This post is basically a quickly written reflection of mine for today, that I wanted to get out my system, for whatever reason 
I was reading a sermon this morning by Meister Eckhart. In it, the great master spoke these words:
How can we know something as it is in God, rather than as it is a created thing?
To do this, we must penetrate to the heart of things and find the presence, essence and being of God. We must see things not as they are in themselves, through the ordinary mode of human perception, in time but as they are in eternity, as they were in God before all time began and will be forever.
To see the universe in this way, we must first retreat into our own essence, our own heart, root, ground, image - where God in all his fullness dwells.
We must learn to see from this secret citadel of our spirit, to use it as our eyes, to close our physical eyes and see through the eyes of God, see the world as He sees it, through his Uncreated Light.
We must rend the veils of time and stand in Eternity.
The natural capacity to do this is in us.
Humanity has Two Eyes.
With one eye we Look Into Eternity and with the other Into Time.
If we close our outer eye, our normal mode of sight through interior contemplation, then we see through the inner eye of the Spirit, the eye that is eternally open - if only we become aware of it.
The outer eye must first be closed entirely, for us to become aware of the inner eye. When we attain awareness of our inner eye, we see through that eye even with our other eye open.
Everything in creation is henceforth seen by the Light of God, which is present at all times to the inner eye of our soul, which is one with God - Image to image, Eye to eye, Mirror to mirror, Soul to soul, Heart to heart.
This mystical doctrine was taught by a long tradition of Christian mystics, particular Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Henry Suso, Jakob Boehme, Jan Van Ruysbroeck and Angelus Silesius.
It is among the most potent of their teachings because it has the capacity to transform the very way in which we view reality.
Abba Evagrius, the first great systematiser of the teachings of the Early Desert Fathers, gave the shortest and most succinct summation of what he thought Christianity was (and I would add, any religion at its core):
What is this "contemplation of the physical world", this "true knowledge of existing things" that Abba Evagrius regards as so fundamental a part of Christian teaching?
It is an infused wisdom into the very reality of things, into the impermanence of things and of the fleeting, ephemeral illusion that anything in itself, has lasting truth. In themselves, all things are accidental. In God, when viewed at their root, when penetrated to their core and seen as He eternally sees them, all things are God in God.
The outer eye sees only the illusion, the inner eye sees the eternal reality of the thing - whether it be a flower, an animal or a person - as it is in God.
Contemplation of the physical world, of existent things, is born from inner contemplation. Once a person has found that oneness with God at the core of their being, eye to Eye with Him, one is able to see the world as God sees it rather than as man does.
We look into something, anything, with enlightened clarity and precision and pierce all the way through so as to perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing.
Henry Suso explains:
To see in this way, is to see through the single eye of equality. All contradictions break down, everything is here One in the One.
There are two creation accounts in Genesis. In one account, God creates humankind simultaneously, male and female. In the second God creates man first and then woman. In the same respect, we have two creations: an eternal being in God, as an idea in His mind from all Eternity, and a creation in time when we were conceived in our mother's womb.
To see the world as God sees it, we must "breakthrough" time into the light of the first creation, to see ourselves and all things as they are in God before creation in time.
To see the world in this way, is to Live in Paradise while on earth. One sees the Kingdom of Heaven in everything, one lives from and in the Kingdom.
That takes me to the incredible saying attributed to Jesus in the early Gospel of Thomas:
Men do not see it, because they look with their outer eyes in time and not with their inner eye in eternity.
Now we return to Eckhart's "flower". To the enlightened mind, seeing a flower as it is in God, is nobler than seeing a million angels. A stone seen in God's sight is greater than gold seen in man's.
Hence, why Angelus Silesius said this:
I was reading a sermon this morning by Meister Eckhart. In it, the great master spoke these words:
How can we know something as it is in God, rather than as it is a created thing?
To do this, we must penetrate to the heart of things and find the presence, essence and being of God. We must see things not as they are in themselves, through the ordinary mode of human perception, in time but as they are in eternity, as they were in God before all time began and will be forever.
To see the universe in this way, we must first retreat into our own essence, our own heart, root, ground, image - where God in all his fullness dwells.
We must learn to see from this secret citadel of our spirit, to use it as our eyes, to close our physical eyes and see through the eyes of God, see the world as He sees it, through his Uncreated Light.
We must rend the veils of time and stand in Eternity.
The natural capacity to do this is in us.
Humanity has Two Eyes.
With one eye we Look Into Eternity and with the other Into Time.
If we close our outer eye, our normal mode of sight through interior contemplation, then we see through the inner eye of the Spirit, the eye that is eternally open - if only we become aware of it.
The outer eye must first be closed entirely, for us to become aware of the inner eye. When we attain awareness of our inner eye, we see through that eye even with our other eye open.
Everything in creation is henceforth seen by the Light of God, which is present at all times to the inner eye of our soul, which is one with God - Image to image, Eye to eye, Mirror to mirror, Soul to soul, Heart to heart.
This mystical doctrine was taught by a long tradition of Christian mystics, particular Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Henry Suso, Jakob Boehme, Jan Van Ruysbroeck and Angelus Silesius.
It is among the most potent of their teachings because it has the capacity to transform the very way in which we view reality.
Abba Evagrius, the first great systematiser of the teachings of the Early Desert Fathers, gave the shortest and most succinct summation of what he thought Christianity was (and I would add, any religion at its core):
What is this "contemplation of the physical world", this "true knowledge of existing things" that Abba Evagrius regards as so fundamental a part of Christian teaching?
It is an infused wisdom into the very reality of things, into the impermanence of things and of the fleeting, ephemeral illusion that anything in itself, has lasting truth. In themselves, all things are accidental. In God, when viewed at their root, when penetrated to their core and seen as He eternally sees them, all things are God in God.
The outer eye sees only the illusion, the inner eye sees the eternal reality of the thing - whether it be a flower, an animal or a person - as it is in God.
Contemplation of the physical world, of existent things, is born from inner contemplation. Once a person has found that oneness with God at the core of their being, eye to Eye with Him, one is able to see the world as God sees it rather than as man does.
We look into something, anything, with enlightened clarity and precision and pierce all the way through so as to perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing.
Henry Suso explains:
To see in this way, is to see through the single eye of equality. All contradictions break down, everything is here One in the One.
There are two creation accounts in Genesis. In one account, God creates humankind simultaneously, male and female. In the second God creates man first and then woman. In the same respect, we have two creations: an eternal being in God, as an idea in His mind from all Eternity, and a creation in time when we were conceived in our mother's womb.
To see the world as God sees it, we must "breakthrough" time into the light of the first creation, to see ourselves and all things as they are in God before creation in time.
To see the world in this way, is to Live in Paradise while on earth. One sees the Kingdom of Heaven in everything, one lives from and in the Kingdom.
That takes me to the incredible saying attributed to Jesus in the early Gospel of Thomas:
Men do not see it, because they look with their outer eyes in time and not with their inner eye in eternity.
Now we return to Eckhart's "flower". To the enlightened mind, seeing a flower as it is in God, is nobler than seeing a million angels. A stone seen in God's sight is greater than gold seen in man's.
Hence, why Angelus Silesius said this:
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