Revelations of Divine Love · 26 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack
Chapter XIX
"Thus was I learned to choose Jesus for my Heaven, whom I saw only in pain at that time" In this [time] I would have looked up from the Cross, but I durst not. For I wist well that while I beheld in the Cross I was surely-safe; therefore I would not assent to put my soul in peril: for away from the Cross was no sureness, for frighting of fiends. Then had I a proffer in my reason, as if it had been friendly said to me: Look up to Heaven to His Father . And then saw I well, with the faith that I felt, that there was nothing betwixt the Cross and Heaven that might have harmed me. Either me behoved to look up or else to answer. I answered inwardly with all the might of my soul, and said: Nay; I may not: for Thou art my Heaven. This I said for that I would not. For I would liever have been in that pain till Doomsday than to come to Heaven otherwise than by Him. For I wist well that He that bound me so sore, He should unbind me when that He would. Thus was I learned to choose Jesus to my Heaven, whom I saw only in pain at that time: meliked no other Heaven than Jesus, which shall be my bliss when I come there. And this hath ever been a comfort to me, that I chose Jesus to my Heaven, by His grace, in all this time of Passion and sorrow; and that hath been a learning to me that I should evermore do so: choose only Jesus to my Heaven in weal and woe. And though I as a wretched creature had repented me (I said afore if I had wist what pain it would be, I had been loth to have prayed), here saw I truly that it was reluctance and frailty of the flesh without assent of the soul: to which God assigneth no blame. Repenting and willing choice be two contraries which I felt both in one at that time. And these be [of our] two parts: the one outward, the other inward. The outward part is our deadly flesh-hood, which is now in pain and woe, and shall be, in this life: whereof I felt much in this time; and that part it was that repented. The inward part is an high, blissful life, which is all in peace and in love: and this was more inwardly felt; and this part is [that] in which mightily, wisely and with steadfast will I chose Jesus to my Heaven. And in this I saw verily that the inward part is master and sovereign to the outward, and doth not charge itself with, nor take heed to, the will of that: but all the intent and will is set to be oned unto our Lord Jesus. That the outward part should draw the inward to assent was not shewed to me; but that the inward draweth the outward by grace, and both shall be oned in bliss without end, by the virtue of Christ,— this was shewed.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Bhaktisoteriology
The path of loving devotion and self-surrender to a personal deity as itself sufficient means of liberation — the Gita's 'to those constantly devoted, I come forward as their deliverer,' Kabir's and the Sant poets' love-religion, the devotional stream that parallels Sufi love-mysticism. Distinct from mystical_union (the resulting state), fana_annihilation (the ego's unmaking at the path's end), ladder_of_love (eros staged toward Beauty), and prayer (the practice of address): bhakti names devotion as the soteriological road itself.
The passage centers on the soul's loving devotion to Jesus as the sole path to Heaven, explicitly choosing Him over abstract concepts of bliss or the Father.
All passages →Body As Obstacleanthropology
The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.
The passage characterizes the 'outward part' or flesh as being in pain and woe, prone to repentance and reluctance, contrasting it with the steadfast inward will.
All passages →Emotional Epistemologysoteriology
The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition.
The author validates knowledge gained through 'faith that I felt' and the 'inwardly felt' experience of love and peace as superior to intellectual reasoning.
All passages →Living Godtheology
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
Jesus is portrayed not as an abstract principle but as a personal, responsive reality who binds and unbinds the soul and is chosen as a living Heaven.
All passages →Mystical Unionsoteriology
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
The text describes a profound merging where Jesus is identified as the soul's Heaven and the ultimate goal of being 'oned' with Him.
All passages →Related passages · 9 parallels
western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter XVIII (part 5)
“If we consider the emotional nature of man as self-contained, as serving life and not serving knowledge we shall never understand its true content and significance.
Emotions serve knowledge.
There are things and relations which can be kno…”
Shared concept: Emotional Epistemology — The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter XIX
“But neither does the cause [of the energies] of more excellent natures subsist as a certain middle instrument, nor does he who invokes operate through him who prophesies; for to assert these things is impious. And it is much more true to sa…”
Shared concept: Living God — The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Human Body in Symbolism-e
“And as in the most holy of the mysteries, they say, that the mystics at first meet with the multi form, and many-shaped genera, which are hurled forth before the gods, but on entering the temple, unmoved, and guarded by the mystic rites, th…”
Shared concept: Body As Obstacle — The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return. (derived)
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 627
“Section 7 7. It is inevitably necessary to think of all as contained within one nature; one nature must hold and encompass all; there cannot be as in the realm of sense thing apart from thing, here a sun and elsewhere something else; all mu…”
Shared concept: Emotional Epistemology — The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition. (derived)
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 71 (part 10)
“There reside mankind along with Daityas and Danavas, as well as with spirits of Heaven ( Gandharvas, Yakshas, Kimpurushas, etc .) and gods.
" ( Chapter iv.
) There is but one exception in the case of King Priyavrata, the son of the first…”
Shared concept: Emotional Epistemology — The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition. (derived)
hinduism|The Bhagavad Gita|Chapter VII, Section 1b
“Whichever form (of deity) any worshipper wishes to worship with faith, to that form I render his faith steady.
Possessed Of that faith, he seeks to propitiate (the deity in) that (form), and obtains from it those beneficial things which he…”
Shared concept: Bhakti — The path of loving devotion and self-surrender to a personal deity as itself sufficient means of liberation — the Gita's 'to those constantly devoted, I come forward as their deliverer,' Kabir's and the Sant poets' love-religion, the devotional stream that parallels Sufi love-mysticism. (derived)
hinduism|The Bhagavad Gita|Chapter X, Section 1a
“CHAPTER X.
Yet again, O you of mighty arms!
listen to my excellent words, which, out of a wish for your welfare, I speak to you who are delighted (with them).
Not the multitudes of gods, nor the great sages know my source; for I am in ev…”
Shared concept: Bhakti — The path of loving devotion and self-surrender to a personal deity as itself sufficient means of liberation — the Gita's 'to those constantly devoted, I come forward as their deliverer,' Kabir's and the Sant poets' love-religion, the devotional stream that parallels Sufi love-mysticism. (derived)
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 55 (part 2)
“T HE Progenitors of Man, called in India "Fathers," Pitara or Pitris, are the creators of our bodies and lower principles.
They are ourselves, as the first personalities, and we are they.
Primeval man would be "the bone of their bone and…”
Shared concept: Bhakti — The path of loving devotion and self-surrender to a personal deity as itself sufficient means of liberation — the Gita's 'to those constantly devoted, I come forward as their deliverer,' Kabir's and the Sant poets' love-religion, the devotional stream that parallels Sufi love-mysticism. (derived)
renaissance_hermeticism|The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori)|Fifth Dialogue-n
“Of necessity, one is according to the sum of the other, seeing that where things are finite it may result in this, that it is more wise than beautiful or good, more good and beautiful than wise, more wise and good than powerful, and more po…”
Shared concept: Emotional Epistemology — The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition. (derived)