A Man of the Field
Forming The
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
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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 “field” means doctrine (AC 368)
A "man" signifies faith and
truth (AC 427; 4823)
Volume 1
Reformation
The
Struggle Against Nonduality
Chapter 3
Table of Contents
Access to other Chapters
and Volumes here:
2. The New Testament does
not contain any nonduality.
1.
Who Runs The Universe: The Divine Father Or The Divine Human?
3. Trinity of Persons
versus Unity of Three Aspects in One Person
1.
Spiritual Unity Is Different From Nonduality
4. People are saved apart
from their religion
1.
Everyone Can Be Regenerated
2.
Regeneration Leads To Enlightenment
5. Mind-Body Nonduality and
God-Cosmos Nonduality
1.
God Is Separate From Creation
6. Christian Science
Nonduality
7. Secular nonduality in
Objectivism, Skepticism, and the Aquarian Conspiracy
8. Rudolf Steiner’s Christian
Occult Science
9. Anti-semitism and
Holocaust Theology
1.
Tenets Of Holocaust Theology
2.
The Victims In The Afterlife
3.
The Spiritual Meaning Of Anti-Semitism..
4.
The Old Testament’s View Of The Chosen People
5.
All Old Testament Details Represent The Lord
6.
The Meaning Of “Jews” In The New Church Mind
7.
Anti-Semitism Is An Evil Love of the Unregenerate Mind
Titles for the Abbreviated
Citations in the Book
Full Text Free Online Access to All Swedenborg’s
Writings:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/nonduality.html
Falsities ought by
all means to be rooted out (INV 16)
Chapter 3, Section 1
New-age
belief systems in the
q God is the only reality.
q Creation is the splintering of the
God-consciousness into individual minds filled with temporary qualities that
appear to have real existence--good and evil, true and false.
q Salvation consists in remembering
oneself as the only God and emptying oneself of all that is good or evil, true
or false.
q This can only be accomplished by
becoming a disciple to a self-realized “Living Master” who has divine-like
powers for appearing unconsciously to the disciples and effecting healing,
forgiving, and setting things right.
q Without this intervention people are
compelled to live the life of karma through many reincarnations.
q Progress towards liberation from
this life of illusion is possible through meditation, vegetarianism, and the
abandonment of moral and intellectual distinctions and struggles.
q At one point one experiences
enlightenment and cosmic consciousness. One discovers and remembers oneself as
the one God. In that highest state one is capable of omnipresence and
omnipotence and one shares the bliss with others, helping them to the same
realization.
Regarding
reincarnation, the mystery was forever solved and laid to rest in the
revelations of the Writings:
God's
omnipotence shines forth also from the heaven that is above or within our
visible heaven, and from the globe there that is inhabited by angels, as ours
is by men. There are wonderful testimonies there to the Divine omnipotence; and
as these have been seen by me and revealed to me, I am permitted to mention
them. All men that have died from the first creation of the world are there;
and these after death continue to be men in form, but are spirits in essence.
(AE 1133)
Imported
ideas of nonduality are harmful when Christians adopt any of them because they
weaken the fundamental love they must have for the Lord—the First and Greatest
Commandment. The Writings teach that one cannot love an unknown and invisible
God (TCR 339). Salvation and eternal life depend on allowing the Lord to
regenerate us. This is possible only to the extent that we cooperate and suffer
ourselves to undergo spiritual temptations (NJHD 197; AC 227). We cannot
accomplish this without acknowledging in our mind the Lord as the Divine Person
to Whom we must go for every step in our regeneration (AR 750). Any nonduality
that removes the duality of a Divine Person, distinct and separate from self,
interferes with our ability to think of God as Divine Person. This is a form of
Christian paganism (AR 750).
This
potential danger also applies to
These
attempts at connections may not pose a serious danger when it is left at the
broadest general level of comparison such as these assertions: Religion is
essential, there is God, there is the spiritual, there is evil, there are
spirits, there is heaven and hell, there is revelation. But as soon as one is
led to unpack the more specific concepts that make up these ideas of God,
spirit, and evil, a whole new ideational world comes to view. This is a strange
world that serves a strange God and can lead a Christian to spiritual
confusion. There is far more danger for those who confirm themselves of these
opposing ideas through comparisons and justifications from the Writings. It is
prudent to examine under what conditions such connections are beneficial or a
hindrance to understanding the rational ideas of the Writings.
A neighbor
acquaintance recently told me that a Hindu man regularly attends her Bible
study class. At first she thought this was odd but she changed her mind as he
kept pointing out similarities between the Bible and Hinduism. She was
especially impressed by his idea of “one-mindedness” which she explained was
the notion that God is the actual power behind good and bad events that happen.
If you worry about the bad things happening you are dual-minded but since there
is only one Power the bad things are just as much God’s doing as the good
things. This gave her a sense of relief since she no longer had to worry about
anything happening since all is God’s doing.
She didn’t
use the word nonduality but it’s clear that that’s what she admitted into her
mind. It’s the nonduality between good and evil as having the same source. To a
Christian mind this thinking is pernicious and insidious, and if admitted,
spiritually injurious. The idea is attractive to the unregenerate mind because
it hides one’s responsibility in distinguishing between falsities and truths
and, hating evil and loving good. The Writings teach
that only good can come from God and that evil comes from self, hence hell,
which is turned away from God and in opposition to Him (AC 4997). Truth from
God flows into the soul and mind of every human being and then each individual
adapts it and sometimes turns it this way or that, and at last into the
opposite of truth. This falsity (or falsified truth) in the mind is better
suited to one’s evil loves, and the two couple each other in the infernal
marriage (HH 377). Once this is accomplished (or confirmed), hell rules the
mind. The evil never comes from God (DLW 264). Good and evil are dualities in
relation to each other and in relation to God.
The idea
that evil comes from God (nonduality), when admitted into the
Chapter 3, Section 2
Hindu
nonduality is affecting how some Christians may come to view the Lord’s
revelations in the New Testament concerning Himself as being one with the
Father. Here is one example of how some New Testament verses are being commingled
within nonduality:
From: Christmas Thought: The Nondual Teachings Of Christ by Pieter Schoonheim Samara (Web document accessed
April 2002 at: www.nonduality.com/1208ps.htm
"All things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made that was made." John I: 3 "That (Christ) was the true
Light, which lighteth every man that is born into this world." John I: 9
Christ to John in Revelations, Ch I: 8: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the ending" sayeth the Lord, "which is, and which was,
and which is to come, the Almighty." "For I have not spoken of
myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should
say, and what I should speak." John 12: 49
(…) One might think from reading these passages that Christ
always speaks as the Atman and of the Father as Brahman, or as the Self
realized being One in relation to the All pervasive
and timeless Self. Just as
This
non-dual teaching is easily paraphrased as follows: The part of you that sees
(the seer, one's Self) is your true light. Therefore, if you hold on to (i.e.,
abide as) the seer (subject-"I"), singly or exclusively (i.e.,
relinquishing attention to thoughts), you will have illumination - or what some
call the "enlightenment of the whole body". This is said to be the
exact instruction given in the non-dual Vedanta tradition, with the same
described outcome, as already discussed above.
It is known
from the Writings that when the Lord referred to Himself and the Father as One,
He was referring to the identity of Personhood between Himself and the Father.
No one was able to comprehend this at that time, or later, until the new
revelations of the Second Coming effected in Swedenborg’s Writings (completed
in 1771). No one today comprehends the Divine Father/Son relation save those
who acknowledge the Writings as the Lord in His Word of the Second Coming, as a
result of which they receive enlightenment from the Lord, in proportion to their
willingness to suffer themselves to be regenerated by Him. The Writings
themselves assert this idea as a central tenet (De Verbo 12).
This
identity of Personhood is not to be considered a form of nonduality, as is done
in the Schoonheim quote above. Those who think within the Eastern philosophy
system interpret the Father/Son relation as a nonduality in the sense that the
illusory self of the individual can end, leaving behind God alone as the one
only reality. Transferring this reasoning to the New Testament, they see Jesus
as the illusory Self (Atman) that is to be transcended or eliminated at
illumination, leaving only the Father. This nonduality is entirely opposed to
the
1. Who Runs The Universe: The Divine Father Or The Divine Human?
Sixth: This
One Only and the Self is the Lord from eternity, or Jehovah. It was shown in
THE DOCTRINE OR THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD that God is One in
essence and in person, and that this God is the Lord; and that the Divine
itself, which is called Jehovah the Father, is the Lord from eternity; that the
Divine Human is the Son conceived from His Divine from eternity and born in the
world, and that the Divine Proceeding is the Holy Spirit. (DP 157:9)
This
passage indicates how the Divine Rational can resonate by correspondence in our
interior-rational perception. The passage is describing a spiritual truth about
the Lord. We can resonate to it by allowing the Letter to stand for this
spiritual truth, only by correspondence. This orientation to the passage allows
the literal meaning to recede somewhat so it doesn’t dominate and become opaque
instead of translucent. The expression is used, “the Lord from eternity, or
Jehovah.” At first the literal meaning dominates the internal truth, and so
makes itself opaque, hiding the spiritual tucked within it. But then we ask the
question: How do we take this expression as a correspondence for its spiritual-rational
truth?
“The Lord from eternity, or Jehovah.” Who is the Lord from eternity? In the
literal meaning this refers to the contrastive expression “the Lord born in
time.” We are familiar with the idea that “the Lord born in time” is Jesus, who
glorified His Human and made it one with the Divine (xx). We are familiar with
the Divine as the Father, or Jehovah. So in the Letter we have the idea that
the identity of Personhood was an achieved identity. Therefore, this important rational
truth follows: We are not to think that it was Jehovah who descended from the
Heaven under the assumed name and identity of Jesus. This truth is proven by
the distinction the passage makes between “The Lord from eternity” vs. “the
Lord born in time.” The Lord born in time, namely the Child Jesus, was not born
glorified. The Child Jesus was Divine, as specified in the New Testament and
the Writings. But we have to enter into a more spiritual view of how this is
true. So the literal must recede, as the spiritual comes to the fore.
This more interior rational
perception is that Jesus and Jehovah are not the same, though they are the same
Person.
Looked at
from the literal, this sentence sounds like a contradiction or a metaphor for
something vague, not specified. But look at it from the idea that the sentence
is a correspondence for the interior-rational idea. In this new orientation,
the literal becomes less opaque allowing us to perceive the interior, to some
varying extent. The sentence is an instance of the spiritual Doctrine discussed
throughout the book. By looking at it as a correspondence, we can reflect of
how it applies to our willing and thinking every hour of the day. This makes
sense since the glorification series recapitulate how we are to be regenerated
(xx). Jesus had a threefold self as we do, meaning He had inherited and
acquired affections in the will, He had memory-knowledges from the Old
Testament that He acquired by studying it as the Word, and He had a
sensorimotor mind that served to exert control over His corporeal functions. The
Writings explain that, as Jesus grew He experienced a
revelation from within that He was the Word He was reading (xx). This happened
at an early age in childhood and the details of it are explained Arcana
Coelestia when discussing the Call of Abraham and Abram’s first realization of
the existence and presence of Jehovah (xx).
Now Jesus
knew who He was and how He is to redeem the human race. He was the same Person
as Jehovah, the Lord from eternity, but He was not the same conscious
awareness. Applying this to ourself: If you have undergone reformation you can
ask yourself: Was this the same me before and after? As I look back on myself,
I shudder at how I was. But I can also look at myself today and have plenty
things to be aghast about. Myself who is feeling
ashamed, aghast, and repentant is myself from eternity because it is my
conscience, and my conscience is the Lord (xx). Myself
from eternity is as different from myself born in time, as heaven is different
from earth, or as an angel is different from a man on earth. Yet it would be
foolish to say that I’m not the same person.
When I get
to heaven and I become an angel, what happens? It is an image of the
glorification series. My self born on earth is united to myself born from
eternity, and thus I am an angel. The same Person as Jehovah is not the same
willing, thinking, and sensing by Jesus. Myself born from eternity is my
rational consciousness as my conscience. This is the correspondence to the
Divine. When you read about conscience in the Writings you are being told
something about how the Divine of the Lord is within His Human. This is what we
call the Divine Human, namely, how the Lord from eternity is within the Lord
born in time.
Note
further, that it would be foolish to think that Jehovah does things by means of
Jesus, as many people believe who pray the Father in the Name of Jesus (xx). It
would be equivalent in saying that myself from eternity does things by means of
myself born in time. In other words, everybody sees that we cannot go around in
our daily activities and claim that we are not doing the things, but our
conscience is. This is speaking foolishly. Instead, we say that we are doing
the things from conscience, or in accordance with conscience. Jehovah does not
act by means of Jesus, but rather, Jesus acts from Jehovah, or in accordance
with Jehovah (xx). “The expression, “I and the Father are one” refers to the
idea that, since the Lord glorified Himself, it is the Human of the Lord that
now acts. It acts from the Divine, or in accordance with the Divine.
The mind
that thinks that the Father acts by means of Jesus, or for the sake of Jesus, is
in the Letter, which is natural. The mind that thinks the Jesus acts from the Father, is a
The mind in
the natural of the Letter cannot see a distinction between the two ways of
phrasing it, and whatever difference there may be, it cannot see it. What you
can’t see, you can’t understand, and what you can’t understand you can’t love,
and what you can’t love is not yours, hence useless for salvation. So the Lord
gives us to see the distinction. We do not see distinctly or clearly, to be
sure. This is a matter of further and further enlightenment about something we
already have implanted within the initial perception of it. Think
how you would feel if someone persisted in addressing your conscience instead
of you. It would be ludicrous and could not support normal social relations, hence all of society would fall. This is why the
There is a
resistance in us to the idea that it is not the Divine Father who runs things
in the universe, but the Divine Human as Jesus, who runs the universe from the
Divine Father. Our evil affections have a hope of surviving in us if it is the
Divine Father who runs things, but they are annihilated and banished in us if
it is the Divine Human who runs things. The reasons for this will be confirmed
one day by the Letter as the men of the Church are gradually regenerated. We
need the idea of the Divine Human running the universe, in order to regenerate.
We cannot regenerate as long as we hold on to the notion that it is the Divine
Father who runs things.
To the
Western Christian Church there is an indigenous nonduality between Father and
Son. The Athanasian Creed asserts that Father and Son are of “one substance”
but of “two Persons.” Both propositions are false and led to the vastation of
that Church (AE 114; xx). The idea of one substance is a nonduality and was
forced upon the mind by the necessity to maintain the idea of “Two Divine
Persons from Eternity.” Without knowledge of discrete degrees (DLW 173-281) the mind can only think
of one substance for both Father and Son. Nonduality is what the mind falls
back on again and again without the knowledge of discrete degrees (to be found
only in the Writings). The duality in all of the Writings applies here as well:
The Father is the substance called Esse or Divine Love; the Son is the form of
the substance, called Existere or Divine Truth. This duality of substance and
form is also a duality in aspects of function because function or use arises
from substance in a particular form (DL 4).
Chapter 3, Section 3
The concept
of “unity” is entirely different from the concept of nonduality. In unity
dualities do not change or lose their absolute and permanent distinctiveness,
but rather contribute to a new function (or use), so that the function possible
when there is a union is higher or more perfect than the function possible when
the two or more are single and are not united into one. In God, infinite
dualities are united into one (DLW 17, 22). The Lord sees the entire human
race—past, present, and future, as one Grand Human in which numberless
dualities and distinctions function together in an integrated whole (HH 59).
Each elements in such a union contribute something diverse and unique to the
whole as is communicated mutually to every one else, thus enhancing the
perfection of the whole. In contrast, a collection of homogenous elements
cannot function as a unity.
