Heavenly Love vs Love of Self

Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The love of self is wishing well to oneself alone, and to others only for the sake of self; even to the Church, one's country, or any human society. It consists also in doing good to all these solely for the sake of one's own reputation, honor, and glory; and unless these are seen in the uses he performs to others he says in his heart: "How does it concern me? Why should I do this? What shall I get from it?" And therefore he does not do it.

Evidently, then, he who is in the love of self does not love the Church or his country or society, nor any use, but himself alone. His delight is solely the delight of the love of self — and as the delight that comes forth from his love is what makes the life of man, his life is a life of self — and a life of self is a life from man's proprium, and man's proprium, regarded in itself is nothing but evil. He who loves himself loves also those who belong to him, that is, in particular, his children and grandchildren, and in general, all who are at one with him, whom he calls his. To love them is to love himself; for he regards them as it were in himself and himself in them. Among those whom he calls his are also all who commend, honor, and pay their court to him.

The quality of the love of self can be confirmed from a comparison with heavenly love.

Heavenly love is loving uses for the sake of uses, or goods for the sake of goods, which are done by man for the Church, his country, human society, and a fellow-citizen; for this is loving God and loving the neighbor, since all uses and all goods are from God, and are the neighbor who is to be loved. But he who loves these for the sake of himself loves them merely as servants because they are serviceable to him. Consequently, it is the will of one who is in self-love that the Church, his country, human societies, and his fellow-citizens, should serve him, and not he them, for he places himself above them and places them beneath himself. Therefore, so far as anyone is in the love of self he separates himself from heaven, because he removes himself from heavenly love.

Furthermore, so far as anyone is in heavenly love, which is loving uses and goods and being moved by delight of heart when doing them for the sake of the Church, country, human society, and a fellow-citizen, he is so far led by the Lord, because that love is the love in which the Lord is, and which is from Him. But so far as anyone is in the love of self, which is performing uses and goods for the sake of himself so far he is led by himself and so far as anyone is led by himself he is not led by the Lord. And from this it also follows that so far as anyone loves himself he removes himself from the Divine, thus also from heaven.

To be led by one's self is to be led by one's proprium and man's proprium is nothing but evil.

Man's inherited evil is loving self more than God, and the world more than heaven. Whenever man looks to himself in the good that he does, he is let into his proprium, that is, into his inherited evils; for he then looks from goods to himself and not from himself to goods, and therefore he presents an image of himself in his goods, and not an image of the Divine. That this is so has also been proved to me by experience. There are evil spirits whose dwelling-places are in the middle quarter between the north and the west, beneath the heavens, who are skilled in the art of leading well-disposed spirits into their proprium and thus into evils of various kinds. This they do by leading them into thoughts about themselves, either openly by praises and honours, or secretly by directing their affections to themselves; and so far as this is done they turn the faces of the well-disposed spirits away from heaven, and to the same extent they obscure their understanding and call forth evils from their proprium.

That the love of self is the opposite of love towards the neighbor can be seen from the origin and essence of both.

The love of the neighbor with one who is in the love of self begins with oneself, for he claims that anyone is neighbor to oneself — it goes forth from him as its center to all who make one with him, diminishing in accordance with the degree of their conjunction with him by love. All outside of this circle are regarded as of no account; and those who are opposed to those in the circle and to their evils are accounted as enemies, whatever their character may be, however wise, upright, honest, or just. But spiritual love towards the neighbor begins with the Lord, and goes forth from Him as its center to all who are conjoined to Him by love and faith, going forth in accordance with the quality of the love and faith with them. So it is clear that the love of the neighbor that begins from man is the opposite of the love towards the neighbor that begins from the Lord. The former proceeds from evil because it proceeds from man's proprium, while the latter proceeds from good because it proceeds from the Lord, Who is Good Itself. It is clear also that the love of the neighbor that proceeds from man and his proprium is corporeal, while the love towards the neighbor that proceeds from the Lord is heavenly.

(from Heaven and Hell 556-558)

Heaven and Heavenly Joy

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

Hitherto the nature of heaven and of heavenly joy has been known to none. Those who have thought about them have formed an idea concerning them so general and so gross as scarcely to amount to any idea at all. What notion they have conceived on the subject I have been able to learn most accurately from spirits who had recently passed from the world into the other life; for when left to themselves, as if they were in this world, they think in the same way. I may give a few examples.

