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
Chapters 4 and 5
Table of Contents
Access to other Chapters
and Volume here:
2. The Secular Spirituality
of Gurdjieff
1.
Debunking Psychology Concepts
2.
Commingling Secular Psychology With New Church Dualism
3. The secular
Swedenborgianism of Henry James, Sr.
1.
Nondualities In Henry James
4. Spiritual Christianity
of Charles Augustus Tulk
5. Duality between good and
truth
1.
When Good And Truth Are Disunited
2.
The Duality Or Distinctness Of All Things
6. Psychological
Nonduality: Near Death Experiences
2.
The Unregenerate Natural Mind Is Entirely Nondualist
3.
Increase In The Number Of NDE Reports.
4.
NDE As A Medical Phenomenon
5.
Theistic Science Research Is Needed
6.
The Rational Nature Of Genuine Spiritual Experience
7.
Shamanism And Technologies Of The Sacred
1.
The New Age And The New Church
Overcoming Intellectual
Impediments to Reformation and Regeneration
2. The Rational Is The
Entry Way To The Spiritual
2.
The External and Internal Understanding of Spiritual Ideas
3.
Sin And Spiritual Punishment
3. Deconstructing
Nonduality In Our Mind
1.
Acquiring Rational Truths From the Literal Language of the Writings
4. Development From
Sensuous Rational Consciousness
2. To
Love God We Must Understand Him Rationally
3.
The Rational Is The Entry Point To The Spiritual
4.
The Spiritual Power Of Rational Concepts
5. The New Church Mind And
Other Religions
1. No
Continuity Between Truths And Falsities
6. The Nonduality Of
Persuasive Faith
7. The Doctrine Of Discrete
Degrees
1.
Knowing About Correspondences
8. The Formation Of The
Internal Marriage
2.
Religious Justification For Dominion Over One’s Wife
3.
The Wife Is The Will Of Her Husband’s Understanding
5.
Facing One’s Wife Instead of Turning Away
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
Man cannot discover a
single Divine truth, except by approaching the Lord immediately (INV 22)
Chapter 4, Introduction
All forms
of nonduality in the “collateral” literature of the
The
These two
ideas of the Writings oppose each other. The nonduality view of the Writings
flattens its core fundamental duality, and opens the
One example
is the formation of secular Swedenborgianism in the mind of those who are
familiar with the Writings but do not acknowledge it as the Word (see the other
Sections in this Chapter). This nondualist orientation sees in the Writings
numerous “mistakes” or “outdated scientific facts” or “limitations due to
Swedenborg’s human mind.” As a result, the entire scientific and religious
foundation of the Writings loses its absolute coherence and special Divine
authority. From then on self-intelligence and individual experience takes over
and regeneration is completely impeded (NJHD 256).
The Word is
not understood except by those who are enlightened. … They who read the Word
from the love of truth and good, are enlightened from it, but not they who read
it from the love of fame, gain, or honor, thus from the love of self … They who are led by the Lord are
enlightened, and see truths in the Word, but not they who are led by self (NJHD
256).
It is not
surprising therefore that scholars can seriously study the Writings for years
and arrive at the conclusion that they contain or advocate some form or part of
nonduality. The Writings say that the Word is written in a literal style that
people can use to support any idea or theory no matter how false and irrational
(TCR 260). In the quotation above (see Chapter 3 Section 1) Schoonheim sees in
the New Testament verses, confirmation of his belief in nonduality. Wilson Van
Dusen says: “The highest revelation of Hinduism is also in Swedenborg's
revelations even though the two traditions had no contact.” The inside cover of
the Journal Arcana says in part:
Hinduism, the oldest surviving religious tradition, teaches
that there are three paths to self-realization: jnana, the path of
knowledge; bhakti, the path of love; and karma, the path of
action. Is there a Western religious tradition that combines these three paths
into one, in order to teach the goal of conjunction with the Divine? To all
these questions the response is yes: that tradition is to be found in the
theological writings (sic) of Emanuel Swedenborg.
The idea
that revelations were given in Hinduism many centuries before the Second Coming
that are in some sense comparable or equivalent to the revelations given to
Swedenborg, is not a possibility for many reasons that are explicated in the
Writings (TCR 772). Swedenborg’s revelations are the Word of the Lord’s Second
Coming. He qualifies these revelations as the greatest miracle the Lord has
granted since the beginning of creation (INV 43). The Writings explain that the
Word is unique in style and no human writing can be compared to it. Further,
the Writings detail the history and development of the human mind from the
Clearly
then a distinct duality exists between the revelations given to Swedenborg and
the revelations given to Hinduism centuries or millennia before the Second
Coming. Truths given to prior “religious traditions” can only be shown to be
different, not similar, to the truths of the Writings. The activity of trying
to show that they are similar could admit into the
Take for
instance the concept of “God.” This concept is used by disparate religions with
different meanings Even the God of
traditional Christians relying on the Bible cannot be similar to the God of the
Writings, there being zero overlap between them (TCR 647). The same is true for
any concept you may consider—sin, hell, Satan, angel, Holy Spirit, Communion,
love of neighbor, adultery, Church, creation, Adam, Noah, crucifixion, etc.
etc.—none of these can be similar between the Christian Church (First Coming)
and the New Church (Second Coming). And if this is true for two religions so
closely tied by history and the Bible, it is even more so for Eastern religions
and Christian.
But granted
that the revelations given to Swedenborg are more “advanced” and more excellent,
is it possible that “the highest revelation of Hinduism is also in Swedenborg's
revelations”? (see the Van Dusen quote above). The answer is No. The Writings
teach that nothing whatsoever of a higher state can appear as a revelation in a
lower state (HH 269, SE 6084). The only relation there is between a higher
heaven and a lower one is that of pure correspondence. For instance not a
single idea of a spiritual angel of the Second Heaven can be seen or understood
by a natural angel of the First Heaven (HH 209). Similarly, not a single idea
of the Second Coming was perceivable by the Lord’s disciples, such as the
identity of Personhood between Jesus and the Father, despite His oft repeated
literal statements asserting it as He stood before them (John 10:30, AR 222).
Chapter 4, Section 2
Gurdijeff’s
system of "esoteric Christianity" includes mental exercises that are
believed to develop one’s spirituality. One example is the activity of
"sensing" which consists of sitting quietly and listening to the
surrounds. The purpose of this exercise is to increase awareness of one's
sensory environment as a means of focusing on the present and flushing out the
myriad of thoughts and impressions that lurk in the mind's background all day
long. It seems to help people to break away from their constant interior dialog
which the conscious mind carries on during waking hours. Another exercise is to
try to disengage from one's continuous stream of negative emotions (anger, dissatisfaction,
jealousy, conflict, anxiety, etc.). This distancing activity appears to break
their hold over us, freeing us to focus on and recognize good emotions. These
in turn occasion wiser and more creative or original modes of thinking. These
exercises may indeed be helpful psychologically though they are not spiritual
as defined by the
No matter how
advanced we get at psychological activities they can never turn into spiritual
ones. This is because psychological activities or states are in the natural
mind, while spiritual activities or states are in the spiritual mind. Only
interior rational content can exist in the spiritual mind and its content
originates from heaven, not the natural mind. Whatever originates from the
natural mind remains natural and cannot turn into spiritual by becoming more
advanced. These include psychological exercises and forms of meditation. The
natural mind and the spiritual mind are separated permanently by discrete
degrees (see Chapter 5, Section 6). In the
Some people
who attend “spiritual growth groups” may develop the notion that psychological
methods are spiritual activities. But for the
The
psychological exercises in themselves, are not spiritual and cannot lead to the
opening of the spiritual mind. Numerous psychological, mental, or physical
exercises or disciplines can be turned into “spiritual growth” tools if done
for the primary purpose of cooperating with the Lord in our regeneration. Before
our reformation in adult life we are in an unregenerate state, surviving in a
culture of nonduality and secularism. Our relationship to the Writings is
lukewarm and unenthusiastic since what we see in it is the loss of our selfhood
and freedom. We are afraid that if we lose our selfhood and freedom we will
never be happy and will have wasted our life. We are also filled with
dissatisfaction, rage, and rebellion. Our personality is filled with
contradictions and our motives are ego-oriented from inheritance.
In this
state we are not yet forming the
1. Debunking Psychology Concepts
We need to learn
how to interpret concepts whose source is not the Writings and how to relate to
them in our mind. In today’s modern world of media and general information
flow,
To debunk a
concept is to look for what is within, that is, to identify its assumptions,
premises, and presuppositions, for these are the things that are within the
concept. When this is done, we can instantly see that Gurdijeff does not have
compatible assumptions with the Writings. It is certain that Gurdijeff would
reject the most basic dualities in the Writings. Clearly, therefore, not a
single concept that Gurdijeff's mind could produce would be compatible with the
Writings when viewed from within. In this case, we can talk about evil spirits
in connection with our negative emotions, but if Gurdijeff were present, he
would laugh at us, would he not? So it cannot be that his idea of
“negative emotions” could like our idea of evil spirits.
Similarly,
Gurdijeff’s analogy of the mind as a house with a basement and upper floor has
been related to spiritual correspondences of a house with three stories, each
representing the natural, the rational, and the celestial in our mind. Once
again, we are certain that Gurdijeff would reject our idea of three discrete
degrees in our mind that connect only by correspondences. Therefore his analogy
of the mind as a house is inwardly antagonistic to our rational idea of the
mind in three discrete degrees. This points up again the utmost importance to
know the fundamental dualities in the Writings since if the
A
comparison has also been made between Swedenborg and Gurdijeff’s attitude
towards the Lord, namely Gurdijeff’s admonition that his system of mental
development would not work at all if the practitioners are motivated by
self-aggrandizement or belief in one's own powers. We have from the Writings
the idea that self-intelligence and self-love lead to hell regardless of our
religion or knowledge of the Word. But what can we make of Gurdijeff's idea of
a “belief in one’s own power”? Gurdijeff's relation to the Lord is a distant
one in comparison to New Church Christians who occupy the center of the region
around the spiritual Sun (D.Love 11, LJ 58). The Writings gives us the closest
relation possible to the Lord, hence it is not possible that someone who is
more distant could give us a like spiritual understanding.
It is
prudent to recognize the potential danger to the
But could
there not be some overlap so that some concepts from science and research are
like some concepts from the Writings? The answer must be, No, in the light of
what the Writings say. There may appear an outward similarity but there can
never be an inward similarity, because the concepts from the Writings are the
Word of the Lord, and therefore they have endless spiritual ideas contained in
each truth (SE 2085). No concept, idea, or reasoning that is not from the
Word can therefore be interiorly similar to the Word. It is clear therefore
that the
It is
useful to remind ourselves many times that all things that exist are distinctly
one in the eyes of the Lord, and that this principle applies as a duality. All
things that are good from within constitute one Church on earth and one Grand
Human in the spiritual world. All things that are not good within constitute
one infernal deformed man (DP 204). The two are antagonistic and cannot
co-exist. This same principle applies to all concepts and types of reasoning. In
the
Further,
the motivation for introducing explanations and practices that are not from the
Writings is that they would be useful for our life. For our spiritual life?
Everything useful for the spiritual life of the
2. Commingling Secular Psychology With New Church Dualism
What
about the potential usefulness of extraneous practices that are not spiritual?
Here my
answer would be, Yes, it’s possible that some might be useful for regeneration.
This is because physical behavior by itself is not spiritual, but it can become
spiritual when we perform it from a spiritual or religious motivation. Many
such practices and disciplines are described in Volume 3. I believe that some
of the practices encouraged by Peter Rhodes may be of this type. For instance,
as was said above, he recommends the activity of "sensing" which
consists of sitting quietly and listening to the surrounds. The purpose of this
exercise is to increase awareness of one's sensory environment as a means of
focusing on the present and flushing out the myriad of thoughts and impressions
that lurk in the mind's background all day long. It seems to help people to
break away from their constant interior dialog which the conscious mind carries
on during waking hours. This is not a spiritual exercise but a mental one,
below the spiritual level which begins only with the rational ideas in the
Writings. Religious disciplines are an essential tool for regeneration.
The activity of “sensing” and other such exercises of “meditation” are turned
into religious disciplines or tools when we do them for the purpose of our
regeneration. This subject is treated of in Volume 3.
Gurdijeff’s
secular psychotherapy has a nondualist foundation. On the other hand, spiritual
psychotherapy in the Writings is always religious and dualist through and
through. Every mental step, from emotional slavery to regenerated freedom, is
taken by the individual with the Lord's hand and face in view. In what might I
might call “true Swedenborgian therapy” it is not sufficient to confess the
True Christian faith (TCR 1), and thereafter proceed with a secular psychology
and a materialistic science. Every daily activity and routine must be suffused
with the Lord's presence and leading in our thoughts, perceptions, and
inclinations. I don't think it is the case that the
Moral life may be lived either for the sake of the Divine or
for the sake of men in the world; and a moral life that is lived for the sake
of the Divine is a spiritual life. In outward form the two appear alike, but in
inward form they are entirely different; the one saves a man, the other does
not. For he who lives a moral life for the sake of the Divine is led by the
Divine; while he who leads a moral life for the sake of men in the world is led
by himself. (HH 319)
Participants
in
"I find it difficult to understand what there is to be
afraid of from collateral reading and experience. ... I feel I have a new
understanding of what the Writings mean when I read them." Another letter
defends Peter Rhodes' book: “Aim does not proselytize Gurdijeffian
thinking; it gives credit to Gurdijeff’s for an effective approach to
self-examination. ... Aim gives help by mapping the strategies of the
hells. ... Aim has nothing to do with following Gurdijeff’s. It has
everything to do with a sincere effort to follow the Lord through His
Word."
On the same
page, a letter poses the opposite view:
"it is
difficult to understand why
Yet another
contributor cites 25 passages in Swedenborg which have one clear message,
namely that "the Word is the only doctrine which teaches how man must live
in the world in order to be happy to eternity" (AC 8939:3e). Mr. Odhner
warns against the dangers of "following the various theories of finite
minds" and urges that "the Divine authority of the Writings" is
an affirmation that "we must renew each generation" inasmuch as
"our constitution is the Writings" (p.181).
Despite
differences expressed in the heat of zeal for good and truth, I note a general
agreement in this polemic, that Swedenborg's Writings are the Word, hence the
ultimate authority on the ways and means of regeneration.
The Word is the only doctrine which teaches how a man must
live in the world in order to be happy to eternity. (AC 8939)
Enlightenment
is the influx, perception, and instruction people receive from the Lord when
they read the Word. (AC 10215)
I believe
that “growth groups” and special mental exercises, when viewed as secular
studies and experience, are compatible with the Writings when these secular
ideas have no authority in our mind regarding spiritual truths. The title
"spiritual growth groups" and the method of "esoteric
Christianity" are neither spiritual nor esoteric (that is, belonging to
the internal spiritual man). Perhaps if they had been called "social
growth groups," there may be more tolerance or acceptance of them in the
The
unregenerate natural mind is, in and of itself, composed of material ideas
based on the physical senses. The highest portion of the natural mind is the
external rational (AC 978, 4286; AE 355:14). Its constitution is
natural-spiritual built up with material ideas. The course of regeneration as
described in the Writings consists in opening the interior rational mind and to
allow it to receive genuine spiritual ideas from the Writings. By this method,
the spiritual mind is opened, and the things that come into it form heaven
dispose the things in the natural mind in a corresponding order. Prior to this
opening, the motives and thoughts in the natural mind are not really good or
really true. After the process of regeneration has begun, a renewal occurs and
life is gradually and noticeably transformed, day by day. New motives, new
thoughts, and new acts now translate into renewed life, psychological growth,
mental health, personal strength, individual ability and happiness. These are
the outward benefits of the growing spiritual life within.
Chapter 4, Section 3
Henry
James, Sr. was a staunch defender and promoter of the Writings. The famous
father of Henry and William, believed in a form of secular Swedenborgiansim
that was strangely muddled with nondualities. He was known for lambasting the
His
attitude towards the priesthood as an institution is difficult to understand
since without the priesthood there is no Church, therefore no religion (TCR
415). The Doctrine of the Church taught by the priesthood must be based on and
drawn from the Word, and the Word is thereby known to many (NJHD 315). The
vehement anti-sectarianism of Henry James, Sr. could be the result of a
nonduality in his mind between the priesthood of the First Coming and the
Several
other forms of nonduality plague Henry James’ secular Swedenborgiansim.
Rev.
Silverman is very generous in his assessment of William and Henry in terms of
what they took from their father’s Swedenborgian outlook and carried it forward
in their own work. It may be, as Rev. Silverman points out, that Henry James,
Sr., would have rejoiced in whatever influence of his ideas he could see in his
two erudite and famous sons. This would be consistent with his anti-sectarian
orientation towards the
It is
amazing to me that William James, in all his books and essays, spends no more
than two or three sentences, vaguely mentioning “Swedenborgian circles,” never
entering into a single idea of his father based on the Writings. And this,
despite the fact that William edited his father’s last work about Swedenborg
and published it posthumously. This is especially significant since William
James was a prolific writer and well admired for his expertise on the human
mind and on religion. Yet, not a single concept of his father from Swedenborg
ever enters his writing, or the many speeches and lectures he delivered over
his long academic life. It stands to reason therefore that he rejected and
despised everything about the Writings, not reading any of it himself, and not
taking seriously a single idea of his father in relation to Swedenborg.
William’s
book titled Varieties of Religious Experience (1929) has been very
influential in making it respectable for modern psychologists to consider
religion as a legitimate area for scientific research. It is filled with
content about the human mind and its relation to the Divine through various methods
of mental discipline, ritual, and introspective experiences of one’s
consciousness. Surely this would be an excellent opportunity to make his
father’s Swedenborgian ideas part of the varieties of religious experiences!
His total silence on it proves to me that he had an aversion for Swedenborg’s
ideas, so great that he could not bring himself to mention it in a serious and
comprehensive work on the subject.
The same
may be said about Henry James, the Son, since his many academic biographers
find nothing substantive to mention save his father’s social reputation as a
defender of Swedenborg and his polemical or controversial reputation regarding
that subject. Swedenborgian concepts are never let into his poems, essays, and
novels that are considered incisive and greatly admired.
From the secular
perspective it’s not crucial that Swedenborgian ideas be directly referred to
in their work. It’s enough that traces can be found in their work showing the
father’s influence in terms of their special focus on the mind and their
recognition of deeper levels of consciousness. But from a religious
perspective this is not enough because it always comes down to the bottom line:
Do they acknowledge the Lord and come to Him in His Word for salvation and
regeneration? It stands to reason that if they do, they’re going to write about
it and even make it a central focus in their writing. And if they don’t, then
they are acting like they have rejected those ideas as unworthy for their
recognition.
The
intellectual mind of Henry James Sr. was a sophisticated creation of Christian
and Western philosophic and literary traditions. He was led to the Writings in
midlife by a psychological crisis that left him depressed and incapable of
continuing his active life of letters and as head of a prominent family. He
recognized his symptoms when he read about the idea of vastations in the
Writings. He reinterpreted his psychological incapacity into a spiritual
evolution and he boldly went ahead reading the Writings and extirpating himself
from his psychological state into a new state of animated and passionate
defense of Swedenborg to his polemical friends, that included Emerson (see
Chapter 4 Section 6 and Chapter 7 Section 5). He fought against the
Religious
Swedenborgiansim is the acknowledgement of the Writings as the Lord in His Word
and extracts from it the Doctrine of the Church. This Doctrine is spiritual from
celestial origin and has nothing whatsoever from the natural mind and human
self-intelligence. It is this Doctrine in our understanding that is called the
Heavenly Doctrine and our regeneration is according to the our understanding of
the Doctrine and in proportion to our daily willing and thinking in accordance
with it (HH 473). This Doctrine is from the Writings and therefore has only
dualities in it. In contrast, secular Swedenborgianism commingles dualities
from the Writings with nondualities from self-intelligence in the natural mind.
The result is that all dualities are invaded and destroyed by the avalanche of
nondualities. Thus one remains without Doctrine for regeneration.
1. Nondualities In Henry James
It’s
instructive to trace some of the numerous nondualities that emerge in the
profuse intellectual reasonings that Henry James, Sr., produced in his
unstoppable enthusiasm for Swedenborg’s works. First, his anti-ecclesiastical
stance. Here he created a nonduality between the priesthood of the First Coming
and the priesthood of the
The
conditions for regeneration have been laid down in the Writings in most
specific terms. We must acknowledge our infernal status through and through,
repent, reform, shun our evils as sins, refrain from doing them, holding them
in aversion, and cooperating as-of self in our regeneration by taking up
Doctrine from the Writings and willing and thinking accordingly in our daily
and hourly activities. No other way is provided. One’s self-intelligence
must not be consulted or the Doctrine is falsified and no regeneration is
possible (TCR 48[18] ). Secular Swedenborgianism does not see all this and
disputes it. Yet it is revealed that
Every
one with whom the Church exists, is saved; but every one with whom the Church
does not exist, is damned. (NJHD 245)
A subtle
example of nonduality is the idea Henry James has of freedom. He takes up the
well known and beautiful revelation from the Writings that no one is born for
self, but everyone is born for others:
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. (TCR 406)
The only
freedom we have is therefore to cooperate and will in accordance with this
reality of creation. He considers what kind of society would result from
holding this principle in every activity and institution, and calls it
“Christology.” What justifies this method of living in his mind is that it
leads to a pure life of serving others, and the final outcome of this
Christology is “becoming one” with God, which is the Divine Humanity Itself.
This way we reach our deepest and highest reality and bliss. Clearly this
entire notion is based on a nonduality between the “humanity of the individual”
and the “Divine Humanity of Christ.”
In
contrast, the Doctrine of the Church we have from the Writings illuminates our
understanding to clearly see that the there is a fundamental and absolute
duality between our humanity and the Lord’s Humanity. Ours is an image of His.
We are so created that our celestial mind is capable of receiving the Lord’s
Proprium in our regenerated will. The Lord therefore is the all in all in
heaven, and we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us (John
It is
significant to note that Henry James prefers the expression “Divine Humanity”
while we use “Divine Human” as in the Writings. The difference is that the
The First
Commandment is that we love Him more than anything else (TCR 291). This is
possible only if God is the Divine Human for to love a “Humanity” as an
abstraction is not possible. Loving the abstract or the invisible Divine is not
possible because it is indeterminate in
the mind, and this cannot be loved (DL 13; HH 15). Love is the desire and
intention to conjoin, and one cannot be conjoined to something abstract but
only to another human being or to the Divine Human. Loving the Divine Human is
possible. When we love the “Divine Humanity” within ourselves we are still
secular nondualists, but when we love the Divine Human outside of ourselves we
have become religious dualists (see Volume 1 throughout). This is the
intellectual orientation of the
Henry James
describes the Coming of the Lord as a universal “message” of salvation to all
humankind. If we would listen to this message, says Henry James, we would abandon
all forms of sectarian affiliation and devote ourselves to love others as
Christ loved us. Christ was the model of Divine Humanity that we all have in us
as human beings. We can become Christ-like by loving all humanity and serving
others by working for their salvation as Christ did for ours. Henry James
refers to Jesus as the “most lustrous in history” of all prior models of
humanity. He further says that “God is manifested in the life of Christ” while
the
The Coming
of the Lord fundamentally alters the mental condition of the human race and
provides a new Church through a new Word (TCR 647). The purpose of this new
revelation is to teach how we need to cooperate with Him in our regeneration,
for without this there is no redemption and salvation (TCR 576). To the extent
that we struggle and live the Doctrine we understand from the new Word, to that
extent He regenerates us. The new mind formed by the new Doctrine becomes the
dwelling place or entry point for the Lord’s Proprium, and in this we have the
new spiritual life that continues to eternity (AC 5354; CL 355).
There is
much that is admirable about Henry James’ passion for many beautiful central
ideas in the Writings. Nothing that I said about his ideas should diminish
their interest and good intentions. Rev. Silverman’s review of this man’s
Swedenborgiansim is favorable and appreciative of his noble sentiments. He
shows that Henry James was against the anti-sectarian portion of organized
religion and that he favored the support of all Churches and religions, seeing
them together as the Lord’s
As we read
about the ideas of Henry James regarding the Writings, we need to note the
nondualities that crop up in his thinking. Examples were given above in this
section. Another example may be given. Henry James states that “the new
heavens, as Swedenborg reports them, are made up of Gentiles and Christians
alike” (quoted in Silverman, ibid, p. 68). Henry James’ fervor for the
nonduality in universalism is so strong that he removes from his mind the
discrete degrees into which the new heavens are cast:
[The New
Heaven] consists of Christians as well as of Gentiles, but for the most part of
the children of all in the whole world, who have departed this life since the
Lord's time: for these have all been received by the Lord, educated in heaven,
and instructed by the angels, and afterwards preserved, so that together with
the rest, they might constitute the New Heaven. (NJHD 3)
Those who are
outside the Church, and acknowledge one God, and live according to their
religion in some charity towards the neighbour, are in communion with those who
are of the Church; for no one who believes in God and leads a good life, is
damned. From this it is evident, that the Lord's Church is everywhere
throughout the world; although specifically it is, where the Lord is
acknowledged, and where the Word exists. (NJHD 244)
The whole
Church on earth, before the Lord, is as one man, nos. 7396, 9276; in like
manner heaven, because the Church is heaven, that is, the Lord's kingdom on
earth, nos. 2853, 2996, 2998, 3624-3629, 3636-3643, 3741-3745, 4625. But the
Church, where the Lord is known and where the Word exists, is like the heart and
lungs in a man in respect to the rest of the body, which lives therefrom, as
from the fountains of its life, nos. 637, 931, 2054, 2853. Hence it is, that
unless there were a Church where the Word exists, and where by means of it the
Lord is known, the human race would not be saved, nos. 468, 637, 931, 4545,
10452. The Church is the foundation of heaven, no. 4060. (NJHD 246)
If you
explore these Arcana Coelestia references you will discover that there
is a discrete degree of separation, thus no direct contact whatsoever, between
Christians and Gentiles or other religions. In order to be in the heaven that
is visibly and directly in the Lord there must be an acknowledgement that He is
the only God of Heaven and earth. This is only with those who accept the
teachings as they are in the Writings. The nonduality of universalism and
unconditional acceptance is not the reality. Heavens differ in the degree of
interiorness of loves, consequently of truths. Loves that do not have the truth
of the Lord’s revealed identity are more distant and less central than loves
that admit the identity of Jesus Christ as the only God. Therefore though we
must be tolerant of others’ creeds here and the hereafter, and respectful of
them when heavenly, yet we must not remove the discreteness and eternal
permanence of their loves and ours, such as we are commanded to have in the
Writings and nowhere else.
