This is Volume 1
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
By Leon
James
October
2002
(draft 18)
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A “field” means doctrine (AC 368)
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truth (AC 427; 4823)
Volume 1
Table of Contents
1.
The Writings Are A Divine Scientific Revelation
2.
The Writings Are The Lord’s Second Coming
3.
Heaven Is Created From Rational Love
4. A
Divine Revelation That Surpasses All Others
5.
Swedenborg’s Scientific Experiments In The Spiritual World
6.
Swedenborg’s Dual Citizenship—Natural And Spiritual
7.
This Book Is About Regeneration
REFORMATION: THE INWARD STRUGGLE AGAINST NONDUALITY
The New Church Mind is to
be Formed by the Writings Exclusively
3.
Spiritual Truths Understood Naturally and Spiritually
4.
The Great Battle Of Nonduality Vs. Duality
5.
Enlightenment From The Lord
7. At
The Threshold Out Of Hell Into Heaven.
8.
Cooperation in our Regeneration
9.
The Lord’s Relationship to All Religions
10.
The Writings As The Exclusive Source For Spiritual Truths
11.
Separating Nonduality and Duality in the Mind
12.
Reformation by Means of the Writings
13.
Old and New Testament From Perspective Of The Writings
14.
The Writings Are The Last Revelation
15.
The Writings Are For The Rational Mind.
17.
The Birth Of The Interior-Natural
18.
Reformation And Regeneration Begin In Early Adulthood
19.
Nonduality Fills The Culture Around Us.
20.
Two Methods For Fighting Nonduality In The Mind
Absolute Opposition Between
Duality and Nonduality
1.
Religious Membership Not Required For Salvation
2.
Revelation Is Necessary For Spiritual Truths
3.
The New Rational Consciousness of God.
4.
Nonduality is from Self-intelligence
5.
Nonduality In The Mind Opposes Regeneration
2. Incompatibility with the
Writings
4. Duality is the only
reality
1.
The New Age Of The Second Coming
5. The natural and
spiritual mind
1.
Nonduality Is In The Unregenerate Natural Mind
2.
The Spiritual Begins With The Rational
3.
The Spiritual In The New Testament
6. Why nonduality can be
attractive
Eastern Nonduality in
Western Thinking
1. The Writings do not
contain any nonduality
2. No
Overlap Between Nonduality And Duality.
3. The notion of
”experiencing nonduality”
4. “Sacred Tantric Sex”
versus Conjugial Love
1.
Nonduality Between The Physical And The Spiritual
3.
Hell Is A Choice, Not A Punishment
7. The Writings are not
like other books or systems.
1.
Rational Versus Corporeal Spirituality.
2. The New Testament does
not contain any nonduality.
1.
Who Runs The Universe: The Divine Father Or The Divine Human?
3. Trinity of Persons
versus Unity of Three Aspects in One Person
1.
Spiritual Unity Is Different From Nonduality
4. People are saved apart
from their religion
1.
Everyone Can Be Regenerated
2.
Regeneration Leads To Enlightenment
5. Mind-Body Nonduality and
God-Cosmos Nonduality
1.
God Is Separate From Creation
6. Christian Science
Nonduality
7. Secular nonduality in
Objectivism, Skepticism, and the Aquarian Conspiracy
8. Rudolf Steiner’s
Christian Occult Science
9. Anti-semitism and
Holocaust Theology
1.
Tenets Of Holocaust Theology
2.
The Victims In The Afterlife
3.
The Spiritual Meaning Of Anti-Semitism..
4.
The Old Testament’s View Of The Chosen People
5.
All Old Testament Details Represent The Lord
6.
The Meaning Of “Jews” In The New Church Mind
7.
Anti-Semitism Is An Evil Love of the Unregenerate Mind
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
Disconfirming Nondualist
Propositions In The New Church Mind
1.
Only The Writings Have Spiritual Truth.
2. The Notion That “Self Is
An Illusion”
3.The Notion That ”All Great Religions Are Equivalent”
1.
The Lord’s New Revelation Regarding All Religions
4. The Notion That “Meditation Is Spiritual”
6. The Notion That “We Are Already Perfect”
7. The Notion That “Being
One With Nature Is Spiritual”
8. The Notion Of
“Unconditional Love”
1.
Spiritual Events In The Inner Mind
2.
Everyone Is Born Into The Slavery Of An Addiction
3.
Good Loves And Genuine Truths
4.
What’s Wrong With Unconditional Self-acceptance
5.
Spiritual Dualities From the Writings Are To Be Loved And Lived
7.
What Is Loving The Neighbor?
9. A
Poisonous Serpent And Cockatrice
9. The New
Church View On Forgiveness.
1.
Forgiveness Is Always Granted Immediately by the Lord
10. The
Secular View On Forgiveness.
11. The
Christian View On Forgiveness
2.
Willing And Thinking According To The Letter
Introduction: Key Concepts
In the New Church Mind
2.
Constructing Integrated Concepts
3. A
Few Key Concepts From The Writings
2. Discrete Degrees In Successive
And Simultaneous Order
Ghosts,
Vampires, Aliens, “Energies” And “Vibrations”
1.
“After The Completion Of This Book”
4. The Idea of “Salvation is by Means Only”
5. The Idea of “Conjugial Love”
1.
Achieving An Internal Union
2.
Discrete and Reciprocal Relationship Between Man And Woman
3.
Conjugial Love Vs. Pornography And Adultery
6. The Mind Is In The Spiritual World
1.
The Corporeal Sensuous Mind Tends Toward Hell
2.
Only Rational Loves Exist In Heaven
3.
Revelation Of Interior Rational Truths.
5.
Genuine Images and Maps Of The Spiritual World
7. The Vertical Community: Spiritual Influx From Heaven And Hell
1. We
Are Created Dual Citizens In Two Worlds
2. A
More Effective Self-Management Technique
3.
Spirituality Is Not Visible In The Letter
4.
Spirituality Reenters The Human Race
5.
Hearing But Not Understanding
6.
Spiritual Meaning Of Parables
7.
Building Up Spiritual Doctrine In Our Mind
8. The Idea of “Earths in the Universe”
1.
The Lord Would Not Want To Mislead Us.
Titles for the Abbreviated
Citations in the Book
Full Text Free Online Access to All Swedenborg’s
Writings:
Volume 2 is
located at this address:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/nonduality2.html
Volume 3 is
located at this address:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/nonduality3.html
Every
spiritual truth in the Writings
is a Divine Commandment
|
“The
manifestation of the Lord, and intromission into the spiritual world, surpass
all miracles. This has not been granted to anyone since the creation, as it
has been to me.” Emanuel Swedenborg (INV 52) |
This book
presents the perspective on reality given in the Writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg (1688-1772).
It is intended
for all those, regardless of religious or intellectual background, who want to
form a new mind in themselves that is based exclusively on the Writings. The
book’s purpose is to assist them in undergoing reformation and regeneration in
preparation for a conjugial life in heaven.
1. The Writings Are A Divine
Scientific Revelation
In today’s
intellectual climate revelations from God, His Name, the Bible, heaven and
hell, Church Doctrine, and the like are automatically considered religious
issues. When I started reading the Writings I was well into my career as a
psychology professor, writer, and scientist. I knew that the two-dozen books of
the Writings that I was studying were categorized as religious books, since I
found them in our university library in the section on Bible Commentaries. But
the books were written by Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist of repute in
his days, and known to many influential intellectuals in
Swedenborg
was a fully rational thinker with a passion and commitment for explanations of
phenomena that span the entire chain of their existence from ultimates to
firsts. And since it is irrational to think that firsts can be from nothing or
from chaos, rationality requires that the first of all phenomena be a rational
Human God.
Swedenborg’s
science was therefore inclusive and centered on a Human God who runs the
universe in a rational way that is discoverable by intellectual investigation.
Swedenborg
relied on the revelations of the Bible for the scientific facts about the
spiritual world. Since he had no direct access to the spiritual world (until
age 57), he extracted the facts from the Bible using both its literal meaning
and spiritual meaning. The Bible reveals many scientific facts about the
spiritual world in relation to the natural world, as for instance:
q
that there is a God who forms and
runs the universe
q
that God is Human
q
that God’s personality is motivated
by Divine Love
q
that God runs the universe by means
of rational laws
q
that there is a spiritual world and
life after death
q
that we are immortal
q
that in the afterlife we live in either
heaven or hell
q
that the spiritual world is within
the mind, thus that the mind is in the spiritual world
q
that spirit and mind are the same
q
that those who make it to heaven are
then angels
q
that those who make it to hell are
then devils
q
that heaven and hell are within us
q
that our character is what
determines whether we are to live in heaven or hell within us
q
that we inherit a degenerate
character that must be regenerated
q
that regeneration consists in
following conscience, not doing evil to the neighbor, loving to do good
q
that our mind or spirit is in
unconscious communication with those who are already in the spiritual world
q
that God manages the smallest
details of our willing and thinking so as to facilitate regeneration
q
that God manages the details of
every event or outcome at the macro and micro levels, including fortuitous
events, accidents, the laws of chance, randomness, regularity
q
and many others
The above
list of scientific facts about the universe is based only on the literal meaning of the Bible.
Swedenborg
also extracted many scientific facts from the spiritual meaning of Bible verses, as for example:
q
that the Bible is the Word and
therefore it is Divine Truth
q
that parts of the Bible are written
as accurate history, while other parts are spiritual visions
q
that spiritual visions are universal
phenomena brought about by correspondences
q
that correspondences are revealed by
God to the human race
q
that correspondences are Divine
Truths accommodated to human intelligence
q
that correspondences are ordered in
discrete degrees or levels in a hierarch of truths from external to inmost
q
that regeneration of one’s character
is achieved by the applying the power of correspondences to one’s daily willing
and thinking
q
that the universe is managed by a
hierarchical order of correspondences that are represented in the spiritual
meaning of the Bible
q
that individual regeneration and
biography recapitulates history and evolution
q
that the Bible reveals the
intellectual history of the human race within the spiritual meaning of the details
regarding names, places, numbers, and descriptions
q
that we live in heaven as angel
couples
q
that in the afterlife we have
spirit-bodies allowing us to live in society, marriage, and an active creative
life
q
that the human race extends beyond
this planet to the entire universe
q
and many more
At age 57
the Divine Human appeared to Swedenborg, held him affectionately in His arms,
and announced to him the mission for which he was prepared by God since early
childhood. Swedenborg was to be the revelator by whom the Second Coming of the
Lord was to be effected. Swedenborg was going to write and publish a series of
books called the Writings. The Writings were to be the Divine Rational of the
Lord which was to be revealed to the human race as a rational and scientific
system of thinking. The Divine Human was to effect its Coming within these
rational truths. Any individual who read these truths and understood them,
taking them to be the guides of life, would be regenerated and conjoined to the
Divine Human by means of this new rational consciousness of God. Henceforth
this will be the orderly method of regeneration for the human race.
In order
for the revelations of the Writings to be scientific and rational it was
necessary that Swedenborg have direct access to both worlds simultaneously.
Swedenborg had to be given the means to make empirical and experimental observations
in the spiritual world, such as the following:
q
to be present in heaven and hell and
to interview the people there
q
to watch the resuscitation process
during death and how the spirit emerges from the physical body
q
to talk to people whose body was
being buried
q
to interview various authors well
known from history and the Bible
q
to conduct experiments involving
spirits and their mental abilities
q
to compare the language and script
of the Word on earth and in heaven
q
to interview angel couples in their
homes
q
to travel in spirit to distant
planetary regions in the universe and to investigate the character of spirits
from those planets, and even, to see certain physical scenes on those planets
through the eyes of spirits associated with the people there
q
to be given visual observation posts
from which to describe the shape or form of the land masses of heaven and hell
q
to witness demonstrations of the
spiritual power of truths from the Word
q
to attempt therapy on those in hell
q
to interview new arrivals in the
afterlife and what memories they bring with them
q
to observe the education and raising
of children who arrive from the many earths
q
to experiment with correspondences,
seeing which produces what visual appearance
q
and many more
From all
this you can see that Swedenborg’s Writings constitute theistic science. The
Writings of Swedenborg are rational scientific works written in Neo-Latin by a
Swedish scientist and engineer in the 18th century. They are unique in the history of humankind
because they present a fully rational comprehensive scientific account of all
of reality, God, and human beings.
Prior
accounts in the history of literature were never fully scientific, and never
fully complete and comprehensive. If Swedenborg had merely written what his own
genius figured out, the Writings would remain one of the greatest collections
of rational philosophy, science, and theology anywhere. But the Writings are
not books from the genius of Swedenborg, but much more, something entirely
different, unparalleled in the history and evolution of the human race. The Writings are God’s Rational and
Scientific Revelation now given to the human race for the first time. They
present a fully rational and scientific account of reality, such as God has
created it. If the content of the Writings were merely Swedenborg’s ideas of
reality and God, they would form part of the literature of the world. But if
the Writings are from God, then the Writings are unlike all other books that
could be written.
No one
should decide between these two possibilities without examining the Writings. I
have examined them in detail, like I would a scientific collection of books
which I intend to evaluate. Having done this, I have come to the conclusion
that the Writings are the work of God, the last of the great revelations
intended for the human race and called “the Word.” What is astonishing is that the Word of God in this new revelation is a
science encyclopedia of the spiritual world! Since the spiritual world is
within the natural, and is the cause of all natural phenomena, you can see why
the Writings are a total and full scientific revelation of God. The human race
now possesses two sets of scientific encyclopedias, one natural, the other
spiritual; one about the natural world, the other about the spiritual world and
how it animates the natural.
Now in the
Writings, the human race has before it a full integrated rational description
of God, creation, the universe, heaven and hell, history, truth, love,
marriage, and regeneration.
This new beginning in science and rationality
may be called the new age of THEISTIC SCIENCE.
The
Christian tradition since the Lord’s First Coming has been that He is to come
again to complete the world’s makeover called the salvation of the human race.
They expect the Second Coming of the Lord to take place physically, appearing
in the clouds, calling on those who believe in Him, gathering them together in
one place, and giving them eternal life and happiness in Him. No one can tell
you exactly what this means in terms of details—except those who have read and
understood the Writings. For the Lord has effected His predicted Second Coming.
This Second Advent was to complete the creation of the human race. He had
already appeared physically in history and science, giving sensuous proof of
Himself. When He foretold that He must come again, He did not mean that He is
to come again in His glorified Divine Natural. He was actually saying that He
must come again in His Divine Rational. Then we can know Him fully, by knowing
the Divine Rational that is within the Divine Natural. A Second Coming in the
physical would retard still further the evolution of rational consciousness in
the human race.
The Lord is
Divine Truth, which means that the new heavens He creates are made of rational
loves, and these exist only in rational consciousness. The human race must
evolve rational consciousness to become spiritually enlightened and live in
heaven in eternity. This rational consciousness is brought about by forming our
mind to reflect the order described in the Writings. This rational order is the
Divine Rational of the Lord. From creation this is what the Lord intended, a
human race that would evolve into rational consciousness and capable of having
a celestial mind that lives in heaven. Now these rational truths have at last
been revealed in the Writings. This rational revelation of Divine Truth is the
Lord in His Second Coming.
Can a
neighbor of yours know you if he only knows what you look like but not what you
believe in and how you think? Christians got to know the Divine Natural of the
Lord in a sensuous way, tangible, touchable. Even after the first generation
passed on, the ensuing generations of Christians knew the Lord in this sensuous
way because they believed that He was real, that He had indeed been here on this
earth as God Incarnate. But this is relatively speaking, knowing the Lord like
a neighbor whom we can see with our eyes every morning exiting from the
apartment building, but whom we do not know because we do not know his beliefs
and attitudes.
The Divine Rational
of the Lord is within His Divine Natural, which makes sense because the Lord is
Human. All humans consist of a rational mind within a body. In this world, we
are a rational mind within a physical body, and in the afterlife, we are this
same rational mind, but now in a spirit-body. The Lord is always within His Divine Natural
Sensuous Body, as humans are always within their sensuous body. The sensuous
body is the outward casing for the spiritual rational mind. The Lord’s Divine
Natural Body is the outward Casing for His spiritual-rational mind called the
Divine Rational. This Divine Rational is the origin and source of Divine Truth,
the substance from which all is created. So the Lord’s Divine Rational is the
true Divine Human that we are to love and know. This Divine Rational is what has been revealed in the Writings.
2. The Writings Are The Lord’s
Second Coming
The Second
Coming refers to the revelation of the Divine Rational. This revelation was
completed and published on
The
Writings are God’s revelation to the human race of how He creates the universe
and how He runs and manages every detail. This includes the revelation that the
universe is created for a human purpose by means of truth within which is love.
And it also includes the revelation of the existence of two worlds, one being a
natural world where human beings are born and raised, the other a spiritual
world, where human beings awaken a few hours after death and continue
individual life eternally in either a celestial existence in heaven or an
infernal existence in the hells. I mention these things here as general topics
that have been of interest to the human race since the beginning of literature.
But the Writings deal with these spiritual, philosophical, and religious topics
in a rational way that give a scientifically precise and dynamic account of
them. This is what I found so attractive in the Writings the minute I started
reading them in 1981 at age 43, having discovered them in our university
library while I was searching for Bible Commentaries.
Subsequently
I also found out that the Writings of Swedenborg have had a distinguished but
small following, that his books have been translated in a dozen languages, and
that several communities have been created by people who call themselves the
Well, if
the Writings do not spring from Swedenborg’s genius, what is their origin?
