Letting Be: guided contemplations drawn from Meister Eckhart

What this is

Letting Be is a set of eight audio pieces, each one built around a theme from Eckhart's preaching. Detachment, the ground of the soul, the spark that no fire can touch, the birth of God within, living without a why. Each track gives you a short reading from Eckhart in plain English, then leaves space for you to sit with it in silence.

This follows the way Eckhart himself preached: short, direct, and meant to be lived with rather than analysed, closer to that than to a lecture series or background music. You listen, you sit, you let the words do their work or not. There is no narration telling you what to feel.

Who it is for

This is for people who already have some kind of quiet practice, whether that is centering prayer, lectio divina, meditation, or simply sitting in silence on purpose. It is for readers who have come across Eckhart's name through Christian contemplative writing or through Zen and meditation, and who want to spend time with the actual text rather than a summary of it.

It works well alongside something like Centering Prayer or a regular meditation sit. Some people use one track a day over a week or two. Others pick one theme, such as the ground of the soul, and return to it for a while before moving on.

Who it probably is not for

If you want a theology course with footnotes and historical argument, this will feel too spare. The point here is contemplation, not instruction. There is some context given for each theme, but it stays brief on purpose.

Guided silence may not appeal to everyone, and some listeners prefer music over spoken word; this project may not suit them either. Feel free to skip it. The site offers plenty else, including the sermons themselves, for anyone who would rather read Eckhart directly.

What is inside

The place that does not move takes up Eckhart's sense of a point in the soul untouched by circumstance, and gives you room to notice whether such a place is there for you.

Letting Be and Letting Be: The ground of the soul work with Gelassenheit, Eckhart's word for a kind of released, unclenched attention, and with what he calls the ground of the soul, the depth beneath ordinary thought and feeling.

The spark that time cannot touch takes up the scintilla, the spark of the soul Eckhart spoke of as something in us that is, in his words, uncreated and uncreatable. The Birth in the Soul sits with his central image of God being born in a person, here and now, rather than as a single event in history.

Without a why works with one of Eckhart's most quoted and most misunderstood phrases, about living and loving without needing a reason. Letting Be: Consolation draws on the themes of his Book of Divine Consolation, written for someone in grief. Into the desert: the Godhead beyond images takes up his distinction between God as we picture God and the Godhead beyond all picturing, the bare desert past images and names.

How to use them

There is no required order. Some people start with Letting Be itself as an introduction to the whole set, then move into the others as they are drawn to them. Others go straight to whichever title speaks to something they are already sitting with, grief, restlessness, a sense of searching for God past the usual images.

Each track is short enough to use in a normal sitting practice: a reading, then a stretch of guided silence. Headphones are not required but they help if you are listening somewhere with noise around you.

A word on the source

The readings are built from Eckhart's own sermons and treatises, in the C. de B. Evans translation of Franz Pfeiffer's edition, first published in 1924 and now in the public domain. Each reading is Eckhart's own passage put into plain spoken English, and the companion PDF names the sermon it comes from. The framing and guidance around them are written for this project, in plain language, true to what the texts say as far as we can tell.

Eckhart preached mostly in German, to ordinary laypeople and to nuns, not in the technical Latin of the schools. These recordings try to keep something of that plainness.

What you get

• Eight guided audio contemplations as downloadable MP3 files.
• A short written introduction to each theme, so you know what you are sitting down with.
• Readings from Eckhart's sermons and treatises in plain spoken English, each with its source.
• Enough silence built into each track to actually sit, not just listen.

Get the audio set

Or get all five, the book, the course, the devotional, the journal and the guided audio, as The Complete Meister Eckhart Collection for $89, and save $29. Get the collection

The 30-day guarantee

Take 30 days with it. If it is not right for you, email Gregory@meistereckhart.com and you will get a full refund. You do not need to give a reason. The details are in the refund policy.

Questions

Do I need to know anything about Eckhart before I start?

No. Each track gives you enough context to follow what Eckhart is pointing at, even if you have never read him before. If you already know his sermons, you will recognise the themes and may want to go back to the full texts afterward.

Is this Christian meditation or something more general?

Eckhart was a Christian friar and a Dominican theologian, and that is the ground these contemplations grow from. At the same time, his language about the ground of the soul and the Godhead beyond God has long drawn readers from outside strict doctrinal lines, including people with a background in Zen or general meditation. The recordings do not require a particular belief to be useful, but they are not neutral either. They come from inside a Christian contemplative tradition.

How long is each track?

They are short, built for a normal sitting practice rather than a long program. Exact lengths vary by theme since some texts need more room than others.

Can I use these with centering prayer or lectio divina?

Yes. Several people who have tested the tracks use one before or after a regular sit, in the same slot they would normally give to a reading or a period of silence.

Is there a transcript?

The companion PDF prints the full text of every track, so you can look up the sermon each reading comes from.

Get the audio set

Or get all five, the book, the course, the devotional, the journal and the guided audio, as The Complete Meister Eckhart Collection for $89, and save $29. Get the collection