Detachment: the Path of Return of the Soul to Reunite with the Godhead, according to Meister Eckhart

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor of the Department of Religions and Mysticism, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University;

Abstract

According to Meister Eckhart, the Godhead or the Ground of God is above God or the Trinitarian God. In the same way‚ he distinguishes between the Ground of the soul and the faculties of the soul. In Eckhart’s view, we were united with the Godhead before the creation of the world. But we went out from Him at the time of the creation and‚ as a result‚ lost the union with Him. Then the Godhead became God. This paper, which is written in a descriptive and analytical way, deals with detachment Eckhart considers as the path of return of the soul to reunite with the Godhead. According to Meister, detachment or an external (voluntarily) and inward freedom‚ with grace which is necessary from God, causes the Ground of  the soul to reach to the union with the Godhead or supreme detachment above the union with God or the Creator God. Therefore detachment‚ the detached person and supreme detachment are reunited again.

Keywords


[1] آندِرْهِیْل، اِوِلِین [1384]. عارفان مسیحی، مترجمان: حمید محمودیان و احمدرضا مؤیدی، قم، مرکز مطالعات و تحقیقات ادیان و مذاهب.
[2] ایلخانی، محمد [1390]. تاریخ فلسفه در قرون وسطی و رنسانس. تهران، سازمان مطالعه و تدوین کتب علوم انسانی دانشگاه‎ها [سمت].
[3] علمی، قربان؛ بابابیگلو، فاطمه [1394]. ”وارستگی از دیدگاه اکهارت و مولوی“،  فصلنامۀ تخصصی عرفان اسلامی، دورۀ 12، شمارۀ 46، شمارۀ پیاپی 46، صص 77ـ101.
[4] کاکایی، قاسم [1381]. وحدت وجود به روایت ابن عربی و مایستر اکهارت، تهران، انتشارات هرمس با همکاری مرکز بین‌المللی گفتگوی تمدن‌ها.
[5] کتاب مقدس یعنی کتب عهد عتیق و عهد جدید [88ـ1986م]. ایران، انجمن کتب مقدسه.
[6] Aertsen, Jan A. [1998]. “Meister Eckhart”, in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward Craig, London and New York, Routledge.
[7] Ancelet-Hustache, Jeanne [1957]. Master Eckhart and the Rhineland Mystics, Translated by Hilda Graef, New York, Harper and Brothers.
[8] Meister Eckhart, A Modern Translation [1941]. translated and edited by Raymond Bernard Blakney, New York and London, Harper and Brothers Publishers.
[9] Meister Eckhart, The Essential Sermons, Commentaries, Treatises, and Defense [1981]. Trans and Intr. by Edmund Colledge and Bernard McGinn, New York, Paulist Press.    
[10] Meister Eckhart, Selected Writings [1994]. Selected and Translated by Oliver Davies, England, the Penguin Group.
[11] Meister Eckhart, Parisian Questions and Prologues [1974].Trans and Intr. by Armand A. Maurer, Toronto, Pontificial Institute of Medieval Studies.
[12] Meister Eckhart, Teacher and Preacher [1986]. Translated by Bernard McGinn, Frank Tobin and Elvira Borgstädt, New Jersey, Paulist Press.
[13] Smart, Ninian [1972]. “Eckhart, Meister”, in The Encyclopedia of  Philosophy, edited by Paul Edwards, New York,Macmillan,  Inc.
[14] Stace, W. T. [1961]. The Teachings of the Mystics. London, Macmillan.
[15] Vandenbroucke, F. [2003]. “Eckhart, Meister”, in The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Project Editors: Thomas Carson, Joann Cerrito, New York,Gale.