The Very Being of Life

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Of nothing can Am or Is be predicated except of Love. From this Love - because in Love, or of Love itself - is the very Being [Esse] of all life, that is, Life itself. And because Jehovah alone is Being of life, or Life itself, as He alone is Love, each and all things have thence their being and their life; nor can anyone be and live of himself except Jehovah alone, that is, the Lord alone; and as no one can be and live of himself except the Lord alone. It is a fallacy of sense that men seem to themselves to live of themselves.

The angels plainly perceive that they do not live of themselves, but from the Lord, since they live in the very Being of the Lord's life, because in His love. But yet to them above all others there is given the appearance as of living from themselves, together with ineffable happiness. This therefore is to live in the Lord, which is never possible unless we live in His love, that is, in charity toward the neighbor.

(Arcana Cœlestia 1735)

All Flows in From the Lord

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The Lord is Good itself and Truth itself; and is hence their fountain.

He who lives in good, and believes that the Lord governs the universe, and that all the good which is of love and charity, and all the truth which is of faith, are from the Lord alone; nay, that life is from Him, and thus that from Him we live, move, and have our being, is in such a state that he can be gifted with heavenly freedom, and together with it with peace; for he then trusts solely in the Lord and has no care for other things, and is certain that all things are tending to his good, his blessedness, and his happiness to eternity. But he who believes that he governs himself is continually disquieted, being borne along into cupidities, and into solicitude respecting future things, and thus into manifold anxieties; and because he so believes, the cupidities of evil and the persuasions of falsity also adhere to him.

(Arcana Coelestia 2892)

Three Loves Considered

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

These three loves must first be considered for the reason that these three are the universal and fundamental of all loves, and that charity has something in common with each of them.

• For the love of heaven means both love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor; and as each of these looks to use as its end, the love of heaven may be called the love of uses.

• The love of the world is not merely a love of wealth and possessions, but is also a love of all that the world affords, and of all that delights the bodily senses, as beauty delights the eye, harmony the ear, fragrance the nostrils, delicacies the tongue, softness the skin; also becoming dress, convenient houses, and society, thus all the enjoyments arising from these and many other objects.

• The love of self is not merely the love of honor, glory, fame, and eminence, but also the love of meriting and seeking office, and so of ruling over others.

Charity has something in common with each of these three loves, because viewed in itself charity is the love of uses; for charity wishes to do good to the neighbor, and good and use are the same, and from these loves everyone looks to uses as his end;

• the love of heaven looking to spiritual uses,
• the love of the world to natural uses, which may be called civil,
• the love of self to corporeal uses, which may also be called domestic uses, that have regard to oneself and one's own.

That these three loves reside in every man from creation and therefore from birth, and that when rightly subordinated they perfect him, and when not, they pervert him ...

These three loves are rightly subordinated when the love of heaven forms the head, the love of the world the breast and abdomen, and the love of self the feet and their soles.

The human mind is divided into three regions. From the highest region man looks to God, from the second or middle region to the world, and from the third or lowest to himself. The mind being such it can be raised and can raise itself upward, because to God and to heaven; it can be extended and can extend itself to the sides in all directions, because into the world and its nature; and it can be let downward and let itself downward, because to earth and to hell. In these respects the bodily vision emulates the mind's vision; it also can look upward, round about, and downward.

The human mind is like a house of three stories which communicate by stairs, in the highest of which angels from heaven dwell, in the middle men in the world, and in the lowest one, genii. The man in whom these three loves are rightly subordinated can ascend and descend in this house at his pleasure; and when he ascends to the highest story, he is in company with angels as an angel; and when he descends from that to the middle story he is in company with men as an angel man; and when from this he descends still further, he is in company with genii as a man of the world, instructing, reproving, and subduing them.

In the man in whom these three loves are rightly subordinated, they are also coordinated thus:
The highest love, which is the love of heaven, is inwardly in the second, which is the love of the world, and through this in the third or lowest, which is the love of self; and the love that is within directs at its will that which is without.

So when the love of heaven is inwardly in the love of the world, and through this in the love of self, man from the God of heaven, performs uses in each. In their operation these three loves are like will, understanding, and action; the will flows into the understanding, and there provides itself with the means whereby it produces action.

