The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 10 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 1 (part 10)
It is itself the most secret thing, which can be known by no one except by him who has experienced it; neither do those that live entirely within the realm of animality, or within that of the speculating intellect, believe that such a state is possible, and in fact it is unattainable for any person; because he who enters into it, ceases to be a person, except in regard to his external appearance and form—that is to say, all sense of personality is lost to him, and has ceased to exist in the field of his inner consciousness.
It is therefore unnecessary to repeat that this state cannot be entered by the exercise of the self-will of animal man; neither can it be produced by him by means of any intellectual study; nor is it dependent on his social condition, or education, profession, or external qualifications in life, but it comes to man solely and alone by the mercy and grace of God .
It means the presence of the divine light, and that presence depends on nothing else than on that presence itself.
Boehme says— "It pleases the Supreme to reveal His secrets by means of the foolish, who are looked upon by the world as being nothing; so that it may be seen that their knowledge does not come from these fools, but from Him.
Therefore I ask you to regard my writings as being those of a child in which the Supreme has manifested His power.
There is in them so much, that no kind or amount of argumentation and reasoning can comprehend or grasp it; but to those that are illumined by the Spirit their understanding is easy and merely child's play." ( Letters , xv.
10.) "The understanding is born of God.
It is not the product of the schools in which human science is taught.
I do not treat intellectual learning with contempt, and if I had obtained a more elaborate education, it would p.
53 surely have been an advantage to me, while my mind received the divine gift; but it pleases God to turn the wisdom of this world into foolishness, and to give His strength to the weak, so that all may bow down before Him." ( Forty Questions , xxxvii.
20.) The reasoning intellect has nothing to do with originating perceptions, but is used for the purpose of bringing the ideas received from the clear perception of truth into a requisite form; and as the mind is then in a higher than the normal condition, it often happens that on returning to the lower state it does not understand, and perhaps not even remember, the ideas which it expressed during that time.
"I say it before God, and testify before His judgment-seat, where everything must appear, that I in my human self do not know what I shall have to write; but whenever I am writing the Spirit dictates to me what to write, and shows me all in such a wonderful clearness, that I often do not know whether or not I am with my consciousness in this world.
The more I seek the more I find, and I am continually penetrating deeper; so that it often seems to me as if my sinful person were too low and too unworthy for the reception of knowledge of such high and exalted mysteries; but in such moments the Spirit unfolds His banner and says to me, 'Behold!
in this shalt thou live eternally, and be crowned therewith.
Why art thou terrified?'" ( Letters , ii.
10.) "I might sometimes perhaps write more elegantly, and in a better style, but the fire burning within me is driving me on.
My hand and my pen must then seek to follow the thoughts as well as they can.
The inspiration comes like a shower of rain.
That which I catch I have.
If it were possible to grasp and describe all that I perceive, then would my writings be more explicit." ( Letters , X.
45.) p.
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 Spirit 'dictates to me what to write,' suggesting the divine word originates within the soul.
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.
The state 'cannot be entered by the exercise of the self-will,' requiring a letting go of personal agency.
Ecstatic irrational rapture — Plato's mania, Bruno's furore — by which the soul transcends ordinary reason and attains direct contact with divine reality; madness reframed as higher knowledge.
The text contrasts worldly wisdom with divine 'foolishness,' framing the ecstatic state as turning 'wisdom of this world into foolishness'.
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.
Boehme describes a 'fire burning within me is driving me on,' matching the definition of passionate spiritual ardor.
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.
Those who live in the 'realm of animality' are contrasted with those who experience the divine state.
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
[auto] The passage explicitly describes a state where 'all sense of personality is lost' and the individual 'ceases to be a person,' indicating a merging with the divine.
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 'too low and too unworthy' and identifies with the 'fools... looked upon by the world as being nothing'.