Spiritual Aphorisms of Meister Eckhart

Posted on January 12, 2022 by Vajragoni
It would take a lifetime to cover every aspect of Meister Eckhart’s thought. We have covered dominant insights in this series but would also like to leave you with assorted spiritual aphorisms from the Meister which covers a wide-range of his mysticism. Am indebted to the Kidadl Team for compiling them, which incidentally they just completed this past November, 2021—one of those interesting synchronicities. Have chosen the ones that parallel most favorably with our own teachings here at Unborn Read more [...]
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True Virginity

Posted on January 9, 2022 by Vajragoni
As was announced earlier in this series, the phrase “knowing as he was not” is indicative of mystical virginity—being lathered in imagelessness and thus freed from all that is not the Godhead; principally, all that is prior to conception. If there is a religion in the Unborn, imagelessness is its creed. The source of this vision is Eckhart’s Sermon Eight, as listed in the Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart. "Our Lord Jesus Christ went up into a little castle and was received Read more [...]
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Eternal Birth

Posted on January 7, 2022 by Vajragoni
It is within Eckhart’s exact art of preaching and the “ascesis of attentive listening” that the transcendent awareness of the Divine Birth takes place, and the mystical ground is self-realized; incidentally this is the same act as proclaiming and receiving the Buddhadharma. Eckhart planned particular sermons for the meaning of Christ’s birth. This was initiated to coincide with the cycle of the liturgical season of Christmas. Sermon 101 starts by citing Wisdom 18:14- 15, the “Introit, Read more [...]
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The Praxis of Detachment

Posted on January 5, 2022 by Vajragoni
Eckhart writes in a treatise On Detachment and on Possessing God: I was asked, 'Some people shun all company and always want to be alone; their peace depends on it, and on being in church. Was that the best thing? ‘And I said, 'No! ‘Now see why. He who is in a right state, is always in a right state wherever he is, and with everybody. But if a man is in a wrong state, he is so everywhere and with anybody. But if a man is in a right state, in truth he has God with him. Now if a man truly Read more [...]
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Mysticism of the Ground

Posted on January 3, 2022 by Vajragoni
Numerous references have been employed for this series, in particular articles from the Medieval Mystical Theology, The Journal of The Eckhart Society. But by far the dominant one is Bernard McGinn’s The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart, The Crossroad Publishing Company 2001. Most renowned in the field of all things Eckhart, McGinn has also published numerous articles and books as well as being editor of the massive volume, The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, also published by Read more [...]
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Meister Eckhart

Posted on January 1, 2022 by Vajragoni
I was introduced to the teachings of Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) in the fall of 1982 during my first year in seminary. It was in a Spirituality-class and part of the curriculum was a book written by Dominican theologian Matthew Fox (he has since long-left the order), Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart’s Creation Spirituality in New Translation, 1980. Eckhart “never opted for a sheltered life-style or a sheltered, exclusively academic, education. Indeed, he himself declared that life is the best Read more [...]
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Season of Stillness

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Vajragoni
By and large our completed series on Zuowang predominately stated that spiritual stability is the main component in a successful contemplative enterprise. This has much to do within Unborn Mind Zen on the Recollection of the Unmoving Principle--one that bypasses the diurnal moving samsaric wheel of dukkha. This is mostly orchestrated in the contemplative dimension of one-pointedness of mind, or Bi guan, thus quieting the mind from all sensory outflows. Also in league with our own spiritual tradition, Read more [...]
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Fire the Photon Torpedoes!

Posted on December 11, 2021 by Vajragoni
To reinforce once again, within Zuowang stability is paramount. In this sense mind indeed must become stabilized—immovable—which within Unborn Mind Zen we refer to continually Recollect the Unmoving Principle. The following Tozen video from our Bodhichild channel on YouTube refines this in excellent fashion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ5aUelF43o The cultivation of the Dao requires giving-up all affairs—human or otherwise. Once all outer affairs are eliminated, they make no Read more [...]
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The Nine Realms of Darkness

Posted on December 9, 2021 by Vajragoni
The opening of the great Dhammapada, or the Law of Illumination, states that what the mind focuses on determines its reality. Anger is included here as being most dominant—as The Dhammapada in Light of the Unborn says, “hate is not pure but draining, indeed it is Mind turned against itself. Being free from hate and all abusive thoughts is the beginning of purification and the embrace of sweet peacefulness.” Zuowang paints a similar formulation when it comes to being tangled up in emotional Read more [...]
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The Modernity Fallacy

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Vajragoni
Zuowang has utilized different techniques designed for self-transformation via transcending personal-selfhood in ideally becoming unified with the Dao. Techniques such as regulating the breath, sitting in detached mindfulness, as well as ecstatic raptness. Many of these have become instituted in Westernized procedures that favor technique over substance. However, given the predilection of modernity with mundane success, they have in many cases been reoriented to serve more practical goals, such Read more [...]
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