The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 6 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 1 (part 6)
The human selfhood will then follow in its perceptions the Spirit of God, tremblingly and in the joy of humility, and become able to see what is contained in time and in eternity.
Everything is near to a soul in that state, for the soul is then no longer her own property, but an instrument of God.
In such a state of calmness and humility should the soul then remain, like a fountain remains at its own origin, and she should without ceasing draw and drink from that well, and nevermore desire to leave the way of God." ( Calmness , i.
24.) As the worm, crawling in the dust of the earth, cannot rise like the eagle above the clouds, so the self-willing thought of man, wandering in the labyrinth of conflicting opinions, does not enter the realm of eternal truth.
But when man attains freedom by giving up self-will and selfish desires—or, to express it in other words, when by means of the Christ (eternal Light and Truth) he arrives at that state of oneness (at-one-ment) with God, which renders his soul godlike and divine, he then also receives in the Christ a true and essential knowledge of God and of Nature.
"As soon as the newly-regenerated man becomes manifest, will he attain real knowledge.
As the p.
45 external man sees the external world, likewise the regenerated man sees the divine world wherein he dwells." ( Letters , xxvii.
3.) This spiritual world, wherein the regenerated ones consciously live, is not an imaginary or illusive world, but perfectly real; neither has it anything in common with the vulgar conceptions of heaven, which are merely the products of fancy.
"It is to be regretted that men are led so blindly by those that are blind, and that the truth is stopped from manifesting itself to us in its glory and purity by our conceptions of external pictures and forms; for when the divine power in all its splendour becomes manifest and active within the interior foundation of the soul to such a degree that man earnestly desires to depart from his godless ways and to sacrifice his whole being to God, then will the whole of the triune Deity be present within the life and the will of the soul, and the heaven, wherein God resides, will be open to her." ( Mystery , lx.
43.) This is the only way in which a knowledge of God can be attained, and there is no other way.
"Christ says: The Son of Man does nothing except what he sees that the Father is doing.
If the Son of Man has become our body and His spirit our own, shall we then not be able to know God?
If we live in the Christ the Spirit of Christ will see through us and in us whatever it desires, and that which the Christ desires we will see and know in Him.
The world of the angels is easier and more clearly comprehensible to the regenerated man than the terrestrial world.
He also sees into heaven, and beholds God and eternity." ( Menschwerdung , ii.
7, 3.) "Our seeing and knowing is in God.
He reveals to every one in this world as much as He wills, and as much as He knows will be useful to him.
We are not in possession of our own selves.
We know nothing of God.
p.
46 God Himself is our knowing and seeing.
We are nothing, so that He may be All in us.
We should be blind and deaf and mute, and know nothing and know of no life of our own, so that He may be our life and our soul, and that our work may be His." ( Menschwerdung , ii.
7, 9.) Seen in this true light, how foolish appear the practices of those who seek to obtain spiritual power and greatness by their speculations and mental efforts, without the light of God.
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.
Suggests Christ becomes 'our body and His spirit our own' within the soul.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
Draws a parallel: 'As the external man sees the external world, likewise the regenerated man sees the divine world'.
Eckhart's Abgeschiedenheit/Gelassenheit — radical letting-go of will, image, and grasping that opens the soul to God; distinct from inner_silence (quietness) and from material renunciation, and adjacent to Sufi tark and Buddhist non-grasping as a practice rather than a metaphysical claim.
[auto] The passage advocates 'giving up self-will and selfish desires' to attain freedom and divine oneness.
Sufi self-effacement in God — the via by which the lover is unmade as a separate ego and recovered as God's act; specifies the practice/event rather than mystical_union's resulting state.
[auto] Strong emphasis on self-effacement: 'We are nothing, so that He may be All in us' and sacrificing one's whole being.
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
[auto] The passage explicitly states that knowledge of God is attained through regeneration and living in Christ, calling it the 'only way' distinct from speculation.
Gurdjieff and Ouspensky's claim that ordinary human beings live in a state of waking sleep, reacting mechanically without unified will or consciousness, and that the spiritual path begins with recognising this condition.
Describes 'self-willing thought of man, wandering in the labyrinth' as opposed to divine guidance.
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
Describes a 'state of calmness' where the soul draws and drinks from the well of God.
Eckhart's radical reading of Matthew 5:3 — the saint as one who wants nothing, knows nothing, and has nothing, having emptied even the will and the self with which to receive God; distinct from renunciation_of_wealth (material poverty).
[auto] Explicitly states 'We know nothing of God... We are nothing' to allow God to be all in the soul.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
[auto] The text describes the soul becoming 'godlike and divine' through union with Christ.