God has
created the human race to evolve to ever higher powers of life and being. The
perfecting of the human race is a gradual evolution in which our conscious
cooperation with God is required to increase as we evolve to higher states of
life and consciousness. The method by which the human race cooperates ever more
consciously in its own evolution, is the method of truth and love. God is a
Divine Rational Being whose essence is love and truth in an infinite degree.
Divine Rational is the same as Divine Human, because the human is defined by
the rational. The spiritual is nothing but the human rational in its essence.
God creates
the universe not out of nothing, for this is irrational. God is infinite in
quantity and complexity, and this infinite quantity is in God as one, that is,
as one coherent whole. Nothing can exist that is not created from this infinite
Divine Rational Substance called love and truth united as one. All things that
exist are kept in existence by God’s substance of truth, within which is love.
3. Heaven Is Created From Rational
Love
Since the
universe is created from truth and into the order of truth, reality is a rational
reality. God is a rational entity and our idea of God is a rational idea. All laws
of the universe are rational laws. The spiritual world and the natural world
are both rational worlds, by necessity of creation. Heaven is a rational
creation. The suns and earths in the universe are rational entities. The human
race is a rational creation and event, with a rational goal, and a rational
method of evolution. The ultimate goal of this evolution is to reach perfection
as a rational being.
Truth
belongs to love. Love is the creating, driving force, power, and goal. When love creates something, it does that by
means of truth. Truth is the exteriorization of love. Love is the
substance, while truth is the form of this substance. Truth can do nothing by
itself, but only from love. Love can’t do anything except by means of truth. Since
all things are created from love by its truth into truth, the human mind is the
highest element of all creation. Only the human mind is created capable of
conscious understanding of truth, which can also be called rational love. The
human mind is to evolve into the ability to understand ever more interior
truths or rational loves, of which the most interior, is God. All things of creation are in God, yet God
is separate from this creation. It would not be rational to think that God
has created Himself! Neither that reality has created itself! God has created
reality, which means that God is outside reality, able to create it and run it.
The method
by which the human race is to evolve to ever more interior understanding of
infinite Divine Truth, is the method of Divine Revelations. This has been the
case since the first generation of the human race. Literature has preserved the
long record of Divine Revelations to the earlier generations. Each Divine
Revelation was given by God as a stepped up evolutionary leap for the human race.
Each new revelation took hundreds of generations to fully digest and incorporate
into the fabric of human understanding. In this way there has been steady
progress in the evolution of human consciousness, as reflected by a world that
has left barbaric savagery behind and has developed for itself an advanced
civilization based on rational principles of mutual cooperation and treatment.
4. A Divine Revelation That
Surpasses All Others
The
Writings are the latest new revelation given by God to the human race.
This is a
special new revelation that surpasses all other Divine Revelations.
These new revelations are for the
first time fully rational and scientific. The human race had to evolve a modern scientific
mind before these new rational scientific revelations could be given. At last,
in the Age of Reason of the 18th century in Christian Western
Europe, the human mind was ready to receive, understand, and accept a full
unqualified and total revelation of God and reality in rational concepts and
terms that the modern mind could readily understand. This was done through the
mind of Emanuel Swedenborg, recognized as one of the great geniuses in the
history of literature and science.
At age 57
Swedenborg was at the height of his scientific and professional career. His
achievements have been well documented in several fields, including metallurgy,
chemistry, anatomy, psychology, theology, education, and legislation. He tells
how the God of His childhood and country, in the image of Jesus Christ, appeared
before him and held him affectionately in His bosom for a little while. He
writes that the Lord then told him that he was being prepared since early
childhood for the mission of Revelator and that the time has now come, in 1741,
for him to begin his Divine mission.
Swedenborg’s
awesome mission was to write the 30-volume collection of books called “the Writings”
or “the Writings of Swedenborg.” These Divine Revelations are going to be the
last in the series of Divine Revelations that were to be given to the human
race. They were therefore going to be a full and total rational disclosure of
reality and its workings. Prior Divine Revelations of the Word, such as the Old
and New Testaments, were given in a language of authority and mystery, but the
final portion of the Divine Word for the human race, are given in a language of
rationality and science. No mystery is left standing. No appeal is made to authority,
but only to the individual’s rational understanding.
A Divine
Revelation is given for the purpose of raising the consciousness of the race.
This is accomplished by means of the truths in the Revelation. It is necessary
therefore that people be able to understand the revelation. To make this
possible therefore, all Divine Revelations are given through the mind of an individual
human being, a capable representative of the rest of the race. The man whose
mind was prepared for issuing this last of Divine Revelations had to be a
product of the Age of Reason in Christian Western intellectual culture. It had
to be a modern scientific revelation because the human race had evolved to this
level of rational and spiritual consciousness. The modern mind was unwilling to
believe in a God of mystery and authority. It needed a rational scientific
account of God, reality, and our position in it. Even a sensuous God was no
longer enough. This sensuous God had to have a rational explanation or else He
could not be understood, and what the modern mind cannot understand, it won’t
love. Without love for God, we cannot be regenerated and saved for life in
heaven.
The Age of
Reason in
The
Christian religion was given as both a sensuous and rational revelation to the
human race. The sensuous revelation was the unprecedented event of
Incarnation--God born in history as a human being of flesh and blood. This
event took the human race forward into rational consciousness. Now there was scientific
physical empirical historical evidence and proof of God’s existence. Besides
the sensuous revelation of the New Testament, a rational revelation is also
made there, namely, that God is Human. This was the first time that the human
race had proof that the universe was a rational universe created for a human
purpose by a Human God. God was Human and Rational, thus, Love and Truth. And
He created the universe out of Truth into truth, hence in a rational order.
God’s Laws were rational laws. The presence of God with the human race was
through rational consciousness, rational understanding, rational loves, not
ecstatic emotions or animal sacrifices and ceremonies.
The First
Coming was the Incarnation of God in a physical body. It was a momentous
forward step in the evolution of human consciousness because the human race had
never had this proof before, had never been able to face God in a physical and
natural presence. Now God was part of our history, part of our science, part of
our rational understanding of reality. Prior to God’s Incarnation the relationship
of the human race to God was an indirect one. God could make an appearance in
the sensuous human world by taking over the mind of a celestial individual and
speaking through this person like a mouthpiece. The prophets and various
individuals to whom God appeared in the Bible saw God through such an
appearance, thus not God, but a human being possessed by the Spirit of God. But
since God’s Incarnation, He can appear to human beings as Himself in His Own
Divine Natural Body. This allows a far closer contact with God, hence a far
higher level of consciousness and life for the human race.
The New
Testament Revelations also revealed that there is going to be one more Divine
Revelation necessary to complete the creation of the human race into its full
perfection. This full perfection is the state in which we can cooperate
consciously with God in our preparation for heavenly life in eternity. Full conscious cooperation cannot be done
while there are mysteries left in religion, science, and reality.
The Last
Divine Revelation, or the Last Testament of the Word, has been laid down in
Latin through the mind of Swedenborg, and now we have it, I, you, and the rest
of the endless generations to come. A copy of the Writings as the New Word is
also to be found in every society of the numberless heavens in the spiritual
world.
The Divine
Rational Revelations in the Writings could not have been constructed and
delivered through Swedenborg’s mind if Swedenborg had merely to take Divine
dictation and to write down sentences in that way, without understanding them,
without having constructed them out of his understanding. Therefore in order to
have Swedenborg write those sentences he had to first understand all of reality
and God in relation to the human race. He had to understand rationally so that
he could compose those sentences from which others could extract the rational
truths.
5. Swedenborg’s Scientific
Experiments In The Spiritual World
How was Swedenborg’s understanding
to be enlightened so that he could rationally and scientifically describe
reality and God in relation to the human race?
The answer
is surprisingly simple: Swedenborg had to be given access to a spiritual laboratory
so that he may conduct his experimental and empirical observations by which he
might discover the rational truths of reality and God in relation to human
beings.
These
laboratory facilities were given him as part of the Divine mission, which is
why Swedenborg wrote that the Writings represent the greatest miracle and
wonder ever bestowed upon the human race by God’s Love. Swedenborg’s
experiments with spirit subjects and geographical explorations in the spiritual
world were effected through the intermediary of many people in the spiritual
world. The people who inhabit the celestial regions in their mind are called
angels and have many powers that Swedenborg did not have, being still a man on
earth. These angels intervened of his behalf, protected him from harm, and
arranged for conditions Swedenborg needed to make his observations and to write
them down in a natural language (Neo-Latin and Swedish). He not only wrote down
what happened but was also given the capacity to provide a scientific and
theological context for his observations and reports. Thus, nothing is wanting
in the Writings for fulfilling its role as the greatest intellectual boon the
human race has ever received, or will ever receive again.
Within a
matter of a few weeks since the Lord’s appearance to Swedenborg, he began to
experience new perceptions as he was reading the Bible. His practiced genius
was able to make detailed indexes of the Holy Book which he read in the
original Hebrew and Greek. To his amazement he discovered that within the
literal meaning of the Old and New Testaments there lay hidden a spiritual
meaning that was not apparent to the reader until each word and phrase was
taken as a correspondence for some deeper spiritual meaning. For example, by
collating many corresponding passages from both Testaments, Swedenborg showed
how any rational and educated person could discover the spiritual message in
each verse. The content of these
spiritual meanings hidden within the literal had to do with the rational
exposition of reality and God in relation to the human race.
This systematic
work of discovery was most important and impressive, and will be a benefit to
humankind for all the ages to come. And yet, this work would not have been sufficient
to constitute the final, total, and thus last, Divine Revelation by which
everything the human race can know and understand. There also had to be a
science to it. Where was the science of it? Extracting a rational system from
historical Divine works in the Bible is admirable, but it is not a scientific
work. The only way Swedenborg could
produce a scientific report of the spiritual world was to be there when he
describes it!
This was
granted to him by Divine intervention as the greatest miracle in human history.
6. Swedenborg’s Dual Citizenship—Natural
And Spiritual
A few
months after his momentous encounter with the Lord, Swedenborg began to have
flashes of conscious presence in the spiritual world. He did not know what is
the spiritual world. From his initial flashes it looked like a version of the
natural world, with people walking about in cities and in the country side
where there were forests, deserts, mountains, and lakes. It took just a few months for him to get adjusted to a full time
permanent conscious awake state in both worlds simultaneously.
Never
before in history has anyone ever claimed to be fully conscious in both worlds simultaneously
and uninterruptedly for 27 years while carrying on their profession and normal
duties and in society. This was especially a significant development because
Swedenborg was an impeccable scientist of the modern Age of Reason in Christian
Western Europe. He was able to connect all his vast modern knowledge of natural
science and biology to his new life in the spiritual world. He wrote daily
notes, forming a coherent description of the relationship between the two worlds.
He was given access by the Lord to any society or individual in the spiritual
world that he desired to investigate. He was given the means by which to
conduct experiments, such as for example, what happens to the mind when you
experimentally remove from it this or that idea or belief. Also, what happens
when you supply this or that truth to an individual, or how people with
different genius communicate with each other through others, in an information
network, what the language of communication is in the spiritual world, how people
form different cultures and civilizations can co-exist, and many such things.
He kept
notes of his meetings and interviews in the spiritual world with thousands of
people in all categories that were relevant to his science and culture. He was
thus able to compare the understanding and state of life of many categories of
people, comparing their demographics with their spiritual character. He was
able to talk to authors from the ancient Greeks whose books he had read and
studied, so that he could compare what happens to the author’s mind when he
goes to the afterlife with these ideas. He was able to speak and travel with
people in the spiritual world who had been born on other planets and thereby he
gained an empirical knowledge of the varieties of the human race. He was able
to visit the high places and the low places of the spiritual world,
encountering there the highest level of the human, and the most depraved.
Because humans retain their ideas and attitudes when they pass on, they can be
explored as to the details of their life and conduct. Swedenborg was able to
make precise cause-effect observations between the ideas and loves we
accumulate as our personality, and the quality of our life and experience in
the spiritual world.
You can see
from all this that no other writings can be compared with the Writings of
Swedenborg.
Now that
the modern scientific Divine Rational Revelations have been given to the human
race, it will take many generations before they are recognized and acknowledged
by many. Since 1771, the year the last work of the Writings was published,
there have been thousands of individuals who have recognized them and
acknowledged them as Divine Revelations. Today, in the computer age of the
Internet, the Writings have become available to anyone who desires them. The
Lord manages every detail in the universe, hence also, who and when anyone gets
to see the Writings, and then, what of it one can understand, love, and
assimilate for life.
No one can
see anything special and spiritual in the Writings who is not led by the Lord
to do so. This is not some special favoritism or sectarianism of this or that
new religion. The Writings are a complete work of rational science. The only
requirement for access to higher human consciousness is to read the Writings as
the Divine Word given to humankind for the enlightenment of rational
consciousness.
No religion
is necessary, no teacher or guru, no initiation ceremony, no prior
qualification of personality, orientation, or character. Nothing is required except a modern scientific mind able to figure our
and comprehend rational ideas laid down in a rational and scientific manner.
In this
book I have taken the rational arguments and proofs in the Writings and applied
them to my understanding of reality and science. As a trained professional
scientist all my life I have carried my profession and science into the
analysis and confirmation process of all that is in the Writings for anyone to
verify. I have then taken this new understanding of reality and myself and
applied it to what is every individual’s principal tasks in life: regeneration.
7. This Book Is About Regeneration
The human
race has been for a long time in a “Fallen” or degenerate state by heredity.
This is because all new human loves and tendencies accumulate in the mind and
are passed on by hereditary mechanisms to one’s offspring. Today as each of us
is born into the modern world and culture, we have the potential of becoming a
celestial mind by means of regeneration, which goes on throughout our life in
the physical body. Once we awaken in the spiritual world, a few hours after the
physical body dies, we begin a new life in a spirit-body that contains our will
and understanding. These two organs are filled with our experiences, knowledge,
and affections or loves. We are then to continue forever being the kind of
individuals we became while maturing on earth. Clearly then, it’s a matter of survival and rational self-interest to
see to it that we arrive in the afterlife with a personality and character that
can live in a heavenly sphere, by which we can avoid the eternal misery of
those who sink down into hell because of their distorted and insane character
or personality.
In the
spiritual world all individuals feel totally free to be who or what they are in
their loves and interests. In fact, they are compelled by the laws of the spiritual
world to be on the outside what their affections or loves are on the inside.
While tied to a physical body, our inner madness, rage, and insanity do not
show, being inhibited by society and consequences. But as soon as we awaken in
our spirit-body, nothing that is within can be kept from coming out. Therefore
by necessity there are Divine laws of reality in the spiritual world that keep
the order and make continued life possible in that order. And so, regions and
habitations are set up in the endless expanse of the spiritual world, in order to
accommodate the life for every type of human beings that enter the world of
spirits from the numerous earths in the universe. There are heavens and there
are hells, reflecting the character of those who live there. And within the
heavens and the hells, there are innumerable sub-regions and societies, each
made up of people of a similar character who live together and share one
another’s fate.
This book is about regeneration,
which is the conscious discipline of character change based on the scientific
principles revealed in the Writings.
When we
read the Writings we begin to understand regeneration in a medial,
psychological, and educational perspective that is unique and new. Our prior
understanding is based on the fundamental principle of nonduality, which is
that all things exist in one continuum of the universe or reality. When we begin
to see things from the perspective of the Writings, we can replace every concept
of nonduality into a duality. Every duality is by reference to the natural and
the spiritual as two separate and distinct worlds, tied together by rational
laws of correspondence that have now been revealed by God.
In Volume 1
I show how rational analysis can be used to debunk and deconstruct concepts and
notions of nonduality that are opposed to the dualities in our mind from the
Writings. Once our mind is rearranged in this new mode, we can begin
regeneration, which requires us to cooperate with the Lord by shunning evils as
sins because sins prevent the preparation of our mind for eternal life. This
cooperation must be in all the specifics of our willing and thinking hour by
hour, every day. In Volume 3 I explain how to do this systematically and
effectively by means of spiritual disciplines. These “regeneration disciplines”
consist of doing ordinary things in our daily life from a new motive, which is
that we are striving to obey the Lord’s Commandment that we monitor our willing
and thinking, that we evaluate every particular in the light of the truths from
the Writings, that we desist from willing what is evil and thinking what is
false, and at last, that we detest these things that are in us from hell by
heredity, culture, and unregenerate habits.
Others may also
have an interest in the book, especially the wives of the men who are
undergoing reformation and regeneration by means of the Writings. Women are
also going through the gradual process of regeneration and have to cooperate with
the Lord in that process in order to be saved for heavenly life. They may find
it useful to learn what their husbands are going through from a Doctrinal point
of view. Men and women have categorically different patterns of regeneration because
there can be no overlap of interior nature between men and women (xx). Also,
this book discusses the content and quality of everyday thoughts and feelings
of husbands who are undergoing reformation and regeneration. And since husbands
resist conjugial love from hereditary antipathy, often fiercely and cruelly,
their wives have to endure much abuse and unhappiness in the process of their
regeneration. Knowing the details of their husband’s mental struggles may be of
interest and use to their wives, and to women generally.
Also, all
who are interested in Swedenborg’s Writings and ideas may find much useful
details and spiritual applications to daily life. People who have not read the
Writings may be interested in how I analyze important lifestyle concepts such
as God, religion, spirituality, heaven and hell, love, truth, personality, and
especially, the process of deepening marital relations.