(from True Christian Religion 394-395)

The Love of Self ~ The Love of the World

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

• The love of self is wishing well to oneself only, and not to others except for the sake of self, not even to the church, one's country, any human society, or to a fellow citizen; it is also doing good to them solely for the sake of one's own reputation, honor, and glory; and when these are not perceived in the good done to others, saying in one's heart, "What matters it? Why should I do this? What will I gain by it?"-and so leaving it undone. This makes evident that he who is in the love of self does not love the church, or his country, or society, or his fellow citizen, or anything truly good, but only himself and his own.

• Man is in the love of self, when he has no regard for the neighbor in what he thinks and does, thus no regard for the public, still less for the Lord, but only for himself and those who belong to him, and therefore does everything for the sake of himself and those who belong to him, or if for the public's sake, it is for appearance only, or if for the neighbor, it is to obtain his favor.

• It is said, for the sake of himself and those who belong to him; for he who loves himself loves also those who belong to him, who are especially his children and grandchildren, and in general all who make one with him, whom he calls his own. Loving these is loving himself, for he regards them, as it were, in himself, and himself in them. Among those whom he calls his own are also included all who praise, and honor, and pay court to him. All others he indeed looks upon with his bodily eyes as men, but with the eyes of his spirit he scarcely regards them otherwise than as specters.

• That man is in the love of self, who despises his neighbor in comparison with himself, and who regards his neighbor as an enemy if he does not favor him and does not venerate and pay court to him. Still more in the love of self is he who for these reasons hates his neighbor and persecutes him; and still more he who on this account burns with revenge against him and desires his destruction. Such at length love to be cruel.

• The nature of the love of self can be made clear by comparison with heavenly love. Heavenly love is loving uses for the sake of the uses, or goods for the sake of the goods which a man does for the church, his country, human society, and the fellow citizen. But he who loves these for his own sake, loves them only as he loves his household servants, because they serve him. From this it follows that he who is in the love of self, wishes the church, his country, society, and his fellow citizens to serve him, instead of his serving them; he places himself above them, and them beneath himself.

• Again, so far as anyone is in heavenly love, which is loving uses and goods and having a heartfelt delight in promoting them, so far he is led by the Lord, because that is the love in which the Lord is, and which is from Him. But so far as anyone is in the love of self, so far he is led by himself, and so far is led by what is his own [proprium]; and man's own is nothing but evil, for it is his inherited evil, which is loving oneself more than God and the world more than heaven.

• Moreover, the love of self is such, that so far as the reins are given to it, that is, so far as external bonds are removed, which are fear of the law and its penalties, of the loss of reputation, honor, wealth, office, or life, so far it rushes on until its desire is not only to rule over the whole world, but also over heaven, and even over God Himself. There is nowhere any limit or end to it. This lurks in everyone who is in the love of self, although it is not apparent before the world, where it is held in check by the reins and bonds just mentioned; and any such man, when the impossible blocks his way, remains quiet until the possible comes about. Because of all this, the man who is in such a love is not aware that such an insane and limitless cupidity lurks within him. Nevertheless, that it is so, no one can help seeing in rulers and kings, to whom there are no such reins and bonds and impossibilities, who rush on and subjugate provinces and kingdoms, and so long as they are successful, aspire to unlimited power and glory. And still more is it visible in those who extend their dominion into heaven, and transfer to themselves the whole of the Lord's Divine power. These continually desire more.

• There are two kinds of dominion; one of love towards the neighbor, and another of love of self. These two kinds of dominion are opposites. He who exercises dominion from love towards the neighbor, desires the good of all, and loves nothing better than to perform uses, thus to serve others. Serving others is doing good from good will, and performing uses. Such is his love, and the delight of his heart. Moreover, so far as he is elevated to dignities he rejoices in it, not on account of the dignities, but on account of the uses which he can then perform to a greater extent and in a higher degree. Such is dominion in the heavens. But he who exercises dominion from love of self desires the good of none but himself and his own. The uses he performs are for the sake of his own honor and glory, which to him are the only uses. His end in serving others is that he himself may be served and honored, and may rule. He seeks dignities not for the sake of the goods he may do, but in order that he may gain eminence and glory, and may thereby be in his heart's delight.

