A Man of the Field:
Forming The New Church Mind In Todayís World

 

 

Volume 1: Reformation

The Struggle Against Nonduality

 

Volume 2: Enlightenment

The Spiritual Sense of the Writings

 

Volume 3: Regeneration

Spiritual Disciplines For Daily Life

 

Volume 4: Uses

The New Church Mind In Old Age

 

 

By Leon James

October 2002

(draft 17a)

 

Author information appears at the end. This document is in the process of being revised. Please note the draft version marked on top. To print this document, see Printing Note at the end.

 

A ìfieldî means doctrine (AC 368)

A "man" signifies faith and truth (AC 427; 4823)

 

Volume 1

 

Reformation

The Struggle Against Nonduality

 

Chapter 1

 

Table of Contents

 

Access to other Chapters and Volumes here: 3

Preface to Volume 1. 4

1. The Writings Are A Divine Scientific Revelation. 4

2. The Writings Are The Lordís Second Coming. 9

3. Heaven Is Created From Rational Love. 10

4. A Divine Revelation That Surpasses All Others. 11

5. Swedenborgís Scientific Experiments In The Spiritual World. 13

6. Swedenborgís Dual CitizenshipóNatural And Spiritual 14

7. This Book Is About Regeneration. 16

Dedication. 20

VOLUME 1: 22

REFORMATION:Ý THE INWARD STRUGGLE AGAINST NONDUALITY.. 22

Introduction: 22

The New Church Mind is to be Formed by the Writings Exclusively. 22

1. Introduction. 22

2. The Writings in Heaven. 24

3. Spiritual Truths Understood Naturally and Spiritually. 25

4. The Great Battle Of Nonduality Vs. Duality. 26

5. Enlightenment From The Lord. 29

6. A Man of the Field. 30

7. At The Threshold Out Of Hell Into Heaven. 35

8. Cooperation in our Regeneration. 38

9. The Lordís Relationship to All Religions. 38

10. The Writings As The Exclusive Source For Spiritual Truths. 40

11. Separating Nonduality and Duality in the Mind. 42

12. Reformation by Means of the Writings. 46

13. Old and New Testament From Perspective Of The Writings. 49

14. The Writings Are The Last Revelation. 50

15. The Writings Are For The Rational Mind. 53

16. Anatomy Of Regeneration. 54

17. The Birth Of The Interior-Natural 57

18. Reformation And Regeneration Begin In Early Adulthood. 58

19. Nonduality Fills The Culture Around Us. 60

20. Two Methods For Fighting Nonduality In The Mind. 63

Chapter 1. 65

Absolute Opposition Between Duality and Nonduality. 65

1. Introduction. 65

1. Religious Membership Not Required For Salvation. 67

2. Revelation Is Necessary For Spiritual Truths. 68

3. The New Rational Consciousness of God. 70

4. Nonduality is from Self-intelligence. 73

5. Nonduality In The Mind Opposes Regeneration. 77

2. Incompatibility with the Writings. 79

3. Definition of Reality. 80

4. Duality is the only reality. 83

1. The New Age Of The Second Coming. 87

5. The natural and spiritual mind. 88

1. Nonduality Is In The Unregenerate Natural Mind. 91

2. The Spiritual Begins With The Rational 93

3. The Spiritual In The New Testament 95

6. Why nonduality can be attractive. 96

7. Definition of nonduality. 98

End Notes and References. 101

Acknowledgment 109

About the Author. 109

Titles for the Abbreviated Citations in the Book. 109

Full Text Free Online Access to All Swedenborgís Writings: 110

 

Access to other Chapters and Volumes here:

 

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/nonduality.html

 

 

Every spiritual truth in the Writings
is a Divine Commandment

 

Preface to Volume 1

 

ìThe manifestation of the Lord, and intromission into the spiritual world, surpass all miracles. This has not been granted to anyone since the creation, as it has been to me.î Emanuel Swedenborg (INV 52)

 

This book presents the perspective on reality given in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).

 

It is intended for all those, regardless of religious or intellectual background, who want to form a new mind in themselves that is based exclusively on the Writings. The bookís purpose is to assist them in undergoing reformation and regeneration in preparation for a conjugial life in heaven.

 

1. The Writings Are A Divine Scientific Revelation

 

In todayís intellectual climate revelations from God, His Name, the Bible, heaven and hell, Church Doctrine, and the like are automatically considered religious issues. When I started reading the Writings I was well into my career as a psychology professor, writer, and scientist. I knew that the two-dozen books of the Writings that I was studying were categorized as religious books, since I found them in our university library in the section on Bible Commentaries. But the books were written by Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist of repute in his days, and known to many influential intellectuals in Europe and North America in the 19th century. Swedenborg, the impeccable mining engineer with international reputation, differed from his scientific colleagues in that his science was fully a theistic science.

 

Swedenborg was a fully rational thinker with a passion and commitment for explanations of phenomena that span the entire chain of their existence from ultimates to firsts. And since it is irrational to think that firsts can be from nothing or from chaos, rationality requires that the first of all phenomena be a rational Human God.

 

Swedenborgís science was therefore inclusive and centered on a Human God who runs the universe in a rational way that is discoverable by intellectual investigation.

 

Swedenborg relied on the revelations of the Bible for the scientific facts about the spiritual world. Since he had no direct access to the spiritual world (until age 57), he extracted the facts from the Bible using both its literal meaning and spiritual meaning. The Bible reveals many scientific facts about the spiritual world in relation to the natural world, as for instance:

 

q       that there is a God who forms and runs the universe

q       that God is Human

q       that Godís personality is motivated by Divine Love

q       that God runs the universe by means of rational laws

q       that there is a spiritual world and life after death

q       that we are immortal

q       that in the afterlife we live in either heaven or hell

q       that the spiritual world is within the mind, thus that the mind is in the spiritual world

q       that spirit and mind are the same

q       that those who make it to heaven are then angels

q       that those who make it to hell are then devils

q       that heaven and hell are within us

q       that our character is what determines whether we are to live in heaven or hell within us

q       that we inherit a degenerate character that must be regenerated

q       that regeneration consists in following conscience, not doing evil to the neighbor, loving to do good

q       that our mind or spirit is in unconscious communication with those who are already in the spiritual world

q       that God manages the smallest details of our willing and thinking so as to facilitate regeneration

q       that God manages the details of every event or outcome at the macro and micro levels, including fortuitous events, accidents, the laws of chance, randomness, regularity

q       and many others

 

The above list of scientific facts about the universe is based only on the literal meaning of the Bible.

 

Swedenborg also extracted many scientific facts from the spiritual meaning of Bible verses, as for example:

 

q       that the Bible is the Word and therefore it is Divine Truth

q       that parts of the Bible are written as accurate history, while other parts are spiritual visions

q       that spiritual visions are universal phenomena brought about by correspondences

q       that correspondences are revealed by God to the human race

q       that correspondences are Divine Truths accommodated to human intelligence

q       that correspondences are ordered in discrete degrees or levels in a hierarch of truths from external to inmost

q       that regeneration of oneís character is achieved by the applying the power of correspondences to oneís daily willing and thinking

q       that the universe is managed by a hierarchical order of correspondences that are represented in the spiritual meaning of the Bible

q       that individual regeneration and biography recapitulates history and evolution

q       that the Bible reveals the intellectual history of the human race within the spiritual meaning of the details regarding names, places, numbers, and descriptions

q       that we live in heaven as angel couples

q       that in the afterlife we have spirit-bodies allowing us to live in society, marriage, and an active creative life