The highest
level of achievement in the human mind according to the universal Christology
of Henry James, Sr., is what he calls the “saint of the new church” who
“engages in useful, selfless service to others.” This is an admirable
sentiment, and I applaud it. But I do not automatically identify with it
without first inquiring what it contains conceptually. I especially want to know
what’s behind this:
The
most intelligible expression for God’s own perfection is USE … which … is that
which he derives … from his own frank and cordial and complete adjustment of
himself to the various uses, domestic, civil, religious, which society devolves
upon him. This is man’s spiritual form, and it endures to all eternity, growing
evermore instinct with God’s own power…” (Henry James, quoted in Silverman,
ibid, p.70)
I note in
this train of thought the absence of the idea that regeneration as prescribed
in the Writings, is the only method by which we can engage in genuine uses.
Henry James acknowledges that uses are performed “with God’s own power” but he
allocates something to the individual, namely, deriving the uses from one’s
“own adjustment” to them. Not only is God’s power in our “saintly” performances
of uses, but also in our adjustment to them, that is, our progress in regeneration. This is not from
ourselves but is also from the Lord. The focus of the
The central
thought in Henry James is, as Rev. Silverman describes it, that “ the key [to
spiritual development] is “to become completely immersed in the life of society,
to find oneself through losing oneself in unselfish service to others” (ibid,
p. 71). The New Church mind would rather say that spiritual development (or
regeneration) is immerse our mind in the life of the Writings, meaning, that we
see our task as extracting Doctrine for ourselves and willing and thinking
according to our understanding of it.
Chapter 4, Section 4
Tulk was a
19th century
HIS PROGRESS TOWARDS
The Lord had to undergo these two states of exinanition and
glorification because progress towards union is not possible by any other way,
since it is in accordance with Divine order, and this is immutable. Divine
order requires that a person should adjust himself to receive God, and prepare
himself as a receiver and dwelling-place for God to enter into and live as in
His temple. This a person must do of himself while still acknowledging that it
is from God. He must make this acknowledgment, because he does not feel the
presence and working of God, although it is God who by His intimate presence
performs all the good of love and all the truth of faith in a person.
Every person must and will advance in accordance with this
order, if he is to become spiritual instead of natural. The Lord advanced in
the same way in order to make His natural human Divine; it was for this reason
that He prayed to the Father, did His will, attributed to Him all that He did
and said, and on the cross uttered the words 'My God, my God, why are you
abandoning me?' For in that state God appears to be absent.
But after this state comes another, which is a state of
being linked with God. In this state a man behaves in the same way, but then
does so from God; nor does he then need, as he did previously, to attribute to
God all the good which he wills and does, and all the truth which he thinks and
speaks, because this acknowledgment is written on his heart, and consequently
is inwardly in every action he does and every word he utters.
In the same way the Lord united Himself with His Father, and
the Father united Himself with Him; in short, the Lord glorified His Human,
that is, made it Divine, in just the same way as He regenerates a person, that
is, makes him spiritual. (TCR 104-105)
We have
here (along with continuing passages) the clear explanation of what the two
states of regeneration are and why the Lord had to undergo them. It doesn’t say
that the Lord “forgot” that He was God. When He was in a state of exinanition
He was to Himself in the appearance that He was separate from the Father in
Him. Nowhere do the Writings say that He was ever ignorant of who He was or what His mission
was. Just as we ourselves are not ignorant of the Lord’s close presence with us
when we are in temptations (AC 227). We know it, we read it in the Writings, we
can write it out, we can say it—and despite this, we do not feel the Lord’s
Presence. We know it, but we don’t feel it. The appearance to us is that the
Lord has abandoned us, even as we know that He has not. As we progress in our
regeneration we recognize this appearance, we understand its mechanism, and it
has less of stronghold on the feeling of abandonment. At no time have we
forgotten that God exists or that the Writings are the Word or that He is
managing every single detail. Therefore we can be sure that Jesus on earth did
not forget the purpose of His Coming from the moment He became conscious of it
as an infant (Can 30).
August Tulk
created a nonduality in his mind that would make it impossible for him to
understand the duality of state spoken of in the above Number, and elsewhere.
He took the idea of God’s perfection and changelessness to mean that God cannot
have dual awareness, one lower and the other higher as appears from the
explanation in the Writings. This nonduality is the result of consulting his
own intelligence and applying it to reinterpret the literal of the Writings.
This is sure to mislead. We are commanded not to consult our own intelligence
regarding the Doctrine of the Church, but that this must be drawn from the
literal of the Word (TCR 229). We saw this same problem with Henry James, Sr.,
whose universalism led him to deny the duality of the priesthood and other
things about the Church (see Chapter 4 Section 2). Tulk came up with the idea
that the Jesus and the Father remained One in awareness since Divinity cannot
be divided.
[in the Word]
they are called "drunkards" who believe nothing but what they
apprehend, and for this reason search into the mysteries of faith. And because
this is done by means of sensuous things, either of memory or of philosophy,
man being what he is, cannot but fall thereby into errors. For man's thought is
merely earthly, corporeal, and material, because it is from earthly, corporeal,
and material things, which cling constantly to it, and in which the ideas of
his thought are based and terminated.
To think and
reason therefore from these concerning Divine things, is to bring oneself into
errors and perversions; and it is as impossible to procure faith in this way as
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The error and insanity from this
source are called in the Word "drunkenness." (AC 1072)
That the
rational would be made Divine, is signified by the "son" whom Sarah
was to bear (verse 10). That the human rational truth that was with the Lord
did not perceive this, and thus did not believe it, is signified by Sarah's
"laughing" at the door of the tent that was behind him (verses 10-13,
15). It is confirmed that the Lord would put off this also, and would put on in
its place truth Divine (verse 14). (AC 2139)
Man's
regeneration is an image of the Lord's glorification (AC 4353)
Even the
Lord went through states in which His “human rational” “did not believe the
truth” because He could not perceive it in that state. Tulk seems to have
denied the actuality of the Lord’s two states of perception. This aroused the
vehement ire of
These
recurrent states of exinanition were required so that the natural human he
acquired from Mary, may face the hoards of hell and all the sordid depraved
humanity. To face them without destroying them, which they would be if He had
faced them in his other state called glorification. It was an act of Divine
Mercy for the hells as well as an act of humility for the natural human that He
was in the process of making One with His Divine. It’s instructive to see how
Tulk made himself incapable of seeing this.
Tulk knew
that the Divine doesn’t change in Itself. In the Lord infinite distinct things
make a one that is perfect (DLW 17). To admit change into this understanding of
God is to destroy the understanding. Therefore, God is changeless because
infinite. But the Writings reveal that God is the life and all of each thing,
and of each mind or soul (DLW 4). But because each thing is unique (DLW 226),
therefore God’s indwelling of each mind is different and adapted according to
appearances. Tulk took this idea and applied it to his cherished idea of
nonduality of states of awareness of the Lord on earth. He came up with the
notion that the Lord created the appearance of exinanition but that in reality
He could not so divide His awareness. So His suffering was an appearance He
gave. Also, His attributing all good to the Father not to Himself (TCR 104).
These
elaborated notions infuriated some of the
From this
position Tulk is compelled by his logic to call into question the veridicality
of the literal of the Writings where this description is asserted. He saw this
as equivalent to how the Writings discard the literal in the Old Testament
where Jehovah is described as limited and tyrannical. The Writings also give
descriptions of the Lord’s infirm Humanity while in the world, calling it His
states of exinanition. Tulk would not accept these literal descriptions and saw
them as referring, not to the Lord, but to the appearances of the Lord in the
mind of the disciples. The Lord was not in reality going through those states
since He is changeless, but the disciples were in the appearance that the Lord
was vacillating between states. Similarly, the
Tulk was
very concerned that no new mystery be introduced into the
The answer
to the
Whenever we
are faced with a clash between what the Writings assert and what our natural
mind asserts, we must reject the natural mind’s version and affirm the version
in the Writings. Then we are given the opportunity to rearrange our
natural-rational so that our conscious rational becomes an image of the
Writings. Silverman (ibid, p. 56) quotes Tulk from the Intellectual Repository
(1845): “It is my thorough conviction that the Lord has not a twofold
consciousness, the one Divine the other Human, but that from the first moment
of His birth to His crucifixion, death, burial, He was God, and not an infirm
Human Being.”
Can you
see the operation of nonduality in his mind? Where the Writings give a
duality—exinanition and glorification, Tulk replaces it with a nonduality (“the
Lord has not a twofold consciousness”. He rejects the possibility of
“fluctuations” in the Lord’s consciousness, for “this cannot be true of God.”
Tulk’s nonduality requires that if the Lord realized a state of glorification,
as when He was transfigured before the Peter, James, and John (TCR 574), He
could thereafter be said to return to a state of the infirm human. Yet the Lord
is said to have alternated between the two states until the very end upon the
cross. Tulk’s logic compelled him to reject these events as actual, and
reinterpreted them as appearances in the disciples. The crucifixion and death
of the Lord on the cross was not something that was happening to the Lord in
the Lord, but in the appearances to the witnesses. These appearances
represented what was in human beings with regards to the Divine truth they
hated.
Thus the
Lord allowed Himself to represent the infirmities of the human race, rather
than experiencing His own in the infirm Human. The Christ story is merely a
representative of the human story. Jesus could not suffer “grievous
temptations” no less than Jehovah could be angry at His people and wanting to
take revenge for being rejected by them. Thus the letter of the Writings is
like the letter of the Old and New Testament, mostly written in appearances,
and once in awhile written in naked truth.
The
Lord’s alternating states between limited awareness and Divine consciousness
was going on even in his Childhood as it is revealed in the Writings:
The subject here treated of is the doctrine of faith,
concerning which the Lord thought in His childhood, namely, whether it was
allowable to enter into it by means of rational things, and thus form for one's
self ideas concerning it. His so thinking came from His love and consideration
for the human race, who are such as not to believe what they do not comprehend
in a rational manner. But He perceived from the Divine that this ought not to
be done; and He therefore revealed the doctrine to Himself from the Divine, and
thereby at the same time all things in the universe that are subordinate,
namely, all things of the rational and of the natural. (AC 2588)
Let me
summarize the facts in my own words based on what I have extracted from the
Writings about how the Lord accomplished His Redemption of the human race:
The Lord
came for the purpose of creating for Himself a Divine Natural portion of
Himself. This for our sake, so that we may love Him the more. Such as this love
is, such is His ability to elevate us to Himself and to celestial citizenship
to eternity. This was His purpose in the Incarnation.
The
reason He allowed the people to crucify Him and to treat Him shamefully is that
everything He did, every detail of His life, thoughts, and emotions during the
33 years, was foretold in the Old Testament in the language of correspondences,
now unveiled for our most excellent use. He Graciously willed Himself to be the
Servant and the Lamb—these representations were in the people’s mind, in their
cruel and unloving heart. He enacted the dramatic correspondences of their
shameful treatment of the Divine revelations that were entrusted to the human
race. His crucifixion was the ultimate representative of the adulteration and
falsification of this Divine Truth, thus inward hatred of Him.
The race
sank to such a corporeal and sensual level of thinking that the Lord could not
save the human race without coming in Flesh, acquiring a physical Body through
a virgin in the land where the latest Word had been given, and growing up as a
Divine Child whose Father was His Own Internal Man called Jehovah. His mother
was the Word, that is, the Divine Truth. He split His Divine Awareness into two
states so that He may accomplish the necessary tasks of creating a new mind for
the human race. In His state of exinanition, He withdrew from His External Man
and kept this external man in the natural state where the input was the senses
of the body. He thus had to grow up, be socialized, learn Hebrew, read and
memorize the Old Testament.
Even as
a young Child of Three He was already conscious of who He was—the Messiah.
While He read the OT His Internal Man Jehovah revealed it to the External Man
Jesus of Nazareth. The Child Jesus knew who He was and what His mission is. For
30 of the 33 years He was on this earth in a physical Body He accomplished the
great Redemption, which was to bring back order to the spiritual world that had
gone into disorder due to the many generations that arrived there with
falsified ideas of God. These half-truths of religion were manipulated by
crafty men, or spirits, to avoid hell, and to infiltrate higher and higher into
the levels of mind where the angels exist.
Thus
they threatened the existence of the heavens, and the entire human race, past
present and future, was then in danger of immediate extinction. During those 30
years, measured by earth time, the Lord accomplished His Great Works of
Deliverance in alternating states of exinanition and inanition.
In
states of exinanition, thus similar to all human beings, He was attacked by the
hells and the dragons that rose to the entrance way of heaven with their
half-truths of religion twisted to serve their ego, by which they were able to
manipulate the minds of good spirits who were new arrivals in the afterlife,
and even of angelic spirits at the foothills of heavenly country. This is the
Pharisaic mind in all of us that we acquire through our religion when we are
still are unregenerate. We are in this state of religion from childhood until
adulthood, when we can undergo reformation, then regeneration. Only then is our
mind cleaned, oriented, and ready for celestial preparation by the Lord who
enters and arranges our mind through the spiritual truths we acquire from
studying the Writings, which are the Word of His Second Coming.
The
Lord created new spiritual truths in His mind that were never known and could
not be invented by the rational mind of human beings. These new spiritual truths about
Himself were completely adequate and effective to defeat the half-truths and
the falsified truths that kept heaven beleaguered by the spiritual armies
below. At the end of the 30 years the Lord completed His New Creation. The
spiritual world was recreated, and therefore the human mind. Massive
population migrations had to be accomplished with untold number of spirits
deported from their cities and cast down into hellish territories created for
them through the Laws of Permissions whereby each society of hell was allowed
to keep an evil affection that particularly marked their genius. And so they
too could have some enjoyment life left in their state of mind.
And He
created New Heavens for the untold number of angels in all the heavens from all
the planets, arranging them in a perfect human form called the Grand Human or
Grand Man. Every society of angels contained a good affection which was
particular to their genius, as the center of their good affections. Thus, every
angelic society was different from every other, and in this integrated variety
lies the perfection of the Grand Human, that is, of the evolving human race.
And He
established an immutable Order by which this new universe was managed by mutual
interaction of each with all. Angels supervise the Order in the hells. Angels
also inflow into the spiritual world where is located our mind and thus
influence our thoughts, and our conscience. Other angels inflow into the
sensorimotor mind which is closest to the outward physical world coming to us
from the senses, and influence our physiological functioning. All uses are thus
maximally shared and no use stays merely with the individual who wills, thinks,
and performs the use.
But the
Lord told His disciples that He was not able to complete the New Creation until
sometime in the future, at His Second Coming. This was because the human race
was not ready to accept Him in their rational mind. People accepted His
Divinity in their sensuous mind, as long as they were able to touch Him,
see Him, witness His miracles, or read about Him as an historical figure. This
was His Divine Natural. People were able to love and relate and believe this
Divine Natural. But they rejected His Divine Rational. They could not believe
it or understand it. (For further discussion on this see Chapter 5 Section 3).
Seventeen
centuries passed during which the Lord gave spiritual truths to people through
the New Testament. These truths were not sufficiently rational to allow the
arrivals in the spiritual world to enter the New Heavens which were created
within spiritual-rational truths. These people had to be housed in the
spiritual world in cities created by the Lord and protected by Him from attacks
by falsities. The Writings describe these events in the spiritual meaning of the
story of Noah in the Old Testament and John’s Book of Revelations in the New
Testament. The book of the Writings called The Last Judgment provides
the particulars for these events, witnessed by Swedenborg and countless angels
and spirits. It happened in the year 1757 relative to earth calendar (TCR 818).
At last
the human mind evolved into the modern world of science and rationality in the
eighteenth century. The Lord was able to prepare the mind of a man, from
childhood onward, to acquire the disposition, love, and genius needed for
serving the use of revelator of His Second Coming. This was the revelation of
the Lord’s Divine Rational truths. He opened Swedenborg’s physical and
spiritual capacities for dual citizenship, enabling him to be fully conscious
in the natural and spiritual worlds.
[2] Now, since it has been granted me to be in the spiritual
world and in the natural world at the same time, and thus to see each world and
each sun, I am obliged by my conscience to communicate these things. For of what use is knowledge unless it be
communicated? (ISB 18)
He
was thus able to observe and experiment with the laws and conditions of the
spiritual world as well as the natural world. In this way the Lord created the New Word of His
Second Coming as the Writings. In it, every word, phrase, and sentence is a
form of the infinite Divine Truth.
When the Word is opened the Lord appears (AE 612)
Viewed
outwardly Swedenborg’s books appear just as the books of the prophets in the
Old and New Testaments. But inwardly, they were not Swedenborg’s words, but the
Lord’s. The angels also read the New Word of the Second Coming that was given
in an earthly form to a man to compose and write as-of self. But they do not
see any of the natural words or meanings, but only the spiritual meanings that
are within. Hence the way the Writings are written in heaven differs from the
way we know them here. But the order of ideas and their interrelationships, is
the same. By influx, angels can give us heavenly light while we read the
Writings so that we can see through the letter, as if not seeing it at all, and
perceiving instead the spiritual truths and their perfectly arranged series of
truths. If we then love these celestial secrets, we receive through them, or
within them, the celestial blessings of eternal happiness, conjugial love, love
of neighbor and innocence.
One
hundred years after Tulk, the Dutch Thesis was born among a few whose ideas
appear in De Hemelsche Leer (through the 1930s). This idea is that the
Writings are the Word and therefore everything said about the Word of the Old
and New Testaments apply equally to the Writings, which they began to call the
Third Testament. However, unlike Tulk’s ideas which are contaminated by
nonduality and by consulting his own intelligence (see above), there is no
nonduality in De Hemelsche Leer. What allowed them to escape Tulk’s
errors is that they did not consult their own intelligence with respect to the
Doctrine of the Church but inerrantly followed the rule laid down in the
Writings, that all Doctrine must be drawn from the literal and confirmed by
it (TCR 229).
DOCTRINE IS TO BE DRAWN FROM THE LITERAL SENSE OF THE WORD,
AND PROVED BY MEANS OF IT.
This is because the Lord is present in that sense, and He
teaches and enlightens us. For the Lord never performs any act except in
fullness, and the Word is in its fullness in the literal sense, as was shown
above. This is why doctrine is to be drawn from the literal sense.
The doctrine of genuine truth can even fully be drawn from
the literal sense of the Word, for the Word in that sense resembles a person
wearing clothes, but whose face and hands are bare. Everything needed for a
person's faith and life, and so everything needed for his salvation, is there uncovered,
though the remainder is clothed. In many passages where it is clothed it still
shows through, like a woman's features through a thin silk veil over her face.
Moreover, since the truths of the Word increase in number as they are loved and
this love gives them shape, so they show through and become visible more and
more clearly. (SS 229)
When all
our Doctrine is drawn from the literal and confirmed by it, nonduality cannot
creep in. (For further discussion on De Hemelsche Leer see Note 8 at
end).
When I
first tried to understand this commandment I was puzzled. How can I draw
Doctrine for myself out of the literal of the Writings? What will the language
of that Doctrine be—would it not be literal? Then what’s the difference between
the literal and what I draw from the literal? Elsewhere the Writings explain
that what we draw from the literal is the spiritual meaning. Therefore the
Doctrine in my mind or understanding is a spiritual interpretation of the
literal. What happens when I write it down—will this literal description of my
Doctrine be the spiritual meaning of the literal of the Writings? Now I realize
that it would not be. In other words, the spiritual meaning cannot be
written out in natural language!
The
literal language of the Doctrine I write out is still literal even though the
meaning of it in my mind is spiritual. Doctrine in my mind is the spiritual
meaning of the literal of the Writings. This is why we are commanded to confirm
our Doctrine with the literal of the Writings. This confirmation process
compares the literal of the Doctrine I write out with the literal of certain
relevant passages from the Writings
They must agree. If they don’t, then the Doctrine in my mind is not
genuine, assuming that what I wrote out is a veridical paraphrase of the
Doctrine in my mind. You can see how this would prevent injurious heresies.
People write and teach Doctrine they extract from the literal of the Writings.
Obviously we must not accept anything taught by anybody automatically, without
figuring out whether it is true or not (AR 794). How do we figure out whether
the Doctrine taught by our Church teachers is genuine, not false? We do so by
comparing the literal language of the Doctrine with the literal language of the
Writings. If there is a clash, we reject the Doctrine no matter where or
from whom it comes. This is the commandment of Nunc Licet that must
be the procedure in the formation
Future
research in theistic science (see Note xx) will explain this operation in more
detail than we understand it today. It is clear now that the Writings cannot be
understood without Doctrine (AE 356). The literal of the Writings contains
apparent contradictions that must be resolved by contextual comparison with
other parts of the literal. This is an external rational operation of exegesis.
They do not as yet lead to Doctrine in our mind but are a necessary prelude or
preparation for it. Once the literal is contextualized appropriately by
comparisons, it is taken up in the memory from where we are aware of it, can
write about it, can teach it. The second we apply it to ourselves, it
becomes Doctrine! Not until then. For before then we only have the literal
of the Writings in our memory and in our external rational level of thinking about
truths and the Lord.
But any
part of this knowledge that is applied to self is illumined by the Lord so that
we become consciously aware of the spiritual meaning within, that cannot be
written down. This is because the ultimate reference (‘designatum’) is not a
sentence but a an act—of willing something, understanding some truth, and
performing some act. These acts of the mind and body are seen in heavenly
light from above. We can perceive what is in our willing—from hell or from
heaven, and likewise what is in our thinking and acting out. We can see the
existential or biographical series to which our act belongs, thus, its larger
context in our regeneration and progression to a heavenly mind. We can see the
sin of it, or the use of it. Thus we become wise from this perception. When we
arrive in heaven these perceptions are back with us and we can now discuss them
in the spiritual angelic language.
For
additional discussion on the spiritual sense of the Writings see Volume 2.
Chapter 4, Section 5
The idea of
a nonduality of good and truth, or love and wisdom, suggests itself to the
II. THE DIVINE
LOVE AND WISDOM PROCEED FROM THE LORD AS ONE. … In the Lord infinite things are
distinctly one (n. 17-22). … Love apart from union with wisdom cannot do
anything (n. 401-403). … Spiritual heat and spiritual light, in proceeding from
the Lord as a Sun, form one, as the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom in the
Lord are one (n. 99-102). (DP 4)
There is a
difference between saying good and truth are distinctly one and good and truth
are one. The latter is nonduality, the former is duality. What makes a “one”?
It is the uniting of distinct parts--either uncreate in the Lord like love and
wisdom, or created, as an angelic husband and wife that make a conjugial one
(CL 177). Or, an “infernal union” that is allowed by the Lord between evil and
falsity make a one (DP 17). There is a principle given for how unions take
place: two distinct elements that are still separate ascend in discrete degrees
as they are perfected into a union of one (D.Love 5, DP 4). Note that what
“ascends” (or deepens) is not the element itself involved in the union, which
remains at its own discrete level. The corresponding act in a higher degree is
what forms the perfection and wholesomeness of the union. It’s the perfection
that ascends by a series of discrete degrees through correspondence.
The
increasing perfection is never a nonduality but forms a duality of distinct
elements united into one. The unity is maintained by both successive and
simultaneous order. Should any prior or lower element vanish, the unity
collapses and dissipates. A unity can only exist in a context of the action
together of elements of duality (HH 56). In a context of nonduality there
cannot be a unity for there is no “one” there (HH 56). A “one” is formed only
by other distinct elements just like there is no “whole” without its parts held
together. The Writings tell us that we can understand this better if we compare
it to the way the heart and the lungs act together and neither can survive
without this conjoint being and existing. The human body makes a one but it is
not a nonduality since it remains structured by distinct elements. Thoughts
cannot exist without affections or love and neither can love exist without
thoughts. Distinct parts that are not united into a one are said to be unreal
(DP 4).
One may get
the impression from the following and similar passages, that good and truth,
the building blocks of all reality, constitute a nonduality:
Good has no
reality unless united to truth, and truth has no reality unless united to good.
It appears, indeed, as if good has reality without truth, and as if truth has
reality without good; but still they have not. … If you say to anyone simply
"good", and not that this or that thing is good, has good any
reality? It has reality when it is used of something which is perceived to be
good. … From this it is clear that to will has no reality, but to will this or
that has reality. (DP 11)
But this
idea is not a nonduality as can be seen by collating distinct passages.
First.
In the universe, and in all things in general and in particular therein which
were created by the Lord, there was a marriage of good and truth. Second. After
creation, this marriage was severed in man. Third. It is of the Divine
Providence that what has been severed should be made one, and thus that the
marriage of good and truth should be restored. (DP 9)
There does exist good separated from truth, and truth
separated from good. (DP 14)
It is with difficulty that a man in this world can enter
into either the one or the other conjunction or union, namely, of good and
truth, or of evil and falsity; for as long as he is living in the world he
continues in a state of reformation or regeneration. (DP 17)
If good separated from truth “exists” the two cannot be the
same. We need to inquire further as to how the separation takes place and what
is its use.
The
“division” of good and truth in created things is allowed for the sake of our
salvation, as explained here:
However,
because a man, while he lives in the world, can be in good and at the same time
in falsity, and also in evil and at the same time in truth, and even in evil
and at the same time in good, and thus as it were a double man; and because
this division destroys that image, and so destroys the man; therefore the
Divine Providence of the Lord, in all its operations both in general and in
particular, has in view that this division shall not be. Moreover, since it is
better for a man to be in evil and at the same time in falsity than to be in
good and at the same time in evil, the Lord permits this, not as if He willed
it, but as if He were unable to prevent it, on account of the end in view,
which is man's salvation. (DP 16)
1. When Good And Truth Are Disunited
The duality
of good and truth is shown by their ability to be disunited. This would not be
possible if good and truth were to be a nonduality, thus no longer distinct.
This duality of distinctness is thus maintained in creation both when they form
a one (as in the Lord, in angels, and in regenerating persons) and when they
are divided (as in those who are in the natural state without the spiritual).
To provide a means for regeneration the Lord allows that good and truth be
capable of separation. This is why it is repeatedly said good and truth are
distinctly one (duality), and not that they are one (nonduality). By being
separated, truth in the conscience can motivate us to receive good and act from
it. This would not be possible if they could not be divided.
