Meister Eckhart: S1: Birth of the Logos in the Soul

This is a reading of the mystic Meister Eckhart's S1, which focuses on the birth of the Logos, the Word, in the soul. The birth of the Logos in the soul takes place in the "ground" of the soul of those who are good and perfected, pure and noble, collected and turned inward–i.e., in the virtuous soul, those souls walking in the ways of God who emanate virtue. The ground of the soul is its essence (or spark). The ground is different from the soul’s powers (e.g., the intellect, memory or will). The ground is the soul’s very essence. This is where God speaks his Word. This is the purest, loftiest, subtlest part of the soul. But for God to speak in the virtuous soul’s ground, it must be a silent desert devoid of all images and without any activity or external distractions. God knows himself without images, so the soul’s ground must be without images for God to enter it and be present in it. No image can beatify. Only God can. Therefore, the ground of the soul must be without images, i.e., at rest and at peace, for God to enter and beatify. This is what we yearn for–unity with God, the Logos, in the ground of our souls. ----- Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.