The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 8 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 1 (part 8)
1 "When my spirit, full of sorrow, earnestly, and as if moving in a great storm, arose in God, carrying with it my whole heart and mind, with all my thoughts and with the whole of my will, and when I would not cease to wrestle with the love and mercy of God unless His blessing descended upon me—that is to say, unless He illumined my mind with His Holy Spirit, so that I could understand His will and get rid of my sorrow, then the light of the Spirit broke through the clouds.
While in my zeal I powerfully stormed against the portals of hell, as if I had more strength than was in my possession, and willing to risk even my life (all of which would have been impossible to me without the aid of God); then after some hard fights with the powers of darkness, my spirit broke through the doors of hell, and penetrated even into the innermost essence of the newly-born Divinity, where it was received with great love, such as is offered by a bridegroom welcoming his beloved bride.
"No words can express the great joy and triumph which I then experienced, neither can I compare this gladness to anything except to a state in which life is p.
49 born in the midst of death, or with a resurrection of the dead.
While in that state, my spirit immediately saw through everything, and recognised God in all things, even in herbs and grasses, and it knew what is God and what is His will.
Then very soon my will grew in this light, and received a strong impulse to describe the divine state." ( Aurora , xix.
4.) 1 Truly, none can enter the kingdom of heaven (meaning spiritual self-knowledge and unspeakable joy) than he who is reborn in the Spirit; but no one can be reborn unless he dies entirely to all sense of self-will, and he then ceases to be a person and becomes pure joy, pure knowledge itself.
If this truth is once realised, if it is known that a limited personality, subject to the conditions of time and space, cannot embrace infinite wisdom and joy, then it appears self-evident that all the attempts for the attainment of divine wisdom, as long as one clings to self, must necessarily be unsuccessful.
In fact no one should seek for spiritual knowledge for the purpose of rendering himself knowing and wise, but he should strive after dying within the Christ—that is to say, to become entirely one with divine truth, so that it is not any longer "he" who lives, but the truth living in him.
He should not wish to become celebrated or renowned or self-satisfied, but rather pray that his knowledge should be taken away from him, unless it would lead to the glorification of God in him.
In short, he should not wish to become anything, but he should be all knowledge, all joy, wisdom, and glory itself.
Boehme says— "I have never desired to know anything about divine mysteries, neither did I understand how I might seek or find them.
I sought for nothing except the heart of p.
50 [paragraph continues] Jesus Christ (the centre of truth), wherein I might hide myself and find protection from the fearful wrath of God, and I asked God earnestly for His Holy Spirit and mercy, that He might bless and conduct me, and take away from me all that could avert me from Him, so that I might not live in my own will but in His.
While engaged in such an earnest seeking and desiring, the door was opened to me, so that in one quarter of an hour I saw and learned more than if I had studied for many years at the universities." ( Letters , xii.
6, 7.) "I am not a master of literature nor of arts, such as belong to this world, but a foolish and simple-minded man.
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 'newly-born Divinity' and truth living in him suggest the divine generative act within.
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.
The recognition of God 'in all things, even in herbs and grasses' reflects the axiom that the divine is legible in nature.
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 requirement to 'die entirely to all sense of self-will' and not wish to become anything aligns with radical letting-go.
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.
The seeker must 'cease to be a person' and die to self-will to become pure joy and knowledge.
Bruno's eroici furori — a passionate, ennobling spiritual ardor that drives the soul toward divine wisdom; distinguished from base or animal passions by its orientation to infinite truth.
The 'powerfully stormed' zeal and 'earnest seeking' reflect a passionate spiritual ardor driving the ascent.
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).
The author describes himself as 'foolish and simple-minded' and advises not to wish to become anything.
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.
The goal is to become 'entirely one with divine truth' and partake in the divine state.