Meister Eckhart

When a man came along, who drew a sword, and not knowing that it was the master, said, Quick, tell me your name, or I'll kill you.

The master was too absorbed to see or hear the foe, or to catch what he had said.

he was unable to utter a word, even to say, my name is so-and-so.

And so the enemy, having cried out several times and got no answer, cut off his head.

How much more then should we withdraw from all things in order to concentrate all our powers on perceiving and knowing the one infinite, uncreated, eternal truth?

To this end then, assemble all your powers, all your senses,

the question arises, would it not be more valuable for each power to keep to its own task, none hindering the others in their work, nor God in his?

Might there not be in me a manner of creaturely knowing that is not a hindrance, just as God knows all things without hindrance?

God too sees himself thus, perceiving all things in himself.

He need not turn from one thing to another as we do.

Suppose in this life we always had a mirror before us in which we saw all things at a glance and recognized them in a single image.

then neither action nor knowledge would be any hindrance to us.

But we have to turn from one thing to another, and so we can only attend to one thing at the expense of another.

for the soul is so firmly attached to the powers that she has to flow with them wherever they flow.

Because in every task they perform, the soul must be present and attentive, or they could not work at all.

if she is dissipated by attending to outward acts, this is bound to weaken her inward work.

For at this birth, God needs and must have a vacant, free and unencumbered soul containing nothing but himself alone and which looks to nothing and nobody but him.

If your eye wanted to see all things and your ear to hear all things,

Accordingly, our Master says, to achieve an interior act, a person must collect all their powers as if into a corner of their soul,

And this unknowing must not come from ignorance.