Dialogues on the Supersensual Life Part 3

The touchstone to true knowledge is first, the Corner-stone, Christ; that men should see whether a thing enter out of love into love, or whether alone purely the love of G.o.d be sought and desired; whether it be done out of humility or pride; Secondly, whether it be according to the Holy Scripture; Thirdly, is it according to the human heart and soul, wherein the Book of the Life of G.o.d is incorporated, and may very well be read by the Children of G.o.d? Here the true mind hath its touchstone in itself, and can distinguish all things. If it be so that the Holy Ghost dwell in the ground of the mind, that man hath touchstone enough; that will lead him into all truth.

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All strife concerning Christ's testaments cometh hence that men do not understand that Heaven wherein Christ sitteth at the right hand of G.o.d.

They understand not that he is in this World, and that the World standeth in Heaven, and Heaven in the World, and are in one another, as Day and Night.

1 COR. ii. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

_We speak the hidden mystical wisdom of G.o.d; which G.o.d ordained before the world into our glory; which none of the Princes of this World knew. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But, as it is written, Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which G.o.d hath prepared for them that love him. But G.o.d hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of G.o.d. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the World, but the Spirit which is of G.o.d; that we might know the things that are freely given us of G.o.d. Which things also we speak, not in the words which men's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

But the Natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of G.o.d; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth, or discerneth all things._

OF THE SUPERSENSUAL LIFE

IN DIALOGUES

BETWEEN A SCHOLAR OR DISCIPLE AND HIS MASTER

DIALOGUE I

The Disciple said to his Master: Sir, how may I come to the Supersensual Life, so that I may see G.o.d, and may hear G.o.d speak?

The Master answered and said: Son, when thou canst throw thyself into THAT, where no Creature dwelleth, though it be but for a moment, then thou hearest what G.o.d speaketh?

DISCIPLE

Is that where no Creature dwelleth near at hand, or is it afar off?

MASTER

It is _in thee_. And if thou canst, my Son, for a while but cease from all thy thinking and willing, then thou shalt hear the unspeakable words of G.o.d.

DISCIPLE

How can I hear him speak, when I stand still from thinking and willing?

MASTER

When thou standest still from the thinking of Self, and the willing of Self. When both thy intellect and will are quiet, and pa.s.sive to the expressions of the Eternal Word and Spirit; and when thy soul is winged up and above that which is temporal, the outward senses and the imagination being locked up by holy abstraction, then the Eternal Hearing, Seeing and Speaking will be revealed in thee, and so G.o.d heareth and seeth through thee, being now the organ of _his_ Spirit, and so G.o.d speaketh in _thee_, and whispereth to thy Spirit, and thy Spirit heareth his voice. Blessed art thou therefore if thou canst stand still from self-thinking and self-willing, and canst stop the wheel of thy imagination and senses; forasmuch as hereby thou mayest arrive at length to see the great Salvation of G.o.d, being made capable of all manner of divine sensations and heavenly communications. Since it is nought indeed but thine own hearing and willing that do hinder thee, so that thou dost not see and hear G.o.d.

DISCIPLE

But wherewith shall I hear and see G.o.d, forasmuch as he is above Nature and Creature?

MASTER

Son, when thou art quiet and silent, then art thou as G.o.d was before Nature and Creature; thou art that which G.o.d then was; thou art that whereof he made thy nature and creature. Then thou hearest and seest even that wherewith G.o.d himself saw and heard in thee, before ever thine own willing or thine own seeing began.

DISCIPLE

What now hinders or keeps me back, so that I cannot come to _that_, wherewith G.o.d is to be seen and heard?

MASTER

Nothing truly but thine own willing, hearing, and seeing do keep thee back from it, and do hinder thee from coming to this supersensual state.

