Man's Two Capacities for Life

From Divine Love and Wisdom ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

It is because the Divine Essence itself is Love and Wisdom that man has two capacities for life; from one of these he has understanding, from the other will. The capacity from which he has understanding derives everything it has from the influx of wisdom from God, and the capacity from which he has will derives everything it has from the influx of love from God. Man's not being truly wise and not loving rightly does not take away these capacities, but merely closes them up; and so long as they are closed up, although the understanding is still called understanding and the will is called will, they are not such in essence. If these two capacities, therefore, were to be taken away, all that is human would perish; for the human is to think and to speak from thought, and to will and to act from will. From this it is clear that the Divine has its seat in man in these two capacities, the capacity to be wise and the capacity to love (that is, that one may be wise and may love). ...

(Divine Love and Wisdom 30)

Influx from within meets influx from without

From Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... man is only a recipient of good and truth from the Lord, and of evil and falsity from hell ...

It is illustrated by the following comparisons. The sensories of the body are merely recipient and percipient as if from themselves. The sensory of sight, which is the eye, sees objects out of itself, as it were in close contact with them, although it is the rays of light that, with the wings of ether, convey their forms and colours to the eye; these forms, being perceived by the internal sight, which is called the understanding, are examined in the eye and thus distinguished and known according to their quality. Similarly the sensory of hearing perceives sounds - whether they are words or tones of music - from the place whence they proceed, as if it were there, although the sounds enter from without, and are perceived in the ear by the understanding within. The sensory of smell, also, perceives from within what enters from without, sometimes from a great distance. The sensory of taste also is excited by the food, which externally moves over the tongue. The sensory of touch has no sensation unless it is touched. These five sensories of the body, by virtue of an influx from within, are sensible of the things which enter by influx from without; the influx from within is from the spiritual world, and the influx from without is from the natural world.

With these facts, the laws inscribed on the nature of all things are in agreement, and these laws are as follows:

 (1.) That nothing exists, subsists, is acted upon and moved, by itself, but by something else; whence it follows, that every thing exists, subsists, is acted upon and moved, from the First, who is not from another, but is in Himself the living force, which is life.

 (2.) That nothing can be acted upon and moved, unless it be intermediate between two forces, one of which acts and the other re-acts, thus, unless one acts on the one part, and one on the other; and further, unless one acts from within, and the other from without.

 (3.) And since these two forces, while they are at rest, are in equilibrium, it follows, that nothing can be acted upon or moved, unless it is in equilibrium, and that when it is acted upon, it is not in equilibrium; and further, that every thing acted upon or moved seeks to return to equilibrium.

 (4.) That all activities are changes of state and variations of form, and that the latter are the result of the former.

By state in man we mean his love, and by changes of state the affections of love; by form in man we mean his intelligence, and by variations of form his thoughts; the latter also are from the former.

(Apocalypse Explained 1146 b)

The Need for Adequate Terms

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... when the Lord made His Human Divine He advanced in a like order to that in which He makes man new by regeneration, namely, from what is external to interior things, thus from the truth which is in the ultimate of order to a good which is interior, and is called spiritual good, and from this to celestial good. But these things cannot fall into the understanding of anyone unless it is known what the external man and the internal man are, and that the former is distinct from the latter, although while man is living in the body they appear as one; also unless it is known that the natural constitutes the external man, and the rational the internal; and further, unless it is known what the spiritual is and what the celestial.

These things have indeed already been occasionally unfolded, nevertheless they who have previously had no idea about them in consequence of having no desire to know the things of eternal life, find it impossible to have any such idea. Such people say, "What is the internal man? Is it possible that it can be distinct from the external? What is the natural, and the rational? Are they not one? Moreover, What is the spiritual, and the celestial? Is not this a new distinction? We have heard of the spiritual, but that the celestial is something else we have not heard."

The case however is thus: They who have not previously acquired any idea on these subjects, for the reason that the cares of the world and of the body have possession of all their thought and take away all desire of knowing anything else; or because they deem it sufficient to know their doctrinal tenets as they are commonly known, and that it is of no consequence to have any further thought about the matter, saying, "We see the world, but the other life we do not see, perhaps it exists and perhaps not" - much persons put away all these subjects, for even at the first look they at heart reject them.

Nevertheless as they are such things as are contained in the internal sense of the Word, and these cannot be explained without adequate terms, and we have no terms more adequate for expressing exterior things than the term natural, for interior things than the term rational, for those things which are of truth the term spiritual, and those which are of good the term celestial, it is absolutely necessary to make use of these terms, for without terms adapted to the subject nothing can be described. ...

(Arcana Coelestia 4585)