Two Masters Negating the Negation: A Comparative Study of Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn and Meister Eckhart

ABSTRACT This essay is a comparative study of Zhàozhōu Cōngshěn and Meister Eckhart. I focus on how each of them achieves a negation of the negation, which is designed to more genuinely evince the Absolute. I begin with a close study of the Zen Buddhist Mu kōan, analysing some of the ways the inherent negation can be interpreted and explaining what it ultimately seeks to do. This is followed by an exploration of key extracts from Eckhart’s sermons and treatises, where I interpret through Plato’s dialogue, Sophist, the specific way Eckhart refers to negation and how this, in turn, is to be negated. In both Zhàozhōu and Eckhart, I demonstrate how a negation of the negation works and why it is necessary. I conclude by elucidating the similarities and dissimilarities at work in the form, content, structure, and outcome of each mystic’s negations.