Meister Eckhart, Entirely within, entirely without

(From Meister Eckhart: the Essential sermons, commentaries, treatises and defense, translation and introduction by E. Colledge O.S.A. and B. McGinn, NY 1981). Footnotes are not included in the excerpts here selected. 

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11. Fourteenth. The word, the idea and art itself, shines as much by night as by day. It illuminates things hidden within as much as those manifested without. This is what follows: "And the light shines in the darkness," to distinguish it from corporeal light, which is not life, nor properly the light of men, and which does not shine at night or illuminate things hidden within. Further, it is more correct to say that in the case of created things only their ideas shine. "The idea of a thing which the name signifies is its definition," as the Philosopher says. The definition is the way of proving, or rather the entire proof that brings about knowledge. The conclusion is that in created things nothing shines except their idea alone. This is what is said of the Word here - that it is "the light of men," namely their Idea. So too the text, "And the light shines in the darkness," as if to say that among created things nothing shines, nothing is known, nothing brings about knowledge besides the "what-it-is," definition and idea of the thing itself. 

12. Fifteenth. The word, Logos or idea of things exists in such a way and so completely in each of them that it nevertheless exists entire outside each. It is entirely within and entirely without. This is evident in living creatures, both in any species and also in any particular example of the species. For this reason when things are moved, changed or destroyed, their entire idea remains immobile and intact. Nothing is as eternal and unchangeable as the idea of a destructible circle. How can that which is totally outside the destructible circle be destroyed when it is? The idea then is "the light in the darkness" of created beings that is not confined, intermingled or comprehended. This is why when John said, "The light shines in the darkness," he added, "and the darkness did not comprehend it." In the Book of Causes it says: "The First Cause rules all things without being intermingled with them." The First Cause of every being is the Idea, the Logos, the "Word in the principle." (...)

14. If you consider the just man insofar as he is just in the justice that gives birth to him you will have an example of all that has been said and much else that we shall often mention. First, it is obvious that the just man as such exists in justice itself. How could he be just if he were outside justice, if he were to stand on the outside separated from it? Second, the just man preexists in justice itself, just as a concrete thing does in an abstract one and that which participates in what it participates in.

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   Related: Meister Eckhart Site, The Condemnation of Meister Eckhart  Erigena, By His seeing and running all things are made,  Maximus Confessor, He divided the Ages wisely  Symeon the New Theologian, When shall the Day of the Lord come?  Papacy

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