soteriology
Mystical Union
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
953 passages · 15 traditions
neoplatonism279
◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I
“Hermes, the God who presides over language, was formerly very properly considered as common to all priests; and the power who presides over the true science concerning the Gods 18 is one and the same in the whole of things. Hence our ancest…”
◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II
“We shall, therefore, deliver to you the peculiar dogmas of the Assyrians; and also clearly develop to you our own opinions; collecting some things from the infinite writings of the ancients, but others from those particulars which were comp…”
◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III
“In the first place, therefore, you say, “ it must be granted that there are Gods .” Thus to speak, however, is not right on this subject. For an innate knowledge of the Gods is coexistent with our very essence; and this knowledge is superio…”
◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter Va
“In the next place, let us direct our attention to the solution of your inquiries.
There is, therefore, the good itself which is beyond essence, and there is that good which subsists according to essence; I mean the essence which is most an…”
◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIb
“Hence, through these things such a corporeal-formed division as you introduce, is demonstrated to be false.
It is, indeed, especially necessary not to propose any thing of this kind; but if this should appear to you to be requisite, yet yo…”
◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IXa
“I consider you, therefore, as asking, for it is your inquiry, “ Why, since the Gods dwell in the heavens alone, there are invocations by theurgists of terrestrial and subterranean Gods?
” For 45 what you assert in the beginning is not true…”
◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter Xa
“After these things, you again subjoin another division for yourself, “ in which you separate the essences of the more excellent genera by the difference of passive and impassive .” But neither do I admit this division.
For no one of the mo…”
◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XII
“You also say, “ that invocations are directed to the Gods as to beings that are passive, so that not only dæmons are passive, but likewise the Gods .” This, however, is not the case. For the illumination which takes place through invocation…”
Show all 279 →christian_mysticism203
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 10, Section 1c
“It is spoken of by ail the Christian Mystics as the root of our being, or as the spark, or the Synteresis, etc.
Our perfection consists in this ultimate reality, which is each man’s self, shining through his whole being and transforming it…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 10, Section 1d
“If Time be thought of as an infinite series of finite numbers Eternity is the sum of that series and not its process.
But the name may be applied loosely to the process, though this is generally to be avoided.
According to St.
Thomas, Et…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1a
“51 CHAPTER I Dionysius the Presbyter, to his fellow-Presbyter Timothy.
45 45 The name of St.
Paul’s companion is intended to give colour to the writer’s pseudonym.
See Introduction, p.
1; cf.
iii.
2.
What is the purpose of the discou…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1b
“For even as things which are intellectually discerned 52 52 i.
e.
The Transcendent Truths which are beyond ordinary knowledge.
νοητά .
The word νοῦς = Mind in the sense not merely of abstract intellect but of the spiritual personality.…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1c
“59 59 ὡς οὐκ ὄντος ἴχνους τῶν ἐπὶ τὴν κρυφίαν αὐτῆς ἀπειρίαν διεληλυθότων.
Two interpretations of this passage are possible: (1) Those who have penetrated the hidden Depths cannot describe the Vision (cf.
Dante, Par.
xxxiii.
55–66) ; (2…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1d
“And we press upwards to those beams which in the Holy Scripture shine upon us; wherefrom we gain the light which leads us unto 55 the Divine praises 64 64 πρὸς τοὺς θεαρχικοὺς ὕμνους.
Either (1) “leads us to declare the Divine praises”; or…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1e
“These mysteries we learn from the Divine Scriptures, and thou wilt find that in well-nigh all the utterances of the Sacred Writers the Divine Names refer in a Symbolical Revelation 72 72 ἐκφαντορικῶς καὶ ὑμνητικῶς.
to Its beneficent Emanat…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1f
“And in all the other Divine enlightenments which the occult Tradition of our inspired teachers hath, by mystic Interpretation, accordant with the Scriptures, bestowed upon us, we also have been initiated: apprehending these things in the pr…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1g
“But if It is greater than all Reason and all knowledge, and hath Its firm abode altogether beyond Mind and Being, and circumscribes, compacts, embraces and anticipates all things 87 87 παντῶν .
.
.
προληπτική—i.e.
contains them eternall…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1h
“that which makes an individual thing to be one thing); (2) Mental or Spiritual intercourse; (3) Physical intercourse; (4) Sense perception.
Here it = either (1) or (2), probably (1).
limit, infinity, everything that exists.
And yet since…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1i
“1 .
as “God of Gods” and “Lord of Lords”, 108 108 Ps.
cxxxvi.
2, 3 .
and “Holy of Holies,” 109 109 Isa.
vi.
3 .
as “Eternal,” 110 110 Deut.
xxxiii.
27 .
as “Existent” 111 111 Ex.
iii.
14 .
and as “Creator of Ages,” 112 112 Gen.…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1j
“143 143 God is above Time.
For the Nameless Goodness is not only the cause of cohesion or life or perfection in such wise as to derive Its Name from this or that providential activity alone; nay, rather does It contain all things beforehan…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1k
“) with our hearts predisposed unto the vision of God, and let us bring holy ears to the exposition of God’s holy Names, implanting holy Truths in holy instruments according to the Divine command, and withholding these things from the mocker…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1l
“The formless essence (ἀμορφία) of a thing is simple and imageless—a Platonic idea—perceived by the mind; things which have bodily form are, as it were, types and symbols perceived by the senses.
54 Or “indeterminate.” 55 Thus the three gra…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1m
“65 In the whole of this passage God is spoken of as at the same time Efficient, Formal and Final Cause of the soul’s activity.
D.
teaches that God is present in all things, but not equally in all.
Cf.
Intr., p.
14 66 Gen.
i.
67 Three…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1n
“82 ἐν θειοτέρᾳ μιμήσει τῶν ὑπερουρανίων νοῶν—i.
e.
the angels.
83 Luke xx.
36 84 Meditation leads on to Contemplation; and the higher kind of Contemplation is performed by the Via Negativa.
85 i.e.
The Angels.
I have throughout trans…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 11, Section 1a
“CHAPTER XI Concerning ” Peace “ and what is meant by ” Very Being “ Itself , ” Very Life ,” ” Very Power ,” and similar phrases .
1.
Now let us praise with reverent hymns of peace the Divine Peace which is the Source of all mutual attract…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 11, Section 1b
“Plotinus says the Godhead is indivisibly divided.
doth not leave Its own Unity, but, even in the act of going forth to all things, remains entirely within Itself through the excess of that all-transcendent Unity: concerning these things ‘t…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 11, Section 1c
“And the perfect Peace guards each several individuality unalloyed by Its providential gift of peace, keeping all things without internal or mutual discord or confusion, and establishing all things, in the power of unswerving stability, so a…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 11, Section 1d
“Now, since thou hast, on a previous occasion, sent me an epistle asking what I mean by Very Being Itself, Very Life Itself, Very Wisdom Itself: and since thou saidst thou couldst not understand why sometimes I call God “Life” and sometimes…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 11, Section 1f
“472 Contemplation, Act of Contemplation, and Object Contemplated are all united together, and so imply a fundamental Unity which exists ultimately in God.
473 Cf.
p.
174, n.
3.
474 D.‘s paradox is the paradox of sanity.
We must hold a…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 12, Section 1a
“181 CHAPTER XII Concerning ” Holy of holies ,” ” King of kings ,” ” Lord of lords ,” ” God of gods .” 1.
Forasmuch as the things which needed to be said concerning this matter have been brought, I think, to a proper ending, we must praise…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 12, Section 1b
“Which meaneth that just as things that have no substantial Being 490 490 i.
e.
The material things (cf.
Myst.
Theol.
I.).
This is the ordinary meaning of the phrase in D.
are transcended by things that have such Being, together with…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 12, Section 1c
“For while this emanation can be communicated the Godhead cannot.
(Cf.
Via Negativa.
See esp.
Myst.
Theol.
I.).
492 i.
e.
The higher ranks whether among angels or among human souls.
(Cf.
“I have said, ‘Ye are gods,’” “hath made us…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 13, Section 1a
“184 CHAPTER XIII Concerning ” Perfect “ and ” One .” 1.
So much for these titles.
Now let us, if thou art willing, proceed to the most .important Title of all.
For the Divine Science attributes all qualities to the Creator of all things…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 13, Section 1c
“Emily Brontë: “Every existence would exist in Thee.”) And if all things be conceived as being ultimately unified with each other, then all things taken as a whole are One.