The
No
religious or spiritual mystery is allowed in the
For it is the
case with the life of charity (which is the heavenly life itself) that with
those who are being reformed and regenerated it is continually being born and
growing up and receiving increments, and this by means of truths; therefore the
more of truth there is insinuated, the more is the life of charity perfected …
(…)
In truth, however, there is no life, but in good. Truth is
only a recipient of life, that is, of good. Truth is as the clothing or garment
of good; therefore also truths are called in the Word "clothing," and
also "garments." But when good constitutes the rational, truth
disappears and becomes as if it were good.
(AC 2189)
The
Writings explain why reformation is necessary. The reason given is that we are
born with a natural mind and with the potential of developing also a spiritual
mind. This new mind becomes functional only through reformation and
regeneration of one’s old mind and inherited character. The spiritual mind is
required for a life in heaven after the life in the physical world. Regeneration is the process of character
self-modification and it goes on throughout one’s life here, and hereafter to
eternity (AC 47, 233, 1712, 2877, 5664, 10299; NJHD 148; DP 102; CL 82;
SE 5958; LJ 299; AE 864). The
This book presents practical methods for husbands who want to form the
All
citations in parentheses are to Swedenborg’s books which collectively, are
called the Writings. The places marked by (xx) are still to be filled in. If
you have any of these citations at hand, please email them to me. The standard
Title of the Work referred to in these citations is given at the end.
The Word is the Divine Truth which is in the Lord and from
the Lord … Divine Truth has power in itself, and such power that, by means of
it, heaven was created and the world with all things therein. (HH 137).
Without the Lord's coming into the world no one could have
been saved. It is the same today; and therefore without the Lord's coming again
into the world in Divine truth, which is the Word, no one can be saved. (TCR 3)
In the
spiritual sense, a “man of the field” signifies “the faith and truth of
doctrine” (AC 368, 427, 4823). This book is about the spiritual Doctrine that
each man is to extract from the Word of the Writings, by applying the literal
sense to oneself, to the hundreds of willing and thinking acts we perform every
day in the course of our normal activities. This use of the literal sense is
required for our reformation, regeneration, and salvation for eternal life in
heaven. Every time we apply in this way one of the literal sentences from the
Writings, we are enlightened by the Lord so that we can perceive the spiritual
sense within the literal. This conscious process counts as cooperation with the
Lord in our regeneration. Without this active conscious daily habitual
cooperation with the Lord, we cannot be regenerated. This will be proven in the
book by many citations from the Writings. It is the spiritual understanding of
Doctrine that constitutes faith and truth. The Lord infills true faith with
Divine Love, and from this union we have closeness with Him, love unto Him, and
new interior celestial truths that make us wise like an angel, and capable of
conjugial union with the wife.
To my wife
It is
her internal wisdom that led me to write this book as-of myself. She brought
into our marriage the conjugial love she has in her from the Lord, inborn from
nativity
An inclination to love one of the opposite sex, and with it
a capacity for receiving that love, has been implanted in Christians from
birth, for the reason that this love comes from the Lord alone (CL 466).
Wives are by birth forms of love, so
that it is innate in them to wish to be one with their husbands … But it is
different with husbands; since they are not by birth forms of love, but
designed to receive that love from their wives (CL 216)
The intelligence of women is by
nature modest, gracious, peaceable, compliant, soft and gentle, while the
intelligence of men is by nature critical, rough, resistant, argumentative, and
given to intemperance. Evidence that
this is the nature of women and the nature of men is clearly apparent from the
body, face, tone of voice, speech, bearing and behavior of each sex. (…)
From this I could clearly see that a
man is born a form of the intellect, and a woman a form of love. I could also see what the nature of the
intellect is and what the nature of love is in their beginnings, and thus what
a man's intellect in its development would be like without conjunction with
feminine love and eventually conjugial love. (CL 218)
|
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) |
Quoting from the Writings:
There are two states that man must enter upon and
pass through, when from being natural he is becoming spiritual. The first state
is called Reformation, and the second Regeneration. In the first man looks from
his natural to his spiritual state and longs for that state; in the second
state he becomes spiritual-natural. The first state is formed by means of
truths, which must be truths of faith, and through these he looks to charity;
the second state is formed by means of the goods of charity, and by these he
enters into the truths of faith. Or what is the same, the first is a state of
thought from the understanding, and the second a state of love from the will.
When this latter state begins and is
progressing, a change takes place in the mind; the mind undergoes a reversal,
the love of the will then flowing into the understanding, acting upon it and
leading it to think in accord and agreement with its love; and in consequence
so far as the good of love comes to act the first part and the truths of faith
the second, man is spiritual and is a new creature; and he then acts from charity
and speaks from faith; he feels the good of charity and perceives the truth of
faith; and he is then in the Lord, and in peace, and thus regenerate.
The man who while in the world has
entered upon the first state, after death can be introduced into the second;
but he who has not entered into the first state while in the world, cannot
after death be introduced into the second, thus cannot be regenerated.
(TCR 571)
The
This
means that every spiritual truth found in the Writings is to be taken as a
Divine Commandment. Every idea and concept we acquire elsewhere must be kept
separated in the external of our knowledge or memory and not allowed to
commingle in the mind that is to be formed exclusively by the Writings. The
Without the Lord's
coming into the world no one could have been saved. The situation to-day is
similar. So unless the Lord comes into the world again in the form of Divine
Truth, that is, the Word, no more can anyone now be saved. (TCR 3)
You
can see from this that the
All Christian
people draw their doctrines from the Word as being their one and only source.
(TCR 629)
God's Word is the
source whence all theology must be derived (Letters 7).
What in particular concerns the
doctrine that now follows, is that it also is out of heaven, because it is from
the spiritual sense of the Word; and the spiritual sense of the Word is
identical with the doctrine which is in heaven. (NJHD 7)
The existence of
writings in the heavens is a provision of the Lord for the sake of the Word;
for the Word in its essence is Divine truth, and from it is all heavenly
wisdom, both with men and with angels; for the Word was dictated by the Lord,
and what is dictated by the Lord passes through all the heavens in order and
terminates with man. Thereby it is adapted both to the wisdom of angels and the
intelligence of men. Thereby, too, the angels have a Word, and read it the same
as men do on the earth, and also draw from it their doctrinals, and preach from
it (AC n. 221). It is the same Word; but its natural sense, which is the sense
of the letter with us, does not exist in heaven, but only the spiritual sense,
which is its internal sense. What this sense is can be seen in the small
treatise on The White
Horse spoken of in the Apocalypse. (HH 259)
These passages teach that henceforth,
from the Writings “is all heavenly wisdom, both with men and with angels.” All
Doctrine for the
The Word is the doctrine of Divine
truth, and …everything of doctrine must be from the Word (AE 612)
It is written that “the only source
of human regeneration is the Lord” (AC 10042) and the Lord is the Word (TCR
225; LORD 7; AC 2). Hence the only source of regeneration is the Word, which
for the
The Word of the Divine Human in the New
Heavens today is the Word of the Writings, and this Word is the same as the one
we have on earth:
It is the same Word; but its natural
sense, which is the sense of the letter with us, does not exist in heaven, but
only the spiritual sense, which is its internal sense. (TCR 1)
What in particular concerns the
doctrine that now follows, is that it also is out of heaven, because it is from
the spiritual sense of the Word; and the spiritual sense of the Word is
identical with the doctrine which is in heaven. For there is a Church in heaven
as well as on earth; for the Word is there, doctrine is there from the Word;
temples are there, in which sermons are delivered; because ecclesiastical and
civil governments are there. In a word, the only difference between the things
which are in the heavens, and those which are on earth, is, that all the things
in the heavens are in a state of greater perfection, because all who are there
are spiritual, and spiritual things immensely exceed in perfection those that
are natural. (NJHD 7)
The Word is to be found in all the heavens and is the
source of the angels' wisdom. (TCR 240)
The Word in heaven is written in a
spiritual style which is quite different from the natural style. The spiritual
style is composed simply of letters, each one of which denotes a particular
meaning; and there are dashes, curves and points above, between and within the
letters, which heighten the meaning. The letters used by the angels of the
spiritual kingdom resemble printed type in our world; the letters used by the
angels of the celestial kingdom are in some cases like Arabic letters, in
others like ancient Hebrew letters, but with curves above and below, and
pointing above, between and inside them. Even a single one of these points
conveys a complete meaning. (TCR 241)
It is
clear therefore that the angels read the Writings and this is their only source
of intelligence and wisdom—“doctrine is there from the Word”. Note that Doctrine is the same as the spiritual
sense of the Writings contained within the literal language—“doctrine is
from the spiritual sense of the Writings”
since the Writings are the Word. The spiritual sense cannot be written down in
a natural language, and neither can the spiritual Doctrine drawn from this
sense, since these two are identical. Note also that the spiritual sense of the
Writings in heaven also have a letter! Without an outward letter of the
Word there is no writing possible. So the outward containant of the holy truths
from the Lord, is the letter the angels have. The angelic writing mode varies
in accordance with the level of thinking in the three heavens, as the passage
above describes it (TCR 241).
3. Spiritual Truths Understood Naturally and Spiritually
It’s
interesting to note what natural letters of the alphabet on earth are similar
to the spiritual writing alphabets in the heavens. The written letters of the
second heaven of the spiritual angels resemble visually the “printed type in our world.” The letters of the third heaven of the
celestial angels resemble visually “Arabic letters” and “Hebrew letters.” These
two correspond historically on this earth with the three religions of the
Western world--Islam and Judaeo-Christian. “
Those in heaven pay attention to the Word in the
letter and perceive things there in exactly the same way as anyone is
accustomed to perceive a person's thought as it presents itself in spoken
words, or in the inmost heaven as anyone is accustomed to perceive a person's
aims or end in view. (AC 9407)
Note therefore that the spiritual
sense of the Writings only exists in the understanding because it is impossible
to render it in the letter of the Word. If it were possible, the angels would
not need a letter of the Word within which they can see and receive spiritual
things! But the highest angels also need a letter for the Word, written in
visible script, as discussed just above. This is a rational matter to
understand and follows from discrete degrees in all things created (see Chapter
5 Section 6).
Clearly then, the natural literal
sentences in the Writings cannot be same as the spiritual truths.
Prior to our reformation, sometime
in adulthood, we read many things about heavenly secrets, which are knowledges
revealed from heaven. They are called secrets because no human being in all of history
and evolution, can ever discover a single spiritual truth from self, from
experience, or from another human being. Every
spiritual truth comes from the spiritual world which is in a discrete degree
above the natural world, so that one can never access the spiritual from the
natural.
This also means that there is no conscious
access possible to our spiritual mind from our natural mind. The spiritual mind
is tied to heaven because all its content is from heaven, and the natural mind
is tied to earth because all its content is from earth. All spiritual truths
that enter our spiritual mind from the angels, is unconscious to us in the
natural. But it has an effect by correspondence. The spiritual meanings enter
the natural meanings that we have obtained from the Writings. This
correspondential activity goes on in the interior-natural mind that is formed
within the natural-rational mind.
Note carefully: the
natural-rational mind reads and understand the Writings naturally, but it is
the interior-natural mind that understands it spiritually, by correspondence. It is the spiritual understanding that we need in order to be
regenerated and saved.
4. The Great
To be saved we must undergo reformation
first, and when that is completed, we begin regeneration. The unregenerate mind
prior to reformation is filled with nonduality. Nonduality is an orientation of
the mind in which we are motivated to prevent the entry into the mind of absolute
dualities such as compose every page of the Writings. For example, everything
in the Writings is based on the idea that God is separate from created things,
as He is infinite and created things are finite. Nonduality puts up a combat
against this absolute duality, preferring the idea that there is a continuum
between the finite and the infinite, so that if we could imagine ourselves to
grow more and more perfect, we could become like God.
Another example is good and evil. In
the Writings there is an absolute and eternal division between good and evil,
or between spiritual truth and falsity. But nonduality in our mind desires to
level them into a continuum so that evil is just a lesser form of good. Still
another example is the spiritual constitution of men and women. The Writings
describe the difference as an absolute duality so that nothing in a man can
ever be like something in a woman, and vice versa. Nonduality is motivated to
prefer a continuum between men and women that yields an overlap in traits.
While this may be the appearance for natural traits, it is not so for spiritual
traits.
There are many thousands of such
items of nonduality in our mind as we begin our reformation. The nonduality is
already ensconced, and receives the support of culture, science, and education.
We therefore are faced with a great and mighty struggle to clean out our mind
from these nondualities. If we leave them there, they destroy the absolute
dualities we take up from the Writings, and therefore, prevent our reformation,
regeneration, and salvation. The nondualities cannot be gotten rid off except
by means of dualities form the Writings, and this only if we acknowledge the
Writings as the Word. For only Divine Truth from the Word has the power to defeat
the hells, and all of the hells are involved in maintaining nonduality in our
mind.
We are in this sorry and precarious
situation by birth. Our spirit or mind is born corrupted by heredity, deformed,
injured, sick, and dying, on its way to hell. The most atrocious evils are
within a beautiful baby, kept suppressed for a few months or years, by the
presence of angels. But as soon as the child grows older, and begins to think
from self, the evils break out and surround the individual, pulling like a mighty
chain tied to hell. We can put on a facade of niceness for the sake of
self-preservation and acceptance by others, but within the heart breathes every
rage, hatred, deception, and obscenity. This sorry and troubling description is
one of the most important revelations of the Lord’s Second Coming in the
Writings. We must know our spiritual state in order to reform and regenerate,
thus be saved for life in heaven. No religious faith or worship can save us,
but only reformation and regeneration. The Writings have been given so that its
truths within our mind, may have the power to battle and defeat the hells
within us.
You can see that it is essential to
acquire in our mind the literal meaning of the Writings. Without this knowledge
of the Writings in sufficient detail, we cannot be reformed because we are unwilling
to give up the nonduality which is in our unregenerate mind. The only way we
have the motive power to reject our own nonduality is by reading,
understanding, and believing the literal sentences of the Writings, even as we
believe and worship Divine Truth or the Lord. This is the only way that the
Lord has provided for salvation in His Second Coming.
Once we imbibe the letter of the
Writings and honor it in our mind as the Word, we have developed into mature
adult minds ready to undergo rebirth and reformation. Now the literal sentences
that are in our mind become Doctrine of Life. We see each sentence as applying
to ourself, even though very obscurely, and sometimes seeing not even that. But
we accept rationally the idea that every sentence applies to us, in fact, is
the Lord speaking to our natural mind. Now we suddenly become aflame with the
desire to reform. We passionately seek out every nonduality in our mind,
deconstruct it, mark it, put it in a special bin, and substitute for it a
duality from those many sentences and ideas we imbibed from the Writings. Suddenly
we see clearly in the light of those sentences and concepts. This is spiritual
vision. For the first time we have a spiritual consciousness, the very
beginning of it because we are in the reformation phase, but much more brightly
when we progress in regeneration.
In the Writings, we read details
about correspondences, the Lord’s Laws of Providence and Permissions, conjugial
love, states of regeneration. All these subjects are spiritual topics, but they
are laid down in a natural language. The
literal meaning of the sentence is not the spiritual meaning that is
contained within it. Because this would be impossible! It is impossible on
earth as it is impossible in heaven, because the Word in both worlds is written
in a visible script with letters.
This is most important to
understand, and is repeated in different ways, in several places throughout this
book. At first this is hard to believe and accept, regardless of how much study
we have done on the Writings. This resistance is similar to the resistance
Christians put up to the idea from the Writings that the Old and New Testaments
have an inner sense, and the only this inner sense is actually spiritual. They
have difficulty believing this because they can hardly be expected to
understand it without the Writings.
Prior to our reformation in adult
life we are called Christians, but after reformation, when regeneration has
begun, we are called True Christians—as the title of the last book of the
Writings clearly indicate: The True
Christian Religion. And the last thing in a section of the Word
recapitulates all of the Word (xx). Hence The
True Christian Religion (TCR) is the special Work of the Writings that
embodies, recapitulates, and completes all that has been written in the Word
before it. All who are called “True Christians” are of the
After reformation, we develop a dual
relationship to the Writings. We continue to study the literal as essential for
the continued development of our natural mind. Remember that every word and
sentence of the literal in the Word contains infinite spiritual secrets (xx).
We need those sentences and ideas in our external memory-knowledges as an
endless source of new spiritual truths that enhance our happiness and
consciousness as angels to eternity. This is why the angels have the Word and
read it as the source of all their wisdom (xx). But remember again how they
access these spiritual truths each time they read the Word in script, or think
from it in their memory-knowledge. The wisdom does not lie in the letters and
sentences, but within them. This is a discrete degree above the script or
letter. Therefore it is impossible to express spiritual truths in the script of
the angels, even though that script is called “spiritual script” (xx).
This is the same for us on earth.
The literal sentences and their meanings in our mind, are not spiritual since
they are in the natural mind. We read the sentences and definitions about “the
heavenly doctrine” and the sentence, “This is the Heavenly Doctrine.” These are
indeed spiritual and heavenly subjects, but what’s written down is not the
spiritual meaning. The Lord has provided for this: that as we and angels read
the script, or think from it in our mind, He enlightens each of us. That’s how
it works! Only this enlightenment is the spiritual sense. It’s like a flash of
lightening in a meadow in the dark—our understanding breaks through the
darkness and for an instant, we see the terrain in clear vision. After that
instant we can describe what we have seen, but this description cannot recreate
the vision of the terrain, but only a representation of it in language.
