ONLINE FIRST
published on February 17, 2021
Reiner Sch¨¹rmann, Francesco Guercio
https://doi.org/10.5840/jcp202121616
Heidegger and the Mystical Tradition
The text presented here is an edited transcription of a thirteen-page unpublished typescript titled ¡°Heidegger and the Mystical Tradition¡± by Reiner Sch¨¹rmann. It dates back to the time following the completion of Sch¨¹rmann¡¯s book on Meister Eckhart and exhibits the preliminary conception of the former¡¯s famous ¡®practical a priori.¡¯ Focusing on the relation between Heidegger¡¯s meditative thinking and a mystical tradition inaugurated by Meister Eckhart, the text retrieves the steps of the latter¡¯s path to Releasement as a practical transformation of existence (Part I). In so doing, it provides a detailed account of Releasement as the condition for a peculiar experience of thinking ¡°in which one fundamental attitude manifests itself throughout an itinerary of human existence and which tends to make this itinerary the very condition for the understanding of truth.¡± By hinging on Heidegger¡¯s different acceptations of ¡®letting-be¡¯¡ªas well as on his verbal understanding of Being as Anwesen (presencing) and Ereignis (appropriation-event)¡ªthe text indicates Releasement as the coincidence of Being¡¯s and man¡¯s ways to be and shows how it is in the very ¡°urgency of a new existence and thought¡± that the proximity between Heidegger and Meister Eckahrt¡¯s mystical tradition comes to the fore.