507 507 All things possess the same Super-Essence, and that is why…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 13, Section 1d
“And hence, when we speak of the All-Transcendent Godhead as an Unity and a Trinity, It is not an Unity or a Trinity such as can be known by us or any other creature, though to express the truth of Its utter Self-Union and Its Divine Fecundi…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 13, Section 1e
“But be these matters as God wills 513 513 This anthropomorphic phrase is not inconsistent with the conceptions D.
has been expounding; because he regards the limits of individual human capacities, etc., as timelessly existent in the Super-…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 13, Section 1f
“Thus in the form “1 x 1” the first figure represents the unity underlying all numbers, the second figure represents unity as a particular number among other numbers.
The first figure may thus be taken as a symbol of the Godhead, the second…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1a
“65 CHAPTER II Concerning the Undifferencing and the Differentiation in Divinity, and the Nature of Divine Unification and Differentiation.
166 166 περὶ ἡνωμένης καὶ διακεκριμένης θεολογίας καὶ τίς ἡ θεία ἕνωσις καὶ διάκρισις.
I.
’ Tis th…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1c
“But if he taketh Scriptural Truth as his Standard, this is the very Rule and Light by which we will (so far as in us lies) proceed straight to our defence, and will declare that the Sacred Science sometimes employs a method of Undifference…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1e
“even as the lights of lamps (to use visible and homely similes) being in one house and wholly interpenetrating one another, severally possess a clear and absolute distinction each from each, and are by their distinctions united into one, an…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1f
“Yea, ‘tis a common and undifferenced activity of the whole Godhead that It is wholly and entirely communicated unto each of them that share It and unto none merely in part; 197 197 D.
here touches on the fundamental difference between spir…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1g
“Their ultimate nature, which they possess in their own original being, is beyond Mind and beyond all Being and Knowledge.
203 203 Even the Differentiations finally lead us up into the Undifferenced Godhead Where they transcend themselves.…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1h
“Even so if any one says that Very Life lives, or that Very Light is enlightened, he will be wrong (according to my view) unless, perchance, he were to use these terms in a different sense from the ordinary one to mean that the qualities of…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1i
“The Godhead is not a Whole because it is indivisible, nor a Part because there is nothing, on the ultimate plane, outside It.
Yet It is a Whole because It includes the true existence of all things, and is Partitive because It contains the…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1j
“And since that Supra-Divine Being hath in loving kindness come down from thence unto the Natural Estate, and verily took substance and assumed the name of Man (we must speak with reverence of those things which we utter beyond human thought…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1k
“Indeed, He is not an unity in this sense, and doth not participate in unity nor possess it; 224 224 These two phrases well express the meaning of the title “Beyond things and supernally infusing Unity” (ὑπερηνωμένη), which I have generally…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1m
“καὶ τῆς εἰρημένης ἑνώσεως ἴδια καὶ αὖθις τῆς διακρίσεως εἶνάι τινας ἰδικὰς καὶ ἱνώσεις καὶ διακρίσεις.
This, as it stands, must be translated: “They say that certain qualities belong to the said Undifference, and that to Differentiation, o…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1n
“200 Redemption is a work performed by the whole Trinity through the Second Person.
(So, too, is Creation.
Cf.
p.
65, n.
2).
201 i.
e.
We strive to distinguish the two planes of Being in God.
Cf.
Athan.
Creed: “Neither confounding…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1o
“Yet It is a Whole because It includes the true existence of all things, and is Partitive because It contains the principle of separate Individuality whereby Christ possesses a Human Soul distinct from all other human souls, and whereby, too…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1p
“224 These two phrases well express the meaning of the title “Beyond things and supernally infusing Unity” (ὑπερηνωμένη), which I have generally translated, like ἡνωμένη, as “Undifferenced.” 225 τῇ ἐξ αὐτοῦ θεώσει .
.
.
θεῶν πολλῶν γιγνομ…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 3, Section 1a
“CHAPTER III What is the power of Prayer?
Also concerning the Blessed Hierotheus and concerning Reverence and the Writing of Divinity.
1.
And first of all, if it like thee, let us consider the highest Name, even “Goodness,” by which all t…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 3, Section 1c
“It would be an impiety to do so, for he is almost equal to the Scriptural Writers, as he showed when he met with them to view the body of the B.
V.
M.
even among our inspired Hierarchs (when, as thou knowest, we with him and many of our…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 3, Section 1d
“233 Cf p.
77, n.
1.
234 This is profound.
Spatial metaphors are always dangerous, though unavoidable, in Theology.
In space if A is touching B then B must be touching A.
In the spiritual world this is not so.
God is near me (or rathe…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1a
“CHAPTER IV Concerning ” Good ,” ” Light ,” ” Beautiful ,” “ Desire ,” ” Ecstasy ,” “ Jealousy .” Also that Evil is neither existent nor Sprung from anything existent nor inherent in existent things .
1.
Now let us consider the name of “Go…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1b
“Hence have they their celestial orders, their self-unities, their mutual indwellings, their distinct Differences, the faculties which raise the lower unto the higher ranks, the providences of the higher for those beneath them; their preserv…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1c
“The Good is beyond this distinction, for nothing (on the ultimate plane) is outside It.
See Intr., p.
5.
and Lifelessness an excess of Life and Its Mindless state is an excess of Wisdom, 252 252 This apparently profitless speculation rea…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1f
“But these things are dealt with in the “Symbolic Divinity.” Here I desire to declare what is the spiritual meaning of the name “Light” as belonging to the Good.
267 267 Two worlds: (1) Nature, (2) Grace.
God is revealed in both; the forme…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1g
“and because It is the Cause of the harmony and splendour in all things, flashing forth upon them all, like light, the beautifying communications of Its originating ray; and because It summons all things to fare unto Itself (from whence It h…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1h
“Hence comes the bare existence of all things, and hence their unions, 277 277 ἑνώσεις, διακρίσεις, ταὐτότητες, ἑτερότητες.
their differentiations, their identities, their differences, 278 278 Hence parts are united into wholes and wholes a…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1i
“an introversion 288 288 ἡ εἰς ἑαυτὴν εἴσοδος.
from things without and the unified concentration 289 289 In souls being unified and simplified.
See Intr., p.
25.
of its spiritual powers—which gives it a kind of fixed revolution, and, tur…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1l
“Need is there to understand that in proper truth we do but use the elements and syllables and phrases and written terms and words as an aid to our senses; inasmuch as when our soul is moved by spiritual energies unto spiritual things, our s…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1m
“See also the translator’s note on ἔρως .
Ed .] And in the “Introductions’ of Scripture 310 310 ἐν ταῖς προεισαγωγαῖς τῶν λογίων.
Apparently this was a title of the books ascribed to Solomon.
The present reference is Wisdom viii.
2 .
th…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1n
“And the Divine Yearning brings ecstasy, not allowing them that are touched thereby to belong unto themselves but only to the objects of their affection.
This principle is shown by superior things 106 through their providential care for the…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1o
“And herein the Divine Yearning showeth especially its beginningless and endless nature, revolving in a perpetual circle for the Good, from the Good, in the Good, and to the Good, with unerring revolution, never varying its centre or directi…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1p
“let us now yet further resume and compact them all together into the one and concentrated Yearning which is the Father of them all, and let us collect together into two kinds their general desiderative 109 powers, over which the entire mast…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1s
“And if any one says that it is productive, and that by the destruction of one thing it giveth birth to somewhat else, the true answer is that it doth not so qua destructive.
Qua destructive and evil it only destroys and debases; but it tak…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1t
“For in the case of other qualities, such as heat or cold, the things which have been warmed have their being even when they lose their warmth, and many of the creatures there are which have no life or mind; and in like manner God transcende…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1}
“In this present treatise we have, to the best of our abilities, celebrated the Good as truly Admirable, as the Beginning and the End of all things, as the Power that embraces them, as That Which gives form to non-existent things, as That wh…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1
“277 ἑνώσεις, διακρίσεις, ταὐτότητες, ἑτερότητες.
278 Hence parts are united into wholes and wholes articulated into parts, and hence each thing is identical with itself and distinct from everything else.
279 e.g.
Moisture interpenetrates…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1
“The types of things existent in the permanent spiritual world before the things were created in this transitory material world; the Platonic Ideas.
There was also a Jewish belief in such a pre-existence of things.
Cf.
Rev.
iv.
11 (R.…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1
“Aug., Transcende mundum et sape animum, transcende animum et sape Deum.
307 This shows that the Via Negativa starts from something positive.
It is a transcendence, not a mere negation.
308 Prov.
iv.
6, 8 .
309 ὁ ἐμὸς Ἔρως ἐσταύρωται&g…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1
“Spenser: “He loved Himself because Himself was fair.” CE Plato’s Doctrine of ἔρως.