5. Enlightenment From The Lord
When does the Lord give
enlightenment as we read the sentences of the Writings, or think from them in
our mind?
The answer is the same for us now and
later, when we are angels. The Lord gives enlightenment when we try to apply
the sentence or idea in the letter, to our life, that is, to our willing and
thinking moment by moment. This is the “work of charity” or the “life of good”
that we must perform in order be saved. Our willing and thinking moment by
moment consists of a sequence of acts we perform in our will and in our
understanding. Thousands of individual acts of willing, intending, thinking,
and reasoning, go on every day for every human being. Each one of these is either from hell or from heaven. Prior to our
reformation, all are from hell! (xx), and to be regenerated we need to get rid
of them as-of self, in our conscious mind, by a free choice motivated by the
spiritual truth that they are sins against the Lord and prevent us from
becoming angels. That’s a lot of work! But the Lord provides for the orderly
progress within this psychobiological growth process.
Enlightenment is the
flash of heavenly light the Lord sends into our conscious natural mind,
whenever we examine one of our numerous acts of the day or hour, and evaluate
them in the light of the sentences and ideas from the Writings.
The meaning of the flash that we try
to write down or express in words, is called the spiritual Doctrine in our
understanding (xx). This is the spiritual meaning of the Heavenly Doctrines now
seen spiritually, while before regeneration began, we only saw their natural
meaning, since we could not see what is within those sentences. Our mind was
locked into what was in the outside of the sentences, namely their natural
meaning. This natural meaning was essential to acquire so that we may use them
to evaluate our willing and thinking acts. But now that we have applied it to
ourselves, we are given to see what is within. Note carefully: the literal is till there, still true, still
holy. It is still essential to imbibe it and understand it naturally with
our rational understanding. NO progress can be made without this step!
But it must not be the last step!
Mere memory-knowledges of the literal scientifics of the Writings does not have
the power to save us, despite their holiness and essential condition for being
saved. Faith cannot save, but charity within faith, saves (xx). The charity is
the works of good we do by modifying our willing and thinking in accordance
with the faith, the Doctrine, the understanding. The spiritual meaning is then
revealed, first to the spiritual mind, of which we are unconscious, and second,
by correspondence, to the interior-natural mind, of which we are conscious like
a flash in the dark.
Prior to reformation, the Lord calls
the works we do as “a hunter of the ground.” We have the Writings, we
acknowledge it as the Word, we study and memorize it, but we do not apply it to
our willing and thinking in particular, but only in general, like a confession
or creed. It is in our mind for a few minutes a week or day, but then out of
our mind, as we carry on intending and willing in the absence of our thinking
about the Writings. But after reformation, we are motivated to change our
moment by moment intending and thinking, so that they conform to what we have
learned from our study of the Writings. In this new state, the Lord calls us “a
man of the field.” We don’t just put the heavenly doctrines into our
understanding, but into our will. This requires gradual regeneration, day by
day, like a gardener or farmer toiling in his field.
Then the Writings are no longer
merely the Word of our religion, but the Lord Himself in His Holy Spirit or
Divine Rational. This is because we can now perceive the Lord within the letter
in a way not perceivable until then. Our love for this Divine Truth develops
our spiritual mind all the way to the Second Heaven of the spiritual angels.
But if our love is for the Lord, and thence for His Truth, our spiritual mind
is developed all the way to the Third Heaven of the celestial angels. To love
the Lord’s Truth is to study the Writings and to make its concepts the
governing ideas in our mind. To love the Lord, and thence His Truth, is to use
this truth to modify our willing and thinking, so that we may become more
agreeable to the Lord, to His Order, and closer to Him in conjunction.
Those who consider themselves in the
UNLESS A MAN IS BORN AGAIN, AND, AS
IT WERE, CREATED ANEW, HE CANNOT ENTER INTO THE
That unless a man is born again he cannot enter into
the
We need to ask ourselves: How is the
The techniques fall into two categories:
critical analysis of ideas and concepts, and systematic methods of self-witnessing
or objective self-observation. Critical analysis by means of the Writings as
the only authority, is the work of reformation presented in Volume 1.
Everything in our mind from heredity, socialization, and culture must be
rearranged and subjected to critical evaluation in this heavenly light. Our
moment to moment intending and thinking, emoting and verbing, must be monitored
so that we may get to know the evils in our unregenerate character. In Volume 3
this is called self-witnessing and is the actual process of our cooperation
with the Lord in regeneration.
The Writings were given to humankind
universally, but also to each unique individual mind in particular, as pointed
out in this
The acceptance of the Writings is an individual
thing. The
The books claim to be the Lord speaking to man. It is
pointless for a man to decide whether they are or whether they are not until
the doctrines have had access to his mind. If his mind responds to them, he may
see that he is approaching a momentous decision. “Perhaps these doctrines
really are the Lord Himself speaking to me.” If they are, if he accepts them as
such, a complete change comes about, for they have Divine claim on his rational
mind. The reception of them becomes the supreme service to which the rational
mind can be turned.
(Rev. Donald L. Rose, Sermon titled
“The Colt Loosed For the Lord’s Service”
This book
is written for those who read the Writings as the Lord Himself speaking to them
through the rational ideas contained in them. Since the reception of the Heavenly Doctrine must be particular to each
individual, no one can escape the main issue presented here: What
effort is required of each of us to receive the Writings? As soon as
we begin to read the Writings as the Word, we learn that we must be regenerated
to be saved, and that this process is carried out gradually by the Lord, but
only to the extent that we cooperate in the process. Clearly then, reading and acknowledging the Writings as the Word is not
enough for anyone to be regenerated, hence saved. Worshipping in the
How are we to cooperate with the
Lord in our reformation and regeneration? This book presents some spiritual methods and disciplines that help us
to perform this required cooperation. In the Writings, this required cooperative
effort is called being “a man of the field”:
'A man of the field' means the good
of life that has its origin in matters of doctrine.
This is clear from the meaning of
'the field'. In the Word reference is made in many places to the earth (or the
land), the ground, and the field. … And since the Church is not the Church by
virtue of matters of doctrine except insofar as these have the good of life as
the end in view, or what amounts to the same, unless matters of doctrine are
joined to the good of life, 'the field' therefore means primarily the good of
life. But in order that such good may be that of the Church, matters of
doctrine from the Word which have been implanted within that good must be
present.
In the absence of matters of
doctrine the good of life does indeed exist, but it is not as yet that of the
Church, and so not as yet truly spiritual, except in the sense that it has the
potentiality to become so, like the good of life as this exists with gentiles
who do not possess the Word and therefore do not know the Lord.
[2] That 'the field' is the good of
life in which the things of faith, that is, spiritual truths existing with the
Church, are implanted, becomes quite clear from the Lord's parable about the
sower in Matthew …
[3] With regard to the good of life
which has its origin in matters of doctrine being meant by 'a man of the
field', the position is that those who are being regenerated first of all do
good as matters of doctrine direct them, for they do not of themselves know
what good is. They learn to do good from matters of doctrine concerning love
and charity; from these they know who the Lord is, who the neighbour is, what
love is, and what charity is, and so what good is. Those who have come into
this stage are stirred by the affection for truth and are called 'men (vir) of
the field'.
But after that, once they have been
regenerated they do good not from matters of doctrine but from love and
charity, for the good itself which they have learned about through matters of
doctrine exists with them, and they are in that case called 'men (homo) of the
field'. …
[4] The same also applies to
spiritual truths which are called doctrinal and are more interior Commandments
still. For matters of doctrine are interior truths which the natural man
possesses, the first truths there being sensory ones, the second truths being
factual, and interior truths matters of doctrine. The latter are based on
factual truths inasmuch as a person can have and retain no idea, notion, or
concept of them except from factual truths. But the foundations on which
factual truths are based are sensory truths, for without sensory truths nobody
is able to possess factual ones. Such truths, that is to say, factual and
sensory, are meant by 'a man skilled in hunting', but matters of doctrine are
meant by 'a man of the field'.
Such is the order in which those
kinds of truths stand in relation to one another in man. Until a person has
become adult therefore, and through sensory and factual truths possesses
matters of doctrine, he is incapable of being regenerated, for he cannot be
confirmed in the truths contained in matters of doctrine except through ideas
based on factual and sensory truths - for nothing is ever present in a person's
thought, not even the deepest arcanum of faith there, which does not involve
some natural or sensory idea, though generally a person is not aware of the
essential nature of such ideas. But in the next life the nature of them is
revealed before his understanding, if he so desires, and also a visual
representation before his sight, if he wants it; for in the next life such
things can be presented before one's eyes in a visual form. This seems
unbelievable but it is nevertheless what happens there. (AC 3310)
This passages teaches many things,
some of which may be summarized in relation to this book:
1. The “good of life” that the
2. The church in us is not made by
knowledge and understanding of the Writings, but by willing and thinking in
accordance with the spiritual Doctrine in our mind that we obtained from the
Writings.
3. Willing and thinking in
accordance with the spiritual Doctrine is only possible to the extent that we
study the Writings sufficiently to have articulated in our mind an accommodated
version that can guide our willing and thinking all day long. This accommodated
version in our mind is called the Doctrine, and it becomes more and more
spiritual as we advance in regeneration.
4. Church membership and worship do
not create the spiritual mind, but only the spiritual Doctrine in our mind, and
this only to the extent that we use it to guide our daily willing and thinking.
5. There are two stages we must
undergo. In phase 1 we do our willing and thinking from the literal Doctrine in
our mind. This is our state of reformation, of obedience to the truth. We do
not yet know the Lord as to His Love, but only the Lord as to His Truth. After
this phase is matured, we enter phase 2 in which we do our willing and thinking
from the love of the Lord and neighbor by means of the truth of Doctrine in our
mind. This truth of Doctrine is now spiritual, whereas before, it was only
natural. This is actual regeneration and salvation. We must not get stuck in
phase 1, for this does not lead to Heaven.
6. There are two levels of willing
and thinking in the natural mind. The lower level is called scientific, based
on natural truths from sensory observations and facts. The upper level of
thinking is called doctrinal, that is, based on the truths from the Writings.
The scientific level (“a man skilled in hunting”) is based on what’s below in
our mind and is purely natural, but the doctrinal level (“a man of the field”),
is based on what’s above and pertains to what is spiritual.
7. The doctrinal level of willing
and thinking must be founded on the scientific or literal level. Truths about
spiritual things remain rational abstractions, not genuine spiritual-rational
truths, unless they are grounded in sensuous actions from our willing and
thinking. The indescribable wisdom and intelligence of angels must rest in
sensuous things in them and around them, which is why heaven is so rich in external
life, in art and sublime conveniences (CL 12).
8. Regeneration is spiritual,
therefore it must take place within the outward level of willing and thinking in
our sensuous life. This outward level of life is where we can make decisions
and choices based on our own philosophy, beliefs, and rational faith. This
thinking from self normally starts in early adulthood. Until then we merely act
from the authority of others and the things we have learned since early childhood.
Regardless of the religion in which one is born, there is no reformation until
early adulthood and beyond. After reformation is matured, spiritual
regeneration can begin.
9. Reformation begins when we are
ready to acknowledge the truths from the Writings as Divine Commandments we are
required to perform daily for our salvation.
10. The Writings consist of natural truths
(“scientific truths”) and spiritual truths (“Doctrine”). Both scientific truths
and doctrinal truths appear or are contained in, the letter of the Writings.
Doctrinal truths about spiritual things are first taken up as the literal
language, understood literally or naturally. But later, we understand them
spiritually.
These ten
statements constitute the rationale and general content of this book.
7. At The Threshold Out Of Hell Into Heaven
The theme of the reformation techniques (Volume 1) is
how to identify and deconstruct nonduality in our mind, which we have taken up
from culture and self-intelligence. The theme of the regeneration techniques (Volume 3) is how to perform the daily
discipline of self-witnessing, which consists in monitoring our willing and
thinking moment by moment, keeping track of its ceaseless stream, and modifying
it in accordance with the Doctrine in our mind. We must undergo reformation
before we can begin regeneration.
At this point something will now be
said on how the internal man is reformed and how the external man is reformed by
means of it. The internal man is not reformed merely by knowing, understanding
and being wise, and consequently merely by thinking; but by willing what
knowledge, understanding and wisdom teach.
When a man knows, understands and
has wisdom to see that there is a heaven and a hell, and that all evil is from
hell and all good is from heaven; and if he then does not will evil because it
is from hell, but wills good because it is from heaven, he is in the first
stage of reformation, and is at the threshold out of hell into heaven.
When he progresses further, and
wills to desist from evils he is in the second stage of reformation, and is now
outside hell but not yet in heaven, which he sees above him. A man must have
such an internal in order that he may be reformed; but he is not reformed
unless the external as well as the internal is reformed. The external is
reformed by means of the internal when the external desists from the evils
which the internal does not will because they are infernal, and still more when
the external for this reason shuns them and fights against them. Thus willing
is the part of the internal and doing of the external. For unless a man does
that which he wills there is within him the failure to will which eventually
becomes want of will.
[2] From these few considerations it
can be seen how the external man is reformed by means of the internal. This
also is what is meant by the Lord's words to Peter:
Jesus said: If I wash thee not, thou
hast no part with me. [Simon] Peter saith unto Him: Lord, not my feet only, but
also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him: He that is washed needeth not
save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. John xiii. 8, 9, 10.
By washing is meant spiritual washing, which is
purification from evils; by washing the head and hands is meant purifying the
internal man; and by washing the feet is meant purifying the external man. That
the external man must be purified when the internal has been purified is meant
by this, "He that is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet." That
all purification from evils is from the Lord is meant by this, "If I wash
thee not, thou hast no part with me." It has been shown in many places in
the ARCANA COELESTIA that washing among the Jews represented purification from
evils, and that this is signified in the Word by washing; and that by washing
the feet is signified the purification of the natural or external man. (DP 151)
Reformation eliminates the many
nondualities in our mind and allows us to build up the
According to Rev. Rose:
Every person raised within the
church must come to the time of a possession of a rational faculty… Every
person raised within the church, although he has many times heard the Lord
speaking, must in the privacy of the chamber of his mind know what it is to
acknowledge this and say, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” … Even if we
have accepted the Writings, we can still have wrong ideas. …
Suppose that the new truth puts
light upon imperfections in our self. It exposes our evils and proves that our
thoughts have been false. Our pride resists it; the habitual thinking of many
years resist it. … But when we realize that it is the Lord Himself speaking,
our reluctance can give way to a thrilling sense of progress and change.
(Rev. Donald L. Rose, Sermon titled
“The Colt Loosed For the Lord’s Service”
Nonduality exists in the human mind
as a property of being unregenerate. Regeneration
is effected by the Lord through our persistent application of dualities from
the Writings to our daily willing and thinking. This is the commandment
of performing “works of charity:”
The proper and genuine uses of charity are the uses
of each one's function and administration, as has been said above. These then
become goods of charity, in which love to the Lord exists, or with which that
love is conjoined, when man does them from spiritual fidelity and sincerity,
which those have who love uses because they are uses, and who believe that
every good is from the Lord. But besides these there are other general uses, as
faithfully loving the marriage partner, rightly bringing up children, managing
the home prudently, and dealing justly with servants. These works become works
of charity when they are done from the love of uses; and in reference to a
marriage partner when they are done from mutual and chaste love; such uses are
household uses which are uses of charity. (D. WIS. 10)
The following two things are clear
from this passage. First, that the Lord is present with us nowhere but in our
love of uses, which love is called “works of charity.” Second, that works of
charity refers to our willing and thinking daily as we carry out our activities
and relationships. This motivation of uses in our willing and thinking cannot
be merely “uses of external charity” called “piety,” for this is not itself
spiritual or of our salvation:
To give aid to the needy, to widows, to orphans,
solely because they are needy, widows and orphans, and to give to beggars
solely because they are beggars, are uses of external charity, which charity is
called piety; but these are uses of internal charity only so far as they are
derived from use and the love of use. For external charity without internal
charity is not charity; the internal must be there to make it charity; for
external charity from internal charity acts prudently, but external without
internal charity acts imprudently, and often unjustly. (D. WIS. 10:5)
We are commanded to form the
8.
Cooperation in our Regeneration
This
motive for regeneration must involve all our willing and thinking, moment by
moment throughout the day, in our social, professional, and recreational
activities. How are we to accomplish this? We
need to learn the mental discipline of accomplishing this ceaseless activity
every day. This discipline must be spiritual and its justification and method
must be from the Writings.
Anyone therefore who looks to the Lord and wants to
be guided by Him is in a state of good. But anyone who turns away from God and
wants to be guided by himself is not in a state of good (CL 444)
To look to the Lord is to reason
from spiritual truths obtained from the Word of the Lord. To “be guided by
self” is to reason from natural appearances obtained either from self or from
the ideas of others. The fundamental duality of the
Even those born in a
9.
The Lord’s Relationship to All Religions
After reformation is completed,
regeneration begins, and continues till the end. This is the process of
gradually internalizing the truths in our memory into the choices of our life.
This new mind is appropriately called the
(1)
Religious
membership does not constitute salvation (TCR 254; AC 8762; NJHD 126).
(2)
Therefore,
those born in the
(3)
Hence
also, those born in any religion, and those who have no religion, are
unregenerate and must undergo regeneration, either in this life or in the
afterlife (HH 512, 308).