The
reason why a man can be in evil and at the same time in truth, and why the Lord
cannot prevent this on account of the end, which is salvation, is that man's
understanding can be raised up into the light of wisdom and see truths or
acknowledge them when he hears them, while his love remains below. Thus he can
be in heaven with his understanding but with his love in hell; and this cannot
be denied to him, because the two faculties, rationality and liberty, cannot be
taken from him; for by virtue of these he is a man, and is distinguished from
the beasts; and only by means of these faculties can he be regenerated and
consequently saved. (DP 16:2)
The
Every created thing, by virtue of its origin, is such in its
nature that it may be a recipient of God, not by continuity, but by contiguity.
By the latter and not by the former there is conjunctivity. For it is in
accord, because it has been created in God by God. And having been created
thus, it is an analogue, and by this conjunction is like an image of God in a
mirror. (DLW 56)
Note from
this passage that there is a distinction being made between continuity and
contiguity. It is said that the Lord conjoins us to Him by contiguity or
conjunctivity, but not by continuity. Why this difference? The reason is that
continuity would create a nonduality between us and the Lord, as is commonly
done in Eastern nonduality (see Chapter 2).
Neither can there be any ratio between the celestial in
which the angels of the highest heaven are and the Divine of the Lord, but
there can be conjunction by correspondences. (D. WIS. 12)
The merely human rational could not have a life in common
with the Divine rational itself, either as to good or as to truth
(…)
That it cannot have a life in common, is evident from the
mere fact that the Divine is Life itself, and thus has life in Itself; whereas
the merely human is an organ of life, and thus has not life in itself.
(AC 2658)
In other
words, there cannot be a sensuous contact or commingling with the Lord’s Divine
substance but only through appearances that are accommodated to our substance
through correspondences. The unity of the Lord and the angels (AR 55) is not a
nonduality but a conjunction called reciprocal conjunction”:
[7]
But these things can be better apprehended from the reciprocal conjunction of
good and truth in the man who is being regenerated by the Lord, for as before
said the Lord regenerates man as He glorified His Human (n. 10057). When the
Lord is regenerating man, He insinuates the truth which is to be of faith in
the man's understanding, and the good which is to be of love in his will, and
therein conjoins them; and when they have been conjoined, then the truth which
is of faith has its life from the good which is of love, and the good which is
of love has the quality of its life from the truth which is of faith. This
conjunction is reciprocally accomplished by means of good, and is called the
heavenly marriage, and is heaven with man. In this heaven the Lord dwells as in
His own, for all the good of love is from Him, and also all the conjunction of
truth with good. The Lord cannot dwell in anything of man's own, because it is
evil.
[8]
This reciprocal conjunction is what is meant by the words of the Lord in John:
In
that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John
All
thing of Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, but I have been glorified in them.
That they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in them, and that
they may be one in us (John 17:10, 21, 22).
Reciprocal conjunction is thus described; but still
it is not meant that man conjoins himself with the Lord, but that the Lord
conjoins with Himself the man who desists from evils; for to desist from evils
has been left to the man's decision, and when he desists, then is effected the
reciprocal conjunction of the truth which is of faith and of the good which is
of love from the Lord, and not at all from man; for that from himself man can
do nothing of good, and thus can receive nothing of truth in good, has been
known in the church; and this also the Lord confirms in John:
Abide in Me, and I In you. He that abideth in Me, and
I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing (John
15:4, 6).
(AC
10067) (see also TCR 371)
The Lord is
the “all in all in heaven” (TCR 98) refers to how the as-of-self of each angel
is actually the received Proprium of the Lord, so that angels perceive the
inflow of the Proprium while simultaneously retaining the feeling of self
acting in freedom according to one’s will and thought.
Now
since everything that a man does from freedom appears to him to be his own for
it is of his love, and, as was said above, to act from one's love is to act
from freedom, it follows that conjunction with the Lord makes a man appear to
himself to be free and consequently to be master of himself; and the nearer the
conjunction with the Lord the more free he seems, and consequently the more he
seems to be master of himself. He appears to himself more distinctly to be
master of himself because the Divine Love is such that it wills that what is
its own should belong to another, thus to a man or to an angel. Such, indeed,
is all spiritual love, and pre-eminently the Divine Love. (DP 43:2)
The
reception of the One and Unchanging Proprium is distinct and unique to each
angel so that to surrounding others, the personality of the angel is familiar
and delightful.
2. The Duality Or Distinctness Of All Things
The duality
or distinctness of all things when united into a one applies at all levels of
creation and existence:
The
love and wisdom acting simultaneously and in harmony, form each and all things,
yet in all of them, they are themselves distinct from each other. Love and
wisdom are two distinct things, just as heat and light are; heat is felt, so is
love: and light is seen, so is wisdom; wisdom is seen when a man is thinking,
and love is felt when he is being affected. Yet, in the work of forming, they
do not operate as two, but as one (D.Wis. 3).
Such
a one is everything which is visible to the eye in the world; and such a one is
everything which is not visible to the eye, whether it is in the interior parts
of nature or in the spiritual world. Such a one is man, and such a one is a
society of men. Such a one is the Church, and also the universal angelic heaven
before the Lord; in a word, such a one is the created universe, not only in
general but also in every particular. (DP 4)
As
there are the two things, love and wisdom, effecting formation of the embryo in
the womb, there are, in consequence, two receptacles, one for the love, the
other for the wisdom; consequently also there are pairs everywhere in the body,
which are, in a similar manner, distinct from each other, and yet united: there
are two cerebral hemispheres, two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two chambers in
the heart, two hands, two feet, two kidneys, two testicles: the other viscera
are in two parts also; and everywhere the part on the right side has respect to
the good of love, and the part on the left to the truth of wisdom. That these
two are so conjoined that they act as one mutually and reciprocally, any
diligent investigator can see, if he takes the trouble (D.Wis. 3)
These
passages teach that all things that are anything must be “distinct from each
other, and yet united.” It is never the case that a nonduality can exist in
anything created since anything that is a “one” is so from its distinct
elements forming a union. No object or entity can be from itself but only from
distinct others that are united in a one:
form
makes one more perfectly in proportion as those things which enter into it are
distinct from one another and yet are united. … A one without form does not
exist, but form itself makes one (DP 4).
Anything
that is created is distinct and retains that distinction when united to others.
This fundamental duality opposes the idea of a nonduality in which the
distinctness of the elements commingle, vanish, or dissipate. To admit a
nonduality into the
At the present
day the term Faith is taken to mean the mere thought that the thing is so
because the church so teaches, and because it is not evident to the
understanding. For we are told to believe and not to doubt and if we say that
we do not comprehend, we are told that this is just the reason for
believing. So that the faith of the
present day is a faith in the unknown, or blind faith . . . Real faith is
nothing else than the acknowledgement that the thing is so because it is true;
for one who is in real faith thinks and says, ‘This is true, and therefore, I
believe it” (Doctrine of Faith 1, 2)
When we
apply this passage to the
“Faith of
the present day” refers to our
The
Now our
comprehension of the Writings is no longer limited to the literal. We begin to
see how the literal applies to our own willing and thinking as they occur.
In other words, as we go about our daily tasks we perform willing and thinking.
Now as we look down from our inner rational mind to our external self
performing the tasks, we can witness or monitor the stream of our willing and
thinking. We can evaluate each portion of our willing, and each portion of our
thinking, in the light of the Doctrine that is in our mind from daily study of
the Writings. This is the very moment when the Lord gives enlightenment or
the “real faith.” He elevates our understanding to the light of heaven (DP
168). We can see through our willing and thinking like we see through a window,
sometimes clearly, sometimes not. Or through a cloud, sometimes thick,
sometimes thin (AC 1059). This real faith is not a belief or persuasion but a
seeing that the literal sentences of the Writings refer not to what they
appear to say, but to a portion of my individual reality, individual and unique
standpoint. This is my standpoint as an individual, what I was created to
become, what my unique contribution will be to the perfecting of the Grand
Human or the human race. In this actualization of uniqueness, we reach our
fullness of being, as the Lord intended it from the creation of my unique soul.
We are then in heaven, for heaven is within us, and more precisely, within the
truths we possess from the Writings, and even more precisely, within our love
of these truths.
Chapter 4, Section 6
The current
status of NDE can be gauged by selections from the Web sites dedicated to the
work of Raymond Moody, author of the popular Life After Life book
(1988).
Dr. Moody
recorded and compared reports of several hundred persons who “died” of heart
failure on the surgical table, then were successfully “resuscitated.” His research describes the results of
analyzing the verbal reports of people who came forward as having head a
near-death experience. He outlines nine elements that tended to occur
frequently in the independent reports of hundreds of people:
A strange sound. A buzzing or ringing noise, while having a sense of being
dead
Peace and painlessness. While people
are dying, they may be in intense pain, but as soon as they leave the body the
pain vanishes and they experience peace.
Out-of-body experience. The dying
often have the sensation of rising up and floating above their own body while
surrounded by a medical team and watching it down below, feeling
comfortable. They experience the feeling
of being in a spiritual body that looks like a sort of living energy field.
The tunnel experience. The next experience
is that of being drawn into darkness through a tunnel, at an extremely high
speed, until reaching a realm of radiant golden-white light.
Rising rapidly into the heavens.
Instead of a tunnel, some people report rising suddenly into the heavens
and seeing the earth and the celestial sphere as they would be seen by
astronauts in space.
People of light. Once on the other
side of the tunnel, or after they have risen into the heavens, the dying meet
people who glow with an inner light.
Often they find that friends and relatives who have already died are
there to greet them.
The being of light. After meeting the
people of light, the dying often meet a powerful spiritual being whom some have
called God, Jesus, or an angel. Also,
although they sometimes report feeling scared, they do not sense that they were
on the way to hell or that they fell into it.
The life review. The being of light
presents the dying with a panoramic review of everything they have done. In particular, they relive every act they
have ever done to other people and come away feeling that love is the most important
thing in life.
Reluctance
to return. The being of light sometimes tells the dying
that they must return to life. Other
times, they are given a choice of staying or returning. In either case, they are reluctant to
return. The people who choose to return
do so only because of loved ones they do not wish to leave behind.
(“Dr.
Raymond Moody’s Research” On the Web at
www.near-death.com/experiences/experts2.html
Accessed May 2002)
Note that
every item is a report about a sensuous or corporeal experience and
realization. There is no rational understanding of what the visual elements
are, nor an attempt to interpret them as symbols: light and dark, God, the
spiritual world and how it relates to the mind, what correspondences are that
actuate our thinking and sensations and make them to be correspondences of
spiritual things, what dying is in relation to regeneration, and so on. Because
there is no rational content in these visions and sensations, they are not
spiritual, for only the rational can contain the spiritual. Visions and
sensations in which there is no rational, are dead and have nothing spiritual
in them (D. Wis. 2).
The Word is
not understood except by a rational man; for to believe anything without having
an idea of the subject, and without a rational view of it, is only to retain
words in the memory, destitute of all the life of perception and affection,
which is not believing (NJHD 256).
The human rational faculty cannot comprehend Divine, nor
even spiritual things, unless it be enlightened by the Lord (WH 7)
Knowledge
of the Writings allow a more rational interpretation of these near death
experiences in the following way.
Without
familiarity with the Writings, people’s ideas of the afterlife tend to be
natural involving space and time and social identity. Nevertheless because
these ideas are somewhat rational, rather than merely corporeal, they
constitute suitable cognitive vessels for inflowing by spirits. The correspondential
effects of this inflow are the sensory details that have cropped up
independently from hundreds of people in the near death (NDE ) reports. Note
that this is how the sensations and visions are produced in the near death
experience. There is no rational spiritual content in the meaning they have of
the visions and sensations. The meanings they have of the visions is natural
without any spiritual in it since the spiritual begins with the rational (HH
468). Which may mean that the spirits who inflow into such concepts are
“corporeal spirits” and they themselves think at this sensuous level about the
spiritual. This, despite the fact that these spirits have been in the spiritual
world for a long time—which greatly amazed Swedenborg (SE 5529). When he
reminded them that they are spirits in the afterlife, they acquiesced, but then
quickly sank back into a state similar to their sense-based materialism on
earth, which is their usual state in the hells they live in. Thus, they do not
know that they are spirits and some of them foolishly deny that there is an
afterlife (SE 2287-8). Hence they are called not living but dead (AC 7217), for
in the spiritual world only the rational is alive. At this level of corporeal
thinking these spirits may inflow into the sensations and visions of NDE
experiences. Hence these experiences cannot be spiritual until they are
elevated into some rational content.
Here is an
NDE report which was quoted in an article in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin:
I have no doubt that there was more to my experience than I
can remember, for the memory loss that resulted from my illness was severe. The
memories that I do have, however, are vivid and unforgettable and they changed
my life. The reality that I was in was more real, more intense, than anything
in this current world of ours. It was hyper-reality.
I was in a place. Around me was flatness and barrenness. To
talk about a sequence to the experience is to distort it. There was no time
there. I now know that time is a convenient fiction for this world, but it did
not exist in that one. Everything seemed to be at one moment, even when
“events” seemed to occur in a sequence. … What seemed to be the sky, the land,
and everything was of a pale blue-gray color. It was like being on a raft in the
middle of the ocean where sky and sea merge into one monochromatic world, but I
felt as though I were standing on firm land. There was only the blue-gray
vastness that seemed to stretch endlessly.
Beside me was a Being, whom I never saw but whose presence I
felt constantly. Its presence was constant, enormous and powerful.
With the Being beside me, exuding love and comfort to me, I
re-experienced my life, and it was not what I would have expected. … It was a
re-experiencing of my life, but from three different perspectives
simultaneously.
One perspective was my version of my life as I might have
recounted it to anyone patient enough to listen. However, it was not so much
the reliving of overt events as it was re-experiencing the emotions, feelings,
and thoughts of my life. … However, as I was re-experiencing my version of my
life, I was also experiencing my life from the perspective of those with whom I
was involved. I felt what they felt, I lived their emotions as they acted with
and reacted to me. This was their version of my life. … And there was more. At
exactly the same time I experienced a third view of my life. … It was an
unbiased view, free of the subjective and self-serving rationalizations that
the others and I had used to support the countless acts of selfishness and lack
of true love in our lives. To me it can only be described as God’s view of my
life. …
I did not find myself in hell, but I was suffering torment.
It was horribly painful to experience the fullness of my life and I was filled
with contempt for myself. How could I have been so incredibly stupid as to
believe my own lies? … All of this–the three-way re-experiencing of my life and
self-judgment–was simultaneous and yet separate and distinct. …And through all
this the Being was at my side. I felt nothing but love and support from the
Being. It exuded emotion: you are loved, you are lovable; your worst fault is
that you are human. It goes with the territory. I remember the words, “Don’t
worry, you are only human.” …
Next—if I can really
talk about next, for time and sequence do not really exist—I felt that I was
given an understanding of everything that is, at least everything that is
really important. I felt as if all the secrets of the universe were revealed to
me–not mathematical formulas, but simply how the universe operates, what is
true, how things are. I now knew everything.
(Quoted in: “Intimations of Immortality: Three Case Studies”
by Huston Smith. The Ingersoll Lecture for 2001-02 Harvard Divinity Bulletin on
the Web at
www.hds.harvard.edu/dpa/news/bulletin/ingersoll.html
(Accessed June 2002)
Again you
can see that this description does not contain any spiritual-rational content,
consequently it has no spiritual meaning since the spiritual begins with the
rational. Those who are impressed by these types of NDE reports see them as
showing that there is an afterlife and that death does not bring cessation of
consciousness. This weak evidence is made to be more important and weighty in
their mind than the entire testimony of Scripture (see quote from Huston Smith
later in this Section). It is weak because it does not have rational content.
Contrast this to the New Testament and the Writings. Both are filled with
rational content that are spiritual. For instance, that there is God; that
there is heaven and hell; that love is the chief commandment; that spiritual
development depends on being reborn and gradually regenerated in character;
that God is omnipotent; that the Word is Holy and contains heavenly secrets;
etc. This is rational content, and it must weigh in one’s estimation as proof
of the existence of the afterlife far more than a physical demonstration of a
miracle or a vision, which only leads to persuasive faith, and this is no
genuine faith that remains in the afterlife (DP 131).
For the
A number of
movies and TV broadcasts have incorporated the ideas from NDE reports into
dramatic episodes. Millions of people who have seen these imaginative
portrayals may have admitted into themselves these natural material ideas about
the afterlife. They may reason with these ideas in the understanding, and they
may confirm them by various reasonings. These confirmations in the New Church
mind may create a stumbling block to regeneration if it is not realized that
these descriptions of the afterlife are from a corporeal origin and not
spiritual. They are based on the material idea of nonduality between the
natural and the spiritual. Which means that if the word spiritual is used
within this nonduality framework, only a form of corporeal spirituality is
understood by it. This is the way corporeal spirits in hell think about the
spiritual (DLW 424[xix] ). Thus we cannot count on NDE’s to enlighten the
Rational
spirituality remains totally out of sight in NDE reports and explanatory
accounts of them. Rational spirituality is the spirituality in the Writings,
therefore also, of the
Following
his involvement with “near death experiences” Dr. Moody went to popularize
mirror gazing in the dark as a method of contacting spirits. Here is an account
by a current researcher in the area:
PSYCHOMANTIUM
by G.W. Fisler
The psychomantium is an ancient form of mirror gazing that
has been popularized by Dr. Raymond Moody, M.D.
It has its roots in the oracles of ancient
A comfortable, high backed chair is placed about 3' from the
mirror. The top of the backrest of the
chair should be below the bottom of the mirror.
The feet of the chair should be trimmed to allow the chair to slant
farther back than is normal.
The person sitting in the chair should not be able to see
his/her reflection in the mirror. The area
around the chair and mirror is surrounded by a black velvet curtain. This black void should be all that is
reflected in the mirror. A lamp with a
15 watt bulb is placed behind the chair.
This is the only illumination in the room.
Proper mental preparation is essential for this procedure to
work. Dr. Moody starts his participants
at
I recommend Dr Moody's book "REUNIONS: Visionary
Encounters with Departed Loved Ones" for a complete explanation of his
findings. I will try to hit the high
points:
My experiments
in this area are still ongoing. As soon
as I have enough data I will try to make some sense of it and will publish the
findings here.
(Accessed
on the Web at astralthyme.com/psychomantium.html
in June 2002.)
There is an
understandable progression from an interest with “near death experiences” to
experiments with trying to contact spirits. To the
It is rarely
granted at the present day, however, to talk with spirits, because it is
dangerous. For then the spirits know, what otherwise they do not know, that
they are with man, and evil spirits are such that they hold man in deadly
hatred, and desire nothing more than to destroy him both soul and body, which
indeed happens with those who have so indulged themselves in fantasies as to
have separated from themselves the enjoyments proper to the natural man. Some
also who lead a solitary life sometimes hear spirits talking with them, and
without danger; but that the spirits with them may not know that they are with
man they are at intervals removed by the Lord; for most spirits are not aware
that any other world than that in which they live is possible, and therefore
are unaware that there are men anywhere else. This is why man on his part is
not permitted to speak with them, for if he did they would know. (HH 249)
Man can speak
with spirits and angels, and the ancients on our earth frequently spoke with
them (n. 67-69, 784, 1634, 1636, 7802). But at this day it is dangerous to
speak with them, unless man is in true faith, and led by the Lord (n. 784,
9438, 10751). (EU 1)
It is clear from this that the New Church mind is warned
against trying to contact spirits, and in fact, this direct contact is
forbidden and prevented by the Lord on account of the dangers of such direct
communication to those still on earth. Whatever “phenomena” and “visions”
are reported by experimenters must therefore be delusional encounters with
spirits, not real communication with them, since this is prevented by the Lord.
It is particularly harmful to Christians who know the Lord but seek to
strengthen their faith through sensuous proof of the existence of the
afterlife. In that case the seeker is called a “thief” and “robber:”
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not through
the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, he is a thief and
a robber. But he that entereth in through the door is the shepherd of the
sheep. I am the door; through Me if anyone enter in, he shall be saved, and
shall go in and out, and shall find pasture. The thief cometh not but to steal,
and to murder, and to destroy (John 10:1-2, 9-10); (AC 5135)
The
reference to being a thief and robber is to destroying the “remains” of good
and truth that the Lord stores up in the interior mind for use in regeneration
and life in heaven (AC 5135). Seeking to strengthen faith through spiritism
destroys the genuine faith we have from our Christian childhood.
From infancy
until childhood, and sometimes till early manhood, by instruction from his
parents and teachers a man is imbued with goods and truths; for he then learns
them with avidity, and believes them in simplicity. … The Lord insofar as
possible then removes from that abode the goods and truths of early childhood,
and withdrawing them toward the interiors stores them up in the interior
natural for use. These goods and truths stored up in the interior natural are
signified in the Word by "remains" … But if evil steals the goods and
truths there, and applies them to confirm evils and falsities, especially if it
does this from deceit, then it consumes these remains; for it then mingles
evils with goods and falsities with truths till they cannot be separated, and
then it is all over with the man. (AC 5135).
Another
example of psychological nonduality is the debate whether Swedenborg was a
“mere nutcase” or one of the greatest “visionary mystic” ever known. Kant’s
official position: Swedenborg was a ridiculous seer of fantasies. Emerson final
assessment on Swedenborg: possibly the greatest theological genius, but partly
delusional. Modern psychiatrists: Swedenborg is an obvious case of religious
schizophrenia. (see Note 9 at end for more on this.)
2. The Unregenerate Natural Mind Is Entirely
Nondualist
The
Writings reveal that the unregenerate natural mind is entirely nondualist from
heredity and intellectual materialism (DP 324). This means that all activities
that this mind defines as religious and spiritual will be in fact sensuous and
corporeal, thus, with nothing spiritual in them.
With many in
the world this does not take place, because they love the first degree of their
life, called the natural, and have no desire to withdraw from it and become
spiritual. The natural degree of life regarded in itself loves only self and
the world, for it clings to the bodily senses and these occupy a prominent
place in the world; but the spiritual degree of life regarded in itself loves
the Lord and heaven, and also itself and the world, but God and heaven as
higher, principal and ruling, and itself and the world as lower, instrumental
and serving. (DP 324:10)
Everyone
born in the
Thereafter
our progress depends on reading the Writings and taking up its innumerable
dualities. Gradually we destroy all the nondualities in our mind, and set in
their place the dualities of the Writings. These ideas from the literal of the
Writings are external rational concepts—not yet spiritual (AC 978, 4286; AE
355:14). But now, as we begin to will and think from these new concepts in our
daily activities, the concepts act like cognitive “vessels” and they become
infused by correspondence from the activity of angels inflowing. This is the
first opening of the spiritual mind. Now begins our spiritual life, progressing
in proportion to our regeneration. The progress of this is proportional to how
we cooperate in the process (see Volume 3).
When
approaching the Writings in a secular way, without wanting to acknowledge it as
Divine, the level of thinking about its concepts sinks back to the sensuous and
corporeal level (AC 6310). The genuine rationality of the Writings is totally
lost when readers attempt to pick and choose what seems real to them and what seems
to them Swedenborg’s fantasy or poetry. An example is the medical view on NDEs
within a framework of nonduality in science:
I am
approaching Swedenborg empirically, from this side of the divide, to see how
far we can move toward believing his reports of heaven and hell without
resorting to divine revelation. This requires recognizing him to have had an
extraordinary talent ordinary people lack, which is where the notion of savants
comes in, for that is the key denotation of the word. (…)
Far from being
retarded, Swedenborg was one of the most remarkable men history registers. When
Alfred Binet designed the Stanford-Binet intelligence test he looked for the
most brilliant persons who ever lived. Swedenborg was listed among these few.
(…)
Images that derive
from sense reports of our three-dimensional macro-world map attach no more
isomorphically onto the world of spirit than they do onto the micro-world of
quantum mechanics or the mega-world of relativity theory. I take this to mean
that we can take seriously the abstract outlines of what Swedenborg saw without
assuming that the concrete images that filled in those outlines are literally
true.
(“Intimations of Immortality: Three Case Studies” by Huston
Smith. The Ingersoll Lecture for 2001-02 Harvard Divinity Bulletin on the Web
at
www.hds.harvard.edu/dpa/news/bulletin/ingersoll.html
(Accessed June 2002)
You can see
from this that even a favorable view of Swedenborg’s genius cannot break
through to the spiritual-rational truths in the Writings. Swedenborg’s
“abstract outlines” are “taken seriously” but they cannot be “literally
true”—according to the above author. The understanding at this level of
thinking cannot accept the literal of the Writings in a spiritual way. As a
result, all concepts about the content of the Writings formed at this level
remain natural-rational, not spiritual-rational. What’s amazing is that people
can compose summaries, reports, and abstracts of the Writings that are correct
and serviceable to the
3. Increase In The Number Of NDE Reports
It is
understandable that
Many people report that during the near-death experience
they notice others in the spirit coming to help them. Friends and relatives who
had passed on before them now come to greet them and offer assistance. People
report that this is a very happy time, that everyone in the spiritual world was
glad to welcome them.
(…)
Swedenborg has much to say about this whole experience.
"All, as soon as they come into the other life, are recognized by their
friends, their relatives, and those in any way known to them: and they talk
with one another.... I have often heard that those who have come from the world
rejoiced at seeing their friends again, and that their friends in turn rejoiced
that they had come. Very commonly husband and wife come together and
congratulate each other, and continue together." In the other world,
"Everyone can find their friends, parents, and children."
(Rev. Grant R. Schnarr “Swedenborg And The Near Death
Experience” on the Web at www.newchurch.org/faq/indepthfaq/swedenbNearDeathExperience.html Accessed June 2002)
I think the
intent of this message is to share the Great News revealed in the Writings. My
concern is that doing it in this way encourages the view that contact with
spirits is something anyone can have while still alive on this earth. Hundreds
of thousands of people have now reported that they’ve had a near death
experience. The Web presents thousands of sites on this topic. Reports are
multiplying and extending as NDE becomes a cultural experience. People have
visions of cities, God, Beings, hellish spirits, and the future. Here is one
near death experience—what are we to make of it?
I was floating above my body. I saw green shower caps. The
people in the room all wore those stupid caps.
There were five or six caps and they were panicky. … I found myself in
the right-hand corner of the room. … I felt a wonderful feeling wash over me -
a sense of peace and power. I felt love and a sense of wonder as I realized
that any question I could come up with would be answered.