The
Writings teach a view of the Holy Spirit that is compatible with this rational
idea of unity. The Lord’s management of the universe has three universal
aspects—creating, preserving, and re-creating. “Creating” refers to bringing
the physical and spiritual worlds into existence. “Preserving” refers to
managing every event so that the whole doesn’t break down and keeps growing and
being perfected. “Re-creating” refers to new creations within what’s already
been created, so that the perfection of the whole can continue to eternity. In
ancient times these three universal functions of God were represented by
different Names given to God. For creating, the Name
of Creator—in Christian tradition Jehovah, or the Father. For preserving, the Name of the Son—Jesus Christ or the
Messiah, in Christian tradition. For re-creating,
the Name of the Holy Spirit. In religious terms, the three functions are
Creator, Savior, and Holy Spirit.
These three
functions represent three evolutionary steps in the human race’s capacity to
relate to God more and more spiritually, rather than naturally. For instance,
Jehovah the Creator was revealed in the Old Testament thousands of years ago.
Then, Jesus Christ the Messiah was revealed in the New Testament two thousand
years ago. Then, the Divine Human, was revealed in the
eighteenth century in the Writings. This last revelation shows that what was
historically believed to be God in three Persons is actually God in One Person
and the three Divine functions.
In the
Divine Human, that is the Lord, the three discrete and absolutely distinct
aspects are united into one. Jehovah is united to Jesus, making one Divine
Person whose inmost is Jehovah and whose outmost is
Jesus. The third aspect or function issues from this absolute duality in the
One Lord. The Writings call this the Divine Proceeding or Holy spirit.
The
Writings teach that the Lord creates everything by intermediaries, not by
disconnected elements (HH 9, 37). The first step in creation was the spiritual
Sun which is made of Divine Good, in the interior, and Divine Truth in the
exterior. These Divine Substances are infinite, uncreate, and the Divine in
Itself, Changeless, eternally the same. The light proceeding from this
Sun, with the heat within it, was the next step. As it proceeded away and
outward, it created atmospheres of increasing “density.” These atmospheres are
arranged into discrete degrees of perfection from most perfect as it proceeds,
to less and less perfect until it reaches the outmost reaches called matter,
space, and time. This successive sequence of discrete atmospheres is retained
in every element or compound down the line. The earliest atmospheres (closest
to the spiritual Sun) are inmost within the constitution of every object. The
later atmospheres (furthest away from the spiritual Sun) are least perfect, most
gross in their quality and capacity.
Every
object is maintained in existence by this simultaneous order, from which the
Lord operates from firsts (or inmosts) to lasts (or ultimates) (DP 124[4] ). And it is this way that the Lord manages every detail in
the universe. The purpose of creation is to provide a habitation for human
beings (DP 324). They are first born in a physical body on some earth in the
natural universe. Their mind is created out of spiritual elements, not natural
like the body. When the body dies, the mind then awakens in the spiritual world
and in a spiritual body to live forever. The quality of life in the spiritual
world is determined by the mind’s constitution or formation. This formation is
achieved during life in the body. It becomes of utmost importance therefore to
form the
1. Spiritual Unity Is Different From Nonduality
From the
spiritual Sun proceed love (=spiritual heat) and truth (=spiritual light) as
two distinct things, but united into one. Although these two Proceed
as One from the spiritual Sun, they are then divided in creation (DP 14-5). The
idea of Divine Love and Wisdom United as One may appear at first as a nonduality,
but they are a duality. To make a one, the composing elements must retain their
permanent distinct character which makes them different (AC 9613, DLW 22). It
is the unity that is one, not the composing dualities. The duality of the
composing elements remains absolute and permanent. In nonduality there is no
such unity of distinct elements but an amalgam that eliminates the
distinctiveness of the elements. In nonduality discrete degrees become
continuous, which is an impossibility in the duality
of the Writings.
People who have turned away from thinking about the Divine
when they see wonders in nature, and as a result become sense-oriented, do not
consider that the sight of the eye is so crude that it sees a number of tiny
insects as a single, indistinct mass, and yet that each of them is organically
formed to be capable of sensation and movement, thus that they have been
endowed with fibers and vessels, including little hearts, air passages, viscera
and brains; that these have been woven together out of the finest elements in
nature; and that these structures correspond to some activity of life, by which
even the least of these are individually actuated.
Since the
vision of the eye is so crude that a number of such creatures, each with
countless components in it, looks to the sight like a small, indistinct mass,
and yet people who are sense-oriented think and judge in accordance with that
sight, it is apparent how obtuse their minds have become, and thus in what
darkness they are regarding spiritual matters. (DLW 353)
The
Writings discuss the history of the idea of a Trinity in the Christian Church
and identifies it as the chief cause of spiritual breakdown in the Christian
Church that eventually led to its vastation (TCR 177). The idea of Three Divine
Persons is injurious because the mind is then logically compelled to think of
three Divine Gods, but this is forbidden by Church Doctrine. And so the mind of
the believer is beleaguered with an idea impossible to believe rationally. Yet
this idea continues to be taught generation after generation, despite the
irrationality of it, as recognized by those who yet uphold it as Church
Doctrine. Here is a current version of its intellectual justification:
The Christian Church believes in the doctrine of the Trinity.
That means the Church believes that God is three persons and yet God is one
God. What does this mean, and why does it matter? Some say it is the theology
of a free and democratic society. Others say it is impossible arithmetic.
(…)
So the church worships and prays to the three persons: God
the Father, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit. They are quite clearly
distinct from each other, and yet they freely work together in harmony. We pray
to each of these as truly divine.
So why not say "three Gods"?
But the church does not speak about the three gods. It
speaks about the threeness of God. Why? Because they can't be separated in our
minds like three human beings can. Three people may be close friends, but they
still look different and have different thoughts and feelings. The three divine
persons are not in different places, for God is not a being in space and time,
and has no place, shape, size or color. God is equally present everywhere. The
three persons are not like stories of the ancient Greek gods, who often
disagreed and fought with each other. They share one purpose of love for us,
and act together for that purpose. When the church says "three persons,
yet one God", it means that these three persons freely choose to share one
purpose.
Thus the Trinity is a very simple idea.
(Critical Questions about the Christian Faith: Douglas
Miller “The Trinity: why does it matter?” on the Web at
vic.uca.org.au/doclit/trinity.html
accessed June 2002)
You
can see where the logic is placed in this position: “They share one purpose of
love for us, and act together for that purpose.” There is an underlying
conviction of the Oneness of God based on the entire Bible with the invented
idea of three Divine Persons in the one Godhead. This idea does not appear in
the Bible—it couldn’t since it’s not rational. It is recognized that the idea
was invented by the Nicene Council of Bishops in 325 AD, for the purpose of
fighting the Arian heresy that was threatening the Christian religion (TCR
137). This heresy was that Jesus was human, not Divine.
The Council convened in Nicea and issued the new idea of Jesus as the “Son from
Eternity” and “born in time.” Nowhere in the New Testament is such an idea to
be found. Instead, the Apostles all knew and understood that Jesus was the
incarnated Jehovah Himself. Current belief in the idea of Three Divine Persons
is further reinforced by many passages in the New Testament that appear to
agree with the idea. People are faced with passages that talk as if there were
three Persons of Deity involved in the events. Here is one modern version:
God is a
community
Now the New
Testament never uses the word "Trinity", but it often speaks about
the three different persons. We read that Christ prayed to the Father. We read
that the Father would send the Holy Spirit to recall people to Christ. Paul
often speaks of "God the Father", "the Lord Jesus Christ",
and "the Holy Spirit". So the notion that we praise all three persons
as God, yet as different from each other, is already there in the New
Testament.
One example:
in Mark's gospel, we read the story of Jesus' baptism (Mark 1:9-11). We read
that Jesus was baptized by John in the river
(Miller, ibid.)
Note the
subtitle on top: “God is a community.” And the sentence in the prior quote:
“They share one purpose of love for us, and act together for that purpose. When
the church says "three persons, yet one God", it means that these
three persons freely choose to share one purpose.” The nonduality in this
explanation is to view God in terms that appropriate for human beings, rather
than the other way round, as in dualism. The idea of “God is a community” and
the related idea of “three persons freely choosing one purpose” are not
rational ideas about God but natural, invented not received. In dualism we are
mindful that there is a distinct and discrete difference between uncreate and
create, and they cannot be commingled. God cannot be a
community of persons like human beings are. God is called King, because
“king” corresponds to truth in the Word. God is not actually a king—He is
called King on account of the correspondences (LORD 42).
God cannot
be a community, which is a compound concept applied to human beings. Humans can
be properly said to love this or that even though the Lord is Love and Wisdom
Itself. In dualism this is explained by pointing out that the love humans have
does not belong to them but remains the Lord’s love in them. The Lord grants
human beings to receive Love from Him into the will, and this love in them
remains His (BE 5). The love in us is not the same as His Love, but it is an
individual adaptation and reception. Nevertheless, the essence or inmost of
this adapted love is still the Lord. At no time can we say that humans have
love from themselves for love is uncreate and humans
are created—the two can never be commingled. Whenever they are commingled,
duality is destroyed and nonduality reigns.
The
passages in the New Testament that refer to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can be
logically explained if dualism is maintained. This is done in the Writings
(TCR, chs. I-III). The dualist explanation is given in
both the Old and New Testaments if one pays attention to all the relevant
passages. One idea is that it is the Father Himself, or the Lord Jehovah from
eternity, who was incarnated as the Divine Child (LORD 19). The second idea is
that Jehovah God calls Himself repeatedly as the Only Savior and Redeemer, who
by His Own Hand redeems and saves the world (TCR 81). And a third idea is that
Jesus underwent a gradual change from His Birth to His Resurrection and
Ascension. His change is described by alternating states between being
weak--suffering, tempted and praying to the Father in Himself, and states of
being Divine and One with the Father—performing miracles, glowing like the sun
and speaking to spirits, passing through physical barriers, appearing in
several places simultaneously, declaring Himself to be the Word or the Creator
from the beginning, etc.
Clearly all
the pieces of the puzzle are in revelation so that there is no need at all to
fabricate human explanations, which invariably, will downgrade into nonduality
and a mere natural idea of God. Into this idea no Divine influx is possible and
a religion based on it becomes spurious and no longer serviceable for regeneration,
hence salvation (DLW 285).
On the
other hand, if we affirm the identity of Person between Father/Son are we not
creating another nonduality? No, since the identity of
Father/Son as Person is nothing else than the unity of substance between Love
and Truth. Father as such is not a Person; Son as such is not a
Person—there is no nonduality here. If Father had been a Person, and if Son had
been a Person, then asserting that they are one Person would be nonduality. It
is like the unity in the human being that images the unity of the Lord who is
the Divine Human. A human person is achieved when three functions (or aspects)
unite into a one:
q the soul-spirit-mind (created as an
image of the Father function)
q the brain-body-senses (created as an
image of the Son function)
q the motor power that issues from the
first two when they are united into one (created as an image of the Holy
Spirit)
The unity
of these three cannot be considered a nonduality since all the originating
aspects are retained in the unity. Nonduality requires that only one part of
each duality be retained while any other is dissipated. It is similar with the
body that contains innumerable dualities of function (or aspect) being united
into one. Care must therefore be taken that unity be not confused with
nonduality. A conjugial couple is united into one (CL 158). This cannot be
considered a nonduality but only a psychobiological unity of function between
husband and wife—an eternal duality.
The
Jesus/Jehovah duality, or Son/Father duality, is a real duality that does not
dissolve. The Father Aspect remains a permanent reference for the Lord’s Esse
(Divine Love), while the Son Aspect remains a permanent reference for the
Lord’s Existere (Divine Truth). It is never the case that this permanent duality
of Aspect can ever be dissolved into a nonduality of substance. The expression
in the New Testament “I and the Father are One” (John
This is a
Divine reaffirmation of a permanent duality between the invisible and visible
Aspects of God. It may be that only a
Chapter 3, Section 4
For every nation the
Lord provides a universal means of salvation. (AE 1180)
The idea
that people are saved by religious membership is a subtle and pernicious form
of nonduality in the Christian religion, but also in all religions. And there
may be those that are of the
In the new
age of the Second Coming, no one can be regenerated except through the Writings
and the truths with humankind that henceforth will come from the Writings . Those who do not know the Writings in this life
are instructed in its truths by the angels when they arrive in the afterlife
(HH 512, 516).
It strikes
people as hyperbole or dogmatism to say that one can regenerate only through
the Writings when the Writings have remained a minute part of the readership on
this planet even though they’ve been around and public for 231 years. Why would
God choose such an ineffective method of regeneration when His purpose is to
save as many as He can? And would it be fair and loving to
keep the Writings from most people and then to condemn them for not habit it
around? By way of answer let’s study this next passage from the True
Christian Religion, the last work of the Writings that was published by
Swedenborg in 1771, just a few months before his passing on to the world he had
described in so much detail in these books for the last 27 years of his life in
the physical body. The passage deals with how every individual on earth is
regenerated by the Lord.
The reason why everyone can be regenerated depending on his
state, is that the process is different with the simple and the learned, with
those who have different pursuits, and undertake different duties; with those
who research into the externals of the Word and those who research into its
internals; with those whose parentage has brought them into natural good and
those who have been brought into evil; with those who from childhood have
plunged into the world's vanities, and those who have sooner or later distanced
themselves from them. In short, there is a difference between those who make up
the Lord's external church and those who make up the internal one. In this
there is infinite variety, just as there is in faces and characters. But still
each can be regenerated and saved depending on his state.
[2] The truth of this can be established from the heavens,
to which all who are regenerated come, being three,
highest, middle and lowest. Those come to the highest who through regeneration
have acquired love to the Lord; to the middle one those who have acquired love
towards the neighbour; to the lowest those who only exhibit external charity,
and at the same time acknowledge the Lord as God the Redeemer and Savior. All
of these are saved, but in different ways.
[3] The reason why all can be regenerated and so saved is
that the Lord is present with His Divine good and truth with every person. This
is the source of his life, and of his ability to understand and will, and of
the free will he has in spiritual matters; no one is without these. Moreover
the means are given. Christians have the means in the Word, non-Christians in
any religion at all, if it teaches the existence of God and commandments about
good and evil. From this it follows that everyone can be saved. Consequently,
if a person is not saved, it is not the Lord who is to blame but the person;
and he is to blame for failing to co-operate. (TCR 580)
Note
especially this in paragraph 1: “each can be regenerated and saved depending on
his state.” So this is the first thing to establish from the Writings, namely,
that everyone can be regenerated. There is no condemning of the Lord to hell
because someone has never heard of the Writings, or even, having heard of it
and read some, have walked away from it. There are no exceptions to this Divine
rule: each can be regenerated.
1. Everyone Can Be Regenerated
Next, we
can note that the process of being regenerated is unique to each person’s
“state” or “character.” This makes sense because reformation is the process of
character modification and regeneration is the ensuing process of character
rebirth and up building. Therefore the modification and up building of a
regenerated character is going to depend on each unique individual and
character. Note also that even those who have the Writings are regenerated
according to their own state. Those who focus on the literal of the Writings, “those
who research into the externals,” are regenerated differently than those who
focus on the spiritual sense of the Writings, “those who research into its
internals.” And the character we form for ourselves prior to reformation also
influences how we are regenerated. Those who ignored the voice of their
conscience, “those who from childhood have plunged into the world's vanities,”
are regenerated differently than those who listened to their conscience instead
of their evil desires, “those who have sooner or later distanced themselves
from them.” It makes sense therefore that regeneration is accomplished by the
Lord in “infinite variety, just as there is in faces and characters.”
