Truth is something so noble that if God could turn aside from it, I could keep the truth and let God go.
Meister EckhartRead
God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by a process of subtraction.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Finding God within oneself involves removing distractions rather than accumulating more knowledge or possessions.
This quote by Meister Eckhart suggests that introspection and spiritual discovery come not from the addition of external beliefs or material possessions, but rather from the elimination of unnecessary components within ourselves. It highlights the importance of simplifying one's life to uncover deeper truths and connect with the divine essence inherent in all beings.
Themes
GodSoulSubtractionSpiritualitySimplicity
In practice
Example use cases
In a meditation retreat focused on mindfulness and spiritual growth.
More from Meister Eckhart
All quotes β...Where and when God finds you ready, he must act and overflow into you, just as when the air is clear and pure, the sun must overflow into it and cannot refrain from doing that.
Meister EckhartRead
What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born.
Meister EckhartRead
In this breaking-through, I receive that God and I are one. Then I am what I was, and then I neither diminish nor increase, for I am then an immovable cause that moves all things.
Meister EckhartRead
Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God.
Meister EckhartRead
If you love yourself, you love everybody else as you do yourself. As long as you love another person less than you love yourself, you will not really succeed in loving yourself but if you love all alike, including yourself, you will love them as one person and that person is both God and man.
Meister EckhartRead
Similar quotes
The most familiar precepts are not always the truest.
Marcel ProustRead
Rosencrantz: We might as well be dead. Do you think death could possibly be a boat? Guildenstern: No, no, no... Death is...not. Death isn't. You take my meaning. Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not-be on a boat. Rosencrantz: I've frequently not been on boats. Guildenstern: No, no, no--what you've been is not on boats.
Tom StoppardRead
And would'st thou evil for his good repay?
HomerRead
This appetite to choose death by pleasure if it is available to choose - this appetite of your people unable to choose appetites, this is the death.
David Foster WallaceRead
I place a high moral value on the way people behave. I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word - politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit.
Fran LebowitzRead
We as black people are not a monolithic bunch. We are not all the same, and neither are women. Instead, we are all individuals who have these extraordinary stories to tell and share with each other that will enrich all of our lives and help us all become more ourselves and better people.
Tracee Ellis RossRead