There was Jesus. I was stunned and said, "I don't
believe in you." He smiled and said
the etheric equivalent of tough shit, here I am. Looking at his eyes, I asked, "You mean,
you've been with me the whole time and I didn't know?" And his reply was: "Lo, I am with thee,
always, even beyond the end of the world."
Now, I wasn't into lo so I said, "Hey, man, this is the seventies
and we don't say lo. Come
on." He kind of grinned, I guess I
was amusing him, and answered, "You want to be reincarnated?" "Hey, give me a break," I yelled (only I made no sound). "I just died. Don't I get a chance to rest?"
(…)
The Light came and I was given a choice - I could remain
trapped in earth, seeing and hearing everything, but unable to help anyone, not
even my daughter (I was told this was limbo), or I could stay with God. I chose
God. … The White Light in front of me was sorta like a white light bulb only it
was so strong.
(…)
Then I was instantly zapped to a domed room with square
screens up and down the walls, on the ceiling - hundreds of television screens.
On each screen was a home movie of one event in my life. The good, the bad, the
secret, the ugly, the special. Everything was going on at once; nothing was
chronological. All was silent.
(…)
God said to me: "I gave you the precious gift of
life. What did you do with this
gift? I answered in a puny, wimpish
voice, "I'm only twenty-three. I
didn't know I was supposed to do anything. I have a two-year-old daughter. I
spend my time and energy on her." It wasn't a good answer, but it was the
truth. I was the judge and I was satisfied. I guess that was what God wanted.
But the next time this happens, I'm having a list ready.
(“Jeanie Dicus' near-death experience” on the Web at www.near-death.com/dicus.html
accessed June 2002)
To have
near death experiences has become a wide cultural phenomenon and there is no
evidence that any of the developments have to do with the reality of the
spiritual world.
One area of expansion is the ADC (After Death Communications), which is a
commercial attempt to establish contact with relatives for a fee:
Not all people are contacted by their deceased loved ones.
We don’t know for certain why some are and some aren’t, but it seems that fear,
anger, and prolonged heavy grief inhibit the possibility of having an ADC.
Based upon our research, we suggest the following: Ask for a
sign that your relative or friend continues to exist. Pray for him or her and
others who are affected by the death, including yourself. We recommend that you
learn how to meditate, especially if you are currently bereaved or have
unresolved grief. … These deep relaxation exercises will also allow you to
unfold your inner, intuitive senses. In fact, you may have an ADC experience
while you are meditating.
Our research indicates that after-death communications are a
natural and normal part of life. Therefore, we feel ADCs deserve the same
public awareness and acceptance that near-death experiences (NDEs) have already
received.
(“After-Death
Communication--Joyous Reunions With Deceased Loved Ones by Bill Guggenheim & Judy Guggenheim
co-authors of Hello From Heaven! published by Bantam Books. Accessed June 2002)
There is a
tremendous increase of reports of NDEs as it is integrated more and more into
the long standing interests relating spiritism, psychic forecasting,
foretelling the future, and paid mediums. Can it really be the case that these
activities could lead to a greater interest in Swedenborg’s Writings? I don’t
think so because the sub-culture around near-death experiences operates at the
level of thinking that excludes rational dualities and admits only material
dualities, or nondualities. The NDE concepts and experiences are similar to
dreams that one thinks were actual events. Dreams operate within material ideas,
also called corporeal and sensuous. There is nothing rational in the ideas of a
dream. Dreaming is done in the corporeal mind or level of thinking and
consciousness. There is no awareness or consciousness of the spiritual meaning
or origin of dreams and the correspondences by which all mental phenomena are
produced in our mind.
4. NDE As A Medical Phenomenon
But this is
not to deny that there may be a medical phenomenon to be explained by natural
rational ideas, but not by spiritual-rational ideas. It is possible, I think,
that drugs in the brain and total stress could facilitate near-death
experiences viewed as a kind of dreaming or hallucinating. This is a medical
issue that remains at the material level of explanation. Of course the
In contrast
to this we can think of heaven as a spiritual place within the mind that is
made out of spiritual truths about God and love. This is a rational idea, not
sensuous. More interior truths are more rational and heaven is within rational
truths. In the
Assuming
that most people who report NDE’s actually have them, a medical question arises
as to why so many people have these types of experiences. It’s possible, I
think, that certain brain states react to drugs and total failure of major
organs in a way that facilitates these types of dreams or visions. This is
quite possible in my estimation. But as you can see, these experiences or
visions are not spiritual experiences even though they are spiritually produced
phenomena, as are all phenomena!. They are psychological and natural
experiences, like hallucinations, dreams, and intelligence IQs, though NDEs may
be a new category not yet known to the established science of psychology. I do
not question the existence of NDEs and like all newly discovered phenomena in
science, its real nature will take years of research to determine. And I can
see that NDEs may have a medical relation to failure of vital organs and
functions.
Let’s keep
in mind that it has never been proven that people today can actually see into
the spiritual world or that their visions or experiences of people and places
are actual spiritual places rather than natural visions that are taken for
spiritual. What motivates me to adopt this stance is the teaching of the
Writings that communication with spirits is not allowed by the Lord because it
would be spiritually injurious to the individual (HH 249).
The danger
comes from the vulnerability of the individual’s mind in relation to the
spirits. When we become spirits a few hours after death we go about in our
spirit-body living the exciting life in world of spirits (HH 445). But some
spirits arrive in a natural mentality due to their exclusive focus on corporeal
and sensuous lifestyle and an aversion for acquiring rational ideas and reasoning.
These spirits are called “corporeal spirits” (DLW 424[xix] ). Since the
heavenly life begins with the rational, their lack of rational life causes them
to sink down into the hells where they can enjoy a life of fantasy by denying
that there is an afterlife convincing themselves that they are living on earth
somewhere (SE 2287). These are the spirits that seek communication with people
on earth (HH 257). The good spirits or angels NEVER seek such communication,
and thus never engage in it today for the reason that it is injurious to people
who are still in their physical body (HH 249).
Dr. Ian
Thompson (see Acknowledgment at end) raised this possibility in an email
commentary on this section of the book: Is it possible that these corporeal
spirits are responsible for causing people to have the NDEs? My answer is that
in general communication with spirits is possible but today on this earth it is
not allowed by the Lord. The Writings say that communication with spirits is
normal and general on other planets (EU 71) and was like that on this planet
prior to the Flood. At that time the human brain had no fissure at the center
and was made of one whole part. This corresponded to the fact that heaven and
earth were united. But when that race destroyed itself by profaning their
celestial nature, a new human race was created with the civilization of Noah.
This race had a split brain by correspondence to the Lord’s surgical separation
of the will and the understanding. This was necessitated by the fact that the
will was corrupted and could not be saved. Henceforth a new will had to be
created by the Lord in each individual, and this could only be done through the
individual’s conscious and voluntary cooperation. Hence from then on people
could only be saved by a life of reformation and regeneration.
From these
scientific facts described in the Writings I would conclude that NDEs do not
represent actual communication or contact with spirits. Recall that thousands
(some estimates I’ve seen on the Web say millions) of people have reported
NDEs. How could this be since the Lord does not allow them? It’s inconceivable
that the Lord would allow all these people to be injured spiritually. I do not
question that NDEs occur to some or most of the people who report them sincerely.
To go back to Dr. Thompson’s question, it is possible that the people during an
NDE experience are in correspondential contact with corporeal spirits? This is
possible since all mental activity is through such contact (HH 296). But this
is not a direct contact so that the experiences, visions, or content of the
reports are not actual but imaginary. Otherwise the contact would be injurious.
Since the
NDE experiences are caused by the usual unconscious and correspondential
influx, their content cannot be actual or veridical. This is the reason our
thoughts are our own unique thoughts even though they are caused by spirit
societies through correspondential communication. As spirits influence our
mental activity by correspondence they NEVER influence them by direct
communication since spirits are not conscious of the identity of the people to
whom they are hooked up. The Lord couples and uncouples each of us to spirit
societies, moment by moment, even as our emotions and thoughts flow by. You can
know that the Lord is switching spiritual societies on you when a new train of
thought comes into your mind, or when you suddenly experience a different
emotion (e.g., sitting in traffic and getting enraged at someone, etc.). But
neither you nor the spirit societies with whom you are then coupled, are
allowed to be aware of each other, each other’s identities, each other’s
memories, etc. (HH 256).
5. Theistic Science Research Is Needed
Further
theistic science research is needed to decide on this issue. But whatever the
eventual conclusion it will have to take its departure point from the principle
that such communication is not allowed and why. The disallowance by the Lord
today on this earth of direct or veridical contact with spirits is related to
His disallowance of miracles (TCR 501). I discuss this specifically in Chapter
5, Section 3. Direct contact with spirits or direct witnessing of miracles
establishes in the mind a persuasive faith of the spiritual world and God,
instead of a rational faith. The new civilization of the Lord’s Second Coming
is a rational spiritual life. The New Heavens cannot be entered without a
rational mental foundation while still in the physical body. The Old Heavens
(prior and up to 1757, see SE 5746), were partially based on sensuous
consciousness of those there. This state is not permanent and they were in
danger of becoming a nonduality with the hells (SE 5742-6). The Lord had to
further purify the spiritual organs of the human mind in order to make it
purely rational-spiritual so that nothing from the earth’s material
sensuousness was part of its formation.
Since the
Second Coming therefore the Lord’s Divine management of the race is motivated
to create the spiritual-rational level in all individuals so that they may have
the physiological capacity to breath and live in the New Heavens. There cannot
be any Old Heavens left and all those in the Old Heavens had to acquire this
new spiritual-rational from the Writings. Those who could not, or would not,
had only other choice: to choose lower regions of life, outside the Heavens.
Today the
Consider
the following experience described by Swedenborg. Viewed superficially it may
sound to some like the NDE descriptions quoted above:
On another occasion also when I was led away from ideas
formed from sensory impressions in the body a heavenly light appeared to me.
That light led me even further away from those ideas, for the light of heaven
holds spiritual life within it…. While I was surrounded with this light bodily
and worldly interests looked to be underneath me. I was still aware of them,
but it seemed as though they were more remote from me and did not belong to me.
At this time it seemed to me as though I was present in
heaven with my head but not with my body. In this condition I was also allowed
to observe the general breathing of heaven and also the nature of it. It was
interior, relaxed, spontaneous, and corresponded to my own breathing in a ratio
of three breaths to one. In a similar way I was also allowed to observe my
heartbeats complementing those of heaven. At this point the angels told me that
the beating of the heart and the breathing of the lungs in each individual
being on earth sprang from those corresponding actions in heaven. They also
said that the reason why one heart beats or a pair of lungs breathes at a
different rate from another is that the beat of the heart and the breathing of
the lungs in heaven is spread out into a kind of continuum and so into an
endeavor whose nature is such that it gives rise to those varying motions in
living beings, the variations in each one depending on its particular state.
(AC 3885) (italics added for emphasis)
Note
that “heavenly light” is the rational understanding that is present when we are
“led away from ideas formed from sensory impressions in the body.” As discussed
in this section, NDE reports remain in the “sensory impressions” and therefore
lack the rational. As the passage indicates, the rational part is the spiritual
and the sensory is natural or physical. This “heavenly light” acts within the
rational and is inhibited by a focus on the sensuous. So we are contrasting
sensuous consciousness with rational consciousness (see Chapter 5 Section 3).
Next not
this part of the passage above: “While I was surrounded with this light bodily
and worldly interests looked to be underneath me. I was still aware of them,
but it seemed as though they were more remote from me and did not belong to
me.” This does not refer to OBEs (out of body experiences) that often form part
of the NDEs (near death experiences). OBEs are reported as physical
experiences, as for instance, when the one floats upward from the operating
table and looks down on the one’s body and the surrounding surgeons and
equipment. OBEs are physical phenomena manifested in the mind, not rational,
hence not spiritual. The light that illumines this scene is physical light, not
rational-spiritual or celestial. In Swedenborg’s report it is said that what he
saw was not the “light of heaven” and not earthly light. What did he see? He
saw “bodily and worldly interests.” Not his body and bed, but interests or
concerns that had to do with the body and everyday worldly things. This shows
his report is not like that of NDEs.
Note also
that his “presence in heaven” was through his head, which represents the
rational part of a human being, while the rest of his body was on earth. Only
the rational part can be in heaven. In the afterlife we leave our physical body
and resuscitate in a spirit-body. This is not a physical body but appears like
one to outside perception. In reality the spirit-body is an outward reflection
of the mind, which is spiritual. Only those spirits can enter heaven who
possess a rational mind that contains spiritual concepts (HH 468). The others
sink down into corporeal spirituality, which contains no rational.
What did he
see in heavenly light? He noticed that the breathing on earth was three times
slower than that of heaven. At first this sounds like a sensory observation,
not rational. But actually it is rational. Note that he refers to “the general
breathing of heaven and also the nature of it.” This is very abstract, not
sensuous. Swedenborg had to have a sense of what is the “general heaven.” In other
places he explains that the general heaven is united into an integrated whole
called the “Grand Human” or Grand Man. Numberless societies arranged in the
anatomical and physiological form of the human body. The arrangement is not
physical, but rational, and relates to the mental genius of the inhabitants,
each distinguished by a rational taxonomy of affections (DL 10).
And as he
perceived this rational organization of the spiritual world, what did the
angels tell him about it? They discussed correspondences, which is a rational
idea incorporating many complexities of discrete degrees and symbolism that
Swedenborg discusses elsewhere. Further, that the breathing of the heavenly
sphere “gives rise to those varying motions in living beings.” These motions,
as explained elsewhere, refer to the system of rational hierarch that orders
and manages the action of the organs in the body and the mind—hence complex and
rational.
6. The Rational Nature Of Genuine Spiritual
Experience
To show the rational nature of genuine spiritual experience,
we can consider the Number prior to the passage quoted above:
As in the world it is quite unknown that there is a
correspondence of heaven or the Grand Man with all things of man, and that man
comes forth and subsists therefrom, so that what is said on the subject may
seem paradoxical and incredible, I may here relate the things that experience
has enabled me to know with certainty.
Once, when the interior heaven was opened to me, and I was
conversing with the angels there, I was permitted to observe the following
phenomena. Be it known that although I was in heaven, I was nevertheless not
out of myself, but in the body, for heaven is within man, wherever he may be,
so that when it pleases the Lord, a man may be in heaven and yet not be
withdrawn from the body.
In this way it was given me to perceive the general workings
of heaven as plainly as an object is perceived by any of the senses. Four
workings or operations were then perceived by me. The first was into the brain
at the left temple, and was a general operation as regards the organs of
reason; for the left side of the brain corresponds to rational or intellectual
things, but the right to the affections or things of the will.
[2] The second general operation that I perceived was into
the respiration of the lungs, and it led my respiration gently, but from
within, so that I had no need to draw breath or respire by any exertion of my
will. The very respiration of heaven was at the time plainly perceived by me.
It is internal, and for this reason is imperceptible to man; but by a wonderful
correspondence it inflows into man's respiration, which is external, or of the
body; and if man were deprived of this influx, he would instantly fall down
dead.
[3] The third operation that I perceived was into the
systole and diastole of the heart, which had then more of softness with me than
I had ever experienced at any other time. The intervals of the pulse were
regular, being about three within each period of respiration; yet such as to
terminate in and thus direct the things belonging to the lungs. How at the
close of each respiration the alternations of the heart insinuated themselves
into those of the lungs, I was in some measure enabled to observe. The
alternations of the pulse were so observable that I was able to count them;
they were distinct and soft.
[4] The fourth
general operation was into the kidneys, which also it was given me to perceive,
but obscurely. From these things it was made manifest that heaven or the Grand
Man has cardiac pulses, and that it has respirations; and that the cardiac
pulses of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the heart and with
its systolic and diastolic motions; and that the respirations of heaven or the
Grand Man have a correspondence with the lungs and their respirations; but that
they are both unobservable to man, being imperceptible, because internal. (AC
3884)
We come
back to our earlier conclusion, namely, that genuine spiritual phenomena or
awareness are in the rational sphere, and unless the topic is rational, it is
not spiritual. Sensuous consciousness of the spiritual world is not allowed by
the Lord because it is injurious, as already shown.
Chapter 4, Section 7
Stephen Larsen’s
books and articles on what he calls “technologies of the sacred” illustrate
what psychological forms of nonduality can seem acceptable or attractive to the
The
literature of transpersonal psychology is full steeped in nonduality. The use
of concepts from duality such as “sacred,” “Divine,” or “angelic” etc., is
strictly within nonduality. Even dualities from the literal of the Writings
such as “correspondences” and “spiritual world” are flattened into nonduality.
This flattening effect, however, is not recognized in that literature, and the
explanations appear to be dualist. But this surface dualism is a secular
Swedenborgianism (see Chapter 4 Section 2). They need therefore to be
deconstructed in the light of duality lest they enter and form a foothold in
the
The
“spiritual disciplines” of the consciousness technology are many, as reviewed
by Larsen; they include: “shamans, druids, wicca (“wise women”), meditation,
yoga, philosophy, ecstatic states, visionary narratives, mythology, ritual,
archetypal elements in dreams, healing, ESP.” Since 1980 additional popularized
items that belong on such a list include: OBE (Out of Body Experiences), NDE
(Near Death Experiences), psychic forecasting, prayer technologies.
I can cite
an example from Stephen Larsen (Ibid, p. 21) to show how psychological
nondualism seeks to designate Swedenborg’s status as corporeal, not rational.
He compares Jacob Boehm and Swedenborg:
I
knew and saw in myself all three worlds, the external and visible world being
of a procreation or extern birth from both the internal and spiritual worlds;
and I saw and knew the whole working essence…and how the fruitful bearing womb
of eternity brought forth [Jacob Boehm].
I
… lay awake but as in a vision … yet in the spirit there was an inward and
sensible gladness shed over the whole body; seemed as if it were shown in a
consummate manner how it all issued and ended. [My spirit] flew up … and hid
itself in an infinitude, as a center. [Swedenborg, Journal of Dreams, n. 87]
Larsen
relates these two visionary descriptions to William James’ concept of
“’positive paranoia’ in which the universe becomes intensely meaningful, in a
benevolent, and not baleful way” (Larsen, p. 21). You can see that there is
nothing rational in either quotation. What was Boehm’s fantastic understanding?
It was this: “and I saw and knew the whole working essence.” Nothing rational
here. And the quote from Swedenborg’s Journal of Dreams gives nothing
rational either, as far as it goes. Clearly he is describing a dream, which is
an activity of the corporeal mind, well below the rational. Having one type of
dream and another does not create anything spiritual in the mind. In contrast,
the Writings do not present Swedenborg’s dreams since everything in the
Writings is rational of spiritual origin. Dreams and visions are explained in
the Writings as corporeal within which are spiritual things. These spiritual
things are not in the mind of the dreamer, but in the mind of the spirits who
are connected by correspondence to the sleeper (SE 779, 3181). Nothing in the
mind of the sleeper can be spiritual.
Here is a
further example of looking at Swedenborg’s experiences from a perspective of
secular nonduality. Larsen says that “Swedenborg practiced some of the
classical psychophysical techniques of the inward explorer, including special
breathing, concentration and visualization. … Swedenborg was not simply a
“mouthpiece” for divine revelation, despite his own frequent assertions this
was so.” (Ibid, p.25). Note that what is written in the Writings is not
considered as the Divine Word. Self-intelligence is used to assess whether what
is written is true or not true—a spiritually fatal step for the religious
Larsen
quotes Swedenborg’s description of how he sometimes held his breath as a child
when he prayed and practiced harmonizing his breath with his heart beat (SE
3320, 3464), to which Larsen says “Young Emanuel, a prodigy of the inner quest,
quietly practiced yogic pranayama.” (Ibid, p. 27). Here again is the nonduality
between Swedenborg’s merely natural activities with his later spiritual
experiences as the appointed revelator through whom the Writings were to be
given. The duality in Swedenborg’s life is that there was a “before-after”
paradigm in his special Divine role. Whatever he did in the “before” phase was
discretely different from anything in the “after” state. The attainment of the
discrete “after” state did not come from Swedenborg’s own struggle as a seeker
in the “before” phase. Nothing that he could do from himself as a seeker could
bring him to the beginning of the “after” phase. There is no continuity between
the two (nonduality) but a discrete and
absolute separation from the Divine (religious duality).
First, as to withdrawal from the body, it happens thus. Man
is brought into a certain state that is midway between sleeping and waking, and
when in that state he seems to himself to be wide awake; all the senses are as
perfectly awake as in the completest bodily wakefulness, not only the sight and
the hearing, but what is wonderful, the sense of touch also, which is then more
exquisite than is ever possible when the body is awake. In this state spirits
and angels have been seen to the very life, and have been heard, and what is
wonderful, have been touched, with almost nothing of the body intervening. This
is the state that is called being withdrawn from the body, and not knowing
whether one is in the body or out of it. I have been admitted into this state
only three or four times, that I might learn what it is, and might know that
spirits and angels enjoy every sense, and that man does also in respect to his
spirit when he is withdrawn from the body. (HH 440)
Larsen
points out that Swedenborg’s practice since childhood with different techniques
of consciousness raising “alone certainly did not occasion his spiritual
breakthrough” (ibid, p. 33). He points to something “qualitatively different
which began to happen to him in his middle fifties” (from 1744 onwards).
Continuing: “Swedenborg was a Christian before a shaman, and insisted that his
visions be consistent with his deepest belief. … He insisted that his “senior
shaman” be from no lesser spirit, but the Lord himself” (p. 36). Note again the
nonduality of secular Swedenborgianism: it is Swedenborg who insists on
choosing the Lord as his inner guide, which is in opposition to the rational
duality of the Lord choosing him and him choosing the Lord, the first being
real, the other spurious or imaginary.
One final
example will be given from psychological nonduality as it interprets the
details about how Swedenborg was prepared to receive the Writings. Larsen
refers to “the mysterious process of transformation by which a man may ‘give
birth to himself’. (Ibid, p. 46)
And
something like this must have been happening to Swedenborg. As he writes in the
next to last paragraph in the Journal of Dreams:
It seemed that a rocket burst over me spreading a
number of sparkles of lovely fire. Love for what is high, perhaps.
The
comparison was to a
“wonderful
culminating scene in which he [a person referred to] became a woman, and in the
throes of giving birth. He writes:
Celestial
trumpets and choirs of angels proclaimed this wonderful birth…I reached down
and pulled the baby up to my face and glory of glories…it was me! But a
transformed, almost spotless, perfected me.
(Larsen,
ibid, p. 46)
These
corporeal visions are equated with “higher consciousness” and even with “divine
consciousness.” We see once more the general truth that all nondualities are
devoid of spiritual content, because not rational. What are they? They are not
ways of investigating correspondences. One cannot learn anything spiritual by
going from corporeal experience to rational-spiritual insights. The Writings
call this direction impossible (D.WIS 2). All spiritual insights or truths can
exist only in the interior rational mind. Nothing from below, that is the
natural mind, can enter into this spiritual mind. Nothing whatsoever (TCR
623[5] ). Hence, any experience of the natural mind cannot yield a single
spiritual truth (SE 2299).
Spiritual
truth can only originate in heaven, and descends into the interior rational
mind, first, then by correspondence activates the conscious rational mind
(which is natural). Now the conscious rational mind possess external concepts
that contain within them genuine spiritual truths. This is what the Writings
call being a spiritual person. The process starts with shunning corporeal
nondualities and taking up rational dualities from the Writings. This literal knowledge
in our mind is called the Doctrine of the Church and its quality or genuineness
is proportional to our right understanding of the literal knowledge. And this
understanding or Doctrine is right in proportion to our progress in
regenerations. And this depends on our willing and thinking daily in accordance
with the Doctrine in our understanding. No other way of regenerating and
salvation is available to the
The last
example from psychological nonduality cited above shows how far a field the
natural mind can whisk one away from the fundamental duality of the
To see this
clearly is crucial for the regeneration of the
IV. EVILS IN THE EXTERNAL, MAN CANNOT BE REMOVED BY THE LORD
EXCEPT THROUGH MAN'S INSTRUMENTALITY. In all
This
conscious cooperation day by day is the means of our salvation, for without
means nothing gets accomplished (TCR 371[6] ).
The
“technologies of the sacred” are not an option for the
But the
spiritual cannot dwell in the natural unless the natural mind has been
rearranged into a rational order. We do this by our systematic and daily
cumulative study of the Writings from the day we chose to reform to the day of
eternity. When we enter heaven our mind has been arranged into a
rational-spiritual order so that the Lord’s Proprium may dwell in our will.
From then on we act from the Lord’s Proprium and no longer from our own self
(HH 341). This is the highest bliss angels can have for they act spontaneously
as-if from self, knowing it is from the Lord. They see themselves will what is
good and true, and they marvel at it and are instructed by their willing.
Such is the
spiritual mind we must form out of our
1. The New Age And The New Church
An article
by Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom (“The New Age and the New Church” New Church Life
May 2002 202-216) gives the history of the New Age culture in Christian
countries since its beginning, going back to the gnostics who invented the idea
that people can have salvation apart from the New Testament and the
acknowledgment of the Son of God as the Savior. They replaced Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, with “the Christ energy” that people can put into themselves and
achieve salvation thereby. In the Middle Ages and after, the idea was carried
forward by the secret brotherhoods and fraternities like the Rosicrucians and Freemasonry.
In the modern era, the New Age point of view was promoted by the Age of Reason
practiced in the secular scientism of Descartes,
Aldous
Huxley is a well known “secular humanist” who contributed to the popularity
among intellectuals that the universe is evolving into becoming conscious. The
rate of this evolution is proportional to how many individuals are able to
raise their own consciousness by comprehending the laws of nature, of which we
are made. Bertrand Russell is a self-declared “atheist” known for erecting an
intellectual framework that leaves God out of it. The most educated segment of
the population in the
Rev.
Sandstrom also discusses the links between New Age Gnosticism and the
Rev.
Sandstrom summarizes the “main beliefs” of the New Age culture as having four
themes. The first is that human evolution is evolving into a higher form of
itself that will bring a oneness with nature or the universe. The second belief
is that individual advances in consciousness towards the higher human form is
possible through some disciplines like “special therapies, spiritual beliefs,
yoga, medicine, reincarnation, mantra, trances and channeling.” The third
belief is that spiritual transformation to a higher human form is achieved
through self-empowerment. The fourth belief is that the material world of self
and the spiritual world of God are really just one—which justifies the idea
that “All is one. God is in me. I am god.”
