Infinite Fire Webinar VI - Prof. Dr. Wouter J. Hanegraaff on The Theosophical System of Jakob Böhme

[@siew3970]

The best talk on Jakob Boehme I have had the good fortune to discover. Invaluable. Thank you, Dr. Wouter.

[@Peter-rg4ng]

Absolutely amazing - deep content, delivery and applicability to daily life.

[@amadonbibir2627]

Wonderful video, wonderful lecture. Thank you Prof. Hanegraaf.

[@AnnikaMystica]

I've learned so much from this lecture, and you inspired me to find out more about Jakob Böhme, thank you very much!

[@TheYoungIdealist]

This is a fantastic lecture. Boehme is an important thinker in Western philosophy. He was also a huge influence on F.W.J. Schelling. Thank you for this lecture.

[@americosommerman3489]

Excelent introduction to the great Jacob Böhme!

[@davidwenger9821]

Thank you so much, this has helped me greatly. If you have anymore videos on Jakob Bohme I would love to watch and learn.

[@brucehanify3892]

Thank you, sir.

[@zofiadynak-chwako2609]

Boehme was not born in Goerlitz, but in Seidenberg (Zawidow). Prof. Dr. Hanegraaf also said that Goerlitz is very proud of Jacob Boehme. I visit Goerlitz very often. Although I am very interested in this topic, I couldn't find any event organized by the town of Goerlitz and somehow connected with Jakob Boehme. I do not see anything like this happening in Goerlitz. Actually more things are happening on Polish side in Zgorzelec. I would say the most reliable and brilliant project about Jacob Boehme is a documentary "The Life and Legacy of Jacob Boehme" by the Polish filmmaker from Zgorzelec Łukasz Chwałko. It is possible to see the movie every Saturday in a small independent cinema in Goerlitz "Klappe die Zweite".

[@NigelJackson]

Thank you to Dr Hanegraaff for this very illuminating webinar on the Christian Theosophia of Jacob Boehme: I'm presently reading 'De Signatura Rerum' and whilst I've always been drawn to Boehme (through the beautiful illustrations in his books) his complex thought is not easy to understand in its original context - this talk cast a lot of light upon the principle points of Jacob Boehme's ideas, particularly on the Fall of Lucifer, and clarifies a good deal for those of us who are studying Boehme's visionary doctrine... Nigel Jackson

[@liamsilveira4757]

I really really admire and appreciate you for posting this. I have been looking for an introduction like this. You definitely have a gift at presenting abstract concepts

[@Flangebenders]

One point that has to be made. Boehme did not state that God was created, that he had a beginning. He specifically states that was not the case in the Three Principles of the Divine Essence. '...for God has no Beginning. But I will set it down so as if he had a Beginning'. He makes the same point a number of times.

[@davidasleep]

A wonderful introduction that sheds a bit of well needed light on an often misunderstood man and the complexity of his work. Thank so much. :)

[@Debunker246]

Thanks for this.

[@ryanw430]

When he starts talking about the first four qualities it reminds me somewhat of star formation and the internal combustion engine. Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking were both Capricorns (ruled by Saturn) and Saturn rules over petroleum in astrology. Capricorn is also restrictive: Jupiter is said to be debilitated when in Capricorn.

[@obscureredtheoryaudiobookc5456]

Excellent video for understanding Schelling's 1809-15 period as well, thanks.

[@David-zy1st]

Very enriching exposition of Jakob Bohme's project!

[@locopoloco9311]

An inspiring and instructive introduction to the main themes in Boehme's sometimes pretty indecipherable (to me anyway) writings. Many thanks. I found Boehme's 'The Way to Christ' life changing and need to read 'Aurora' asap. Cheers

[@KCQUANN]

Thank you for sharing.

[@sunny-gk2mi]

The audio is so low I can barely hear.

[@k.arlanebel6732]

The Ungrund is the primordial nothing of ante-being and absolute freedom that is the pre-temporal and non-causal source of "God" . This has some similarity with the Greek philosophical concept of Me On (non-being), but it is more profound than that concept and the Greeks had no idea similar to Boehme's idea of absolute freedom. Boehme's Ungrund is also different from the Neo-Platonic or Vedantic concept of Absolute Being (the One). Meister Eckhart's idea of the Gottheit is closer to Boehme's Ungrund, but Eckhart was inclined toward a monism that had no place in Boehme's vision. There is actually no precise parallel in the history of philosophy or mysticism to Boehme's Ungrund and his vision of the theogonic process. He is a singular figure and, in my personal view, the greatest mystic humanity has ever produced. And it must be acknowledged that Boehme is not a Gnostic or syncretic. He is Christian to the core. Or, I might say, Christian to the Ungrund.

[@araad1517]

I've been reading Boehme recently. How do you think he conceived Trinity? He perhaps doesn't believe in traditional understanding of it but never denies God as Threefold Being?