This Yearning is eternally fulfilled in the Trinity.
Cf.
Dante: ”O somma luce che sofa in Te sidi / sola T’ intendi e da Te intelletta / ed intendente Te…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1
“In the one case we get Immanence without Transcendence: in the other Transcendence without Immanence.
D.
holds a Transcendent Immanence (cf.
Bradley, Appearance and Reality, rebutting charge of Pantheism).
328 e.
g.
The cruelty of Nat…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1
“also “I have said, Ye are Gods.” 344 i.
e.
If totally and essentially by very nature evil with respect to themselves.
In so far as they continue to exist they are good with respect to themselves.
345 Evil is the contrary of the Good.
H…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 5, Section 1a
“131 CHAPTER V Concerning ” Existence “ and also concerning ” Exemplars .” I.
Now must we proceed to the Name of “Being” which is truly applied by the Divine Science to Him that truly Is.
But this much we must say, that it is not the purpo…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 5, Section 1b
“367 367 Sense-perception is a direct apprehension of that which we actually touch, see, hear, taste, or smell; Reason or Inference is an indirect apprehension of that which we do not actually touch, see, etc.
Intuition is a direct apprehen…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 5, Section 1e
“And if these Universals exist by participating in Existence, far more is this true of the things which participate in them.
6.
Thus the first gift which the Absolute and Transcendent Goodness bestows is that of mere Existence, and so It d…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 5, Section 1f
“And the highest measure of existence He bestows upon the more exalted Beings, which the Scripture calls eternal; 380 380 2 Cor.
iv.
18 but also the mere existence of the world as a whole is perpetual; and its very existence comes from the…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 5, Section 1h
“is attacking the irreligious attitude in science, philosophy, and life.
We must seek for all things (including our own personalities) not in themselves but in God.
The great defect of Natural Science in the nineteenth century was its fail…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 5, Section 1i
“364 The ultimate Godhead is reached only by the Negative Path, and known only by Unknowing.
The Affirmative Path of philosophical knowledge leads only to the differentiated manifestations of the Godhead: e.g.
the Trinity, in Its creative…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 5, Section 1k
“Hence the soul possessing God is in a state of “having nothing and yet possessing all things.” Cf.
Dante, cio che per l’universa si squaderna, etc.
382 Cf.
Section 5.
383 i.
e.
The Platonic ideas of things—their ultimate essences.
Bu…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 5, Section 1l
“This apparent hair-splitting is really of the utmost practical importance.
D.
is attacking the irreligious attitude in science, philosophy, and life.
We must seek for all things (including our own personalities) not in themselves but in…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 6, Section 1b
“And wherever (under the form of intelligence, reason, sensation, nutrition, growth, or any mode whatsoever) you find life or the 146 Principle of life or the Essence of life, there you find that which lives and imparts life from the Life tr…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 7, Section 1a
“CHAPTER VII Concerning “Wisdom,” “Mind,” “Reason,” “Truth,” “Faith.” 1.
Now, if it like thee, let us consider the Good and Eternal Life as Wise and as Very Wisdom, or rather as the Fount of all wisdom and as Transcending all wisdom and und…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 7, Section 1b
“(2) Wisdom as a whole = Wisdom embodied in the universe as a whole.
(3) Wisdom in each individual instance = Wisdom as shown in the structure of some particular plant or animal, or part of a plant or animal.
(1) Is an Emanation; (2) and (…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 7, Section 1d
“Furthermore, we must ask how it is that we know God when He cannot be perceived by the mind or the senses and is not a particular Being.
Perhaps ‘tis true to say that we know not God by His Nature (for this is unknowable and beyond the rea…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 7, Section 1e
“i and more especially because the Divine Reason is more simple than all simplicity, and, in the transcendence of Its Super-Essential Being, is independent of all things.
419 419 God is called Reason: (1) because He is the Giver of reason;…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 9, Section 1b
“Dante passes outwards through the concentric spheres of space to the Empyrean which is beyond space and encloses it.
There he sees the Empyrean as a point and his whole journey from sphere to sphere as a journey inwards instead of outwards…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 9, Section 1e
“power bestowed upon all according to their worth; and because all Equality (perceived or exercised by the intellect, or possessed in the sphere of 169 reason, sensation, essence, nature, or will) is transcendently contained beforehand as an…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology | Chapter Ia
“Wheat is the Divine Gloom.
T rinty, which exceedeth all Being, Deity, and Goodness!
514 514 Lit.
“Super-Essential, Supra-Divine, Super-Excellent.” Thou that instructeth Christians in Thy heavenly wisdom!
Guide us to that topmost height…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology | Chapter Ib
“They are useful and necessary up to a point, but the Truth lies beyond them and is to be apprehended to a supernatural manner by what later writers call “infused” contemplation.
The sum of the whole matter is that God is incomprehensible.…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology | Chapter IIa
“How it is necessary to be united with and render praise to Him Who is the cause of all and above all.
Unto this Darkness which is beyond Light we pray that we may come, and may attain unto vision through the loss of sight and knowledge, an…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology | Chapter IIb
“but now ascending upwards from 196 particular to universal conceptions we strip off all qualities 528 528 The process from the universal to the particular is the process of actual development (existence before life, and life before rational…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology | Chapter IIIb
“Now in the former treatises the course of the argument, as it came down from the highest to the lowest categories, embraced an ever-widening number of conceptions which increased at each stage of the descent, but in the present treatise it…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology | Chapter Va
“That He Who is the Pre-eminent Cause of everything intelligibly perceived is not Himself any one of the things intelligibly perceived.
Once more, ascending yet higher we maintain 537 537 It is not (1) a Thinking Subject; nor (2) an Act or…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology | Chapter Vb
“The ultimate truth about God and our relation to Him is held to be that He is a “Person” and that He has “made” the world.
(This attitude is seen at its worst in Unitarian theology.
Bradley’s criticisms on Lotze show how this fails on the…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology | Chapter Vc
“begins with the notion of Goodness (which he holds to be possessed by all things) and proceeds thence to Existence (which is not possessed by things that are either destroyed or yet unmade), and thence to Wisdom (which is not possessed eith…”
◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Mystical Theology | Chapter Vd
“safeguards the position against pure negativity by explaining that they are not absent either.
The rest of this chapter deals with the qualities (1) of inanimate matter; (2 ) of material life.
537 It is not (1) a Thinking Subject; nor (2)…”
◆Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | Ic
“In order that God may draw more to Himself, and forget His wrath, the Son saith, “Beloved Father, seeing that Thou wouldest not forgive sins because of all the former sacrifices offered, lo I, Thine Only begotten Son, Who resemble Thy Godhe…”
◆Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | IIa
“THE NEARNESS OF THE KINGDOM St Luke xxi.
31 .—“Know that the Kingdom of God is near.” Our Lord saith that the Kingdom of God is near us.
Yea, the Kingdom of God is within us as St Paul saith “our salvation is nearer than when we believed.…”
◆Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | Vc
“Thus happens it to the noble soul which goes to God to school, and learns there what God is in His essence, and what He is in the Trinity, and what He is in man, and what is most acceptable to Him.
St Augustine saith that the righteousness…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 1)
“p.
33 THE DOCTRINES OF JACOB BOEHME.
"Our whole doctrine is nothing else but an instruction to show how man may create a kingdom of light within himself.
.
.
.
He in whom this spring of divine power flows, carries within himself the d…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 3)
“7.) "I do not wish to divert men from the Word as it is written and taught; but my writings are intended to lead them from a merely historical belief to a living faith, even to Jesus Christ (the Light and Truth) Himself.
All preaching and…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 7)
“It is well known that the light of the sun does .not shine upon the earth because we desire it to shine, neither can we attract the sunlight to us.
All we do is to step out of the darkness, or climb to the top of.
the mountain which rises…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | 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…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 9)
“I have never desired to learn any sciences, but from early youth I strove after the salvation of my soul, and thought how I might inherit or possess the kingdom of heaven.
Finding within myself a powerful contrarium , namely, the desires t…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 11)
“54 From this it appears that truly inspired writings are quite different from those produced by ordinary mediumship; because in the former instance the seer perceives the truths which he is to express, while in the latter case the medium is…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 12)
“56 Neither is such a state attained without a hard fight against the powers of darkness.
"If any one desires to follow me, let him not be intoxicated by terrestrial thoughts and desires, but girded with the sword of the Spirit, because he…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 2 (part 1)
“p.
58 CHAPTER II.
THE UNITY OF THE ALL.
"We are all one body in Christ, and have all the Spirit of Christ within our reach.
