One does not have to flee the world to learn and practice an inner solitude. Eckhart says, “This cannot be learned by running away, by fleeing into the desert away from external things; a person must learn to acquire an inner solitude, wherever and with whomsoever one may be. One must learn to penetrate things and find God there, and make the divine image grow in oneself in an essential way.”
The practice of solitude requires discipline, like any art form. Eckhart writes, “It is just like learning to write: truly, if a man is to acquire this art, he must apply himself and practice hard, however heavy and bitter a task it seems to him, and however impossible. If he is prepared to practice diligently and often, he will learn and master the art….Wherever his thoughts may stray, he will do the job because he has the skill.”
Eventually the practice becomes a habit and is done with a certain ease. “Thus a person should be pervaded with God’s presence, transformed with the form of his beloved God, and made essential by Him, so that God’s presence shines for him without any effort; rather he will find emptiness in all things and be totally free of things. But first there must be thought and attentive study, just as with a pupil in any art.” Indeed, “this above all is necessary: that a person should train and practice one’s mind well and bring it to God, and then one will always have divinity within.” Eckhart urges us to “practice diligently and often” and cautions that it “requires constant watchfulness.”
Eckhart spells out the training and discipline he is speaking of:
You should learn to be able to let go in your works. Yet it is not easy for an undisciplined person to reach a point when no busyness and no work hinders him or her — it calls for diligent application in order that God is always present to one and shines unveiled all the time and in all company. Skillful diligence is required for this, and especially in two areas. One is that a person shut oneself off well inwardly so that his or her mind is protected from images from the outside so that they remain outside and do not unfittingly walk and keep company with him. One should see that they do not find a resting-place in him or her.
Secondly, one should not let oneself be caught up by one’s internal imagery, whether it comes in the form of images or lofty thoughts, or outward impressions of whatever is present to one’s mind lest one be distracted or dissipate oneself in their multiplicity. A person ought to train and discipline all one’s powers to this task and keep one’s inner self present to oneself.
Learning to let go means one is capable of dealing with light or dark, joy or sorrow, with equanimity. One can go to work with a clarity of mind and purpose. “As soon as a person has weaned himself or herself from all things and distanced himself from them, then one can faithfully perform all one’s works, taking delight in them or leaving them alone without any hindrance.” We are fully present whether we find ourselves at work or leisure. “A person should become a God-seeker in all things and a God-finder among all kinds of persons and in all places and all ways. In this manner one can always grow and never reach an end of growing.” We need to “accept all things equally from God, not ever looking and wondering which is greater, or higher, or better. We should just follow where God points out for us, that is, what we are included to and to which we are most often directed, and where our bent is.” After all, “God is in all ways, and equal in all ways, for one who can take Him equally.” Furthermore, paradox reigns, for “where God shines least for us is often where God shines the most. This is why we should accept God equally in all ways and in all things.”
What if you have your own special practice?
Now someone might say, “But if I do take God equally in all ways and in all things, do I not still need some special way?” Now see. In whatever way you find God most, and you are most often aware of Him, that is the way you should follow. But if another way presents itself, quite contrary to the first, and if, having abandoned the first way, you find God as much in the new way as in the one you have then that is right. But the noblest and best thing would be this, if a man were to come to such equality, with such calm and certainty that he could find God and enjoy Him in any way and in all things, without having to wait for anything or chase after anything: that would delight me!
Matthew Fox is the author of over 30 books including The Hidden Spirituality of Men, Christian Mystics, and most recently Meister Eckhart. A preeminent scholar and popularizer of Western mysticism, he became an Episcopal priest after being expelled from the Catholic Church by Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI. You can visit him at matthewfox.org.
Excerpted from the book Meister Eckhart: A Mystic Warrior for Our Times ©2014 by Matthew Fox. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com