ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I explicate Eckhart's radical mysticism and re-assess the accuracy of Heidegger's interpretation of him and its relevance for the contemporary understanding of ‘mindfulness’.
Among the classical phenomenologists, Martin Heidegger (and his doctoral student Käte Oltmanns) paid most attention to Meister Eckhart. For Eckhart, following the negative tradition stemming from Dionysius the Areopagite, God is understood as ‘nothing’ (MHG: nichil) or ‘nothingness’ (MHG: niht: Latin: nihileitas, nulleitas). Eckhart maintains that the human soul reaches God through emptying itself. The soul must be empty, open and ‘virginal’ in order to receive the divine and become ‘one with the One’. As Marguerite of Porete says the soul must be ‘annihilated’ in order to become one with God. Here, I analyze Heidegger's interpretation of Eckhart's concepts of ‘releasement’ (Abgeschiedenheit; Middle High German: abgescheidenheit), ‘letting-be’ (Gelassenheit, Middle High German: gelâzenheit), and living ‘without why’ (Ohne Warum; MHG: âne warumbe). There interrelated notions need to be interpreted, specifically in relation to Eckhart's talk of ‘purity’ (Lauterkeit, MHG: lûterkeit), ‘being naked’ (blôz), ‘empty’ (îtel, ledic, and ‘free’ (vri) in order to grasp Eckhart's understanding of self-emptying detachment.
