Meister Eckhart
(1260–1328)
Biography
German Dominican friar, theologian, and mystic whose radical sermons on the soul's unity with God pushed the boundaries of Christian orthodoxy. His concept of Gelassenheit (releasement/letting-go) anticipates both existentialist and Buddhist themes. Taught that the purpose of life is to discover the divine spark (Funklein) within and let God be born in the soul through radical detachment.
Key contribution
Taught that purpose is found through Gelassenheit (radical letting-go) — by emptying oneself of all attachments, one discovers the divine ground already present within.
Key works
- German Sermons
- The Book of Divine Comfort
Perspectives on purpose
Purpose Through Letting Go
foundationalThe deepest purpose is found not by grasping but by releasing — through radical letting-go (Gelassenheit), you make space for something greater to emerge.
Only by emptying yourself of all attachments — even the attachment to God — does the divine ground emerge within.
“The seed of God is in us. If the seed had a good, wise, and industrious cultivator, it would thrive all the more and grow up to God, whose seed it is.”
Union With the Divine
foundationalThe deepest purpose is the soul's return to its source — dissolving the illusion of separation between self and the divine ground of being.
The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me — self and divine are not two.
“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me.”
Meaning Through Present-Moment Awareness
supportingPurpose is not found in the past or future but in the quality of attention you bring to this moment — here, now.
God is found not in future striving but in present attention — the now is the threshold of eternity.
“The soul that is in the now is the soul in which the Father bears his Son.”