Some months ago I begin to toy with a study of 13th-14th century poet, mystic and theologian Meister Eckhart who was a priest and professor in the emerging country of Germany. I was first drawn to him because of the stated influence he had on the spiritual figure who had great influence on me, John O'Donohue. He is an enigma. At times his poetry is easy to grasp but other times his text can be dry to read and difficult to interpret. His principle themes, however are consistently recognizable.
First, he urges us to simply our focus, attention and energy on our relationship with God. Everything that distracts from that objective is to be winnowed out and swept away like chaff. After a several month pause, I took up the challenge again and quickly identified a 31 item list of sayings from Eckhart that might be considered a basic primer of the great mystic's teachings. I decided to create a 31 one day reflection of the list with one saying to be unpacked each day. October is a 31 day month so the mission of 31 days with Eckhart was launch.
Clearly it will be a test of discipline and will since October was already going to be a very busy month. Let's begin......
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