Formerly the sages reduced Heaven and Earth to a system by means of the Yin and Yang. But if all that has shape was born from the Shapeless, from what were Heaven and Earth born? I answer: There was a Primal Simplicity, there was a Primal Commencement, there were Primal Beginnings, there was a primal Material. The Primal Simplicity preceded the appearance of the breath. The Primal Commencement was the beginning of the breath. The Primal Beginnings were the breath beginning to assume shape. The primal Material was the breath when it began to assume substance.

Eckhart von Hochheim, widely known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher, and mystic who lived in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. While respected as an accomplished academic theologian, Meister Eckhart was exceptionally remembered for his boldly expressed sermons. At the time, people in Europe were experiencing turmoil of different kinds, including famine and plagues. This led many to turn inward to spirituality and mystical experience. They listened to Meister Eckhart’s sermons with great interest, especially as his main theme was the holiness of the individual soul and its oneness with God.

I believe you have taken such effectual measures, that you will not be surprised. I commend you for it, it is the one thing necessary: we must, nevertheless, always work at it, because not to advance, in the spiritual life, is to go back. But those who have the gale of the HOLY SPIRIT go forward even in sleep. If the vessel of our soul is still tossed with winds and storms, let us awake the LORD, who reposes in it, and He will quickly calm the sea.

Having found in many books different methods of going to GOD, and multiple practices of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me, than facilitate what I sought after, which was nothing but how to become wholly GOD’S. This made me resolve to give the all for the All: so after having given myself wholly to GOD, to make all the satisfaction I could for my sins, I renounced, for the love of Him, everything that was not He; and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world.

Them wisdom always makes men happy: for be wisdom no man would ever err, and therefore he must act rightly and succeed, or his wisdom would be wisdom no longer. Appears to be that the goods of which we spoke before are not to be regarded as goods in themselves, but the degree of good and evil in them depends on whether they are or are not under the guidance of knowledge: under the guidance of ignorance, they are greater evils than their opposites, inasmuch as they are more able to minister to the evil principle which rules them; and when under the guidance of wisdom and prudence, they are greater goods.

The lament of the reed-flute is a symbol of the soul’s sorrow at being parted from the Diving Beloved. Listen to this reed, how it makes complaint, telling a tale of separation; I want a breast torn asunder by severance, so that I may fully declare the agony of yearning. Everyone who is sundered far from his origin longs to recapture the time when he was reunited with it. In every company I have poured forth my lament, I have consorted alike with the miserable and the happy. My secret indeed is not remote from my lament, but eye and ear lack the light to perceive it. Only the senseless is intimate with the mysteries of this Sense.

For he revealed it [His will] to bestow an acquaintance in harmony with all its emanations, that is to say, acquaintance with the Living Book, an acquaintance which at the end appeared to the Aeons (emanations of God) in the form of [passages of text from] it. When it is manifest, they speak: they are not places for use of the voice, nor are they mute texts for someone to read out and so think of emptiness; rather, they are texts of truth, which speak and know only themselves. And each text is a perfect truth ̶ ̶ like a book that is perfect and consists of texts written in unity, written by the Father for the Aeons (emanations of God): so that through its passages of text the Aeons (emanations of God) might become acquainted with the Father.

So that whoever has acquaintance is from Above: and if called, hears, replies, and turns to the One who is calling; and goes to Him. And he knows how that One is called. Having acquaintance, that person does the will of the One who has called; wishes to please Him; and gains repose. One’s name becomes one’s own. Those who gain acquaintance in this way know from where they have come and to where they will go; they know in the manner of man who, after having been intoxicated, has recovered from his intoxication, having returned into Himself.

The pain-bearing obstructions are- ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life. Restraint (Yama), binding observance (Niyama), posture (Asana), regulation of breath (Pranayama), abstraction and sense-withdrawal (Pratya hara), concentration (Dharana), contemplation (Dhyana) and perfect meditative absorption (Samadhi) are the eight limbs of yoga. Of these, non-violence (Ahimsa), non-stealing (Asteya), continence (Brahmacharya) and non-possessiveness (Aparigraha) are the five forms of restraint (Yamas). These, unbroken by time, place, purpose, and caste, are (universal) great vows. Pratyahara, abstraction or dissociation, is the disjoining of the sense-organs from their respective objects, assuming, as it were, the nature of the mind itself. Thence comes supreme control of the senses.

O My brother! A pure heart is as a mirror; cleanse it with the burnish of love and severance from all save God， that the true sun may shine therein and the eternal morning dawn. Then will thou clearly see the meaning of “Earth and Heaven cannot contain Me; what can alone contain Me is the heart of him that believeth in Me.” And thou will take up thy life in thy hand and with infinite longing cast before thy newly found Beloved. Whensoever the light of the revelation of the King of Oneness settleth upon the throne of the heart and soul, His radiance becometh visible in every limb and member.

