"Let every man keep to his own good way and include all ways in it, and take up in his way all goodness and all ways. To change one's way makes for instability of mind as well as of way. Whatever you can get from one way you can also obtain from another if it is good and praiseworthy and mindful only of God: but not all men can follow one path. And so it is with imitating the austerities of such saints. You should love this way, and it may well appeal to you, even though you need not follow it. Now you might say, 'Our Lord Jesus Christ always had the highest way, we ought to follow him.' That is true. We certainly should fol low our Lord, but not in all respects. Our Lord fasted for forty days, but no one should take it upon himself to follow that. Christ per formed many works in which he intended that we should follow him spiritually but not physically. And so one should endeavor to follow him sensibly, for he sought our love more than our deeds. We must follow him in our own way. 'Such as?'-Pay attention in all things how, and in what way. As I have often said, I consider a spiritual work more valuable than a physical one. 'How is that?'-Christ fasted for forty days. Follow him this way, by observing whatever you are most inclined to or ready for: concen trate on that and observe yourself closely. Often it is more necessary for you freely to renounce that, than if you were to give up all food. And sometimes it is harder for you to keep silence about a single word than to cease speaking altogether. And sometimes, too, it is harder for a man to endure a single word of reproach, which means nothing, than a fierce blow that he was prepared for; or it is much harder for him to be alone in a crowd than in the desert; or he finds it harder to abandon a small thing than a great, or to do a small task than one which is considered much greater. In this way a man can well follow our Lord (even) in his weakness, without feeling or needing to feel himself far removed."
(from Meister Eckhart - The Complete Mystical Works)