If, then, we enter into the Christ, we may see and know everything by the power of His Spirit." ( Forty Question…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 2 (part 6)
“2.) "If there is to be a light, there must be a fire.
The fire produces the light, and the light renders the fire manifest; it receives the nature of the fire within itself and resides in the fire." ( Mysterium , xl.
2.) "Joy enters the s…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 2 (part 7)
“The light of God has also the quality of the fire, but in it the wrath is changed into love; hate and bitter pain into mild beneficence and sweet desire or satisfaction." ( Menschwerdung , i.
5–16.) "The fountain of love is a clasping and…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 3 (part 6)
“49.) Thus the light conquers the darkness, but does not destroy it; it merely becomes victorious over it and consumes it in a manner comparable to that of the assimilation of food by the organism which conquers and consumes that food by mea…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 3 (part 8)
“Without it the form of the spirit would not be knowable; it is the corporeity of the spirit.
To be sure, it is not a bodily, tangible substance, like the bodies of men, but has nevertheless substantial and visible qualities which the spiri…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 4 (part 1)
“p.
89 CHAPTER IV.
CREATION.
Everything we see in nature is manifested truth; only we are not able to recognise it as such, unless the truth is manifest within ourselves.
God is the supreme, fundamental, universal, self-existent eternal…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 4 (part 7)
“25.) "Whether or not God will create something more out of His will after the end of this time is not perceptible to my spirit, for it does not penetrate deeper than within its own centre wherein it lives, and therein is the paradise and th…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 5 (part 1)
“p.
101 CHAPTER V.
THE ANGELS.
"If you wish to hear the Holy Ghost speak out of the mouth of another you must first enter yourself with your will into the spirit of holiness."— Jacob Boehme .
IT is perfectly useless to attempt to enter i…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 5 (part 5)
“109 the spirit of holiness cannot enter unless unholiness is chased away.
In this battle against evil the angels are always ready to assist man in an invisible manner against the temptations of the "devils," provided that he is willing to…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 5 (part 7)
“2.) "Lucifer had within himself the fire and the light.
He p.
113 was free.
Why then did he imagine (project his consciousness) into the fire?
The light and the power of God did not draw him into the fire, but the wrath of nature.
Why…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 6 (part 1)
“p.
122 CHAPTER VI.
THE RESTORATION OF NATURE AND THE GENERATION OF MAN.
" If we speak about heaven and the birth of the elements, we are then not telling of things that are far away or foreign to us, but of that which is taking place wit…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 6 (part 5)
“But when this took place the love in the light of God broke through that heaven of division and ignited the heat." ( Aurora , xxv.
68.) "God, the eternal light and the eternal will, shines within the darkness, and the darkness has captured…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 6 (part 9)
“Thus he was in possession of divine and terrestrial essentiality; but the terrestrial one was in the divine one like consumed or impotent (latent).
The substance or the matter from which the body was made or created contained itself also t…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 1)
“p.
140 CHAPTER VII.
MAN.
"God created man in His own image.
Male and female ( in one ) created He them." Man in his cosmic aspect is a being very superior to that which is commonly looked upon as a "man," and which is described in books…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 8 (part 7)
“The outbreathed desire—that is to say, the love of the divine power for nature, wherefrom nature and self-will have originated—is longing to get rid of the natural perverted self-will, and is destined, at the end of time, to be free of the…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 9 (part 1)
“p.
180 CHAPTER IX.
GENERATION.
"Let every Brahman, with fixed attention, consider all nature, both visible and invisible, as existing in the Divine Spirit.
For when he contemplates the boundless universe in the Divine Spirit, he cannot…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 10 (part 8)
“9.) "In those heathen that were highly intellectual in the light of nature the interior holy realm was mirrored, and although the true divine intelligence was closed to them, and although they beheld merely an external reflection, neverthel…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 11 (part 2)
“Thereby each form had its own particular state of perception and sensation, and the divine state did not mingle in such a manner (with the terrestrial form) as to cause the former to be diminished, but remained what it was (before the incar…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 11 (part 5)
“If, then, the soul of the child is in the Holy Trinity, do you then not think that its glorious light beautifully illuminates the mother, and does not that mother rightfully put her feet upon the Moon, 1 as being exalted above all that is o…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 5)
“He now sat in the chair of David, and was the true priest in the order of Melchisedec." ( Three Principles , xxii.
3.) But the victory which the Redeemer had gained over Satan at the time of the temptation could not be sufficient for the p…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 11)
“The human will refuses to submit itself entirely to the exquisite grace which offers itself out of divine love, and seeks for its own self and for the love of that self which belongs to that which is impermanent.
It loves itself and the st…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 5)
“First, by the severe wrath of God, the abyss and dark world, which is the centre of the created life of the soul, whose innermost root is desire.
The second chain is the fiery longing of the devil for the soul, in consequence of which he t…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 7)
“27.) The first and greatest danger for the new-born being arises from pride; as is illustrated in the New Testament, for hardly is the new-born Saviour laid in the cradle, standing between the ox of self will and the ass of ignorance in the…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 11)
“27.) No Christian should contemplate his own holiness, or fancy himself to be better than others; but he should rather realise his own unworthiness, and regret the perverted state of himself and of humanity as a whole.
"No one should want…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 14 (part 2)
“2.) During his terrestrial existence man can remain consciously in the three worlds, and by the power of the will with which he is endowed penetrate into either one or the other; but after the separation of the soul from the body has taken…”
◆The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 14 (part 6)
“These souls have a perverted conscience, which tortures them; their sins are always before their eyes; they see all their injustice and frivolity, their conceit and the misery which they have caused, their scorn and arrogance, but now their…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | PREFACEa
““ Meister Eckhart ,” who has been called the “Father of German thought,” was a Dominican monk, and one of the most profound thinkers of the Middle Ages.
He was born about 1260 A.D.
in Thuringia, and died at Cologne 1327 A.D.
In 1295 he w…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | IIc
“No man desires anything so eagerly as God desires to bring men to the knowledge of Himself.
God is always ready, but we are very unready.
God is near us, but we are far from Him.
God is within, and we are without.
God is friendly; we ar…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | IIIa
“THE ANGEL’S GREETING St Luke i.
28 .—“Hail, thou that art highly favoured among women, the Lord is with thee.” Here there are three things to understand: the first, the modesty of the angel; the second, that he thought himself unworthy to…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | IIIb
“The earth cannot flee from heaven: whether it flee up or down, the heaven rains its influence upon it, and stamps its impress upon it, and makes it fruitful, whether it be willing or not.
Thus doth God with men: whoever thinketh to escape…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | IVa
“TRUE HEARING Ecclesiasticus xxiv.
30 .—“Whoso heareth Me shall not be confounded.” The everlasting and paternal wisdom saith, “Whoso heareth Me is not ashamed.” If he is ashamed of anything he is ashamed of being ashamed.
Whoso worketh in…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | IVb
“No, they are certainly not; for the work of the angels is the will of God, and the will of God is the work of the angels; their service to us does not hinder their joy nor their working.
If God told an angel to go to a tree and pluck cater…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | Va
“THE SELF-COMMUNICATION OF GOD St John xiv.
23 .—“If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” We read in the Gospels that Our Lord fed many people with five…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | Vb
“It is necessary, therefore, for all the creatures which issued forth from God to co-operate earnestly with all their powers to form a Man who may again attain that union with God which Adam enjoyed before he fell, and who may again restore…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | VIa
“SANCTIFICATION 1 1 That is separation from all outward things.
St Luke x.
42 .—“One thing is needful.” I have read many writings both of heathen philosophers and inspired prophets, ancient and modern, and have sought earnestly to discover…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | VIb
“Therefore she made mention of her humility and not of her sanctification, in which she remained unmoved and unaffected.
If she had said, “He hath regarded the sanctification of His handmaiden,” her sanctification would have been disturbed,…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | VId
“That is not due to the heat, but to the variety of the materials.
Similarly God works in all hearts not alike but in proportion as He finds them prepared and susceptible.
If the heart is to be ready for the highest, it must he vacant of a…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | VIe
“Therefore sanctification is the best of all things, for it cleanses the soul, and illuminates the conscience, and kindles the heart, and wakens the spirit, and girds up the loins, and glorifies virtue and separates us from creatures, and un…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | VIIa
“OUTWARD AND INWARD MORALITY I Cor.
xv.
10 .—“The Grace of God.” Grace is from God, and works in the depth of the soul whose powers it employs.
It is a light which issues forth to do service under the guidance of the Spirit.
The Divine L…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | VIIb
“How can the inner man be born in God, when the outer man abides not in the following of Christ, in self-mortification and in suffering, for there is no being born of God, except through Christ.
