The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 31 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 4 (part 2)
91 "Christ never said, 'I, in my human selfhood, am the voice of God, I am speaking as God, in or with God,' &c.; but He said, 'The words which I speak are the Father's, who lives in me '—that is to say, who lives in my human or natural self." ( Stief ., i.
94.) To the blind reasoner God is an universal blind and unconscious power; the god existing within the imagination of the narrow-minded sectarian is equally narrow; but to the enlightened, God is a personal (individual) God and all-loving Father, residing within His own holy omnipotence, superior to all that can be conceived.
"Do not imagine God to be a blind power, existing and moving in, or beyond, or above heaven, having neither reason nor knowledge, comparable to the sun, who runs around in his orbit, sending out light and heat regardless whether it benefits or harms the earth and her creatures.
No!
Not thus is the Father; but He is an omnipotent, all-wise, and all-knowing God, in Himself good, kind, and merciful, joyful, and even joy itself." ( Aurora , iii.
11.) "If you consider the depth of heaven, the stars, the elements, and the earth, you will, of course, not grasp with your eyes the pure and clear Godhead, although God is there and within it; but if you rise up in your thoughts and direct your mind to God, who in His holiness rules within the All, you are then penetrating through heaven and grasping the very sacred heart of God Himself." ( Aurora , xxiii.
11.) God is not subject to the law of evolution, but the law has its foundation in Him.
God as a Spirit, eternally perfected within Himself, did not need to create for the purpose of perfecting Himself.
There is no being who can perfect itself by its own power, or give to itself anything which is not within its reach.
The growth of a plant and the unfoldment of the human soul requires the presence of a superior power.
A God capable to grow p.
92 would presuppose the presence of a superior God from which to draw power.
Only that which descends from above can rise again upwards, as is symbolised by the double interlaced triangle.
"Before the time of the creation of heaven, the stars, the elements, and also before the creation of the angels, there was nothing but Deity, reproducing itself for ever sweetly and lovely, and conceiving of its own image." ( Aurora , xxiii.
15.) "God did not create for the purpose of perfecting Himself, but to reveal Himself to Himself in great joy and magnificence.
This joy did not begin with the beginning of creation, but it has been from all eternity a subjective state in God." ( Signature , xvi.
2.) God did not make the world out of something intellectually conceivable or out of something that was not Himself; neither does a man create the images which constitute his thoughts out of anything outside of his own mind.
Before creation took place it was resting (subjectively) like a seed in His own completion and perfection, comparable to the imagination of a marl whose mind rests in a peaceful slumber, while for all that the divine spirit in him is self-conscious.
"We cannot truly say that this world has been made out of something." ( Signature , xiv.
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.
Christ says the Father lives in him and his words are the Father's, echoing the begetting of the word within.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
God is described as ruling within the All and being the foundation of law, implying active ordering.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
[auto] The passage explicitly defines God as a personal, all-loving Father who is good, kind, merciful, and joyful, rejecting the notion of a blind power.
Disciplined inward attention — sitting, focused, or open-awareness practice — as a stand-alone term that umbrellas active_contemplation, inner_silence, and dhyana-style sitting.
The instruction to direct the mind and rise in thoughts constitutes disciplined inward attention.