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Swedenborg's
Spiritual Philosophy
In order to
achieve an understanding of the profound implications--in
terms of individual human life and spiritual
regeneration--of these and other principles that
constitute the foundation of New Church theology, it is
necessary to read Swedenborg's writings themselves. What
follows is merely a small sampling of the treasures found
in Swedenborg's works.
Throughout
Swedenborg's Writings, much attention is given to what may be called the
universal laws of spiritual life. The following is a summary of some of these
basic principles, stated in the most general form.
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God
and Creation
God is love itself and
wisdom itself, and these two make His essence. (True
Christian Religion, n. 37)
God is goodness itself and truth itself, because good is
of love, and truth is of wisdom. (True Christian
Religion, n. 38)
God, because He is love itself and wisdom itself, is life
itself, which is life in itself. (True Christian
Religion, n. 39)
God is infinite, since He is and exists in Himself,
and all things in the universe are and exist from Him. (True
Christian Religion, n. 28)
The Divine is not variable and changeable, as is
everything which belongs to space and time, or everything
which belongs to nature, but is constant and immutable;
consequently everywhere and always the same. (Divine
Love and Wisdom, n. 77)
Since God is substance and form itself, and the only, and
thus the first, substance and form, the essence of which
is love and wisdom, and since from Him all things were
made that are made, it follows that He created the
universe, with all and everything of it, from love by
means of wisdom. (True Christian Religion, n. 37)
Every created thing is in itself inanimate and dead, but
it is animated and given life by this, that the Divine is
in it and it is in the Divine. (Divine Love and Wisdom,
n. 53)
Although the Divine is in each and all things of the
created universe, there is in their being nothing of the
Divine in itself; for the created universe is not God, but
is from God; and since it is from God, there is in it an
image of Him like the image of a man in a mirror, wherein
indeed the man appears, but still there is nothing of the
man in it. (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 59)
The universal end, that is, the end of all things of
creation, is that there may be an eternal conjunction of
the Creator with the created universe; and this is not
possible unless there are subjects wherein His Divine can
be as in Itself, thus in which it can dwell and abide. In
order that these subjects may be His dwelling-places and
habitations, they must be recipients of His love and
wisdom as of themselves; such, therefore, as will elevate
themselves to the Creator as of themselves, and conjoin
themselves with Him. Without this ability to reciprocate,
no conjunction is possible. (Divine Love and Wisdom, n.
170)
All things in the world were created after the image
of things that are in heaven, because natural things come
forth from spiritual things as effects from their
causes.... Universal nature is a theater representative of
the Lord's kingdom. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 8812)
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Humanity
We are because God is. (Divine
Providence, n. 46)
The life of everyone--of mortal, of spirit, and also of
angel--flows in solely from the Lord, who is life itself,
and diffuses itself... into everyone. The life which flows
in is received by each one according to his disposition.
Goodness and truth are received as goodness and truth by
the good. But goodness and truth are received as evil and
falsity by the evil, and are also turned into evil and
falsity in them. The case with this is comparatively like
the light of the sun, which diffuses itself into all the
objects of the earth, but is received according to the
quality of each object, and becomes of a beautiful color
in beautiful forms, and of a disagreeable color in
disagreeable forms. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 2888)
[The Lord] appears according to the quality of the person,
because a person receives the Divine no otherwise than
according to his own quality. (Arcana Coelestia, n.
6832)
The Divine cannot he seen by anyone otherwise than
according to the state of his life and the perception
therefrom. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 8781)
Man has two faculties which make his life; one is called
the will and the other the understanding. These are
distinct from each other, but are so created that they may
be one; and when they are one they are called the mind.