All those
who are regenerated by the Lord enter heaven, and since they are all of different
character it must be that there is an infinite variety of heavens, though they
are grouped into three main regions or lifestyles. The highest group, called the Third Heaven of the Celestial Angels, are
those who have been regenerated to the highest level of their mind called the
celestial. This type of regeneration is effected by
one’s love for the Lord. Since we can struggle against our evil affections from
many motives and goals, the outcome will also depend on what the goal or motive
was. Those whose motive was their love for the Lord, and
especially, as the Divine Human, are regenerated to the highest level of human
existence. They are “those who have acquired love towards the Lord.”
But doesn’t
every good person love God? Yes, but not in the same way. People
who are regenerated to the level of their spiritual mind, which below the
celestial, are congregated in the Second Heaven of the Spiritual Angels.
They are “those who have acquired love towards the neighbour.” They love the
Lord, but they love His Word and Church more. They have religion and faith,
while the celestial angels do not have religion or faith but perception, which
is an more direct way of relating to the Divine Truth,
and they have this as a result of their love for the Lord. While
the spiritual angels have understanding of the Lord, but not perception,
because their affections are centered on the Writings first, and then, and the
Lord. Both love the Lord and the Divine of the Writings, but not in the
same way. And those who are regenerated to the natural-spiritual level make up
the First Heaven of Natural Angels. They are “those who only exhibit external
charity” by obedience to religious duties and therefore they only acknowledge God
and the Writings as the highest authority, but do not rearrange everything in
their mind according to the Writings. Internally they retain their passion for
their culture, interests, and activities.
Note this
statement in the last paragraph of the quote above (TCR 580): “The reason why
all can be regenerated and so saved is that the Lord is present with His Divine
good and truth with every person. This is the source of his life, and of his
ability to understand and will, and of the free will he has in spiritual matters;
no one is without these.” This is an
affirmation of the fact that the Lord’s relationship to each individual is
independent of their religion or belief system! This new idea and
revelation runs smack against almost all other religions and human
associations. It is generally believed that your group is closer to God than another
group, and that to get close to God everybody must do what your group is doing
and believing. And yet this is not true any more today and for all the future
to come. With the Second Coming the Lord has completed the creation or
evolution of the human race (xx).
And He now
has revealed Himself in His Divine Rational so that our rational mind can fully
understand and perceive Him. Nothing more is left to reveal on the outside, but
only on the inside. Hence the Writings are the last of the threefold Word, the Crown
of Churches (xx). From now on to forever
the Lord is with every individual independently of religion, worship, and
knowledge. “This is the source of his life, and of his ability to
understand and will, and of the free will he has in spiritual matters; no one
is without these.”
So now the
only requirement for regeneration is for the individual to acknowledge the
reality of the Lord’s presence in him. This acknowledgment, when sincere, then
leads to the desire to reform and regenerate. This activity is the preparation
for one of the many heavens. And if there is permanent unwillingness of the individual
to acknowledge the Lord’s presence, there is no preparation for heaven, in
which case, the individual who arrives that way in the afterlife,
sinks down from the evil affections that are still present. And they take the
individual to one of the varieties of hells, in accordance with the variety of
their evils. There they live with others like themselves, amidst their evils.
The passage
ends this way: “Christians have the means in the Word, non-Christians in any
religion at all, if it teaches the existence of God and commandments about good
and evil. From this it follows that everyone can be saved. Consequently, if a
person is not saved, it is not the Lord who is to blame but the person; and he
is to blame for failing to co-operate” (TCR 580). For the
The Lord
never insists that people change their childhood religion in order to be
admitted to their Heaven (LJP 98). For those who are forming the
At
this day the spiritual sense of the Word has been revealed from the Lord,
because the doctrine of genuine truth has now been revealed, which doctrine is
partly contained in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, and now in the small
works, which are being given to the public; and because that doctrine, and no
other, agrees with the spiritual sense of the Word, therefore that sense,
together with the science of correspondences, has now for the first time been
disclosed. That sense is also signified by the Lord's appearing in the clouds
of heaven with glory and power (Matt. 24:30, 31), in which chapter it treats of
the consummation of the age, by which is meant the last time of the church. (De
Verbo 7)
“At this
day” refers to the regeneration of the
What in
particular concerns the doctrine that now follows, is
that it also is out of heaven, because it is from the spiritual sense of the
Word; and the spiritual sense of the Word is identical with the doctrine which
is in heaven. (NJHD 7)
2. Regeneration Leads To Enlightenment
But after
reformation and when regeneration begins, the Lord gives enlightenment as we
read the Writings and apply it to our daily willing in thinking. Now we can
perceive new meaning in the old familiar sentences. This new meaning is the
spiritual sense of the Writings. This sense is given gradually and in parts, in
exact proportion to our progress in regeneration. Now for example, when we read
anything in the Writings about “the Word” we can perceive that it is talking
about the Writings. (See Chapter 8 Sections 3 to 5). Now we can see that the
Heavenly Doctrine cannot be expressed in natural language and that the
spiritual sense being discussed everywhere in the Writings is not in the
literal sentences but in the understanding when enlightened.
The literal
of the Writings are for the external rational level of thinking. This is in the
unregenerate rational mind. These external rational ideas and reasoning must be
then be taken into our mind, digested there, and
finally understood in a spiritual sense when enlightened by the Lord. This new
inner understanding is called Doctrine (TCR 245). Therefore Doctrine in our
understanding is at first natural, but later, spiritual.
This spiritual
Doctrine in the understanding must be the basis of our willing and thinking in
our everyday activities and judgments. Of course, without the external literal
of the Writings, this spiritual Doctrine could not exist in our mind, or
anywhere else. The spiritual Doctrine in our understanding is the spiritual
meaning perceivable within the letter of the Writings when enlightened, and therefore the spiritual sense can only exist
in our mind and never in the literal
of a natural language. It is in the interior of the understanding that we
receive enlightenment from the Lord. Without this enlightenment from within,
there is no spiritual Doctrine in our mind but only the literal statements of
the Writings (TCR 226). Clearly, then, ideas that come to us from elsewhere
than the literal of the Writings cannot be so enlightened by the Lord and
cannot produce any spiritual Doctrine. This is because the Lord enlightens only
that which comes from Him, and everything in the Writings comes from Him (TCR
779).
This mental
process of regeneration shaped exclusively by the Writings applies to the
generations on this planet born since the Second Coming. Prior generations or
civilizations each received their own revelations from the Lord (AC 10632). But
in the course of time these revelations (or the Church) are consummated by the
love of self and the world (DP 328). Until at last there is not a single truth
left in that Church and it is called a “dry land.” (AC 806).
The Lord then raises a new Church through new revelations given through an
individual. These new revelations are specifically suited and adapted to the
genius of the new human civilization (or mind). Not a single spiritual truth
given to an earlier Church can be transferred or used by the new Church (SPECIMEN
14, INV 5). To attempt to do so would be to commingle what is false with what
is true, and this permanently destroys the rationality of the
The
revelations historically retained by the many forms of Eastern nonduality may
have had beneficial uses to those generations in
Fourth: When
man is in evil many truths may be introduced into his understanding, and these
may be stored up in his memory, and yet not be profaned. This is because the
understanding does not flow into the will, but the will into the understanding;
and as it does not flow into the will many truths may be received by the
understanding and stored up in the memory, and yet not be mingled with the evil
of the will; and thus what is holy may not be profaned. Moreover, it is
incumbent upon everyone to learn truths from the Word or from preaching, to lay
them up in the memory and to ponder over them. For from the truths that are in
the memory and that enter the thought from the memory the understanding must
teach the will, that is, must teach the man what to do. This, therefore, is the
principal means of reformation. When truths are only in the understanding and
from it in the memory, they are not in the man, but outside of him. (DP 233:7;
see also DP 234)
One
commentator of an earlier draft of this book objected to the idea that not a
single spiritual truth can be admitted in the New Church mind if its source is
not the Writings: “Notice, for example, how the Lord made use of plenty of
truths from the letters of Paul in the Writings. As long as we view all things
in the light of the Writings, it can be used in the
Since, then, everyone in every religion knows the evils and
falsities from evils that must be shunned, and having shunned them knows the
goods that must be done and the truths that must be believed, it is clear that
this is provided by the Lord as the universal means of salvation with every
nation that has any religion.
[2] With Christians this means exists in all fullness; it
also exists, though not in fullness, with Mohammedans and Gentiles. The
remaining things, by which they are distinguished, are either ceremonials which
are of little consequence, or are goods that may be done or not done, or truths
that may be believed or not believed, and yet man be saved. What these things
amount to man can see when evils are removed.
A Christian sees this from the Word, a Mohammedan from the
Koran, and a Gentile from his religious principle.
A Christian sees from the Word that God is one, that the
Lord is the Savior of the world, that all good that is good in itself, and all
truth that is true in itself, is from God, and nothing of it from man; that
there must be Baptism and the Holy Supper, that there is a heaven and that
there is a hell, that there is a life after death, and that he who does good
comes into heaven, and he who does evil into hell. These things he believes
from truth and does from good when he is not in evil. Other things that are not
in accord with these and with the Decalogue he may pass by.
A Mohammedan sees from the Koran that God is one, that the
Lord is the Son of God, and that all good is from God, that there is a heaven
and that there is a hell, that there is a life after death, and that the evils
forbidden in the commandments of the Decalogue must be shunned. If he does
these latter things he also believes the former and is saved.
A Gentile sees from his religious principle that there is a
God, that He must be regarded as holy and be worshiped, that good is from Him,
that there is a heaven and that there is a hell, that there is a life after
death, that the evils forbidden in the Decalogue must be shunned. If he does
these things and believes them he is saved.
And as many Gentiles perceive God to be Man, and as God-Man
is the Lord, so after death when they are instructed by angels they acknowledge
the Lord, and afterwards receive truths from the Lord that they had not before
known. They are not condemned because of their not having the ordinances of
Baptism and the Holy Supper; the Holy Supper and Baptism are for those only who
are in possession of the Word, and to whom the Lord is known from the Word; for
they are symbols of that church, and are attestations and certifications that
those who believe and live according to the Lord's commandments in the Word are
saved. (AE 1180)
Here we see
again that the Lord has taken charge of all religions and of all individuals.
There is something more important than religious membership, namely, shunning
evils as sins against God. This formula is of the
Chapter 3, Section 5
There are
concepts of nonduality in both Eastern and Western traditions since discrete
degrees are unknown. A universal example is the widespread belief that
spiritual forces from spirits or demons can inflow into the body and cause
diseases. This is found in Hinduism and other Eastern religions as well as in
Western forms of voodoo and Judaeo-Christian notions involving superstition,
possession, and exorcism. In contrast, the Writings give us rational concepts
of dualism to account for how diseases of the body are caused by the activity
of infernal spirits:
It
is only permitted for Hell to inflow into the cupidities and falsities
pertaining to man - not into man's organs." (SD 4585)
Spirits can
only inflow into the falsities and lusts of the mind since the mind and the
spirits are in continuous degree within the spiritual world. Diseases of the
body are caused by correspondence to these interactions in the mind between
spirit societies and each individual on earth. Without the idea of discrete
degrees, people’s thinking process must slide down into nonduality, and hence
corporeal spirituality. The infernal spirits are in this state of mind.
Western
nonduality is rooted in the traditions of religious mysticism that fosters the
notion of a sensuous and direct contact with the Lord. Various specialized
sensuous practices are said to facilitate this “ecstatic” state of
consciousness—solitude, fasting, self-inflicted pain, vow of silence, vow of
celibacy, repeating prayers over and over again, concentrating very hard while
praying or reading the Bible, doing low level or denigrating jobs to punish
one’s spirit for pride, abstaining from certain foods, special initiation
rituals, etc. Mysticism and New Age spirituality are Western concepts of
nonduality whose central goal is to achieve direct sensuous God-consciousness.
This is a form nonduality because direct sensuous contact with God necessarily
assumes that God and human beings are of the same discrete substance. Only
within the same discrete substance can direct sensuous contact take place.
In contrast
to this,
The
manifestation of the Lord in person, and introduction by the Lord into the
spiritual world, both as to sight and as to hearing and speech, surpasses all
miracles; for nowhere in history do we read that such an intercourse with
angels and spirits has been granted from the creation of the world. For I am there with the angels daily, even as I am in the world
with men, and now for twenty-seven years.
Evidences of
this intercourse are the books published by me concerning Heaven and Hell, and
also the memorable relations in the last work, entitled THE TRUE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION; further, what has been there related concerning Luther, Melanchthon,
Calvin, and concerning the inhabitants of a number of kingdoms; besides the
various evidences which are known in the world, and, in addition, many others
which are not known. Say, who has ever before known anything concerning heaven
and hell? Who has known anything concerning man's state after death? Who,
anything concerning spirits and angels? etc., etc. (INV 43)
There is a
rational explanation why no one else can expect to duplicate Swedenborg’s
unique experience. In the age of rational faith the Lord avoids sensuous
communication or contact with anyone because this hurts the development of the
person’s rational consciousness (AC 7809; HH 249). In the afterlife we need the
interior rational consciousness to reach our celestial level from which we can
then enjoy the sensuous experiences of heaven such as the surrounding beauty
and the delights of conjugial love. But if we reverse this order so that we
arrive in the afterlife with a sensuous consciousness of God in which there is
little rational consciousness, the spirit sinks down into corporeal
consciousness and existence, and this is infernal (HD 170). God cannot come to
such spirits as the path outward to awareness in the spirit’s mind is blocked
by the external rational. This external rational is turned outward (or
downward) and believes only that which is sensuous in the external (AC 978,
4286; AE 355:14). In the afterlife such external beliefs of religion fall off
and vanish, leaving behind a ferocious sub-human who believes only in self (TCR
69). Nonduality is nothing else than sensuous consciousness united to an
external rational in which there is nothing spiritual whatsoever. For the
genuine spiritual or celestial comes only from heaven through the interior
rational that must be gradually opened by a life of genuine religion and
regeneration.
For more
discussion on sensuous and rational consciousness, see Chapter 5, Sections 3.
1. God Is Separate From Creation
Nonduality
in the Western mind forces an identity of substance between God, the cosmos,
and self. This notion is clearly evident in the popular book “A Brief History
of Everything” by Ken Wilber (Shambhala Books, 1996). The incompatibility
between New Age nonduality and Christian dualism is explicitly pointed out in a
review of the book by Douglas Groothuis, and published on the Web by the
Christian Research Institute. (Accessed on the Web April
2002: www.equip.org/free/DN267.htm). Wilber’s cosmology is lukewarm in
that it commingles nondualist and dualist concepts. He rejects the nonduality
of scientific monism (only matter, space, and time exist), and wants to expand
it to include “subjective experience, values, or mystical awareness.” These
aren’t quantifiable yet they exist and are part of reality. Wilber’s name for
these human dimensions is Spirit. One can see the damage of commingling when
Wilber discards the dualist idea of God as Divine Person and instantiates a
non- anthropomorphic Spirit. His rational idea of matter/spirit duality is
immersed in the sensuous idea of a universal force dispersed in the universe. Quoting
from the review by Groothuis:
"Kosmos
is the manner in which Spirit manifests itself through certain invariant
stages. … He views the source of the Kosmos as "Emptiness," which is
"unbounded and unqualifiable" (27; see also 133). Wilber takes the
mystical experience of Emptiness to be the highest state of consciousness. In
this state, the subject-object relationship drops out and one realizes that he
or she is one with the nondual reality." … "Wilber insists that the
final reality is nondual an all-encompassing and absolute oneness (see 226-32).