Love is the fulfilling of all commands; there…”
◇Meister Eckhart's Sermons (Field translation) | VIIc
“When a good work is done by a man, he is free of it, and through that freedom is liker and nearer to his Original than he was before.
The moral task of man is a process of spiritualization.
All creatures are go-betweens, and we are placed…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 4)
“Let them, therefore, again go out with their will from their wilful ignorance or malignity and enter again into the will of God." ( Menschwerdung , 3, 5.) All this goes to show that it is useless and vain to seek for divine wisdom, meaning…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 5)
“' Not that a person should run away from his home, and desert his wife, child, or relatives, commit suicide, or throw away his property, so that he may not be therein corporeally; but he should kill and annihilate his self-will, the will th…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | 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…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | 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…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 1 (part 13)
“A man knowing nothing of God, and having no faith in the power of anything divine, which may become revealed in him, cannot be in possession of divine self-knowledge; but if man, by being obedient to the law, enters into a state of harmony…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 3 (part 5)
“The first of these three states, being a beginning of all power and strength, originates from the quality of the Father; the second, being the source of all activity and differentiation, comes from the quality of the Son; and the third, bei…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 5 (part 6)
“"In the lightning flash, the fourth form of nature, is the origin of life, and it attains perfection in the constancy of the fire.
Here, in the object of division, is the p.
111 spirit born, and this spirit can either go backwards and ent…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 6 (part 8)
“They are fire-flames, illumined by the light of God, but we attain the great fountain of meekness and love which is welling up within the holy essentiality of God." 1 ( Menschwerdung , i.
5.) Man comprises all three principles: the princip…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 6 (part 11)
“Only he in whom is light can see the light; only the element of love can feel love; only the divinity in man can know God in and through man.
138:1 Therefore Theophrastus Paracelsus says: "Natural man is made out of the world, and not the…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 2)
“36.) "In Paradise there is perfect life without disturbance, and a perpetual day, and the paradisiacal man is clear like transparent glass, and he is fully penetrated by the light of the divine sun." 1 ( Signature , xi.
5 1.) His body like…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 3)
“2.) "The inner man stood in heaven; his essences were the Paradise; his body was indestructible.
He knew the language of God and the angels, and the language of nature, as may be seen by Adam giving names to all creatures, to each accordin…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 4)
“28.) "In Paradise the substance of the divine world penetrated the substance belonging to time, comparable to the power of the sun penetrating a fruit growing on a tree, and endowing it with such qualities as render it lovely to the sight a…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 5)
“13.) Man can attain real similarity to God and perfect beatitude only by decisively willing to put his will into the Son, as the Heart or Light of the Father.
"God has the eternal and unchangeable will to generate His Heart and his Son, an…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 6)
“2.) There existed in man also the third principle, wherein resides sensual desire.
He was not endowed with this principle for the purpose of surrendering himself to it, but that he might introduce it into the light of God, and glorify Him…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 8)
“15.) The forthcoming of the tree of temptation is not to be wondered at, because Adam was endowed with great powers, and an earthly form as a protection to him against the powers of hell.
1 "Reason (man's reasoning) says, 'Why did God perm…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 12)
“145:1 This was the divine Man, out of whom the world was created, while the natural man is a product of the world.
145:2 Because everything was within his own will, within himself.
145:3 This celestial Adam has not died, but still exists…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 13)
“154:1 This is the difference between life in the terrestrial and life in the celestial states of nature, that the former is differentiated into forms, each of which loves to live in the consciousness of its own illusive self— i.e.
, in a s…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 7 (part 14)
“159:1 Woman in all departments of life is a saviour of man.
Even the most degraded woman may be a saviour for still more degraded man, by keeping alive in him a feeling for an ideal—a low ideal, it is true, but one that keeps him from sink…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 8 (part 1)
“p.
164 CHAPTER VIII.
NATURE, OR THE THIRD PRINCIPLE.
"The godless seeks for God outside of his own self, and the Christless sectarians seek for a personal Christ in history; but the man of God and the true Christian know God and Christ w…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 8 (part 8)
“For the internal being is continually labouring to manifest itself outwardly.
Thus everything has its own mouth for the purpose of revealing itself, and therein is based the language of nature, by means of which each thing speaks out of it…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 8 (part 9)
“Little would it benefit the blind to know of the light merely from hearsay.
Little would it profit the "Christian" if he knew of a historical Christ, and could not perceive the glory and majesty of the Atma Buddhi within his own soul.
Boe…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 9 (part 8)
“402.) During the connubial act a divine interaction takes place; but there are also influences coming from the terrestrial and the satanic worlds.
More especially is the nature of the child dependent on the quality of its parents.
2 p.
1…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 9 (part 9)
“183:1 If man's imagination were not excited by the pictorial representations which the objects of the surrounding world call forth in his mind by means of his external senses, but if his mental activity were restricted to forming images by…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 9 (part 10)
“The conditions of these animal elementals in the constitution of man are some of those causes of his bodily ills of which modern medical science is entirely ignorant.
191:1 This is the way in which the "personalities" mentioned in the Book…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 10 (part 1)
“p.
198 CHAPTER X.
THE CHRIST.
"The inner element which holds the whole body of this world has become the eternal body of Christ; for the whole of Divinity in the word and heart of God has entered therein in eternity; and the same Divinit…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 10 (part 2)
“8.
1.) "The name Jesus was incorporated into the image of eternity as a future Christ, that it may become a redeemer of men, and out of the dying in the wrath regenerate them again into the pure being of divine and paradisiacal power." ( S…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 10 (part 9)
“"All sacrificing without faith and divine desire is an p.
219 abomination before God, and does not reach the gate of divine glory; but if man enters therein with the power of faith, he surrenders to it his free will, and desires by that me…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 10 (part 10)
“Thus the desire of God in the Word perceived the desire of man through the fire; for in the (divine) fire was consumed the animal vanity in the will of man, by means of the wrath, and then the purified human will, with the incorporated para…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 10 (part 15)
“"The Spirit of Christ in His children is not bound to a certain form, so that He could say nothing but what is found in the writings of the apostles; but as the Spirit was free in the apostles, and as they did not all use the same expressio…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 10 (part 16)
“21.) "If there were even a thousand persons well taught by God and regenerated in the Spirit of Christ assembled together, and if each of them had his own particular gift and self-knowledge in God, nevertheless they would all be one in the…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 11 (part 1)
“p.
224 CHAPTER XI.
INCARNATION—THE CELESTIAL VIRGIN.
The doctrine of the incarnation of Christ, or, to express it in other words, of the awakening of the germ of divine self-knowledge in man, is so grand, that it is impossible to form a…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 11 (part 3)
“Now can I truly say, 'The soul of Christ is my brother, and the body of Christ is the nutriment of my soul.'" ( Three Principles , xxii.
78.) p.
229 But if Christ had come only from a terrestrial virgin He would not have come from above,…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 11 (part 4)
“"The Word of promise, which was before the Jews as an antitype, or as an image in a mirror, wherein the wrathful Father imagined and wherewith He extinguished His wrath, began to move essentially, as it had not moved from eternity; for when…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 11 (part 7)
“48.) "The soul and the Word are not one or one being.
The soul is born from the centre of nature, from the essences, and belongs to the body, for she issues from the essences of the body, and attracts to herself the body; but the Word is f…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 11 (part 8)
“Neither is God measurable, and there has no place of residence been discovered in Him, unless He should establish for Himself such a dwelling in one of His creatures; but even then He remains a whole apart from and beyond such a created bei…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 11 (part 9)
“225:1 All disputes about the nature of Christ only prove that the disputants are not Christians, because if they were true followers of the Christ they would have the living Christ within themselves, and know His true nature.
The misunders…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 11 (part 10)
“"Human reason can understand nothing about the kingdom of Christ, nor about His person or office, because the testament of Christ is celestial, and human reasoning is terrestrial; the latter seeks Christ in time, while He can only be found…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 1)
“p.
242 CHAPTER XII.
REDEMPTION.
"God lives also in man.
Therefore if we are but seeking and loving our own (true) self, we then love God.
That which we do to each other we are doing to God.
He who seeks and finds his brother and siste…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 2)
“1 "It was the will of God to transmute humanity, after it had become earthly, again into the celestial quality, to turn the human earth (material element) into heaven, to make out of the four elements only one, and to transform the wrath of…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 3)
“He willingly surrendered Himself to the wrath (to the suffering caused by the lower principles that had been awakened to consciousness in consequence of the sin), and He extinguished it by His love.