And it is because thou strivest so against that, out of which thou thyself art descended and derived, that thou thus breakest thyself off, with thine own willing, from G.o.d's willing, and with thine own seeing from G.o.d's seeing. In as much as in thine own seeing thou dost see in thine own willing only, and with thine own understanding thou dost understand but in and according to thine own willing, as the same stands divided from the Divine Will. This thy willing, moreover, stops thy hearing, and maketh thee deaf towards G.o.d, through thy own thinking upon terrestrial things, and thy attending to that which is without thee, and so it brings thee to a ground where thou art laid hold on and captivated in Nature. And having brought thee hither, it overshadows thee with that which thou willest, it binds thee with thine own chains, and it keeps thee in thine own dark prison which thou makest for thyself, so that thou canst not go out thence, or come to that state which is Supernatural and Supersensual.

DISCIPLE

But being I am in Nature, and thus bound as with my own chains, and by my own natural will, pray be so kind, Sir, as to tell me, how I may come _through_ Nature into the Supersensual and Supernatural Ground, without the destroying of Nature?

MASTER

Three things are requisite in order to this. The first is, Thou must resign up thy Will to G.o.d, and must sink thyself down to the dust in his mercy. The second is, Thou must hate thy own Will, and forbear from doing that to which thy own Will doth drive thee. The third is, Thou must bow thy soul under the Cross, heartily submitting thyself to it, that thou mayst be able to bear the temptations of Nature and Creature.

And if thou dost this, know that G.o.d will speak unto thee, and will bring thy resigned Will into Himself, in the supernatural ground, and then thou shalt hear, my son, what the Lord speaketh in thee.

DISCIPLE

This is a hard saying, Master, for I must forsake the World and my life too, if I should do thus.

MASTER

Be not discouraged hereat. If thou forsakest the World, then thou comest unto that out of which the World is made, and if thou losest thy life, then thy life is in that for whose sake thou forsakest it. Thy life is in G.o.d, from whence it came into the body, and as thou comest to have thine own power faint and weak and dying, the power of G.o.d will then work in thee and through thee.

DISCIPLE

Nevertheless, as G.o.d hath created man in and for the natural life, to rule over all creatures on earth, and to be a lord over all things in this world, it seems not to be at all unreasonable that G.o.d should therefore possess this world and the things therein for his own.

MASTER

If thou rulest over all creatures but outwardly there cannot be much in that. But if thou hast a mind to possess all things, and to be a lord indeed over all things in this world, there is quite another method to be taken by thee.

DISCIPLE

Pray, how is that? And what method must I take, whereby to arrive at this sovereignty?

MASTER

Thou must learn to distinguish between the Thing, and that which is only an image thereof; between that sovereignty which is substantial and in the inward ground of Nature, and that which is imaginary and in outward form of semblance; between that which is properly angelical and that which is no more than b.e.s.t.i.a.l. If thou rulest over the creatures externally only and not from the right internal ground of thy inward nature, then thy will and ruling is in a b.e.s.t.i.a.l kind or matter, and thine at best is but a sort of imaginary and transitory government, being void of that which is substantial and permanent, that which only thou art to desire and press after. Thus by thy outward lording it over the creatures it is most easy for thee to lose the substance and the reality, whilst thou hast naught remaining but the image and shadow only of thy first and original lordship wherein thou art made capable to be again invested, if thou art but wise, and takest thy invest.i.ture from the Supreme Lord in the right course and matter. Whereas by thy willing and ruling them in a b.e.s.t.i.a.l manner, thou bringest also thy desire into a b.e.s.t.i.a.l essence, by which means thou becomest infected and captivated therein, and gettest therewith a b.e.s.t.i.a.l nature and condition of life.

But if thou shalt have put off the b.e.s.t.i.a.l nature, and left the imaginary life, and quitted the low-imaged condition of it, then art thou come into the super-imaginariness and into the intellectual life, which is a state of living above images, figures and shadows. And so thou rulest over all creatures, being re-united with thy Original, in that very ground or source, out of which they were and are created, and thenceforth nothing on earth can hurt thee. For thou art like All Things, and nothing is unlike thee.

DISCIPLE