It is
evident that Western concepts of nonduality are commingled with remains of
duality that are implied in the Western intellectual system and cannot be
easily eradicated from the mind. But without the rational protection of
discrete degrees and correspondences this commingling throws the mind into
corporeal spirituality which invades the mind to the core and destroys the
potential for opening the interior rational mind. This is the mind that
sustains high consciousness levels (or heavens) in the afterlife. The absence
of the rational is clearly seen in “mystical” statements such as this one,
quoted by Groothuis:
“You
are not in the Kosmos, the Kosmos is in you, and you are purest Emptiness. The
entire universe is a transparent shimmering of the purest Emptiness. The entire universe is a transparent shimmering of the Divine"
(229).
Groothuis
clearly sees the absence of rationality in these nondual notions:
If
nonduality is the comprehensive reality, as Wilber claims, this destroys all
duality ... God's creation is one universe, but it consists of a great
diversity of objects, events, and relationships. Neither God nor His creation
will dissolve into a faceless oneness. ... One cannot have a personal relationship
with Emptiness. If all is one, there can be no relationships, for a
relationship involves at least two entities. Wilber says that "the twoness
of experience is the fundamental lie, the primordial untruthfulness"
(233).
Wilbers
use of personal language for the impersonal absolute is a classic case of what
Francis Schaeffer called "semantic mysticism"-- terms that have no
philosophical application within a world view are invoked for a deceptive
emotional effect. ... The problem of good and evil also plagues Wilber. Since
Spirit is nondual, it is beyond ethical categories. Meaningful moral
distinctions require an objective difference between the dualities of good and
evil."
Here we see
the spiritual danger: the denial of God’s Personhood which results in ourselves
being God, an idea that is hostile to character regeneration since this
requires a duality of superior to lower. If I am God, my salvation is not to
change from evil to good with the help of God, but to let both fall off that I
may awaken as God. In the end, Western nonduality falls into the corporeal
spirituality called “mysticism” and “oneness with the universe.” Quoting
Groothuis once more:
Wilber
affirms that the ultimate reality is "unqualifiable" (137, 225). If
so, then no one can logically affirm anything about it. What cannot be
described cannot serve as an explanation for anything. Nevertheless, Wilber
does qualify the Emptiness by saying it is the ground and goal of evolution,
the source of all historical manifestations, the highest state of
consciousness, and so forth. This is contradictory; he should remain silent
(along with Emptiness)."
Chapter 3, Section 6
New Age
spirituality and mystical ideas of Spirit, Universe, or God-consciousness,
enter the mind through nonduality which is the denial or ignorance of discrete
degrees and correspondences into which the universe is created (DLW 173-281).
Nonduality in the form of secular humanism, pluralism, and religious mysticism
are systems of thinking that are opposed to the fundamental dualities we take
up from the Writings. In the afterlife all of these natural belief systems fall
off and are dissipated since they are not part of the internal mind. What is
then left behind is the denial of God and heaven. Religion occupies the highest
place in the human mind and without the worship and love of God as Person all
that is below is false and of no use. Nonduality in the mind is antagonistic to
the worship and love of the Divine Human in whom infinite distinct things make
a one. The perfection of the Lord is that distinct things are united in Him.
Were we to think that the distinct things commingle and are amalgamated into an
“indistinct mass” of nonduality we close the mind to understanding the Lord’s
perfection (DLW 352, SE 682). As the angels said to Swedenborg “what is
indistinct is confused, whence results all imperfection of form” (DP 4).
The
nonduality of Christian Science theology is evident from the core idea that
permeates all sub-ideas, as here:
With the
inspired Word of the Scriptures as its foundation, Christian Science reveals
that God is infinite Spirit, the only Mind, boundless Soul,
ever present Love, perfect Life, unrivaled Truth, omnipotent Principle. …
Infinite Spirit never had a visible opposite, called matter
nor an invisible opposite, called an atom. Infinite Mind never had a
visible opposite, called a human brain, nor an invisible opposite, called
mortal mind. … Consequently, the thought that there is something unlike or
besides God should be rejected with the same finality with which those turnips
were rejected.
The Discoverer
and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, perceived the true import of
God's allness as no one else has since Christ Jesus. In the Christian Science
textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy writes,
"Spirit, God, has created all in and of Himself. Spirit never created
matter." And she continues, "Spirit is the only substance, the
invisible and indivisible infinite God." The more we understand the
unqualified allness of Spirit, the more we understand the unqualified
nothingness of matter.
(On the Web at mbeinstitute.org/cern2.html
Accessed May 2002)
Clearly,
the nonduality expressed here is not drawn from the Word but from the mind of
Mary Baker Eddy. We know this for certain from what the Writings teach
concerning discrete degrees. The Lord creates everything in three discrete
degrees. The natural world (“matter”) is a real and permanent creation, that contains within it the spiritual and the
celestial (DP 220). Take away one and creation collapses into chaos and
dissipates.
Once,
having been asked by the Pharisees when the
Heaven
is in the man; and there is a place for him in heaven according to the state of
life and of faith in which he is (AC 9305)
It cannot
be said that Christian nonduality is Christian, but only that nonduality has
been infused into the ideas of many Christians who acknowledge the Bible as the
Holy Word. But this acknowledgement is only in their natural mind, thus devoid
of any spiritual ideas that only start above the external natural-rational,
that is, in the interior rational or spiritual-rational.
Chapter 3, Section 7
Author-philosopher
Ayn Rand continues to be a significant influence on college students today.
Millions of young Americans are exposed to her ideas in high school and college
classrooms and read her books along with the collateral literature of followers.
Her version of nonduality relates to Nietzsche’s “superman” concept that
popularized the notion that morality is to be taken from natural reality, since
human reason is from nature and nothing exists but what comes from nature.
Ayn Rand
named her philosophy “Objectivism” and described it as a philosophy for living
on earth. Objectivism is an integrated system of thought that defines the
abstract principles by which a man must think and act if he is to live the life
proper to man. Ayn Rand first portrayed her philosophy in the form of the
heroes of her best-selling novels, The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas
Shrugged (1957). She later expressed her philosophy in nonfiction form. The
basic principles of Objectivism can be summarized as follows:
Metaphysics
“Reality, the
external world, exists independent of man’s consciousness, independent of any
observer’s knowledge, beliefs, feelings, desires or fears. This means that A is
A, that facts are facts, that things are what they are — and that the task of
man’s consciousness is to perceive reality, not to create or invent it.” Thus
Objectivism rejects any belief in the supernatural — and any claim that
individuals or groups create their own reality.
Human Nature
Man is a rational being. Reason, as man’s only means of
knowledge, is his basic means of survival. But the exercise of reason depends
on each individual’s choice. “Man is a being of volitional consciousness.”
“That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you
call ‘free will’ is your mind’s freedom to think or not, the only will you
have, your only freedom. This is the choice that controls all the choices you
make and determines your life and character.” Thus Objectivism rejects any form
of determinism, the belief that man is a victim of
forces beyond his control (such as God, fate, upbringing, genes, or economic
conditions).
Ethics
“Reason is man’s only proper judge of values and his only
proper guide to action. The proper standard of ethics is: man’s survival qua
man — i.e., that which is required by man’s nature for his survival as a rational being (not his momentary physical survival as a
mindless brute). Rationality is man’s basic virtue, and his three fundamental
values are: reason, purpose, self-esteem. Man — every man — is an end in
himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake,
neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he
must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own
happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.” Thus Objectivism rejects
any form of altruism — the claim that morality consists in living for others or
for society.
(“The Ayn Rand Institute, Center for the Advancement of
Objectivism.” On the Web at www.aynrand.org/objectivism/essentials.html
Accessed May 2002
The
attitude of hostility towards religion and duality is made quite apparent as
part of its appeal, I think. Westerners who want to
take an anti-religion stand in opposition to their upbringing, find it in a
modern philosophy that justifies ridiculing religious ideas about God and self.
The rationale for justifying this rejection is given as a simple minded theory
that objective thinking or “Reason” is solely from nature through sensory
input.
And the serpent was subtle, more than every wild animal of
the field that Jehovah God had made. And it said to the woman, Has God indeed
said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
'The serpent is here used to mean man's sensory perception
in which he trusts. 'Wild animal of the field' here, as previously, means every
affection that belongs to the external man. 'Woman' means the proprium. 'The
serpent said, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat
of every tree' means that for the first time they entertained doubts. The
subject is the third generation of the descendants of the
This
generalized form of nonduality leads to the devastating attitude that the self
is the only source of truth, morality, and happiness. Altruism, which we may
call charity or love of neighbor, is an idealistic or
non-objective fabrication which are rejected by realistic and strong
individuals. They are the ones who are going to succeed in their productivity
and happiness. “Rational self-interest” is described as the highest goal of
human consciousness and reason. Acting on our own behalf is said to be morally
and objectively superior to acting on behalf of someone else because our
survival depends on acting on our own behalf.
The
nonduality of
The
devastating effect this philosophy can have on one’s understanding is
illustrated in the essays written by high school students and published on the
Ayn Rand Institute Web site. This student decided to present her ideas on
objectivism for her high school graduation commencement speech. Her teacher saw
the speech and suggested some changes:
My old history teacher, an extreme liberal, advised me to
completely remove the word “selfish” and change it to another word, like
“self-reliance.” But as I saw it, changing that word meant changing the meaning
of my speech. To review, “selfish,” according to the American Heritage
Dictionary, means “concerned chiefly or only with oneself without regard for
the well being of others.” The committee had a problem with the definition, and
basically, the philosophical ideas I was implementing. I was not advocating
caring only for yourself at all times—I was advocating
selfishness toward one’s own goals and dreams.
(“Collected Student Writings: The Virtue of Individualism”
On the Web at www.aynrand.org/ROC/individual_virtue_main.shtml
Accessed May 2002).
In contrast
to this is the revealed truth in the Writings:
Man is born
not for the sake of himself but for the sake of others; that is, he is born not
to live for himself alone but for others; otherwise there could be no cohesive society, nor any good therein. It is a common
saying that every man is a neighbor to himself; but the doctrine of charity
teaches how this is to be understood, namely, that everyone should provide for
himself the necessaries of life, as food, clothing, a dwelling, and other
things which are necessarily required in the social life in which he is, and
this not only for himself, but also for his family, nor for the present alone,
but also for the future.
For unless a
man acquires for himself the necessaries of life, he is not in a condition to
exercise charity, since he is in want of everything. But how every man ought to
be a neighbor to himself may be seen from the following comparison: Every man
ought to provide his body with food; this must be first, but the end should be
that he may have a sound mind in a sound body; and every man ought to provide
his mind with food, namely, with such things as pertain to intelligence and
judgment; but the end should be that he may thereby be in a state to serve his
fellow-citizens, society, his country, the church, and thus the Lord. He who
does this provides well for himself to eternity. (TCR 406)
The
American intellectual spectrum is divided into two factions that might be
called Establishment and New Age. One is indigenous to the West, the other
imported from the East. The Establishment intellectualism is constructed on the
usual left-right ideology that characterizes political activity and social
policy. Ayn Rand’s Objectivism is on the right and is rationalized on the basis
of materialistic monism and survival of the fittest, a point of view that was
elaborated into a modernity outlook by 19th Century British and
German philosophers (Weber, Huxley, xx). Opposing
Objectivism is the left oriented secular humanism as represented by The
Aquarian Conspiracy which popularized a fully modernized personal
philosophy that millions of individuals have taken on as their habitual way of
thinking and reasoning about social issues, psychology, morality, and
spirituality.
The
nonduality of the left takes a different form from that on the right, though
both agree in the departure cornerstone—only the material world of nature is
the reality around us, and therefore good is what promotes self and its
self-centered goals. There is a background assumption in all nonduality that is
a blind persuasive faith in the mystery of the unknown in nature. This is the
substitute for the inherited faith in God that every individual is born with
(TCR 8). Objectivism on the right of the spectrum relies on an unexamined
super-rational role attributed to nature in the form of its not-understood
“intelligent” forces that counteract chaos. The Aquarian Conspiracy on the left
relies on a mystical Wholeness that exists and exerts a beneficial influence on
the parts. Some of these parts are human beings who can reason and figure out
what the Wholeness is up to. This knowledge is valuable because it allows us to
manage the forces of Wholeness, or to manage things around us to conform to the
forces of the Wholeness. By doing this kind of management we are transformed
and raised to a higher level of our being and existence. The notion of a
“conspiracy” by the “Aquarian” forces shows that the mysterious activity of the
Wholeness work in the background of our awareness and calling these forces
“Aquarian” indicates that they are beneficial and oriented towards the
evolution of human consciousness.
A great
shuddering, irrevocable shift is overtaking us. … It is a new mind—a turnabout
in consciousness in critical numbers of individuals, a network powerful enough
to bring about radical change in our culture. This network—the Aquarian Conspiracy—has
already enlisted the minds, hearts, and resources of some of our most advanced
thinkers and steadily growing numbers from every corner of American society.
Marilyn Ferguson is the publisher of Brain/Mind Bulletin, the most widely read
newsletter in the areas of brain research and consciousness, and The Leading
Edge, a newsletter dealing with the frontiers of social transformation. (From the book jacket.)
Meditation,
chanting, and similar techniques increase the coherence and harmony in the brainwave
patterns; they bring about greater synchrony between the hemispheres, which
suggests that higher order is achieved. (p. 79)
Beyond the
personal reunification, the inner reconnection, the re-annexing of lost
portions of oneself, there is the connection to an even larger Self—the
invisible continent on which we all make our home. … The separate self is an
illusion. … When the self joins the Self, there is power. … This perfection,
this wholeness, does not refer to superior achievement, moral rectitude,
personality. It is not comparative and not even personal. Rather, it is an
insight into nature…If only briefly, we recognize ourselves as children of
nature, not as strangers in the world. (p. 97-100).
Spiritual or
mystical experience is … a direct perception of nature’s unity, the inside of
the mysteries of science tries valiantly to know from the outside. … Millions
living today have experienced transcendent aspects of reality and have
incorporated this knowledge into their lives. A mystical experience, however,
brief, is validation for those attracted to the spiritual search. (p. 362)
(“The Aquarian Conspiracy” by Marilyn Ferguson.
What is
called “transcendent” and “mystical” in nonduality systems is a corporeal
feeling of “unity with the universe” or a sensuous vision of nothing
experienced before. Both of these “spiritual self-transformations” are
interpreted as occurring in one’s “consciousness” which is pictured like a sort
of elevator shaft that goes from bottom self to divine. Despite the tremendous
bibliographic efforts put out around this and similar “psychotechnologies,”
there is not one rational duality included anywhere. The Writings describe this
result and explain it as the absolute restriction of the natural mind to the
natural discrete degree (see Chapter 7 Section 1). Not a single
rational-spiritual idea can exist in natural systems of nonduality (DLW 185).
The
“Aquarian Conspiracy” is indeed a conspiracy, but not the one described in the
book. The real conspiracy is the denial of duality. The purpose of this
conspiracy is to maintain the current supremacy of self and the human
intellect. This is done by systematic exclusion or filtering out of dualist
concepts from the Second Coming. The dualist rational absolutist concepts of
the Writings dethrone the supremacy of the self and destroy the fiery serpent
living in the formula: self=divine. Prior to reformation the dethroning of the
self from its divine position is experienced as death and dying. Naturally,
then, the filtering process against duality will continue as it is endemic.
