The Inversion of Mysticism—Gelassenheit and the Secret of the Open in Heidegger

Hans Ruin

doi:10.3390/rel10010015

Abstract

The article explores the topic of Gelassenheit (releasement) in Heidegger, through the lens of the ambiguous role of Christian mysticism in general and Eckhart in particular in and for his thinking. In an analysis of how mysticism appears in his early lectures on religion, it explains why he is critical of this concept and of how it is commonly understood. It also gives reasons for why we too should be cautious in using it to describe his position in his later writings where he explicitly reconnects to themes and concepts from Eckhart. The text provides a critical rehearsal of Eckhart’s understanding of both “Abgeschiedenheit” (detachment) and “Gelassenheit” and how Heidegger relates to it both in his early lectures and in his later essays. Ultimately it outlines a phenomenological understanding of what is commonly referred to as a “mystical” comportment more along the lines of a heightened openness and awareness, in Heidegger’s words as a “releasement toward things and an openness to the secret”. Thus, instead of seeing Heidegger’s later writings as a sort of crypto-mysticism, the text seeks to show how his critical appropriation of Eckhart explicitly points beyond a standard dichotomy between the rational and the mystical, in an effort to develop a comportment of thinking than can respond to the demand of modern technological predicament.

Highlights

During the dramatic winter of 1944–1945, amid the violent final stages of the war, Heidegger composes a text comprising a conversation between three people: A “Scientist”, a “Scholar”, and a “Teacher”
(Ereignis) and mystical thought? Is the ideal of Besinnung (“reflection” of “mindfulness”) which he stresses in the later text related to practical spiritual life in the tradition of Christian mystics? In what follows I shall outline an approach to this problematic, which concerns not just the work of Heidegger and the question of the nature and meaning of mysticism as such
The question of Heidegger’s relationship to mysticism and to a mystical tradition can be considered from many aspects

Summary

Introduction

During the dramatic winter of 1944–1945, amid the violent final stages of the war, Heidegger composes a text comprising a conversation between three people: A “Scientist”, a “Scholar”, and a “Teacher”. The topic of their discussion is ascertaining the meaning of Gelassenheit, a word which can be translated as “equanimity” or “serenity”, but which more literally denotes “leaving” and “letting be”, gelassen. In several of Heidegger’s later texts it appears as a term for the fundamental comportment by which human beings make themselves open to the truth of Being and by which authentic thought can take place. (Ereignis) and mystical thought? Is the ideal of Besinnung (“reflection” of “mindfulness”) which he stresses in the later text related to practical spiritual life in the tradition of Christian mystics? In what follows I shall outline an approach to this problematic, which concerns not just the work of Heidegger and the question of the nature and meaning of mysticism as such

Heidegger and Mystical Thought

Definitions of the Mystical

60. Frankfurt am Main