(4)
Every
individual, regardless of religion or belief system, is born unregenerate, and
in order to be saved for eternal life in heaven, must undergo regeneration (HH
308).
The Lord provides for the salvation
of every individual (TCR 142). Every person is born for eternal life in heaven
(HH 82, TCR 574). The Lord is the same Divine Human for all people on this
earth and on all the other earths in the universe (EU 121; SE 4373, 5513). It
stands to reason therefore that the Lord provides a means for regeneration in
the case of every human being. This
The Church where the Word is and the
Lord is known by means of it, in relation to those outside the Church where
there is no Word and the Lord is unknown is like the heart and lungs in man in
comparison with the other parts of the body, which live from them as from the
fountains of their life ... Before the Lord the universal Church on the earth
is as one Man ... (HH 305)
Here it is revealed that the Lord
unites the entire human race into “one Man” or in the Form of one human being,
even as He unites the body’s many parts into one integrated functioning unit.
There is also a conjunction of heaven by means of the
Word with those who are outside the Church where there is no Word; for the
Lord's Church is universal, and is with all who acknowledge the Divine and live
in charity. Moreover, such are taught after death by angels and receive Divine
truths (HH 308).
This passage reveals that people of
all religions are part of the Lord’s Heaven, the only condition being, not
religious membership, but living an individual life that is good. Good is
defined universally by all religions as worshipping God, obeying God’s
commandments, and loving the neighbor, that is, not injuring others for the
sake of self. Further, the above passages reveal that all individuals must be taught
by angels upon arrival into the afterlife. In this instruction everyone is
given genuine spiritual truths, and these truths are understood with variety,
depending on the genius or religious beliefs of each individual. All those who lived a life of obedience to
God and love to the neighbor, are able to receive the Divine Truths from the
angels. But since these truths are accommodated to the mind of each
individual, the Heavens are arranged by the Lord in numberless angelic
societies, each different, each unique (AC 10334). Therefore people of
different religions have their own Heavens under the Lord, depending on the
idea of Him they form for themselves (DLW 13).
Those born in a
They who are born where the Word is, and where the
Lord is thereby known, are not of the church, but they who are regenerated by
the Lord by the truths of the Word, that is, they who live the life of charity
… (NJHD 246)
Here we
see once again that Church membership is not saving. Those born in the New Church who acknowledge the Writings as the Word
of their religion, are not saved by Baptism in childhood, or by years of Sunday
Worship, and by graduating from a religious New Church school. Salvation is by
one method for all human beings: regeneration. And regeneration does not begin
until after reformation in early adulthood (AC 3518). Clearly then, the
It is clear from all this that the
10. The Writings As The Exclusive Source For Spiritual
Truths
Hence the crucial question: How are
we to reform our mind from the unregenerate state to the state of becoming the
Clearly,
then, it is not permissible for the
Take for instance the concept of
“God” which is universal to all the Heavens. Universal doesn’t mean similar
between the integrated parts. The New Heavens of the Second Coming are at the
center of all the Heavens and closest to the spiritual Sun, or the Lord (xx).
Concepts from this Heaven cannot be exported to the other Heavens in a direct
way, but only in a from accommodated to their genius and willingness.
Similarly, concepts from the other Heavens cannot be imported into the New
Christian Heaven, which is the New Heaven established by the truths of the
Writings (TCR 1).
What applies to heaven also applies
to the Church on earth (TCR 14, 119). And so, once more we see that the
Writings as the Word of the New Christian Heaven, must be the exclusive source
of all concepts regarding salvation of the
It will be shown in this volume that
every concept from the Writings is a duality and every concept not from the
Writings is a nonduality in the
Note that
the individual with a
11.
Separating Nonduality and Duality in the Mind
The advantages afforded to the
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.
(…)
[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. (HH 38)
At the beginning of our reformation
in adult life our unregenerate mind is mixed with dualities from the Writings
and nondualities from self and culture. Our reformation is therefore nothing
but a clash of ideas in our mind, a battle of life and death, a struggle for
heaven or hell. Our own unregenerate will is dead set to lead us to hell, while
the reformed will is from the Lord, hence set to eternal life in heaven.
… man when regenerated is as to the
intellectual part the Lord's, but as to his will part is his own, these two
parts in the spiritual man being opposed.
But though the will part of man is
opposed, yet it cannot but be present; for all the obscurity in his
intellectual part, or all the density of his cloud, is from it. It continually
flows in from it, and in proportion as it flows in, the cloud in his
intellectual part is thickened; but in proportion as it is removed, the cloud
is made thin.
(…)
[3] This condition of things between the will and the
understanding is as if two who were formerly conjoined by a covenant of
friendship, as were the will and the understanding in the man of the Most
Ancient Church, had their friendship broken, and enmity had arisen-as took
place when man wholly corrupted his will part-and then when a covenant is again
entered into, the hostile part is set forth as if the covenant were with it,
but it is not with it, because it is utterly opposite and contrary, but it is
with that which flows in from it-as already said-that is, with the Own of the
understanding.
The "token" or "sign" of the
covenant is this, that in proportion as there is the presence of the Lord in
the Own of the understanding, in the same proportion the Own of the will be
removed.
The case herein is exactly as it is with heaven and
hell. The intellectual part of the regenerated man, from charity, in which the
Lord is present, is heaven; his will part is hell. So far as the Lord is
present in this heaven, so far is this hell removed. For of himself man is in
hell, and of the Lord is in heaven. And man is being continually uplifted from
hell into heaven, and so far as he is uplifted, so far his hell is removed. The
"sign" therefore, or indication, that the Lord is present, is that
man's will part is being removed. The possibility of its removal is effected by
means of temptations, and by many other means of regeneration. (AC 1044)
The above
passage teaches several things about how we are to undergo reformation and
regeneration:
(1)
All
the willing we do prior to reformation in adult life is evil from hell and
cannot be regenerated.
(2)
Reformation
is the struggle of opposites in our mind. The truths we acquire from the
Writings are the Lord with us in our “intellectual part,” but our will part, or
our willing and intending, is hell with us since there is nothing in it but
evil affections of every kind. This evil doesn’t show in our social personality
because we are motivated by selfish affections to simulate what is required, and
to hide how we would desire to behave.
(3)
Prior
to reformation our evil affections or motives, called cupidities and lusts in
the will, create falsities in the understanding, from which we have false
beliefs where we see falsity as truth, and truth as falsity. This falsified
mental life is called “clouds” in the mind. And as the “density of his cloud”
thickens, the more is one’s mental life impaired and falsified in every
intention of the will and every reasoning of the understanding. This is our
unregenerate life until reformation begins in early adulthood when we can make
the conscious rational lifestyle choice to rearrange our thinking in accordance
with the Writings. Then for the first time the Lord becomes actually present in
our understanding as opposed to being there nominally or by reputation.
(4)
Our
automatic progress to hell can be reversed by allowing the Lord to remove the
cupidities and lusts in our will and to give us a reformed will. The Lord
cannot do this without our conscious cooperation. This conscious cooperation is
to learn the truths of the Writings and to consider them as Divine Commandments
for living. Then the Lord is present actually and can remove the old will. He
does that by Himself for we have no power whatsoever. The process of replacing
the old will is gradual and proceeds only so far as is made possible by our
actual daily cooperation, minute by minute. And “in proportion as it is
removed, the cloud is made thin,” meaning that the life of evil and spiritual insanity
is gradually removed during the years of regeneration. But nothing is removed
by the Lord except that which we allow.
(5)
While
we are regenerating, from young adulthood to the end, our mind is in
opposition, partly sane and partly insane, though not at the same level in the
mind, for they are kept apart by the Lord who prevents commingling (DP 296; cf.
AC 2426). Commingling would lead to profanation and a fate worse than hell (cf.
AC 3757).
(6)
Once
our understanding is filled with the dualities from the Writings, we are
expected to proceed as-of-self in our daily struggle with choices. We are to
recognize and isolate all nondualities that are in our mind from many sources. From
this categorical rearrangement, the
(7)
After
reformation, the childhood and adolescence of the
(8)
As
we struggle daily, in our willing and thinking, the Lord gives us a “sign” of
His presence: It’s our awareness that the old cupidities and lusts we are
familiar with, no longer appear in the same situations. We become aware of this
during temptations, and in other ways.
To initiate and complete our reformation
we must examine our chief concepts as they exist in our mind, and deconstruct
them, so that we learn to distinguish between the nondualities and the
dualities. This volume is about learning the process of eliminating conceptual
nondualities and establishing dualities of life, called Doctrine, and thereby
forming as-of self the
The Lord is creating our gradual
regeneration step by step, but only to the extent that we actively cooperate
with Him moment by moment in our willing and thinking (TCR 371, 577; 615; cf.
TCR 464; BE 15, 13). What does this cooperation consist of? What is it that we
have to do in order to be considered “cooperating”? This book gives two broad
answers. Volume 1 deals with Reformation, which is the struggle against
nonduality in our mind. Since we internalize our culture and education, our
unregenerate mind is suffused with all sorts of concepts and ideas and
attractions that are nondualities.
For example, many people are
attracted to Eastern nonduality in the form “self=divine,” or the idea that
self is an illusion or unreality, while in reality we are God (see Chapter 1).
Another example is scientific nonduality or materialistic science which asserts
that only the natural world exists and denies heaven and hell. Another example
is psychological nonduality which introduces and supports ideas that clash with
dualities in the Writings, such as the idea of unconditional love and
self-acceptance (see Chapter xx Section xx).
One final example is the cultural
nonduality of pluralism and relativity which are opposed to dualities such as
heaven and hell or genuine truth and adulterated truth. Our reformation
consists in struggling against these nondualities in our mind from all these
sources. The motive or purpose must be to replace them with the dualities we
take up from the Writings. This process of replacement, if it’s going to
succeed, must be done consciously, with full awareness and rational
understanding. Therefore I illustrate in this volume various ways of using
rational analysis to deconstruct and debunk the nondualities in our mind. To
think and will from the Writings is the cooperation we must perform to be
conjoined to the Lord and have heavenly life:
The freedom of choice resulting from
this is the ability to will and to think from the Lord, that is, from the Word,
and also the ability to will and to think from the devil, that is, contrary to
the Lord and the Word. (TCR 371)
Volume 3 deals with Regeneration,
which is the struggle against our inherited and acquired lusts and their
falsities in our mind. I describe many kinds of spiritual disciplines that I
found suitable for developing the
12.
Reformation by Means of the Writings
The
We first are to change our thinking
by studying the Writings every day and forming the Doctrine of Life in our
understanding. Often readers believe that I am exaggerating when I mention that
the study of the Writings should be a daily task. But consider what you do if
you are going to succeed as a student, scholar, or expert at anything whatsoever.
It requires many hours a week that amount to daily portions, and this, week
after week, until there is accumulation. This is what needs to be done if we
are going to accumulate enough Doctrine in our mind to serve as Divine Guide in
our every moment of willing, thinking, and behaving. The accumulation of
Doctrine can never cease because Doctrine is to be understood more and more
interiorly in order to serve our regeneration. The highest angels continue to
regenerate by means of more and more interior ideas they receive from the Lord
when studying the Word.
Consider also what would prevent you
from serious daily studies of the Writings, given that you know that it is the
Lord present with you and through which He wants to regenerate you by giving
you ever more interior visions and truths of Himself and of heaven.
So I am not exaggerating when I
frequently repeat this requirement that we study the Writings daily as a
serious student. Overcoming the obstacles that pose themselves to prevent this,
is a key element of reformation. They can all be overcome by holding this one
genuine idea in your focus: The Writings are the Lord in His Word of the Second
Coming and every truth in it is a Divine Commandment for me. To love the
Writings is therefore to love the Lord. To postpone the Writings is to love
something else above the Lord. To have a distaste for studying the Writings is
to love self above the Lord. Since we all start that way, we must compel
ourselves to act in opposition to our resistance or avoidance of Him in His
Word in which He is Himself, His Own Divine Truth.
The more interior our understanding
of Doctrine from the Writings, the more we are willing to think and act in
accordance with our Doctrine.
They who are being regenerated, at
first do what is good from doctrinal things, for of themselves they do not know
what is good, but learn it from the doctrinal things of love and charity; from
these they know who the Lord is; who is the neighbor; what love is, and what
charity; thus what good is. (AC 3310)
Regeneration is a gradual process
over our entire life on earth, and beyond (AC 9410). It is a conscious process
because it can go on only with our conscious cooperation (DP 114). This takes
the form of monitoring our thinking and willing, assessing them in the light of
the understanding of Doctrine in our mind, modifying our thoughts and decisions
accordingly, and continuing every day to live in this manner. Doing this as-of
self prepares our mind for heaven. To
do it as-of self means that we struggle in the natural mind as if we were doing it alone but knowing in our rational mind that it is the Lord
doing it by the infinite power of His Divine Wisdom from His Divine Love
(AC 47, 233, 1712, 2877, 5664, 10299; NJHD 148; DP 102; CL 82; SE 5958; LJ 299;
AE 864).
To the extent that we progress in
our regeneration day by day, and week by week, to that extent the Lord reveals
to us more and more interior spiritual truths as we study the Writings. Our
consciousness is thereby enlightened and we can think and understand things in
the light of heaven.
The Word is not understood except by
those who are enlightened. … The human rational cannot apprehend Divine things,
nor even spiritual things, unless it is enlightened by the Lord … Thus only
they who are enlightened apprehend the Word … They who are in the good of life,
and thereby in the affection of truth, are enlightened (NJHD 256).
This new understanding is
simultaneously applied to all things around us and guides our willing and
thinking, and to the extent that we are persistent and consistent, to that
extent the Lord can create a new will within our reformed understanding. Now we
continue life on earth in this celestial state of mind and life. Meanwhile we
continue to have this new mind perfected by the Lord until His judgment of the
right time, and then we pass on, leaving the physical body, and awakening in a
spiritual body. Upon that momentous occasion angels are present, and help us to
prepare fully for entrance into heaven. This period of preparation is fairly
brief, equivalent to less than a few months in relation to the pacing we are
used to from the natural world (HH
498). We then enter the heaven of our society where we
find our house and our spouse. That is our bliss and happiness in eternity.
If we don’t do this daily work,
there is only one other way, which is to remain infernal as we were born,
whereupon when we arrive in the afterlife we are prepared for life in hell and
our spirit-body sinks down to its level of miserable and inhuman life.
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)
The Writings play an essential role
in this overall process of reformation, regeneration, and preparation. Without
the Writings the
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)
A human being is created for everlasting life, and
any person can inherit that life, so long as he lives in accordance with the
means of salvation prescribed in the Word; every Christian, as well as every
non-Christian who possesses a religion and sound reason, assents to this
proposition. (TCR 340)
Without the Word there is no rational conception of
the Lord, and thus no salvation (SS 111)
As to the formation of faith: it is effected by man's
going to the Lord, learning truths from the Word, and living according to them.
(TCR 347)
I spoke with those who placed the only means of
salvation in reading the Word. They were overhead, and said that they take
great care that all in their society are diligent in reading the Word. But I
told them, that this does not save, but that they must live according to the
Word, and that nobody can live according to the Word except he be in the
doctrine of truth from it; otherwise, they do not know how they are to live,
for, from the sense of the letter of the Word, they are able to defend
everything that belongs to their life, be it what it may, and this to protect
falsities. It was shown also what is the nature of the Word in the letter, but
that those who are in doctrine from the Word, see the Word and read it, quite
differently; they consequently understand it, and are thus able to become
rational: otherwise, this cannot take place. It was shown, also, that the
reading of the Word is not attended to by the Lord, and therefore does not
promote salvation, unless they are in the life of truth; and that they cannot
be in the life of truth, except they be in doctrine from the Word (SE 5961).
For the
formation of the
13.
Old and New Testament From Perspective Of The Writings
If we could be saved by the Old and
New Testaments then the Writings were not necessary! The salvation of the
As we have now one God in the
church, who is God Man and Man God, this church is called the crown of all the
churches. (INV 43)
These are evidences that this has
been granted for the sake of the
(…)
This
(…)
After these things, from good
elevated to Himself, He founds a new heaven, and from the evil removed from
Himself, a new hell; and in both He establishes order, so that they may stand
under His auspices and under obedience to Him to eternity; and then through
this new heaven He successively inaugurates and establishes a new church on
earth. (CORONIS 0)
You can find other passages that say
similar things (e.g., AR 68, 73; TCR 786-788; AE 91-92; and others). You can
see from these considerations that there is not going to be an endless
procession of Churches in the evolution of our race. There are a definite
number of steps or phases that the Lord brings the race through so that He
might complete His creation, which is that we become celestial minds capable of
living in His New Heavens. The
14.
The Writings Are The Last Revelation
The Lord in His First Coming taught
that He must come again to complete His Divine mission of the salvation of the
human race (AC 4060). The Lord gave the Old Testament through Moses and the
Prophets. That was the equivalent of the Word’s legs and feet. It was so
obscure that the Jewish Church is called a “representative of a Church.” The
literal of the Word reveals the level of understanding of the people who
receive it at the beginning of a new dispensation. Consider the literal of the
Old Testament. By today’s standards scholars call it pre-modern, superstitious,
racist, barbaric, and obscure in meaning. It is written at a level entirely
unacceptable to the modern mind concerned with human rights, humanism, and
rationality. You can see why I said that it is the legs and feet of the Divine
Word. It does establish that there is God, and that God rules all details of
the universe. It establishes that God saves human beings for eternal life in
happiness and bliss if they follow His commandments, but puts away all others
into an eternal hell of misery. Enough is established by this Old Testament Word
to save those who obey the commandments of their religion.