These therefore comprise the human mind, and the whole
life of man is there. (Heavenly Doctrine, n. 28)
All things in the universe, which are according to Divine
order, have relation to goodness and truth. There is
nothing in heaven and nothing in the world that does not
relate to these two. The reason is that both goodness and
truth proceed from the Divine, with Whom all things are. (Heavenly
Doctrine, n. 11)
As all things in the universe, which are according to
Divine order, have relation to goodness and truth, so all
things with man have relation to the will and the
understanding. For the goodness with man belongs to his
will and the truth with him to his understanding; for
these two faculties, or these two lives of man, are their
receptacles and subjects. The will is the receptacle of
all things of goodness, and the understanding the
receptacle of all things of truth. (Heavenly Doctrine,
n. 29)
The life of God in all its fullness is not only with
people good and pious, but is also with the wicked and the
impious; with the angels of heaven and the spirits of
hell. The difference is that the wicked obstruct the way
and close the door, lest God should enter the lower
regions of their minds, whereas the good prepare the way
and open the door, and also invite God to enter into the
lower regions of their minds, even as He dwells in its
higher regions. Thus the gOod form the state of the will
for the influx of love and charity, and the state of the
understanding for the influx of wisdom and faith,
consequently for the reception of God. (True Christian
Religion, n. 366)
Good continually flows in from the Lord. It is the evil of
life that hinders its being received in the truths which
are with man in his memory or knowledge. Insofar as a
person recedes from evil, so far good enters and applies
itself to his truths. Then the truth of faith with him
becomes the goodness of faith. A person may indeed know
truth, may also confess it under the incitement of some
worldly cause, may even be persuaded that it is true. Yet
this truth does not live so long as he is in a life of
evil. Such a person is like a tree on which there are
leaves, but no fruit. His truth is like the light in which
there is no heat, such as there is in the time of winter
when nothing grows. But when there is heat in it, the
light then becomes such as there is in the time of spring,
when all things grow. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 2388)
Each person has for an end that which he loves above
all else; he regards this in each and all things. It is in
his will like the hidden current of a river, which draws
and bears him along, even when he is doing something else,
for it is this which animates him. (Heavenly Doctrine,
n. 56)
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The Origin of Evil
Because God gave man
freedom of choice in spiritual things He did not create
evil, neither does He ever inspire any evil into man, for
the reason that He is goodness itself, and in that
goodness is omnipresent, continually urging and
importuning to be received; and even when not received, He
does not withdraw; for if He were to withdraw, man would
instantly die, nay, would lapse into nonentity; for man's
life, and the subsistence of all things of which he
consists, are from God. God did not create evil, but evil
was introduced by man himself, since man turns the good
which is continually flowing in from God into evil,
whereby he turns himself away from God and toward himself;
and when this is done, delight in goodness remains, but
then becomes delight in evil; for unless a delight
seemingly similar remained, man could not continue to
live; since delight constitutes the life of his love. (True
Christian Religion, n. 490)
The origin of evil is from the abuse of the capacities
proper to humanity that are called rationality and
freedom. (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 264)
How could evil come into existence when by creation
nothing but good existed? If a thing is to exist, it must
have an origin. Good could not be the origin of evil, for
evil is the privation and destruction of good and
therefore its nullity. Yet, since it is and is sensated,
it is not nothing but something. Whence has this something
had its existence after being nothing? None is good save
God alone, and there is no goodness which in itself is
goodness save from God. Therefore, he who looks to God and
wills to be led by God is in goodness; but he who turns
away from God and wills to be led by himself is not in
goodness; for the good which he does is done either for
the sake of himself or for the sake of the world, and so
is meritorious or simulated or hypocritical. It is clear,
therefore, that man himself is the origin of evil; not
that this origin was planted in man from creation, but by
turning away from God, he planted it in himself. To eat of
that tree [of the knowledge of good and evil] signifies to
believe that one knows goodness and evil and is wise from
himself and not from God. Man was so created that
everything which he wills, thinks, and does appears to him
as if in himself and thus from himself. Without this
appearance, a person would not be human, for he could not
receive, retain, and, as it were, appropriate to himself
anything of goodness and truth or of love and wisdom. From
this it follows that without this appearance--a living
appearance, as it were--man would have no conjunction with
God, nor any eternal life therefrom. But if from this
appearance he induces on himself the belief that he wills,
thinks, and hence does good from himself and not from the
Lord, though in all appearance as from himself, he then
turns goodness with him into evil, and thus makes in
himself the origin of evil... He who looks with his face
to the Lord receives wisdom from Him, and through wisdom,
love; but he who looks backwards away from the Lord
receives love and not wisdom, and love without wisdom is
love from man and not from the Lord. This love, because it
conjoins itself with falsities, does not acknowledge God
but acknowledges itself as God, and it tacitly confirms
this acknowledgment by the faculty, implanted in man from
creation, of being wise as if from himself. This love,
therefore, is the origin of evil. (Conjugial Love, n.