• His love of dominion remains with everyone after his life in the world; but to those who have exercised dominion from love towards the neighbor there is also entrusted dominion in the heavens, and then it is not they who rule, but the uses and goods which they love; and when uses and goods rule, the Lord rules. But those who in the world exercised dominion from self-love, after their life in the world are made to abdicate, and are reduced to servitude. From all this it is known who these are who are in the love of self. It does not matter what they may seem to be externally, whether haughty or humble, since such things reside in the internal man, and, by most men, the internal man is kept hidden, while the external is trained to counterfeit what belongs to the love of the public and the neighbor, thus the contrary of what is within; and this too is done for the sake of self; for they know that loving the public and the neighbor interiorly affects all men, and that they to that extent gain esteem. This love thus affects men because heaven flows into it.

• The evils that prevail with those who are in love of self are, in general, contempt of others, envy, enmity toward those who do not favor them, from which results hostility, hatred of various kinds, revenge, craft, deceit, unmercifulness, cruelty. And where such evils prevail, there is also a contempt of God, and of Divine things, which are the truths and goods of the church. If they honor these things, it is with the lips only, not with the heart. And because such evils are from love of self, like falsities are also from it; for falsities are from evils.

• But love of the world is a desire to draw to oneself the wealth of others by any device whatever, to set the heart upon riches, and to permit the world to withdraw and lead one away from spiritual love, which is love towards the neighbor, that is, from heaven. Those are in love of the world who long to draw to themselves the goods of others by various devices, but especially those who wish to do so by craft and deceit, caring nothing for the good of the neighbor. Those who are in that love covet the goods of others, and so far as they do not fear the law and the loss of reputation on account of the gain, they get possession of others' goods, and even plunder them.

• But love of the world is not opposed to heavenly love to such a degree as the love of self is, because so great evils are not concealed within it,

• This love is manifold. There is a love of wealth as a means of being raised to honors; a love of honors and dignities as means of acquiring wealth; a love of wealth for the sake of various uses that afford worldly pleasure; a love of wealth for the mere sake of wealth, such as the avaricious have; and so on. The end for the sake of which wealth is sought is called the use, and it is the end or use from which love draws its quality; for such as the end is for which anything is done, such is the love; all else serves it as means

• In a word, love of self and love of the world are directly opposite to love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor. Consequently love of self and love of the world, such as have just been described, are infernal loves, and these reign in hell, and also constitute hell in man. But love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor are heavenly loves, and these reign in heaven, and also constitute heaven in man.

(True Christian Religion 400)

Things that Remain in the Memory

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is easy to see that nothing can possibly enter into man's memory and remain there, unless there is a certain affection or love which introduces it. If there is no affection, or what is the same, no love, there will be no observation. It is this affection, or love, with which the thing that enters connects itself, and being connected remains; as is evident from the fact that when a similar affection or love returns, the thing itself recurs, and is presented to view along with other things that had before entered by virtue of a similar affection or love; and this in a series. From this comes man's thought; and from this thought his speech. In like manner also when the thing itself returns, if this is effected by objects of the senses, or by objects of the thought, or by the discourse of another, the affection also with which the thing had entered is reproduced. This is the teaching of experience, and on reflection everyone may be confirmed in it.

(from Arcana Coelestia 3336)

When Knowledges Become Truths

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Knowledges are nothing else than the truths of the natural man, but which have not yet been made his own...

Knowledges do not become truths in man until they are acknowledged by the understanding, which takes place when they are confirmed by him; and these truths do not become his own until he lives according to them; for nothing is made man's own except that which becomes of his life, for thus he himself is in the truths, because his life is in them.

(from Arcana Coelestia 5276)

The Hinge of the Determinations

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There are with man two determinations of the things of the understanding and of the will — one determination is outward toward the world, and the other is inward toward heaven.

• With natural and sensuous men, the determination of the things of the understanding and of the will, thus of the thoughts and affections, is toward the world;

• With spiritual and celestial men the determination of these things is toward heaven, and also alternately toward the world.