Because of this, the Lord provides for each person a way out of
self—reformation and regeneration. This is the suffering we must be willing to
undergo. No other way exists. But the burden is light, says the Lord (Matt
Further,
those born in the
To undergo
reformation we must let go of all our nondualities stuck in the natural mind,
no matter what religion we are born into. The first to go is the fundamental
one that keeps all others in power: the formula self=divine. I recall when I
went through that phase (see Note 3 at end). I was an avatar to myself, a god,
evidence of which were my great spiritual accomplishments—my insights into all
things rational, my ecstatic experiences of oneness with the universe, my
emotional detachment regarding what riles everyone else around me, my absolute
independence and self-reliance in internal things—these were the proof for my
having reached the divine status. And then I had to give it up quickly as the
Lord allowed me to plummet down quickly into anxiety, doubt, lifelessness, and
dread. Thus vastated, my insane persuasion dissolved and I was able to grasp
and hold on to the new found inner experience of worship and love of the Lord
through loving, studying, and obeying His Word. This was higher consciousness.
This is reality. This direction of movement will pay off with salvation and
eternity, while the prior one with sinking deeper and deeper into the sink-hole
of insanity. This may sound like an extreme view by those who do not see that
it is what the Writings teach in particular and in general everywhere.
A popular
book that has had a large following is James Redfield’s The Celestine
Prophecy (Warner Books, New York 1994), a novel seen as a spiritual guide
for the New Age. It is still a best seller in 2002. The book purports to reveal
ancient truth that has been suppressed by the “established orthodoxy” now that
we are on the verge of a paradigm shift in human evolution. In reality we are
all truly God but the Christian Church has kept this truth from the people,
along with the Bible and Western science. Since we are co-creators of the
universe, we create our own reality. By rejecting all fear and doubt we raise
our spiritual energy to our “higher self” One critical reviewer asks, “Do we
have a new guru with a new religious movement here?” Another reviewer
summarizes the new knowledge as follows:
#1. Feeling restless? You're not alone:
Everybody's starting to look for more meaning in life. Start paying closer
attention to those seemingly "Chance Coincidences" - strange
occurrences that feel like they were meant to happen. They are actually
synchronistic events, and following them will start you on your path to spiritual
truth.
#2. Observe our culture within its
proper historical context. The first half of the past millennium was spent
under the thumb of the church; in the second half we became preoccupied with
material comfort. Now, at the end of the twentieth century, we've exhausted
that preoccupation. We're ready to discover life's ultimate purpose.
#3. Start to get acquainted with the
subtle energy that infuses all things. With practice, you can learn to see the
aura around any living being and to project your own energy around it to give
it strength.
#5. The key to overcoming conflict in
the world is the mystical experience, which is available to everyone. To
nurture the mystical and build your energy, allow yourself to be filled with a
sense of love.
#7. Once cleared of traumas, you can
build energy through contemplation and meditation, focus on you basic life
question, and start riding a steady stream of intuitions, dreams, and
synchronistic coincidences, all guiding you in the direction of your own evolution
and transformation.
#9. Our purpose here is to evolve
beyond this plane. … We can connect to God's energy in such a way that we will
eventually become beings of light, and walk straight into heaven.
(The Nine Insights of the Celestine Prophecy by James
Redfield, summary by Alan Atkisson (Aug/1994) on the Web at www.spiritweb.org/Spirit/celestine-9-insights.html
Accessed June 2002)
The
“Celestine Prophecy” is regarded by followers as a modern day revelation of the
next step in human evolution. It has surfaced now because a “critical mass” of
people are reaching a new spiritual development
through insights that the higher self reveals to the lower self. Humans have
“dynamic sacred energy” they can project to influence the seeming coincidences
in our lives. The “mystic experience of an inner connection with divine energy
within” has been known in Eastern traditions but now anyone can experience this
through acquiring “personal energy and awareness of our spiritual mission.”
This is revealed to the person gradually—questions, daydreams,
intuition—leading to similar revelations that others experience “synchronously”
and “ultimately transforming our bodies into spiritual form and uniting this
dimension of existence with the after-life dimension, ending the cycle of birth
and death” (from a review online).
All
philosophic forms of nonduality are self-based formulations. In the East they
take the form that the self is really God not an individual. In the West God is
left out of the account and replaced by a mystical idea about a
self-intelligent universe or evolutionary process. The result of all forms of
nonduality is to allow people to invent their own ideas of morality and
spirituality. This is the imagined victory of the human over the Divine, which
in the Word is described as eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil (AC 126). The tree of life is discarded. The result of this is spiritual
death with no knowledge left of any spiritual truths (AC 128, 265).
There is
also a middle of the road nonduality which might be called psychological
humanism. It is the orientation that gifts the natural mind with having the
ability to improve itself to an indefinite degree into the future. It creates a
continuum of intelligence in the natural discrete degree spanning from animal
to the highest level humans can attain. The method by which this can achieved is critical thinking. A similar notion is promoted
in related philosophical systems of secular humanism, one of the widest known
is the general semantics movement started by Korzybsky (xx). According to the
Foundation for Critical Thinking the human mind is natural and contains various
levels and functions. Thoughts and feelings are organized by either of two
drives: “egocentric tendencies” or “rational capacities.” One is “unsuccessful”
leading to negative emotions--anger, depression, alienation, arrogance,
defensiveness, domination, submission. The other helps us attain our goals,
develop our potentials, and lead a fulfilling life. The focus ought to be on
“continual self-improvement while respecting the rights and needs of others.” (The
Human Mind, Foundation for Critical Thinking, on the Web at www.criticalthinking.org )
All
philosophies, psychologies, sciences, and religions that are founded on the
cornerstone of nonduality are invariably stuck in the natural world and the
natural mind. Rejecting the idea of dualism, they leave no exit from this
world. The individual can only have a temporary existence. People have a
choice as to how they’re going to spend this limited time, well or not well.
What it means to live life well in the mental health profession is identified
along various measures of living and achieving—
q self-improvement and stagnation
q adaptive and maladjusted
q successful and being extinguished
q rational and egocentric
q clear and obscure
q cooperative and antagonistic
q outstanding and normal
q self-reliant and dependant
q and so on.
Each life
continuum is defined by two opposites in choices that determine our lifestyle,
our personality, and our destiny. This type of positive and upward mobile
character image may have a certain attractiveness to
the
Every
change and variation of state of the human mind makes some change and variation
in the series of things present and consequently of things that follow; what,
then, must it not do in the progression to eternity? (DP 202:3)
Evils
are as it were heavy, and fall of themselves into hell; and so also falsities
that are from evil (n. 8279, 8298). (HD 170)
For
example, consider what is to be taught to school children at various levels.
For instance, one Lesson on “What Will Decompose?” as designed for 2nd
and 3rd Grades, explains the difference between “man-made” and
“natural objects.” And then encourages discussion that can stimulate critical
thinking about “categories of things” and which would decompose. This appears
fine at first, and is intended to lay the logical foundation for later ideas of
conservation and recycling. But upon second thought we would not want to teach
our
This
duality context then sets the foundation for the morality of recycling as an
individual motivation and choice. The religious motive for recycling is the
only spiritual one, but this only to the extent that one’s religion is
spiritual-natural and not merely corporeal-sensuous natural. It would threaten
the children’s ability to understand the Writings if we were too teach them the
two categories of man-made and natural without at the same time
embedding these categories into a more inclusive category of man-made from God
and nature-made from God. This is necessary to insure that all concepts in our
mind are connected to God. Because this is the reality, teaching it instills an
external rational system that can receive the genuine spiritual-rational system
from the Writings.
It should
be noted note that the secular orientation of Skepticism teaches critical
thinking analysis for debunking religious dogma and uncritical acceptance of
various claims regarding miracles and the power of prayer. The Skeptic’s
Dictionary online (skepdic.com/prayer.html
) uses this critical approach not only with the dubious claims of certain
enthusiastic preachers but also those of the professional medical research literature
that publishes prayer experiments with flawed designs. Clearly these critical
thinking skills are valuable to build the external rational, so long as the
context of duality is provided for it.
A
Mark
Carlson's article on evolution theory and the limbus gives us the third
illustration of the incorporation of religious concepts from Swedenborg into
modern science.[14] First he cautions that atheistic evolution theory can be a
"real danger" to "the simple-minded" because of its
"sophisticated arguments against God" (p.259). To
assume that a "random process can 'create' life" is "inherently
unreasonable and illogical" (p.259). The "neo-Darwinian"
views of sociobiologists (he mentions Richard Dawkins) are mere
"foolishness," such as the theory that our genes "manipulate us
and our world by remote control for the sake of their own survival"
(p.260).
For
additional discussion on
Chapter 3, Section 8
The
Anthroposophy Movement that Steiner founded and led until his death in 1924
survives today in a select following, small but widespread in Western
countries. It is not generally known that he started the Waldorf education
movement that is inspired by his occult ideas. I have made an attempt to study
Steiner’s books and consulted followers who are active in anthroposophy, but I
abandoned my studies after three years and a dozen books, being convinced that
I will obtain nothing coherent from his obscure web of mystical ideas. I might
note the hand of
Regarding
the spiritual world:
When
the ether-body is detached from the human being after death (see Chapter III,)
something that may be described as a kind of extract or quintessence of it
remains for the whole of his future evolution. This extract contains the fruits
of the past life. It is the bearer of the “seed” of his coming life — the seed
which is developing throughout man's spiritual evolution between death and a
new birth.
Steiner
teaches reincarnation as the vehicle of evolution of an individual’s
consciousness. Between births, the individual undergoes various experiences in
some spiritual realm or state. The psycho-dynamic forces that drive or create
these experiences are said to be mysterious inner forces of an intelligent
universe. Steiner said he was able to “sense” these forces by subtle forms of
“supersensible cognition,” especially just before fully awakening in the
morning, while in a sort of middle state between sleep and consciousness. The
more “evolved” an individual is, the more attuned to these mysterious forces
called “Beings,” and the more one can understand how they run the universe.
While the Ego
is in the spiritual worlds, man's earthly dwelling-place is changing. In one
respect this change is connected with the changes that are taking place in the
great Universe — changes for example, in the relative position of the Earth to
the Sun. Periodic changes involving cosmic repetitions are connected with the
development of new conditions on the Earth.
Through
Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition supersensible cognition gradually
reaches up into the regions of the spiritual world where it can apprehend the
Beings who participate in the evolution of the World and
It may be
asked whether by meditation, contemplation and kindred methods of attaining
supersensible cognition described in this book, we arrive at the general
realities — say, of the life between death and rebirth, and other spiritual
facts — or whether we are also enabled to perceive particular events and
beings, for example an individual human soul after death. The answer is that
one who has thus acquired the ability to see into the spiritual world also
becomes able to perceive in detail what is going on there.
At one time I
was hopeful that I too might meet these Beings or see what’s going on in the
spiritual world—but no such luck! I could see how it would be possible for me
to start imagining these things and build elaborate astrological events
surrounding momentous evolutionary upheavals of ages ending and new ages beginning, and even how I had a hand in all this, being
situated spiritually where I was. Etc. But all this was not to be, as
Swedenborg was waiting around the next bend (in the library).
When we look
back into olden times, we see rise up before us within the traditions of
Judaism the prophetic figure of Elijah. We know what significance the prophet
Elijah had for the people of the Old Testament, and therewith for all mankind;
we know how he set before them the goal and destiny of their existence. And we
have shown how in the course of time the being who was present in Elijah
appeared again at the very most important moment of human evolution, appeared
again so that Christ Jesus Himself could give him the Initiation he was to
receive for the evolution of mankind. For the being of Elijah appeared again in
Lazarus-John — who are in truth one and the same
figure as you will have understood from my book “Christianity as Mystical
Fact.” … We see how in the Sun sphere he is able to live through over again in
a deep and intimate sense — in another way now than when he was on Earth as a
companion of Christ Jesus — he is able to live over again what he underwent
when, through the Initiation of Christ Jesus, he, Lazarus, became John.
In recent
months we have frequently spoken, my dear friends, of the instreaming of the
Michael-Power into the spiritual events of man's life on earth. … This work is:
to let the Michael Power and the Michael Will penetrate the whole of life. The
Michael Power and the Michael Will are none other than the Christ Will and the
Christ Power, going before in order to implant in the right way into the Earth
the Power of the Christ.
(“Rudolf
Steiner Archive, Occult Science - An Outline, Details From
the Domain of Spiritual Science, The Ether-Body of
wn.elib.com/Steiner/Books/GA013/English/RSP1963/GA013_c07.html#N3
Accessed May 2002)
I met a
fellow Jewish man at an Anthroposophy meeting and after awhile I had occasion
to ask him how he felt about Steiner’s references to Christ. He told me that
Steiner doesn’t refer to Christ but to the “Christ Impulse” or “Christ Power”
and “Christ Will” but never to Christ. So he felt comfortable with the idea
that Anthroposophy had nothing to do with the Christian religion. And he was
correct. Steiner uses New Testament names, events, and ideas to label what
Steiner needed a name for, or a peg upon which to hang one of his ideas, but
never in the Christian religious sense that Christians have for their Bible.
For awhile,
prior to my being led to the Writings, I found Rudolf Steiner an attractive
figure. He was flamboyant and mystical, cultured and sophisticated, an erudite
curator of Goethe’s library, a talented architect and sculptor in the style of
Blake’s etchings of the muses and cruelties in hell. He was an innovative
educator deeply interested in the mental and spiritual development of children,
and had esoteric knowledge of non-traditional medicine, macro-biotic
agriculture, and other interests besides. I was told that he ended his lectures
and classes with a brief meditative session that appealed to the Beings and
Forces in the spirit of the Christ Power. The Waldorf schools he created first
in
Anthroposophy
is a giant collection of nondualities that creates one large soup of
everything. It has nothing to offer to the
Chapter 3, Section 9
Anti-semitism
is racial and ethnic hatred against the Jews. Many books have been written
about it over the centuries and modern studies and institutes are active today.
Anti-semitism in
Wiesel has
had two areas of influence intellectually: secular and religious. The influence
on secular humanism has been to promote the notion that anti-semitism is a
political and moral plague on society, corrupting it, turning it into sub-human
levels of functioning. The only way society can escape this fate is to
constitute itself into a community of hatred against anti-semitism. Extensions
of this idea are seen in the formation of anti-discrimination agencies and
institutes specifically focused on anti-semitism in society—the laws, the
media, the image, the philosophies, and the practices of it. Wiesel’s religious
influence has been felt by Christians who desire a philosophical explanation of
anti-semitism in relation to the Christian Church. There seems to be a need for
alleviating feelings of guilt for the role of the Christian clergy in contributing
to anti-semitism over the centuries. One commentator on Wiesel writes:
The second
part explores the theological and ethical questions involved in the journey of
those who hear Wiesel. The author confronts Wiesel's assertion: "The
sincere Christian knows that what died in
(William A. Hartfelder, Jr. “Review of: Elie
Wiesel: Messenger to All Humanity” by Robert McAfee Brown Notre Dame,
The modern
Jewish perspective on God has become influential with Christians since the
Holocaust literature has become prominent in seminaries and an official
ecumenical relationship has been formed between Christian Church leaders and
American Jewish Rabbis. One of the best known author and critic in the
holocaust literature is Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Nazi extermination camps,
and honored with a Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his humanitarian activities in
relation to “remember the holocaust” which he argued was a great human failure,
not merely a Jewish tragedy. Christian theologians began to argue that the
holocaust requires a change in the idea that Christians have of Redemption.
