nothing does she know so little as of herself, for want of mediation.
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And, since you have no image but of what is outside yourself (which is drawn in through the senses and continually points to that of which it is the image), there­ fore it is impossible for you to be beatified by any image whatsoever.
And therefore there must be a silence and a stillness, and Father must speak in that, and give birth to His Son, and perform His works free from all images.
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They must know that the very best and noblest attainment in this life is to be silent and let God work and speak within. When the powers have been completely withdrawn from all their works and images, then the Word is spoken. Therefore he said, 'In the midst of the silence the secret word was spoken unto me.' And so, the more completely you are able to draw in your powers to a unity and forget all those things and their images which you have absorbed, and the further you can get from creatures and their images, the nearer you are to this and the readier to receive it. If only you could suddenly be unaware of all things,10 then you could pass into an oblivion of your own body as St. Paul did, when he said, "Whether in the body I cannot tell, or out of the body I cannot tell; God knows it" (2 Cor. 12:2). In this case the spirit had so entirely ab­sorbed the powers that it had forgotten the body: memory no longer functioned, nor understanding, nor the senses, nor the powers that should function so as to govern and grace the body; vital warmth and body-heat were suspended, so that the body did not waste dur­ing the three days when he neither ate nor drank. Thus too Moses fared, when he fasted for forty days on the mountain and was none the worse for it, for on the last day he was as strong as on the first.

In this way a man should flee his senses, turn his powers inward and sink into an oblivion of all things and himself. Concerning this a master addressed the soul thus: 'Withdraw from the unrest of ex­ternal activities, then flee away and hide from the turmoil of inward thoughts, for they but create discord.' And so, if God is to speak His Word in the soul, she must be at rest and at peace, and then He will speak His Word, and Himself, in the soul - no image, but Himself!
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Dionysius exhorted his pupil Timothy in this sense saying, 'Dear son Timothy, do you with untroubled mind soar above yourself and all your powers, above ratiocination and reasoning, above works, above all modes and existence, into the secret still darkness, that you may come to the knowledge of the unknown super-divine God.' There must be a withdrawal from all things. God scorns to work through images.
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He therefore had to pursue it and search for it in himself and not outside.
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This is what Christ meant when he said, "Whoever will not deny himself and will not leave his father and mother, and is not estranged from all these, is not worthy of me" (Matt. 10:37), as though he were to say, he who does not abandon creaturely externals can be neither conceived nor born in this divine birth. But divesting yourself of yourself and of everything external does truly give it to you. And in very truth I be­ lieve, nay, I am sure, that the man who is established in this cannot in any way ever be separated from God. I say he can in no way lapse into mortal sin. He would rather suffer the most shameful death, as the saints have done before him, than commit the least of mortal sins.
I say such people cannot willingly commit or consent to even a venial sin in themselves or in others if they can stop it. So strongly are they lured and drawn and accustomed to that, that they can never turn to any other way; to this way are directed all their senses, all their powers.
May the God who has been born again as man assist us to this birth, eternally helping us, weak men, to be born in him again as God. Amen.
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No sinner can receive this light, nor is he worthy to, being full of sin and wickedness, which is called 'darkness.' Therefore it says, "The darkness shall neither receive nor comprehend the light" (John 1:5). That is because the paths by which the light would enter are choked and obstructed with guile and darkness: for light and darkness cannot coexist, or God and creatures; if God shall enter, the creatures must simultaneously go out.
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St. Augustine says there are many who sought light and truth, but only outside where it was not to be found. Finally they go out so far that they never get back home or find their way in again. Thus they have not found the truth, for truth is within, in the ground, and not without.
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But the soul is scattered abroad among her powers and dissipated in the action of each: the power of sight in the eye, the power of hearing in the ear, the power of tasting in the tongue - thus her ability to work inwardly is enfeebled, for a scattered power is imperfect. So, for her inward work to be effective, she must call in all her powers and gather them together from the diversity of things to a single inward activity. St. Augustine says the soul is rather where she loves than where she gives life to the body. For example, there was once a pagan master who was devoted to an art, that of mathematics, to which he had devoted all his powers. He was sitting by the embers, making calculations and practicing this art, when a man came along who drew a sword and, not knowing that it was the master, said, 'Quick, tell me your name or I'll kill you!' The master was too absorbed to see or hear the foe or to catch what he said: he was unable to utter a word, even to say, 'My name is so-and-so.' And so the enemy, having cried out several times and got no answer, cut off his head.

And this was to acquire a mere natural science. How much more then should we withdraw from all things in order to concentrate all our powers on perceiving and knowing the one infinite, uncreated, eternal truth! To this end, then, assemble all your powers, all your senses, your entire mind and memory; direct them into the ground where your treasure lies buried. But if this is to happen, realize that you must drop all other works - you must come to an unknowing, if you would find it. (...)

For the soul is so firmly at­ tached to the powers that she has to flow with them wherever they flow, because in every task they perform the soul must be present and attentive, or they could not work at all. If she is dissipated by attending to outward acts, this is bound to weaken her inward work.
For at this birth God needs and must have a vacant free and unencum­bered soul, containing nothing but Himself alone, and which looks to nothing and nobody but Him. As to this, Christ says, "Whoever loves anything but me, whoever loves father and mother or many other things is not worthy of me. 