The hinge of the determinations turns inward when the man is being regenerated, and so far as it can then be turned inward, so far the man can be raised by the Lord toward heaven to Himself, and consequently be in the same proportion imbued with wisdom, faith, and love. For the man then lives in the internal man, consequently in his spirit, and the external man is subordinate thereto. But if a man does not suffer himself to be regenerated, then all his interiors remain determined toward the world, and then his life is in the external man, and the internal man is subordinate thereto. This is the case when the external man supplies reasonings which favor evil lusts. These men are called natural, and they who abide in things most external are called sensuous; from which it can be seen what is meant by "the sensuous."

(from Arcana Coelestia 9730)

The Holy Spirit is Neither Given or Lost

Selection from Invitation to the New Church ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Posthumous Work

The soul is the inmost man, and thence according to the ancients it is in the whole and in every part of the body, because the beginning of life resides in the soul; that part of the body in which the soul does not inmostly reside, does not live. Wherefore there is a reciprocal union; and hence the body acts from the soul, but not the soul through the body.

Whatever proceeds from God partakes of the human form,
because God is Himself the Man

this is especially the case with the soul, which is the first of man.

Nothing is more common in the whole heaven and in the whole world, than for one thing to be within another; thus there is an inmost, a middle, and an outmost; and these three intercommunicate, and the power of the middle and outmost are derived from the inmost.

That there are three things, one within the other, appears from each and all things in the human body.

• Around the brain there are three tunics, which are called the dura mater, the pia mater, and the arachnoid; and over these is the skull.
• Around the whole body there are tunics, one within the other, which taken all together are called the skin.
• Around each artery and vein there are three tunics; likewise around each muscle and fiber; in like manner around all the rest which are there.

In the vegetable kingdom the case is the same.

How these parts intercommunicate, and how the inmost enters the middle, and the middle the ultimate, is shown by anatomy, etc.

Thence it follows that the same is the case with light; that spiritual light which in its essence is truth, is interiorly in natural light; likewise that spiritual heat which in its essence is love, is in natural heat. By natural heat is meant natural love, because that love becomes warm; and this is clothed with the heat of the blood.

All things which people speak concerning the Holy Spirit fall to the ground, as soon as it is believed that man is not life, but only an organ of life; and thus that God is constantly in man, and that He strives, acts, and urges that those things which belong to religion, and consequently those which belong to the church, to heaven and salvation, shall be received. Therefore it is wrong to say that the Holy Spirit is given, or that it is lost. For the Holy Spirit is nothing else than the Divine which proceeds out of the Lord from the Father, and this Divine causes a man's life, and also his understanding and his love; and the presence of this Divine is perpetual. Without the presence of the Lord or the Holy Spirit, man would be nothing but a kind of beast; yea he would not have any more life, than salt, a stone, or a stock. The reason of this is, that man is not born with instinct, like a beast; wherefore a pullet one day old knows the order of its life better than an infant.

(from Invitation to the New Church 48-50)

Why The Church Has Immersed Itself Into So Many Falsities

Selection from Invitation to the New Church ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Posthumous Work

The sole cause why the church has immersed itself into so many falsities, that not a single truth has remained in it, and why it is like a ship that has suffered shipwreck, of which the top of the mast only protrudes, is this:

that hitherto they have not approached the Lord immediately; and so long as the Lord is not approached immediately, not a single truth can appear in its own light.

The reason of this is, that the Lord is the Word, that is, the all of Divine truth in the Word, and that He alone is the Light which enlighteneth all, as He Himself teaches; and further, that every truth of the Word shines from no other source than from the Lord alone. This light is what is meant by the spiritual; when, therefore, this light is not present, there is nothing spiritual in man's understanding, but what is merely natural; and all things which contain the spiritual, the natural man sees only invertedly; he sees falsity instead of the truth. On reading the Word, therefore, he bends all things towards his own falsities, and thus falsifies truths; and he takes delight in them. For the natural human mind is in such things as belong to the world and to self; it is delighted solely by such things; wherefore, unless in the above things there is spiritual light, the natural man transfers them to those things which belong to the world and to self, and he puts these in the first place. He thus not only shuns spiritual things, and hides them away, but he also scoffs at them. Faith is spiritual from no other source, that is, it cannot be called spiritual, except from the truths which it contains, and thus by virtue of light from the Lord. Unless faith is from this source, it is natural faith which does not conjoin, and which is not saving.

