Session Three
The Book of Divine Consolation
pages 29-42
Glossary continued
Abyss - synonymous with the Godhead. It is the innermost, secret depth of God where all is stillness and oneness, pure being before names.
Boiling - also referred to by Eckhart as boiling over and melting. Paradoxically the stillness, silence, and absolute oneness of the Abyss or Godhead boils with relationality and boils over or melts into and as creation. The first thing that manifests in the melting or boiling over is the Trinity, then the universe of created things.
Ground - synonymous with Merton’s True Self. The Ground is the innermost, secret depth of you, the human being. In the ground there is perfect stillness, silence, and oneness with the Abyss or ground of God.
The Book of Divine Consolation was likely written for Agnes of Austria (1281-1364), Queen of Hungary, on the occasion of a death of someone close to her whose identity is uncertain though it may have been her mother, father, or sister-in-law or both. Whatever the case, Ekchart’s theme remains the same, he intends to illustrate why a person need not ultimately be left in a state of sadness by misfortune.
IMPORTANT NOTE - Many readers are turned off and left dismayed by this book because they take it to be a clinical and insensitive approach to pastoral care. This book is NOT for people who are reeling in grief in the immediate aftermath of misfortune. The only thing to say to people who are in the acute stage of grief having just received bad news is, “I am so sorry for your pain and sorrow. How can I be helpful?” Eckhart’s teaching is best received at a much later stage in the grief process. His counsel and teaching helps the sorrowful person not be named and claimed by the grief in the long term.
That being said, my sense is that once one has spent a number of seasons on the contemplative path and engaged the teaching of Eckhart in depth, then his Book of Divine Consolation can be helpful and comforting in the acute stage of grief. However, if you are a beginner on the contemplative path and just getting acquainted with Eckhart DO NOT read this book when you get bad news.
The Way of Paradox - Cyprian Smith has written a wonderful little book about Eckhart’s teaching called the Way of Paradox in which he lays out in relatively simple terms the essence of Eckhart’s paradoxical rhythm which is a dance in which a person moves back and forth between complete detachment from created things (letting go) and full engagement with the world. This movement mirrors the activity of the Holy Trinity in which the persons of the Trinity exist in a sort of dance which toggles back and forth between absolute stillness, silence, and pure oneness and the exuberant, dispersed, and variegated activity of all creation.
Pages 29-32
Your innermost depth is one with God. Having detached from all created things you awaken to your oneness with the Godhead, from this union you emerge as purely Truth, Wisdom, Justice, or Goodness. You are what you are because it is not you but God who is manifesting through and as you. Thus no-thing can cause you sorrow because you are purely one with God in whom there is no sorrow. All sorrow comes from attachment.
What’s described on these first pages is the swing in our dance toward total detachment from people, places, and things that we might fall into the abyss of God where there is no goal, or striving, or attachment of any kind, there is only still, silent, oneness.
Pages 33-37
Then on page 33 we swing back to people, places, and things. Eckhart counsels us to always think of the poor and how we might be helpful. Our engagement with the world is FROM the depth of union WITH God.
In perhaps the most challenging section of this teaching he says, “All suffering comes from love and affection.” The reader thinks to himself, Of course it does! Eckhart then says if you’re suffering with sorrow it’s because you love creation fully and you do not fully love God. For if you surrendered entirely to God then you would love all creation WITH God and you would not be sad. Now you can see that we’ve swung back to full detachment.
There seems to be a sweet spot in the dance, the swing between extremes, where there is no sorrow because all is one in God. I am not sad about my sister’s death because she is not dead and I am not alive. We are one with God in the arcing, timeless moment that stillness and boiling over meet or kiss in eternity.
If I find comfort in created things, then I will inevitably be saddened when they die or disappoint me. However, if I find comfort only in God who is one with all created things, then I will never sorrow.
Again, this is NOT a teaching for the graveside! When you are at the death bed of the beloved, just allow yourself to be sad.
Pages 38-42
Life is designed in such a way that we suffer, so that we can learn to let go of all that causes suffering. The Son could not suffer in the Godhead where there is no suffering, so He (Jesus) came into temporality, space and time, to experience suffering in solidarity with us and to teach us how to let go and surrender fully to God.
On page 42 we swing back to full engagement as Eckhart counsels us to comfort all who mourn as if their sorrow was our own.