[@k.arlanebel6732]

@@araad1517 I don't know what you see as the traditional understanding of the Trinity. I mean, I don't how well read you are in the early history of Christian theology when the idea of the Trinity took on its official doctrinal and dogmatic form. That being said, I will say that the Trinity for Boehme is an unquestionable fact of divine reality. Without the Trinity, Boehme's entire vision disappears. The primary difference between Boehme's vision of the Trinity and that held by the Orthodox and Catholic and most Protestant churches is the non-temporal Ungrund from which the Trinity emerges as the divine movement. In the "traditional" conception there is not and cannot be such movement. God is the unmoved mover. This is primarily a Greek metaphysical concept that reaches its peak in Neo-Platonism which had a profound conceptual and terminological influence on early Christian theology. This Greek/Hellenistic metaphysical view radically altered the Judaic vision of the divine and in turn influenced how the early Christian theologians understood Jesus Christ as the Word/Logos of God. This made it extremely difficult for the Christian theologians to formulate coherent doctrine concerning the Incarnation (the problem of divine becoming) and then the role of the Holy Spirit which is left ambiguous. Boehme approaches all this from a completely different angle and the result, in my view, is a far more profoundly coherent Christian vision. By coherent I don't mean strictly rational and systematic in the Greek sense. Boehme is primarily a non-Platonic, Judaeo-Christian seer/mystic who existentially experiences God as something more than and deeper than Absolute Being. Unfortunately, the world, including Christendom, is still not even close to catching up with Jacob Boehme.

[@hfauek]

Boehme was not born in Goerlitz, but in Seidenberg (Zawidow).

[@KaiTakApproach]

Please produce more videos on Bohmen and Theosophy!

[@hfauek]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6SUq2aOoMSjfM0

[@PsychedelicMadman]

Wonderful video. I have been fascinated by this man's life and work for some years, and it is a pleasure to view this exposition. I do agree with Phinbar Phubar; the 'birth' of God is his manifestation, but His independent reality is the Ungrund. Anyway, Jakob Böhme is indeed difficult to follow, however for anyone who wishes to begin studying him, I think that you couldn't find a better place to start than reading The Supersensual Life, Of Heaven and Hell, and From Darkness to True Illumination.....in that order by my suggestion. Those are, in my opinion, the best, as there is a good deal of his metaphysics, but with more noticeable clarity, and also a blueprint for how to put his ideas into practice. "So shall thy light break forth as the morning; and after the redness thereof is passed, the sun himself, which thou waitest for, shall arise unto thee, and under his most healing wings thou shalt greatly rejoice; ascending and descending in his bright and salutiferous beams. Behold this is the true supersensual ground of life".

[@noumena4902]

Good stuff!

[@singularitybohemian]

good one Thya thank you.

[@marshalkrieg2664]

If Christianity is to survive into the 22nd century it must go mystical. Some say it must go liberal but I don't believe that. Boehme is a strong option and I'm surprised no church was formed upon his ideas. We must study Boehme- I feel this strongly in my being. Thanks for the upload.

[@morangomarauder]

Wow, fascinating! thankful you for the help this gave me. I know Dr Hanegraaf finished by stating most modern views of Theosophy have nothing in common (most likely) with much of the original author's conception. But I am tempted to wonder: regarding another great theosophist (part theosophist at least, a few hundred years down the line...) I wonder how would one conceive a coordination of Steiner's "Ahriman" character as a complementary antagonist with Lucifer, as the latter was described in Boehme's view?... what was that made reason Steiner so clearly identify yet another spiritual character with a similar, diametrically opposed, function of such immense influence, in his conception? Is it just silly to imagine Boehme as a precursor of Steiner?

[@stefos6431]

Dr. Hanegraaf...Thanks for this. However, as the earlier poster said: Boehme never said God was born! He only gave an analogy. Please correct this. Thanks

[@yanbibiya]

if he was having external or other power influences why would he be thought of as developing his ideas?

[@ТкачукМаргарита]

well,thanks grateful.

[@stephenkrus]

Boehme had an unique cosmology.

[@rursus8354]

Well, what if the "Hermetic" interpretation only was a middle stage on the path from old kingdom of Judah to "mystical Abrahamism" via the Jews who were exiled in Egypt?

[@watermelonlalala]

Well, what if Kabbalah came from a priestess of Kybele?

[@anaelkairos]

Legend please

[@stefanschindler422]

As Pires implies below, and contrary to Hanegraaf's qualified assertion at the end, there is much in "modern Theosophy" that mirrors, echoes, refines, elaborates, and extends Bohme's epiphantic, and in many ways Gnostic, Christian Theosophia. See especially Alice Bailey's A TREATISE ON COSMIC FIRE and A TREATISE ON WHITE MAGIC. Above all, for the truly open-minded, curious, and adventurous, read Jane Roberts' SETH SPEAKS (free pdf on the web, thankfully devoid of all the annoying interruptions). As Seth makes clear (and was well known by Buddha, Jung, etc.), time is a contingent framework (not applicable to dreaming and the afterlife, and not applicable to Deity, Archangels, and Celestial Bodhisattvas), so all talk about the "birth of God" is necessarily metaphorical; and, as Rontimus notes in his "reply" comment below, Christ made flesh is nevertheless "eternal;" and the whole notion of the birth of both God and cosmos is likely best understood as Constant and Continuing Creation. Anyway, Hanegraaf here offers a superb, provocative, edifying introduction to Bohme -- one of the clearest available, and well worth watching from start to finish. This lucid, astute, inspirational lectures resonates with a multiplicity of themes in what I call Biblical Buddhism, which takes as its starting point the parallelism of The Cross and The Bodhi Tree, where Buddha's first two Noble Truths reflect the Cross as symbol of suffering and alienation, and Buddha's third and fourth Noble Truths reflect the Cross as symbol of redemptive, resurrective, joyous, healing, holistic enlightenment (i.e., the Mahayana-Vajrayana possibility of nirvana IN samsara -- thus Buddhahood Now).