All four New Age beliefs were discussed earlier in this Chapter with
regard to their nondualities in contrast to the dualities of the Writings. The
nonduality of this mindset is illustrated graphically by nineteenth-century
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He declared the death of God and
described the human being as a rope stretched between animal and deity.
New Age
nonduality was imported into
Those who
are raised in the
As young
adults we can read or reflect on the Lord’s teaching that heaven is within you
(Luke
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 is not a
place but a state of mind. This is the introduction of a fundamental duality in
the mind. Places and states are discretely different—a rational idea that
connects with the idea one forms of the natural world and the spiritual
“world.” New Church adults who maintain the child’s sensuous or physicalistic
ideas of heaven have not progressed spiritually and have remained unregenerate.
Other ideas nonduality are heard and adopted, such as the physicalistic notions
about the resurrection of all the dead corpses on this earth, as portrayed in
the Old Testament (Isaiah 26:19). In contrast, the
The idea
referred to by the Lord as “I in you and you in Me” (John
Another
idea of New Age nonduality is that direct communication with spirits, angels,
or God is possible and preferable to indirect communication such as reading the
Word. This is contrary to the Lord’s teaching (HH 249). The
From all this
it can be seen, that one who knows nothing about discrete degrees, that is,
degrees of height, can know nothing about the state of man as regards his
reformation and regeneration, which are effected through the reception of love
and wisdom of the Lord, and then through the opening of the interior degrees of
his mind in their order. Nor can he know anything about influx from the Lord
through the heavens nor anything about the order into which he was created. For
if anyone thinks about these, not from discrete degrees or degrees of height
but from continuous degrees or degrees of breadth, he is not able to perceive
anything about them from causes, but only from effects; and to see from effects
only is to see from fallacies, from which come errors, one after another; and
these may be so multiplied by inductions that at length enormous falsities are
called truths. (DLW 187)
Rev.
Sandstrom:
“Experiencing
esoteric highs is not a sign of regeneration! Only light from the Word can
uncover states of evil. Unless evil is shunned, any supernatural experience
just drapes man’s interior evil with Scripture or Doctrine. Thus the claim that
experiencing Swedenborg’s kind of spiritual awareness would be to our own
advantage, is met by Swedenborg’s own sharp epithet: That is the direct road to
insanity! (Swedenborg Epic p. 344). Swedenborg said his experience had not
happened since creation (Invitation to the New Church 43, 44, 52).
Nonduality
received intellectual support by the architects of materialistic science and
positivistic philosophy. Spinoza and Hegel are influential proponents of
pantheism, the view that matter and God are one substance—thus identical to
Eastern nonduality (see Chapter 2). Jakob Bohme (1575-1624) played an
influential role on many European architects of nonduality:
Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Hartmann,
Bergson, Heidegger, Alfred North Whitehead, Carl G. Jung, Albert Schweitzer and
Protestant mysticism.
(Preface to Stoudt, John Joseph:
Here is a
sample of Boehme’s “dynamic theology” that has spread so extensively into
American thinking today, both secular and Christian:
Jacob Boehme, on his mystical
>> I contemplated man's little spark, what it should
be valued before God along side of this great work of heaven and earth. ...
I therefore became very melancholy and highly troubled. No
Scripture could comfort me, though I was quite well versed in it ...
When in such sadness I earnestly elevated my spirit into God
and locked my whole heart and mind, along with all my thoughts and will,
therein, ceaselessly pressing in with God's Love and Mercy, and not to cease
until he blessed me ..., then after some hard storms my spirit broke through
hell's gates into the inmost birth of the Godhead, and there I was embraced
with Love as a bridegroom embraces his dear bride. ...
What kind of spiritual triumph it was I can neither write
nor speak; it can only be compared with that where life is born in the midst of
death, and is like the resurrection of the dead. ...
In this light my spirit directly saw through all things, and
knew God in and by all creatures, even in herbs and grass. ... In this light my
will grew in great desire to describe the being of God ... <<
(
(Quoted in
“Jakob Böhme (1575-1624)” by Donivan Bessinger on the Web at users.aol.com/DoniBess/boehme.htm
Accessed June 2002).
Swedenborg
was once asked to give an opinion on Jakob Boehme’s ecstatic approach to
religion. This was his answer in a letter:
Letter to Beyer, February 1767
My opinion concerning the writings of Boehme and L...**
I have never read them, and I was forbidden to read dogmatic
and systematic books in theology before heaven was opened to me, and this for
the reason that otherwise unfounded opinions and notions might easily have
insinuated themselves, which afterwards could have been removed only with
difficulty. When heaven was opened to me I had therefore first to learn the
Hebrew language, and also the correspondences of which the whole Bible is
composed, and this led me to read through the Word of God many times. And since
the Word of God is the source from which all theology must be taken, I was thus
enabled to receive instruction from the Lord, who is the Word.
** probably, William Law, 1686-1761
(Letters 7)
Swedenborg
was the first
The Lord cannot
enlighten anyone with His light, unless He is approached immediately and
acknowledged as the God of heaven. (INV 38)
Chapter 5, Introduction
The system
of ideas that make up Eastern nonduality was given ages ago to Hinduism and the
other Asiatic nations. The chief form this revelation takes is to define
salvation as the elimination of all dualities. Dualities are attributed to
Atman (Self) which is the source of the delusions of attachment. These
delusions vanish like a dream upon awakening or enlightenment, and Brahman
(God) is left as the Reality, the Emptiness that is devoid of all attachments
or qualities. This is described as existence or being that is above thinking
and willing, above rationality and affection. Salvation consists in stepping
out of the elaborate delusion of being a self or individual, and awakening as
the being of God. The revelations given to the Hindu religion thousands of
years ago were not intended for Westerners who were then being prepared for
receiving the revelations of the Old Testament, the revelations of the New
Testament, the revelations of the Koran, and the revelations of the Writings.
These Western revelations were all based on absolute dualities.
In the
course of time Westerners created their own indigenous forms of nonduality by
opposing the duality that was in their heritage from revelation and the Word.
When charity is no longer first in a religion, it is called the religion of
Cain (AC 330) which dethrones charity as the chief thing. This change initiates
nonduality in that religion and its influence gradually spreads and permeates
all of it until it has invaded or corrupted every categorical duality received
in the original revelations.
Thus a
revelation that prepares people for receiving spiritual-rational truths is
turned into a sensuous persuasion that looks for other ways to climb in (AC
10430)—not solely through the Word but through meditation, fasting, corporeal
punishments, physical and mental regimens, anti-rational mysticism, group
chanting, long prayers, self-mortification, and the like. These are forms of
nonduality in the Western mind because they contain the idea that the corporeal
is in continuous degree with the spiritual. This nonduality leads to the notion
that the way to become spiritual is to exert maximum possible effort in doing selected
physical things.
Chapter 5, Section 2
What the rational is shall be briefly told. The intellectual
of the internal man is called "rational," but the intellectual of the
external man is called "natural;" thus the rational is internal, and
the natural is external; and they are perfectly distinct from each other.
But a truly rational man is no other than he who is called a
celestial man, and who has perception of good, and from good perception of
truth; whereas he who has not this perception, but only the knowledge that a
thing is true because he is so instructed, and from this has conscience, is not
truly a rational man, but is an interior natural man. Such are they who are of
the Lord's spiritual church. They differ from the celestial as the light of the
moon differs from the light of the sun; and therefore the Lord appears to the
spiritual as a moon, but to the celestial as a sun ...
[2] Many in the world suppose that a rational man is one who
can reason acutely about many things, and so join his reasonings together that
his conclusions may appear like truth; but this is found in the very worst of
men, who are able to reason skillfully and persuade that evils are goods, and
that falsities are truths; and the reverse. But he who reflects can see that
this is vicious fantasy, and not what is rational.
The rational consists in inwardly seeing and perceiving that
good is good, and from this that truth is truth; for the sight and perception
of such men are from heaven.
That they who are of the Lord's spiritual church are interiorly
natural, is because they only acknowledge as truth that which they have
received from their parents and masters, and afterward have confirmed in
themselves; and do not see inwardly, and perceive, whether it is true from any
other source than that they have confirmed it in themselves.
It is otherwise with the celestial; and it is from this that
the latter are rational, but the former interiorly natural. The internal
celestial which is represented by Joseph, is in the rational; whereas the
spiritual good which is represented by
We learn
from this passage that the level of thinking and reasoning in our natural mind
is not yet human. The natural mind is built up solely from concepts and rules
of logic that apply only to physical existence or functioning. All animals
share with “humans” the ability to think and reason at the level peculiar to each
species. Some, like bees, are only capable of giving the appearance of thinking
and reasoning in the way they are able to communicate the location of food to
the other bees in the hive, who then are able to fly directly to the location. This
appearance of intellectual ability is the result of built in physiological
activity in interaction with sensory input. Other animals like the apes, known
today as “primates,” and also the dolphins and whales, have been shown to
possess cognitive and linguistic abilities. The natural mind in homo sapiens is far above that of the
animals because our race has an upper portion called the external-rational or
the natural-natural. No animals are capable reasoning at this level as they
lack this upper portion.
This
natural-rational level of thinking is what makes it possible for humans to be
regenerated, that is, to be born anew and to be regenerated by the Lord. The
new mind is called the spiritual mind while the old mind is called the natural
mind. The early generations of the race had a celestial mind (xx) and were able
to communicate directly with angels and teachers already in heaven. After this
ability was removed by the Lord due to misuse and profanation, a new race was
raised such as we are today, namely, that we do not possess a sensuous
spiritual mind while we live on earth (xx). This means that our regeneration is
made possible only by the natural-rational mind. This is effected by means of
the Word which consists of revelations about the spiritual world. The natural-rational
level of thinking and reasoning is capable of understanding these revelations,
invent a Doctrine based on the revelations, and live life in accordance with
this Doctrine. This is the only way the
The
spiritual mind, as indicated in the passage above (AC 6240) has three levels:
natural-rational (First Heaven), which is also called spiritual-natural. These
various names may sound confusing at first, as it did for me at the beginning,
but it is required that we learn them and distinguish them. Without this
intellectual effort we are unable to create Doctrine from it, and yet it is
Doctrine from it in our understanding, that we must have in order to see how it
applies to our willing and thinking. So the natural mind can reach up to the
spiritual level of consciousness by loving the rational concepts in the literal
language of the Writings. This is the called the First Education (see Chapter
8, Section 3). When we have studied the Writings over several years of
intellectual activity, we have taken up into our natural mind knowledges or
“external scientifics” of the ideas expressed in the literal language, either
the original Latin or some faithful translation.
These ideas
are expressed in a natural language, and therefore it is not possible to convey
directly any spiritual truths. Spiritual truths can only be transmitted
directly as far as the spiritual mind. There it “terminates,” that is, provides
a plane or dwelling for their existence. The natural mind far below cannot
directly access by consciousness or awareness anything whatsoever of these
spiritual truths residing there in the spiritual mind the Lord opens for us, to
the extent we cooperate. Clearly then, the knowledge and reasoning level of the
literal of the Writings must reside in the upper portion of the natural mind,
which is called the natural-rational (also: the external rational). How then do
we get to the spiritual truths we must have for our regeneration?
Spiritual
truths from the literal of the Writings is by enlightenment only. The Lord
Himself is the Writings, that is, in the spiritual truths therein. Therefore He
alone can give us these truths, and He desires to give as many as we can take,
for this is His Love. But we are not willing to take a single spiritual truth
prior to undergoing reformation in adult life. This is because spiritual truths
require us to rearrange everything in our mind that was there before
reformation, regardless of our religion or philosophy or education. This we
resist. But eventually we are ready to compel ourselves to go through with
reformation. This means that we begin to examine our concepts and our loves
behind them, and we begin to ask whether they are in conformity with what we
have taken up from the Writings. At that moment the Lord gives enlightenment
regarding the single particular issue you were struggling with.
This momentary
enlightenment from the Lord is like a flash of lightening in which we can see
and understand what we couldn’t before, or just didn’t even know about. Each
spiritual truth, or seed deposited by the Lord in our spiritual mind, is one of
these flashes of lightening. As we progress, we begin to have a memory of the
flashes, what they were about specifically. This is the beginning of our spiritual
consciousness. It is a rational consciousness, not a sensuous one. We cannot
see heaven or have communication with the spiritual world, but we have the Holy
Spirit in our spiritual mind. The Holy Spirit can also reside in our
natural-rational mind, in which case it is called the interior-natural or
natural-rational. The natural-rational or interior-natural is the level of
consciousness in which the angelic spirits of the First Heaven exist.
We can
progress in our regeneration all the way to the opening of the interior-rational
or celestial-rational level. This is the existence of the angels of the First
Heaven, and is the genuine human existence. This is the genuine human being.
The passage above says that “the rational consists in inwardly seeing and perceiving
that good is good, and from this that truth is truth; for the sight and
perception of such men are from heaven.“ Following our reformation we are able
to reason whether something is good or true merely by holding it up to the
light of the literal of the Writings. To the extent we then apply this
understanding to our daily willing and thinking, to that extent we enter into
the spiritual meaning of these goods and truths. Prior to entering their
spiritual meaning we only understand them in a natural-rational way. But
applying them to willing and thinking brings the spiritual meaning out of them
and we can see and understand them. When we reach the celestial state, we can
perceive the truths and no longer need to reason about them whether they are
true or how they are true.
All of this
requires the reformation of the unregenerate natural mind. When our natural
mind is in nonduality we make a distinction between the physical body and
mental life. This is not a duality however since the mental is also seen as
emerging from the physical and being located in it. This physicalistic idea of
the mental is then made to be equal with the spiritual. This is a nonduality
that is opposed to the duality of natural and spiritual as being in discrete
degrees. In nonduality, mental and spiritual occupy a continuum on one end and
the body and the physical world occupy the other end. At our reformation, this
nonduality is replaced by the discrete duality of the natural world and the
spiritual world. We now acknowledge three discrete levels in the human mind. They
are called natural, spiritual, and celestial degrees. These three degrees are
represented in the constitution of every created thing, large or small. The
natural mind or degree is part of the order of the natural world and its mode
of construction. It is called the spiritual-natural
of the First Heaven. The spiritual mind or degree corresponds to the spiritual-rational or Second Heaven. The
celestial mind or degree corresponds to the celestial-rational
in the Third Heaven (AC 978, 4286; AE 355:14).
The
external rational level of thinking, although it is in the natural mind, is
such as to be capable of being infilled with spiritual-natural and spiritual-rational
ideas that the angels have. For example the idea of God is first learned from
instruction and reading through the external rational mind. At this level of
thinking “infinity” has a natural meaning. This is shown by the fact that the
only infinity we can think of is that which gets bigger and bigger--like distance,
numbers, size, time, energy, speed, and so on. Therefore we think of God’s
omnipresence as being everywhere in space and his omnipotence as unlimited
power. These are external rational ideas of God, also called material ideas of
God rather than spiritual. Similarly, Heaven and hell have physicalistic
properties at this level of thinking. Note that when we dream we also instantiate
physicalistic scenes. The dream itself is a spiritual event or activity in the
mind, but its order and construction represent the order of the natural world
and our material ideas about it. There is no spiritual content to physicalistic
ideas or mental visions. They are operations in the natural mind. Spiritual
things only operate in the rational or spiritual mind that is a discrete degree
above the natural mind.
How the rational faculty may be cultivated shall also be
told in a few words. The genuine rational faculty consists of truths and not of
falsities; whatever consists of falsities is not rational. There are three
kinds of truths, civil, moral, and spiritual. Civil truths relate to matters of
judgment and of government in kingdoms, and in general to what is just and
equitable in them. Moral truths pertain to the matters of everyone's life which
have regard to companionships and social relations, in general to what is
honest and right, and in particular to virtues of every kind. But spiritual
truths relate to matters of heaven and of the church, and in general to the
good of love and the truth of faith.
[2] In every man there are three degrees of life (see above,
n. 267 [in HH]). The rational faculty is opened to the first degree by civil
truths, to the second degree by moral truths, and to the third degree by
spiritual truths. But it must be understood that the rational faculty that
consists of these truths is not formed and opened by man's knowing them, but by
his living according to them; and living according to them means loving them
from spiritual affection; and to love truths from spiritual affection is to
love what is just and equitable because it is just and equitable, what is
honest and right because it is honest and right, and what is good and true
because it is good and true; while living according to them and loving them
from the bodily affection is loving them for the sake of self and for the sake
of one's reputation, honor or gain. Consequently, so far as man loves these
truths from a bodily affection he fails to become rational, for he loves, not
them, but himself; and the truths are made to serve him as servants serve their
Lord; and when truths become servants they do not enter the man and open any
degree of life in him, not even the first, but merely rest in the memory as
knowledges under a material form, and there conjoin themselves with the love of
self, which is a bodily love.
[3] All this shows how man becomes rational, namely, that he
becomes rational to the third degree by a spiritual love of the good and truth
which pertain to heaven and the church; he becomes rational to the second
degree by a love of what is honest and right; and to the first degree by a love
of what is just and equitable. These two latter loves also become spiritual
from a spiritual love of good and truth, because that love flows into them and
conjoins itself to them and forms in them as it were its own semblance. (HH
468)
This number
teaches many important things about the rational portion of the mind. We can
summarize some of these points as follows:
(1) The
rational or spiritual portion of the mind is above the natural mind and it is
developed only by spiritual-rational truths. All spiritual truths are rational.
There are three degrees of truths: civil, moral, and spiritual. Therefore there
are three degrees of the rational mind. The first two (civil and moral truths)
originate from the natural world, from society and self, but the third
(spiritual truths) originate form the spiritual world.
(2) There
are two distinct degrees in the rational mind. The lowest or external rational
is called civil and moral. The highest rational is called spiritual-rational.
Note that the spiritual begins with the highest degree in the rational mind. This
degree is also called the interior rational or the spiritual rational.
(3) The
lowest or external rational develops “by a love of what is just and equitable.”
Note that this is not yet spiritual. It is an external form of the rational, not
yet interior. This external rational is bound up with natural ideas. Civil
truths can exist in the mind of an atheist who denies God, the Church, heaven,
and hell. The spiritual rational is not bound up with the natural but
originates entirely from the spiritual world.
(4) Further,
the external rational also develops “by a love of what is honest and right.”
The moral truths that form this level of thinking are still external, bound up
with the natural world. Atheists can think with such truths even though they
deny the existence of spiritual truths such as God and heaven.
(5) The highest
degree of the rational mind develops only by means of spiritual truths, and so
it is called the spiritual mind. These truths originate solely from the
spiritual world and we receive them consciously by means of the Word. It
develops “by a spiritual love of the good and truth which pertain to heaven and
the church.” This is the beginning of the spiritual mind and is the genuine
human. Civil truths and moral truths are not yet part of the genuine human. The
Lord alone is the genuine Human, hence only that which is from the Word about
the Lord can be the genuine human in us.
(6) The Word
is the only source of spiritual truths since the Word is from the Lord and is
the Lord in His Divine Truth. All spiritual truth is rational because it is
from the Lord alone and the Lord is the Divine Rational by which He maintains
the universe. Truths that are not from the Word are not from the Lord and are
not spiritual. Nothing originating from society or self-intelligence can be
spiritual truth. Spiritual truth cannot be discovered by experience, intuition,
or intelligence.
(7) Civil
and moral truths from society and self, can become spiritual when they are
infused with spiritual truths from the Word. For example, you can be equitable
and honest from two different motives: either natural or spiritual. If you are
honest because you love society or because you want to be honored by society,
your level of willing and thinking is still natural. But later you can be
honest from a love of the Lord and heaven; then you first become spiritual and
you can think from spiritual truths.
(8) If you
are a scientist and love to discover truths about the world, you are not yet
spiritual and your level of thinking is still natural. No spiritual truths can
be discovered by a scientist or a seeker in this way. No spiritual reasoning,
or wisdom, is possible at this level of the external rational mind. But then
you can be motivated to discover scientific truths because you understand that scientific
truths correspond and represent spiritual truths. Swedenborg was such a
scientist. This kind of science may be called theistic science since the scientist then acknowledges that natural
truths discovered by scientific research are outward effects that represent or
contain spiritual causes. These spiritual causes cannot be discovered by
natural research but only by extracting them from the Word.
(9) If you
are a seeker of truth and try to discover truths by intuition, meditation,
reflection, discipline, or study of the realizations of others, you are not yet
thinking spiritually, but only naturally in your external rational mind. But
then you can turn to the Word, acknowledge it as the Lord, and confirm the
spiritual truths from the Word as the operating cause of the truths you
acquired from intuition, experience and study of the experiences of others.
Then for the first time you begin to think spiritually. Note that it is not
possible to reverse this process. You cannot confirm spiritual truths from the
Word by means of truths obtained elsewhere. But you can confirm truths obtained
anywhere by means of spiritual truths from the Word. Note that truths from the
Word are to be believed because they are from the Lord. They are not to be
believed because of the truths you have from somewhere else. The natural cannot
lead to the spiritual, but the spiritual can illumine the natural.
2. The External and Internal Understanding of
Spiritual Ideas
The
spiritual therefore begins with the interior rational, which is called the
spiritual-rational. And consequently, so does the human (HH 468). Everything
below the interior rational is not genuinely human but only imitates the human.
The human mind is so constructed as to contain within it a spiritual mind that
can be activated and grown through acquiring spiritual-rational truths from the
Writings, which is the Divine source for interior rational truths in the new
age of the Second Coming. These are spiritual ideas from a celestial origin, because
from the Lord. All ideas in the spiritual mind must be spiritual and cannot be
of natural origin. That is why there is a discrete degree between the natural
mind and the spiritual mind. The two interact by correspondence only, not
directly. Spiritual truths from the Lord through the angels inflow into the
spiritual mind, whereupon our natural mind is affected and reacts to the influx
in accordance with correspondences (DLW 260-3). This reaction in the natural
mind is conscious and we’re aware of it in various ways (DLW 263).
One way
we’re aware of spiritual ideas inflowing is that the concepts into which they
inflow suddenly are illuminated by heavenly light. It’s a “seeing into”
experience, or insight, in the sense that we say in our conversations: “I see
what you mean.” The correspondence reaction to the influx occurs into certain general
ideas in the external rational mind. For instance, the concept of God that is
rooted in the external rational mind is a natural idea of God, not a genuine spiritual
called the spiritual-rational. When spiritual influx animates the natural
concept we suddenly see it illumined with heavenly light. This means that we
can see a higher (or deeper) meaning to it. This new meaning is higher, because
spiritual, that is, more interiorly rational, more genuine human, and closer to
the celestial. Our goal in reformation is to build up these cognitive “vessels”
in the external natural concepts, as many as possible. These rational
intellectual ideas or concepts are acquired by reading and studying the literal
language of the Writings. The Word is always written in a natural language:
Hebrew, Greek, Latin. This natural language does not allow the direct
expression of spiritual ideas. Instead, the spiritual ideas are in our
understanding, when it is enlightened by the Lord while we read the Writings.
Our understanding
therefore contains two parts, external and internal. We understand the literal
in our external understanding, which is called the external-rational or
natural-rational level of thinking and reasoning. We understand the spiritual
within the literal, in our internal understanding. When the two are simultaneous,
then we experience illustration, that is, we can see the spiritual things in
our internal understanding while we can see the natural things in our external
understanding.
For
instance, we can see in our external understanding that God is infinite, omniscient,
omnipotent, and omnipresent. But in our internal understanding we can see that
God is omnipresent not in space but apart from space (DLW 70). If the Lord were
present in space, He could not be omnipresent—an idea that was incomprehensible
before in the external understanding which sees only in natural light. In this
light, the explanation that “God is omnipresent not in space but apart from
space” sounds like poetry and is seen in obscurity. But the internal
understanding sees in heavenly light, and we can clearly see the distinction
between what is uncreate (love, life, truth, endeavor) and created (matter,
space or ether, energy, plants, animals, human beings, heaven, hell). The
uncreate is present within the created and animates it with life and purpose.
The “presence within” cannot be physical, for then it would like the created.
Hence the uncreate is present within the created in another dimension than
space. And this other dimension is called the spiritual world where there is no
space, just as in our dreams there is no space but apparent space, changing at
the will and whim of the dreamer.
As heavenly
light illumines the concepts from within, we can see new content in them which
could not be seen before in natural light. The concept of infinity now is seen
more clearly as that which has no beginning and no ending, whereas before “no
ending” was the only focus that made sense. The idea of “no beginning” made no
sense. Now we can see that natural things that are created can go on without an
ending, but that does not make them infinite. For instance, there is no largest
number because one can always add one more digit to it. But this does not mean
that counting is infinite since it has a beginning. Life has no beginning for
it exists in the Lord. Truth has no beginning for the same reason. Similarly with
love which is the source of all heat and motion as well as emotions and
feelings.
Another
example is the distinction between the natural-rational idea of “self” and the
spiritual-rational idea of “as-of self” (AC 47, 233, 1712, 2877, 5664, 10299;
NJHD 148; DP 102, 210; CL 82; SE 5958; LJ 299; AE 864).
Operating
with the concept of self, we cannot see the meaning of freedom in relation to
omnipotence. Since God is omnipotent, therefore self would have no freedom
unless God removes Himself so things can go on happening according the free
choices of the selves. But when heavenly light enters our natural concept of
self, we suddenly see a new thing called as-of self. “Self” = “as-of self.” Now
we can see a spiritual-rational meaning to freedom and its relation to a
spiritual meaning of omnipotence. The as-of self is a feeling the Lord grants
us in every succeeding moment. This feeling is that we are alive and acting
from our desires by means of our thinking. We do what we love and gives us
delight, unless we inhibit it by some other love, by which we give
consideration to the laws, our reputation, sin, altruism. We think what we
please. We move our limbs or eyes as we wish. We take responsibility for our
actions. All this is granted by the Lord so that we may feel freedom and be in
it. This feeling is given by the Lord so that we may be happy and self-reliant.
But now the
new meaning of “self” is that it is not acting from itself and it doesn’t have
life in itself (DLW 23). The self is only a receptacle or a biological organ
for the reception of life, of ideas, of feelings and intentions, of pleasures
and joys. The Lord hides the influx from our awareness so that we can continue
to feel free. When the natural-rational hears this, it denies it and becomes
enraged. It cannot see what is within it (or above it), hence it’s nothing, or
nothing of importance to it. But in the light of heaven we can see the
spiritual within the concept of “self” and now we no longer call it the self
but the as-of self. When we enter heaven we become capable of perceiving the
influx (HH 8). The joy and bliss we experience then is immensely increased, and
so also the feeling or sensation of freedom.
