Thrown Out Old Mirror Standing Against Wall

[paypal_donation_button border="5" Thrown Out Old Mirror Standing Against Wall Meister Eckart - The Complete Mystical Works SERMON FOURTEEN (a) (Q 16a)1 A master says, if all mediation were gone between me and this wall, I would be on the wall, but not in the wall. It is not thus in spiritual matters, for the one is always in the other: that which embraces is that which is embraced, for it embraces nothing but itself. This is subtle. He who understands it has been preached to enough. But now a little on the image of the soul.2 There are many masters who claim that this image is born of will and intellect, but this is not so. I say rather that this image is an expression of itself without will and without intellect. I will give you a simile. Hold up a mirror before me, and whether I want to or not, without will and without intellectual knowledge of myself I am imaged in the mirror. This image is not of the mirror, and it is not of itself, but this image is most of all in him from whom it takes its being and its nature. When the mirror is taken away from me, then I am no longer imaged in the mirror, for I am myself the image. Another simile. When a branch grows out of a tree, it bears both the name and the essence of the tree. What comes out is what stays within, and what stays within is what comes out. Thus the branch is an expression of itself. Thus too I say of the image of the soul: what comes out is what stays within, and what stays within is what comes out. This image is the Son of the Father, and I myself am this image, and this image is wisdom. Therefore God be praised now and evermore. Whoever does not understand, let him not worry. 1~Meister Eckhart, The Complete Works, Page 12-13 Notes This fragment from the British Library (formerly British Museum) MS. Egerton 2188f. 104v was printed by Priebsch in his Deutsche Handschriften in England II (Erlangen, 1901), p. 82. It was shown by Brethauer to be in close agreement with art.8 of the Supplementary Accusation. For further notes, see Sermon 14b.