444)
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Free Will
So long as a person is in
this world he is midway between evil and good, and is kept
in freedom to turn himself to either the one or the other;
if he turns to evil he turns away from good; if he turns
to good he turns away from evil. (Life 19)
All freedom is of love, for what a person loves, this he
does freely, hence also all freedom is of the will, for
what a person loves, this he also wills; and because love
and the will make the life of man, so also does freedom. (Heavenly
Doctrine, n. 141)
Man's free will lies in the fact that he feels the
life in himself to be his own. God leaves him so to feel
in order that conjunction may be effected, which is not
possible unless it be reciprocal, and it becomes
reciprocal when a person acts from freedom altogether as
if from himself. If God had not left this to man he would
not be man, neither would he have eternal life. Reciprocal
conjunction with God causes man to be man and not a beast,
and also causes him to live after death to eternity. Free
will in spiritual things effects this. (True Christian
Religion, n. 504)
In order that he may be reformed, a person has freedom to
think evil and falsity, and also to act accordingly so far
as the laws do not restrain him; for goods and truths must
be rooted in his love and will, so that they may become of
his life. This cannot be done unless he has the freedom of
thinking evil and falsity as well as good and truth. (Heavenly
Doctrine, n. 143)
That alone from which man is man, and by which he is
conjoined with the Lord, is that he can do good and
believe truth as if from himself, that is, as if from his
own will according to his own judgment. If this single
thing were taken away from him, all conjunction of man
with the Lord, and of the Lord with man, would also be
taken away at the same time. For this is the reciprocal of
love, which the Lord gives to everyone who is born a human
being, and which he also preserves in him even to the end
of his life, and afterwards to eternity. (Apocalypse
Revealed, n. 541)
There is hellish freedom and heavenly freedom. To think
and will evil and, so far as civil and moral laws do not
restrain, to speak and to do it, is from hellish freedom.
Whatever a person thinks, wills, speaks, and does from
freedom, he perceives as his own; for all freedom with
everyone is from his love. Therefore they who are in the
love of evil perceive only that hellish freedom is freedom
itself, and they who are in the love of good perceive that
heavenly freedom is freedom itself. (Divine Providence,
n. 43)
Man never comes into a state of [genuine] freedom until he
has been regenerated, and is led by the Lord through love
for what is good and true. When he is in this state, then
for the first time can he know and perceive what freedom
is, because he then knows what life is, and what the true
delight of life is, and what happiness is. Before this he
does not even know what good is, sometimes calling that
the greatest good which is the greatest evil. (Arcana
Coelestia, n. 892)
It is a law of order that so far as a person approaches
and draws near to God, doing so entirely as of himself, so
far does God approach and draw near to the person, and
conjoin Himself to him in his inmost. (True Christian
Religion, n. 89)
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Charity, Faith, and Use
The first thing of charity
is not to do evil to the neighbor; to do good to him
occupies the second place. This is, as it were, the door
to the doctrine of charity. (True Christian Religion,
n. 435)
The life of charity consists in willing well and doing
well to the neighbor, in acting in every work from justice
and equity, from good and truth, and in like manner in
every office. In a word, the life of charity consists in
performing uses. (Heavenly Doctrine, n. 124)
Charity is therefore an internal affection from which
a person wills to do good, and this without remuneration.
The delight of his life consists in doing it. With those
who do good from an internal affection there is charity in
everything that they think and say, and that they will and
do. (Heavenly Doctrine, n. 104)
Moral life, when it is also spiritual, is a life of
charity, because the practices of a moral life and of
charity are the same. Charity is willing rightly towards
the neighbor, and consequently acting rightly towards him.
This is also moral life. (True Christian Religion, n.
444)
Charity, which in its essence is the affection of
knowing, understanding, willing, and doing truth, does not
come into any perception of man until it has formed itself
in the thought, which is from the understanding. It then
presents itself under some form or image by which it
appears before the interior sight, for the thought that a
thing is so in truth is called faith. From this it is
clear that charity is actually prior and faith posterior,
as good is actually prior and truth posterior, or as that
which produces is essentially prior to the product....
Charity is from the Lord, and is also formed first in the
spiritual mind. Because charity does not appear to a
person before it becomes faith... it may be said that
faith does not exist with a person until it becomes
charity in form.... They both come into existence at the
same moment. Although charity produces faith, yet as they
make one neither of them in respect to human perception
can exist separate from the other.... Faith when separated
from life is not alive, and what is not alive... can save
no one. (Apocalypse Explained, n. 795-96)
An idea of the good which is charity and the truth which
is faith may be formed from the light and heat of the sun.