Some who during their abode in this world had seemed to be preeminently enlightened in regard to the Word had conceived so false an idea about heaven that they supposed themselves to be in heaven when they were high up, and imagined that from that position they could rule all things below, and thus be in self-glory and preeminence over others. On account of their being in such a phantasy, and in order to show them that they were in error, they were taken up on high, and from there were permitted in some measure to rule over things below; but they discovered with shame that this was a heaven of phantasy and that heaven does not consist in being on high, but is wherever there is anyone who is in love and charity, or in whom is the Lord's kingdom; and that neither does it consist in desiring to be more eminent than others, for to desire to be greater than others is not heaven, but hell.

A certain spirit, who during his life in the body had possessed authority, retained in the other life the desire to exercise command. But he was told that he was now in another kingdom, which is eternal; that his rule on earth was dead; and that where he was now no one is held in estimation except in accordance with the good and truth, and the mercy of the Lord, in which he is; and further, that it is in that kingdom as it is on earth, where everyone is rated according to his wealth, and his favor with his sovereign; and that there good and truth are wealth, and favor with the sovereign is the Lord's mercy; and that if he desired to exercise command in any other way, he was a rebel, seeing that he was now in the kingdom of another. On hearing this he was ashamed.

I have conversed with spirits who supposed heaven and heavenly joy to consist in being the greatest. But they were told that in heaven he is greatest who is least, because he who would be the least has the greatest happiness, and consequently is the greatest, for what is it to be the greatest except to be the most happy? it is this that the powerful seek by power, and the rich by riches. They were told, further, that heaven does not consist in desiring to be the least in order to be the greatest, for in that case the person is really aspiring and wishing to be the greatest; but that heaven consists in this, that from the heart we wish better for others than for ourselves, and desire to be of service to others in order to promote their happiness, and this for no selfish end, but from love.

Some entertain so gross an idea of heaven that they suppose it to be mere admission, in fact that it is a room into which they are admitted through a door, which is opened, and then they are let in by the doorkeepers.

Some think that heaven consists in a life of ease, in which they are served by others; but they are told that there is no possible happiness in being at rest as a means of happiness, for so everyone would wish to have the happiness of others made tributary to his own happiness; and when everyone wished this, no one would have happiness. Such a life would not be an active life, but an idle one, in which they would grow torpid, and yet they might know that there is no happiness except in an active life. Angelic life consists in use, and in the goods of charity; for the angels know no greater happiness than in teaching and instructing the spirits that arrive from the world; in being of service to men, controlling the evil spirits about them lest they pass the proper bounds, and inspiring the men with good; and in raising up the dead to the life of eternity, and then, if the souls are such as to render it possible, introducing them into heaven.

From all this, they perceive more happiness than can possibly be described. Thus are they images of the Lord; thus do they love the neighbor more than themselves; and for this reason heaven is heaven. So that angelic happiness is in use, from use, and according to use, that is, it is according to the goods of love and of charity. When those who have the idea that heavenly joy consists in living at ease, idly breathing in eternal joy, have heard these things, they are given to perceive, in order to shame them, what such a life really is, and they perceive that it is a most sad one, that it is destructive of all joy, and that after a short time they would loathe and nauseate it.

One who in this world had been most learned in regard to the Word, had the idea that heavenly joy consists in being in a glorious light, like that which exists when the solar rays appear of a golden hue, so that he too supposed it to consist in a life of ease. In order that he might know himself to be in error, such a light was granted him, and he, being in the midst of the light, was as delighted as if he were in heaven, as indeed he said. But he could not remain long in it, for it gradually wearied him and became no joy at all.

The best instructed of them all said that heavenly joy consists solely in praising and glorifying the Lord, being a life destitute of any doing of the goods of charity, and that this is an active life. But they were told that praising and celebrating the Lord is not such an active life as is meant, but is an effect of that life; for the Lord has no need of praises, but wills that they should do the goods of charity, and that it is according to these that they will receive happiness from the Lord. But still these best instructed persons could form no idea of joy, but of servitude, in doing these goods of charity. But the angels testified that such a life is the freest of all, and that it is conjoined with happiness unutterable.

