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‹ Dialogues on the Supersensual Life
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DocumentDIALOGUES ON THE SUPERSENSUAL LIFEPREFACEPrefacePREFACEPREFACEPREFACEPREFACEPREFACEPRELIMINARY NOTESentences Selected from Jacob Behmen's Treatises "Regeneration" and "Christ's Testaments"101111 (continued)121314151617181919 (continued)20212223242627282930Dialogue IMasterDiscipleMasterDiscipleMasterMasterDiscipleMasterMasterDiscipleMasterDiscipleMasterMasterDiscipleMasterDIALOGUE ONEDialogue OneMasterDiscipleDisciple (continued)MasterDiscipleMasterDiscipleMasterDiscipleMasterDIALOGUE ONEMasterMaster (continued)DiscipleMasterMaster (continued)DiscipleMasterMaster (continued)DiscipleMasterMaster (continued)Dialogue OneDialogue OneDialogue IIDialogue TwoDiscipleMasterDiscipleMasterDiscipleMasterDialogue TwoDialogue TwoMasterDiscipleMasterDiscipleMasterMasterDiscipleMasterDiscipleMasterDiscipleMasterDiscipleMasterDialogue TwoBetween Junius, a Scholar, and Theophorus, his Master, concerning Heaven and HellTHE SUPERSENSUAL LIFEDIALOGUE THREEDialogue ThreeThe Supersensual LifeDialogue ThreeMasterScholarMasterScholarMasterScholarMasterScholarMasterScholarMasterDialogue ThreeDialogue ThreeThe Way from Darkness to True IlluminationThe Soul saidThe Devil saidThe Soul saidThe Devil saidThe Soul did so and what happened thereuponThe Devil came to the SoulThe Soul did soJesus Christ met with the SoulHow Christ brought in the SoulWhat Christ saidWhat the Soul saidThe Devil came to it againThe Soul sighedThe Devil's OppositionThe Condition of the SoulDialogue FourThe distressed Soul answeredThe enlightened Soul saidThe distressed Soul terrifiedThe enlightened Soul came again, and spoke to the troubled SoulThe distressed Soul saidThe enlightened Soul saidThe poor Soul saidThe enlightened Soul saidThe Poor Soul's PracticeDialogue FourThe distressed Soul saidThe enlightened Soul saidThe Distressed Soul's Course

Jakob Boehme · 86 of 150

Dialogue Two

evil, and his setting his heart or affections upon the work of his own hand or brain, and that when the earthly body perisheth, then the Soul must be imprisoned in that very thing which it shall have received and let in; and if the Light of God be not in it, being deprived of the Light of this World, it cannot but be found in a dark prison.

MASTER

This is a very precious Gate of Knowledge; I am glad thou takest it into such consideration. The understanding of the whole Scripture is contained in it; and all that hath been written from the beginning of the World to this day may be found therein, by him that having entered with his Will into Nothing, hath there found All Things, by finding God, from Whom, and to Whom, and in Whom are All Things. By this means thou shalt come to hear and see God; and after this earthly life is ended to see with the Eye of Eternity all the Wonders of God and of Nature, and more particularly those which shall be wrought by thee in the flesh, or all that the Spirit of God shall have given thee to labour out for thyself and thy neighbour, or all that the Eye of Reason enlightened from above, may at any time have manifested to thee. Delay not therefore to enter in by this Gate, which if thou seest in the Spirit, as some highly favoured souls have seen it, thou seest in the Supersensual Ground all that God is and can do; thou seest also therewith, as one hath said who was taken thereinto, through Heaven, Hell, and Earth; and through the Essence of all Essences. Whosoever findeth it, hath found all that he can desire. Here is the Virtue and Power of the Love of God displayed. Here is the Height and Depth, here is the Breadth and Length thereof manifested, as ever the capacity of thy soul can contain. By this thou shalt come into that Ground out of which all Things are originated, and in which they subsist; and in it thou shalt reign over all God's Works, as a Prince of God.

DISCIPLE

Pray tell me, dear Master, where dwelleth it in Man?

MASTER

Where Man dwelleth not: there hath it its seat in Man.

DISCIPLE

Where is that in a Man, when Man dwelleth not in himself?

MASTER

It is the resigned Ground of a Soul to which nothing cleaveth.

DISCIPLE

Where is the Ground in any Soul, to which there will nothing stick? Or where is that which and dwelleth not in something?

MASTER

It is the Centre of Rest and Motion in the resigned Will of a truly Spirit, which is Crucified to the World. This Centre of the Will is impenetrable consequently to the World, the Devil, and Hell. Nothing in all the World can enter into it, or adhere to it, because the Will is dead with Christ unto the World, but with him in the Centre thereof, after his blessed Image. Here it is where Man dwelleth not, and where no Self or can .

DISCIPLE

O where is this naked Ground of the Soul void of all Self? And how shall I come at the hidden Centre, where God dwelleth, and not Man? Tell me plainly, loving Sir, where it is, and how it is to be found of me, and entered into?

MASTER

There where the Soul hath slain its own Will, and willeth no more any Thing as from itself, but only as God willeth, and as his Spirit moveth upon the Soul shall this appear. Where the Love of Self is banished there dwelleth the Love of God. For so much of the Soul's own Will as is dead unto itself even so much room hath the Will of God, which is his Love, taken up in that Soul. The reason whereof is this: Where its own Will did before sit, there is now nothing; and where nothing is, there it is that the Love of God worketh alone.

DISCIPLE

But how shall I comprehend it?

MASTER

If thou goest about to comprehend it, then it will fly away from thee; but if thou dost surrender thyself wholly up to it, then it will with thee, and become the Life of thy Life, and be natural to thee.

DISCIPLE

And how can this be without dying, or the whole destruction of my Will?

MASTER

Upon this entire surrender and yielding up of thy Will, the Love of God in thee becometh the Life of thy Nature; it killeth thee not, but thee, who art now dead to thyself in thine own Will, according to its proper Life, even the Life of God. And then thou livest, yet not to thy own Will, but thou livest to its Will; for as much as thy Will is henceforth become its Will. So then it is no longer thy Will, but the Will of God; no longer the Love of thyself, but the Love of God, which moveth and operateth in thee; and then, thou being thus comprehended in it, thou art dead indeed as to thyself, but art alive unto God. So being dead thou livest, or rather God liveth in thee by his Spirit; and his Love is made to thee Life from the Dead. Never couldst thou with all thy seeking have apprehended it, but it hath apprehended thee. Much less couldst thou have comprehended it, but it hath comprehended thee; and so the Treasure of Treasures is found.

DISCIPLE

How is it that so few Souls do find it, when yet all would be glad enough to have it?