There is with those who are being led by the Lord a certain
inward sight or consciousness in regard to things that are to be done,
especially in the act of doing them. This sight is so clear to those who are
led by the Lord, that they do not do any least thing unless it is either by the
Lord's good pleasure, or by His consent, or by His permission. These are
distinct from each other, and the person is also given to see them distinctly,
but this fact cannot be understood by anyone except by such a one.
Others, no
matter how well the matter is explained, along with all the circumstances,
still do not believe it, because they do not understand. For example, even
spirits who are quite intelligent still cannot be convinced that it is so. They
who know it, and do not want to think from themselves, and are therefore in the
way of truth, acquire such a sight. The main reason why others cannot believe
this is that they think they would then be deprived entirely of their own free
will in doing and thinking what they love, supposing they would thus be as if
dead. I said to them, however, that then they are alive, because living from
oneself is rather death, because there is nothing of good from what is one's
own. Therefore no one should be surprised if someone says he sees what should
be done; because this is truth, and it is part of faith. 1748, 20 February. (SE
891)
Another
example is the concept of “prayer.” Prior to influx the natural-rational idea
is that prayer is a method given to us by God to influence His decisions. If we
pray the right way our influence on God’s decision is greater than if
otherwise. Christians are taught to end important prayer requests by “in the
Name of Jesus Christ we ask it” or an equivalent formula (“I ask in the name of
your Son”). Allied with this concept is the concept of how Christ redeemed us
by His sacrifice on the Cross. Therefore we need to “invoke” the power of this
Redemption by referring to it in our prayer. This is thought to “mollify” the
Father who then grants us the prayer request. But when we read the Writings we
modify these apparent facts into new facts: The Lord already forgives so there
is no need to mollify Him. There is no power in outside rituals or the formulaic
expressions we use for prayers. There is no influencing the Lord through prayer
since the Lord independently decides on all things by His Laws of the Divine
Providence.
These are
entirely new facts in the external rational. Now influx can enter these new
concepts and enlighten us as to their spiritual meaning. We can see the meaning
of “prayer” in heavenly light. There is no power in prayer, no effectiveness,
no influence. Prayer is for ourselves, as a method we might need to turn
ourselves to the Lord. When we are turned to the Lord already, there is no need
for prayer—the angels do not pray in the usual sense.
Practical
piety is to act in every work and in every duty from sincerity and right, and
from justice and equity, and this because it is commanded by the Lord in the
Word; for thus man in his every work looks to heaven and to the Lord, and thus is
conjoined with Him. But to act sincerely and rightly, justly and equitably,
solely from fear of the law, of the loss of fame or of honor and gain, and to
think nothing of the Divine law, of the commandments of the Word, and of the
Lord, and yet to pray devoutly in the churches, is external piety; however holy
this may appear, it is not piety, but it is either hypocrisy, or something put
on derived from habit, or a kind of persuasion from a false belief that Divine
worship consists merely in this; for such a man does not look to heaven and to
the Lord with the heart, but only with the eyes; the heart looking to self and
to the world, and the mouth speaking from the habit of the body only and its
memory; by this man is conjoined to the world and not to heaven, and to self
and not to the Lord. (AE 325:4)
3. Sin And Spiritual Punishment
Another
example is the concept of “sin” and “spiritual punishment.” We think about the
“sin of Adam and Eve” and the punishment of being banished from
But this shall
be illustrated by examples. It is commanded in the Word that man must not
commit adultery, must not steal, must not kill, must not bear false witness. It
is known that man is able to do all these things of himself, also that he is
able to refrain from them because they are sins; and yet he is not able to
refrain from them from himself, but only from God; yet when he refrains from
them from God he still thinks that he wills to refrain from them because they
are sins, and thus he refrains from them as if from himself; and when this is
done, then because he calls adultery a sin he lives in chastity and loves
chastity, and this as if of himself (AE 802).
In view of
these considerations, you can see that physical and mental effort as a way to
become spiritual cannot possibly succeed because body and spirit (or mind) are
in discrete degrees to each other with no direct contact and they only interact
by correspondence (DLW 186). This means that physical effort and mental
discipline no matter how much, only
grows continuously and cannot break through to the higher levels of the mind
where the spiritual is. Only rational content can bring our
consciousness to the spiritual. The way to become spiritual is, first of
all, to develop external rational powers of analysis and reasoning by studying
and understanding the revelations of one’s religion. These are given to all
peoples so that they may prepare rational vessels in the mind suitable for
their heavenly life. This is called reformation. Second, rearranging one’s
daily thoughts and intentions so that they conform to one’s understanding. This
is called regeneration. These are the two essential steps given in Western
religions—know the Commandments of God and live accordingly. For the
Scientifics
and knowledges, because they are of the external or natural man, are in the
light of the world; but truths, which are become truths of love and faith, and
have thus obtained life, are in the light of heaven (n. 5212). Nevertheless the
truths, which have thus obtained life, are comprehended by man through natural
ideas (n. 5510). Spiritual influx is through the internal man into the
scientifics and knowledges which are in the external (n. 1940, 8005).
Scientifics and knowledges are the receptacles and as it were the vessels of
the truth and good of the internal man (n. 1469, 1496, 3068, 5489, 6004, 6023,
6052, 6071, 6077, 7770, 9922).
Therefore by "vessels" in the Word, in the
spiritual sense, are signified scientifics and knowledges (n. 3068, 3069, 3079,
9394, 9544, 9723, 9724). Scientifics are as it were mirrors, in which the
truths and goods of the internal man appear, and are perceived as in an image
(n. 5201). And there they are together as in their ultimate (n. 5373, 5874,
5886, 5901, 6004, 6023, 6052, 6071, 6077). Scientifics, because they are in the
light of the world, are involved and obscure respectively to those things which
are in the light of heaven; thus the things which are in the external man
respectively to those in the internal (n. 2831).
(NJHD 51)
To the
extent that we take up from the Writings suitable scientifics in our external
mind, to that extent the Lord opens the rational-spiritual mind from the
interior, and then for the first time we become spiritual (DLW 425). The
approach is therefore rational, not corporeal. The more we understand rational
dualities the more we become spiritual, in proportion to our progress in
thinking and willing accordingly. All dualities are unique permanent
distinctions that never cease to eternity (DLW 226). The rational
depends on concepts of duality to be able to develop. Dualities feed the
rational because all things are created into an image of the Lord, and this
image is Divine Human. The Lord creates all things through Divine Truth and
truth is rational (xx). This is why all things have a rational basis. Becoming
rational is therefore the only way to become spiritually sane and in alignment
with reality. Without developing the rational mind we cannot become spiritual.
The Rational is predicated solely of the celestial and
spiritual Natural (9Q2)
The human commences in the inmost of the rational, AC n.
2106 (AC 2666)
In other
words, the sensuous and natural-rational cannot be spiritual since they are
below the spiritual-natural. Whatever is below the spiritual-natural is not yet
spiritual but merely natural. Without the spiritual-rational in the afterlife
one sinks down to the corporeal level, which is the infernal level (AC 6310).
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)
Every
concept of nonduality that occurs in the
The spiritual man is not the interior rational man, but the
interior natural. The interior rational man is what is called the celestial
man.
What the difference is between the spiritual and the
celestial man has already been frequently stated. A man is made spiritual by
having the truths in him conjoined with good, that is, the things of faith
conjoined with those of charity, and this in his natural. Exterior truths are
there first conjoined with good, and afterwards interior truths.
(...)
Interior truths are not conjoined with good in any other way
than by enlightenment flowing in through the internal man into the external
man. From this enlightenment Divine truths are manifest only in a general
manner, comparatively as innumerable objects are seen by the eye as one obscure
thing without distinction.
(...)
[3] That the spiritual man is relatively in obscurity see AC
n. 2708, 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3241, 3246, 3833. It is this
spiritual man who is represented by
For regarded in itself the spiritual is the Divine light
itself which is from the Lord, consequently it is the intelligence of truth and
the wisdom thence derived. But with the spiritual man this light falls into the
things which are of faith in him, and which he believes to be true; whereas
with the celestial man it falls into the good of love.
But although these things are clear to those who are in the
light of heaven, they are nevertheless obscure to those who are in the light of
the world, thus to most people at this day, and possibly so obscure as to be
scarcely intelligible; and yet as they are treated of in the internal sense,
and are of such a nature, the opening of them is not to be dispensed with; the
time is coming when there will be enlightenment. (AC 4402)
What a
wonderful announcement by the Lord: “the time is coming when there will be
enlightenment.” This is the result of Advent of the Age of Nunc Licet, that is,
the new way of thinking and reasoning from rational truths revealed in the
Writings of the Second Coming. The Old Testament revelations were given to the
external natural mind. The New Testament revelations were given to the interior
natural mind, which is called natural-spiritual. This resides in the external rational
level of thinking. It makes us into spiritual persons, capable of thinking by
means of truths in the New Testament. These truths, in their essence, are
spiritual and Divine, revealed by the Lord Himself, by which the human race can
become spiritual. But this is only a stepping stone to the final
The
interior rational is the celestial, and the true human. As the passage quoted
above says: “Interior truths are not conjoined with good in any other way than
by enlightenment flowing in through the internal man into the external man.
From this enlightenment Divine truths are manifest only in a general manner,
comparatively as innumerable objects are seen by the eye as one obscure thing
without distinction.” The Lord enlightens our natural mind when we read and
study the truths in the literal language of the Writings. At first, this
enlightenment is relatively obscure, but as our regeneration proceeds, it gets
more and more interior and clear. The clarity and interiorness of the
enlightenment is proportional to our love for the Writings and for the
spiritual Doctrine within it.
Chapter 5, Section 3
In the
[in the Word]
they are called "drunkards" who believe nothing but what they
apprehend, and for this reason search into the mysteries of faith. And because
this is done by means of sensuous things, either of memory or of philosophy,
man being what he is, cannot but fall thereby into errors. For man's thought is
merely earthly, corporeal, and material, because it is from earthly, corporeal,
and material things, which cling constantly to it, and in which the ideas of
his thought are based and terminated.
To think and
reason therefore from these concerning Divine things, is to bring oneself into
errors and perversions; and it is as impossible to procure faith in this way as
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The error and insanity from this
source are called in the Word "drunkenness.” (AC 1072)
When man is being instructed, there is a progression from
memory-knowledges to rational truths; further, to intellectual truths; and
finally, to celestial truths, which are here signified by the "wife."
If the progression is made from memory knowledges and rational truths to
celestial truths without intellectual truths as media, the celestial suffers
violence, because there can be no connection of rational truths-which are
obtained by means of memory-knowledges-with celestial truths, except by means
of intellectual truths, which are the media. (AC 1495)
In this
passage the external rational level of thinking is referred to as “a
progression from memory-knowledges to rational truths.” Our “memory-knowledges”
are the things we know through our physical senses. For instance, we can read
the Writings and summarize what we have read, or portions thereof. These
memory-knowledges are called natural ideas because they are in the natural mind
from the physical senses. When we begin to reason from these memory-knowledges,
the level of thinking remains at the natural level, but now it is called
“rational truths” because they are from the literal of the Writings. The
passage above then says that once these natural-rational truths are acquired,
more advanced instruction can be given. This new and higher level of thinking
uses “intellectual truths.” These truths are not of a natural origin. Their
source is the illustration or enlightenment we are given progressively in
proportion to our regeneration. The intellectual truths are within the
natural-rational truths, and this is why they are called interior rational, in
contrast to the external rational.
We must
acquire the natural-rational ideas first. This comes from the regular study of
the Writings as a scholarly activity. Note that the Writings include scientific
and theological subjects. Both science and theology, when based on the
Writings, serve to develop our external rational level of thinking and
reasoning. With this level of thinking there is also an associated level of
willing, for the two must always operate jointly to be anything. But the
external rational level is not for salvation, but only a means to salvation.
External rational truths are called “vessels” into which inflow the interior
rational ideas when we are enlightened. These intellectual truths cannot inflow
into our consciousness until we have undergone reformation in adult life (AE
803; AC 8780; AC 3518:[2]). Until then we remain natural, and our task is to
build a solid foundation for our eventual interior rational illumination.
That it may be known how these things stand, something shall
be said respecting order. The order is for the celestial to inflow into the
spiritual and adapt it to itself; for the spiritual thus to inflow into the
rational and adapt it to itself; and for the rational thus to inflow into the
memory-knowledge and adapt it to itself. But when a man is being instructed in
his earliest childhood, the order is indeed the same, but it appears otherwise,
namely, that he advances from memory-knowledges to rational things, from these
to spiritual things, and so at last to celestial things. The reason it so
appears is that a way must thus be opened to celestial things, which are the
inmost.
All instruction is simply an opening of the way; and as the
way is opened, or what is the same, as the vessels are opened, there thus flow
in, as before said, in their order, rational things that are from celestial
spiritual things; into these flow the celestial spiritual things; and into
these, celestial things. These celestial and spiritual things are continually
presenting themselves, and are also preparing and forming for themselves the
vessels which are being opened; which may also be seen from the fact that in
themselves the memory-knowledge and rational are dead, and that it is from the
inflowing interior life that they seem to be alive. This can become manifest to
anyone from the thought, and the faculty of judgment. (AC 1495)
Here we see
that only that is spiritual which flows in from heaven. Prior to our
reformation it appears to us that we are acquiring spiritual truths when we are
studying the Writings. But we are warned not to call these truths “wife” which
refers to celestial truths. We must call them “sister” which refers to natural
rational truths, not spiritual. Even the Lord had to discover this from
interior warning because at first He thought that His study of the Old
Testament as a Child was going to lead Him to spiritual truths. But He was
instructed from Himself from within that this was not so, and that spiritual
things are going to be revealed to Him from within. These spiritual truths
could not be revealed to Him without first learning the literal of the Old
Testament (AC 1495).
1. Acquiring Rational Truths From the Literal
Language of the Writings
The
The
external rational manufactures things from the physical world as it is turned
to it and fed by it through the senses of the body (AC 978, 4286; AE 355:14).
If we take up concepts from revelation, examine them with our own intelligence
to see if they be genuine truths, we will inevitably and ultimately conclude
that they are not (AE 714[4]). ). For trusting self is opposite to trusting the
Divine outside of the self. For instance, at the beginning of a new revelation
charity is always first and faith second. In other words what makes the
religion is charity in the form of faith and never faith as primary to charity.
This means that salvation cannot be obtained by developing faith but only by
developing charity. Faith cannot regenerate, but only charity does the
regeneration through faith.
But in the course
of time faith is made primary and charity secondary. This occurs when one’s own
intelligence is consulted about whether or not the truths of revelation are
genuine and to be believed. This is the
activity of our external rational from which we must desist. Instead, we must
put on the affirmative for revelation in its literal sense, as it is given
through a revelator. Only after the affirmative acceptance is one’s own
intelligence to be consulted, not whether it is true, but how it is
true. This is called confirming revelation with rational things and is an
essential activity for the spiritual to be able to inflow within these rational
things.
Some forms
of nonduality in the
The concept
of infinity in the
The
The
human mind resembles the soil in which spiritual and natural truths are planted
like seeds, and they can multiply without limit. (TCR 350)
Proper care
of truths is essential for their growth given a psychological environment that
is hostile to their development and maturation. Religious disciplines,
discussed in Volume 3, afford proper maintenance of truths in our mind. Every
truth is capable of being deepened to eternity (AC 5122, 5354). The deeper or
more interior the level of understanding of a truth the more perfect is our
understanding and the more the Lord can elevate our presence to Him. For
closeness to the Lord comes only through truths by which we live:
The presence of the Lord is predicated according to the
state of love toward the neighbor and of faith in which the man is. (AC 904)
Rational
analysis of concepts is a useful tool for maintaining the care of truths that
have been implanted in us. In the
Chapter 5, Section 4
In the new
dispensation of the Second Coming (the “Crown of Churches”), the idea of
salvation by regeneration is far apart from nonduality—as far apart as there is
distance between rational spirituality and corporeal spirituality, or between
heaven and hell. When the corporeal self or consciousness looks upward, it sees
nothing but darkness, despite the fact that the brilliant spiritual Sun is
blazingly shining on it (TCR 691). But when the interior rational self or
consciousness looks downward (or outward), it sees the sensual-corporeal self
in bright light and magnified detail. The revelations of the Writings are like
a bright sun that is illuminating sevenfold the reality to our rational
understanding. All other writings, past, present, and future, cannot have this
illumination, for what is in the Writings is the infinite Word or Divine Wisdom
Itself. Such is the perspective given by the Writings on themselves in relation
to all others:
A person who
lifts up his mind towards God, and acknowledges that all the truth of wisdom
comes from Him, and at the same time lives in accordance with order, resembles
someone standing on a lofty tower watching a densely populated city below him
and seeing what goes on in its streets. But a person who convinces himself that
all the truth of wisdom comes from his own natural enlightenment, that is, from
himself, resembles someone living in a cellar under that tower, watching the
same city through narrow holes; he can see no more than the wall of one house
in the city, and study how the bricks in it hold together.
Again, a
person who draws wisdom from God is like a bird flying high, spying out
everything in the gardens, woods and villages round about, and flying towards
things that can be of service. But a person who derives what belongs to wisdom
from himself, without believing that this still comes from God, is like a
hornet flying close to the ground, and, when it sees a dunghill, flying up to
it and taking pleasure in its stench. (TCR 69)
Corporeal
spirituality in contemporary Western thinking is the persuasion that the
physical body can serve to access absolute truth and divine consciousness. This notion is inherent in
nonduality and automatically follows from the idea that there is only one real
substance. According to this, consciousness does not need ultimates which are
only illusions that vanish and disappear upon illumination. Nonduality cannot
be otherwise since it lacks the revelations of the Second Coming which has
brought to the human mind a new understanding of reality, namely, that the
universe is constructed into discrete degrees that are both successive and
simultaneous (DL 184). Nothing can vanish or disappear because successive
discrete degrees are also in simultaneous discrete degrees, with the
originating degree (called celestial) being in the inmost of the simultaneous
degree. The causal degree (called spiritual) is in the middle of simultaneous
degree, and the ultimate degree of effects (called natural) is in the outmost
of simultaneous degree (DLW 212).
Clearly
then nothing can vanish without destroying all and every degree must remain
present forever. This is also the meaning of the principle that God rules all
“from firsts to lasts” (DLW 304; TCR 63). The natural world thus has the
spiritual world within it, and heaven within that. Heaven cannot survive
without the natural world, which is why the human race is created on every
planet in an ever expanding and never-ending physical world:
THE
REPRODUCTION OF THE HUMAN RACE ON EARTH WILL NEVER CEASE
…
the human race will continue in existence, and reproduction will not cease. (LJ
6)
In the
Going
within means turning your attention inward and letting come what may, as in
meditation. There is no tradition of danger in this realm from the twenty-six
centuries in Hinduism and Buddhism. (…) Why are some Swedenborgians afraid to
follow what Swedenborg and countless millions of others did? (…) [In
meditation] the Lord is present and gently leads and instructs. (…) Focusing on
God within is the primary way to God, enlightenment, or to regeneration the
world over.”
(From
an article titled “More on Looking Within” which appeared in the April 2002
issue of The Messenger (
It is not
accurate to describe Swedenborg’s spiritual experiences as meditation. Swedenborg
refers to what he did as “It pleased the Lord to open my eyes so that I can
converse with spirits” etc. (EU 1) By no means can this be equivalent to the
meditation done by “countless millions” for the past twenty-six centuries.
Meditation is a corporeal practice affording sensuous consciousness (see below)
while Swedenborg’s enlightenment was in the realm of rational consciousness.
There is no overlap between these two activities and one is as far above the
other as rational consciousness (Second Coming) is above sensuous consciousness
(First Coming) (see Note 11 at end). Swedenborg’s case is absolutely unique,
never duplicated before and never to be duplicated again. The
In rational
spirituality, reflection and self-examination are self-witnessing activities in
the course of one’s daily performances in every small detail of choice and
preference (see Note 20 at end). It is a monitoring activity of one’s motives
and affections, one’s interpretations and meanings. Its purpose is to assess
and evaluate one’s affections and thoughts, whether or not they are in
conformity with the teachings of the Writings. Every thought and affection must
originate either from heaven or from hell (TCR 115; AC 904). There is no
in-between. If an affection or idea originates in hell, we are required to condemn
it, and hold it in aversion. This lifelong process of choice and aversion is
called regeneration. This is what can save the
It
should be known, moreover, that, so long as man is in knowledges only, and not
in any life according to them, he is in his proprium and led by self; but, when
he is in a life according to them - and to the same extent - he is elevated out
of his proprium, and is led by the Lord. This man does not perceive, but still
it is so; and so far as man is led by the Lord, so far is there good in him, or
good is what he wills and thinks. But it should be thoroughly known, that
nobody can live according to the knowledges from the Word, except from them he
reflect upon his thoughts, intentions and deeds, that is, examine himself, and abstain
from evils and do good as from himself: otherwise, there is no reception by
man; and if there is no reception, there is no conjunction with the Lord;
therefore, neither can he be led by the Lord. (SE 5945)
Corporeal
spirituality is practiced by Christians today. These persuasions are identified
in the Writings. One is the idea that the physical act of Baptism (“Holy
Water”) or partaking of the Communion Bread and Wine (“Divine substances”) have
and bestow spiritual power in and of themselves, rather than being a
representative ceremony that rationally contains spiritual and sacred
things. This corporeal idea of the Holy Supper instituted by the Lord is
similar to the Hindu and Buddhist acts of spiritual “initiation” performed by
Masters and “holy men.” This corporeal practice is also present among Orthodox
Jews (as was the case with my mother and extended family members), who believe
in the healing power of some rabbis on account of their holiness or personal
merit with God. Much TV evangelism attracts Christians who want demonstrations
of spiritual holiness in the form of healing, miracles, intercessionary prayer,
and the excitement of mystery and mass hysteria.
The
mystical secrets which many diviners have in vain busied themselves to trace in
the Word, lie hidden solely in its spiritual sense. (AC 9280)
The
Writings reveal that this type of interest as faith is not genuine and the Lord
is not in it despite the claims or expectations. It is injurious to one’s
spiritual regeneration to demand sensuous proof of God’s power . The Lord does
not allow miracles because they compel faith and close down our rational (AC
7290). The rational is the beginning of the genuine human and the spirituality
of the corporeal is ruled by dragons and those who turn themselves into
demy-gods (AR 550). It is not a good leadership to follow! Rational
consciousness is the way to go. This is what the
The
Writings discuss another corporeal idea among Christians. This is the very
common persuasion that prayer is more “effective” when we add phrases such as
“in the name of Jesus” or “in Christ’s name we ask” etc. “Such a prayer has in
it nothing of life from truth and good” (AE 805). It is similar with
Bible-based tele-evangelists today who claim to perform miracles and cast out
devils by the power of an invocation (e.g., “Get thee behind me Satan” or “By
the power of Jesus” etc., and also by the power of laying on of hands
attributed to some individuals (“It is a special gift of God”). These are
corporeal ideas and practices because they attribute spiritual holiness and
power to sensuous rituals and objects. This reduces the spiritual to that which
is material, a form of nonduality. It’s a point of view that is opposed to
rational spirituality since corporeal spirituality looks downward to the body
and nature, while rational spirituality looks upward to heaven. Rational
spirituality sees that God cannot transfer His indivisible omnipotent power to
anyone:
That
the Divine power is infinite, or that it is omnipotence, is there clearly
evident from the fact that neither the angels of heaven nor the devils of hell
have any power whatever from themselves. If they had any at all heaven would
fall to pieces, hell would become a chaos, and with these every man would
perish. (AE 1133)
Jews and
Christians are waiting for the Messiah to come in one case, and to come back,
in the other case. But in the
The events
in the spiritual world are described by the Lord in the Gospels (Matt 24) and
by John in Revelations (see all of AR). The events in the natural world are the
giving of a new Word for the
NOTE
After the
completion of this book, the Lord called together His twelve disciples, who had
followed Him in the world; and a day later He sent them all forth throughout
the spiritual world to preach the Gospel, that the Lord God Jesus Christ is
king, and His kingdom shall be for ever and ever, as foretold by Daniel (7:13,
14) and in Revelation (11:15):
Blessed are
they who come to the wedding supper of the Lamb Rev. 19:9.
This happened
on the nineteenth of June in the year 1770. This was meant by the Lord's
saying:
He will send
his angels, and they will gather together His chosen people from the bounds of
the heavens on one side as far as the bounds of the heavens on the other. Matt.
24:31. (TCR 791)
I was
forty-five years old when I first read this passage. How astounding and
exhilarating it was to read this. I ran to where my wife was and read it to
her. How astounded we both were could hardly be described. A deep joy entered
our internal mind and rested there ever since, as a kind of foretaste of the
real peace we hope to have in heaven.
No one can
see the truth of the Second Coming whose mind is not in a state of rational
consciousness, as we are prior to our reformation. Natural and rational
consciousness are in discrete degrees from each other:
Man's thought
is the receptacle of truth, and his will the receptacle of good; and reception
is not possible unless man is conscious of it. (AE 802)
Facts which come from sensory evidence enter a person's
consciousness or perception during his earthly life, for they are the basis of
his thinking. (AC 991)
Temptations are conflicts with evils and falsities. When a
person is victorious in them he is strengthened, for he fights from truths and
for truths against falsity and evil. The person is not at the time directly
conscious of fighting from truths and for truths because the truths are present
on the inner levels of his mind and therefore do not plainly enter his
consciousness, which belongs to the outer levels. (AC 8924:2)
Conscience, in
its essence, is a consciousness of what is true and right, nos. 986, 8081.
(NJHD 139)
There is with those who are being led by the Lord a certain
inward sight or consciousness in regard to things that are to be done,
especially in the act of doing them. This sight is so clear to those who are
led by the Lord, that they do not do any least thing unless it is either by the
Lord's good pleasure, or by His consent, or by His permission. These are
distinct from each other, and the person is also given to see them distinctly,
but this fact cannot be understood by anyone except by such a one. (SE 891)
What is put in front of us commands our consciousness, so
when kept in the same idea, or confronted with the same object, all related
thoughts cannot but come forward. (SE 1132)
People cannot help thinking that they are aware of their own
thoughts, because our inward organs are joined with the outward ones so as to
give that effect. In fact, they are joined through continuous connections.