When the light, which proceeds from the sun, is conjoined
to heat, as in spring and summer, then all things of the
earth germinate and blossom; but when there is no heat in
the light, as in winter, then all things of the earth
become torpid and die. Spiritual light is the truth of
faith and spiritual heat is love. (Heavenly Doctrine,
n. 114)
Only to believe is not faith, but to will and to do what
is believed, this is faith. (Last Judgment, n. 36)
The Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of ends, which are uses,
or what is the same thing, a kingdom of uses which are
ends. For this reason the universe has been so created and
formed by the Divine that uses may be everywhere.... In
the nature of the world, in its threefold kingdom, all
things exist in accordance with order and form of uses, or
effects formed from use for use.... In the case of man, so
far as he is in accordance with Divine order, that is, so
far as he is in love to the Lord and in charity towards
the neighbor, so far are his acts uses in form.... Through
these he is conjoined to heaven. To love the Lord and the
neighbor means in general to perform uses. (Heaven and
Hell, n. 112)
Love and wisdom without use are not anything; they are
only ideal entities; nor do they become real until they
are in use. Love, wisdom, and use are three things which
cannot be separated; for if they are separated, neither of
them is anything. Love is not anything without wisdom, but
in wisdom it is formed for something. This something is
use; wherefore when love by wisdom is in use, then it is
something, indeed it then first exists. They are thus
precisely like end, cause, and effect. (Apocalypse
Revealed, n. 875)
Use is the doing of good from love by means of wisdom. Use
is good itself. (Conjugial Love, n. 183)
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Wisdom, Intelligence,
and the Mind
From [the Lord] proceeds
wisdom, through wisdom intelligence, through intelligence
reason, and so by means of reason the knowledges of the
memory are vivified. This is the order of life. (Arcana
Coelestia, n. 121)
Let no one believe that he has wisdom because he knows
many things, perceives them in some light, and is able to
talk intelligently about them, unless his wisdom is
conjoined to love. It is love that, through its
affections, produces wisdom. Not conjoined to love, wisdom
is like a meteor vanishing in the air and like a falling
star. Wisdom united to love is like the abiding light of
the sun and like a fixed star. A person has the love of
wisdom when he is averse... to the lusts of evil and
falsity. (Divine Providence, n. 35)
The state of wisdom is when a person has no longer any
concern about understanding truths and goods, but about
willing and living them; for this is to be wise. (Arcana
Coelestia, n. 10225)
A person is in enlightenment when he is in the love of
truth for the sake of truth, and not for the sake of self
and the world. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 9424)
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 a person'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. A human being is discriminated from an animal
by possessing a spiritual mind. By means of this mind he
can be in heaven while still in the world. It is by means
of this mind also that man lives after death. (Life 86)
Love can be understood only from its quality, and its
quality is wisdom; and its quality or wisdom can only
exist from its being, which is love; hence it is that love
and wisdom are one. (Divine Providence, n. 13)
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Divine Providence
The Divine providence is
universal, that is, in things most minute; and those who
are in the stream of providence are borne continuously
toward happiness, whatever may be the appearance of the
means, and those are in the stream of providence who put
their trust in the Divine and attribute all things to Him.
(Arcana Coelestia, n. 8478)
Divine providence differs from all other leading and
guidance in this, that providence continually regards what
is eternal and continually leads unto salvation, and this
through various states, sometimes glad, sometimes sad,
which man cannot at all comprehend; but still they all
conduce to his life eternal. (Arcana Coelestia, n.
8560)
It is the unceasing effort of the Lord in His Divine
providence to conjoin man to Himself and Himself to man.
This conjunction is what is called reformation and
regeneration. By it man has salvation. (Divine
Providence, n. 123)
It is the constant aim of Divine providence to unite good
to truth and truth to good in a person, for so he is
united to the Lord. (Divine Providence, n. 21)
All things are full of God, and everyone takes his portion
from that fullness. (True Christian Religion, n. 364)
The Lord's providence is in the minutest things of all,
from the first thread of man's life even to the last, and
afterwards to eternity. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 5894)
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Religion and the
Universal Church
The church of the Lord is
scattered over the whole terrestrial globe, and thus is
universal. All they are in it who haNe lived in the good
of charity according to their religious belief. (Heaven
and Hell, n. 328)
It is the same whether you say a spiritual person or a
spiritual church; for a spiritual person is a church in
particular and many are the church in general. Unless a
person individually were a church, there could be no
church in general. An assembly in general is what, in
common language, is called a church; but in order that
there may be any church each one in that assembly must be
individually a church, for every general involves parts
like itself. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 4292)
,he church in general is constituted of those who are
churches in particular, however remote from each other
they may be. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 6637)
The conjunction of good and truth makes the church. (True
Christian Religion, n. 398)
By a person of the church is meant one who is in the good
of charity, and from that in truths of faith from the
Lord. (True Christian Religion, n. 249)
By a person of the church is meant a person in whom the
church is. (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 118)
Spiritual good is the good of truth, that is, truth in the
will and in the act. This truth, or this good of truth, in
a person makes him to be a church. (Arcana Coelestia,
n. 5826)
When a person perceives delights from an affection for
good and truth, he then begins to be a church. (Arcana
Coelestia, n. 3939)
A person of the church begins to be a church when he acts
from charity, which is the essential doctrine of faith. (Arcana
Coelestia, n. 916)
[If] truth itself [were] received as a principle, and
confirmed, as for example that love to the Lord and
charity toward the neighbor are that on which hangs all
the Law, and of which all the prophets speak, and that
they are therefore the essentials of all doctrine and
worship... one church would arise out of many, no matter
how greatly the doctrinal and ritual matters that flowed
from or led to it might differ. [Then] all would be
governed by the Lord as one man; for they would be as the
members of one body, which although not of similar form,
nor of similar function, yet all have relation to one
heart, on which depend all and each in their several
forms, that are everywhere varied. Then would each person
say, in whatever doctrine and in whatever outward worship
he might be, This is my brother, I see that he worships
the Lord, and is a good man. (Arcana Coelestia, n.