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I did not come upon earth to bring peace but a sword, to cut away all things, to part you from sister, brother, mother, child, and friend that in truth are your foes" (Matt. 10:34-36; d. 19:28). For whatever is familiar to you is your foe. If your eye wanted to see all things, and your ear to hear all things and your heart to remember all things, then indeed your soul would be dissipated in all these things.

Accordingly a master says, 'To achieve an interior act, a man must collect all his powers as if into a corner of his soul where, hiding away from all images and forms, he can get to work.' Here, he must come to a forgetting and an unknowing. There must be a stillness and a silence for this Word to make itself heard. We cannot serve this Word better than in stillness and in silence: there we can hear it, and there too we will understand it aright - in the unknowing. To him who knows nothing it appears and reveals itself.
Another question arises. You might say, 'Sir, you place all our sal­ vation in ignorance. That sounds like a lack. God made man to know, as the prophet says, "Lord, make them know! " (Tob. 13:4). Where there is ignorance there is a lack, something is missing, a man is brutish, an ape, a fool, and remains so long as he is ignorant.' Ah, but here we must come to a transformed knowledge, and this un­knowing must not come from ignorance, but rather from knowing we must get to this unknowing. Then we shall become knowing with divine knowing, and our unknowing will be ennobled and adorned with supernatural knowing. And through holding ourselves passive in this, we are more perfect than if we were active. (...)

And so in this way you must cast aside all your deeds and silence your faculties, if you really wish to experience this birth in you. If you would find the newborn king, you must outstrip and abandon all else that you might find.
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When you have completely stripped yourself of your own self, and all things and every kind of attachment, and have transferred, made over, and abandoned yourself to God in utter faith and perfect love, then whatever is born in you or touches you, within or without, joyful or sorrowful, sour or sweet, that is no longer yours, (...)

For you have abandoned self and have gone out of your (soul's) powers and their activities, and your personal nature. Therefore God must enter into your being and powers, because you have bereft yourself of all possessions, and become as a desert, as it is written, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness" (Matt. 3:3). Let this eternal voice cry out in you as it listeth, and be as a desert in respect of yourself and all things.

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For the greater the delight in outward things the harder it is to leave them; the stronger the love the sharper the pain when it comes to parting.
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And so in truth, if you would find this noble birth, you must leave the crowd and return to the source and ground whence you came. All the powers of the soul, and all their works - these are the crowd. Memory, understanding, and will, they all diversify you, and therefore you must leave them all: sense perceptions, imagination, or whatever it may be that in which you find or seek to find your­ self. After that, you may find this birth but not otherwise - believe me!
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Now you might say, 'Well sir, what use is my intellect then, if it is supposed to be empty and functionless? Is that the best thing for me to do - to raise my mind to an unknowing knowledge that can't really exist? For if I knew anything at all it would not be ignorance, and I should not be empty and bare. Am I supposed to be in total darkness?' Certainly. You cannot do better than to place yourself in darkness and in unknowing.

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And the more barren you are of self and un­witting of all things, the nearer you are to Him. Of this barrenness it is said in Jeremiah, "I will lead my beloved into the wilderness and will speak to her in her heart." The true word of eternity is spoken only in solitude, where a man is a desert and alien to himself and multiplicity. For this desolate self-estrangement the prophet longed, saying, "Who will give me the wings of a dove that I may fly away and be at rest?" (Ps. 55:6). Where does one find peace and rest?
There, truly, where there is rejection, desolation, and estrangement from all creatures.
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stand still and do not waver from your emptiness;
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I am often asked if a man can reach the point where he is no longer hindered by time, multiplicity, or matter. Assuredly! Once this birth has really occurred, no creatures can hinder you; instead, they will all direct you to God and this birth.
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Where two are to become one, one of them must lose its being. So it is: and if God and your soul are to become one, your soul must lose her being and her life.
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be as free of it as Naught is free, which is neither here nor there.
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Thus, to be receptive to the highest truth, and to live therein, a man must be without before and after, untrammeled by all his acts or by any images he ever perceived, empty and free, receiving the divine gift in the eternal Now ...
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And when she emerges into the unmixed light, she falls into her Nothingness and in that Nothing­ lness so far from the created Something, that of her own power she cannot return to her created Something. God with His uncreatedness upholds her Nothingness and preserves her in His Something. The soul has dared to become nothing and so cannot of herself return to herself, for she has departed so far from herself before God comes to the rescue.
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If a man is in such a state of pure nothingness, is it not better to do something to beguile the gloom and desolation, such as praying or listening to sermons or doing something else that is virtuous, so as to help himself?' No, be sure of this. Absolute stillness for as long as possible is best of all for you. You cannot exchange this state for any other without harm. That is certain.
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Be sure of this: if anyone else would speak in the temple (which is the soul) but Jesus, Jesus is silent, as if he were not at home - and he is not at home in the soul, for she has strange guests to talk to. But if Jesus is to speak in the soul, she must be all alone, and she has to be quiet herself to hear what he says.
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Receiving this power in the Son and through the Son, the spirit waxes mighty in everything it undertakes, so that it becomes equal and mighty in all virtues and in perfect purity, so that neither joy nor sorrow, nor anything God has created in time, can destroy that man, but he stands mightily there as if with divine power, in face of which all things are puny and futile.

Selected from the first six sermons
Translation:Maurice O'C. Walshe