The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 2 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 1 (part 2)
"Natural man knows nothing about the mystery of the kingdom of God, because he is outside and not within the state of divinity, as is daily proved by the action of the philosophisers who are disputing about the attributes and the will of God, and who nevertheless do not know God, because they do not listen to the word of God within their own souls." ( Letters , xxxv.
5.) p.
37 External man judges according to his external reasoning.
Man, depending entirely on his external perceptions, and having neither belief nor confidence in anything except what he sees with his bodily eyes, knows only that which he sees with those eyes, and is not aware that there is anything superior to that.
"When external reason beholds the things of this world, and how misfortunes befall the pious as well as the godless, and that all things are doomed to death and destruction—if it moreover perceives that there seems to be none to save the virtuous from trouble and grief, but that he, like the wicked, sorrowfully enters the valley of death, then man's reason thinks that all things are due to hap-hazard, and that there is no God to take care of those that are suffering." ( Contemplation , i.
1.) If there is no proof of the existence of a benevolent God to be found within the world of phenomena, there is likewise no divine self-knowledge to be obtained by the superficial reading of Holy Writ, nor by an external study of the Bible, or conceiving of its contents from a merely historical point of view.
Neither will listening to sermons be productive of self-knowledge, if he who preaches or he who listens has not the living Spirit of Truth within himself.
"All those who desire to speak of or teach divine mysteries ought to be in possession of the Spirit of God.
Man should recognise within himself the divine light of the truth, and in that light the things which he desires to represent as being true.
He should never be without such a divine self-knowledge, and not make the force of his arguments to depend merely on external reasonings or literal interpretations of the Bible." ( Menschwerdung , i.
1, 3.) "What would it benefit me if I were continually quoting the Bible, and knew the whole book by heart, but did not know the Spirit that inspired the holy men p.
38 who wrote that book, nor the source from which they received their knowledge?
How can I expect to understand them in truth, if I have not the same spirit as they?
"( Tilk .
ii.
55.) Spiritual truths are above and beyond intellectual reasoning, and can, therefore, not be intellectually explained.
They can at best be represented by allegories and pictures such as may induce men to give way to exalted thoughts, and thus to acquire a higher state of perception.
"The children of God spake as they were made to speak by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore their words remain a mystery to the men of earth; and even if the latter imagine that they understand them, nevertheless they see only the external meaning." ( Letters , xi.
40.) "In all things received by mere hearsay, without self-perception, there still remains a doubt as to whether that which one has heard is actually true; but that which is seen by the eye and understood by the heart carries conviction with it." ( Three Principles , x.
26.) It should never be forgotten that speculative philosophy and theosophy are two entirely different, if not opposite things, and those who clamour for intellectual explanations of spiritual truths that are beyond intellectual reasoning have an entirely wrong conception of the meaning of the term "Theosophy." "The true understanding must come from the interior fountain and enter the mind from the living Word of God within the soul.
Unless this takes place, all teaching about divine things is useless and worthless." ( Letters , xxxv.
Eckhart's signature doctrine that the Father eternally begets the Son in the ground of the soul; the human interior as the actual site of the divine generative act, distinct from inner_light's static indwelling.
The text asserts that true understanding must come from the 'living Word of God within the soul' rather than external teaching.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
[auto] The passage centrally argues that salvation and truth come from direct experiential knowledge of God within the soul rather than external reasoning or scripture.
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
[auto] The text contrasts the 'Natural man' who is outside with those within the 'state of divinity,' asserting the kingdom and Word of God are internal.
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
[auto] The text repeatedly emphasizes 'divine self-knowledge' and recognizing the divine light within oneself as the primary requirement for understanding truth.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
Natural man is described as being 'outside and not within the state of divinity,' indicating a felt condition of exile from the divine.