[@TLChrist]

I would like to emphasize a VERY important statement that Jacob Boehme CONTINUALLY makes throughout his writings -- that is: Mankind, along with the once archangel Lucifer, have been separated by THEIR willful choosing from the light-world (mind of God, Divine Presence) -- and now dwell (exist) in the dark fire-world of God's wrath (their lives and minds dominated and controlled by the same self-exalting philosophy that resulted in Lucifer's {Satan's} fall from Light into Darkness). ONLY those whose mind has been renewed out of the dark, fire-world of Satan into the light-world of God can truly understand and correctly interpret the things that God has reveled to JB in his writings !! Any attempt by the "mind of human reason" (i.e. THAT mind devoid of divine understanding and light) will ONLY result in distortion, error and an increase for the "world of Babel" !!

[@SuperTWIY]

so how do we do that?

[@TLChrist]

@@SuperTWIY We do that by allowing the Spirit of God -- through faith in and personal acceptance of His "Bridge between God and Man", Jesus Christ -- to once again enter into and unite with us, bringing to birth within us God's Divine Life. This Spirit then guides, enlightens and teaches us "ALL things pertaining to God and Holiness", as well as gradually changing us to reflect the spiritual image of Jesus Christ ourselves.

[@SuperTWIY]

@@TLChrist Sorry, but how do we do that? By just imagining it?

[@RedFishRunnings]

​@@SuperTWIYthis whole study is far too confusing. But if you look at albums and songs the titles all reflect the same trains of thought. EVOLVE seems to be today's.Aside from that with money I bought pretty cool invisible armor for my legs. And seen some pretty cool stuff. But the armor I think is gone now.

[@uncannydeduction]

This reintegration for the good of the greater whole, reminds of the russian doll concept of homunculus inner mind, christ within christ within christ...

[@Blyledge]

Audio quality is garbage.

[@naturphilosophie1]

boehmes influence on schelling is an enormous contribution to the history of philosophy. Hegelian philosophy seems childish in comparison with schellings boehmeian influenced thinking. People say Freud got his ideas from Nietzsche but the truth is Schelling had already discovered this and it was Boehme who showed him how to do it.

[@cartoonphilosopher2577]

why do you say that?

[@jarlnicholl1478]

What a bizzare comment, are people upvoting this just because it name-drops famous thinkers? Wtf would be a connection between Schelling/Boehme and Freud? This isn't just different, it is incomparable. You might as well claim that Freud got his ideas from Italian cousine, or from 19th century bridge construction

[@A_Rider_On_The_Storm]

Very interesting, almost gnostic in some elements.

[@Rhombohedral]

Thank you for the wonderful biography lecture *JAKOB BÖHME: MYSTISCHER DIALOG " VOM ÜBERSINNLICHEN LEBEN" Vorgetragen von Werner Ruzickaw* kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXq3gHh6hdhom5o

[@jjbentley9]

Being a mystic or following mystism. Is literally a direct relationship with the godhead. One don't need the bible or a preacher or chruch. There are many esoteric Truths in all religions. But some are harder to find. In my opinion modern christian teachings. Are not what they once was. Hole entire reason the chruch tryed to destroy. The gnostic teachings the Cathars the nights of Templar. This knowledge went underground went occult. So how can one give a correct interpation to the modern christian teachings. There once was esoteric Truths sure but many lost to time mis interested. So it retards spiritual growth. Because someone just beginning well if they don't no better mistake dogmatic teachings for truth. That's not truth that's traditional approach to understanding philosophy of taking the bible literally. Dogma is the opposite of true spirituality. Rosicrucian teachings are great they are an esoteric order. So if you like the esoteric Christian teachings. There nothing wrong with that. I only against it when it's just being a flat out fundamentalist literalist looking to try find truths it's very hard hard way to go. Better to look for other paths.

[@anhumblemessengerofthelawo3858]

Im the reincarnation of Jacob Boehme. Ask me anything.

[@yanbibiya]

if this ungrund is beyond and not approachable then one is only left with a very limited sensory capacity drawn from the seen and felt world. This hardly seems even worth reading about from any point of view-it is just so much thinking and fantastic thinking. How is this useful to anyone at all? one might as well read 'the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy'. A very disappointing rendition of this chaps apparent extrasensory contact. perhaps the speaker knows nothing about personal. revelation?

[@TheModernHermeticist]

Personal revelation has no place in history.

[@ramon2008]

The Modern Hermeticist Lol shut up

[@watermelonlalala]

Baseless speculation.