Way of paradox (Christianity)

Meister Eckhart indicates that grasping the reality of God, the perception of all-embracing unity, is arrived at only through the tension and clash of opposites. To find new life in God, one must die to the life one is living. Not only must the will be crucified, but also thought and speech. In daily life, this is the practice of detachment. In thinking and talking, it involves paradox. There is a rhythm between opposites which, if not resisted, gradually kindles divine knowledge and opens the eye of the heart. The deepest truth can only be grasped through the perpetual alternation of opposites. A statement is both true and untrue at the same time. The highest truth transcends the principle of contradiction, beyond the truth or untruth of a statement. This paradox makes the normal intellect aware of its limitations, opening the possibility of a higher way of knowing. The contraries are all contained in an all-embracing unity. Neither this nor that, God cannot be grasped, imagined, or understood. Viewing and seeking to live the Christian revelation this way opens many mysteries and energizes spiritual life.

Following the way of transcendence we find that, although seeking God from outside means that He retreats within, if we seek Him within He affirms Himself without. Again, in pouring Himself out or melting God utters Himself totally, the whole mystery is uttered. The expression of Himself is Himself. God as speaker is the father. God as spoken is the Son. The going out and yet remaining within is the bond between the two, making the unity, the Holy Spirit. This going out and remaining within is the key to all spiritual life. One truly lives only inasmuch as one is caught up and lives in the Trinity. Pouring one's self out in the world and in relationships one remains inwardly detached, in peace, tranquillity and contemplation and yet untiring, accumulating rather than losing energy.

To be a person implies aiming perpetually at transcendence, oneness melting out as multiplicity, multiplicity melting back as oneness. It implies going out yet remaining within, simultaneously exerting power and restraint, transcending yet remaining one's self, in movement yet in repose.

One has first to enter the formless abyss in God and in the depths of one's self. Then one is reborn into the life of communion (represented by the Trinity). One is led to the abyss in the first place by the Word, the Son, who took human form as Jesus.

Seeing the world from in God, the universe is an echo or reflection of God. There is an emptiness at the heart of things which arises from the fact that the universe is not God. Creation has no being in itself but only as it is in the presence of God. Thus it, paradoxically, is and is not. It has duality. As God contemplates the universe He sees only His own reflection, hears only His own word. Seeing the world thus from within God creates the attitude of detachment, of lucid, compassionate awareness. Standing within the Word brings a proper love for the world which is the World's echo, a joyful understanding of the rhythm of birth and death, light and dark, breathing in and breathing out. In God the two movements are simultaneous, in creation they are successive and this arouses disillusionment and sorrow. But standing within the Word the meaningless flux comes together, the underlying harmony becomes audible. This is the key to the law of the universe, that of rhythm and dance.

Again, paradoxically, if one wants to change the world it is one's self that must be changed. It one wants to gain the world one must let it go and surrender to God. Although surrender to God and entry into the inner kingdom opens the outer kingdom, surrender must not be with this in mind. One gains only what one has fully let go.