Nevertheless, they have a thinking still more subtle than they are normally
aware of, and in fact, when one is an inward person, one knows there is
something deeper, but knows no more than that.
However, there are inwardly very many things that are
understood by angels. But this thinking cannot be described easily, and I would
assert that it hardly exists except in those who are led by the Lord. From it,
they also know and understand within themselves what must be done, such a sense
being given in many matters in different ways. They know at the time that the
Lord is doing this. (SE 1307)
Our interior sight, which we think so subtle, is yet so
gross, that, as I have often said to spirits, who imagined themselves capable
of thinking so acutely as to baffle all attempts to apprehend their thoughts,
if they should see what was comprised in a single idea - if its interior could
be fully laid open - they would perceive whole cohorts of elephants, and
armies, and regiments of serpents, representatively exhibited. This, however,
the spirits cannot believe, as they, like many persons on the earth, regard
their most acute perceptions as having relation to the most minute things
[instead of objects so large]. - 1748, March 23. (SE 1641)
Prior to
reformation we know nothing about an interior mind from which we act but are
not conscious of. This interior mind is the interior rational level of
thinking, also called the rational-spiritual level. When we are still in the
unregenerate state the only consciousness we have is that of the natural or
sensuous. Though we hear of God, sin, and salvation, we only understand these
concepts sensuously or naturally (for examples, see Chapter 5 Section 1).
2. To Love God We Must Understand Him Rationally
Prior to
the day I found the Writings in our university library I was a Christian
waiting for the Lord’s return and the end of this world. I was then in a state
of sensuous consciousness regarding spiritual things. I did not see that the
Jewish Church I was born into and the Christian Church I adopted in adulthood
were in a discrete state of duality in relation to each other. In my mind the
two religions seemed like a nonduality. I used to think: Jesus is the King of
the Jews. He was circumcised like me. He brought Jehovah to the Gentiles,
turning them into Jews. Unfortunately the Jews themselves missed the Divine
boat and still do not believe. So the Christians are the inheritors of the
religion of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob while the former Jews have been
disinherited. Thus the Jewish religion continues with the Christians, with new
religious rituals since animal sacrifices are barbaric in a gentler world. This
was the sum total of my point of view until finding and reading the Writings. I
was also inwardly proud that I was born a Jew, and that I was smart enough to
be able to accept the winning side between the old Jews and the new Jews who
call themselves Christians.
From
hindsight I see how utterly unable I was to conceive of a discrete duality
between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The two religions had in fact
no overlap. Not one idea from the Christian mind could be transferred to the
Jewish mind. My mind had to completely exit from the Old Testament perspective
before I could be in the New Testament perspective. I was not aware of this
because my understanding and awareness of what is spiritual remained, for
awhile, at the level of sensuous consciousness. But in the meantime, to the
extent that I was worshipping the Lord in full sincerity of heart, to that
extent the Lord was opening my rational-spiritual mind as I was studying the
New Testament. Purely spiritual concepts were being created in my mind that was
above my clear awareness. For instance in my sensual idea of the Messiah as
God’s chosen human to be our intermediary, the Lord introduced from within the
rational idea of the Divine Messiah by such statements as “I and the Father are
one” or “If you’ve seen Me you’ve seen the Father” or “All power has been given unto Me” etc. I was
not conscious of this opening of my rational-spiritual mind.
I became
aware of my rational consciousness only when I started reading the Writings and
found to my amazement that I agreed with everything. I could not come across a
single sentence that I could not simply agree with. This was a unique and first
time experience for me. And my awareness of rational consciousness became even
more visible to me when I tried to tell others about the Great News of
Swedenborg’s Writings. I received nothing but ridicule and denigration that can
be summed up in one sentence: How can you be so naïve as to believe whatever
this man said centuries ago! It was useless to explain and re-explain with
great enthusiasm. I was running up against an intellectual wall of stone that
would not budge even slightly. It was then that I became fully aware of the
difference between sensual consciousness and rational consciousness.
Sensuous
consciousness is perceiving naturally while rational consciousness is
perceiving spiritually (HH 464[2] ). Jews cannot see anything spiritual in the
New Testament, seeing the whole thing as a historical plot that has become a
modern delusion. Christians take up spiritual ideas from the New Testament but
only in obscure light that they call “mystery.” The
To love God
we must understand Him, and this means rationally understand. No one can love
something that is not understood (TCR 7). Hence to love God, to know Him, is to
understand and acquire rational concepts in the mind. Into these rational
concepts or spiritual truths, God inflows with His Spirit of Love and Truth.
Thereby we are conjoined to Him and can receive his greatest blessings: eternal
joy in conjugial love in heaven. All those who can receive this must have
rational concepts into which they can be received. This is why it is said the
human begins with the rational (AR 936).
The human commences in the inmost of the rational, AC n.
2106 (AC 2666)
There may
be individuals born into the
Why does
the Lord in His Second Advent appear only in our mind? Why couldn’t He also
come to us in Person, in the sky as we look up, just as He promised?
Where the
Lord speaks in the presence of His disciples about the ending of the age,
meaning the last stage of the church, He says towards the end of the
predictions of its successive changes of state:
Immediately
after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not
give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the
heavens will be shaken. And then will the sign of the Son of Man appear in the
sky, and all the tribes of the earth will wail; and they will see the Son of
Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send
forth angels with a loud blast of the trumpet, and they will gather His chosen
from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other. Matt. 24:29-31.
(TCR 198)
To sensuous
consciousness the literal meaning of this promise stands in the forefront of
the natural mind and one is unable to shake it off. To rational consciousness
the wording of this promise stands transparent, revealing its spiritual
meaning.
In
the spiritual sense this does not mean that the sun and the moon will be
darkened, stars will fall from the sky, and the Lord's sign will appear in the
skies, and that they will see Him in the clouds accompanied by angels with
trumpets. All the expressions here have spiritual meanings referring to the
church; and they describe its state at its end. In the spiritual sense the sun,
which will be darkened, means love to the Lord. The moon, which will not give
its light, means faith in Him.
The
stars which will fall from the sky, mean items of knowledge concerning truth
and good. The sign of the Son of Man in the sky means the Divine truth given by
Him in the Word being made visible. The tribes of the earth, who will wail,
means the failure of all truth to do with faith and of all good to do with
love. The coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven with power and glory
means the Lord's presence and His revelation in the Word. The clouds of heaven
mean the literal sense of the Word, the glory the spiritual sense of the Word.
The angels with the loud blast of the trumpet mean heaven from which Divine
truth comes. Gathering the chosen from the four winds from one end of the
heavens to the other means the new heaven and the new church, composed of those
who have faith in the Lord and live in accordance with His commandments. (TCR
198)
Only those
can have rational consciousness and see the interior spiritual meaning of
revelation who read the Writings as the Lord in His Word for the
So the Lord
could not come to us in Person in the physical sky without robbing our
salvation, which He could not do. Therefore He could only come in the rational
mind to our rational consciousness of Him. This is what He meant when He
declared to His disciples that He must depart from our sensuous consciousness
in the world so that He can then come in our rational consciousness as the Holy
Spirit (John 14:16, 16:12). The disciples wanted to hold on to His Body. This
is what was real to their consciousness. But the Lord could not agree to that
for it would have meant robbing them of rational consciousness, that is, from
life in heaven.
3. The Rational Is The Entry Point To The
Spiritual
The
natural mind does not see that the rational is the entry point to the
spiritual. Because
from the natural mind we can only see as far as the external rational concepts
we have built up through intelligence, knowledge, and experience. But the
highest possible level of thinking the external rational can attain is a
discrete level below the interior rational which is called the spiritual
rational (AC 978, 4286; AE 355:14). To know and understand the Lord we must
ascend by correspondence to the spiritual-rational degree through the rational
concepts we procure for ourselves from the Writings and apply them to our daily
willing and thinking. That level of thinking or understanding is called
rational consciousness. This phrase that does not occur in the Writings but it
is a useful way of discussing what the Writings explain about truths as being
in a successive sequence of discrete degrees corresponding to the three
heavenly degrees (DLW 67). Celestial truths are at the inmost of spiritual
truths and the two together are within external rational truths. These are then
discrete degrees of consciousness for the rational mind since our level of
thinking is determined by the level of influx into our mind. This in turn is
determined by our progress in reformation and regeneration.
The more
interior, or higher, the truths we understand and live as our daily willing and
thinking, the higher is our rational consciousness. The higher this is the
closer we are to the Lord because all truths come from Him and the truths
nearer Him give us a closer understanding of Him, hence a closer presence with
Him in proportion to our daily willing and thinking in accordance with our
understanding. To understand the Lord our concepts must be rational since all
concepts about Him that are from Him are rational. The Divine Human’s Rational
is within the Divine Human’s Natural, as the spiritual-rational is within the
natural in us (AC 3508). What is in the Divine Natural is only spiritual and
celestial, while we are mixed and impure in our fallen natural.
You can now
see why it is said that the spiritual is another way of saying the rational,
meaning, the interior rational. Therefore also why the human in us only starts
with the rational level. There is an external rational in the highest
portion of the natural mind and there is an interior rational in the
spiritual mind (AC 978, 4286; AE 355:14). These two types of rational are in
discrete degrees. In the natural mind only the external rational is above the animal
level. Everything below that in the natural mind is animal, which is made of
the sensuous and corporeal.
This is the
reason animals cannot be saved for eternal life (CL 96). The Lord did not
create a plane in their natural mind for containing rational truths. This is
also why they cannot acquire human language since this has a rational syntax
that humans can acquire at the level of thinking called the external rational.
Without this organ thinking rational truths is not possible. Eternal life in heaven
exists within us within the rational ideas, not below that level of mind. The
rational is the entrance point to heaven. Animals appear in heaven to angels
and they are real appearances that can be touched, held, and heard. But they
are created instantaneously in correspondence to the affections of the angels.
As the angels proceed to other affections, the animals no longer appear.
4. The Spiritual Power Of Rational Concepts
You can see
the spiritual power of rational concepts or spiritual truths. When the
affections (or loves) of angels are activated, they are conscious in their
understanding of the outer form of these affections. These outer forms are
called truths. The affections from within, and their truths from without,
conjoin into a marriage of good and truth which produces the incomparable and
magnificent sensuous environment in heaven. Angels have the power to create
any environment through this internal marriage within their mind. They do not
call this their own power, but the Lord’s power operating within their rational
truths.
Nonduality
is opposed to duality, and since duality is part of the rational-spiritual, no
concept from nonduality can rise in the
Concepts of
duality reveal the Lord while nonduality clouds the vision. Duality sharpens
distinctions and reveals how infinite distinct things make one perfection in
the Lord. Sensuous consciousness is dark or empty with respect to rationality.
Rational consciousness is the light the Lord talks about in so many places
(Luke
Even those
who acclaim the Writings as Divine revelation can falter in their ideas when
relying on sensuous consciousness for access to the Lord. An example is the
case of Warren Felt Evans, a well known and influential Swedenborgian
(1817-1889). According to a review by Jim Lawrence in The Messenger
(June 2002), Evans defined for himself a new relationship with God that is
based on sensuous consciousness rather than the dualities in Writings. He
accepted these dualities but not, it seems, at an interior rational level. This
he reserved for sensuous consciousness, as shown by his journal entries of how
he attained “mystical” union with God. Evans wrote:
At times my soul has had a clearer sense of the Allness of
God than I ever before experienced. One night on my bed my soul lost itself in
the All. It seemed to me that there was nothing but God; that he was the life,
the support, the substance of everything which exists … This inward
consciousness of God, this living and moving in the Divine element had made all
times and places alike.
(…)
I have recently enjoyed a deeper consciousness of the love
of God … then I ever before reached. … My growth in the spiritual life has gone
forward by new manifestations of God to my consciousness. … Long have I found
God so near to me that I could not move without moving in Him. I am floating in
the depths of the ocean of the Infinite Life…
(Jim Lawrence, “
Note that
the
Heaven’s
sensuous exterior is produced by interior-rational truths in the understanding
of angels. One cannot attain heaven by entering from without, as if it were a
natural place. The
The only
protection for the
Chapter 5, Section 5
Deconstructing
the connection between the Writings and all other sources is a useful
intellectual exercise for strengthening the
Evils,
which are of the will, are what condemn man and thrust him down to hell, and
not so much falsities, unless they become conjoined with evils, for then the
one follows the other. The truth of this statement may be seen from the case of
very many of those who are in falsities, and are yet saved, which is the case
with many among the Gentiles, who have lived in natural charity and in mercy,
and with Christians who have believed in simplicity of heart. Their ignorance
and simplicity excuse them, because in these there can be innocence. But it is
otherwise with those who have confirmed themselves in falsities, and have thus
contracted such a life of falsity that they refuse and reject all truth; for
this life of falsity must be vastated before anything of truth and thus of good
can be inseminated. It is, however, still worse with those who have confirmed
themselves in falsities under the influence of their cupidities, so that the
falsities and the cupidities have come to constitute one life; for these are
they who plunge themselves into hell. (AC 845)
In
like manner by this "multitude" are signified they who are of the
church, but not within it, as is the case with the Gentiles who live together
in obedience and mutual charity and have not genuine truths, because they have
not the Word. (AC 7975)
Note in the
above passage that the Lord considers people of all religions as being “of the
Church” but only those who have the Writings can conform to the
1. No Continuity Between Truths And Falsities
The
Salvation is
not effected by looking to the Father, that is, by praying to Him that He may
have mercy for the sake of the Son; for the Lord says, "I am the Way, the
Truth, and the Life: no one cometh to the Father, but by Me" (John xiv. 6)
… (NJHD 310)
And yet all
those who lead a life of conscience and do not confirm in themselves the
falsities of doctrine, can be instructed in the afterlife and saved (AC 716,
2490, 2600, 2759; HH 2, 321; SE 3537).
It is the
same with the nonduality of Eastern religions. While nonduality induces in the
One example
discussed in the Writings is the identity of Personhood between Jehovah and
Jesus, this being the cornerstone of the
Chapter 5, Section 6
In our
natural mind we can think of faith at two levels: the external rational level
(upper portions) or the sensuous-corporeal level (lowest portions) (AC 6310).
The ideas we have about faith at the lowest level is called “persuasive faith.”
This level of thinking about faith extinguishes true faith and salvation which
depend on free choices from one’s understanding. Persuasive faith takes away
this internal freedom:
AC 2682 Persuasive light ... is of such a nature as to
illuminate falsities equally as well as truths, and to induce a belief in
falsity by means of truths, and a belief in truth by means of falsities, and at
the same time trust in themselves.
AC 9368 They
who are in Persuasive Faith abandon faith, if they are deprived of honors and
gains, provided their reputation is not endangered; for Persuasive Faith is not
within the man, but stands outside, in the memory only, out of which it is
drawn while it is being taught. And therefore after death this faith vanishes,
together with its truths; for then only that much of faith remains which is
within the man; that is, which has been rooted in good; thus has been made of
the life.
AE 548 By the power of hurting like scorpions is
signified the persuasive [power], which is of such a nature, as to take away
from the understanding the light of truth, and bring on infernal darkness.
AE 579 With those who conjoin the truths of the Word
to the affection of the love of self, the natural mind also is closed, and only
the ultimate of this mind is opened, which is called the sensual, which clings
most closely to the body, and stands forth nearest to the world. Thus does
man's spirit become corporeal, and then it can have no lot with the angels, who
are spiritual.
AC 305 To be "cast out of the garden of
Eden" is to be deprived of all intelligence and wisdom; and to "till
the ground from which he was taken" is to become corporeal, as he was
previous to regeneration.
AR 462 Those who have confirmed with themselves
untruths of religion derived from self-intelligence … do not admit them more
closely into their thought than to mere contact, and then out of an interior
recess of their mind they emit as it were a fire that consumes them, the other
knowing nothing of this except by the indications of the facial expression and
tone in reply, if the enchanter does not control that fire, that is, the wrath
of his pride, by simulation. This enchantment is practiced at the present day
to prevent truths' being accepted, and, with many, to prevent their being
understood.
TCR 759 Falsity cannot see truth, but truth can see
falsity; and everyone is so made that he can see and grasp truth on hearing it.
But if he has convinced himself of false doctrines, he cannot bring truth into
his understanding so as to lodge there, since it finds no room; and if by
chance it does get in, the crowd of falsities gathered together there throw it
out as not belonging.
AE 1114 The worldly and corporeal man does not see
God except from space, thus as the whole inmost in the universe or in nature,
consequently as extended. But God must not be regarded from space, for in the
spiritual world there is no space; space there is an appearance from something
like it.
In the
There are
two types of falsities or apparent truths—those that have genuine truths hidden
within and those that do not (AC 845; SS 95). What kind are we dealing with in
regard to concepts based in nonduality? Nonduality
is opposed to the dualities of the Writings in a general way, as shown above,
and therefore they must be opposed also in all their specific ways.
Therefore it is not possible for any concept from nonduality to be actually similar
or compatible with any concept from the Writings.
And if they
are singly incompatible, they are opposed. Holding opposing concepts in one’s
mind inevitably results in the destruction of truth and order. Clearly then,
nondualist concepts tend to become impediments to one’s continued regeneration.
This is a very serious matter about which we ought to be very prudent. Here are
clear teachings from the Writings regarding the impediments to regeneration
that we must avoid:
NJHD
21 Care ought to be taken lest falsities
of religion be confirmed; because there arises thence a persuasion of the
false, which remains with man after death, nos. 845, 8780. How pernicious the
persuasion of the false is, nos. 794, 806, 5096, 7686.
AC 794 Falsities are
principles and persuasions of what is false. (…) Persuasions immensely increase
when men mingle truths with cupidities, or make them favor the loves of self
and of the world; for then in a thousand ways they pervert them and force them
into agreement. For who that has imbibed or framed for himself a false
principle does not confirm it by much that he has learned; and even from the
Word? Is there any heresy that does not thus lay hold of things to confirm it?
and even force, and in diverse ways explain and distort, things that are not in
agreement, so that they may not disagree?
(…)
AC
806 A persuasion of falsity extinguishes
and as it were suffocates everything spiritual and celestial; as everyone may
know from much experience, if he pays attention. They who have once conceived
opinions, though most false, cling to them so obstinately that they are not
even willing to hear anything that is contrary to them; so that they never
suffer themselves to be informed, even if the truth be placed before their
eyes. Still more is this the case when they worship the false opinion from a
notion of its sanctity. Such are they who spurn every truth, and that which
they admit they pervert, and thus immerse in fantasies.
AC 794 Nothing
therefore is of more importance to a man than to know what is true. When he
knows what is true, and knows it so well that it cannot be perverted, then it
cannot be so much immersed in cupidities and have such deadly effect. What
should a man have more at heart than his life to eternity? If in the life of
the body he destroys his soul, does he not destroy it to eternity?
AC
5096 They who have confirmed themselves
in falsity are no longer in any freedom to choose and receive truth; and they
who have much confirmed themselves therein are not even in freedom to see
truth, still less to acknowledge and believe it; for they are in the persuasion
that falsity is truth, and truth falsity. This persuasion is such that it takes
away all freedom to think anything else, and consequently holds the very
thought in bonds and as it were in prison. This has become evident to me from
much experience with those in the other life who have been in persuasion of
falsity through confirmations in themselves.
How are we
to know if we hear of a new concept whether it is compatible to the
Chapter 5, Section 7
One who knows
nothing about discrete degrees, that is, degrees of height, can know nothing
about the state of man as regards his reformation and regeneration, which are
effected through the reception of love and wisdom of the Lord, and then through
the opening of the interior degrees of his mind in their order. Nor can he know
anything about influx from the Lord through the heavens nor anything about the
order into which he was created. For if anyone thinks about these, not from
discrete degrees or degrees of height but from continuous degrees or degrees of
breadth, he is not able to perceive anything about them from causes, but only
from effects; and to see from effects only is to see from fallacies, from which
come errors, one after another; and these may be so multiplied by inductions
that at length enormous falsities are called truths. (DLW 187)
The
Doctrine of Degrees is the fundamental scientific explanation of how things are
created in the universe. Every thing that comes into existence is formed by a
prior thing. This formation process is accomplished by the mechanism of
successive discrete degrees:
In a word, they
are degrees of the formation of one thing from another; thus they are the
degrees from first or highest to last or lowest, where formation subsists.
Therefore things prior and posterior, also things higher and lower, are such
degrees. All creation was effected through such degrees, and all production is
by means of them, and likewise all composition in the nature that belongs to
this world; for in analyzing anything that is composite you will see that one
thing therein is from another, even to the very last, which is the general of
them all. (D. Love 11)
The form of
reality and how it is maintained in order by God cannot be understood in a
rational way without making conceptual use of the Doctrine of Degrees (DLW
184-187). This is a scientific explanation of the structure or form of reality,
of creation, and its Divine management. This doctrine is a revelation of the
Second Coming in the Writings of Swedenborg. Nothing about the natural and
spiritual worlds can be understood without a knowledge of the doctrine of
discrete degrees:
A knowledge of
degrees is like a key for opening the causes of things, and for entering into
them. Without that knowledge, scarcely anything of cause can be known. For
without it, the objects and subjects of both worlds appear so simple as though
there were nothing in them beyond that which meets the eye, when yet the things
that appear are as one to thousands, indeed, to myriads, compared with the
things which lie hidden within. The interiors which do not lie open can by no means
be disclosed except by a knowledge of degrees. (DLW 184)
The
doctrine of successive and simultaneous degrees is not found anywhere in the
known intellectual history of humankind (DLW 201). This knowledge could not
have been understood by the human mind before it was revealed in the Writings.
Nonduality is unaware of it in both Eastern and Western versions today. The
Doctrine of Degrees gives a fully rational accounting of dualism, from which
one can see and prove in what specific ways nonduality is opposed in a
fundamental way to the truths of the Heavenly Doctrines.
The
declarations of angels on this subject are as follows: There is nothing so
infinitesimal, they say, as not to have in it degrees of both kinds. Not the
least constituent in any animal, for example, not the least constituent in any
plant, nor the least constituent in any mineral, and not the least constituent
in the ether and air. Moreover, because the ether and air are vehicles of heat
and light, there is not the least constituent of these that does not have in it
degrees of both kinds; and because spiritual heat and spiritual light are
vehicles of love and wisdom, there is not the least constituent of these either
that does not have in it both such degrees.
[2] I have it from the declarations of angels also that the
least element of affection, and the least element of thought-indeed, the least
element of any idea in the thought-consists of degrees of both kinds, and that
any least element which does not consist of these does not actually exist. For
it has no form, thus no quality, neither any state which can be changed and
varied and so come into being. (AC 223)
The
Doctrine of Degrees teaches the idea that each item (or thing) that comes into
existence is the effect of a prior cause acting on it through the laws of
correspondence. This is called successive degrees. No one before Swedenborg has
known that the “great chain of being” consists of continuous and discrete
degrees (D. Love 11). Philosophers and scientists were able to think only of
continuous degrees. Even in theology, the notion of a spiritual substance was
thought of as similar to matter, as we can see from how hell and purgatory was
portrayed by painters, poets, writers, and story tellers of the past and those
in the movies and novels of the present. The existence of discrete degrees is
still not recognized in science today, which remains opposed to dualism.
Science remains stubbornly entrapped in materialistic monism despite the
revelations in the Writings. The idea of discrete degrees is a new scientific
and philosophical revelation and to understand it rationally, requires knowing
about correspondences and taking them as real.
Only he who knows how degrees are related to Divine order
can comprehend how the heavens are distinct, or even what is meant by the
internal and the external man. Most men in the world have no other idea of what
is interior and what is exterior, or of what is higher and what is lower, than
as something continuous, or coherent by continuity, from purer to grosser. But
the relation of what is interior to what is exterior is discrete, not
continuous. Degrees are of two kinds, those that are continuous and those that
are not. Continuous degrees are related like the degrees of the waning of a
light from its bright blaze to darkness, or like the degrees of the decrease of
vision from objects in the light to those in the shade, or like degrees of
purity in the atmosphere from bottom to top. These degrees are determined by
distance.
[2] On the other hand, degrees that are not continuous, but
discrete, are distinguished like prior and posterior, like cause and effect,
and like what produces and what is produced. Whoever looks into the matter will
see that in each thing and all things in the whole world, whatever they are,
there are such degrees of producing and compounding, that is, from one a
second, and from that a third, and so on.
[3] Until one has acquired for himself a perception of these
degrees he cannot possibly understand the differences between the heavens, nor
between the interior and exterior faculties of man, nor the differences between
the spiritual world and the natural world, nor between the spirit of man and
his body. So neither can he understand the nature and source of correspondences
and representations, or the nature of influx. Sensual men do not apprehend
these differences, for they make increase and decrease, even according to these
degrees, to be continuous, and are therefore unable to conceive of what is
spiritual otherwise than as a purer natural. And in consequence they remain
outside of and a great way off from intelligence.#
# Things interior and things exterior are not continuous but
distinct and discrete according to degrees, and each degree has its bounds …
One thing is formed from another, and the things so formed
are not continuously purer and grosser …
Until the difference between what is interior and what is
exterior according to such degrees is perceived, neither the internal and
external man nor the interior and exterior heavens can be clearly understood …
(HH 38)
1. Knowing About Correspondences
It’s
possible to “know about correspondences” and even apply them to interpret
passages of the Word, dreams, poetry, lyrics, art, even natural scenes and
events. This way of looking at correspondences is secular and natural, not
rational or intellectual. The Writings reveal that there are three levels of
rational conscious thinking in humans:
Memory-knowledges
[scientific] are of three kinds: intellectual, rational, and sensuous. … These
memory-knowledges which are from things of sense come to man's sensation or
perception when he lives in the body, for he thinks from them. The rest, which
are interior, do not come so much to perception until man puts off the body and
enters the other life.
(…)
I will make man and beast to fail; I will make the fowls of
the heavens and the fishes of the sea to fail (Zeph. 1:3),
where the
"fowls of the heavens" denote things of reason, and the "fishes
of the sea" lower rational things, that is, man's thought from sensuous
memory-knowledges.
