31. The seed of God is in us.

“The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is; and accordingly, its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God-seed into God.” ~ Meister Eckhart

Here we are 31 days later, our journey into the teachings of Eckhart have reached the last station of the is voyage. This will not be my only trip with Eckhart, but for now there are other destinations to consider and study but I am confident I will return to him again in the future. This journey has been at a relatively high speed in order to travel as far as necessary to understand the scope of his teaching but I will no doubt make other other trips, branched off the mainline at much slower speed for there is so much to take in. For now, it is time to let what I have seen and experienced rest and settle into deeper levels of thought and awareness. Much has been gained, much learned and much more promised.

Again we come back to trees. The sand cherry tree that defines the view out my front window is silent, the remnants of the leaves and fruit of the year withered and crackled. The tree has seasons and we measure our days to the seasons of the tree. What has been produced is now stored away or spent. The cherries have dried and toughened but will hang tight to the tree through the darkness of winter and offer sustenance to the squirrels and magpies that live in my yard. Come spring flittering, skittering flocks of waxwings will invade and nearly pick the tree clean creating room for a new crop which will soon bloom and grow into purple fruit.

My life, for now, is tied to my cherry tree and as I watch a squirrel racing up and down the branches, there comes a sense of hope I might become an intelligent and hardworking farmers whose job is to raise the seed to thrive and grow up to God’s plan, regardless of what kind of seed I have been given to raise. What beautiful imagery, we will be rewarded with a fruit that bears true life, God fruit from God seed.

Amen, amen.

The overriding principle we have learned over the last 31 days is that God exists and we exist in him. We are called to narrow our focus to and to reduce that which distracts us so we can create the space in our souls where our God Sense will increase and our self sense will diminish.

What I have learned that is most wonderful is that we know God best by knowing his love and our best name for him is compassion.

Amen, amen again.

30. When you seek anything of your own, you will never find God.

“Know that when you seek anything of your own, you will never find God, because you do not seek God purely. You are seeking something along with God, and you are acting just as if you were to make a candle out of God in order to look for something with it. Once one finds the things one is looking for, one throws the candle away. This is what you are doing.” ~ Meister Eckhart

This one is a twister we will have to step through carefully because on initial reading it does not seem to make sense and the point is not easy to intuit.

When we seek anything on our own we will never find God. God created us to search for him but in order for him to reveal anything of himself, our search for him must be guided. He does so through the teaching authority of the church which helps us to search for him, to know what we are looking for and for whose we search. On our own we get distracted which directs our searching in places for where we cannot find him even though there is no where were he is not.

We seek things to fill holes within us things we mistake for God, material things or spiritual things that do not emanate from him. Meditation is one such example. The difference between meditation and meditative prayer is that prayer is focused on the relationship between God and ourselves. Meditation is a search for answers in places where no answers can be found. True peace, true value, true meaning, and true understanding can only come from God. To meditate with a connection to God is to attempt to use God as a candle only light the way to where we want to go rather than to be called to where we need.

Any search for meaning has to be conducted within the framework of our God, our creator and redeemer and saving spirit.

29. The soul is created in a place between Time and Eternity

“The soul is created in a place between Time and Eternity: with its highest powers it touches Eternity, with its lower Time.” ~ Meister Eckhart
Here is mysticism takes root. Time would seem to be without meaning in the context eternity, an attempt to count the countless and measure the unmeasurable. Our souls, once created, are eternal, our existence is without limits. Still, time has a great impact on his. As humans, we life a measured and finite existence. Time is the construct used to give order and perspective to our humanity and human lives. Time is the measure of second, minutes, hours, days and years that relate to our time on earth. Our souls take up residence in an human body for a measured amount of time between life and death. Our bodies are restricted by time but our souls are eternal so we are truly created in a space between time and eternity because we know both, one presently and the other in a time come.

Our souls need our bodies to live our lives where we come experience the revelation of God and his resurrected son. It is during life we learn the lessons we need to grasp our relationships with a created world with physical limits. We need to experience life and death, sorrow and joy, tragedy and new life. Without struggle we would never grow in awareness of him and his power and love for us.

We are both mortal and eternal so time and eternal so both are integral to our 

development as sentient beings with a sense of awe and love with our creator.

28. God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to receive.

“Above all else, know this: Be prepared at all times for the gifts of God and be ready always for new ones. For God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to receive.” ~ Meister Eckhart

I like to think of grace as being the air that surrounds at times during the cascade of our days through the time we call life. It is always there, always available, always precious and life giving, life affirming and life transforming.

We travel through our time only occasionally read to receive his gifts his grace brings us. Most times we don't think to receive, don't think we need to receive, don't want to receive his gifts because we pride our on our so called self-reliance. As Quoheleth would say, our acts result vanities.

I seldom remember his gifs are available for the asking when I struggle with a decision, relationship or event. It is so hard to push my ego down and away and create a space in my heart where God can enter in with his loving mercy and give me the graces I seldom have earned and never deserve.

God is that way because he can not ever be any other way always loving and encouraging. We, on the other hand, seem to wander through our days thinking we are in control and we have need of the cross and resurrection.

How wrong we are. We need his gifts always.