those German enthusiasts

[Terrance]

s~Z wrote:
> 
> >>>it is possible to move beyond the subject-object dichotomy
> (beyond all forms of
> duality) and attain the Godhead, simply by sitting still, being
> quiet, and
> inviting God in<<<
> 
> Whew! Is this really what M.E. taught? That a human individual can
> attain Godhead?
> That an individual initiates transcendence by extending God an
> invitation? Say it isn't so!
> Sounds like something those nasty Germans might postulate.

I think it might help if someone  would explain the distinction Eckhart
makes between "GOD" and the "GODHEAD." I think this is not too difficult
to do, although I do recognize how difficult it is to grasp so much of
what Echhart said and wrote, and I think it is at the very heart of
Eckhardt's entire doctrine--it runs something like (he was a Dominican
and a student of the double AA--thus we are always concerned with what
can be known) there is a central mystery which for ever lies beyond the
range of knowledge. He whom we call "God" is the Divine Nature
manifested and revealed in personal charter, but beyond this revelation,
there must be a revealer--one who MAKES the revelation and is the GROUND
of it, just as beyond ourselves there must be a self-as-knower--a deeper
ego whci knows the me and its processes. Now the ground out of which the
revelation proceeds is the central mystery--is the "Godhead." It can't
be revealed because it is the Ground of every revelation, just as the
self-as-knower cannot be known because it is precisely that which does
the knowing, and this itself can't be caught as object. This
unrevealable Godhead is the Source and Fount of all that is, and at the
same time the consummation of all reality, but it is above all
contrasts, dear Ishmael, and distinctions. It is neither this nor that,
for, so says the Master E, "in the Godhead, all things are one thing."
Like most Catholic mystics, Eckhardt walked close to the ground and was
sometimes confused for a Pantheist. All the fullness of the creatures
(that is, all created things) can as little express the Godhead as drop
of water can express the sea. 

And thank you God for the birds that sing
And thank you God for everything

"All that is the Godhead is one. Therefore we can say nothing." (Ah,
Ishamel!)

"He is above all names (Ah Herodotus!) above al nature."
"God works; so doth not the Godhead. Therein they are distinguished--in
working and not working." (Ah! Bartleby!) 
"The end of all things is the hidden darkness and the eternal Godhead,
unknown, and never to be known." 

Not a Pantheist, that's for sure. What did Ishmael say about the
Pantheists in the Mast Head sermon? 

Blessed are you a teacher among women poor Dominican, but I will fight
and run like a Jesuit and swing a hammer like a Benedictine. 

Bouncing off the walls of grand central station....