" Somebody asked Meister Eckhart - a really religious person - "When Jesus says 'Ask and it shall be given' why don't people ask? If it is just for asking's sake, why don't people ask? If he says seek and ye shall find, and he says only knock and the doors shall be opened unto you, then why don't people knock?" Eckhart laughed and he said, "For two reasons first you may ask and it may not be given to you, so people don't want to be frustrated; second, and a deeper reason, you may ask and it may be given to you. That is more frightening." That's why people don't try. They simply pay lip-service And you know, the whole world seems to be religious in a way people go to the temple to the mosques, to the churches They read the Bible, Koran, Gita, they recite the Vedas, they do mantras, but still there seems to be no religious consciousness at all The earth is surrounded by a very, very dark cloud of unconsciousness. There seems to be no light. The night seems to be utterly dark, not even a single star.

You have to be very, very aware of this, because you can do the same as people have been doing down the ages.

Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism - they are not true religions. They are pseudo, counterfeits. Christ is true, Christianity is false. Buddha is true, Buddhism is false. Buddhism is created by us, Buddha is not created by us; but we create Buddhism according to our needs, according to our ideas, according to our prejudices. WE create Buddha, we create Buddhism, we create a myth of Buddha. The real Buddha is not created by us. The real Buddha comes into existence IN SPITE of us. He has to fight to be! He has to find ways and means to exist. He has to find a way to get out of the prison that we call the society. But once somebody has become awakened, we gather around him and we start spinning and weaving a system around him which is all of our own making. It has nothing to do with the person at all. The stories that are told about Buddha are untrue; so are the stories about Christ. The real person is lost. We create such mist, such dust around, that nobody can see the real person. That is the work of the theologians.

For two thousand years Christian theologians have been creating such dust that it is impossible to see Jesus. He is completely lost in their logic-chopping, in their theories, they have created Himalayas of words. Nobody is bothered about who this main really is, what his message is.

The message is very simple, it is not complicated. The message is not that you should worship Jesus or Buddha. The message is that you should become a Christ or a Buddha - less than that won't do. Don't become a Christian, become a Christ. If you have any respect for yourself become a Christ, don't become a Christian. Become a Buddha don't become a Buddhist. No 'ism' can contain Buddha, no church can contain Christ. But the human heart can contain Buddha. ONLY the human heart can contain him, because the human heart is as infinite as the existence itself. Don't worship him outside. If you have understood Buddha, RESPECT YOURSELF! Feel reverence for your own being; that will be reverence towards Buddha. If you have understood Christ, start looking inwards - you will find him there. He is not outside, not in the churches. He is in the innermost core of your being.

If religion really happens in the world there will not be religions but only a kind of religiousness, a suffused light, a quality, indefinable - just as love is or awareness is; a different quality of consciousness. And the time for it has come. And when the time for a certain idea comes, no force in the world can prevent it."

Seems to me he's describing purgatory not hell, but around that time the doctrine was just being formulated in the Church.

I found this very well explained and thought-provoking. Thank you!

you are so intelligent

I understand that you know a great deal more about Eckhart (and probably most things) than I do, but through you, I really do get a sense of the magnificent teachings that Eckhart has given us. Although my first 50 years were spent looking at Eastern religions, I get a strong feeling 'coming home' as I listen to you and how you explain these ideas. It so helps me as I then delve into the actual sermons and lectures.

Should 'I' (?) ever awaken, get to heaven, or whatever, I have to thank you because you have been such a tremendous source of help and inspiration - even if we do disagree about which image to use to represent Eckhart!

Thank you so much.

"Like all things in the world, its meaning is temporary and will ultimately fade into the nothingness from which it came when there is no more use for it."

Really Enjoy your work. Thankyou.:washhands::washhands::washhands::washhands::washhands::washhands:

This is truly Buddhism

Great!  Please do More Sermons, please!

Thank you ..🙏💯

"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!"

This is a great breakdown. Thanks.  I dont know. Extended periods of pain or horror and pain are very visceral.  Call it what you want.

Is there a recommended list of books?

Have any of you been through this "hell" during their awakening or in their path towards finding Truth? I've found myself many times in a black hole of pure existential terror, it's the worst. I had to completely empty the mind and enter a state of deep presence, but sometimes when I'm it, nothing I do works.

Silent Hill 2 awaits

With respect, I believe he is referring to the desert fathers when he is referring to the 'masters' Aquinas doesn't typically speak of hell in such terms. Whereas Saint Issac the Syrian, Gregory of Nyssa, and Origen. I could be wrong just as an EO Christian this is where my mind goes when reading that.

Thanks for encapsulating Eckhart without losing what he most likely wanted to say. Thanks for making discussions like this edifying and possible 🙏
As with everything else, even though it may seem that Dominicans Friars were neo-platonic , that would be like speaking for Eckhart.
For the sake of completion and context, hell should be juxtaposed with Grace and Redemption via the Cross.
Eckhart did not preach buddha  and did not believe in detachment of service after all 😊

Clearly expounded. Interestingly this correlates to what Julian of Norwich refers when she had her 16 visions - where she says she could not see sin and sin is of no account to God - she was struggling to understand evil if God is all in all. This video has helped clarify it in my mind too - thanks.

I've experienced the hell scene in a dream of mine. All the people I passed by in a dungeness garage had the signs of how they died (broken glass cuts on face) as I'm looking up seemingly strapped to a gurney shadow figures look down on me as a woman's voice says he's not ready yet send him back and when I awoke I had some slight body pains also heart was racing and It felt so jarring.

What would be the difference between hell and purgatory then