May 15, 2015

Man by Creation a Type of the Great Heaven

From The True Christian Religion - A Memorable Relation ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
... the joys of heaven and eternal happiness are not a matter of place, but of the state of man's life, and the state of heavenly life is from love and wisdom; and as use is the containant of these two, the state of heavenly life is from the conjunction of these in use.

It is the same if we say instead, charity, faith, and good works, since charity is love, faith is truth from which comes wisdom, and good works are uses. Furthermore, there are places in our spiritual world as in the natural world, otherwise there would be no habitations or distinct dwellings; and yet place here is not place, but an appearance of place in accordance with the state of love and wisdom, or charity and faith.

Everyone who becomes an angel carries his heaven within him, because he carries within him the love that belongs to his heaven; for man by creation is a lesser likeness, image, and type of the great heaven; and the human form is nothing else; so that everyone enters that heavenly society whose form he is as an individual likeness; consequently when he enters into that society he enters a form correspondent to his own, thus he enters the society as if entering into himself from himself, and as if from the society into the society in himself, and partakes of its life as his own, and of his own life as its life. Every society is like a common body, the angels therein are the like parts of which the general exists.

From this it now follows that those who are in evils and in consequent falsities, have formed in themselves a likeness of hell, and this is what suffers torture in heaven from the influx and vehemence of the activity of opposite against opposite; for infernal love is the opposite of heavenly love, and the delights of the two loves come into collision like hostile forces, and destroy each other when they meet.
(True Christian Religion 739:7-8) 

May 14, 2015

If the Eye be Single

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Three loves, when rightly subordinated, perfect man, but when not rightly subordinated, they pervert and invert him - the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self, and then of the influx and insertion of one into the other, and finally of man's state according to that subordination. These three loves are related to each other like the three regions of the body, the highest of which is the head; the intermediate, the chest and abdomen, while the knees and feet and soles of the feet form the third. When the love of heaven constitutes the head, love of the world the chest and abdomen, and love of self the feet and their soles, man is in a perfect state in accordance with his creation, because the two lower loves then minister to the highest, as the body and all its parts minister to the head. So when the love of heaven constitutes the head, it flows into the love of the world, which is chiefly a love of wealth, and by means of wealth it performs uses; and through this latter love it flows mediately into the love of self, which is chiefly the love of dignities, and by means of these dignities it performs uses. Thus do these three loves, by the influx of one into the other, breathe forth uses.

Who does not comprehend, that when a man desires to perform uses from spiritual love, which is from the Lord and is what is meant by the love of heaven, his natural man performs them by means of his wealth and his other goods (the sensual man cooperating in its function), and that it is to his honor to produce them? Who does not also comprehend that all the works that a man does with his body are done according to the state of his mind in the head; and if the mind is in the love of uses, the body by means of its members accomplishes them? And this is so, because the will and the understanding in their principles are in the head, and in their derivatives in the body, as the will is in deeds, and the thought in speech, and comparatively as the prolific principle of the seed is in the whole tree and in every part of it, and through these produces fruit, which is its use. Or it is like fire and light within a crystalline vase which thereby becomes warm and shows the light through it. And again, the spiritual sight of the mind together with the natural sight of the body, in one in whom these three loves are truly and rightly subordinated, because of the light that flows in through heaven from the Lord, may be likened to an African apple, which is transparent to the very center, where there is the repository of the seeds. Something like this is meant by these words of the Lord,
The lamp of the body is the eye; if the eye be single (that is, sound), the whole body is full of light  (Matt. 6:22; Luke 11:34).
No man of sound reason can condemn wealth, for it is in the general body like the blood in a man; nor can he condemn the honors attached to office, for they are the hands of the king and the pillars of society, provided the natural and sensual love of them is subordinated to spiritual love. Moreover, there are administrative offices in heaven and honors attached to them; but those who administer them love nothing better than to perform uses, because they are spiritual.
(True Christian Religion 403)

May 13, 2015

Interior Truths Close into Ultimate Truths

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
All interior things are stored up in order, and are together in ultimates