2385)
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Divine Revelation
Without a revelation from
the Divine, man cannot know anything concerning eternal
life, nor even anything concerning God, and still less
concerning love to, and faith in Him; for man is born into
mere ignorance, and must therefore learn everything from
worldly things, from which he must form his understanding.
(Heavenly Doctrine, n. 249)
That from the most ancient times there has been religion,
and that everywhere the inhabitants of the world have had
knowledge of God, and have known something about a life
after death, has not originated in themselves or their own
penetration, but from [Divine revelation]. (Sacred
Scripture, n. 117)
[People say] that the Word is from God, is divinely
inspired, and is therefore holy; and yet hitherto no one
has known wherein it is Divine. For in the letter the Word
appears like an ordinary book, in a style that is strange,
and neither so sublime nor so brilliant as secular
literature seems to be. For this reason a person who
worships nature as God, or in preference to God, and who
consequently thinks from himself and what is proper to
himself, and not from heaven from the Lord, may easily
fall into error in respect to the Word, and into contempt
for it, and while reading it may say to himself, What is
this? What is that? Can this be Divine? Could God, whose
wisdom is infinite, speak in this manner? Wherein consists
its holiness, and whence comes its holiness, except from
religious feeling and its consequent persuasion? (Sacred
Scripture, n. 1)
The Word is Divine chiefly in this respect, that all
things in it, both in general and in particular, do not
regard one nation or one people, but the universal human
race; namely, that which is, which has been, and which
will be; and also that which is still more universal,
namely, the Lord's kingdom in the heavens; and in the
supreme sense, the Lord Himself. It is for this reason
that the Word is Divine. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 3305)
Anyone who does not know that there is a certain spiritual
sense contained in the Word, like a soul in its body, is
obliged to judge of it from the sense of its letter; when
yet this sense is like an envelope enclosing precious
things, which are its spiritual sense. Therefore when this
internal sense is unknown the Divine holiness of the Word
can be estimated only as when a precious stone is
estimated from the matrix enclosing it, which often
appears like an ordinary rock... The same is true of the
Word in respect to the sense of its letter... The internal
sense in its essence is spiritual, and is within the
external sense, which is natural, as the soul is in the
body. That sense is the spirit that gives life to the
letter; consequently that sense can bear witness to the
Divinity and holiness of the Word, and convince even the
natural man, if he is willing to be convinced. (True
Christian Religion, n. 192)
Many things in the Word are said according to appearances,
and indeed according to the fallacies of the senses, as
that the Lord is angry, that He punishes, curses, kills,
and many other such things; when yet in the internal sense
they mean quite the contrary, namely, that the Lord is in
no wise angry and punishes, still less does He curse and
kill. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 1408)
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The Spiritual Life
That it is not so difficult
to live the life of heaven as is believed can be seen from
this, that when anything presents itself to a person which
he knows to be insincere and unjust, and to which his mind
is inclined, it is only necessary for him to think that it
must not be done because it is contrary to the Divine
precepts. If he accustoms himself so to think, and from
this acquires a habit, then he is gradually conjoined to
heaven, and so far as he is conjoined to heaven, the
higher regions of his mind are opened. So far as these are
opened, he sees what is insincere and unjust, and so far
as these are seen, so far can they be dissipated, for no
evil can be dissipated until it is seen. (Heaven and
Hell, n. 533)
The Lord's yoke is easy and his burden light because a
person is led by the Lord and not by self to the extent
that he resists the evils that flow forth from the love of
self and of the world; also because the Lord then resists
those evils in the person and removes them. (Heaven and
Hell, n. 359)
There are some who believe that to live the life that
leads to heaven, which is called the spiritual life, is
difficult, because they have heard that a person must
renounce the world, must divest himself of the lusts
called the lusts of the body and the flesh, and must live
spiritually. They understand this to mean that they must
discard worldly things which consist chiefly in riches and
honors; that they must walk continually in pious
meditation concerning God, salvation, and eternal life;
and must spend their life in prayers and in reading the
Word and pious books. Such is their idea of renouncing the
world, and living in the spirit and not in the flesh....