He came from God into this world and too…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 4)
“There was then no earthly food or drink, and the soul of Christ knew very well that she was in God, and that she could make terrestrial bread out of stones, as there was no other bread there.
But she did not desire to eat with her celestia…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 6)
“253 and shedding of blood.
Adam's body died on the Cross, and Christ, born of Jesus and the sanctified seed of the woman, tinctured (blessed) him with His dear blood of love." ( Stiefel , ii.
494.) "The inner man Christ took our sins upon…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 7)
“All this He gave up entirely into the Father's hands as being the end of nature, the great mystery of the Father; but not so that it should be dead, but so that the Spirit of God should be therein all its life, and the divine regimen exist…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 9)
“8.) "When the earth received the blood of Christ she trembled and shook, for the wrath of God was now conquered in her, and there entered into her the living blood which had come from heaven out of the substantiality of God." ( Menschwerdun…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 10)
“Every object or person we see in the world is nothing but a symbol of existing ideas; every event taking place in external life is the outcome of invisibly acting forces.
The historical correctness of the occurrences described in the Bible…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 12 (part 12)
“255:1 However gratifying it may be for the curious seeker in history to know whether or when such an event has actually occurred in the history of the Jewish nation, such a historical belief would be of little benefit to him if he could not…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 1)
“p.
263 CHAPTER XIII.
REGENERATION.
"Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not of those things?" — John iii.
10.
"Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."— Luke ix.
23.
No man c…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 2)
“265 To form a correct conception of the regeneration of man, and of what kind of a being it is which is to be brought to life in us, we must learn to know what is eternity and time, light and darkness, good and evil, and especially the orig…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 3)
“To accomplish this he must rise by the aid of the divine Spirit within himself above the inferior elements within his own nature, and thus surrender his whole self-will to God, an act which is expressed in the original meaning of the word "…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 4)
“will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of My Father in heaven." It would seem self-evident that no being inferior to the Father in heaven can possibly do the will of the Father, because no one can do the will of God unl…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 6)
“Often she is deluded with sin, and everything seems to be against her.
You must continually battle against the devil.
Then will the pearl-tree grow like grass in storm and rain; but when it becomes big and brings forth flowers, you may th…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 8)
“A sprout grows from the earth, and thus the substance of which it is formed flies from the earth and is attracted towards the sunlight until it becomes a plant or a tree.
So does the divine Sun draw the human lily, i.e.
, the new man in h…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 10)
“281 "The inner man continually kills the outer one by means of the love and sweetness of God, so that the external one cannot introduce into the soul-fire his earthly poisonous desire, which is infected by the devil; but the external man ca…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 12)
“In the place which formerly was the seat of self-will there is now nothing, and wherever there is nothing there the love of God is solely active." ( Supernatural Life , xxviii.) "A true Christian knows himself to be a servant of God, whose…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 13)
“Nevertheless he has nothing (objectively), because that which is before Him is nothing in His comprehension, for it does not comprehend Him.
Likewise will this be the state of a person according to his submitted will if he entirely surrend…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 14)
“It would then be easy for us to grant our own desires, if in that divine state there could be room for personal desires of any kind.
268:1 True prayer is the bringing of will, thought, and word into one Δ by the power of the Spirit of God.…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 13 (part 15)
“If he then, in his imagination, sinks himself into the abyss, he is then already there, and in this abyss is his pearl (the celestial jewel)." ( Grace , ii.
43.) 279:1 This may be expressed in other words by saying that desire gives rise t…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 14 (part 1)
“p.
289 CHAPTER XIV.
DEATH AND ETERNAL LIFE.
"The mystic death is the beginning of eternal life." Man is a product of three worlds His spirit is of God, his soul from the constellation of the astral elements, his body from the elements of…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 14 (part 7)
“This light moderates the action of the fiery will still active in them, the blessings of their good deeds surround them, the hope for still greater glorification is their life, and from the trouble and persecution which they have suffered t…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 14 (part 8)
“, in the heavenly essentiality (Devachan)—cannot be disturbed by anybody, unless they should wish it themselves, in case that they were very favourably inclined towards some particular soul in harmony with their own.
They do not trouble th…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 14 (part 10)
“When, then, death actually takes place, and separates the soul from the body, the poor soul will then cling to that thread and refuse to let go her hold of it, but all her essences are still deeply immersed in the wrath of God; she is tortu…”
◇The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme | Chapter 14 (part 12)
“Certainly, from the point of view of the divine spirit, all forms are merely illusive, and as long as man is rooted within that spirit he may recognise them as such; but for the godless they are horrible realities, as real as the images of…”
← Collapseegyptian96
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 4 (part 19)
“Chapp.
30B, 164, 37B and 148.
Although these chapters were found at Hermopolis, the city of Thoth, it does not follow that they were drawn up there.
5.
See Birch, in Bunsen, Egypt's Place in Universal History , vol.
V., p.
125; Navill…”
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 20 (part 3)
“I am the son of Osiris, I have made the way, I have passed thereover into Neter-khert." PLATE XII.-- Vignette V.: The fifth Arit, guarded by three gods; the first with the head of a hawk, the second the head of a man, and the third the head…”
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 20 (part 7)
“"Lo, the Lover of fire, the purifier of sinners (?), the lover of slaughter, the chief of those who adore, the lady of the temple, the slaughterer of the fiends in the night.
She judgeth the feeble bandaged one." THE NINETEENTH PYLON.
"Lo…”
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 21 (part 1)
“PLATE XIII.
Vignettes (Upper register): A pylon, or gateway, surmounted by the feathers of Maat and uræi wearing disks.
(Lower register): A pylon, surmounted by Anubis and an utchat .
Text [CHAPTER XVIII.]: [" (1) Hail Thoth, who madest…”
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 28 (part 2)
“May Ani (21) advance, even as thou dost advance; may he never cease [to go forward], even as thy majesty ceaseth not [to go forward], even though it be for a moment; for with strides dost thou (22) in one little moment pass over the spaces…”
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 30 (part 1)
“PLATE XXII.
"Osiris Ani, triumphant, hath not revealed what he hath seen,(17) he hath not, he hath not told again what he hath heard in the house which is hidden.
Hail, there are shouts of joy to Osiris Ani, triumphant, (18) for he is a g…”
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 32 (part 1)
“PLATE XXV.
Vignette: A swallow perched on a conical object painted red and green.
Text [CHAPTER LXXXVI.]: (I) HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF MAKING TRANSFORMATIONS.
THE CHANGING INTO A SWALLOW.
(2) Saith Osiris Ani, triumphant: "I am the sw…”
◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 36 (part 5)
“(16) I have not added unto nor have I minished the offerings which are due.
I have not stolen from the orchards; nor have I trampled down the fields.
I have not added to the weight of the balance; (17) nor have I made light the weight in…”
Show all 96 →gnosticism79
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1a
“(Above image of the Gospel of Thomas courtesy of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont Graduate University) Visit the Bookstore for a complete selection of translations and books about The Nag Hammadi Library The Nag Hamma…”
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1c
“And Jesus said, “Whoever will not eat my flesh and drink my blood has no life within him.” What does he mean?
His flesh is the word and blood the holy spirit.
Who has received these has food and drink and clothing.
I condemn those who sa…”
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1d
“When the child is grown, however, then the father turns over all he possesses.
THE LOST Those who have gone astray are those born of the spirit.
And they are usually lost because of the spirit.
So from one single breath of spirit the fir…”
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1f
“When wanton women see a man sitting alone, the man is overcome.
They fondle him and pollute him.
When wanton men see a beautiful woman sitting alone, they overcome her, and she is violated and polluted.
But when spirits see a man and his…”
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1h
“Now the woman and man are one in the chamber with the bed, and those so joined will not come apart again.
Eve and Adam separated because when they joined it was not in the chamber with the bed.
ADAM’S SOUL The soul of Adam came into being…”
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1i
“His seed was Jesus, and the plant was the cross.” The tree of life in the middle of that garden of paradise is an olive tree, and from the olive tree comes chrism, and from that oil comes the resurrection.
THE WORLD EATS BODIES The world e…”
◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1j
“In the world these are the true people.
They are the attendants of the bridal chamber.
POWER AND WEAKNESS In this world, power and weakness mingle when man and woman have sex.
Joining is different in the eternal realm, though we use the…”
◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 3
“Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and i…”
Show all 79 →renaissance_hermeticism73
◆Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LXV — How the Passions of the Mind can Work of Themselves Upon Another's Body | Chapter LXV, Section 1b
“For as the smell of musk doth penetrate, so something of either bad or good is derived from anything bad or good by those that are nigh to them; which may continue a long time.
