There exists only the present instant…
a Now which always and without end is itself new.
There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow,
but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago
and as it will be a thousand years hence.

*  *  *

The eye with which I see God
is the same with which God sees me.
My eye and God’s eye is one eye,
and one sight, and one knowledge,
and one love.

This emphasis on the ‘now’ or present seems very modern yet this mystic lived nearly 800 years ago. What the mystic sees and experiences is outside of time. Indeed, Einstein and modern physicists declare that time is relative and dependent on the observer, or the eye (I).

Meister Eckhart, 1260-1328
(Summarized from Wikipedia article) Eckhart has become one of the timeless heroes of modern spirituality. His approach influenced humanistic psychoanalyst and philosopher Erich Fromm and United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold. “The Eye” is commonly cited by neopagans and Buddhists as a point of contact between these traditions and Christian mysticism. Popular writer Eckhart Tolle changed his name in acknowledgement of his influence.