Those who renounce the world and live in the spirit in
this manner acquire a sorrowful life that is not receptive
of heavenly joy; for everyone's life remains with him. But
to receive the life of heaven a person must wholly live in
the world and engage in business and employments, and
then, by means of a moral and civil life there, receive
the spiritual life. In no other way can the spiritual life
be formed in a person, or his spirit prepared for heaven. (Heaven
and Hell, n. 528)
Renouncing the world means loving God and the neighbor.
God is loved when a person lives according to His
precepts, and the neighbor is loved when a person performs
uses. (Heavenly Doctrine, n. 126)
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Marriage Love
The conjunction of Divine
good and Divine truth in the Lord is the essential
marriage from which is the heavenly marriage, which is
likewise a marriage of good and truth; and from that is
marriage love. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 3132)
True marriage love is from the Lord alone, and exists in
those who are in the conjunction of good and truth from
the Lord. (Apocalypse Explained, n. 983)
From creation there has been implanted in both sexes a
faculty and inclination, whereby they are able and willing
to be conjoined as into a one. (Conjugial Love, n. 157)
Since this conjunctiveness was implanted by creation, and
hence is perpetually within, it follows that the one
desires and breathes conjunction with the other. Love,
considered in itself, is nothing else than a desire and
thence an effort towards conjunction; and marriage love is
an effort towards a conjunction into a one. For the male
human being and the female human being have been so
created that out of two they may become, as it were, one
person, or one flesh; and when they become one, then,
taken together, they are a person in fullness; but without
such a conjunction, they are two, and each of them is like
a divided or half a person. (Conjugial Love, n. 37)
Marriage love is of such a nature that each wishes to be
altogether the other's, and this reciprocally; and when
this is realized mutually and reciprocally, they are in
heavenly happiness. Also, the conjunction of minds is of
such a nature that this mutuality and reciprocality are in
everything of their life, that is, in everything of their
affection, and in everything of their thought. (Arcana
Coelestia, n. 2731)
Marriage love, among its first aspirations, looks to a
union of wills, and a consequent freedom to do its
pleasure. Striving after preeminence, or for control,
casts these two out of marriage; for it sunders and
separates the wills into parties, and transforms freedom
of action into servitude. (Conjugial Love, n. 248)
Into marriage love all joys and all delights from first to
last are gathered. All delights of whatever kind that are
felt by human beings have relation to their love. By these
delights their love manifests itself, exists, and lives.
Delights are exalted in the degree that love is exalted;
so as marriage love is the foundation of all good loves,
and as it is inscribed upon the very least things of man,
it follows that its delights exceed the delights of all
other loves; and also that it imparts delight to all other
loves according to its presence and, at the same time, its
conjunction with them. For it expands the inmost things of
the mind and, at the same time, the inmost things of the
body, as the delicious current of its fountain flows
through and opens them. (Conjugial Love, n. 68)
Marriage love of one man with one wife is called the
precious treasure of human life.... In and from this union
are the celestial beatitudes, the spiritual satisfactions,
and from these the natural delights, which have been
provided from the beginning for those who are in true
marriage love. It is the fundamental love of all
celestial, spiritual, and... natural loves. (Conjugial
Love, n. 457)
In its essence, conjugial love is nothing else than the
willing of two to be a one, that is, their will that the
two lives shall become one life. (Conjugial Love, n.