But after many generations the level
of thinking of the Old Testament was no longer believable to the generations
that were surrounded by more advanced civilizations and intellectual traditions
in the East and the West. A new Word was then given as the New Testament by the
Lord Himself in His First Coming. This Word is like the entire midsection of
the body, including the abdomen and the chest and the arms. The level of
thinking is a discrete degree above that of the Old Testament. Enough is
established in this Word to once again be able to save for heaven all those who
obey its commandments as being from the Lord. These commandments, even in their
literal statements, are more internal than those given in the letter of the Old
Testament. The level of thinking of the Old Testament is corporeal-sensuous,
while that of the New Testament is external rational.
The new truths and principles were
for the rational mind, unlike the Old Testament where the truths were for the
external mind that is close to the body senses. For example, the Old Testament
tells nothing specific about the afterlife. The only level of thinking the
people were capable of at that time was the idea that heaven is what a reformed
earth will be after the resurrection from the graves. That idea of heaven was a
heaven in the physical world. But the heaven of the New Testament is “within
you,” thus not out there or here, but in the interior of the human mind. To go
to heaven is not to go to a place but to develop a state of mind in which
heaven can exist:
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)
The New Testament Commandments were
also at a higher level of rationality, suitable for the new mind. “Love thy
neighbor” meant not just your own ethnic group or religion. “Being married”
meant not just doing what you please but what God demands and consecrates. “Adultery”
is not just what you do, but also what you desire and think. In the New
Testament level of reasoning, willing and thinking become more important for
salvation than ritual sacrifices or prayers. Not overt doing is the measure of
salvation but inward thinking and intending. So a new more interior, more
rational method was made available by the Lord through this new Word.
As deeds and works are from the will
and thought, so are they from the love and faith, consequently they are such as
the love and faith are; for it is the same thing whether you say one's love or
his will, and it is the same thing whether you say one's faith or his
established thought; for that which a man loves he wills, and that which a man
believes he thinks; and when a man loves what he believes he also wills it and
as far as possible does it. Everyone may know that love and faith are within
man's will and thought, and not outside of them, for love is what kindles the
will, and the thought is what it enlightens in matters of faith; therefore only
those that are able to think wisely are enlightened, and in the measure of
their enlightenment they think what is true and will it, or what is the same,
they believe what is true and love it. (HH 473)
But in the course of time a new modern
mind emerged from the successes of science and modernism. The New Testament was
no longer believable to this new mentality and civilization that rejected
mystery of faith and anything spiritual that could not be understood and
justified by the modern mind. Those who still adhered to the New Testament as
religion still were not able to be saved thereby because internally their
rational mind rejected mysteries (TCR 116, 182; AE 870). When all these people
across the centuries after the First Coming entered the afterlife, their mind
was not at a level of reasoning that could support life in heaven which was a
spiritual-rational state created by spiritual-rational truths.
These people of the “spiritual
church” were all stuck in the spiritual world, unable to go up, being kept by
the Lord from sinking down (TCR 119; AC 7975). At last the generations on earth
reached the intellectual capacity to receive and understand the last portion of
the Word. This was the Lord’s Second Coming in the Writings. This new Word was
like the head of the body, which is why the
The Lord has revealed the spiritual meaning of the
Word at this day because a doctrine of genuine truth has now been revealed.
This doctrine is contained in part in The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly
Doctrine, and now in some shorter works which are in process of
publication.********** And because this doctrine and no other agrees with the
spiritual meaning of the Word, therefore that meaning has now for the first
time been disclosed, along with a knowledge of correspondences. (De Verbo 7:8)
Add to these most manifest evidences, that the
spiritual sense of the Word has been disclosed by the Lord through me, which
has never before been revealed since the Word was written among the sons of
Israel; and this sense is the very sanctuary of the Word: the Lord Himself is
in this sense with His Divine, and in the natural sense with His Human. Not a
single iota in this sense can be opened except by the Lord alone. This
surpasses all the revelations that have hitherto been made from the creation of
the world. (INV 44)
Now a new way is provided again for
salvation. The level of thinking of this new Word is spiritual-rational:
Without the Word there is no rational conception of
the Lord, and thus no salvation (SS 111)
The Word of the Writings are the
Lord’s Divine Truth in His Second Coming to humankind. This is the only way
of discovering who the Divine Human is. No other door way has been provided
by the Lord for the new salvation, the new Heavens. The angels read the
Writings and derive therefrom their Doctrine of Life and all their ineffable
knowledge and wisdom (AC 1405, 1767). They have no other religion but the Word
of the Writings.
Not everyone who reads the Writings
is willing to raise their level of thinking to the rational reasoning presented
in the Writings. In that case one does not read the Writings as the Lord in His
Word. One sees no more in it than books of excellence by a magnificent genius,
if appreciated, and if not, one sees only the fantasies of a religious madman. Only
those who read the Writings as the third portion that completes the Word of
God, can see in it genuine spiritual truths.
[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."
(…)
Spirits are perfectly well distinguished from each
other, as to whether they are in the faith of charity or not. Those who are in
the faith of charity do not reason about the truths of faith, but say that the
thing is so, and also as far as possible confirm it by things of sense and of
memory, and by the analysis of reason; but as soon as anything obscure comes in
their way the truth of which they do not perceive, they defer it, and never
suffer such a thing to bring them into doubt, saying that there are but very
few things they can apprehend, and therefore to think that anything is not true
because they do not apprehend it, would be madness.
These are they who are in charity. But-on the
contrary-those who are not in the faith of charity desire merely to reason
whether a thing be so, and to know how it is, saying that unless they can know
how it is, they cannot believe it to be so. From this alone they are known at
once as being in no faith, a mark of which is that they not only doubt
concerning all things, but also deny in their hearts; and when they are
instructed how the case is, they still cling to their disbelief and start all
kinds of objections, and never acquiesce, were it to eternity. Those who thus
persist in their contumacy heap errors upon errors. (AC 1072)
15.
The Writings Are For The Rational Mind
Rev. Donald L. Rose has noted in a
sermon that the Lord has need of our rational in order for Him to enter our
mind:
As they were untying the colt, its
owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They replied,
"The Lord needs it." They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on
the colt and put Jesus on it.
(Luke 19:33-35)
In reading this story of the Word,
we may picture ourselves addressed by those words: “The Lord hath need of him.”
The colt has various significations and is especially related to what is
rational (see AC 2782, 5741, 6376). We can see here the Lord’s emissaries sent
to bring the rational mind to himself. The owner of the rational questions this
action. The so-called owner of the rational is the man himself.
In this story we see especially the giving of the
Writings to man (see ISB 20).
(Rev. Donald L. Rose, Sermon titled
“The Colt Loosed For the Lord’s Service”
We accumulate knowledge about the
Writings from our education and from study. Where in the mind is this
accumulation? Of course it is in the organ of the understanding, but this has
several discrete levels, each with a totally different psychological function.
The sentences of the Writings can be understood according to one’s level of
mental functioning at the time. In the lowest intellectual mentality, called
the natural-corporeal mind, the Writings are understood as a storybook about
heaven and hell sprinkled in among mostly incomprehensible pages. At the next
level of intellectual mentality, called the natural-sensuous mind, the Writings
are understood as a storybook about the spiritual world mingled with Church
doctrine and a lot of history about the previous churches and the mentality of those
people. At the third an uppermost level, called the natural-rational mind, the
Writings are understood as the new Rational Word, revealing a coherent rational
system of theology tied to the Bible and corroborated by Swedenborg’s special
mission as the revelator of the Lord’s Second Coming. And the more we study the
Writings at this level of understanding, the more we create suitable “vessels”
or dualities, in which the Lord will implant spiritual truths. And with more
and more study of the Writings, we can begin to see the marvelous rational web
and framework of truths by which the Lord maintains reality.
To live from the Word is to live from the Lord, for the Lord is in the
Word, yea, He is the Word. (AE 754)
These are three levels of the
natural mind. This is the mind we build up totally by ourselves through
experience and choice. It feels like our very own life, our very own identity,
and so it is called the self. The conscious self, whom we know ourselves to be,
has these three levels of mentality and functioning.
At some point in our adulthood,
early on or later, we feel the motivation to undergo reformation. We have been
studying the Writings before this, but it was a lukewarm thing. But now we feel
a new passion for studying the Writings, excited by the thought that it is the
Word of the Lord speaking through the rational mind of this awesome 17th
century Swede. We now begin to think about the topics of the Writings in a
personal way. For example, while you’re doing something somewhere, you begin to
think about what it will be like to be an angel, what it’s like to have an
occupation there, and to have friends and neighbors. Now for the first time you
are applying the Writings to yourself. Before this, it was a storybook you
inherited by culture and family.
Or take another example. While
you’re doing something somewhere, you begin to think about the heavy emphasis
the Writings place on the principle of no salvation without regeneration.
Suddenly the thought occurs to you: What about my own regeneration? Now for the
first time you stepped across a threshold. You applied the Writings to a vital
part of yourself, your concern for your salvation. You know enough about hell
to want to avoid it! You eagerly go back to the Writings and search it for
passages on regeneration. You quickly find out that before you can begin
regeneration you must undergo reformation. You begin to worry, feeling a vague anxiety.
You’ve now crossed another threshold. The anxiety you felt was the first step
you took in your reformation. It was a brief, very brief, view into the difficulty
of the task that lies ahead. The thought occurs to you: Perhaps I’m not ready
for all this. But you are, and you go ahead. You systematically go through all
your main belief systems and hold them up to the principles of the Writings.
One by one they must be rationally deconstructed and discarded, like Abraham
had to smash the icons of his inherited false religion.
Sooner or later this great task
comes to its completion. Suddenly the thought occurs, usually prompted by the
wife, “Why am I wasting time holding on to the non-heavenly behaviors and
traits?” We refuse to face, close up, so from afar we look at it and retort:
“But look how much I know about heaven” or, “But look how much I love the Word
and the Doctrine” or, “But look what great progress I’ve already made compared
where I was before reformation” etc. But at last we find the motivation to
begin our regeneration with full sincerity, though not yet with full success.
You’ve just crossed the final big threshold. You’ve taken your baby step in the
process of regeneration. You’re now fully committed to condemn your evil loves.
From then on the Lord will fight with you in a series of spiritual temptations,
precisely designed for your struggle to map out the hell within you. The
temptations reveal your inner delights to yourself. Normally they’re hidden
from your focus and attention, conveniently tucked away so that you can
continue to enjoy them, even while you continue to declare you passion and love
for the Writings.
But you also continue to study the
Writings at an accelerated rate in comparison to before. You’re driven to find
the relevant truths, those that can help your predicaments. They are everywhere
now—in your marriage relationship, in your work situation, even in your
recreation. Everywhere you feel challenged by what you passionately believe and
know, and your seeming inability to align your willing and thinking with what
you know is right. For example, you know that scortatory interests harm the
conjugial relationship. Yet, you feel delight in them, secretly. You beg the
Lord to purify you, but you find His answer in the Writings: “You have water.
You have soap. Go wash yourself, like a real man.” And you feel ashamed. You’ve
just made a step in a new direction. You repented of an evil delight you’re
holding in secret. Like Adam and Eve who were ashamed of their nakedness after
they had eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil:
Now you feel driven out from your
paradise. Nothing of the many delights you’re so attached to, can be allowed to
stay around. No one. If you catch yourself arguing for mercy, that you’ve given
up so much already, you feel forced to withdraw the mercy request, realizing
full well, everything must go. An affection must be traced to its origins by a
simple test of duality: Is this delight from heaven or from hell. There is no
in between, so there is no hiding any more. Now you’ve taken your last baby
steps in regeneration. You’re fully ready because fully committed to the idea
that not one can be left standing. All must be exterminated, every one of our
delights that are form hell. And it seems that they are all from hell. Now you
begin to apply what you know form the Writings to everything of your threefold
self: your affections and delights, your thoughts and style of reasoning, your
outward acts of the body and its appearance. Now you begin to see new things.
For the first time you become
conscious that you have an inner perception of spiritual things as you think
about the sentences of the Writings, and apply them to your willing and
thinking all day long. You begin to see how every sentence applies to you,
though how may remain obscure for some time. But you are all excited again
about your new level of consciousness. You search the Writings with trepidation
and suddenly sentences you didn’t pay much attention to, now spring to life
before you. You have living proof that the Lord is managing the process of your
regeneration in every detail—what sentences come to your attention when, and
what they say about you, about whatever you’re struggling with at the time. You
feel a great relief and you recall the Lord’s statement that His yoke is light.
At last you can feel the living certitude that you want to be in His hands more
than in yours. It now terrifies you as you think back on your earlier period
when you were anxious that getting closer to heaven is giving up all the fun in
life, and begged for more time. Now you can see that your best chance is not
with you, but with the Lord. So you’re relieved in your heart and your love for
the Lord takes a big leap.
17. The Birth Of The Interior-Natural
What is happening now as you read
the Writings? You’ve almost gotten used to it now: You can see within the
Letter! It just comes to you automatically. You’re reading the sentences,
you’re reflecting, figuring out what they mean rationally, and suddenly you see
what they mean spiritually. You now understand what is happening in a
scientific way, like anatomy or physiology, and like agriculture or gardening. Regeneration
is a biological process of steady growth built on spiritual truths implanted in
the mind by the Lord’s activity in us through the sentences of the Writings
that are firmly established in our conscious mind. These sentences are established
firmly because they form the basis of our thinking, of our concluding and
analyzing anything. We have appropriated those sentences and rational ideas.
They are no built up as our own edifice. Now the Lord can enter into the
interior of this edifice, and implant spiritual truths. We are not conscious of
this activity directly, but the Lord creates a new thing in our mind, a new
organ, more interior than the natural mind. This new organ is called the
interior-natural.
Note that this new organ is
spiritual and of celestial origin. There is nothing in it from self or the
natural world. What’s in it is a correspondence to what’s in the spiritual
mind. We are not conscious of the spiritual mind and its activates, but we are
conscious of the natural mind. And now this new interior organ gives a new
function, a new conscious awareness of spiritual understandings and meanings.
Spiritual topics that before this we understood in a natural way, now we
understand them in a spiritual way, like the angels of the First Heaven. This
new spiritual awareness and understanding would not be possible without the
sentence and their rational understanding, that we gathered for ourselves in
the natural-rational mind. This is obvious because the new interior-natural
organ of spiritual perception is located within the natural-rational. It cannot
be located anywhere else in the natural mind.
Our prior understanding of the
Writings was external-rational or natural-rational, not yet spiritual-rational
(AC 978, 2654, 4286; AE 355:14). The spiritual only begins with regeneration
and this only begins in adult life (AE 803; AC 8780; AC 3518:[2]; TCR 587), if
ever. Therefore the
The
18. Reformation And Regeneration Begin In Early Adulthood
When a child is first instructed he is affected with
the desire of knowing, not at first for any end that is manifest to himself,
but from a certain pleasure and delight that is born with him and is also
derived from other sources; but afterwards, as he grows up, he is affected with
the desire of knowing for the sake of some end, as that he may excel others, or
his rivals; and next for some end in the world; but when he is to be
regenerated, he is affected from the delight and pleasantness of truth; and
when he is being regenerated, which takes place in adult age, from the love of
truth, and afterwards from the love of good; and then the ends which had
preceded, together with their delights, are separated little by little, and to
them succeeds interior good from the Lord, which manifests itself in his
affection. From this it is evident that the former delights, which had appeared
in the outward form as good, had served as means. Such successions of means are
continual. (AC 3518)
This passage clearly
shows that reformation and regeneration begin in early adulthood, and not
before. The first phase of reformation
starts when as adults we become rationally convinced that the Writings are
indeed the third and final portion of the Threefold Word. It is a step beyond
the received creed. It is the exercise of a new individual choice under the new
vision of rational understanding and confirmation. It’s the confidence we have
when we can explain it rationally and confirm it in our principles and
philosophy. The Writings are indeed the Word. It is beyond the idea that the
Writings are “divinely inspired.” This is a nonduality if the idea admits other
inspired books and authors so that the Writings are seen at the extreme end of
a continuum lined up with other “inspired” books.
This idea of the Writings is not yet
the stage of reformation. One must cross over to the position that “the
Writings are the third portion of the Threefold Word.” This is what the
The second phase after this is to
understand rationally how it is that the Writings are the Word in the same
sense as the Old Testament and the New Testament are the Word, not in some
lesser degree. This phase establishes the idea that the Writings are Divine
Truth, that they are the Lord Himself in His Second Coming. The worship
of the Writings is the same as the worship of the Lord. We must realize in a
rational way how it is that for the
[5] It is now clear from these
things that the spiritual sense of the Word was to be revealed for a new Church
which will acknowledge and worship the Lord alone, and hold His Word sacred,
and love Divine Truths and reject faith separated from charity. Concerning this
sense of the Word more may be seen* in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE (n. 5-26, and following numbers); as, in this
section, what the spiritual sense of the Word is (n. 5-26); that there is a
spiritual sense in all things of the Word in general and in particular (n.