Now, if the foresaid passions have so great a power in the pha…”
◆Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LXVII — How the Mind of Man May Be Joined With the Mind of the Stars, and Intelligences of the Celestials, and, Together With Them, Impress Certain Wonderful Virtues Upon Inferior Things | Chapter LXVII, Section 1
“CHAPTER LXVII. How the Mind of Man May Be Joined With the Mind of the Stars, and Intelligences of the Celestials, and, Together With Them, Impress Certain Wonderful Virtues Upon Inferior Things . The philosophers, especially the Arabians, s…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | INTRODUCTIONh
“The primal idea of Pythagoras, which Bruno worked out to a more distinct development is this: numbers are the beginning of things; in other words numbers are the cause of the existence of material things; they are not final, but are always…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | INTRODUCTIONj
“The body is in the soul, the soul is in the mind, the mind is in God.
The life of the soul is the true life of the man.
Of all his various faculties, that which rules all, that which exalts our nature, is Thought.
By means of it we rise…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | INTRODUCTIONl
“There he passed the first day of that imprisonment which was to last for eight years.
The next day he went over the lagoon in a gondola, in the company of his jailors, who took him to the prison of the Holy Office, and left him there.
Lev…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogued
“Some are called in vain to put in a ready appearance, and are chiefly those which proceed from the lower instincts, and which obey the reason either not at all, or very little; and forcing himself to prevent their actions and condemn those…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialoguef
“One thing is certain, that he who loves wisely in youth will in age not go astray.
But derision is for those of mature age, into whose hands Love puts the alphabet.
Cic.
Tell me now why Fate is called blind and bad.
Tans.
Again, blind…”
◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogueg
“"Steals it from me," he says of Jealousy, not simply in order that it may not be present to me; removing it from my eyesight, but in order that good may not be good, but an acute evil; sweet, not sweet, but an agonized longing; while the he…”
Show all 73 →western_esoteric68
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismr
“Clement of Alexandria describes a figure of Serapis compounded from the following elements: First, filings of gold, silver, lead, and tin; second, all manner of Egyptian stones, including sapphires, hematites, emeralds, and topazes; all the…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolism
“The Bacchic state signifies the unity of the rational soul in a state of self-knowledge, and the Titanic state the diversity of the rational soul which, being scattered throughout creation, loses the consciousness of its own essential one-n…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Life and Teachings of Thoth Hermes Trismegistusj
“"Then, being naked of all the accumulations of the seven Rings, the soul comes to the Eighth Sphere, namely, the ring of the fixed stars.
Here, freed of all illusion, it dwells in the Light and sings praises to the Father in a voice which…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Initiation of the Pyramidj
“The hymns of praise no longer echo in muffled tones through the chambers; the neophyte no longer passes through the elements and wanders among the seven stars; the candidate no longer receives the "Word of Life" from the lips of the Eternal…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Bembine Table of Isisb
“Laurentius Pignorius reproduced the Tablet in connection with a descriptive essay in 1605, but his timidly advanced explanations demonstrated his ignorance concerning the actual interpretation of the figures.
THE BEMBINE TABLE OF ISIS.
Co…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Bembine Table of Isisc
“For as in the Supreme Mind everything is simultaneous and spaceless, the future is therefore present in that Mind; and they thought that while the human mind was absorbed in the Supreme by contemplation, by that union they were enabled to k…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | Wonders of Antiquityf
“She bathed in the Castalian well, abstained from all food, drank only from the fountain of Cassotis, which was brought into the temple through concealed pipes, and just before mounting the tripod, she chewed a few leaves of the sacred bay t…”
◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | Wonders of Antiquityg
“But when she places herself on the seat of the God, she becomes co-adapted to his stable prophetic power: and from both of these preparatory operations she becomes wholly possessed by the God.
And then, indeed, he is present with and illum…”
Show all 68 →taoism36
◆Tao Te Ching | Chapter 14
“We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it 'the Equable.' We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it 'the Inaudible.' We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we name it 'the Subtle.' With these three qualitie…”
◆Tao Te Ching | Chapter 23
“Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these (two) things are owing? To Heaven and E…”
◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 123 (part 2)
“In the south of Khû 2 , there is the (tree) called Ming-ling 3 , whose spring is 500 years, and its autumn the same; in high antiquity there was that called Tâ-khun 4 , p.
167 whose spring was 8000 years, and its autumn the same.
And Phän…”
◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 126 (part 3)
“Doing what other men do, they would have no occasion to blame me.
This p.
208 is what is called being a fellow-worker with other men.
'Fully declaring my sentiments and substantiating them by appealing to antiquity, I shall be a co-worke…”
◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 1)
“p.
223 BOOK V.
PART I.
SECTION V.
Teh Khung Fû, or 'The Seal of Virtue Complete 1 .' 1.
In Lû 2 there was a Wang Thâi 3 who had lost both his feet 4 ; while his disciples who followed and went about with him were as numerous as those o…”
◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 5)
“Though the realisation of this be not manifested in the person, things cannot separate themselves (from its influence).' Some days afterwards duke Âi told this conversation to Min-dze 3 , saying, 'Formerly it seemed to me the work of the so…”
◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 6)
“What I mean when I say that he is without these is, that this man does not by his likings and dislikings do any inward harm to his body;--he always pursues his course without effort, and does not (try to) increase his (store of) life.' Hui-…”
◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 128 (part 12)
“All things begin from nothing and end in nothing.
Their birth and their death are only the creations of our thought, the going and coming of the primary ether.
When we have penetrated to the non-reality of life and death, what remains of…”
Show all 36 →hermeticism27
◆Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres | Section 1b
“But when He raised His head, I see in Mind the Light, [but] now in Powers no man could number, and Cosmos grown beyond all bounds, and that the Fire was compassed round about by a most mighty Power, and [now] subdued had come unto a stand.…”
◆Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres | Section 1e
“To the first zone he gives the Energy of Growth and Waning; unto the second [zone], Device of Evils [now] de-energized; unto the third, the Guile of the Desires de-energized; unto the fourth, his Domineering Arrogance, [also] de-energized;…”
◆Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres | Section 1f
“All this befell me from my Mind, that is Man-Shepherd, Word (Logos) of all masterhood, by whom being God-inspired I came unto the Plain of Truth.
Wherefore with all my soul and strength thanksgiving give I unto Father-God.
31.
Holy art T…”
◆Corpus Hermeticum 5: The Discourse of Hermes to Asclepius | Section 1a
“Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest 1.
I will recount to thee this sermon (logos) too, O Tat, that thou may'st cease to be without the mysteries of the God beyond all name.
And mark thou well how that which to the many seems unmanifest…”
◆Corpus Hermeticum 5: The Discourse of Hermes to Asclepius | Section 1b
“Would that it were possible for thee to get thee wings, and soar into the air, and, poised midway 'tween earth and heaven, behold the earth's solidity, the sea's fluidity (the flowings of its streams), the spaciousness of air, fire's swiftn…”
◆Corpus Hermeticum 5: The Discourse of Hermes to Asclepius | Section 1c
“And for this cause hath He all names, in that they are one Father's.
And for this cause hath He Himself no nome, in that He's Father of [them] all.
Who, then, may sing Thee praise of Thee, or [praise] to Thee?
Whither, again, am I to tur…”
◆Corpus Hermeticum 9: The Decalogue | Section 1a
“On Thought and Sense <This somewhat diffuse essay covers a series of topics, starting with (and to some extent from) the concept that the set of perceptions we call "thoughts" and the set we call "sensory perceptions" are not significantly…”
◆Corpus Hermeticum 10: The Sermon on the Mount | Section 1d
“Spirit pervading [body] by means of veins and arteries and blood, bestows upon the living creature motion, and as it were doth bear it in a way.
For this cause some do think the soul is blood, in that they do mistake its nature, not knowin…”
Show all 27 →platonism26
◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1e
“And I rather imagine that Cebes is referring to you; he thinks that you are too ready to leave us, and too ready to leave the gods who, as you acknowledge, are our good rulers.
Yes, replied Socrates; there is reason in that.
And this indi…”
◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1f
“And being dead is the attainment of this separation; when the soul exists in herself, and is parted from the body and the body is parted from the soul-that is death?
Exactly: that and nothing else, he replied.
And what do you say of anoth…”
◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1g
“And he attains to the knowledge of them in their highest purity who goes to each of them with the mind alone, not allowing when in the act of thought the intrusion or introduction of sight or any other sense in the company of reason, but wi…”
◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1p
“or are they each of them always what they are, having the same simple, self-existent and unchanging forms, and not admitting of variation at all, or in any way, or at any time?