215)
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The Life after Death
Man's spirit, which is his
mind in his body, is in its entire form a human being. A
person after death is just as much a person as he was in
the world, with this difference only, that he has cast off
the coverings that formed his body in the world. (Divine
Providence, n. 124)
All people, as to the interiors which belong to their
minds, are spirits, clothed in the world with a material
body, which is subject to the command of the spirit's
thought and the decision of its affection. For the mind,
which is spirit, acts, and the body, which is matter, is
acted upon. Every spirit, too, after the rejection of the
material body, is a person similar in form as a person in
the world. (Apocalypse Explained, n. 1142)
Heaven is within man, and those who have heaven within
them come into heaven. Heaven with man is acknowledging
the Divine and being led by the Divine. (Heaven and
Hell, n. 319)
Hell and heaven are near to man, yea, in man. Hell [is] in
an evil person, and heaven in a good person. Everyone
comes after death into that hell or into that heaven in
which he has been while in the world. But the state is
then changed; the hell which was not perceived in the
world becomes perceptible, and the heaven which was not
perceived in the world becomes perceptible. (Arcana
Coelestia, n. 8918)
A person is wholly such as is the ruling principle of his
life. By this he is distinguished from others. According
to this is formed his heaven if he is good, and his hell
if he is evil. It is his veriest will, and thus the very
being of his life, which cannot be changed after death. (Arcana
Coelestia, n. 8858)
In the Lord's kingdom there are innumerable varieties of
good and truth, but from them is constituted one heaven.
The varieties are so numerous that no [angelic] society is
ever exactly like another, that is, in the same good and
truth. Oneness there is constituted of many various things
so arranged by the Lord that they are concordant; this
concordance or harmony of many things is given by the Lord
in consequence of their all having relation to Him. (Arcana
Coelestia, n. 3241)
There are two things which make hell, as there are two
which make heaven. The two which make heaven are good and
truth, and the two which make hell are evil and falsity.
Consequently it is these two in heaven which make the
happiness there; and it is the two in hell which make the
torment there. (Arcana Coelestia, n. 8481)
Evil in a person is hell with him; for whether we say evil
or hell, it is the same thing. Now since man is the cause
of his own evil, therefore he also is led into hell by
himself and not by the Lord. The Lord is so far from
leading a person into hell that He delivers him from hell,
insofar as a person does not will and love to be in his
own evil. All the will and love of man remain with him
after death. He who wills and loves evil in the world,
wills and loves the same evil in the other life, and then
he no longer suffers himself to be withdrawn from it.
Thence it is that a person who is in evil is bound to
hell, and is actually there as to his spirit; and, after
death, desires nothing more than to be there where his
evil is. Consequently, after death, it is not the Lord who
casts a person into hell, but the person himself. (Heaven
and Hell, n. 547)
The angels taken collectively are called heaven, for they
constitute heaven; and yet that which makes heaven in
general and in particular is the Divine that goes forth
from the Lord and flows into the angels and is received by
them. And as the Divine that goes forth from the Lord is
the good of love and the truth of faith, the angels are
angels and are heaven in the measure in which they receive
good and truth from the Lord. (Heaven and Hell, n. 7)
Heavenly joy itself, such as it is in its essence, cannot
be described, because it is in the inmost of the life of
angels and therefrom in everything of their thought and
affection, and from this in every particular of their
speech and action. It is as if the interiors were fully
opened and unloosed to receive delight and blessedness,
which are distributed to every least fiber and thus
through the whole. Thus the perception and sensation of
this joy is so great as to be beyond description, for that
which starts from the inmosts flows into every particular
derived from the inmosts, propagating itself away with
increase towards the exteriors. (Heaven and Hell, n.
409)
The Divine flow
of life
All
life ceaselessly flows from the Divine Source, maintaining the outer physical
universe and inner spiritual levels in existence. If this were to cease for a
moment, everything would perish. This flow of life--itself perfect and good--is
maintained equally with both good and evil people; the former channeling it in
its purity, and the latter distorting it for their own evil ends.
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People are
recipients of life
The
appearance--and persuasion--of our senses is that we have life from within
ourselves. This is an essential law of a loving Divine Creation, which gives
life and freedom. The appearance we live in provides the basis for our spiritual
freedom to acknowledge or deny the Divine. The truth, which the spiritual person
increasingly comes to know, is that we receive all things from the Divine.
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A dynamic
duality exists in creation
The
Divine Itself is one, yet our finite perception of the Divine requires a sense
of duality to increase our understanding of it. As with the heat and light of
the sun, which is from one source, but is distinguished by us into two distinct
energies, light and heat so we perceive the Divine nature as being both Love and
Wisdom. The relationship between the two forms a dynamic, since they work
towards unity to provide life.
From this come the forms of dualism in creation, such as male and female,
symmetry, etc., and the internal dualities of good and truth, will and
understanding, faith and charity, etc., which are complementary to one another.
The essential balance in all life is a manifestation of this.
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People form
their own sense of reality, which is eternity
There
are many levels of awareness that have the potential to become consciously
opened up within the developing human soul. As we turn towards the Divine
Source, higher levels of conscious awareness become opened and form our sense of
what is real. Our eventual chosen level becomes permanent and forms our final
view of reality, within which further awareness takes place.
