THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE (pt. 86)

THE DOCTRINE OF LIFE
for the
NEW JERUSALEM
FROM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Emanuel Swedenborg
— Doctrinal Series —
(pt. 86)
IN PROPORTION AS ANYONE SHUNS THEFTS OF EVERY KIND
AS SINS, IN THE SAME PROPORTION HE LOVES SINCERITY.

Man possesses a natural mind and a spiritual mind.

The natural mind is below, and the spiritual mind above. The natural mind is the mind of man's world, and the spiritual mind is the mind of his heaven. The natural mind may be called the animal mind, and the spiritual mind the human mind. Man is discriminated from the animal by possessing a spiritual mind. By means of this mind he can be in heaven while still in the world; and it is by means of this mind also that man lives after death.

In his understanding a man is able to be in the spiritual mind, and consequently in heaven, but unless he shuns evils as sins he cannot be in the spiritual mind and consequently in heaven, as to his will. And if he is not there as to his will, he is not in heaven, in spite of the fact that he is there in understanding, for the will drags the understanding down, and causes it to be just as natural and animal as it is itself.

Man may be compared to a garden, his understanding to light, and his will to heat. 

In wintertime a garden is in light but not in accompanying heat, but in summertime it is in light accompanied by heat. Just so a man who is in the light of the understanding alone is like a garden in wintertime, whereas one who is in the light of the understanding and at the same time in the heat of the will is like a garden in summertime. Moreover the understanding is wise from spiritual light, and the will loves from spiritual heat, for spiritual light is Divine wisdom, and spiritual heat is Divine love.

So long as a man does not shun evils as sins, the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind on the part of the will, being like a thick veil there, and like a black cloud beneath the spiritual mind, and they prevent its being opened. But in very deed the moment a man shuns evils as sins, the Lord inflows from heaven, takes away the veil, dispels the cloud, opens the spiritual mind, and so introduces the man into heaven.

So long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind (in the way we have indicated), so long is the man in hell; the moment, however, that these concupiscences have been dispersed by the Lord, the man is in heaven. Furthermore: so long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind, so long is the man natural; but the moment they have been dispersed by the Lord, he is spiritual.

Furthermore: so long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind, so long is the man animal, differing only in his ability to think and speak, even of such things as he does not see with his eyes, which ability he derives from his capacity of uplifting his understanding into the light of heaven. The moment however that these concupiscences have been dispersed by the Lord, the man is a man, because he then thinks what is true in the understanding from what is good in the will.

And furthermore:

so long as the concupiscences of evils block up the interiors of the natural mind, the man is like a garden in winter time, but the moment these concupiscences have been dispersed by the Lord, he is like a garden in summer time.

The conjunction in a man of the will and the understanding is meant in the Word by "heart and soul," and by "heart and spirit." For example:

that we must love God:
With all the heart, and with all the soul (Matt. 22:37).

And that God will give:
A new heart, and a new spirit (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26-27).

The "heart" means the will and its love, and the "soul" and the "spirit," the understanding and its wisdom.

(LIFE 86)