Here is one example that uses the holocaust as a justification for Christian
political support for the survival of
Ellis provides an illuminating overview of what has been
described as "Holocaust theology," that worldview which places Jewish
destiny within the parameters of the Holocaust and the state of
(…)
Like other writers, Ellis attributes the restraint that
generally characterizes Western criticism of
(Book Reviews: Beyond Innocence and Redemption: Confronting
the Holocaust and Israeli Power. By Marc H. Ellis. Harper & Row, 1990. Reviewed by John
Dirlik. December/January 1992/93 on the Web at
www.washington-report.org/backissues/1292/9212074a.html
accessed June 2002)
1. Tenets Of Holocaust
Theology
Some of the
tenets of “holocaust theology” are expressed here:
Some have
argued that as God granted human beings free will, the terrors of the Holocaust
were manifestations of purely human evil. Others have suggested that God
suffered in the death camps with his chosen people. Radical theologians,
however, have contended that our understanding of God must be altered in the
light of the Nazi terror.
Pre-eminent
among such Jewish theologians is the Conservative rabbi Richard Rubenstein, who
argues that it is no longer possible to believe in a supernatural deity who
acts in history. Jews today, he contends, live in the time of the death of God.
Elie Wiesel
described in his autobiographical novel, Night ,
the evolution of his religious doubt as he experienced the horrors of the Nazi
regime. His rebellion was heightened during the high holy days when, unable to
pray, he turned accuser. On the day of atonement, he
refused to fast, rejecting God's silence in the face of suffering and murder.
(…)
A shift in
perspective has also taken place in Christian circles. A number of Christian
thinkers insist that our theological understanding has been fundamentally
altered by the events of the Nazi era. In Anti-Semitism and Christian Theology , the Christian feminist theologian Rosemary
Radford Ruether argues that the church must repudiate its traditional
conviction that Christianity is the only true path to salvation.
The Catholic
theologian John Pawlikowski says Christians should forge a new conception of
the relationship between God and human beings in the light of the Holocaust. In
his view, the initial act of creation constituted the liberation of humankind
from its total encasement in the godhead. Christianity's role is to guide
humans in how they use this power and freedom.
(…)
These and
other thinkers have recast the theological approach to the problem of God's
presence and human suffering. In a post-Holocaust world, traditional views of
God are arguably invalid. In his article "Christians and Jews after
(Dan
Cohn-Sherbok. “Where was God when evil struck?” This article first appeared in
the Times Higher Educational Supplement,
www.lamp.ac.uk/trs/studyofjudaism/wherewasgod.html accessed June 2002.
The basis
of all doubts about God regarding the Jewish holocaust is the tendency of
people generally and theologians in particular to apply a nonduality between
historical events and God’s omnipotence. This particular tendency is a sub-set
of the larger issue within which it is discussed: Why does God permit evil of
any kind? The crisis of the holocaust is precipitated by the horrific number of
victims in one historical event. The unprecedented evil unleashed in the 1800
days of World War II made brought on the death of 6 million Jews, 20 million
Germans, 20 million Russians, and millions of Poles, British, American, Japanese,
and others. These people must have had some face off when they arrived in the
spiritual world, as often is the case with victims and their tormentors (SE
4493). It is significant to note that I could find not a single reference to
this idea in all of my research on holocaust theology. There appears to be a
total and absolute disinterest in following these victims to their fate in the
afterlife. It’s as if the afterlife did not exist and was not relevant. But to
the
2. The Victims In The
Afterlife
Jewish and
Christian nonduality are equal in prohibiting
discussion of the afterlife of those 50 million people who entered the
spiritual world from deaths caused by the five-year war. Almost one million
people died each month during that war. Every one of these deaths meant a new
beginning and a new future. It’s irrational to stop the discussion at the point
of death, as if these people disappear from the human race. Nonduality wants to
focus on the size of the numbers—but this remains a natural focus, not
spiritual. The number of deaths has significance for a natural theology and for
politics. Angels do not think in numbers about anything (AC 5291). Dualism from the Writings allow us to go deeper into the
spiritual significance of any event. Not a single death from among the 50
million was caused by human evil as an impotent God looked on. Every death,
and its horrific attendant details, occurred with the Lord’s Laws of
Permissions. Nothing could occur without the Lord giving it power to occur. The
Lord permitted every horrific event and supplied the power for its
occurrence—the power of the trains carrying the victims, the intelligence of
the Nazis in figuring out efficient killing methods for millions, the attitudes
of the world’s leaders who did nothing and were not outraged, the last twitch
of a hand in agony, the last heart beat—every single detail was powered by
Divine Omnipotence through the Divine Laws of Permissions. And it doesn’t stop
there!
Every
individual needed to be awakened in the spiritual world, all 50 million of
them. Each was treated personally by the best possible care: two angels of the
Lord supervising with great care the operations of resuscitation. And my grandparents and uncles and cousins, and all the soldiers,
and all the Nazis who died, and all the Russians, and all the Poles, and so on.
They were all resuscitated within 36 hours into the caring hands of angels. And
from there they carried on, freer than before, with more capacity to enjoy and
discover the deepest desires and delights. There is no way of accurately
telling the holocaust story without going beyond the point of death. There are
two reasons: psychological and spiritual.
Psychologically,
if we stop at the point of the dying of the millions, there is no resolution
possible. The only available alternatives are pathological. There is no
rational resolution possible. People then fall into two main syndromes. One is
to hold on to the memory with hatred for part of the human. This perpetual
reminding and vigilance become possible mechanisms for escaping a
repetition. The other is to forgive and not to want to remember, and not to
want to attribute it to human nature in general. Neither approach gives satisfaction
and resolution.
Spiritually,
if we stop at the point of the dying of the millions, there is no resolution
with respect to why God allowed it. There is a general acknowledgement that God
sees the larger picture we do not, and therefore in God’s unfathomable Wisdom,
there is a justification for it. This is not a resolution but a the creation of a mystery. It prevents the deepening of
our ideas about God, a deepening that we need to advance in our regeneration.
The
The world of spirits is not heaven, nor is it hell, but it
is the intermediate place or state between the two; for it is the place that
man first enters after death; and from which after a suitable time he is either
raised up into heaven or cast down into hell in accord with his life in the
world. (HH 421)
Every
individual regardless of race, inheritance, religion, or health, inherits at
birth a mental connection to those evil lusts and cupidities. These flow in
into the will of the natural mind, and each time we carry them out in thought
and action, we experience delight. We are a race delighted with evil, with
lust, with cupidities, and especially can we enjoy these fallen delights when
we justify them in our understanding as something good and allowable. This is
called the infernal marriage and takes us straight to hell from where we cannot
escape to eternity. The Lord cannot prevent these events on our own account.
This is because we are so fallen that nothing would be left in our delight or
animated life if the Lord prevented the evils from being done. Our delights
would instantly cease and we would have no motive to move or think anything. If
we had enough good things we loved, the Lord could then prevent the bad things
we also love, and we would still feel alive, and in our heaven. But if there
are no good loves or affections left, not a one, then the Lord goes along with
the lusts and their evil acts, and gives Permission. That is, the Lord allows
it to happen, doesn’t stop it, but gives the power and the knowledge for the
criminal and cruel act to take place against the victim.
Further,
the Lord governs these events so that He mitigates each detail, bending but
never forcing, working in the background to make things happen as if by chance
or foresight (AC 4364[2] ). The Lord is present very closely with the
individual’s inner mind of which there is no conscious awareness. Regardless of
the person’s religion or morality, the Lord is there close, governing and
managing and healing. How good it is that He doesn’t leave things to us, for
then hell would be far worse. He only lets us carry on the impression that He
is absent or that we are accomplishing anything from ourselves. The holocaust
is psychologically and spiritually impossible to resolve without knowing about
the Divine Laws of Permissions and the Laws of Divine Providence. These have
now been revealed in the Writings and we can have a perspective on
anti-semitism that is rational and purposeful, not random and abandoned.
The
There are
thousands and thousands of arcana, of which scarcely a single one is known to man,
whereby a man is led by the Lord out of the life of hell into the life of
heaven. (AC 9336)
There
are many like Elie Wiesel who see the holocaust as
God’s failure, Christianity’s failure, humanity’s failure. These represent a
continuation of the struggles for him and others. But we know from the Writings
that in reality there is never a failure by the Lord. What is happening is that
the Lord manages everyone’s fate and biography in accordance with His Perfect
Divine Order and with a constant focus on the individual’s regeneration and
preparation for spiritual life. The style by which we live in war and in peace
is something we ourselves insist on, even as the Lord manages to work around it
so that all things contribute to the individual’s spiritual salvation and
eternal life. There has been no failure of anything, only man’s cruelty at work
prior to regeneration.
Jewish
nonduality as it is manifested in Christian thinking is exhibited in the
popularity of Rabbi Harold Kushner’s bestsellers read by millions of Americans.
Question: This year is the 20th anniversary of your hugely best-selling book, When
Bad Things Happen to Good People. Did the response to that book surprise
you?
Answer: It still surprises me 20 years later that so many people, Christians,
Jews and agnostics, were comforted by that book, that it is used in college
courses and taught at Christian seminaries.
Question: What is it about us that craves significance?
Answer: Once we come to understand that
we're not going to live forever, we feel the need to leave our mark on the
world, so that when we are gone, people will know that we were once there. It's
not mortality that frightens us, it's invisibility,
the dreadful feeling that neither our living nor our dying will make a
difference to the world. Religion tries to help us conquer that fear by giving
us good things to do and by reassuring us that our choices matter at the
highest level. We may not be famous, but we matter to the people close to us
and we matter to God.
(BookPage interview with the author. Rabbi Harold Kushner Living a Life
That Matters: Resolving the Conflict Between
Conscience and Success (Knopf 2001) On the Web at www.bookpage.com/0109bp/rabbi_kushner.html
Accessed June 2002)
Note the
inability to consider the continuation of life as a normal part of assessing
the “significance” of our life on earth. Nonduality restricts an individual’s
significance to a strictly natural property—that of “leaving a mark” in the
physical world. In the Eulogy at funerals Christians often take solace in
affirming the rock bottom fact that the individual who died will yet continue
life “in the memories” of those he or she influenced for good. This is
considered equivalent to immortality. But it is not. The individual continues
life in the spiritual world and has nothing to do with the memories of those
left behind. Dualism grants us freedom from the oppressive ideas of nonduality.
I once sent
a copy of this book to Oprah after she had devoted a series of shows to what is
spiritual. Of course I never received an acknowledgment from the producers who
open her mail. After teaching a history of psychology course focusing on
Swedenborg I was delighted to read Part 1 of the students’ reports which was
divided into two parts: What the book says, and What I
think of it. The majority did an excellent job of representing one of the three
books being considered (Heaven and Hell, Divine Love and Wisdom,
Divine Providence). Their summaries were
accurate and they picked up important threads which they were able to render
precisely in their words.
But when I
got to Part 2 of their report I was shaken a bit to see that they did not
accept what they summarized, though they all had a favorable view of the author
whom they deemed sincere in his intentions. So I learned of the futility of
merely exposing others to the Writings and expecting instant acceptance. I
believed this naively because that’s how it happened to me. I was a seeker of
truth and meaning in life. I hated the idea of dying and disappearing. I felt
it was such a colossal waste—all the effort I put into my life going poof!
What’s the point? No I did not care much about living “in the memory” of
others. What’s that to me? I wanted immortality. I loved it when I first read
the New Testament in 1980—overcoming my long standing aversion of it, as it was
forbidden for an Orthodox Jew to read it or touch it. I especially loved the
parts that promised eternal life. This was my first rational duality. It
was given as a gift from the Lord through His New Testament Word. From an
Orthodox Jew I instantly became a Jewish Christian. But a year later the Lord
gave me the rest of the gift to complete the whole that He wished to give me
about Himself and from Himself. I found the books of the Writings in our
university library as I was browsing for “Bible commentaries.” Then my mind was
immediately changed again into full living dualism. Now I have a
I realize
that it is not possible to believe Swedenborg’s accounts of the spiritual world
without reading and understanding the rational explanations given for all the
experiences and observations he was able to make directly. There were many
illustrious readers of Swedenborg among the intelligentsia of the 18th , 19th and 20th century (for the long list see Note 5 at
end). They generally divided what he wrote into two parts: philosophy-theology
and fantasy-spiritism. It’s astonishing to me that they were able to separate
these two and to admire one for its enlightening rationality, but to dismiss
the other for its childish and rather unimaginative inventiveness. I was
puzzled.
3. The Spiritual Meaning Of Anti-Semitism
I believe
that future research in theistic science based on the Writings could uncover
the reasons for the history of anti-semitism. We already know that it has a
spiritual cause, because all historical events on earth are effects while none
of them are causes (HH 89). What are the spiritual causes of anti-semitism?
There may be many, general causes and specific causes. General causes fall into
the category of love of self and love of dominion by those who make use of any
social or political situation to make victims. This is what they love. But
there are also specific causes that relate to evils of religion by those who
make use of religion to victimize others. Other specific reasons relate to the
states of spiritual development, what is inherited down the line of one’s
ancestors (DP 277). The Writings tells us that all
historical events in the Old Testament took place as described and that only
those were permitted by the Lord that could be for the benefit of the people
involved in the events, and could also serve for the Word and its representations
by correspondence. The inner content of the Old Testament is its spiritual
content, and this content is arranged in infinite rational series which the
angels marvel at (AE 112[4]; NJHD 260). The historical events were allowed to
take place so that they could serve to represent and contain these heavenly
truths. These truths are for the salvation of humankind, and without them, no
one could be saved (TCR 318).
The Jewish
history in the Old Testament had a Divine purpose for its every detail. This
purpose was related to the evolution of the human race. This evolution is
accomplished by means of the Divine Truths contained by correspondence in the
historical events of the Word, in every geographic name, in every number, in
every animal mentioned, in every miracle, in every poetic expression (AC 66[2] ). The Jewish people did not go through these events
merely for their own sake but for the sake of the entire human race. This
is the meaning of the “Chosen People of God.” They were accepted to the Divine
task of being the living events of what the Lord needs to accomplish to save
the world. Every detail in the Old Testament is about the Lord and His work of
Redemption. It appears on the surface that every detail is about the Jewish
people and their land. This is true. But much more than this, it is also the
containant of the universal meaning—the latter within the former, by
correspondence (DLW 221, AC 1886).
For
instance, when we read about Abraham and the events recorded about him, we are
reading in the spiritual sense, the events about the Lord when He was on earth
and accomplished His work of Deliverance and Redemption. And further, these
very same details about Redemption are also the details about the spiritual
evolution of the race, and the spiritual development of every individual. This
is the level of theistic science. At this level of thinking we read about
Abraham, but we think about the Lord. We read about Esau and Jacob, but we
think about our own states of regeneration. Esau represents the good of faith,
Jacob the truth of faith. When we read about Jehovah telling Abraham to hearken
unto Sarah, we are thinking about the external rational mind being in obedience
to the internal rational mind. When we read about the prophet who was ordered to
eat dung, we are reading about the profanation of good and truth in our mind:
In Ezekiel, the Spirit of Jehovah said to the prophet:
Take
unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and
put them into one vessel, and make thee bread thereof. With the ordure of man's
dung shalt thou make a cake before their eyes. Thus
shall the sons of
where the
profanation of good and truth is treated of; the "wheat, barley, beans,
lentils, millet, and spelt" denote the kinds of good and its derivative
truth; the "bread" or "cake" "made thereof with the
ordure of human dung," denotes the profanation of all of them. (AC 3941)
Similarly
in the New Testament and in the Writings because the Word is always written in
this style, and without this, it would not be Holy and would not be able to
conjoin heaven and earth, and thereby save the human race. The Writings were
given for the entire universe, for the earths, and for the heavens. Many nations
and historical figures are mentioned in it. All these are representations of
spiritual things that correspond to them. These spiritual things are human
states that apply universally. The Laws of Divine government have been revealed
but not understood, hardly studied. But the future will be different as the
human race gradually returns to its state of wholeness and pristine perfection
(Coronis Summary LIII).
