Angelus Silesius

"Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme and Angelus Silesius describe their spiritual vision of the sublime and ultimate reality of God, as well as their participation therein, by a dramatic use of the power of imagery of the German language which, although rooted in time and space, seems to be free from the constraints of these elements. Time and space alone are incapable of grasping eternity; only when struck by a shaft of eternal light can they reflect its splendor. Such a reflection of the eternal is present in the language of Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme and Angelus Silesius. It is, more-over, the light of eternity that makes it at all possible to see the teachings of these great metaphysicians and mystics as a unity, in spite of their having lived at different times and belonged to differing Christian confessions. The uniformity of their spiritual vision arises from the inner unity of Divine Reality itself. Human language becomes inadequate when confronted with this mystery of the inner unity of the Godhead; “the most beautiful statement about God of which man is capable is his silence in the face of his inner riches.”...Angelus Silesius summarized his spiritual vision in rhymes whose beauty is filled with an inner certainty that derives directly from the knowledge of the divine being. This direct knowledge of God is founded on the identity of essence between God and the soul, which occurs when the soul once more corresponds to its original state of being created in the image of God."

"The nearest way to God Leads through love's open door; The path of knowledge is Too slow for evermore"

"Here I still flow in God as a small stream of time, There I shall be a sea of blessedness sublime"

"Thou laughest that a child cries o'er its broken doll;— The things o'er which thou mournest—are they not playthings all?"

"Three days: Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday, I know, Yet if the past were cancelled within the here and now And then the future hidden, I could regain that Day Which I, before I was, had lived in God's own way."

"Never in endless time will ring a sound as sweetly As when a human heart in God is tuned completely."

"God, being a great abyss, to men his depth reveals Who climb the highest peak of the eternal hills"

"In schools throughout the world God's but described to you. Within the spirit's school one sees and loves him too."

"A spark without its fire, a drop without its sea, Without rebirth what more, pray, wouldst thou be?"

"God is a flowing well which constantly may pour Into his whole Creation, and yet be as before."

"Many years ago in lovely Lindau on the Bodensee, I happened upon a thin volume of Angelus Silesius' couplets which startled, amused and greatly interested me. Although it was in 1657 the world had first received them it seemed to me that they had lost little of their significance in 300 years. Their pithy comments upon human frailty, their wholesome attempt to direct a way toward peace of mind, their often half concealed humor, have modern application."

"I will end with a great line by the poet who, in the seventeenth century, took the strangely real and poetic name of Angelus Silesius. It is the summary of all I have said tonight — except that I have said it by means of reasoning and simulated reasoning. I will say it first in Spanish and then in German: La rosa es sin porqué; florece porque florece. Die Rose ist ohne warum; sie blühet weil sie blühet"

"I have been told that Queen Christina had a decided leaning toward this opinion, and as M. Naude, who was her librarian, was imbued with it, he probably communicated to her what he knew of the secret views of the celebrated philosophers with whom he had had intercourse in Italy. Spinoza, who admits only one substance, is not far removed from the doctrine of a single, universal spirit, and even the New Cartesians, who claim that God alone acts, establish it likewise without noticing it. Apparently Molinos and several other New Quietists, among others, a certain Joannes Angelus Silesius, who wrote before Molinos and some of whose works have recently been reprinted, and even Weigelius before them, embraced this opinion of the Sabbath or rest of souls in God. This is why they believed that the cessation of particular functions was the highest state of perfection."

"One of the most prominent and interesting mystics of Germany, Johannes Scheffler, or as he is better known by his adopted name, Angelus Silesius ... was born of Protestant parents at Breslau, the capital of Silesia, in 1624 ... Scheffler's mystic inclinations had long before alienated him from the dogmatic and anti-artistic spirit of the religion of his birth which during the middle of the seventeenth century was more severe and bigoted than ever before or afterwards. At the same time there was a religious revival in the Roman Catholic world which proved attractive to him, and so it was but natural that finally in 1653 he severed his old affiliations, and joined the Church that by the mystical glamor of its historical traditions was most sympathetic to him"

"To comment upon the residue of truth or wisdom enshrined in the utterances of Angelus Silesius does not lie within my scope. For mystics the heart is always the supreme court of appeal and within their community, though so widely extended in space and time, there has always been a remarkable unanimity in its findings ...They are those who can say with Angelus Silesius: Turn whereso'er I will, I find no evidence Of End, Beginning, Centre or Circumference. There are perhaps few to-day who will find the language of Angelus Silesius adequate in every respect to the expression of their deepest intuitions. He spoke in the dialect of a venerable creed, but the experience of which he spoke is immemorial. And it appears to be unchanging. Those who are in possession of the code will readily decipher the message."

