Hochheim, Thuringia, Germany·c. 1260 – 1328
Meister
St. Mary of Egypt
The Rhineland Mystic
He preached the Godhead beyond God in the language of the Rhine.
“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.”
Life
Born around 1260 in Hochheim, Thuringia, Eckhart von Hochheim entered the Dominican order as a youth and rose to become one of the most powerful intellectuals in medieval Europe — provincial of Saxonia, vicar of Thuringia, and twice professor at the University of Paris.
But it is his German sermons, preached to nuns and laypeople in the Rhineland, that secured his place in mystical history. In language of extraordinary daring, he spoke of Gelassenheit (letting-go, releasement), the birth of the Word in the soul, and a Godhead (Gottheit) beyond the personal God — a formless, imageless abyss that is the ground of both God and the soul.
In 1326, he was charged with heresy. He died in 1328 before the trial concluded. Pope John XXII condemned seventeen of his propositions posthumously. Despite this, his influence flows through Tauler, Suso, the anonymous Cloud of Unknowing, and into modern thinkers from Heidegger to D.T. Suzuki, who saw in Eckhart a Christian parallel to Zen and Vedanta.
One Heart
“It was not I who crossed. It was the grace of God carrying what remained of me.”
Teachings
Gelassenheit — Letting Go
The soul must release all images, concepts, and attachments — even its image of God — to rest in the naked ground of being. This “releasement” is the supreme spiritual act.
The Godhead Beyond God
Beyond the personal God of creation lies the Gottheit — the formless, imageless abyss that is the ground of all being. The soul’s deepest ground and God’s deepest ground are one ground.
The Birth of the Word in the Soul
God is not only born once in Bethlehem but is born eternally in the soul that has made itself empty. In the ground of perfect stillness, the Word speaks itself.
Works & Publications
German Sermons (Predigten)
Over a hundred vernacular sermons — the most radical mystical preaching in the Christian tradition.
The Book of Divine Consolation
A treatise on detachment and the soul’s rest in God, written for Queen Agnes of Hungary.
Talks of Instruction (Reden der Unterweisung)
Early spiritual counsel on detachment, obedience, and the inner life.
An Inspiration
Eckhart is the most “Advaitic” voice in Christianity. His Godhead beyond God parallels Nirguna Brahman; his Gelassenheit echoes vairagya; his “one eye” sermon is pure non-duality.