I. The Soul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Self-knowledge as the condition of all knowledge. 81. —

1. The Soul and Its Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

1. Body, soul, spirit. 81. — 2. Powers of the soul. 83. —
3. The essence of the soul. 85. —

2. The Act of Cognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

1. Sensory perception. 87. — 2. The faculty of thought. Intellect, reason. Possible, active, and passive reason original: "Mögliche, wirkende, leidende Vernunft." These terms refer to the Aristotelian and Scholastic classifications of how the mind receives and processes information: the "possible" or "passive" intellect receives sensory data, while the "active" intellect transforms it into abstract concepts.. 89. — The shaping of given material in cognition. 92. — The striving of cognition toward the most universal; identity of subject and object. 94. —

3. The Soul in Its Essence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

1. The soul, according to its essence, is the Absolute and strives toward the Absolute. 96. — 2. Knowing and willing. The priority of knowledge or love. 98. — 3. The highest reason, the little spark original: "Fünklein." A central term in Eckhart’s mysticism, referring to the "spark of the soul" (scintilla animae), the uncreated core of the human being that is capable of direct union with God., the ground of the soul Ground of the soul (Seelengrund): The innermost, essential depth of the human spirit where it is indistinguishable from the divine essence.. 102. —

II. Essence and Its Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

1. The Concept of the Absolute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

2. The Godhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

3. Essence and Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

4. The Divine Persons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

5. God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

6. The Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

The Word original: "Das Wort." Referring to the Logos or the second person of the Trinity. as the principle of creation. 125. — Creation out of nothing original: "Schöpfung aus Nichts." The theological doctrine of creatio ex nihilo.. 126. — Creation not as a free act. 128. — The eternity of the world. 128. —

7. The World of Ideas and the Sensory World . . . . . 130

8. God and the Creature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

1. God as all in all. 135. — 2. The nothingness of the creature original: "Die Creatur nichtig." In mystical thought, "creature" refers to any created being (human, animal, or object), which is seen as having no existence of its own apart from God.. 137. — 3. Difficulties and contradictions of the doctrine. 139. —

9. The Realm of Creatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

10. The Angels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

11. Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

12. The Return into God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

1. Universal motion and its purpose. 154. — 2. The reason of man leads all things back into God. 158. —

III. The Union of the Soul with God . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

1. The Soul in Its Empirical State . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

2. Human Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

1. Man not essentially separated from God. 163. — 2. Infinity in willing and thinking. 164. — 3. Freedom as a natural disposition of human nature. 166. —

Meister Eckhart the Mystic