Meister Eckhart was a 13th-century mystic, prophet, feminist, declared heretic, and an early advocate of creation-centered spirituality. This tradition affirms humanity's potential to act divinely, and it embraces life—living and dying, growing old and sinning, groaning and celebrating—as the creative energy of God in motion. For Eckhart, to be spiritual is to be awake and alive; creation itself was for him the primary sacrament that begins from "the spring of life" or the heart.

Eckhart's pathway and that of the creation tradition is a simple way. It demands no gurus, no fanciful methods, no protracted exercises or retreats. This is why he called it a "wayless way" that is available to everyone, and why he points out that the person "who has found this way needs no other."