God and Meister Eckhart

I’d like to talk to you about my favorite topic, which is God. But not the one that enforces rules or regulations, or keeps record of when or how often you’ve touched your genitals or cheated on your lover. That’s a god more suitable for children who haven’t grown up to realize the truth of what God really is.

For those of you who are my students, you know that when I talk about God, I really mean unconditional love which, mathematically speaking, can only be a zero because anything countable, wearable or measurable is something objective, therefore, it has a definite weight, measure or a concept to it.

You can’t use anything like that to describe God. If you do, you’re confused about what God is.

When I look deeply into the beliefs behind the behaviors that lead to my clients’ countless challenges with their health, relationships and willingness to engage life, it almost always boils down to some belief or program that has been put into their heads by someone or somethings, or ones they have acquired over time.

Usually, these ideas are put into their heads as a child going to some kind of church or temple or engaged in some religious worship.

A good example: I’ve had to rehabilitate many vegetarians and show them how to design their diets. Most of these people got their ideas from a guru or religious affiliation.

Today, I want to discuss a passage from a beautiful book, specifically from a Christian mystic. I do this because some people get the impression that I’m anti-Christianity. Fact is, I am absolutely not against any religion. I’m only against the corporate hijacking of people’s minds by religion for profit and control.

Unfortunately, that’s what most people consider “religion.”

Who is Meister Eckhart?

Meister Eckhart was a Christian mystic who lived from 1260-1327. He’s considered by many to be a saint. I’m not 100 percent sure if he’s been sainted or not, but he should be.

For those of you who are interested in the real depth of Christianity from what I would call a high form of spiritual practice, Meister Eckhart’s teachings are excellent.

This week, I’d like to share a passage from The Pocket Meister Eckhart from the Shambhala Pocket Library.

Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow and to love him as they love their cow. They love their cow for the milk and cheese and profit it makes them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God when they love him for their own advantage. Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have in your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost truth.

That’s so worth meditating on. Go ahead and read that passage again.

Loving God because you think that’s what you’ve got to do to get to Heaven is one of the most common barriers people have in finding the truth. There is a long, long list of things people do and the games that people play about loving God.

So, how can you really find God?

One way is by making a commitment to practice meditation, tai chi or qi gong. Or, for those of you who are ready to look inside yourself deeply and accept the truth of what’s inside Pandora’s box of the unconscious mind, a shamanic journey with psychedelic medicines may be in order.

It could be that you travel to the jungle for an Ayahuasca journey. Or find someone experienced and knowledgable to guide you through a mushroom journey or any of the other psychedelics that used intelligently that can certainly take you into the depths of yourself.

Most of you will need guidance and support and probably a number of experiences to get to the point where you can actually let your ego go and see what’s behind the curtain.

There will be nothing to see, but everything…

Nothing to know, but everything…

No experience to have, but everything,..

God as the ultimate mystery

You might come to realize that God cannot be known, but God can be experienced. God is the ultimate mystery.

The thing I’ve come to know for sure is that, when we love ourselves, nature, people, the world and the universe for the sake of loving itself, we’re as close to God as we can get.

Part of the problem in our culture is it’s highly intellectual, so people worship ideas which are really nothing but things written on pieces of paper and bandied about like objective truths.

As OSHO rightly said, “God is a verb, not a noun.” Since all the religions of the world in their own way teach that God is love and by definition GOD in all caps is absolute, God is not a relative thing — not my God versus your God — but the source and sum of all that is.

We have to come to the realization that, when we see things in the world we don’t like and blame it on a fictitious devil, it really means we just don’t understand God. We don’t understand the nature of the creative power, potential and willingness to experience all that God is, no holds barred.

Does that mean that I’m condoning acts of evil or anything like that? Not at all.

If you want to get close to God every minute of every day, whenever you feel challenged or you’re not sure what to do, simply ask yourself the question, “What would love do now?”

To the degree that you’re capable of loving at a spiritual level that includes all people and things, then your actions will be godly to the degree that they possibly can be with human comprehension, understanding and reason.

Finding God

Meister Eckhart beautifully closes with, Indeed, I tell you the truth, any object you have in your mind, however good, will be a barrier between you and the inmost truth.

What comes to mind is a beautiful quote by Rumi, a Persian mystic and the founder of a Sufi order. Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam. (The mystical branches usually carry the deeper truths that get past all the dogmas, rules and corporate stuff.)

Rumi once said, “No man can get to God until he becomes a heretic.” What he means is, you’ve got to stop reading rules and regulations written on paper and listening to stuff said to you by other people.

Until you have your own experience, and start devoting yourself to honest inquiry, be it meditative or experiential, as to what God really is — and as Meister Eckhart says — any idea you have in your mind is going to become an impediment.

This honest inquiry requires the mind and playfulness of a child to explore and allow yourself to have experiences based in wonder and awe.

I hope you consider reading The Pocket Meister Eckhart, especially if you’re a Christian. It’ll teach you a lot more than you’re going to ever learn in any church or reading the Bible by far, in my opinion.

 

Love and chi,

Paul