S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 7 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 2 1 4 3 Peter Šajda a symbol of detachment. He presents the image of a man poor in spirit – a detached man – as one who “wants nothing, knows nothing and has nothing” (Eckhart DW II, 188). This man has detached himself from fragmentary wanting, knowing and owning, he has transcended the multiplicity of the powers of the soul and focuses solely on the ground of the soul. By means of detachment he has freed himself from “that, which is not one, i.e., that which is distinct from the ground of the soul, this is present in him in the form of knowing, wanting and owning” (Altmeyer 2005, 114). It is obvious from what we have said above that detachment is both a given and a task. It is a given, because both God and the ground of the soul are per se detached – they are devoid of multiplicity, fragmentariness and contradictoriness. It is a task, because it represents the ultimate goal of the individual’s ascetic self-formation. in this context the question arises if the goal of such striving should not be something more positive, such as the love of one’s neighbor? a closer examination of this issue will reveal the interpersonal productivity of detachment. Eckhart develops a theory of love, whose key pillar is the doctrine of detachment. At the center of this theory is not love as human performance but love as self-communication of the One. Detachment enables man to participate in this divine communication. Instead of pursuing partial goals of human love, which focuses on the good, man opens himself to God’s detached love, which proceeds from the ground of the soul. This love directs everything to the One and does not satisfy itself with anything but the One. Detachment disposes man to receive this love, so that it can continue to flow through him into the world. Since the One is reflected in the depth of the soul, the detached love is not something external and foreign to man, rather it is the innermost love that he is capable of. It proceeds from a deeper level of his soul than the love, which he initiates himself at the level of the higher powers of the soul. Through participation in detached love man becomes a collaborator in God’s activity in the world and the mediator of God’s self-communication. although detachment includes a negative moment of transcending one’s natural bond to multiplicity, it involves by no means a complete rejection of multiplicity. Rather, it restructures one’s approach to multiplicity and enables a new mode of activity in the realm of multiplicity [5]. Eckhart illustrates the “fertility” of the detached individual with an image of a virgin who has become a wife: “If a man were to be ever virginal, he would bear no fruit. If he is to be fruitful, he must be a wife. ‘Wife’ is the noblest title one can bestow on the soul – far nobler than ‘virgin.’ For a man to receive God within him is good, and in receiving he is virgin. But for God to be fruitful in him is better, for only the fruitfulness of the gift is the thanks rendered for that gift, and herein the spirit is a wife.” (Eckhart 2009, 78). Thus, virginity represents the negation that creates space for God’s activity within man, which subsequently affects the world. Detachment as the negation of corporeality, multiplicity and temporality is a conditio sine qua non of man’s participation in the love with which the One loves the world. The aim of detachment is to overcome the limits and contradictions of multiplicity by perceiving it through the prism of the One. Such a perception is possible due to the fact that the indistinct One is present in the ground of every created being. Through detachment one frees himself from his primary focus on multiplicity and recognizes that the One constitutes the deepest dimension of each being. Creation-as-multiplicity is a negation of its own unity provided by the indistinct One. Detachment is a negation of this negation, since it enables man to focus on the creation’s inner unity and overcome its fragmentariness. Detached love is characterized by the negation of “everything that causes division” (Eckhart LW IV, 441). The love, with which God loves the world, is one and it is his very essence. Although it permeates everything, it remains indivisible: “God does not have more than one love” (Eckhart DW II, 287). While this love focuses on the One in the deepest ground of every being, it does not disregard the created element. The creation is loved as a whole (Haug 1998, 217). The detached man opens himself to this love in an act of self-transcendence, in which “he is more in God than in himself” (Eckhart DW I, 80). He loves according to what he has received, not according to what he has created himself (Eckhart LW IV, 64). In interpersonal relations detached love focuses on the other in his utmost simplicity. Detached love differs from volitional love by having as its object being, not the good. The other human – the neighbor – is defined by his mere being and is loved for his own sake, not for the sake of the good that he provides. Volitional love is partial and fragmentary, it is dependent on the characteristics of its object. If the object were not good, it would not want him. Detached love, which flows from the ground of the soul, is not conditioned by the object’s characteristics, it grasps him in his “nakedness”– in the purity of his being. Thus, detached neighbor-love is determined neither by the measure of the neighbor’s goodness nor by the loving subject’s preferences. Since the only determinant of this love is
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