Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/42

 MEISTEB ECKEHAET, THE MYSTIC. 31 divine process in the ewige nd with the historical fact of Christianity. The difficulty is still further increased when we remember that the converse process by which the individual soul passes from the phenomenal to the higher or divine knowledge is also termed by Eckehart " God bear- ing the Son ". The difficulty is lightened, though not removed, by uniting the two processes. The soul may be compared to a mirror which reflects the light of the sun back to the sun. In God's self-introspection the real is " phenomenalised " (as the light passes from the sun to the mirror) ; but the soul in its higher knowledge passes again back to God, the phenomenal is realised (as the light is reflected back to the sun). The whole process is divine "God bears himself out of himself into himself" (lb., 180-181). Logically, the process ought to occur with every conscious individual, for all have a like phenomenal existence. In order, however, to save at least the moral, if not the historical, side of Christianity, Eckehart causes only certain souls to attain the higher knowledge ; the Son is only born in certain individuals destined for salvation. Thus Ecke- hart's phenomenology is shattered upon his practical theo- logy ; it is but the recurrence of an old truth, that all forms of pantheism (idealistic or materialistic) are inconsistent with the assertion of an absolute morality as fundamental principle of the world. The pantheist must boldly proclaim that morality is the creation of humanity, not humanity the outcome of any moral causality. 1 Let us now observe how the soul is to pass from the world of phenomena to the world of reality. So long as the active reason continues to present external objects to the soul, the soul cannot possibly grasp those objects sub ceterni- tatis specie. The human understanding which can only perceive things in time and space is useless in this matter, nay, it is even harmful ; the soul must try to attain absolute ignorance and darkness (ein dunsternusse und ein unwizzen, D. M., ii. 26). Eckehart's contempt for the creature-intellect is almost on a par with Tertullian's and is in marked con- trast with the fashion in which Gautama, Maimonides and Spinoza make it the guiding star through renunciation to beatitude. The first step to the eternal birth (ewige gebttrt) is the total renunciation of creature-perception and creature- reason. The soul must pass through a period of absolute unconsciousness as to the phenomenal world ; all its powers 1 That the world was created for the moral perfecting of mankind is a dogma alike with Kant and Averroes (Drei Abhandlungen, p. 63). It has been wisely repudiated by Spinoza and Maimonides.