This reflection is drawn from the fourth meditation at the ‘Meister Eckhart and the Love of God’ retreat at Italy’s Mandali Retreat Centre in September 2025. It explores Eckhart’s vision of divine union through the ground of the soul – a still, undisturbed depth where God is not merely found, but recognised as one’s own being.
Meister Eckhart says:
The ground of the soul is so still and so immovable that nothing can disturb it; what happens in the powers does not reach the ground. Storms may pass through the mind and emotions, yet the ground remains as it is, silent and at rest.
Just as the depths of the ocean are not disturbed by the storms that rage on its surface, so there is a place in you that is not touched by any experience – the silent depths of your own being.
Imagine you are a particle of water on the surface of the ocean and you start to sink down, leaving the tempestuous waves on the surface, passing through the currents and eddies in the middle of the ocean. As you sink, you are gradually divested of all the restlessness and agitation that characterises the waves and the currents, and at some point come to rest in the depths of the ocean.
It’s exactly the same with yourself. If you sink deeply into yourself, you gradually lose the agitation that characterises your thoughts and the sorrow that characterises your feelings, and all that remains is the simple fact of being or being aware – silent, still, at rest, at peace.