When a man is being purified, then first of all are learned such truths as can be apprehended by the sensuous man, such as are the truths in the sense of the letter of the Word; afterward are learned more interior truths, such as are collected from the Word by those who are in enlightenment, for these collect its interior sense from various passages where the sense of the letter is unfolded. From these, when known, truths still more interior are afterward drawn forth by those who are enlightened, which truths together with the former serve the church for doctrine, the more interior truths for doctrine to those who are men of the internal church, the less interior for doctrine to those who are men of the external church. Both the former and the latter men, provided they have lived according to these truths, are taken up into heaven among the angels, and are there imbued with angelic wisdom, which is from truths still more interior, and finally is from inmost truths in the third heaven. These truths, together with the former in their order, close in the ultimate truths of the external sensuous, and are all together there. From this it is plain that all interior truths are together in the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, for these truths, as above said, are the ultimate ones.
(Arcana Coelestia 10028:2)

May 10, 2015

The Lord Worshiped Through Uses

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
"to serve the Lord" denotes to perform uses, is because true worship consists in the performance of uses, thus in the exercises of charity. He who believes that serving the Lord consists solely in frequenting a place of worship, in hearing preaching there, and in praying, and that this is sufficient, is much mistaken. The very worship of the Lord consists in performing uses; and during man's life in the world uses consist in everyone's discharging aright his duty in his station, thus from the heart being of service to his country, to societies, and to the neighbor, in dealing sincerely with his fellow, and in performing kind offices with prudence in accordance with each person's character. These uses are chiefly the works of charity, and are those whereby the Lord is chiefly worshiped. Frequenting a place of worship, hearing sermons, and saying prayers, are also necessary; but without the above uses they avail nothing, because they are not of the life, but teach what the life must be. The angels in heaven have all happiness from uses, and according to uses, so that to them uses are heaven.

That happiness is from Divine order according to uses, can be seen from the things in man which correspond to those which are in the Grand Man; as those from the external senses, namely, from sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, which as has been shown at the end of many chapters, are correspondent. These senses therefore have delights exactly in accordance with the uses which they perform; the most delightful is the sense of conjugial love, on account of its greatest use, because from this comes the propagation of the human race, and from the human race, heaven; the delight of taste follows next, because it serves for the nourishment and thereby for the health of the body, in accordance with which is the sound action of the mind; the delight of smell is less, because it merely serves for recreation: and thus also for health; the delight of hearing and that of sight are in the last place, because they merely take up those things which will be of service to uses, and wait upon the intellectual part, and not so much the will part.


From these and other like facts it becomes plain that it is uses according to which happiness is given in heaven by the Lord; and that it is uses through which the Lord is mainly worshiped. From this it is that John lay on the Lord's breast at table, and that the Lord loved him more than the rest; but this was not for his own sake, but because he represented the exercises of charity, that is, uses.

(Arcana Coelestia 7038)

May 9, 2015

Being in Truth Without Good

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
They who are in truth and not yet in good are in fallacies from lowest nature, may be seen from the fact that truth is not in any light unless good is with it, or in it; for good is like a flame which emits light from itself; and when good meets with any truth, it not only illuminates it, but also brings it to itself into its own light. They therefore who are in truth and not yet in good, are in shade and darkness; because truth has no light from itself, and the light which they have from good is faint, like a light which is going out; and therefore when these persons think and reason about truth, and from truth about good, they are like those who see phantasms in the dark, and believe them to be real bodies; or who see marks on a wall in a shady place, and in fancy make of them the image of some man or animal; and yet when the light comes, they are seen to be mere marks without any form;
Moreover all the heresies in the church have arisen from those who have been in some truth from the Word, but not in good; to them heresy has appeared exactly like truth; and in like manner the falsities in the church. That they who have promulgated these have not been in good, may be seen from the fact that they have rejected the good of charity far behind the truth of faith, and have in part devised such things as do not at all agree with the good of charity.
It is said that they who are in truth and not yet in good reason about good and truth from fallacies from lowest nature, and therefore it is necessary to say what fallacies are.