(from Invitation to the New Church 40)

It is Slavery to be Led by the Devil, and Freedom to be Led by the Lord

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Romans 6:16-18

For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and [going about to establish their own righteousness], have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Romans 10:3

He who is in interior truth knows that all truth and good are from the Lord, and also that all freedom from his own, or from the man himself, is infernal; for when a man thinks or does anything from his own freedom, he thinks and does nothing but evil. In consequence he is a servant of the devil, for all evil flows in from hell. He also feels delight in such freedom, because it agrees with the evil in which he is, and into which he was born. Wherefore this freedom from one's own must be put off, and heavenly freedom must be put on instead, which consists in willing what is good and thence doing it, and in desiring what is true and thence thinking it. When a man receives this freedom he is a servant of the Lord, and is then in freedom itself, and not in the bondage in which he was before, and which appeared like freedom.

(from Arcana Coelestia 5763)

Those Who Have Faith Also Have Conscience

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Faith is inseparable from conscience, so inseparable indeed that whether you say faith or conscience it is the same. By faith is meant the faith by means of which there is charity, and which is from charity, thus charity itself; for faith without charity is no faith; and as faith is not possible without charity, so neither is conscience.

(From Arcana Coelestia 2325)

Nothing But Loves

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Every man's quality is known from his love -

Love is the being of the life of everyone
from it springing the veriest life itself
such therefore as the love [being of the life] is with a man
such is the man.

If there is the love of self and of the world, consequently the love of revenge, of hatred, of cruelty, of adultery, and the like, the man is a devil as to his spirit, or as to the interior man which lives after death, however he may appear in the outward form. But if there is with a man the love of God and the love of the neighbor, and consequently the love of good and truth, also of what is just and honorable, then however he may appear in the outward form, he is an angel as to his spirit which lives after death.

He with whom there is Divine love, which was with the Lord alone, is God; thus His Human was made Divine when He received in the Human the love of His Father, which was the Being of His life. . . .

That man is altogether as is his love, is a constant truth, as is plain from the angels in the other life, who when seen appear as forms of love, the love itself not only shining forth, but also exhaling from them, so that you would say that they are wholly nothing but loves. The reason is, that all the interiors of an angel, as also of a man, are nothing but forms recipient of life, and because they are forms recipient of life, they are forms recipient of loves, for loves make the life of man. When therefore the inflowing love and the recipient form are in agreement, it follows that the angel or man is such as his love is; and this not only in his organic beginnings, which are in the brain, but also in the whole body, for the body is nothing but an organ derived from its beginnings.

From all this it can be seen that man is made altogether new when he is being regenerated, for then each and all things with him are so disposed as to receive heavenly loves. Nevertheless with man the prior forms are not destroyed, but only removed — but with the Lord the prior forms, which were from the maternal, were completely destroyed and extirpated, and Divine forms were received in their place. For the Divine love does not agree with any but a Divine form; all other forms it absolutely casts out; hence it is that the Lord when glorified was no longer the son of Mary.

(from Arcana Coelestia 6872)

What I Have Written I Have Written

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Whatever enters with man, remains with him, especially what is received from affection.

It is believed that the things which enter have been completely obliterated and cast out when the man no longer remembers them; but they have not been obliterated or cast out, but they stick fast either in the interior memory, or in the exterior, among things which have become familiar. For the things which become familiar, are as it were natural, which flow of their own accord, and are not excited by a conscious recalling from the memory; like man's speech, the words of which flow spontaneously from thought, as also do the gestures and actions, and even the steps; and also the thought. These enter successively from infancy, and in time become familiar, and then flow spontaneously.

From these as well as from other similar facts, it is evident that all things which enter with man, remain, and that the things which have become habitual, that is, familiar, are no longer noticed as being in the man, although they are in him. Such is the case with the falsities and evils that enter with man, and also with the truths and goods. Such are the things that form him and determine his quality. ... all things which a man has seen, heard, thought, spoken, and done, have been inscribed on him.

(from Arcana Coelestia 7398)