Meister Eckhart on Perfect Detachment
A major theme in the thoughts of Meister Eckhart is detachment. This post isn’t intended to be a comprehensive review of all of these thoughts, but is rather focused on one passage in particular:
Perfect detachment is without regard, without either lowliness or loftiness to creatures; it has no mind to be below nor yet to be above; it is minded to be master of itself, loving none and hating none, having neither likeness nor unlikeness, neither this nor that, to any creature; the only thing it desires to be is to be one and the same. For to be either this or that is to want something. He who is this or that is somebody; but detachment wants altogether nothing. It leaves all things unmolested.
Meister Eckhart
In this passage, it can be understood that Eckhart is speaking of a detachment that approaches / has achieved theosis or divinisation. For Eckhart, to be detached from all things was to be like God, to flow from Him and, in some senses at least, to be Him. God, who is perfectly free and is not under any compulsion whatsoever, “lives without a why”, another important theme in Eckhart.
For a person who is perfectly detached, they also live without a why - they have no regard for lowly things, nor lofty things. They are content for all things to just be as they are. A person who is attached to something becomes, in a way, about that thing in particular - usually to the exclusion of all other things. He becomes “this or that”. We see this clearly in particularly destructive forms of attachment - the alcoholic becomes completely orientated to alcohol, they become alcohol in a real way, to the detriment of all other things.
But God is about all things - he has no partiality (Romans 2:11). He includes all and excludes none - remember the parable of the lost sheep, or the parable of the prodigal son. God’s Being is poured out liberally to the good and the bad alike (Matthew 5:45). God is neither this nor that, but all.
The person who is detached is no longer “somebody” - that is, their self-referential ego has disappeared. Things (this or that) are no longer accepted or rejected based on whether they make the ego happy or not. In such a state, the detached person no longer obsesses about separate “things”, but rather enters into being as a participant rather than as a fictitious outside observer. The person becomes a part of the universe of all things, rather than an imaginary separate entity. This is of course a way of being consonant with the truth, and no longer opposed to it.
For to see things as “this or that”, which are either good or bad for the ego, is to at the same time divide being from one’s notion of self. An attached person imagines themself as a subject separate from a myriad of objects. They are also a “this or that”. It is to enter into a false division of being which does not actually exist, hence it is illusory. Because the being of all things, or isness, is a participation in God - to separate ourselves from isness is to, at least psychologically, separate ourselves from God. It leads to a rejection of God’s active or permissive will in each moment of our lives, and is therefore a rejection (at least in part) of faith and hope.
Many spiritual writers emphasise the need of ascetic practices to achieve the kind of detachment that Eckhart teaches. Yet Eckhart rightly points out, elsewhere in his writings, that ascetic practices can accentuate this divide in being. One can begin to separate from “the outside world” as a source of temptation, laxity, or whatever. But this just creates a more refined separated ego. The person is psychologically abstracted away from the flow of being, rather than being an active participant in it. Thomas Merton also speaks powerfully of this.
In my view, mindfulness practices can be a useful aid in developing this understanding, or intuition - in these, the person enters their “embodiment” more fully, ceasing to identify with thoughts which are the main driver of a separate ego; for thoughts are the engine of abstraction and seeking. Contemplative prayer practices such as centering prayer can also help one become more aware of thoughts, rather than identifying with them.
Ultimately, however, the detachment of which Eckhart speaks is a work of grace - a breakthrough, an enlightenment. For in that moment, the person becomes aware of everything being ok just as it is, and there is no longer any need of striving, of attaching, of seeking. One can let go and enter life. For at that point, the treasure has been found, and one is willing to sell everything one has to acquire it.