9-17); that it is by virtue of the spiritual sense that the Word is Divinely inspired,
and holy in every expression (n. 18-19); that hitherto the spiritual sense has
been unknown, and why it was not revealed before (n. 20-25); and that
henceforth the spiritual sense will be possible only to one who is in genuine
truths from the Lord (n. 26). (DP 264)
Enlightenment is the influx,
perception, and instruction people receive from the Lord when they read the
Word. (AC 10215)
All worship of the Lord, appears
from the Word (AC 440)
Where the Church is, there the Lord
is worshipped, and the Word is read (NJHD 8)
The individual becomes a
In every particular of the Word there is a spiritual
sense from which it derives its holiness. (DP 264)
What in particular concerns the doctrine that now
follows, is that it also is out of heaven, because it is from the spiritual
sense of the Word; and the spiritual sense of the Word is identical with the
doctrine which is in heaven. (NJHD 7)
Our illumination or enlightenment
from these truths is proportional to our struggle to consciously cooperate with
the Lord as He gradually regenerates us day by day and hour by hour. The rate
of progress is proportional to the extent of our daily willing and thinking in
accordance with the truths we take up from the Writings. The truths for our
salvation that we take up from the Writings are called Doctrine in our mind:
He who does not know the arcana of heaven must needs
believe that the Word is supported without doctrine from it; for he supposes
that the Word in the letter, or the literal sense of the Word, is doctrine
itself. But be it known that all the doctrine of the church must be from the
Word, and that the doctrine from any other source than the Word is not doctrine
in which there is anything of the church, still less anything of heaven. But
the doctrine must be collected from the Word, and while it is being collected,
the man must be in enlightenment from the Lord; and he is in enlightenment when
he is in the love of truth for the sake of truth, and not for the sake of self
and the world. These are they who are enlightened in the Word when they read
it, and who see truth, and from it make doctrine for themselves. (AC 9424)
This clearly says that all Doctrine
is from the Word. For the
19.
Nonduality Fills The Culture Around Us
Since our as-of self role in
regeneration is so crucial it makes sense to learn how to do it effectively.
This learning is called performing spiritual disciplines. Spiritual disciplines
allow us to discover the innumerable things in our mind that we receive from
culture and heredity. Once we know what they are we can reject them as-of self
by rational considerations. The culture we live in contains a variety of
nonduality traditions, attitudes, and popular followings to which we are exposed
from childhood onward. It is not readily obvious how nonduality is promoted in
our mind when we enjoy our favorite sit-com program or admire a book for its
message, or see our teenager practicing meditation. What about Yoga or Tai Chi
or vegetarianism? Sometimes the philosophy is embedded in a mere formality we
follow, like “Namaste” with which my Yoga teacher ends every class. Once in a
while she adds the explanation: “It means: the God in me greets the God in
you.” You can see the fundamental nonduality within this formality routine
since it is motivated by the idea that self=God, and that is the fundamental
nonduality.
Sometimes nonduality comes to us in
a secular Western tradition like Ayn Rand’s ethics of Objectivism or
This deadly conviction, that God infused and copied
Himself into men, was held by the people of the most ancient church in its
final period leading up to its termination, as I have heard from their own
lips. On account of their horrendous belief that they were thus gods, they lie
hidden deep within a cavern, which no one can approach closely without falling
victim to an inner vertigo. (TCR 470).
And sometimes we see nonduality in
Christian traditions like the popular notion that there is no hell, or the idea
that long and repentant prayer brings salvation and holiness. The nonduality
here is the idea that prayers can be more or less effective on a measurable
continuum of how long and with how much self-blame or guilt one prays with.
Duality on the other hand recognizes a distinct and categorical separation
between spiritual things and natural. Praying long and with much guilt is
separate and distinct from the spiritual reasons the Lord grants a prayer. He
grants all prayers that are inspired by Him, and this is a duality rationally
opposed to the idea of “effectiveness” of prayers. (AE 325) (See Chapter 1,
Section 3)
Scientific education and science
reporting in the news media are also nondualist and opposed to the fundamental
duality of natural world and spiritual world.
From this ordering of creation it
can be seen that the coherent linkage from first things to last is such that
taken together they make up a single unit; in this prior cannot be separated
from posterior, just as cause cannot be separated from the effect produced by
it. Thus the spiritual world cannot be separated from the natural world, nor
this from the spiritual. In the same way the heaven where the angels are cannot
be separated from the human race, nor the human race from that heaven. It has
therefore been provided by the Lord that one should perform services for the
other, that is, the heaven of angels should perform services for the human
race, and the human race for the heaven of angels. (LJ 9:[3]).
No concept or theory from dualism is
allowed today into science. It remains staunchly nondualist and materialistic, that
is, insisting that a world that is not physical does not exist. News stories
surround us with materialistic interpretations whether they be on archeological
finds, biological evolution, stellar formations, or brain scan technology. The
modern culture around us continues in an intellectual climate of popular
nondualities that deny all the scientific and spiritual dualities we have from
the Writings--between mind and body, natural world and spiritual world, self
and God, good and evil, heaven and hell, absolute truth and absolute falsity,
revelation and self-intelligence, regenerate and unregenerate, uncreate and
created, and many others. Without these rational dualities of reality we have a
falsified science and no religion or spiritual sanity (DL 188). (See Chapter 4 Section 7)
Surprisingly,
To acknowledge that the Writings are
the Lord in His Second Coming and to understand this in a rational way makes
our spiritual growth and progress possible. If we are exposed to some idea or
principle that runs contrary to a single sentence in the Writings, we would
know instantly that we want to reject that idea. We do not need more than one
statement in the Writings for what is the absolute truth. Every statement in
the Writings has a Divine warrant of truth and validity. Of course, by
comparing a collection of statements on a topic one gains deeper understanding
of the topic. Still, one occurrence gives enough understanding to exclude from
our assent any idea that is contrary to it. This makes deciding all life
choices so much simpler.
They who are in the genuine doctrine of truth from
the Word, and in enlightenment when they read the Word, see everywhere truths
that agree, and nothing whatever that is opposed; for they do not dwell upon what
is said therein according to appearances, and according to the common
apprehension of men, because they know that if the appearances are unfolded,
and as it were unswathed, the truth is laid bare. (AC 9424)
Those who do not acknowledge the
Writings as the Lord have much more difficulty since they have to compare and
weigh things in balance. It becomes a matter of equity in their mind: how many
passages say this and how many say that, etc. What is the preponderance of the
evidence, etc. This leaves plenty of wiggle room for going wrong and we lose
the full protection of heaven. We start wondering how many mistakes are
contained in the Writings. We start thinking that Swedenborg was but a limited
human being hence did make mistakes, either his own or those of his age and
civilization. These are murky thoughts from which we are spared merely by being
totally categorical in our acceptance of the Writings as the Lord Himself in
His Word.
The acknowledgment of the Divine
source of the Writings brings about an entirely new state … A man must loose
something of self-esteem in accepting the Writings entirely. For before that he
can exalt his own intelligence, granting that the Writings are true here and
true there, but still, as it were, holding himself above them. … Many are most
reluctant to acknowledge this, for it is to give up too much. … If there is
indeed a Divine mind, a God, then true rationality is to become a servant to
truth.
This is a joyous recognition. When
an individual really understand the Divine claim on his rationality,
straightaway he complies. … It is a wonderful liberation and a real beginning
when we acknowledge Divine Revelation. Before that we are free to say perhaps
this is right and perhaps that; perhaps this is good and perhaps that. We have
so-called open minds to everything, even things which contradict each other. In
this state we do not make progress.
(Rev. Donald L. Rose, Sermon titled
“The Colt Loosed For the Lord’s Service”
Further, this absolute affirmative
attitude allows us to revere and worship the Writings as the Lord Himself.
Whether we adore and worship the Writings or the Lord is the same, for the Lord
is the Word (NJHD
263, DP 172). How marvelous it is to love the
Lord in this way, through his Word, for the Lord speaks to us only through the
Word (TCR
231). It is nonduality in our mind that weakens this
absolute Divine status of the Writings of Swedenborg.
20.
Two Methods For Fighting Nonduality In The Mind
The source of all nonduality is a
natural inherent opposition to the fundamental duality. The natural mind before
it is regenerated is immersed in nonduality and its concepts are arranged to
fit the apparent order of the physical world entering through the sensory
organs and brain. This apparent order is sensuous and by its own logic excludes
the spiritual that it cannot see, and is aversive to all absolute dualities
that refer to things unseen by the physical eyes or undetected by physical
machines (DLW
66, 92). This is why our modern mind must
be regenerated, and it takes place by re-arranging the concepts from nonduality
to duality by means of the rational truths we take up from the Writings.
These rational truths accurately
reflect reality and serve as cognitive vessels into which we can receive
spiritual truths (NJHD 51; AC 3508). There is no salvation or eternal life in
heaven without undergoing regeneration while we are still attached to the
physical body (HH 470). This obligatory process progresses only to the extent
that we consciously cooperate with the Lord. It does not go forward at all if
we do not cooperate, for the Lord cannot do it on His Own, nor can He compel us
(BE 69, TCR 615, 577; DP 234). It stands to reason therefore that we ought to
learn how to detect nondualities in our mind out of a desire to cooperate in
our regeneration.
This book proposes two types of
methods that can help us to guard against nondualities in our mind. Volume 1 deals with learning how to
analyze common ideas to which we are exposed from culture and the times. I show
with many illustrations how to find the nonduality hidden in the assumptions
behind these ideas. Volume 2 deals
with the process of enlightenment that is needed to undergo regeneration. Volume 3 deals with learning how to monitor
our feelings, thoughts, and acts in our daily behaviors, also for the purpose
of cooperating with the Lord in our regeneration. Many illustrations are given
showing how to infuse a religious motive in everything we do, turning daily
life into a series of spiritual disciplines. The approach involves tracing the
implications of our daily choices and habits to see where they lead to
nonduality or the denial of the fundamental dualities of our religion. All
dualities are unique permanent distinctions that never cease to eternity (DLW
226).
For example, the popular ideas of
unconditional love and unconditional self-acceptance run contrary to the
duality of unregenerate and regenerating, or to good and evil. A notion
promoted by mental health professionals is the idea of equity in relationship
between husband and wife. Equity is the policy of sharing everything
fifty-fifty—chores, contribution, responsibility, status, independence. This is
a nonduality that threatens the conjugial duality of an absolute and permanent
distinctness in all things between man and woman, or husband and wife (CL 33). Many conjugial self-witnessing disciplines for husbands are described
and related to the Writings. They all follow one principle: that the husband
should learn to love acting from his wife rather from himself. While
learning this he ought to simulate so that he always enacts the conjugial
stance: to love acting from the wife more than acting from self. Many of the
illustrations are from my personal self-observations as a husband who is
forming a
I hope that you will find in this
presentation useful tools for your reformation and regeneration. If so, think
about sharing the knowledge with others who may also find it helpful. For
comments and questions, I welcome your email:
leon@hawaii.edu The Web address of this document
is: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/nonduality.html and contains links to related
articles that can also be accessed.
All truths are from
the Word, which is spiritual light…
and nothing ought to
be believed except the truth (INV 7)
A Gallup
Poll in 2002 reported that about 7 percent of Americans believe in “absolute
truth” when asked in a survey—among those who categorized themselves as “Christians.”
Among those who categorized themselves as without a religious affiliation, only
4 percent believe in absolute truth. What does it mean that nine out of ten
people today in our society declare that absolute truth does not exist? It
demonstrates that nonduality is reigning in the entire generation, regardless
of religious background. Nonduality has replaced the traditional dualities of
religion in the mind of the postmodern age. The
The
Writings teach that all truth from the Lord is absolute truth because the Lord
is absolute truth, and this is only from Him. Everything from Him is absolute
truth within which is absolute love (xx). Nothing from Him can be anything but
absolute truth because He is Absolute Truth Itself within which is Absolute
Love. In this sense, “absolute truth” means Divine Truth. Since the
inauguration of the new age of the Second Coming, the human race has received
conscious rational access to Divine Truth through the Writings. Everything in
the Writings is Absolute Truth, because it is Divine Truth, from the Lord, for
the Word is the Lord Himself (xx). The denial of the existence of absolute
truth is therefore a symptom of spiritual insanity. The unregenerate person
today, regardless of religious or other background, inwardly denies absolute
truth because it denies Divine Truth as the Divine Human, preferring for a God
some invisible and unfathomable something called “the universe” or “the
everything which is nothing” or “the energy” or whatever. There is an endless
variety of ways that the unregenerate mind can fabricate denials of absolute
truth. There is a big payoff at stake: Denial of God means the delight of
making up our own god, even ourselves as god, or something within us as god,
and even to the gross insanity of believing that one is above God.
The
Writings make a simple and accurate point: whatever is not from the Lord cannot
be absolute truth, but whatever is from the Lord is absolute truth. Further,
the Lord reveals absolute truth to every individual who seeks for it in His Word,
and nowhere else (xx). And for the
This is the fundamental duality that
has been weakened, or suppressed entirely, in the minds of people today as a
result of the severe climate of cultural nonduality.
The
categorical reasoning of the Writings, when presented for evaluation to a random
sample of people, would be rejected today as sectarian, fanatic, prejudiced, or
dogmatic. They point to other instances of sectarian religious groups in the
past and those of today, and see in the Writings a similar exclusionary
dogmatism, unjustified by the light of human reasoning and intelligence. We
know quite a bit of the historical record of dogmatic religions from the
Writings, and we can explain rationally why this persuasive approach to
religion is wrong headed, and impedes rather than aids the salvation of its
adherents (xx). But at last, the human race was given a Divine method for
regenerating from nonduality to duality, from a base in self, to the Lord as
the Base of reality. The
These new
revelations give the rational means by which any reader can enter into all
previous and future mysteries about the afterlife, the spiritual world, devils
and angels, spirits from other planets in the universe, life in heaven and
hell, and how the Lord regenerates every individual who cooperates, and so
leads the person to eternal life in heaven. And many additional things are now
revealed by the Lord in the Word of His Second Coming, relating to how the Lord
manages the universe, how the Lord manages our willing and thinking through
other spirits, how physical events depend completely on spiritual events, and many
details about the past history of the race. The
Second Coming is the final completion of the creation of the human race. At
last every individual anywhere can now form a celestial mind for themselves, capable
of eternal life in heaven. The only requirement is a willingness to be reformed
and regenerated by a life in accordance with conscience and truth from the
Writings.
Some might
argue that acknowledging and worshipping the Writings as God Himself is a religious
requirement for salvation, and similar therefore to previous sectarian faith.
But this view is not based on the actual information in the Writings. The
Writings give rational, objective, empirical, and scientific explanations and
demonstrations of who God is, and the invariant mechanisms by which the
universe is run and kept running by laws and principles anyone can study and
understand. Reality is not something one can invent or discover. It must be
revealed to be known. The earlier forms of revelation led to dogma because they
were not scientific and rational revelations. They were full of mystery and
unexplained workings behind the scenes by an invisible and little understood
Deity. If this had been the new revelation once more, dogma would again be inevitable.
But dogma can no longer exist in the light of rational explanation of religion,
God, regeneration, heaven, and hell.
All anyone
needs to do to verify what I’m saying here, is to read the details in the
Writings. The full set is available online for searching and reading at this
Web address:
1. Religious Membership Not Required For Salvation
The
Writings show why the Second Coming was necessary at this time in history and
evolution of the race. This new creation, called the
This is
called reformation and is the prelude to regeneration that goes on till the end
of life in the body. Then, a few hours later, the individual awakens in the spiritual
world in a spirit-body and continues immortal life in either heaven or hell.
All are instructed in the truths that have been revealed in the Writings, and
those who can receive them, enter heaven, but those who reject the truths,
enter hell. It has nothing to do with religious membership, belief system, or past
misdeeds and sins. The only requirement for entering eternal life in heaven is
to accept the truths that are taught to all novitiate spirits as they arrive
from the earths in the universe in great numbers every day (xx).
In this
new universal age, all religions and cultures have been rendered equivalent in
salvation.
That means
that henceforth anyone, regardless of religion or culture, has a way of
salvation by undergoing reformation and regeneration in accordance with the new
truths revealed in the Writings. Since the vast majority of people today go
through life without having even heard of the Writings, they are instructed as
novitiate spirits as soon as they arrive in the afterlife. Why the Writings?
Because the Lord had to chose a revelator through whom the New Word can be
given and written down (TCR 779). There is no other way possible from creation. Salvation
has always been be new revelations from the Lord. All evolutionary steps of the
human race were accomplished in this way, by new truths given to the race by
means of a revelator who writes down and teaches the New Word of the Lord (xx).
Spiritual truths cannot be discovered but
must be revealed from the Lord (xx). And only spiritual truths in the mind
can make it possible for an individual to live in heaven (xx).
To be saved
means to develop a mind that can live in heaven. No one is saved by merit,
status, reputation, initiation, birth, or membership. Who is saved is a
scientific issue. It is a matter pf psychobiology, just as it is a matter of agriculture
as to which plant survives and flourishes in the face of insects and the
weather.
Hence no
one can have any spiritual truths from any other source but the revelations
from the Lord to one individual who writes them down for others to read,
understand, and believe. Through this knowledge, there is contact with the Lord
who can then effect actual regeneration and salvation, to the extent that we
are willing to cooperate with Him. Without this conscious intellectual system
obtained from the revealed Word, regeneration cannot actualize in this life. This necessary regeneration process cannot
take place in the afterlife except to the extent that the individual has led a
life of good in accordance with conscience that was considered from God. If
conscience was thought of as the voice of self within, or the voice of our
higher self within, then we refuse the truths of regeneration when instructed
in the afterlife. This was empirically demonstrated to Swedenborg by much
careful observation he made over many years, involving thousands of individuals
arriving every day in the afterlife (xx).