As the
Writings become more widely known the issue of anti-semitism in it is
inevitably going to crop up. I recall when I first read the New Testament at
around age 40 I accepted it without hesitation as the continuation of the Old
Testament, with which I was raised as an Orthodox Jew. But despite this, I
sometimes got the feeling that it was anti-semitic in certain places where it
refers to the Jews in derogatory terms. This reaction is inherent in every Jew.
I started examining the exact expressions to see if it could have been written
differently. For example, instead of saying “the Jews” should it not have said
“certain among the Jews” or “the Jewish clergy” and so on.
But later, through the Writings, I gained the perspective of the Word as the
Divine Truth with its inner spiritual meaning in every expression and word.
Then it is clear that the Word is universal and above sectarianism. But real
historical events and people are involved in the surface literal prose of the
Word. These names, places, and events are to be transcended or seen through so
that they disappear altogether, and what is perceived then is the spiritual
universal sense. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the people or places
mentioned.
The nature of representatives becomes clear from the
historical parts of the Word, where all the acts of those forefathers, that is
to say, the acts of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, and later on of Moses, the judges,
and the kings of
[4] But the
nature of representatives is such that no attention at all is paid to the
character of the representative person, only to the thing which he represents
For all the kings of Judah and Israel, no matter what kind of men they were,
represented the Lord's Royalty, and all the priests, no matter what kind of men
these were, His Priesthood. Thus bad men as well as good were able to represent
the Lord, and the celestial and spiritual things of His kingdom, for, as stated
and shown already, representatives were entirely separate from the person
involved. So then all the historical narratives of the Word are representative,
and as this is so it follows that all the words of the Word carry a spiritual
meaning, that is, they mean something different in the internal sense from what
they do in the sense of the letter. (AC 1409)
Since this
nation, although of such a quality, represented the Church; and since the Word
was written among them and concerning them; therefore Divine-celestial things
were signified by their names, as by Reuben, Simeon,
In the same
way we can deal with many passages in the Writings that appear to be anti-semitic
to the Jewish reader. The Jewish reader will not be convinced that it makes a
difference that there is also an internal spiritual sense. The fact remains to
their eyes that the literal says negative things about Jews and some of the
ancestors they consider part of their holy worship—King David, Judah, and
Jacob, for instance, and many others. The Writings speak of them as not being
among the heavenly persons. Their importance is not their personal character,
which could be either good or evil. Their spiritual importance is that they
represented something spiritual, just as the High Priest may represent the Lord
while in his robes at the altar in the temple, but when not in his robes, and
in private life, he may be a wicked and unlawful man. His personal wickedness
does not interfere with his priestly representation and office. So even though
Jacob represents the Lord in His Divine Natural, he is described in
dishonorable terms in terms of his inherited character (e.g., SE 37; NJHD 248).
In fact,
the Writings state that the Jews are entrusted with keeping intact the Word of
the Old Testament and it is through this that there is connection between
heaven and earth. Without the religious motivation of Jews to safeguard the Old
Testament text, the world could not survive and the entire creation would be
destroyed!
The Lord saw to it that to prevent the Word being lost, the
Jewish race, which possesses the Word of the Old Testament in its original
language, should survive, and live scattered throughout much of the world.
Although they deny the Lord to be the Messiah or Christ who was foretold by the
Prophets, and although they are wicked at heart, still their reading of the
Word creates communication with certain heavens. For correspondences open up
communication, whatever sort of person the reader may be, so long as he
acknowledges it as Divine. This continues today as in the past. For when they
reverence as if minor deities Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David, Elijah
and many others who are named in the Word, then the heavens perceive instead
the Lord, being unaware of the person in the world who is the origin of that
holy element in their worship. That is how heaven is linked with people by
means of the Word. (DE VERBO 16)
4. The Old Testament’s View Of The Chosen People
It’s also important to remember that the Old Testament from Moses to
all the prophets is replete with passages that describe the Jews in very
negative terms. Remember
what God says about His chosen people:
the
iniquity of My people is become greater than the sin of
Woe to the
sinful nation, to a people laden with iniquity (Isa. 1:4). (SS 86)
Because this
people have drawn near with their mouth, and honored Me
with their lips, but their heart has been far from Me, and their fear of Me has
been a commandment of men that has been taught to them.... Isa. 29: 13. (AC
2826)
your new moons
and your appointed feasts My soul hateth; therefore when ye spread forth your
hands I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, if ye make many prayers, I will not
hear; your hands are full of bloods. (Isa. 1:10-18) (Life 30)
I was angry
with My people, I rendered My heritage unholy, and I
gave them into your hand Isa. 47:5, 6, 9. (AC 1368)
I will hide My faces from them, I
will see what is the last of them; for they are a generation of perversities,
sons in whom is no truth. I would exterminate them, I would cause their memory
to cease from man, were it not that I feared the indignation of the enemy. For
they are a nation that perisheth in counsels, and there is no intelligence in
them; for their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their grapes are of the
fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are hemlock, the clusters are bitter to them.
Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel head of asps. Is not this
laid up in store with Me, sealed in My treasures?
(Deut. 32:20, 26-34);
The Lord,
through Moses, describes the children of
This tendency
and proneness to evils just mentioned, which is transmitted from parents to
their children and descendants, can only be broken down by a person being born
anew by the Lord's help, a process called regeneration. Without this not only
does the tendency remain unbroken, but it is reinforced by a succession of
parents, becoming more prone to evils, and eventually to every kind of evil.
That is why the Jews are still copies of their ancestor Judah, who married a
Canaanite wife, and fathered three lines of descent by adultery with Tamar, his
daughter-in-law. This heredity has become so amplified in the course of time
that the Jews are unable to embrace the Christian religion and believe it in
their hearts. I say they are unable, because the inner will in their minds
resists, and it is this will which creates the impossibility. (TCR 521)
A spirit
himself also is nothing else than his own quality; on this account everyone in
that world drops his baptismal name, and the name of his family, and is named
according to his quality. Hence it is that "name" in the Word does
not signify name, but quality. (INV 41)
This is
not anti-semitism but spiritual psychobiology of the unregenerate person. It is
true of every individual’s inheritance regardless of ethnicity, race, or
religion.
Anti-semitism
is an evil of society because it is the hatred of others instead of love of
neighbor. The negative things the Word says about the
Jews is not anti-semitism because the Word is only love. The Old Testament, the
New Testament, and the Writings say similar critical things about the Jews, as
about the Christians, and still others. Everyone who is not regenerate is evil
regardless of the religion one belongs to. As a Jewish boy growing up in
Rumania I was raised to fear and despise Christians, to view with suspicion
dark skinned races, and to believe that Jews are a superior race, superior in
intelligence, superior in holiness. I was not taught to love my neighbor. I was
taught all sorts of superstitious nonsense about other groups. The point is
that Jews are filled with hatred for those who hate them. And this is natural.
People of all religions also feel this way and act this way.
If
Swedenborg had been anti-semitic he could not have discussed Christians in the
same spiritually negative terms as he discussed the Jews, and yet this is what
he has done:
That the Lord enters into a covenant, or conjoins Himself by
charity, with Gentiles also who are outside the church, shall now be shown.
The man of the church supposes that all who are out of the
church, and are called Gentiles, cannot be saved, because they have no
knowledges of faith, and are therefore wholly ignorant of the Lord, saying that
without faith and without knowledge of the Lord there is no salvation, and thus
he condemns all who are out of the church. Indeed many of this sort who are in
some doctrine, even if it be heresy, suppose that all outside this, that is,
all who do not hold the same opinion, cannot be saved; when in fact the case is
not so at all. The Lord has mercy toward the whole human race, and wills to
save and draw to Himself all who are in the universe.
[2] The mercy of the Lord is infinite, and does not suffer
itself to be limited to those few who are within the church, but extends itself
to all in the whole world. Their being born out of the church and being thus in
ignorance of faith, is not their fault; and no one is ever condemned for not
having faith in the Lord when he is ignorant of Him.
Who that thinks aright will ever say that the greatest part
of the human race must perish in eternal death because they were not born in
And besides, those who are out of the church, and are called
Gentiles, live a much more moral life than those who are within the church, and
embrace much more easily the doctrine of true faith, as is still more evident
from souls in the other life. The worst of all come from the so-called
Christian world, holding the neighbor in deadly hatred, and even the Lord.
Above all others in the whole world they are adulterers.
[3] It is not so with those from other parts of the world.
Very many of those who have worshiped idols are of such a disposition as to
abhor hatred and adultery, and to fear Christians because of their being of
this character and desirous of tormenting everyone. Indeed Gentiles are so
disposed as to listen readily, when taught by angels about the truths of faith,
and that the Lord rules the universe, and to be easily imbued with faith and
thus to reject their idols. For this reason Gentiles who have lived a moral
life and in mutual charity and innocence, are regenerated in the other life.
While they
live in the world the Lord is present with them in charity and innocence, for
there is nothing of charity and innocence except from the Lord. The Lord also
gives them a conscience of what is right and good according to their religion,
and insinuates innocence and charity into that conscience; and when there is
innocence and charity in the conscience, they easily suffer themselves to be
imbued with the truth of faith from good. The Lord Himself said this, in Luke:
And
one said unto Him, Lord, are they few that be saved? and He said unto them, Ye
shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of
God, and yourselves cast forth without; and they shall come from the east and
the west, and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the
kingdom of God; and behold, there are last who shall be first, and there are
first who shall be last (Luke 13:23, 28-30).
By
"Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" are here meant all who have love, as
shown above.
(AC 1032)
(Italics added for emphasis)
This
passage declares the Christians to be “the worst of all” the spirits that come
from this earth into the afterlife. Clearly, Swedenborg could not have been
anti-semitic and pro-Christian. He merely described what he saw in the
spiritual world regarding the spiritual character of people from different
nations (see LJ 2-24 and other places). It’s also clear from this and other
passages, that religious membership is not the basis for spiritual judgment.
Rather, how one lives—morally or not, as a matter of conscience and religion,
determines one’s spiritual fate in the afterlife. Anti-semitism never takes
this tolerant and universal attitude.
Moses and the
Prophets, that is, all and everything in the Word, in the internal sense,
treats of Him; and that all the rites of the Jewish Church represented Him (AC
2751).
All the rites of
the
External rites
are called "signs of a covenant" for the reason chiefly that interior
things may be kept in mind by them, that is, the things signified by them. All
the rites of the Jewish Church were nothing else. And for this reason they were
also called "signs" that the people might be reminded by them of
interior things-as for instance, the binding of the chief commandment on the
hand and on the forehead, as in Moses:
Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy might; and these words thou shalt bind for a
sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes (Deut.
6:5, 8;
All the rites
of the Jewish Church were types representative of the
Lord, consequently of love and charity, and of all things therefrom.
(AC 1038)
The things that were represented in the Jewish Church, and
in the Word, are the Lord and His kingdom, consequently the celestial things of
love, and the spiritual things of faith: these are what were represented,
besides many things that pertain to these, such as all things that belong to
the church. (AC 1361)
And it was He who has represented by all the rites of the
Jewish Church, and whom they worshiped. (AC 1607)
All things of the Word in its inmost sense treat solely of
the Lord, (AC 9925)
In the Word "Jehovah" denotes the Lord (n. 1343,
2921, 3035, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 6945, 6956, 8864).
Unless these things had been as if present to the angels,
through the Word, and also through all the rites in the Jewish Church, the Lord
would have been obliged to come into the world immediately after the fall of
the Most Ancient Church … (AC 2523)
5. All Old Testament Details Represent The Lord
In these
passages of the Writings (and many others can be brought forward), it is
declared that every detail of Jewish worship and history represents something
about the Lord Jesus Christ! Anti-semitism hates Jewish worship and history,
while Swedenborg elevates these things to the highest sacred level possible!
Readers of Swedenborg who are not in the
All the rites
of the
Every
detail of the journeys of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, represents the details of
how Jesus Christ grew up among the Jews and the mental states of development He
underwent to unify His Human with His Divine. Every vision of every prophet was
about Him, how He pleads with the
The
Writings proclaim that Jews, Muslims, and Gentiles are saved equally with
Christians when they arrive in the afterlife, are instructed, and can accept
spiritual truths:
So in regard
to the Jews and Gentiles; [as for instance] concerning the Jewish children who,
from the persuasion of their parents that the Lord is not the Messiah, are not
instructed to believe it; yet as it is owing simply to circumstances that the
children cannot believe otherwise than they do, this does not abolish with them
the truth, that the Lord is the promised Messiah. And thus as to the Gentiles
who are in ignorance, not knowing that the Lord rules the universe; this
ignorance, being a circumstance, does not preclude their being instructed in
the other life, and thus saved; besides many other things. - 1748, October 11.
(SE 3537) (see also SE 5880)
That the
Mohammedan religion is received by more nations than the Christian religion,
may be a stumbling-block to those who meditate upon the Divine Providence and
believe at the same time that only those who are born Christians can be saved.
But the Mohammedan religion is not a stumbling-block to those who believe that
all things are of the Divine Providence. (TCR 833)
6. The Meaning Of “Jews”
In The New Church Mind
Further, to
the
Religious
rituals, religious prayers, religious sacrifices, fastings, meditations—none of
it can prevail. Only what can prevail is a reformed character in daily willing
and thinking for the sake of God and religion (LIFE 1). No one has the power to
attain this. But anyone can turn to the Lord and ask Him to do it, for He can.
And He has laid out in His Word what we must do in order for Him to regenerate
us. This He does to anyone from any religion with any background universally.
In heaven there are no religions, but only conscious life in accordance with
the Word (AR 918).
The Lord
has also laid out in His Word what happens to those who are not regenerated,
those who are unwilling to turn to God and order their life according to His
Commandments. They live out their few years on earth confirming their inherited
evils, living them, becoming them. Their mind is built up through these evil
loves and their falsities. There is nothing in the inmost of this mind except
those evil loves. When they arrive in the afterlife they enter in total freedom
within who they are, that is, they enter those evil
loves. In the spiritual world those who are in evil loves see around themselves
a hell—ugly rocky places, foul disgusting sickening smells, full of dangerous
and poisonous animals, full of infernal humans who act like beasts and relate
to each other through dominion and mutual enslavement. These things are not
punishments for sins. They are the character of spiritual nature of evil loves.
They are the exact opposite of good loves. Those in the spiritual world who
arrive with good loves within them see a heaven around them—beautiful palaces
with amazing art work, large complex fragrant gardens, filled with angelic
people who act civilized and with compassion to each other, engaged in sharing
their individual uniquenesses and benefiting everyone around them.
7. Anti-Semitism Is An Evil Love of the Unregenerate Mind
Anti-semitism
is an evil love. It is inherited. Every individual then has a choice to make in
adult life: Do I go along with this cultural norm or not? All sorts of
justifications are learned from societal beliefs and practices—religious (“They
are Christ killers”), socio-political (“They control the money”), psychological
(“They are in-groupish”, “They are cowards”), pathological (“They are
depraved”), and so on. As an adult every individual can think and reflect
whether this attitude is justified or whether it is a prejudice and an
injustice. Every individual can feel the delight of hatred in being
anti-semitic, and then must reflect on its rightness or wrongness. Conscience
will cry out in condemnation of all prejudice. Few are they who listen to
conscience and are saved; many are they who kill their conscience and are in
hell. For conscience is the voice of God speaking to the individual’s awareness
(NJHD 139). To kill conscience, or to weaken it, is to cut off that source of
communication and interaction between the individual and God. This conscious
interaction on a daily basis is required for regeneration. It is not religion
that saves, but regeneration (NJHD 183). And regeneration is available to
anyone of any background through the Word.
