“All Christian Religion wholly consists in this, to learn to know ourselves; whence we are come, and what we are; how we are gone forth from the Unity into dissension, wickedness, and unrighteousness; … and how we may be delivered from them again, and recover our original blessedness.
“First, how we were in the Unity, when we were the children of Adam before he fell. Secondly, how we are now in dissension and disunion, in strife and contrariety. Thirdly, where we go when we pass out of this corruptible condition. … Lastly, how we can come forth from disunion and vanity, and enter again that one Tree, Christ in us, out of which we all sprang.” ~Jacob Boehme
Churches and Religion
The original purpose of all Churches and religions was the same. It is not limited to Christianity. Boehme says it that way because he lived in a Christian society and he could have been charged with blasphemy for saying otherwise.
Not only churches, but spiritual and philosophical schools also had the same purpose. That purpose was to gain true Knowledge and to unite with God. To know ourselves is also to know God.
Know Ourselves for Deliverance
Boehme says the churches should teach us how to be delivered from the evils of the material world. He doesn’t say that joining a church or spiritual school will deliver you. He says those organization should teach you how to be delivered. They must lead us away from dissension and into unity. Not simple unity of man, But the ultimate Unity with God.
In the Beginning
Boehme tells us that we were in unity as “children of Adam” before the great fall. In the materialistic world of most modern churches, Adam and Eve had no children until after the fall when they came to Earth as material beings. But Mr. Boehme says we were children of Adam before the fall happened.
He is speaking of Adam as a spirit and the prototype of man. On the spiritual level, he wasn’t literally our father, God was. But he was the first man on a spiritual level of being.
Where We Go
One thing many of the modern churches do have correct is that there is an afterlife and a heaven. Beyond that, what they teach about is mostly nonsense to comfort the masses for political control.
First, many believe that they will go to heaven simply because they have died. If that were the case, why bother to have churches at all? Why bother to behave if Hitler and Imelda Marcos went to heaven also?
Heaven is not just a place for spirits to live in. It is the highest dimension of living beings. As such, only the purest can dwell there. Few have reached that state by being good alone. No one has reached it simply dying. It takes much hard work and dedication to reach even the level where you can continue on the path to heaven after you physically die. If you make no effort at all, it simply won’t happen.
We won’t bother to delve into where you will go if you don’t develop your spiritual self while alive. That is a path to be avoided.
The Tree
Boehme says we must leave disharmony and enter again the “one Tree”. The tree is not an apple or even a plum. It is the Tree of Life. Since there is much misunderstanding about the tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of good and Evil, a short explanation is needed.
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is the realm of matter. It has knowledge of a sort, but it is false knowledge, misleading knowledge. Real knowledge is always good, never evil. Only ignorance and misleading knowledge is evil.
The Tree of Life, on the other hand, is about the realm of spirit. It is about that which is permanent, that which is real. It is a source of Divine Knowledge rather than mundane knowledge.
The Path
The path to getting away from the falsehood of matter and to truly know ourselves is to awaken and develop our spiritual faculties. We do that, fist by wanting to. Second, by taking in the light of the spiritual sun which awakens the spirit and soul. We can’t truly know ourselves until we know with our souls.
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