Jakob Böhme
1575-1624 16th century
Inner stillness as the first place of listening, kept in the middle of a trade and a household.
Who was Jakob Böhme?
A shoemaker in Görlitz, in Silesia, married and the father of four boys, he kept his shop and wrote in the evenings. An inner experience around 1600 set him writing books that his pastor had banned; he fell silent for several years, then took up his pen again. He died at forty-nine, leaving work later read by poets, philosophers and praying people of every confession.
In their own words
The disciple said to his master: how may I come to the supersensual life, so that I may see God and hear God speak? The master answered: son, when thou canst throw thyself into that where no creature dwelleth, though it be but for a moment, then thou hearest what God speaketh.
When thou art quiet and silent, then art thou as God was before nature and creature.