In today’s
world the Word is not known in many places but the Lord insures that every
nation has some religion by which the people know the minimal facts required to
be saved—to believe in God, to obey His Commandments, and to look to Him for
all their daily needs. All individuals who live in this way are saved (AC
2589-2604). When they arrive in the afterlife they are instructed and enter the
heaven of their religion (HH 512). Their mind can exist in good loves to
eternity. But those who do not live their life by acknowledging and obeying God’s
Commandments, are evolving a spiritual mind that can live in evil loves. When
they arrive in the afterlife these evil loves within them reject the
instruction they receive in the truths of religion. They go away on their own
and pick up the falsities that agree with their evil loves. Thus, they enter a
life of hell to eternity.
The
That the
gentiles equally with Christians are saved, anyone can see who knows what it is
that makes heaven in man; for heaven is within a man, and those who have heaven
within them come into heaven. (HH 319)
Experiences
and choices we make in the spiritual world are aligned with the mind such as it
has already been formed. The direction of the spiritual coils
constrain further development. There cannot be a reformation (DLW 263).
This must occur prior to leaving this world. And so those who arrive with good loves, get more and more of them to eternity, while those
who arrive with bad loves, get more and more of those. What about those who
arrive with both kinds of loves? In fact everyone arrives in the afterlife
with both kinds of loves, but with a critical difference—Which
loves are inmost? Those who have their evil loves in the inmost see them drive
out every single good love found in the surface of the character. They then
make free choices that take them further and further into those evil loves, and
permanent hell. Those who have their good loves in the inmost see them drive
out all the evil loves that are still embedded in the surface of their
personality. This purification process is painful but short. They then have a
mind that can live in heaven.
Knowing
this spiritual psychobiology is helpful because it strengthens the motivation
for regeneration and sincerity in life. And these are possible to the extent
that one avoids evil loves and fights against them by looking to the Lord for
help. This process insures that the good loves will be in the inmost when we
arrive in the afterlife.
Note 1
A directory
of all my publications, with full text access to most of them, is available on
the Web at
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/leonpublish.html
Leon James.
“Substantive Dualism: Swedenborg's Integration of Biological Theology and
Rational Psychology”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/dualism.html
Leon James.
“Scientific Dualism.”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/dualism.html
Leon
James. “Religious Psychology or Theistic Science: A Guide to Spiritual
Self-examination”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499ss99/man/religious.html
Leon
James. “Swedenborg Glossary of Theistic Science”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss.html
Leon James.
“Do the Writings Contain Scientific Revelations?” New Church Life , July 1995,
115(7), 325-330.
Also
available on the Web at
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409ss99/nfile2.htm
Leon James.
“Dualist Science and the Writings of Swedenborg” New Church Life , June 1995,
115(6), 264-270.
Leon James.
“Overcoming Objections to Swedenborg's Writings Through
the Development of Scientific Dualism” New Philosophy 2001 v.CIV n.3
& 4 pp. 153-217. Available online at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/np98.html
Leon James.
“The Fourteen Scientific Fallacies in AC5084: Implications for Science
Education.” New Philosophy, July-December, 1996, XCIX(3
& 4), 439-450
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/fallacies.html
Examples
of promoting dualism in science in
Gregory L.
Baker, Religion and Science: From Swedenborg to Chaotic Dynamics (New
York: The Solomon Press, 1992)
Linda
Simonetti Odhner, The Bread of Life With Honey From
the Rock: A Chaste Union of religion and science New Church Life March
1989, pp. 117-122
Leon James,
Swedenborg's Religious Psychology: The Marriage of Good and Truth as Mental
Health Studia Swedenborgiana December 1993, Vol.8, No-3, pp. 13-42
Ian
Thompson, Foundations of the Theory of Spirit, Mind and Nature from Theism www.TheisticScience.org
Note 2
W. F.
Pendleton Topics From the Writings (Academy,
1928)
Note 3
Leon James.
“My Pre-Swedenborgian Discoveries and Inventions (1960-1980)”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/dhl3.html
Note 4
Mark
Carlson. “Evolution, the Limbus, and Hereditary Evil (Part 2)”
New Church Life June 1990, pp.259-275.
Note 5
Barry C.
Halterman. “Swedenborg's Influence on Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1883)”
www.swedenborg.ca/swedenborg/r_w_emerson.html
Jane K.
Williams-Hogan. Swedenborg: A Biography
Available online here:
www.glencairnmuseum.org/jkwh.html
Leon James
“Swedenborg Revolution in the Social Sciences”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s98/shintani/logos.html
Leon James
“Spiritual Psychology”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/spirpsy.html
Note 6
Wilson
Van Dusen, The Distinctiveness of the Church of the
New Jerusalem New Church Life March 1994, 112-114.
Peter Rhodes, Gurdijeff’s and Swedenborg General Church
Sound Recording Library, Bryn Athyn, 1976.
Leonard
Fox, Gurdijeff’s: Guide to Heaven or Hell? New Church Life June 1993;
(see also his reply in the October 1993 issue.)
Note 7
Leon James
“Moses, Paul, and Swedenborg, or Ritual, Faith, and Theistic Science: The Three
Phases of Religious Behavior”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/moses.html
Leon James
“Religious Behaviorism”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/relbehaviorism.html
Note 8
Leon James
“De Hemelsche Leer--Part 1--Degrees of Consciousness”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/dhl.html
Leon James
“Spiritual Geography--Graphic Maps of Consciousness for Regeneration”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/geography.html
Note 9
Leon James
“Overcoming Objections to Swedenborg's Writings Through
the Development of Scientific Dualism” New Philosophy 2001 v.CIV n.3
& 4 pp. 153-217. Available online
here:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/np98.html
Note 10
Dr. James’
Student Reports on Swedenborg are listed in this directory:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/swedenborg.html
Note 11
Leon
James, “Genes of Consciousness: Spiritual Genetics for Regeneration”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/harmonizing4.htm
Note 12
Ian
Thompson, Foundations of Theistic Science The Theory
of Spirit, Mind and Nature from Theism (containing several articles)
Note 13
Leon
James, “Vertical Community”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/vertical.html
Note 14
Leon
James, “The Will and the Understanding or The
Affective and the Cognitive or Good and Faith or Heart and Lungs or Internal
and External Mind”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/wu.html
Note 15
Leon
James, “Affective and Cognitive Resistance to a More Healthy
Lifestyle
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/health1.html
Note 16
Leon
James, “Notes on the Doctrine of the Wife:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/dow1.html
Note 17
See our
Web site at www.DrDriving.org
List of Media
Interviews with Leon James and Diane Nahl
Articles
on Driving Psychology by Leon James and Diane Nahl
Leon James and Diane Nahl. Road Rage and Aggressive
Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare (Prometheus Books:
Leon James and Diane Nahl. Heaven
on Wheels: Principles of Christian Driving Psychology www.aloha.net/~dyc/articles/christ.htm
Leon
James. “Drivers Behaving Badly: DBB Ratings”
www.aloha.net/~dyc/articles/dbb.htm
Note 18
Hatfield, E., & Rapson, R. (1996). Love and sex: Cross-cultural
perspectives.
Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J., & Rapson, R. L. (1994). Emotional
contagion.
Note 19
Leon James
“The Universal Modes of Enactment in Human Experience: A Self-Witnessing
Account of the Discovery of Sudden Memory and My Interpretation of Its Significance
for the Human Race”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499ss99/man/enactment.html
Leon James
“Autobiography: Sudden Memory as the Integrating Mechanism on the Daily Round”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/ethnos/es0.html
Leon
James “Objective Autobiography: Sudden Memory”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499ss99/pederson/TOC.html
Leon James
“Radicalist Empiricism. The Universal Modes of Enactment in
Human Experience. A Self-Witnessing Account of the Discovery of Sudden
Memory and My Interpretation of Its Significance for the Human Race”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499ss99/man/enactment.html
Leon James
“The Hexagram of Sudden Memory “
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/updates/lee/section8.1.2.html
Leon James
“Discoveries and Inventions--Sudden Memory”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/discoveries.html
Leon James
“The Hexagram of Sudden Memory” (excerpts)
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/qqlj2.html
Leon James
“Pre-Swedenborgian Discoveries and Inventions (1960-1980)”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/dhl3.html
Leon James
and Diane Nahl “Workbook for the Study of Social Psychology”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/updates/lee/Section8.1.5.html
Leon James
“The Analysis of Transactional Engineering Competence” www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/tec.html
Leon James
“Community Archives in Social Psychology”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/updates/lee/Section5.2.3.html
Leon James
“Understanding Discourse: From Ethnosemantics to Transactional Engineering”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499ss99/pederson/discourse.html
Leon James
“Genetic Culture: Primacy of the Affective over the Cognitive”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/already.html
Leon James
“Lectures in Social Psychology (directory of chapters)”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/updates/lee/
Leon James
“Lecture Notes on The Psychology of Knowledge: The
Discovery of Sudden Memory“
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499ss99/pun/knowledge2.html
Note 20
Leon
James “The Method of Self-Witnessing”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/self-witnessing.html
Leon
James “Religious Psychology or Theistic Science: A Guide to Spiritual
Self-examination”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499ss99/man/religious.html
Leon
James “Self-witnessing our emotions in daily life”
www.aloha.net/~dyc/articles/red-blue.htm
Leon
James “General Instructions for Your Research Project: The Four
Options--Customizing My Daily Emotional Spin Cycle”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy16/g16reports-instructions.html
Leon
James “Temptations entry in the Swedenborg Glossary” www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/temptations.html
Leon
James “Self-Witnessing the Threefold Self”
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/409as97/atakahas/499/atakahashome.html
Note 21
Rev. Ray
Silverman teaches at the
Note 22
Harrie
G.D. Groeneveld “The Second Coming of the Lord in the Doctrine of the Church” De Hemelsche Leer, First Fascicle,
38-43, 1930 (quoted above in Chapter 7 Section 8) Available online at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409ss99/thompson/mscan1.html
See also its reprint version in the restart issues of De Hemelse Leer, April 2002 issue, Dr. Rutger Perizonius, Editor
(Van der Heimstraat 5, 2582 RX, The Hague)
Rev.
Ernst Pfeiffer “Elucidation of Mr. Groeneveld's Address” De Hemelsche Leer, First Fascicle, p.82-95; 127-131, 1930 (quoted
above in Chapter 7 Section 8) Available online at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409ss99/thompson/mscan2.html
See also its reprint version in the restart issues of De Hemelse Leer, April 2002 issue, Dr. Rutger Perizonius, Editor
(Van der Heimstraat 5, 2582 RX, The Hague)
Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, “The second Education” De Hemelsche Leer, Third Fascicle, p.22. 1935 (quoted above in Chapter 7
Section 8; Chapter 8 Section 3) (Available online at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409ss99/thompson/mscan8.html
)
Note 23
The following
Rev.
Donald L. Rose, Sermon titled “The Colt Loosed For the
Lord’s Service”
Rev.
Erik E. Sandstrom, The New Age and the New Church (Part Two). New Church
Life, June 2002, 251-260 (quoted above in the Introduction to Volume 1;
Introduction to Chapter 2; Chapter 4 Section 6; Chapter 6 Section 3; Chapter 7
Section 2)
Rev.
Mark Carlson. “Evolution, the Limbus, and Hereditary Evil
(Part 2)” New Church Life June 1990, pp.259-275. (quoted above in Chapter 3 Section 7).
Rev. Dr.
Ray Silverman’s review of Henry James, Sr. in Arcana 1996 v.2 n.4 p.56 (quoted
above in Chapter 4 Section 2 and Section 3)
Rev.
Grant R. Schnarr “Swedenborg And The Near Death
Experience” on the Web at
www.newchurch.org/faq/indepthfaq/swedenbNearDeathExperience.html Accessed June
2002 (quoted above in Chapter 4 Section 5)
Rev.
Douglas M. Taylor “Self-Esteem” New Church Life March 2002 v.CXXII No.3
pp. 99-105 (quoted above in Chapter 6 Section 7)
Rev.
Edward S. Hyatt, Sermons on the Word. Swedenborg Genootschap, 1935 (quoted
above in Chapter 7 Section 8)
Rev.
Hugo Lj. Odhner, “The Transition from Human to Divine Philosophy” Written in
1921. Published in The
New Philosophy 1974; 77:43-71. Available online at: http://www.newchurchissues.org/SR/hlo74.htm
)
(quoted in Chapter 7 Section 8)
Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, “The second Education” De Hemelsche Leer, Third Fascicle, p.22. 1935 (quoted above in Chapter 7
Section 8; Chapter 8 Section 3) (Available online at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409ss99/thompson/mscan8.html
)
The Letters and Memorials of Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated and Edited by Rev.
Alfred Acton (
Rev.
Geoffrey H. Howard titled "The Transformation of a Man into a Husband and
a Woman into a Wife through Marriage" appeared in New Church Life,
June 2001 issue, pages 243-248. (quoted above in Chapter
9 Section 1)
Rev.
Ernst Pfeiffer “Elucidation of Mr. Groeneveld's Address” De Hemelsche Leer, First Fascicle, p.82-95; 127-131, 1930 (quoted
above in Chapter 7 Section 8)
I wish
to thank Dr. Ian Thompson for his invaluable editorial assistance with several
drafts and for supplying many of the citations to the Writings (see Note 12 above ). I also wish to thank Rev./Dr.
Ray Silverman who spent much appreciated effort reading and critiquing an
earlier draft (see Note 21 above). Rev. Robert Junge made critical comments on
several key issues that greatly improved my discussion of them. I am very
grateful for their contribution. Their astute observations helped me to avoid
critical errors and to strengthen the presentation in numerous places.
The author, Dr. Leon James,
is Professor of Psychology at the
A directory of articles and books by Leon James,
with full text access is available here: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/leonarticles.html
For comments and questions, I welcome your
email: leon@hawaii.edu
The Web address of the latest version of this
document is:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/nonduality.html
|
AC |
Arcana Coelestia |
|
AE |
Apocalypse Explained |
|
AR |
Apocalypse Revealed |
|
BE |
Brief Exposition |
|
CL |
Conjugial Love |
|
|
Coronis |
|
DE VERBO |
De Verbo |
|
DLW |
Divine Love and Wisdom |
|
DP |
Divine |
|
D. WIS. |
Divine Wisdom |
|
EU |
Earths in the Universe |
|
FAITH |
Doctrine of Faith |
|
HH |
Heaven and Hell |
|
INV |
Invitation to the New
Church |
|
LETT |
Letters |
|
LIFE |
Doctrine of Life |
|
LJ |
Last Judgment |
|
LJP |
Last Judgment (Posthumous) |
|
LORD |
Doctrine of the Lord |
|
NJHD |
New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly
Doctrine |
|
SE |
Spiritual Experiences |
|
SPECIMEN |
Specimen and Sketch |
|
TCR |
True Christian Religion |
|
TCR
Additions |
True Christian Religion
(Additions) |
|
WH |
White Horse |
|
9Q |
Nine Questions |
The Web
site includes a search engine and a key to the Bible. It also carries many
articles on Swedenborg and the
http://www.theheavenlydoctrines.org