(AC 991)
The interior
can perceive what takes place in the exterior, or what is the same, that the
higher can see what is in the lower; but not the reverse. … Still more can
those do this who have perception, as perception is more interior in the
rational. What then could not the Lord do, who had Divine celestial perception,
and thought from the affection of intellectual truth, which is above the
rational! (AC 1914)
The subject here treated of is the doctrine of faith,
concerning which the Lord thought in His childhood, namely, whether it was
allowable to enter into it by means of rational things, and thus form for one's
self ideas concerning it. His so thinking came from His love and consideration
for the human race, who are such as not to believe what they do not comprehend
in a rational manner. But He perceived from the Divine that this ought not to
be done; and He therefore revealed the doctrine to Himself from the Divine, and
thereby at the same time all things in the universe that are subordinate,
namely, all things of the rational and of the natural. (AC 2588)
"Grapes
in the wilderness" denote rational good not yet made spiritual; the
"first-ripe in the fig tree" denotes natural good in like manner;
"
There are in
man derivations from the intellectual part, which is in the light of heaven,
down to the sensuous, which is in the light of the world; unless this were so,
the sensuous could not have any human life. The sensuous of man has no life in
consequence of seeing from the light of the world, for the light of the world
has no life in it; but in consequence of seeing from the light of heaven, for
this light has life in it. When this light falls with man into those things
which are from the light of the world, it vivifies them and causes him to see
objects intellectually, thus as a man; and from this, by knowledges born from
things he has seen and heard in the world, thus from things that have entered
through the senses, man has intelligence and wisdom, and from these has civil,
moral, and spiritual life. (AC 5114: 2)
From these
passages one can gain an understanding of the difference between the two
rational levels of thinking in human beings. This is a fundamental duality
that must be recognized in psychology and physics if we are to think as
scientists beyond the barrier of appearances.
But this is
only the first part of the Doctrine of Degrees, namely the successive causation
of things or events through discrete degrees, from God (or First) to the
ultimates of the physical world and nature (last). The second part is even more
astonishing, namely, that once brought into existence, an item or process is
kept in existence by successive influx. If this should cease for a
moment, the item would cease to be anything and dissipate from existence. Subsistence,
that is, continued existence, is achieved through successive re-creation of the
item by means of influx through successive discrete degrees that are present as
simultaneous degrees.
The third
part is even more astonishing than that, namely, that in the sequence of
successive discrete degrees each prior degree remains in the item as the
degrees succeed one after another (DLW 217). The first or earliest cause
(closest to the spiritual Sun) remains in the inmost of the item’s structure.
Then the next successive discrete degree remains the middle position of the
item, and the last successive degree is in the outmost of the item (which is natural).
Consider for instance a stone and the atoms, energy, and space it is made of
(these belong to its ultimate discrete degree). The physical part of the object
is known to be distributed on continuous scales such as size, atomic weight,
specific gravity, sub-atomic composition, etc. This is the outmost discrete
degree of the created object. No matter how much we study and know about this
outmost degree it will never be able to reveal its “within” which refers
to the middle discrete degree it contains.
The outmost
degree of the object is called the natural degree, the middle degree is called
spiritual, and the inmost degree is called celestial. The existence of the
spiritual and celestial degrees within every natural object was not known until
revealed in the Writings. Dr. Ian Thompson, a physics professor at the
Clearly
then, every thing that exists is brought into existence by continuous non-stop
influx of successive discrete degrees, and is kept in existence by simultaneous
discrete degrees. The Writings reveal that thoughts and feelings are states of
spiritual substances that are fiber like and are laced together in intricate
patterns and structures that develop and evolve to eternity (AC 4803, 6648,
5354). These fibers and structures are indestructible and permanent because
sustained that way by God.. They are the human individual itself.
For more
discussion on discrete degrees see Volume 1 Chapter 7, Section 1.
Chapter 5, Section 8
The purpose
of marriage is to achieve the conjugial union. A summary of this relationship
is listed in this outline:
(1) Each sex has implanted in it from creation a capacity
and inclination that gives them the ability and the will to be joined together
as though into one.
(2) Conjugial love joins two souls and thus two minds into
one.
(3) A wife's will unites itself with her husband's
understanding, and the husband's understanding in consequence unites itself
with his wife's will.
(4) A desire to unite her husband to her is constant and
continual in a wife, but inconstant and intermittent in a husband.
(5) A wife inspires the union in her husband according to
her love, and a husband receives it according to his wisdom.
(6) This union takes place gradually from the first days of
marriage, and in people who are in a state of truly conjugial love, it becomes
deeper and deeper to eternity.
(7) A wife's union with her husband's intellectual wisdom
takes place inwardly, but with his moral wisdom outwardly.
(8) In order that this union may be achieved, a wife is
given a perception of her husband's affections, and also the highest prudence
in knowing how to moderate them.
(9) Wives keep this perception in them hidden and conceal it
from their husbands for reasons that are necessary in building conjugial love,
friendship and trust, so that they may have bliss in living together and
happiness of life.
(10) This perception is a wisdom that the wife has. A man is not capable of it, neither is a wife
capable of her husband's intellectual wisdom.
(11) A wife from her love continually thinks about her husband's
disposition towards her, with a view to joining him to her. This is not true of a husband.
(12) A wife joins herself to her husband by appeals to his
will's desires.
(13) A wife is joined to her husband by the atmosphere of
her life emanating from her love.
(14) A wife is joined to her husband by her assimilation of
the powers of his manhood, though this depends on the spiritual love they have
for each other.
(15) A wife thus receives into herself an image of her
husband, and from it perceives, sees and feels his affections.
(16) A husband has duties appropriate to him, and a wife
duties appropriate to her, and a wife cannot enter into duties appropriate to
her husband or a husband into duties appropriate to his wife and perform them
properly.
(17) These duties also join the two into one, and at the
same time make a single household, depending on the assistance they render each
other.
(18) According as the aforementioned conjunctions are
formed, married partners become more and more one person.
(19) Partners who are in a state of truly conjugial love
feel themselves to be a united person and as though one flesh.
(20) Truly conjugial love regarded in itself is a union of
souls, a conjunction of minds, an effort to conjunction in breasts, and a
consequent effort to conjunction in body.
(21) The states produced by this love are innocence, peace,
tranquility, inmost friendship, complete trust, and a mutual desire in mind and
heart to do the other every good; also, as a result of all these, bliss,
felicity, delight, pleasure, and, owing to an eternal enjoyment of states like
this, the happiness of heaven.
(22) These blessings are not at all possible except in a
marriage of one man with one wife.
Explanation of
these statements now follows.
(CL 156)
Consider
the differences that are revealed here between husband and wife. For example:
“(3) A wife's will unites itself with her husband's understanding, and the
husband's understanding in consequence unites itself with his wife's will.” Clearly
the man and the woman bring complementary portions to the “united person.” What
does it mean that the “husband's understanding in consequence unites itself
with his wife's will”? First, note that the wife assumes the primary or
initiating role by uniting her will to his understanding. After that, the man
unites his understanding with the wife’s will. How does he do this? When the
will and the understanding are united, the will is the all in all in the
understanding (AC 8882). The will shapes and forms the understanding which it
unites to itself. The man’s understanding therefore is shaped and formed by the
wife’s will, so much so that the man’s understanding is nothing but the form of
his wife’s will. Clearly the man cannot retain an understanding of his own
independent making, for this understanding cannot be united to the wife’s will.
Only that portion remains in the man’s understanding which is capable of being
united to the wife’s will. In practice this works out that the husband has
to learn to love acting from the wife’s will more than from his own will.
(For more explanation on this principle see Chapter 9, Section 1).
Consider
two other items in the list above: “(4) A desire to unite her husband to her is
constant and continual in a wife, but inconstant and intermittent in a husband.
(5) A wife inspires the union in her husband according to her love, and a
husband receives it according to his wisdom.” Again it is clear that the wife
is primary and initiates the conjoining process. The creation of the united
person (or conjoint self) progresses from the wife’s love by means of the
husband’s wisdom. The higher his intelligence, the more closely her love binds
them together. If the husband’s wisdom is lacking, the wife cannot effect the
union from her love. The husband’s wisdom is proportional to his regeneration.
You can see that progress in forming the internal union depends on the husband
since the wife’s love in forming it is constant, but the husband’s wisdom is
not, because his love is not constant. Only progress in regeneration can the
man’s love become steady, consequently his wisdom.
Now
consider these items: “(8) In order that this union may be achieved, a wife is
given a perception of her husband's affections, and also the highest prudence
in knowing how to moderate them. (9) Wives keep this perception in them hidden
and conceal it from their husbands for reasons that are necessary in building
conjugial love, friendship and trust, so that they may have bliss in living
together and happiness of life. (10) This perception is a wisdom that the wife
has. A man is not capable of it, neither
is a wife capable of her husband's intellectual wisdom.”
The wife
receives from the Lord a special ability to perceive her husband’s inner states
of affection. He himself does not have this perception of her or of himself. It
makes sense therefore that in the united person the wife occupies a primary
role since her motive is constant, and since she initiates conjunction and
perceives her husband’s inner states, whether in favor or against conjunction,
given that his love for it is variable and not constant like hers. Thus it
behooves the husband to recognize his wife’s primary role and to honor it and
cooperate with it: “(15) A wife thus receives into herself an image of her
husband, and from it perceives, sees and feels his affections.”
There are
two states of marriage, one external the other internal. We start by learning
to form the external marriage with the spouse. When we undergo reformation, we
begin striving for the internal marriage union. This proceeds till the end of
life in accordance with progress in our regeneration. Some
You can see
that marriage for
In the
state of the external marriage, the husband has to struggle with male
prerogatives that impede progress towards internal union. Male prerogatives
are rights that a man claims for himself that are given to him by religion and
culture. For example, culture gives a man precedence over women in many
things, if not all. Men rule over women in many ways, and this is fully
sanctioned by social custom and norms. Women are treated by men as weaker, less
intelligent, less rational, less capable, more fickle, and so on. Women are
forced to do menial domestic jobs and if they complain or refuse they are
pegged and discriminated against by family and society. Men systematically
discount the opinion of women in comparison to their own. Men interrupt women
when they talk, or refuse to listen to topics raised by women. Men abuse women
and take advantage of their goodness and weakness. Women are more responsible
in relationships but are abused by their husbands and boyfriends. Women are
discouraged in many ways from achieving equality with men in opportunity, salary,
recognition. And many such things. In the external phase of the marriage,
husbands practice these discriminations yet deny that they practice them. Thus
the women are unhappy, unfulfilled, made to be confused, kept down. It’s a
man’s world, and it’s hostile to women.
XII. THAT OF
THE EXTERNAL CAUSES OF COLD, THE THIRD IS RIVALRY FOR SUPREMACY BETWEEN THE
PARTNERS. The reason is because, among its principal objects, conjugial love
looks to union of wills and thus to liberty of agreement. Rivalry for supremacy
or rule, ejects these two objects from the marriage; for it divides and sunders
the wills into sides, and turns the liberty of agreement into servitude. So
long as this rivalry continues, the spirit of the one meditates violence
against the other. Were their minds then opened and observed by spiritual
sight, they would appear as antagonists fighting with daggers, and it would be
seen that they regarded each other with alternate hatred and favor--with hatred
when in the ardor of rivalry, and with favor when in the hope of dominion and
when in lust.
[2] After the victory of the one over the other, the
antagonism withdraws from the externals of the mind and betakes itself to the
internals, and there with its disquiet it remains concealed. Hence comes cold
both to the subjugated or servant and to the victor or master. Cold comes to
the latter also because there is no longer conjugial love, and the deprivation
of this love is cold (no. 235). Instead of conjugial love comes heat from
supremacy; but this heat, though utterly discordant with conjugial heat, yet,
by the mediation of lust, may be outwardly concordant. After tacit agreement
between them, it appears as if conjugial love had become friendship; but the
difference between conjugial friendship in marriages and servile friendship is
as the difference between light and shade, between living fire and fatuous
fire, yea, as between a man in full flesh and a man consisting only of skin and
bone. (CL 248)
2. Religious Justification For Dominion Over
One’s Wife
Christian
husbands who claims to be reborn become familiar with the Word and then use
sentences from it as a weapon of justification to continue abusing their wives.
It is customary to quote Paul and Peter’s advice that women should be silent in
worship, should obey their husband, and be submissive in all things to him.
Wives, submit
to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as
Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior (Ephesians
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should
submit to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:24)
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
(Colossians 3:18)
Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so
that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without
words by the behavior of their wives, (1 Peter 3:1)
As in all the congregations of the saints, women should
remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission,
as the Law says. (1 Corinthians 14:34)
Thus the
Christian reborn husband lords it over his wife and confirms it with Scripture.
The poor wife has no choice but to submit. What can she do if her husband
quotes Holy Scripture against her? She tries to submit graciously, but inwardly
a great and deep barrier is erected that separates her from this man to whom
she is married. She longs for something fulfilling but may not know the source
of it. Sometimes she blames or doubts herself. It is a sad and tragic
situation.
Here is how
one Christian argues about the subject:
This does not
mean that the wives have no say in the family, but rather that they may enjoy
the security and protection of their husbands’ authority.
If Eve had submitted to Adam’s authority, they might very
well not have got into trouble.
God’s priorities are: Himself first and foremost, then the
husband, then the wife, the children, the fauna and flora and the mineral world
in that order.
A lower order cannot reign over a higher order, although
there is always the danger of rebellion (Exod.4:24,25). Here we see Moses’ life
endangered because his wife wouldn’t let him circumcise their son. This was
rebellion against her husband and against God.
As long as the wife submits to the authority of her husband,
she is under the protection of that same authority. In 1Tim.2:9 we read of the
clothing of woman. Wives must be circumspect and know when to speak up.
(1Tim.3:11).
(We need a Word for Today on the Web at
www.elkana.org.za/boodskappe/we_need_a_word.htm
Accessed June 2002)
And here is
a quote from a Pastoral Letter:
Dear Friends,
To Jesus Christ be power, honor and glory forever. Amen.
All around us homes are crumbling because Godly authority is
not recognized. A wife thinks she makes better decisions than her husband and
will not submit to his leadership.
(…)
In a family setting, the captain of the ship is the husband.
His word is to be obeyed. The wife agrees to come on board his ship when she
marries him. She makes the commitment that her husband will be captain of the
family, through good times and bad times, until death ends the journey.
Embassy of Heaven: God’s Government on Earth. From the
Pastor's Desk. On the Web at www.embassyofheaven.com/newslett/news9504/news9504.htm
accessed June 2002)
In the
Woman was created by the Lord through the wisdom of man
because from man. … Women were created, by the Lord, affections of the wisdom
of men … The wife is the love of a wise man's wisdom. (CL 56)
the husband is perfected in wisdom and … the wife grows to
love that wisdom in her husband (CL 137)
After the wedding the representation changes, for then the
husband represents wisdom and the wife represents love of that wisdom. This
love, however, is not the first love referred to before, but a secondary love
which the wife has from the Lord through the wisdom of her husband. The Lord's
love, which is the first love, is the love in the husband of becoming wise.
Consequently, after the wedding the two together, the husband and his wife,
represent the church." (CL 21)
Since in
heaven the husband is wisdom and the wife is the love of wisdom … (CL 44)
Wisdom and its
accompanying love increase in married partners, so conjugial love is purified
in them. (CL 145)
the husband
gets from his wife the charming blush of her love, and the wife gets from her
husband the bright gleam of his wisdom, since there the two partners are united
in soul. (CL 192)
[Conjugial]
love induces on the wife the form of love, and on the husband the form of
wisdom (CL 367)
People who are
in a state of truly conjugial love look to eternity in their marriage because
eternity is inherent in this love. Its
eternity is owing to the fact that this love in the wife and wisdom in the
husband grow to eternity, and as these grow or progress, the partners enter
more and more deeply into the blessings of heaven - blessings which their
wisdom and love of wisdom at the same time carry concealed within them. (CL
216)
The truth of
good or truth from good is in the male and is the masculine itself, and that
the good of truth or good from truth is in the female and is the feminine
itself, and that there is a conjugial union between these two (CL 61)
How are we
to rightly interpret the revelation that in the heavenly marriage the wife is
the love of her husband’s wisdom or the good of his truth? There are two
ways of understanding this, one that is inimical to conjugial love and wives,
the other that is in accordance with it. The hostile interpretation by men
is self-serving and can be paraphrased as: “Religious law dictates that women
should subordinate themselves to a man’s understanding as this is superior to a
woman’s understanding.” This idea is hurtful to the women and comes from hatred
towards them, hatred that men are born with and must get rid off in order to
undergo reformation and regeneration.
3. The Wife Is The Will Of Her Husband’s
Understanding
When they
hold the first interpretation in aversion, men can instantly perceive the other
interpretation, which is, that the wife is the will (love) of her husband’s
understanding (wisdom), as defined below in the section on the conjoint self
(see Chapter 9, Section 9). Reference to the church in the quote above is to
this conjoint self: “after the wedding the two together, the husband and his
wife, represent the church" (CL 21)”. Conjugial couples are growing in
internal union. This means that they each learn to love to act from the union
of the two rather than from the independent self. I refer to the union of the
two as the “conjoint self.” This conjoint self is constituted of the will and
the understanding, but differently from the self of the husband and the self of
the wife. The conjoint self is constructed from the will of the wife and the
understanding of the husband. This is why it is said in CL 56 and elsewhere
that “the wife is the love of the husband’s wisdom.” The will is the all in all
of the self, therefore the will or love of the conjoint self is the all in all
of it. Hence the understanding of the conjoint self, which is the understanding
of the husband, is formed in complete accordance by this will or love. In other
words, she acts by the husband’s reformed understanding from her own will, and
he acts by his reformed understanding from her will. In this way they act in
perfect union.
There is no
attempt here on the part of the husband to dominate or override his wife’s
opinions or perceptions on any topic whatsoever. This he now holds in strong
aversion. His love now is to act by his reformed understanding which is
formed from the wife’s will. Women who feel dominated by religious justifications
practiced by the men in the Church are suffering, languishing, and kept from
the fullness of their being. For example:
Last summer, I was part of a group of women who read some of
the book, Marriage Love [Conjugial Love]. I allowed myself to
notice and experience fully my emotional and cognitive reactions to the book,
so that I could start to heal my pain about the teachings in it, and come to
see how it could possibly fit into the scheme of revelation. With the loving
support of the other group members, I was able to identify in what way the book
(or how I had come to understand it), was hurtful and confusing, and then to
see it in newer, less hurtful ways.
What hurt me the most was that, in the book, a woman is
defined by men in terms of her essence, form, purpose, and spirituality (ML 32,
33, 63, 66, 75, 88, 125, 320). Men are not defined in terms of women in the
same ways, but in terms that are independent of women or a marriage
relationship. I was hurt by these teaching because I know that I am a whole
person with my own individuality, whether single or married. I have been hurt
by defining myself in terms of other people, especially my husband.
(Roslyn Taylor “Marriage Love: Hurts and
Confusion” Voice: A Newsletter for Caritas October 2001 Volume 2, pp. 6-7)
The author
reports she was able to overcome her initial feelings by gaining new
understanding of what the Writings say about women:
The healing I
received was in being able to accept that all of the incomplete statements
about a woman and her role in marriage, when taken together with other
teachings in the Writings, generate a picture of a whole female human being.
She is conscious of life first in her will, then offers love to their marriage
relationship to make it a sacred reflection of the holy marriage of divine love
and wisdom in the Lord. (Taylor, ibid, p. 7)
I want to
bring the focus back to the husband because he is the actual source of the
problem when a wife feels herself to be placed in a lower position than her
husband on account of his gender.
IX. THAT IN
ITSELF THE INTELLIGENCE OF WOMEN IS MODEST, ELEGANT, PACIFIC, YIELDING, GENTLE,
TENDER; AND THE INTELLIGENCE OF MEN IN ITSELF IS GRAVE, HARSH, HARD, SPIRITED,
FOND OF LICENSE. (CL 218)
And yet it
is the man who enjoys the advantage as a result of what the Word says in the
literal in some places that appear to legitimize his superior status. This is
true of reborn Christians who quote the New Testament to keep their wife in
place, and it is true of the
The
dishonest part of this is for men to use these statements of Scripture to grab
the dominion over women, and especially their wife. They deny that they are
motivated to dominate the wife. They claim that this is the way it is, as the
Word declares. They claim that they are not the ones who have made it this way.
They claim that they are merely obeying the Lord in His Word who commands that
man should be the head of the wife and woman should submit. But the truth is
that nowhere in the New Testament or in the Writings does it say that the men
are to have dominion over the wife. Nowhere does it say that a man must not
choose to listen to his wife and abide by her will and judgment in every
subject or area of their marriage. The fact that they do exert dominion in
decision making proves that they are not following the Word but only
themselves. This is most serious because unless they stop it, they cannot enter
into an internal union with their wife, and if they cannot do that, they cannot
live with her in heaven. Will they live there with another woman? No—unless
they overcome their impediments to regeneration. And practicing dominion over
the wife will prevent regeneration. Much is at stake here.
Furthermore,
there are many passages in the Writings that say the opposite, namely, that
women’s wisdom and intelligence far surpasses that of man (CL 56). How could
this be and which is it really? The answer is that in the internal union
women’s intelligence rules, while in the external marriage relationship, man’s
intelligence rules. In the first or external phase of marriage there is not
yet an internal. The man’s intelligence then rules in marriage. This is an
unregenerate state and reflects the natural antipathy and hostility men have
against women. Male prerogatives in a man’s world dominates the intelligence of
women, and suppresses it, denigrates it, ignores it. The wife whose husband is
in this external phase of marriage is abused, unhappy, longing for the fullness
of her being. All sorts of feminist movements and philosophies have erupted
from this abuse and frustration and injustice. These are psycho-political
activities, not spiritual. The Writings show that the spiritual of marriage is
the internal union of one woman with one man to eternity. There is nothing
spiritual about the first phase of marriage, even though it has been
consecrated in the Church and even though the couple worships there at
requisite times. Nothing spiritual, even though the husband quotes Scripture to
his wife to justify their relationship such as it is.
There is
nothing spiritual about the Word when read in its external historical and
literal phase. When the Writings are used for politics, that is, for justifying
a husband’s command over his wife, there is nothing spiritual in the action or
in the Scripture being quoted. It is merely a natural power play using this or
that tool.
The wife comes alive internally when the husband has
reformed himself and has set for himself the commandment that he will henceforth
love to act from his wife more than to act from himself.
This solves
the whole problem of marriage. (See also Chapter 9, Section 1).
Nothing
else but man’s aversion for this idea keeps marriage in the external phase.
Thus keeps wives from living the fullness of their being.
5. Facing One’s Wife Instead of Turning Away
When the
husband adopts this policy, and compels himself to follow it, he has been
reformed. Now he is facing the opposite direction from before—instead of away
from his wife he is now facing his wife—internally, spiritually, in religion,
in reality. Now he can begin the journey of regeneration, which is the creation
of a new conjoint self, which rises out of the union of the two into one. This
new conjoint self grows day by day. The wife is happy now because she has been
immersed at last in her true life. She now has a husband who will listen to
her! This is such a rarity on this planet. She feels thankful to the Lord,
closer to Him. She now begins to see and perceive the actual possibility of her
heaven with this man. The Lord has given her a man she can take to her
heaven, a man who is willing to go to her heaven since he has wisely seen the
futility of trying to go to his own heaven.
Now at last
she has the real work of her life cut out for herself—to change this man into
something that can conjoin himself to her interior mind. The Lord gives her the
perception of what her husband is like internally now (CL 166). Her husband is
kept totally blind as to his internals, regardless how studious and adept he
becomes in understanding and teaching the Writings. She can see into his
character, he can only infer it or affirm it, but he can’t see into it.
Obviously this is arrangement is just what is needed to allow him to change.
For he must change if he is going to her heaven, that is, the only heaven the
Lord is offering him. This is what I call the Doctrine of the Wife—the
idea that a husband cannot have salvation except through his wife when he
willingly acts from her instead of himself. Acting from her is his
salvation. (See Chapter 9, Section 1).
The
internal union between husband and wife is gradually created by the Lord by
opening the spiritual mind of the couple. When the husband learns to love to
act from his wife, she can be in the fullness of her being because her wisdom
is celestial while his wisdom is spiritual (CL 223-5, 32). Celestial wisdom is
in a discrete degree higher and more interior than spiritual wisdom. No idea
from celestial wisdom can be apprehended by spiritual wisdom, such is the
difference. But the two interact by correspondence. When the wife’s celestial
wisdom enters the husband’s spiritual wisdom from within, the husband
experiences enlightenment. He now can perceive the interior truths of his own
knowledge and intelligence. In this state of enlightenment he can read the
Writings and understand far deeper things, more clearly and particularly. Now
he can apply these new interior truths to his willing and thinking, and his
regeneration progresses, and he is happier than he ever was before.
When this
couple arrives in the afterlife the two are ushered into their society and they
see the house waiting for them. The mind of the husband had been adequately
prepared. Now the two can form their perfect inmost union to eternity (CL 355).
The
conjoint self cannot be born or made in heaven, only perfected there. It must
be born and grown up on earth. This is why it’s crucial that the couple enter
phase 2 of their marriage. When this happens is up to the husband and his willingness
to reform, as indicated above. The conjoint self is built up when the
husband’s understanding is united to the wife’s will. This state
anticipates here on earth the angelic state they will have when they reach
there. In this state the husband has learned to love acting from the wife’s
will more than from his own will. In other words, whenever he wants to do X
and she wants him to do Y, he will decide to do Y. This decision is at
first not the preferred way of acting. He would prefer to do X even though he
know she wants him to do Y. Nevertheless, out of religious principle or
discipline, he chooses to do Y just because he wants to become that kind of a
husband, which he knows from religion that it is a conjugial husband, the kind
the Lord wants him to be. Further, the husband is willing to change his
understanding so that it agrees with her will. Eventually he too will choose Y
even before she needs to tell him.
Understanding,
when it is united to the will, is nothing else than the form of the will (AC
7342). The all in all of the conjoint self is the will because the will is the
all in all of the understanding. The will is the substance and the
understanding is the form of it. The will receives love from the Lord and the
form of this love appears as the understanding. Since the will of the conjoint
self is the wife’s will it is clear that the husband’s understanding in the
reformed state is nothing else than the form of the wife’s will. You can see
that it is not possible in this arrangement for the man to rule over the wife,
as he does in the external marriage before the internal is within it. And
you can also see that the understanding of the husband must be in accord with
the wife’s will since the will always rules the understanding. This is how
it is in heaven where true conjugial love exists.
So the
crucial question now is: How is the husband going to prepare his mind so that
he can have this conjoint self with the wife? How is he going to overcome his resistance and
aversion for choosing to act from his wife instead of from himself?
The answer
is given in Chapter 9 where I discuss conjugial disciplines for husbands.
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