Eckhart is brutal, in a sense.
He takes you to an absolute truth, and then wherever you go, he takes you back to it.
The simple truth is that nothing matters except where you are and what you're doing right now. So pay attention to where you are and what you are doing right now.
That's it.
Recently I tried a new meditation exercise. Basically you sit still and observe your own thoughts. When a thought of the past (ie a memory) appears in your head, you tap your left hand on your leg - this can be a little startling, because you'd already be in fairly deep state. When a thought of the future (ie a fantasy) appears, you tap your right hand on your right leg. Again the sensation could be a little startling.
After a while, you realise - no,
you experience - how ridiculous your thoughts are. Most of the time, you are either thinking of the past (which really need not dictate any of your decisions of how you want to live today) or of the future (and many of those thoughts are silly fantasies of bad things that will probably never occur - ie worries and anxieties).
Your thoughts drift and drift, and you are rarely in the only place you can ever really be -
here and now.
That's what Eckhart is telling you.
Be in the here and now.
Easier said than done, of course.