They must be always the same, Socrates, replied Cebes.
And wh…”
◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1q
“Then reflect, Cebes: is not the conclusion of the whole matter this?-that the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intelligible, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable; and the body is in the very likeness…”
◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1s
“The lovers of knowledge are conscious that their souls, when philosophy receives them, are simply fastened and glued to their bodies: the soul is only able to view existence through the bars of a prison, and not in her own nature; she is wa…”
◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1~
“I might compare him to a person who began by maintaining generally that mind is the cause of the actions of Socrates, but who, when he endeavored to explain the causes of my several actions in detail, went on to show that I sit here because…”
◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1
“No other proof is needed, he said; for if the immortal, being eternal, is liable to perish, then nothing is imperishable.
Yes, replied Socrates, all men will agree that God, and the essential form of life, and the immortal in general, will…”
Show all 26 →sufism26
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | PROLOGUEa
“HEARKEN to the reed-flute, how it complains, Lamenting its banishment from its home: "Ever since they tore me from my osier bed, My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears.
I burst my breast, striving to give vent to sighs, And t…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY Ia
“The Prince and the Handmaid.
A prince, while engaged on a hunting excursion, espied a fair maiden, and by promises of gold induced her to accompany him.
After a time she fell sick, and the prince had her tended by divers physicians.
As,…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY IV
“Another Tyrannical Jewish King. A certain Jewish king, the same who is referred to in the Sura "Signs of the Zodiac," I made up his mind to utterly exterminate the Christian faith, and with that view he set up a huge idol, and issued comman…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY Vc
“The skill taught by God to the silkworm Is a learning beyond the reach of the elephant.
The earthly Adam was taught of God names, 4 So that his glory reached the seventh heaven.
He laid low the name and fame of the angels, 5 Yet blind ind…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY Vd
“But the light that lights the heart is the Light of God, Which is distinct from the light of reason and sense.
At night there is no light, and colors are not seen; Hence we know what light is by its opposite, darkness.
At night no colors…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY VIa
“Omar and the Ambassador.
The hare, having delivered his companions from the tyranny of the lion, in the manner just described, proceeds to improve the occasion by exhorting them to engage in a greater and more arduous warfare, viz., the st…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY VIb
“They possess freewill and compulsion besides, 4 As in oyster-shells raindrops are pearls.
Outside the shell they are raindrops, great and small; Inside they are precious pearls, big and little.
These men also resemble the musk deer's bag;…”
◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY VIIa
“The Merchant and his Clever Parrot.
There was a certain merchant who kept a parrot in a cage.
Being about to travel to Hindustan on business, he asked the parrot if he had any message to send to his kinsmen in that country, and the parrot…”
Show all 26 →greek_mystery25
◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 10)
“For in this solemnity grass is carried about, enwrapping the kernels of olives, attended with figs, all kinds of pulse, oaken boughs or acorns, the fruit of the strawberry, wheat, and barley, a mass of dried figs, cakes composed from the me…”
◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 11)
“As the husbandman, therefore, performs sacred rites, by presenting handfuls of pulse and fruits, so ought we to sacrifice our purest thoughts, and other goods of the soul, thanking the divinities for the sublime contemplations they afford u…”
◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn X (part 1)
“X.
TO PAN * The FUMIGATION from VARIOUS ODORS I Call strong Pan, the substance of the whole, Etherial, marine, earthly, general soul, Immortal fire; for all the world is thine, And all are parts of thee, O pow'r divine.
p.
131 Come, bles…”
◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXV. THE MUSES (part 1)
“LXXV.
TO THE MUSES.
The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE.
Daughters of Jove, dire-sounding and divine, 1 Renown'd Pierian, sweetly speaking Nine; p.
206 To those whose breasts your sacred furies fire Much-form'd, the objects of supreme desi…”
◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXV. THE MUSES (part 2)
“207 fury arises from truth, and the amatorial from beauty; so the poetic proceeds from divine symmetry, by means of which it most intimately unites the poets with the Gods.
Plato, in the Phædrus, speaking of this Fury, says that it is an o…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 4 (part 2)
“Wherein have I done amiss?
What have I done?
What have I omitted that I ought to have done?
43.
If in this examination thou find that thou hast done amiss, reprimand thyself severely for it; 44.
And if thou hast done any good, rejoice.…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 5 (part 3)
“"Thou shalt not hope what thou ought'st not to hope," knowing the nature of all things, and what is possible.
55.
The Gods near at hand are virtue and truth.
p.
17 59, 60.
The fatal strife is caused by our inclination "madly to run cou…”
◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 7 (part 1)
“p.
29 THE PYTHAGOREAN SENTENCES OF DEMOPHILUS 1.
Request not of Divinity such things as, when obtained, you cannot preserve; for no gift of Divinity can ever be taken away; and on this account he does not confer that which you are unable…”
Show all 25 →buddhism10
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter II, Section 1b
“A Bhikshu (mendicant) who delights in earnestness, who looks with fear on thoughtlessness, [25.
Childers explains this island again as the state of an Arhat (arahatta-phalam).
28.
Cf.
Childers, Dictionary, Preface, p.
xiv.
See Vinaya,…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XI, Section 1c
“I had formerly translated anibbisan, as not resting (anirvi s an), but the commentator seems to authorise the meaning of not finding (avindanto, alabhanto), and in that case all the material difficulties of the verse seem to me to disappear…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XIII, Section 1b
“(4) Arhat, the venerable, the perfect, who has reached the highest stage that can be reached, and from which Nirvâ n a is perceived (sukkhavipassanâ, Lotus, p.
849).
See Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p.
280; Burnouf, Introduction, p.
209; K…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XV, Section 1a
“p.
53 CHAPTER XV.
HAPPINESS.
197.
Let us live happily then, not hating those who hate us!
among men who hate us let us dwell free from hatred!
198.
Let us live happily then, free from ailments among the ailing!
among men who are ail…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XX, Section 1b
“Weber renders it by 'Gedeihen,' but the commentator distinctly explains it as 'vast knowledge,' and in the technical sense the word occurs after vidyâ and before medhâ, in the Lalita-vistara, p.
541.
283.
A pun, vana meaning both 'lust'…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XXV, Section 1a
“p.
85 CHAPTER XXV.
THE BHIKSHU (MENDICANT).
360.
Restraint in the eye is good, good is restraint in the ear, in the nose restraint is good, good is restraint in the tongue.
361.
In the body restraint is good, good is restraint in spee…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XXV, Section 1b
“Nâmarûpa is here used again in its technical sense of mind and body, neither of which, however, is with the Buddhists âtman, or 'self.' Asat, 'what is not,' may therefore mean the same as nâmarûpa, or we may take it in the sense of what is…”
◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XXVI, Section 1c
“405.
Him I call indeed a Brâhma n a who finds no fault with other beings, whether feeble or strong, and does not kill nor cause slaughter.
406.
Him I call indeed a Brâhma n a who is tolerant with the intolerant, mild with fault-finders,…”
Show all 10 →jewish_mysticism3
◆The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1h
“35: "Ye shall not do iniquity in judgment, in dimension, in weight, and in measure." (Where these four are mystically intimated.) 37.
(There is one) rigorous judgment (of severity),another that is not rigorous (that is, of the kingdom).
T…”
◆Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Formation) | Section 1f
“The Third Path is the Sanctifying Intelligence, and is the basis of foundation of Primordial Wisdom, which is called the Former of faith, and its roots, Amen; and it is the parent of Faith, from which virtues doth Faith emanate.
The Fourth…”
◇The Kabbalah Unveiled | Introduction, Section 1j
“(Here a reason is adduced from the proposed text itself, showing how the last letter of this form of the Tetragrammaton, namely, I, Yod , may be said to symbolize the bride, since p.
57 [paragraph continues] God himself might behold in tha…”
celtic1
◆The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESINh
“I have been with my Lord in the manger of the ass: I strengthened Moses through the water of Jordan; I have been in the firmament with Mary Magdalene; I have obtained the muse from the cauldron of Caridwen; I have been bard of the harp to L…”
upanishads1
◆Îsâ-Upanishad | Îsâ, Section 1a
“p.
308 p.
309 VÂ G ASANEYI-SA M HITÂ-UPANISHAD, SOMETIMES CALLED Î S ÂVÂSYA OR Î S Â-UPANISHAD p.
310 p.
311 VÂ G ASANEYI-SA M HITÂ-UPANISHAD.
1.
ALL this, whatsoever moves on earth, is to be hidden in the Lord (the Self).
When thou…”