“If thou be a man of communion and prayer, soar upon the wings of assistance from the holy ones, that thou mayest behold the mysteries of the Friend and attain the lights of the Beloved: ‘Verily, we are God’s, and to Him shall we return.’” With the ear of God he heareth; with the eye of God he beholdeth the mysteries of divine creation. He steppeth into the inner sanctuary of the Friend and, as an intimate, shareth the pavilion of the Well-Beloved. He looketh upon all things with the eye of Unity, and seeth the effulgent rays of the Sun of Truth shining from the dayspring of the Divine Essence upon all created things alike, and beholdeth the lights of Unity reflected upon all creation.

But if there are those of keep capacities, wise and understanding, of much learning and strong memory, who seek the Buddha way… If you see a son of the Buddha observing the precepts, clean and spotless as a pure bright gem, seeking the Great Vehicle Sutra… If I described all the characteristics of those who seek the Buddha way, I could exhaust a kalpa and never be done. Persons of this type are capable of believing and understanding. Therefore for them you should preach the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Dharma.

If you and the others are capable of believing and accepting my words, then all of you are certain to attain the Buddha way. This vehicle is subtle, wonderful, foremost in purity; throughout all worlds it stands unsurpassed. “I tell you, Sariputra, you and the others are all my children, and I am a father to you. For repeated kalpas you have burned in the flames of manifold sufferings, but I will save you all and cause you to escape from the threefold world.” This Lotus Sutra is preached for those with profound wisdom.

I, most venerable of the sages, am the father of this world and all living beings are my children. But they are deeply attached to worldly pleasures and lacking in minds of wisdom. There is no safety in the threefold world; it is like a burning house, replete with a multitude of sufferings. I (was) for the sake of living beings I employ these similes and parables to preach the single Buddha vehicle. If you and the others are caplble of believing and accepting my words, then all of you are certain to attain the Buddha way.

Friendship, mercy, gladness, indifference, being thought of in regard to subjects, happy, unhappy, good and evil respectively, pacify the Chitta. By throwing out and restraining the Breath. Those forms of concentration that bring extraordinary sense perceptions cause perseverance of the mind. Or(be the meditation on) the Effulgent One which is beyond all sorrow. Or(by meditation on) the heart that has given up all attachment to sense objects. Or by meditating on the knowledge that comes in sleep.

Allah is the Lord of those who believe; He brings them out of darkness and into light. As for those who disbelieve, their lords are the evil ones; they bring them out of light and into darkness-these are the inmates of the Fire, in which they will abide forever. The parable of those who spend their wealth in Allah's way is that of a grain that produces seven spikes; in each spike is a hundred grains. Allah multiplies for whom He wills. Allah is Bounteous and knowing. Those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah, and then do not follow up what they spent with reminders of their generosity or with insults, will have their reward with their Lord-they have nothing to fear, nor shall they grieve.

O people! Worship your Lord who created you and those before you, that you may attain piety. He who made the earth a habitat for you, and the sky a structure, and sends water down from the sky, and brings out fruits thereby, as a sustenance for you. Therefore, do not assign rivals to Allah while you know. And give good news to those who believe and do righteous deeds; that they will have gardens beneath which rivers flow. Whenever they are provided with fruit therefrom as sustenance, they will say, “This is what we were provided with before,” and they will be given the like of it.

Give thanks to Yahweh! For He is good, For His loving kindness endures forever. Call on His name! Make His doings known among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him! Tell of all His marvelous works. Glory in His holy Names. Let the heart of those who seek His favor rejoice. Seek Yahweh and His strength. Seek His face forever more. Remember His marvelous works that He has done; His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth, you offspring of Abraham, His servants, you children of Jacob, His chosen one. For He is Yahweh. His judgments are in all the earth.

Your holy spirit illuminates the dark places of the heart of Your servant, with light like the Sun. Only Your truth shines, and those who love it are wise and walk in the glow of Your light. Your light is everlasting. My eyes will be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. Yahweh, how many are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all. The earth is full of Your riches. For He will stand at the right hand of the needy, to save Him from those who judge His soul. Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for He is good, for His loving kindness endures forever.

The person of love can increase at will not only his body temperature, but also his Inner Light, making it a thousand times brighter than the Solar one. Such Light will blind even the most numerous and powerful army. People cannot imagine yet a Light that is a thousand times brighter than the solar one. One can achieve anything with such Light. Whoever has warmth of ten thousand degrees and Light a thousand times brighter than the Solar one can warm all frozen hearts and remove all obstacles. Great warmth and Light are coming into the world. These are Divine forces, which will warm and enlighten the human heart and minds.