Almost all who pass from this world into the other life suppose that hell is the same for everyone, and that heaven is the same for everyone. And yet in both there are endless, diversities and varieties, and neither the heaven nor the hell of one person is ever exactly like that of another; just as no man, spirit, or angel is ever exactly like another. When I merely thought of there being two exactly alike or equal, horror was excited in the inhabitants of the world of spirits and of the angelic heaven, and they said that everyone is formed by the harmony of many components, and that such as is the harmony, such is the one, and that it is impossible for anything to subsist that is absolutely a one, but only a one that results from a harmony of component parts. Thus every society in the heavens forms a one, and so do all the societies together, that is, the universal heaven, and this from the Lord alone, through love. A certain angel enumerated the most universal only of the genera of the joys of spirits, that is, of the first heaven, to about four hundred and seventy-eight, from which we may infer how innumerable must be the less universal genera and the species in each genus. And as there are so many in that heaven, how, illimitable must be the genera of happinesses in the heaven of angelic spirits, and still more so in the heaven of angels.

Evil spirits have sometimes supposed that there is another heaven besides that of the Lord, and they have been permitted to seek for it wherever they could, but to their confusion they could never find any other heaven. For evil spirits rush into insanities both from the hatred they bear against the Lord, and from their infernal suffering, and catch at such phantasies.

There are three heavens: the first is the abode of good spirits; the second, of angelic spirits and the third, of angels. Spirits, angelic spirits, and angels are all distinguished into the celestial and the spiritual. The celestial are those who through love have received faith from the Lord, like the men of the Most Ancient Church treated of above. The spiritual are those who through knowledges of faith have received charity from the Lord, and who act from what they have received.

(Arcana Coelestia 449-459)

Man's Love Determines His Thoughts Into Societies

Selection from Apocalypse Explained ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The thoughts of man are extensions into societies either heavenly or infernal. If there were no extensions there would be no thoughts. For man's thought is like the sight of his eyes; if sight had no extension out of itself, either there would be no sight or there would be blindness. But it is a man's love that determines his thoughts into societies, good love determining them into heavenly societies, and evil love into infernal societies; for the entire heaven is arranged into societies, generally, particularly, and most particularly, according to all the varieties of affections belonging to the love. While on the other hand, hell is arranged into societies according to the cupidities of the love of evil, which are opposite to the affections of the love of good.

Man's love is comparatively like fire, and his thoughts are like rays of light therefrom. If the love is good, the thoughts, which are like rays, are truths. If the love is evil, the thoughts, which are like rays, are falsities. Thoughts from a good love, which are truths, tend towards heaven; while thoughts from an evil love, which are falsities, tend towards hell and conjoin themselves with homogeneous societies, that is, with societies of like love, and adapt themselves to them, and ingraft themselves into them, and so intimately that the man is wholly one with them.

Through love to the Lord man is an image of the Lord.

The Lord is the Divine love; and in heaven before the angels He appears as a sun. From that sun light and heat proceed; the light is the Divine truth and the heat is the Divine good. From these two is the whole heaven, and from them are all the societies of heaven. The Lord's love in a man who is an image of Him is like the fire from that sun, from which fire also light and heat proceed; the light is the truth of faith and the heat is the good of love; both of these are from the Lord, and both are implanted in the societies with which the man's love acts as one. That man from creation is an image and likeness of God is evident from Genesis 1:26:

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

and he is an image and likeness of the Lord by means of love, because by means of love he is in the Lord and the Lord is in him:

At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him. John 14:20, 21

In a word, not the least thought can exist unless it finds reception in some society, not in the individuals or angels of the society, but in the affection of love from which and in which that society is; and for this reason the angels are not aware of the influx at all, and such influx in no way disturbs the society.

From all this, the truth is clear that while man is living in the world he is in conjunction with heaven and also in consociation with angels, although both men and angels are unconscious of it. They are unconscious of it because man's thought is natural and an angel's thought is spiritual, and these make one only by correspondence.

Because man is inaugurated into societies either of heaven or hell by means of the thoughts of his love, so when he comes into the spiritual world, as he does immediately after death, his character is known merely by the extensions of his thoughts into societies; and thus everyone is explored; and he is reformed by the admissions of his thoughts into the societies of heaven, and is condemned by the immersions of his thoughts in the societies of hell.

(from Apocalypse Explained 1093)