Take for example the life after death. They who are in fallacies from lowest nature, as are those who are in truth and not yet in good, do not believe that there is anything alive in man except his body, nor that when man dies he can rise again unless he again receives his body. If they are told that there is an interior man who lives in the body, and who is raised up by the Lord when the body dies, and that the man when raised has a body such as spirits or angels have, and that he sees, hears, speaks, is in company with others, and appears to himself exactly like a man, just as does a man in this world, they cannot apprehend it. Fallacies from lowest nature make them believe such things to be impossible, chiefly because they do not see them with the eyes of their body.

Moreover when such persons think about the spirit or soul, they have no idea whatever about it except such as they have of the invisible things in nature, whence they make it either a mere breath, or aerial, or ethereal, or like a flame; some a mere thinking power which has scarcely any vitality until it is again joined to the body. The reason why they think in this way is that to them all interior things are in shade and darkness, and only outward things are in light, which shows how easily they may fall into error; for if they think only of how the body is to be put together again; of the destruction of the world, and that this has been vainly awaited for so many ages; of brute animals having a life not unlike the life of man; and that none of the dead appear and make known the state of their life - when they think these and other such things, they easily recede from belief in the resurrection; and so in many other cases. The reason is that they are not in good, and through good in light. ...
(Arcana Coelestia 6400)

May 7, 2015

Be Not Befooled

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The dwellings of the blessed in the other life are of many kinds, and are constructed with such art as to be as it were embodiments of the very art of architecture, or to come straight from the art itself. These dwellings appear not only to the sight, but also to the touch, for all things there are adapted to the sensations of spirits and angels, and hence are such as do not come to bodily sense like that of man, but to that possessed by those who are there. I know that this is incredible to many, but this is because nothing is believed which cannot be seen by the bodily eyes and felt with the hands of flesh. For this reason the man of this day, whose interiors are closed, knows nothing of the things which exist in the spiritual world or in heaven. He does indeed say from the Word and from doctrine that there is a heaven, and that the angels who are there are in joy and in glory, but he knows no more about the matter. How the case is there he would indeed like to know, but when told he still believes nothing, because at heart he denies the existence of such things, and his desire to know about them is prompted solely by his curiosity from doctrine, and not by any delight grounded in faith. They who are not in faith also deny at heart; but they who believe get ideas from various sources about heaven and its joy and glory, each person from such things as are of his own knowledge and intelligence, and the simple from the things of bodily sensation.

Nevertheless most people do not apprehend that spirits and angels enjoy sensations much more exquisite than those of men in this world, namely, sight, hearing, smell, something analogous to taste, and touch; and especially the delights of the affections. If men would only believe that their interior essence is the spirit, and that the body and its sensations and members are adapted to uses in this world merely, and that the spirit and its sensations and organs are adapted to uses in the other life, then from themselves and almost of their own accord they would come into ideas about the state of their spirit after death; for they would reflect that the spirit must be the man himself who thinks, and who desires, longs for things, and is affected with them; and further that all the power of sensation which appears in the body belongs properly to the spirit, and to the body merely by influx; and they would afterwards confirm themselves in this idea by many considerations, and in this way would at last take more delight in the things of their spirit than in those of their body.

It is also a real fact that it is not man's body which sees, hears, smells, and feels, but his spirit; and therefore when the spirit is divested of the body, it is in its own sensations, the same as when it was in the body, only now far more exquisite; for the things of the body, being comparatively gross, had rendered the sensations obtuse, and this the more because the man had immersed them in earthly and worldly things. This I can aver - that a spirit has much more exquisite sight than a man in the body, and also much more exquisite hearing, and, astonishing to say, the sense of smell, and especially the sense of touch; for spirits see one another, hear one another, and touch one another. Moreover, anyone who believes in the life after death might infer that this is the case from the fact that no life is possible without sensation, and that the quality of the life is according to the quality of the sensation, nay, that the intellectual faculty is nothing but an exquisite sense of interior things, and the higher intellectual of spiritual things; and it is from this that the things of the intellectual and its perceptions are called internal senses.
-----
But be it known that the life of sense with spirits is twofold, namely, real and not real. The one is distinguished from the other by the fact that everything is real which appears to those who are in heaven, whereas everything is unreal which appears to those who are in hell. For whatever comes from the Divine (that is, from the Lord) is real, because it comes from the very being of things, and from life in itself, but whatever comes from a spirit's own is not real, because it does not come from the being of things, nor from life in itself. They who are in the affection of good and truth are in the Lord's life, thus in real life, for the Lord is present in good and truth through the affection; but they who are in evil and falsity through the affection, are in the life of what is their own, thus in a life not real, for the Lord is not present in evil and falsity. The real is distinguished from the not real in this - that the real is actually such as it appears, and that the not real is actually not such as it appears.

