231 DOI: 10.4324/9781003350668-19 15 ‘LET IT BE’ Heidegger and Eckhart on Gelassenheit Dermot Moran In this chapter, I approach the concept of mindfulness in the phenomenological tradition by analyzing ‘letting-be’ or ‘releasement’ (Gelassenheit; Middle High German (MHG): gelâzenheit) in Meister Eckhart 1 and Martin Heidegger. I shall first discuss Heidegger’s conception of Gelassenheit, 2 and then explicate Eckhart’s related conceptions of gelâzenheit and ‘releasement’ (Abgeschiedenheit; MHG: abgescheidenheit). Although Heidegger was deeply informed by Eckhart, he essentially misread him. I shall provide a corrective reading and underscore that Eckhart’s Gelassenheit needs to be situated within the larger tradi- tion of Christian mysticism that stems from Dionysian negative theology and runs through Johannes Scottus Eriugena to Nicholas of Cusa, and into German Idealist thought of the nineteenth century. Mindfulness (German, Achtsamkeit; French ‘pleine conscience’) is a relatively recent catch-all, umbrella term that covers a number of distinct phenomena and is capable of multiple interpretations and embedded in different traditions (see Copelj, 2022; Stone & Zahavi, 2021; Ryan, Cresswell & Brown, 2016). Broadly construed, mindfulness, as cur- rently used especially in psychological and self-help literature, connotes alert, focused, yet relaxed, concentrated awareness directed to one’s stream of conscious experiences, while suspending judgment, critical mental assessment, or stance-taking. Mindfulness, in this sense, involves attentiveness, dwelling in the ‘now’, and may include some element of so- matic practice, such as a concentration on or counting of one’s breath, or slow repetitive movements or chanting. Mindfulness practice is meant to intensify and foreground one’s immediately present consciousness, with a heightened awareness of what one is doing, without becoming enveloped in or reactive to one’s shifting awareness. Mindfulness prac- tice is promoted to handle stress, lessen chronic pain, and generally to get the most out of one’s everyday life (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Of course, mindfulness practice is strongly associ- ated with various forms of Buddhism (Wilson, 2014; Hanh, 2008). Here I shall set aside Eastern discussions and concentrate on the long and sui generis tradition of mindfulness found in Medieval Christian Mysticism, associated today mostly with Meister Eckhart. In this tradition, mindfulness is integral to the forms of mysticism stemming from Dionysius the Areopagite (a Christian student of the late Platonism of Pro- clus), and his translators and commentators, beginning with Dionysius’ Latin translator,