"Although the influence of Boehme was to be felt far and wide, ranging from French and German theosophers and esoterists to Russian contemplatives, perhaps the most artistically powerful expression of purely sapiential teachings deeply influenced by him are to be found in the hymns of Christian gnosis which comprise the Cherubic Wanderer of Angelus Silesius (1624-1677) which are also among the most remarkable works of German literature. This collection, so close in both form and content to Sufi poetry, is based upon the central theme of return to God...it is the al-ma'rifah of Islam or the jnana of Hinduism and very much in accord with works of such nature whether they be in Arabic and Persian or Sanskrit."

"O Man, as long as you exist, know, have, and cherish, You have not been delivered, believe me, of your burden."

"How fleeting is this world yet it survives. It is ourselves that fade from it and our ephemeral lives."

"Christ could be born a thousand times in Bethlehem – but all in vain until He is born in me."

"Where is my dwelling place? Where I can never stand. Where is my final goal, toward which I should ascend? It is beyond all place. What should my quest then be? I must, transcending God, into the desert flee"

"The Thought and Deed of Deity Are of such richness and extent That It remaineth to Itself An Undiscovered Continent."

"A Loaf holds many grains of corn And many myriad drops the Sea: So is God's Oneness Multitude And that great Multitude are we."

"The All proceedeth from the One, And into One must All regress: If otherwise, the All remains Asunder-riven manyness."

"God is an utter Nothingness, Beyond the touch of Time and Place: The more thou graspest after Him, The more he fleeth thy embrace."

"Naught ever can be known in God: One and Alone Is He. To know Him, Knower must be one with Known."

"Ah, were men's voices like the wood-birds' melody— Each happy note distinct, but all in harmony!"

"All Heaven is within thee, Man, And all of Hell within thy heart: What thou dost choose and will to have, That hast thou wheresoe'er thou art."

"Travel within thyself! The Stone Philosophers with wisest arts Have vainly sought, cannot be found By travelling in foreign parts."

"Though Jesus Christ in Bethlehem A thousand times his Mother bore, Is he not born again in thee Then art thou lost for evermore."

"The Wise Man is that which he hath. The precious Pearl of Paradise Wouldst thou not lose, then must thou be Thyself that Pearl of greatest price."

"The World doth not imprison thee. Thou art thyself the World, and there, Within thyself, thou hold'st thyself Thy self-imprisoned Prisoner."

"Though Christ a thousand times in Bethleham be born And not within thyself, Thy soul will be forlorn"

"The Cross on Golgotha Thou lookest to in vain, Unless within thine heart It be set up again"

"If thou dost love a Something, Man, Thou lovest naught that doth abide. God is not This nor That—do thou Leave Somethings utterly aside"

"He has not lived in vain who learns to be unruffled by loss, by gain, by, joy, by pain."

"How short our span! If you once realized how brief, you would refrain from causing any beast or man the smallest grief, the slightest pain."

"Christ was born a man for me, for me he died - Unless I become God through Him, His birth is mocked His death denied"

"True prayer requires no word, no chant no gesture, no sound. It is communion, calm and still with our own godly Ground"

"God far exceeds all words that we can here express In silence He is heard, in silence worshiped best"

"No thought for the hereafter have the wise, for on this very earth they live in paradise"

"All heaven's glory is within and so is hell's fierce burning. You must yourself decide in which direction you are turning"

"Unless you find paradise at your own center, there is not the smallest chance That you may enter"

"Saints do not die. It is their lot, To die while on this earth to all that God is not."

"The vengeful God of wrath and punishment is a mere fairytale. It simply is the Me That makes me fail."

"No ray of Light can shine if severed from its source. Without my inner Light I lose my course."

"So high above all things that be. Is God uplifted, man can dare. No utterance: he prayeth best. When Silence is his sum of prayer"

"Even before I was me, I was God in God; And I can be once again, as soon as I am dead to myself"

"Time is eternity and eternity is time, just as long as you yourself don't make them different"

"I know God couldn't live a moment without me; if I should disappear, He would die, destitute"

"In waste God hides the gold, accept what He may send, The great within the small, though we don't comprehend."