[Buddha-l] Eckhart and Buddhism - general question

[Richard Hayes]

On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 03:46:54 -0700 (PDT), 
"lemmett at talk21.com" <lemmett at talk21.com> wrote:

> Hi again,

High again? Honestly, you should take a look at the fifth 
precept.

> Is there any study that looks closely at the interface 
>of Buddhism and Eckhart?

Please be more specific. Do you mean Eckhart von Hochheim 
or Eckhart Tolle? Both are great favorites here on 
buddha-l.

> I am not at all knowledgeable about Meister Eckhart but 
>am currently intrigued by his suggestion to always expect 
>to find god.

Eckhart von Hochheim, OP, said that God sees you with the 
same eye with which you see God. (Or maybe it was the 
other way around.) This kind of statement made Meister 
Eckhart and Jakob Böhme favorites of George Fox and 
various other early Quakers. Twentieth century Quakers who 
follow the lead of Rufus Jones (a disciple of William 
James and Josiah Royce) also quote Eckhart von Hochheim 
(and Eckhart Tolle) and Jakob Böhme quite often. They also 
love to cite the Buddha and Rumi (who was a Persian Sufi 
Muslim, which must account for why the CIA and FBI are so 
often wasting taxpayers' money by infiltrating the ranks 
of Quakers in feverish anticipation of hearing Friends 
preaching jihad and praising Mahmoud Ahmadinejad). If you 
direct a question to Dr Google, you should turn up quite a 
few references to Buddhism and Christian and Muslim 
mysticism. Actually, there were several graduate students 
at various universities in Montreal who were exploring the 
possible influence of Persian Sufism on Tibetan Buddhism.

  I have read the Koyoto school mentioning him
>in Religion and Nothingness and the Nothingness Beyond 
>God. I think it went over my head a bit.

Perhaps, although it may have also gone under your chin. 
Those Kyōto School philosophers threw so may wild pitches 
that one never can tell where they went. They are a lot of 
fun to read, but I much prefer Garrison Keillor.

Richard