It's the God-focus that immediately turned me off to Eckhart. I've had plenty of people recommend him, and own a copy of the power of now, but I can't get past the feeling that there's a hidden agenda. I'm all about being present and experiencing the world through different lenses - I like new ideas and I'm open to thinking differently, but that higher power thing just puts every synapse I have on high alert.
Well why not address the elephant in the room. He's not going about his message subtlety:
"You used the word Being. Can you explain what you mean by that?
Being is the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death. However, Being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature. But don't seek to grasp it with your mind. Don't try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still. When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally. To regain awareness of Being and to abide in that state of “feeling- realization” is enlightenment." Ch. 1 The Greatest Obstacle to Enlightenment
There it is. That's what he considers to be God. Mind you, those are just the words he chose. He mentions that words are merely signposts. Think of pointers in programming languages.
"If you are unable to look beyond such interpretations and so cannot recognize the reality to which the word points, then don't use it. Don't get stuck on the level of words. A word is no more than a means to an end. It's an abstraction. Not unlike a signpost, it points beyond itself. The word honey isn't honey. You can study and talk about honey for as long as you like, but you won't really know it until you taste it. After you have tasted it, the word becomes less important to you. You won't be attached to it anymore. Similarly, you can talk or think about God continuously for the rest of your life, but does that mean you know or have even glimpsed the reality to which the word points? It really is no more than an obsessive attachment to a signpost, a mental idol." Ch 6 Look beyond the Words
For what it's worth, that book is probably most to blame for shoving me hard from Christianity to secular agnosticism. I grew up being able to feel God's presence and love. The Power of Now helped me look at where that feeling originates (internally), how it is connected to me, and how universal it is across various traditions and religions throughout time. What is it? I don't know. But calling it God and being done with it doesn't describe it well. It's a part of you and your brain is involved in the process.
Yeah, I know something is happening in my brain's state, but it's no proof of anything else "out there". But I can completely understand those people now, and how they can take this feeling and believe there really is something else there.
Though it's infinitely more likely it's all still inside my fleshy brain. :)