They who are in hell have sensations equally with others, and are not aware but that everything is really or actually just as it appears to their senses; and yet when they are looked at by the angels, the same things appear as phantasms, and disappear, and they themselves do not appear as men, but as monsters. It has also been given me to speak with them on this subject, and some of them said that they believe things to be real because they see and touch them, adding that sense cannot deceive. But it was given me to reply that no matter how real these things may appear to them, they nevertheless are not real, and this because they themselves are in things contrary or opposite to the Divine, namely, in evils and falsities, and moreover are themselves nothing but phantasies insofar as their thoughts are concerned, to the extent that they are in cupidities of evil and persuasions of falsity; and to see anything from phantasies is to see things that are real as not real, and things that are not real as real; and that unless it were given them of the Lord's Divine mercy to have their senses affected in this manner, they would have no sensitive life, consequently no life at all, because that which is sensitive constitutes the whole of life. To adduce all my experience on these subjects would be to fill many pages.

Therefore when you enter the other life beware of being deceived, for evil spirits know how to conjure up illusions of many kinds before those who come fresh from the world, and if they cannot deceive them, they nevertheless thereby endeavor to persuade them that nothing is real, but that all things are ideal, even those which are in heaven.

(Arcana Coelestia 4622-4623)

May 6, 2015

The Lord's Human is Divine

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The church in acknowledging faith alone has extinguished this essential truth - for which of them believes the Lord's Human to be Divine? Do they not turn away at the very proposition? When yet in the ancient churches it was believed that the Lord who was to come into the world was a Divine Man, and also when seen by them, He was called Jehovah, as is plain from many passages in the Word, but for the present only this from Isaiah will be adduced:

The voice of one crying the wilderness, Prepare ye the Way of Jehovah, make level in the solitude a pathway for our God (Isa. 40:3).

That these words were spoken of the Lord, and that by John the Baptist the way was prepared and a pathway made level for Him, is very evident from the evangelists (Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23); and further from the Lord's own words, that He was one with the Father, and that the Father was in Him, and He in the Father; also that to Him was given all power in heaven and on earth, and that judgment belonged to Him.

One who knows even a little about power in heaven and on earth, and about judgment, can know that they would be nothing unless He were Divine as to the Human also.
Those who are in faith alone cannot know what makes man new or sanctifies him, still less what made the Lord's Human Divine; for they know nothing of love and charity, and it is love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor that make man new and sanctify him, while the Divine love itself made the Lord Divine.
For love is the very being of man, and hence is his living; and it forms man according to an image of itself, just as the soul of man, which is his interior essence, as it were creates or fashions the body into an image, of itself; and indeed in such a way that by means of the body it acts and has sensation just as it wills and thinks. Thus the body is as the effect, and the soul as the cause in which is the end; consequently the soul is the all in the body, as the cause of the end is the all in the effect.
The Human of Him whose soul was Jehovah Himself (as was the case with the Lord, for He was conceived of Jehovah) could not when glorified be other than Divine. From this it is plain how greatly those err who make the Lord's Human, after it was glorified, to be like the human of a man, when yet it is Divine. From His Divine Human proceeds all the wisdom, all the intelligence, and also all the light, in heaven. Whatever proceeds from Him is holy; and the holy that is not from the Divine is not holy.
(Arcana Coelestia 4727)