Select Works, Section 38

Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.

The instruction to 'cut away the body or the body's sensitive life' aligns with the practice of radical detachment from material hindrances.

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

Suffering and misery are described as inhibiting 'native activity,' consistent with the view of evil as a hindrance or lack of proper function.

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

The text describes a state of 'bliss self-contained' belonging to the Gods which humans seek to attain through unity.

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

The proposed solution to cut away the body's influence implies a purification process to return to the divine state of self-contained unity.

The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.

The passage describes how the 'less noble part' (body) subjoined to men hinders their activity and prevents the self-contained unity found in Gods.

Division of the human being into three principles: spirit (pneuma), soul (psyche), and body/matter (hyle or soma).

The text distinguishes between the 'sage soul,' the 'bodily-principle,' and the 'inner man,' reflecting a division of human principles.

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

The text identifies 'self-contained unity' as the essential condition for happiness, echoing the metaphysical goal of returning to the One.

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

[auto] The passage centrally argues that the body and its affections (illness, pain, longings) inhibit the soul's native activity and prevent true happiness.

The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.

[auto] The text contrasts the 'self-contained' bliss of the Gods with the composite nature of men who have a 'less noble part subjoined'.