Distilling Meister Eckhart

How much do I need to know in order to know that there’s nothing to know? Rupert says: ‘You need to know the nature of your being. In order to know the nature of your being, you need not know anything objectively. Nothing you know or don’t know with your mind has any impact at all on your ability to know your being. You could have the finest, most intelligent mind, you could have an unintelligent mind, and neither would make any difference whatsoever in relation to your capacity to know your being.’

What’s the non-dualistic view on past lives, specifically on karma and its patterns for children who get sick and die? Rupert says: ‘Well, if you accept past lives as a model that is true, then yes, what takes place in a past life affects this life just as what took place yesterday affects your experience today. It doesn’t really have a point of view. It’s just about the nature of being. There’s no kind of fixed points of view that it has in relationship to reincarnation. Some have recognised that the nature of their being would entertain a model of reincarnation and others wouldn’t, but they could both have equally and genuinely recognised the nature of their being.’

I know this understanding is the only way of going home, but I’m so afraid of it. I fear I’ll lose my beloved children because there’s nothing there. What could I do with this fear? Rupert says: ‘Why are you afraid of it? All you’re going to lose is your sorrow and your conflict. You’re not going to lose your children. Don’t overlay the idea “there is nothing” on top of your relationship. It’s just not true. Your relationship with your children can only improve as a result of this understanding. If you know that your being is infinite being, and you share it with your partner and your children, that will upgrade your relationship with them. There’ll be more love, more openness, less resistance, less judgement, more clarity, more affection, more humour.’

It seems that wild animals don’t suffer what we would call trauma – they experience events but seem to let them pass. Is trauma a specifically human experience? Rupert says: ‘Trauma happens when an event gets stuck in the mind. The event has passed, but the mind keeps rehearsing it. Animals experience unpleasant, traumatic experiences, but those experiences pass through their mind. There’s nothing in them that holds onto them. There are some experiences which are either so pleasant or unpleasant that you hold onto them. Any experience that provokes the “I don’t want this” or “I do like this, I want to hold onto it” thought gets lodged in your mind, and that’s your trauma.’

If I go to my essence and my being, am I taking away that struggle that gives me inner fortitude? Rupert says: ‘No, because the purpose of your adversity is ultimately to take you to your being. So, once you’ve arrived at your being, why would you go back to the coach? The adversity has done its job. You don’t need to go back there. Why not take the direct flight, why not go directly to your being?’

Given Meister Eckhart’s teaching about the ground of being, wouldn’t seeking guidance through psychedelic substances be completely unnecessary? If I have the capacity to rest in the ground of being, where the guiding principle is God, wouldn’t that be completely sufficient for life decisions? Rupert says: ‘It’s true that you don’t need to know anything objective in order to know the nature of your being. I agree with you that the most effective way is to go deeply into your being and to rest there, because then your mind becomes very quiet. The decisions you make when you come out of that quietness is not conditioned by the hurt, the resentment, the anger, the upset, the memory of what took place. Your mind is informed by the stillness of your being, that puts the mind in the best place to make the correct decision.’

Based on my understanding that the recognition of our true nature transcends time and space and transforms suffering, should I focus solely on remaining in being rather than using all my progressive techniques? Rupert says: ‘Yes. This impulse that you came to the retreat with, to do something, to practise something, is an impulse that’s left over from the conventional search for happiness in the world. Your desire to do something is refined, but it’s not extinguished. Sooner or later, all spiritual practice has to come to an end. And in my humble opinion, a spiritual practice that doesn’t bring itself sooner or later to an end is not a complete spiritual practice.’

I have an impulse to reach towards a toxic relationship rather than feel the void. How can I change this pattern? Rupert says: ‘Your being is not a void. If you feel that your being is a void, you are not going back to your being, you are going back to a blank empty state. Your being is not a blank empty state. It’s full of presence. It’s full of being, it’s the place of peace. If you touch that place, you won’t go near a toxic relationship. You must learn to say no. For your no to come from love and understanding, you should not be open to an abusive relationship. You should say no to it.’

Are you sure about all of the opinions that you share and the teachings that you offer? Rupert says: ‘Well, I can’t be absolutely sure about anything objective. The only thing I’m absolutely sure about is my being. And of my being, I am absolutely certain, but of nothing else.’

"If there is only the true nature of our being and we are all one, could you say that death is like a wave dissolving back into the ocean – more like a reunion of our shared being? Rupert says: ‘You could say that, but as you know, I don’t really like the word “union” because it implies that there was some prior separation. You could say that in death, the soul loses her powers, her faculties, and only her ground remains – the ground of being, God’s being. Her being is not united with God, because it was never separate from God in the first place. Why wait for death? The soul doesn’t need to wait for death. She can go to the ground of her being and be united with God anytime she wants.’"

"Why were patience and confidence given such prominence in spiritual teachings, particularly in terms of practical application? Rupert says: ‘Patience and confidence are reflections in the mind of the qualities that are innate in being. A mind that is in touch with its being, its essence is nearly always confident and patient. These are all reflections of being – the quality-less-ness of being in an individual mind. As a concession to the separate self who doesn’t yet know the nature of their being, the teaching may say to practise openness. It gives the mind that insists on doing something, something to do before it recognises that patience, confidence, kindness, openness are innate qualities. They are what we are, not what we have to do.’"

"As a Catholic from the Benedictine tradition, I wonder if guided meditation with Meister Eckhart is the only way to understand the mystics? Rupert says: ‘No, I would never claim that. It’s the best way I know. More than any other language I know, Meister Eckhart’s teaching comes straight out of the heart of God. It’s like I’ve chewed Meister Eckhart. I want to make it so easy to digest, because when I first started reading him, I found it difficult to digest. So, I had to chew it a long time myself. The logos is the first expression of God’s infinite being in the finite mind. It’s the birth or the emanation, the primal emanation of God’s infinite being in our minds, which is just the knowing of our own being.’"

A woman reports on the passing of a friend’s sister. Rupert and the whole assembly send their love and prayers.

A man shares his breakthrough experience of feeling God’s love pouring into emptiness during meditation, leading to ecstatic recognition of the teaching’s truth.

"When you shared in today’s meditation about Meister Eckhart being like your grandfather, how do you explain that in terms of consciousness having memory? Rupert says: ‘What I said this morning – I was being playful. I didn’t mean it literally. I was just trying to evoke the way I felt I had taken Meister Eckhart. Our minds are very much more than just the surface waking-state mind. There are deeper layers to the mind in which memories are stored that don’t make sense from the point of view of the waking state mind. At the deeper levels of our mind, there are occurrences that just don’t fit into the parameters of time and space that we know in the waking state for sure.’"