Dialogues on the Supersensual Life

by Jakob Böhme

Taken from the Preface: “Man has a spark of the Light and Spirit of God, as a supernatural gift of God given into the birth of his Soul to bring forth by degrees a new birth of that life which was lost in Paradise. This holy spark of the Divine Nature within him has a natural, strong, and almost infinite tendency or reaching after that eternal Light and Spirit of God, from whence it came forth. It came forth from God, it came out of God, it partaketh of the Divine Nature, and therefore it is always in a state of tendency and return to God. All this is called the breathing, the moving, the quickening of the Holy Spirit within us, which are so many operations of this spark of life tending towards God. On the other hand the Deity as considered in itself, and without the Soul of man, has an infinite unchangeable tendency of love and desire towards the Soul of man, to unite and communicate its own riches and glories to it, just as the Spirit of the air without Man unites and communicates its riches and virtues to the Spirit of the air that is within Man”.

Genres: Philosophy, Mysticism

183 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Jakob Böhme (probably April 24, 1575[1] – November 17, 1624) was a German Christian mystic and theologian. He is considered an original thinker within the Lutheran tradition, and his first book, commonly known as Aurora, caused a great scandal. In contemporary English, his name may be spelled Jacob Boehme; in seventeenth-century England it was also spelled Behmen, approximating the contemporary English pronunciation of the German Böhme.

Reviews

[Todd Runyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A journey into God

“We all have but one Order, Law, or Ordinance, which is to stand still to the Lord of all Beings, and resign our wills up to him, and suffer his Spirit to play what music he will. And thus we give to him again as his own fruits that which he worketh and manifesteth in us.” Beautiful account of a journey into the Kingdom of heaven

[Mark Babcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic mystical text

Read and ponder and meditate on this text. It is to be understood and expanded on in these mysterious times.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Blessed art thou therefore if thou can stand still from self-thinking and self-willing, and can stop the wheel of thy imagination and senses; Since it is nought indeed but thine own hearing and willing that do hinder thee, so that thou dost not see and hear God."

The spirit of the East and True Christianity meet in Jakob Böhme.
This book is not for everyone and not for anytime. A certain atmosphere is needed and context with understanding of symbolism to be in sync with the text.
Bohme is not philosophizing but rather through symbols is showing the way. He is pointing to the moon so one shouldn't get obsessed with the finger.

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where I fundamentally disagree with religion. I just don't believe that a reasonable ounce of self-will is self-will run amuck. And that if any self-will is self- will run amuck, what even protects us from what could go wrong in life?

[Jonathan Widell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jacob Boehme's Vom übersinnlichen Leben (On Supersensual Life) is a dialogue between a wise older mystic and his student. The student asks questions such as: Why do love and suffering exist side by side? How far are heaven and hell from each other? Are their men and women in heaven? The mystics answers them by giving answers such as: love must have an object, therefore it exists side by side with suffering; heaven and hell are everywhere but their relationship is like day and night; there are no men and women in heaven but everyone is of the same sex.

The answers are based on Scriptures. Where Scriptures do no provide a clear answer, the mystic does something that one may not have expected a mystic to do: he reasons by using metaphysical concepts, such as form and matter (not time and space), and quasi-metaphysical metaphorical ones, such as dark and light. He does not quote authorities (no namedropping!). Instead, he reduces metaphysics to these simple key concepts that he has distilled from his readings and study. Neither does the mystic appeal to his own supernatural experiences, even though the title of the book may have given the reader that impression. No, he did not ascend to heaven, neither in body nor in spirit, like his Swedish counterpart Emmanuel Swedenborg.

There is a heavy emphasis on reasoning while experience is almost completely absent. Experience is only referred to when the mystic gives his student some hints about feelings that the student might expect when putting the mystic's advice to practice.

For that reason, it is not surprising that Hegel called Boehme the first German philosopher.

[Ginette]

Look for Dialogues.