To What Love Has The Soul Become

From Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

... no thought is possible to man except from some affection of his life's love; and that thought is nothing but the form of affection. Since, then, man sees his thought, but cannot see his affection, for that he feels, it follows that it is from sight, which is in the appearance, and not from affection, which comes into feeling and not into sight, that man concludes that his own prudence does all things. For affection is evident only through a certain delight in thought and satisfaction in reasoning about it; and this satisfaction and delight then make one with the thought in those who from self-love or love of the world believe in their own prudence; and thought floats on in its delight like a ship in the current of a stream, to which the master pays no attention, regarding only the sail he spreads.

... a man may reflect upon a delight of his external affection while that delight is acting as one with the delight of some bodily sensation. Nevertheless, he does not reflect upon the fact that this delight is from a delight of his affection in his thought. For example: when a fornicator sees a lewd woman his eye glows with the fire of lasciviousness, and from that fire he feels a delight in the body. And yet in his thought he feels no delight of his affection or lust except a certain longing connected with the body. So a robber in a forest when he sees travelers; or a pirate on the sea when he sees vessels; and so on. Evidently it is these delights that rule the man's thoughts and the thoughts are nothing apart from them; yet they seem to him to be nothing but thoughts; when in fact, thoughts are nothing but affections so composed into forms by his life's love as to be presented in light; for all affection is in heat, and thought is in light.

Such are the external affections of thought, which manifest themselves in bodily sensation, but rarely in the thought of the mind.  But the internal affections of thought, from which the external affections have their existence, never manifest themselves before man. Of these man knows no more than one sleeping in a carriage knows of the road, or than one feels the revolution of the earth. Considering, then, that man knows nothing of the things that are going on in the interiors of his mind, which are too limitless to be numbered, and yet those few externals that do come within the view of his thought are produced from the interiors, and the interiors are governed by the Lord alone by His Divine providence, and only those few externals by the Lord and man together, how can any one say that his own prudence does all things? If you were to see but one idea of thought laid open you would see wonderful things, more in number than tongue can express.

That in the interiors of man's mind there are things too limitless to be numbered is clear from the infinite things in the body, from which nothing comes to sight or feeling except action only in much simplicity; and yet in this thousands of motor or muscular fibers concur, thousands of nerve fibers, thousands of blood-vessels, thousands of lung cells, all of which must co-operate in every action, thousands of cells in the brains and spinal cord, and many more yet in the spiritual man, which is the human mind, in which all things are forms of affections and of their perceptions and thoughts. Does not the soul, which directs the interiors, direct also the actions from them?  Man's soul is nothing else than the love of his will and the love therefrom of his understanding. The quality of that love is the quality of the whole man; and that is determined by the way in which the externals are disposed, in which man and the Lord co-operate. Consequently, if man attributes all things to himself and to nature the love of self becomes the soul; but if he attributes all things to the Lord, love to the Lord becomes the soul; and this love is heavenly, while the other is infernal.

(Divine Providence 198 - 199)

The Whole Man is in Every One of the Ideas of His Thought, Which Are Of His Worship

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Man is not man from his face, nor even from his speech, but from understanding and will; such as are his understanding and his will, such is the man. It is known that when he is born he has nothing of understanding and nothing of will; and also that his understanding and his will are formed by degrees from infancy; from this a man becomes a man, and such a man as are the understanding and the will that have been formed in him. The understanding is formed by means of truths, and the will by means of goods, insomuch that his understanding is nothing else than a composition of such things as bear relation to truths, and his will is nothing else than the affection of such things as are called goods. From this it follows that a man is nothing but the truth and good from which his two faculties have been formed.

Each and all things of his body correspond to these, as can be seen from the fact that the body instantly does that which the understanding thinks and the will wills; for the mouth speaks in accordance with the thoughts, the face changes in accordance with the affections, and the body makes movements in accordance with the commands of both. From this it is evident that a man is wholly such as are his understanding and his will, thus such as he is in respect to truths and in respect to goods; for as before said, truths constitute his understanding, and goods his will; or what is the same, a man is his own truth and his own good.

That this is so appears openly with spirits; these are nothing else than their own truths and their own goods which they had put on when they lived in the world as men; and yet they are human forms. Consequently from their face shines forth the quality of the truths and goods which they have; and this is also perceived from the sound and disposition of their speech, and from their gestures, especially from their spoken words; for their spoken words are not such as are with men in the world, but are in perfect harmony with their truths and goods, so as to proceed from these quite naturally. In this speech are spirits and angels when they are conversing together; and in respect to his spirit, man is in a like speech during his life in this world, although he is then unaware of it; for he thinks from similar ideas, as has also been observed by some learned men who have called these ideas immaterial and intellectual. After death, when the man becomes a spirit, these ideas become words. From all this it is again evident that a man is not anything else than his own truth and his own good. Hence it is that after death a man remains such truth and good as he has become.

It is said "such truth and good as he has become," and thereby is also meant such falsity and evil as he has become; for evil men call falsity truth and evil good. This is a secret which must by all means be known, in order that it may be known how the case is with Divine worship; but besides this there is one secret more, namely, that in every idea of thought proceeding from a man's will there is the whole man. This moreover follows from the former, for a man thinks from his truth and wills from his good, which are himself. That this is so can be seen from the following experience. When the angels perceive a single idea of a man, or a single idea of a spirit, they at once know the quality of the man or of the spirit.

These things have been said in order that it may be known how the case is with Divine worship ... namely, that the whole man is in each and all things of his worship, because his truth and good are there, which are himself. ... From all this it also follows that it is the same whether you say that Divine worship consists of these truths and goods, or that man consists of them, because as before said the whole man is in every one of the ideas of his thought, which are of his worship.

(Arcana Coelestia 10298)

Man's OWN is Nothing but the Love of Self and of the World

From Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

There are two so-called loves and their cupidities that obstruct the influx of heavenly love from the Lord; for when these loves reign in the interior and in the external man, and take possession thereof, they either reject or suffocate, and also pervert and contaminate, the inflowing heavenly love; for they are utterly contrary to heavenly love.... But insofar as these loves are removed, so far the heavenly love flowing in from the Lord begins to appear, nay, to give light in the interior man; and so far he begins to see that he is in evil and falsity; next that he is actually in uncleanness and filthiness; and finally that this has been his Own. They who are becoming regenerate are those with whom these loves are being removed.

Observation of this removal is possible also with the unregenerate, for when the cupidities of these loves are quiescent in them, as sometimes occurs when they are in holy meditation, or when the cupidities are lulled, as happens when they are in misfortunes, in sicknesses, and diseases, and especially at the moment of death, then, because bodily and worldly things are lulled and as it were dead, they observe something of heavenly light and the consequent comfort. But with these persons there is not removal of the cupidities in question, but only a lulling of them, for when they return into their former state, they at once relapse into the same cupidities.

With the evil also, bodily and worldly things can be lulled, and they can then be as it were uplifted into a kind of heavenliness, as sometimes takes place with souls in the other life, especially those newly arrived, who intensely desire to see the glory of the Lord, because they had heard so much about heaven while they lived in the world. The external things above referred to are then lulled in them, and in this way they are carried into the first heaven and enjoy their desire. But they cannot remain long, because there is only a quiescence of the bodily and worldly things, and not a removal of them, as with the angels.

Be it known that heavenly love is continually inflowing into man from the Lord, and that nothing else obstructs and impedes it, and causes its reception by the man impossible, except the cupidities of those loves and the falsities derived from them.

(Arcana Coelestia 2041)