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Divine life is
one, but is perceived in discrete degrees
The
concept of "discrete" degrees is central to New Church theology, and
concerns the variations within spiritual life and development. It is impossible
to progress gradually from one level to another, as with continuous degrees of
increasing light, heat, and height. A discrete degree involves a shift from one
level to another: for example, from knowledge to wisdom, and from wisdom to
love. Yet, in spite of being distinct, higher degrees are within corresponding
lower ones, as their source. All spiritual forms are in discrete degrees.
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A truth-good
inversion is the pattern of spiritual growth
All
spiritual development is of a discrete and cyclic nature. Initially, a person's
perception of spiritual life seeks to acquire a knowledge or understanding of
what is true, which is seen as the goal. But the second stage of the cycle of
regeneration brings about an abrupt and discrete change of emphasis, in which
truth, now seen, leads the will of a person to seek expression in something
good, useful, and living. Thus, there is an inversion.
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Negative states
are inevitably part of spiritual life
The
pattern of spiritual life can be expressed in the form of a sine-wave or
undulation of "highs" and "lows." This is due to a necessary
period of loss of vision or "temptation" (defined in Swedenborg's
theological writings as an "attack on what we love") during spiritual
growth. When we receive a new level of insight or motivation from the Divine,
this needs to be made "ours" by first appearing to be taken from us.
This leads us to choose at depth whether we genuinely wish to rediscover the
initial vision, and the work of setting ourselves to this goal is the major part
of regeneration.
This pattern is a continuing one in spiritual development, even eternal,
although angels do not experience the same degree of "swings," having
established a true relationship with the Divine.
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Linking with the higher self
The Divine lives within
each person, but much of Its activity lies beyond human comprehension, or beyond
our ability to harm or interfere with Its purpose of salvation. Yet people who
are developing spiritually tend to come into an awareness of their own
"higher" self, from which spring perception, conscience, commitment,
will and motivation, and general positivity. This higher self, contrasted with
ordinary human responses, which are of a lower kind, is an experience of the
Divine within us.
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The Divine
seeks to reveal Itself
The
Divine seeks to make Itself known to what It has created. It does this in part
through the order of the created world, which expresses and mirrors spiritual
causes and, ultimately, the nature of the Divine Itself. In Swedenborg's
theological writings, this relationship is described as
"correspondence." The Divine also manifests Itself through personal
revelation, which can take the form of internal images or insights experienced,
for example, during meditation, or collectively in mythological themes and
figures; or, most powerfully, through a revealed Scripture, such as the Bible,
Qur'an, or Bhagavad Gita, in which Divine truths find precise and poetic
expression, accommodated to particular types and levels of human reception, as a
fixed revelation to mankind.
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The outer and
inner worlds are in correspondence
The
natural world in which we now live is created by the Divine, and therefore
mirrors and contains the spiritual within it through "correspondence."
This truth has been succinctly stated in the ancient saying, "As above, so
below." It is a living relationship in which natural forms are symbols and
images of our spiritual life. Correspondences are universally expressed in
sacred scriptures, dreams, myths, and nature.
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Universality
and diversity are expressions of Divine life
The
Divine seeks to express Itself in innumerable and varied ways. It is never
identical, but continually diverse. This is the pattern of the kingdom of
heaven, also called the Grand Man in Swedenborg's theological writings, in which
great diversity brings increasing perfection to its form and usefulness. In this
world, differences often lead to discord; in heaven, variety is perceived as
delightful and enriching.
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The spiritual
world and our inner world operate by similar laws
We
already live in the spiritual world, as far as our thoughts, feelings, and
responses are concerned. The laws by which the spiritual world operates, whether
that is heaven or hell, are the same laws by which our present inner states of
life operate. This is because the spiritual world is the final environment in
which our internal states have full expression. What we think and intend
unavoidably becomes what we say and do. Our own free choice determines our
ultimate spiritual state; that is, we ourselves choose to exist in heaven or
hell, determined by our intentions and actions.
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Thoughts
and feelings originate from the spiritual world
It appears to us that our thoughts and
feelings are our very own. According to Swedenborg's theological writings the
truth is otherwise, and indicates the relationship between the spiritual and
natural worlds. All that we think and feel--whether positive or negative--originates
in the spiritual world, which is, after all, our true dwelling place, but we
are free to accept and retain these impulses or to disassociate ourselves from
them.
(From Presenting Swedenborg: A Roadmap for Readers, by Julian Duckworth.
Reprinted with the kind permission of the Swedenborg Association of Australia.)
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