The ART of UNKNOWING: Lessons from a 14th-Century Professor

The words of Meister Eckhart (1260–1327) have been circling social media lately, drawing me back into his ancient, stubborn wisdom:

"God is not what you think, or even what you believe. Because God is a word unspoken, a thought un-thought, a belief un-believed. So if you wish to know this God, practice wonder, do what is good, and cultivate silence. The rest will follow."

It’s funny how the Spirit prompts. Within one week, two different friends shared those same words, paired with two very different divine images. I was so intrigued I went looking for a deep spiritual conversation.

“What do you make of those first five lines?” I asked Will. He gave a brilliant answer, and paradoxically, I was none the wiser. But that’s the thing: you can’t really "explain" Meister Eckhart.

That is exactly his point. His radical idea of "unknowing" sets a trap for the intellect. He wants us to drop the labels and stop trying to recreate God in our own image. It is that pure, and that difficult.

While those first five lines had me scratching my head, I felt an itch for more from this 14th-century "cool professor" of awe. And wouldn't you know it? Inside a book nook in my bedside table lay a treasure from 1996: Meister Eckhart, From Whom God Hid Nothing. I’m now rereading it and realizing his "timeless" status isn't an exaggeration.

But back to the discussion at hand. The final five lines of that quote are crystal clear:

"So if you wish to know this God, practice wonder, do what is good, and cultivate silence. The rest will follow."

The Practice of Wonder

Imagine if the world stopped trying to master the physics of light and simply stood there, breathless. Eckhart suggests that wonder is a higher form of prayer than petition. It isn't about asking for things; it’s a state of being open and surprised by existence itself.

The Doing of Good

In Eckhart’s world, you don’t do good to rack up "saint points." You do good because, in that state of wonder and unknowing, the distinction between you and your neighbor dissolves. We are simply "one."

The Cultivation of Silence

You don’t just "find" silence; you cultivate it like a garden. To Eckhart, the soul is a vessel. If it’s filled with the noise of our own opinions, worries, and egos, there’s no room for the Divine to flow in.

He breaks this silence down into layers:

• The Silence of the Tongue: This is the "porch" of the house—simply stopping the chatter.
• The Silence of the Mind: This is the "unknowing." It’s the moment you stop trying to "think your way" to God and let your thoughts pass like clouds over a field.
• The "Womb" of Silence: Eckhart believed that when a soul is perfectly still, the "Word" is born within it. Silence is the pregnancy; the "doing good" is the birth.

"There is nothing in all the world that resembles God as much as silence." — Meister Eckhart

He’s suggesting that if you want to know what the Divine "sounds" like, you have to listen to the gaps between your own thoughts. You don’t need all the answers. There is a profound comfort in the "not knowing."

When we listen more than we preach, the good we do becomes more authentic. It’s born out of listening to the world’s needs rather than our own saintly ambitions.

~*~

Which of Eckhart’s "three practices"—practicing wonder, doing what is good, or cultivating silence—feels the most "cluttered" in your life right now, and what is one small thing you could "unknow" to make room for it?