Metaphysics

On Detachment

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Meister Eckhart

c. 1300

This short treatise argues that Abgeschiedenheit — detachment — is the supreme virtue, surpassing even love, humility, and mercy. A detached soul, Eckhart contends, compels God: because detachment mirrors the immovability of the divine nature, God cannot resist uniting with it. The argument moves from comparative ethics to pure metaphysics, culminating in the claim that the detached soul becomes a place where God must act — a vessel so empty that it can receive the whole of divine being.