2. Revelation Is Necessary For Spiritual
Truths
Why is a
revelator needed? Why does the Lord not come Himself, in the natural world for
all to see, as He did at the Incarnation? Many people have this physicalistic
idea of the Lord’s return and His physicalistic exercise of Divine power to
flatten all objections and doubts about the Divine. Why would He not do this
since this would convince everyone as they are convinced that airplanes exist
and the moon is made of rock, not cheese.
The
Writings explain that the First Coming was to create in the human race a
sensuous consciousness of Him as God. This was accomplished by glorifying the
natural human self He acquired as a Child growing up among the people with whom
the Word was at that time and point in the race’s evolution (AC 1434). To
glorify His natural human self means that He made it one with the Divine in
Himself (xx). This act of making the human Divine, created a new reality by
which the human race could see Him and understand Him. It was important for the
human race to be able to have a definite view of Him in order to feel close to
Him and love Him. By this love alone can the human race receive from Him what
it needs in order to be saved. And now we know that this what we need to be
saved: Understanding Him in scientific detail. This kind of rational and full
understanding of Him makes it possible to receive from Him the eternal endless
blessings of salvation. These blessings
of salvation and happiness are received within the rational understanding of
Him.
Heaven is
made of His Truth within which is His Love. Clearly then, our access to heaven
is by means of learning His truth, understanding it, and loving it. Then we
have heaven or salvation. A revelation is therefore always needed to bring
Divine truth to our understanding. If we reject this truth, we deny ourselves a
mechanism for receiving heaven. The only thing we can receive in man-made or
man-discovered truth, is hell. It’s a simple practical matter: You can hop on a
real helicopter to take you up the mountain, or a wooden helicopter that will
never take of the ground except when lifted and thrown back down by a
hurricane. It’s not a mystery, not a secret membership of the favored, not a
slot you can buy by means of power, influence, and money. Everyone has equal
access through willingness to receive.
In the
First Coming of the Lord at His Incarnation, the human race was able to see God
in a Natural Body. Until then the Lord was not visible, though He appeared to
many by taking over the spirit-body of an angel and speaking through the angel.
What people then saw was not the Lord, but the angel from whom the Lord spoke
to them. Many such encounters are described in the Old Testament. But this
arrangement was only temporary because it did not allow the closest possible
contact between the Lord and the human race. How can one love a God who only
speaks through an angel, not through His Own Presence?
The Lord
then came into the natural world through the virgin pregnancy of a woman who
birthed the Divine Child (xx). The Lord did not allow this new natural human Form
of Himself to have full perception into its interior mind so as to see who He
was in reality. He wanted this Child to grow up like other children so that it
would develop a natural self and personality. This could not have occurred if
He had not limited the Child’s vision into Himself. He gradually taught this Child
in an external way, about who He really was, doing this by means of the Hebrew
Word, or the Old Testament (xx). This is how the Child gradually learned from
the Word who He was and why He had been incarnated. It was a self-realization
that came to Him consciously from His external environment—the Holy Book that
the Jews had guarded over the centuries. The purpose of this gradual
self-realization, rather than instantaneous revelation and vision, is described
in great detail by the Lord in both the Old Testament and in the Writings. But
in the Old Testament these descriptions were hidden by the language of
correspondences, which are now revealed and rationally explained by the Lord in
the Writings. This is why the Writings are called Heavenly Secrets (AC 1).
These revelations about Himself could not have been given before this. The
reasons are fully explained in the Writings.
The Lord’s
Incarnation was necessary so that the human race could form a genuine and true
“picture” of Him, without which we could not get close to Him and love Him from
an inmost love. Without this inmost love unto Him from Him, no one could
receive the ultimate celestial blessings that He longed to bestow on every created
human being. Therefore the Lord had to Incarnate and show Himself to history,
science, and physical reality. But this was only the first step in the makeover
of the human mind. The final step could not as yet be taken by the human race.
Seventeen more centuries of preparation had to pass, until the human race had
acquired a modern rational mind. The final revelation can only exist in the
human rational mind. This step was completed in 1771 when Swedenborg published
the last work of the Writings called The
True Christian Religion (xx).
This second
step of the Lord’s revelation of Himself was to create a new mind within the
natural one, that could function to give us rational consciousness of Him, not
merely sensuous consciousness from His natural and physical Appearance to the
race. This new rational mind is called the spiritual mind and the Lord creates
it in everyone to the extent that one is willing to apply the New Truths to our
daily willing and thinking--regardless of religious background! The Lord saves
and elevates to Himself every individual of the human race anywhere in the
universe, to the extent that the individual allows Him to do this. Spiritual freedom is maintained by thinking
with rational concepts about spiritual truths.
For
example, to think that there is no absolute truth is to think naturally about
spiritual things. To think this is a persuasion rather than a rational opinion.
Ask a random sample of those who deny absolute truth to state their
justification. You will discover that they have no rational justifications.
They put together various inconsistent or unrelated things they pick up here
and there when they are impressed by someone or some writing. Yet they feel
convinced. Hence it is a persuasion. There is no mental freedom for those who
are in a state of being convinced from persuasion (xx).
3. The New Rational Consciousness of God
Approaching the spiritual domain
through sensuous consciousness leads to states of persuasion and loss of
rational freedom, hence, loss of spiritual sanity. There is then an inability to
recognize which spiritual propositions are true and which false. Even worse,
truth is seen as falsity and falsity is seen as truth (NJHD
171). There is no exit from
this hell in the mind except through one door provided by the Lord for every
religion and every philosophy—reformation and regeneration. For those who are
ignorant of the Writings or are unable to read it and comprehend it, the Lord
provides an inner conscience through which He speaks to them and guides them in
their daily willing and thinking—but only to the extent they are willing to
obey the voice of conscience and to take it as God’s Voice within them. In the
afterlife they are informed and instructed who this inner voice was, and those
who listened to the voice of conscience as God’s Voice, recognize His voice
then, accept the details of the New Truths about Him, and with these in their
mind and understanding, enter their heaven and eternal bliss.
The voice of conscience is effective
for salvation since it provides rational consciousness of super-human
authority, that is, of God’s connection and intimate closeness to the
individual.
We can only
love God when we feel close to Him and connected. And only in this love can
we be saved and receive eternal blessings from Him. Those who withhold and reject this love in themselves from Him, arrive
with a mind unfit for heavenly habitation. They sink down into hellish
habitations where they eek out a miserable existence among others who are like
them. What is amazing is that the Lord does not keep them there, but they keep
themselves there, for when at any time they have the desire to visit heaven,
they do so, but quickly cast themselves back down, being seized with explosive
and insane hatred for the life they find there. Amazingly, they find the unspeakably
miserable life in hell more desirable and pleasurable than the life of love, truth,
and beauty in heaven.
In the Word
of the New Testament, the voice of conscience is represented as the “Holy
Spirit.” The followers of the Lord at His First Coming loved Him in His
physical presence, that is, they knew Him from sensuous consciousness.
Seventeen centuries of intellectual development had to happen before the race
was sufficiently prepared for His Second Coming, that is, in our rational
consciousness of Him. This rational consciousness did not exist with the Apostles
and the Christian Church, except in a slight degree, through their belief in
the existence of the Holy Spirit within them. A full awareness and rational
understanding of what it means to have the Holy spirit within, only became
possible when the spiritual-celestial mind could be created within the modern
version of the external rational mind, developed by science, education, art,
and culture. Human beings had to evolve
so that they might be willing to love the Lord from rational consciousness.
Until then,
people were willing to love Him from sensuous consciousness—e.g., His Blood, His
Tunic, His Relics, His Sacrifice, His Miracles, His Resurrection. They were
unable to love Him from rational consciousness, such as the idea that He and
the Father were the same Person. It takes rational consciousness to understand
how the Lord manages every detail of our willing and thinking, and yet we are
still full of evils. It takes rational consciousness to understand that people
keep themselves in hell and that it is not a forced punishment. It takes
rational consciousness to understand how discrete degrees operate in every
object and in the human mind. And what
cannot be understood is not revealed by the Lord since it would place people
into spiritual harm far worse than they can place themselves on their own
through fantasies and distortions (xx).
Further,
people cannot love what they don’t understand (xx). These are the rational
reasons why the revelations of the Second Coming could not be given until
modern times. Sensuous consciousness of God is a type of connection that allows
only a distant relationship of love, while rational consciousness of the Lord
allows the inmost relationship of love capable by the human race. And every
good and truth the race has, is from this rational love unto Him that we have
from Him.
Even today,
these ideas appear to most people as vague, imaginative, inconclusive,
unbelievable. Many people are willing and able to love God when He makes
Himself sensually or sensibly present through physical miracles, a physical voice
form heaven, a physical pestilence brought on the people by their sins, and the
like. Furthermore, people can only feel actually forgiven if they see tangible evidence
of it, like sacrifices being offered as atonement, in the olden days. Today,
people still expect as proof of God’s existence, physically evident miracles,
special gifts and physical powers, a successful outcome to their projects and
prayers, objects they consider sacred, and so on. This sensuous consciousness
of God is a natural relationship, not spiritual. It has been vastated and
consummated, and a new rational consciousness, serves in its stead.
Miracles close the internal man, and deprive man of all that
free will, through which and in which man is regenerated. Free will really
belongs to the internal man; and when this is closed up, the man becomes
external and natural; and such a man does not see any spiritual truth. Miracles
also are like veils and bars lest anything might enter. This bar, or this
obstruction, however, is gradually broken, and [then] all truths become
dispersed. (INV 6)
Rational
consciousness allows the idea of the universal Church (HH
308), that is, the idea
that religious affiliation cannot save but what can, is individual regeneration.
Faith based on sensuous consciousness is persuasive faith, which the individual
rejects in the afterlife (xx). But rational faith remains in the afterlife and
saves. This is because all the heavens have been recreated by the Lord
through the new rational truths He unveiled in His Second Coming. Now
people must come into the afterlife with rational consciousness of spiritual
things, in order to form a plane of life that supports heavenly existence. This
is because He is Divine Truth, and all truth is rational, and all things are
created by means of Divine Truth (xx). Unless we have rational truths of God we
cannot be conjoined with the Lord. Without conjunction through our rational
idea and love for the Lord, our presence in heaven is not possible.
Prior to
the formation of the New Heavens there were the old heavens and their vast
outskirts where people were able to live adequately while waiting for the New
Heavens to be created (xx). Then, when Swedenborg published the last work of
the Writings in 1771, the New Heavens were completed by means the new truths
that the Lord revealed to the angels and those living in the outskirts of
heaven (xx). A vast migration was then accomplished by the Lord, instructing
everyone there in His new rational truths, and admitting and accommodating all
those who were willing to receive the new rational truths about Himself. But
here on earth things take much longer! Only a few people today are willing to
form the
Remains are like some
heavenly star, which, the smaller it is the less light it gives, and the
larger, the more light. (AC
530)
4. Nonduality is from Self-intelligence
Nonduality
is the intellectual process of our natural intelligence when we think about God
and spiritual things. This opposition between the natural sensuous mind and the
rational spiritual mind, is a developmental process of the human mind—even the
Lord as a Divine Child growing up on earth made Himself go through this
process. When He was still growing up as a young child, the Lord consulted his natural
mind or natural intelligence, about the truths of the Old Testament He was
reading. He then revealed to Himself from within His Divine, that He is not to consult
natural intelligence regarding the truths of the Word. Instead, He instructed
Himself to rely on truths that He is going to reveal to His natural mind from
His spiritual mind (HH 308). It is a natural step therefore, for everyone to first
attempt to discover spiritual truths by using one’s own natural intelligence.
Afterwards, the Lord reveals to us when we read the Writings, that we must no think
naturally about spiritual revelations. We must read the revelations as Divine
Truth already, and then, and only then, trying to understand what we read. This
understanding is not passive but active. It is a rational process of figuring
out what the literal language of revelation says. The goal of this
understanding is to avoid doubt and questioning based on our own prior ideas
and attitudes. Instead, all our mental effort must be in understanding how the details
we are given are true and rational. This is the activity what builds our rational
consciousness, and nothing else.
The general
belief that there is no absolute truth is an instance of this nonduality
operating today in the natural mind. Absolute truth is a spiritual idea since only
God is absolute, and His truth is absolute truth. This is known from revelation
that God gives to all people through their religion and culture. To accept
genuine revelation is therefore to have an idea of God that is rational. This
rational consciousness of God saves the person, as long as one obeys God’s
commandments in daily life. But to deny absolute truth is to consult one’s
self-intelligence in matters of spiritual truths, and this is forbidden because
it leads to spiritual self-destruction:
Those things
which are from one's own intelligence have no life in them, since nothing good
proceeds from man's proprium (NJHD 256).
[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. (AC 1072)
Spiritual self-destruction
means that people in the afterlife refuse to let go of their self-imposed
spiritual insanity, thereby keeping themselves in the hells that exist in every
human mind (NJHD 256).
Self-intelligence
in matters dealing with natural things is called the external rational level of thinking, or the natural-rational level
of the mind. This external rational level is to be contrasted with the interior
rational level, which is called the spiritual-rational level of the mind. The
difference between the natural-rational and the spiritual-rational is like the
difference between hell and heaven. Why then is the natural-rational capable of
giving us science and civilization? Wouldn’t the natural-rational mind become
insane and not capable of living a modern life of law and order in democracy?
The answer is that it would indeed, were the Lord to allow that. But the
Lord wills that we succeed in our physical environment with this self-intelligence
based on our experience and reflection.
Our successes
in the natural world is powered by the Lord, even when we deny it. He gives His
power and intelligence to people’s goals and plans regardless of their
acknowledging Him and regardless of whether they live wickedly or well in this
world. He does this out of love for the every individual and His greatest
desire to keep the individual in a state of spiritual freedom as long as
possible. Only in spiritual freedom can we choose willingly to love Him. In
this way He keeps everyone in a state in which they can decide freely to
cooperate in regeneration and thus be saved for eternal happiness. But this Divine
assist in the background, works out only for our natural activities and ideas. It
would be spiritually disastrous for the Lord to do the same thing in spiritual
things and ideas that we form for ourselves in freedom and rationality.
Instead of
this disastrous direct intervention in the background, the Lord provides
indirect management or assistance in His open revelation of the Word. This
allows us to be informed in genuine truths about Him, and thereby to reject the
falsities of truths we invent in the natural mind. Spiritual truth cannot be
discovered like natural truth. This is a Divine Law of Providence (AC
6047 [2], INV 22, SE 4131).
All genuine spiritual truth must come to us from the Lord into the external
natural mind, by means of the written revelations of His Word. When we accept
genuine revelation as Divine truth, we are allowing the Lord to create our
spiritual-rational mind, the mind we must have to live in heaven.
By Adam, or
man, and by Eve his wife, was there meant a new church, and by the eating of
the tree of knowledge, the fall of that church from good to truth, consequently
from love to the Lord and toward the neighbor to faith without these loves, and
this by reasoning from their own intellectual, which reasoning is the serpent
(AC 8891).
The
American intellectual climate we live in exposes nearly everyone to ideas of nonduality.
Some are imported from Eastern religions and philosophical systems, some are
Western in tradition and contemporary formulation. And some are indigenous to
the
Every one after death is immediately bound to his like, the
good to their like in heaven, but the evil to their like in hell (LJ 69)
The power
that governs all loves is called conjugial love, and it is based on the
permanent and absolute distinction between a man and a woman (CL 44). It would
be instantly destroyed by any switching around of sexual identity (to use a
modern phrase), and so the duality of man and woman cannot be turned into a
nonduality or a continuum of masculinity-femininity. Eastern nonduality is the
opposite view that all distinctions are illusory, temporary, unreal, and to be
transcended. Self=God, man=woman, individual=Divine, material world=spiritual
world, corporeal=spiritual, energy=God, evil=good, angel=man, and so on. You
can see that some of these equations are imported from the East, but others are
indigenous to the West, as for example the idea in materialistic science of human
sexuality as a continuum on a masculinity-femininity scale. Nonduality is a
property of the natural mind and acts against all spiritual-rational concepts of
duality. Nonduality is a corporeal-sensuous style of reasoning that looks
outward and downward in the spiritual mind, seeing a continuity of degree
between everything conceivable. This is why nonduality is also in science,
where it is called materialistic monism (i.e., “only the natural world exists”).
Another
reason that the natural mind reacts against the spiritual mind is that the
natural mind consists not only of substances of the spiritual world but also of
substances of the natural world, as was said above (n. 257), and substances of
the natural world from their very nature react against the substances of the
spiritual world. For substances of the natural world are in themselves dead,
and are acted upon from without by substances of the spiritual world. And
substances which are dead, and are acted upon from without, resist from their
own nature, and thus from their nature react. From these considerations it can
be established that the natural man reacts against the spiritual man, and that
there is a conflict. It is the same thing whether it is said the natural and
spiritual man, or the natural and spiritual mind. (DLW 260)
If any idea
of nonduality were to be confirmed in the
Nonduality
is a natural consequence of the natural mind. Rational nondualities abound in
modern science and in humanistic philosophy and psychology. The
natural-rational mind is a modern development needed for the build up of the spiritual-rational
mind. But its initial or unreformed state, is opposed to spiritual-rational
ideas to the extent that we have confirmed in our mind the theory of nonduality
of existence, that is, believing that the natural can exist by itself, without the
spiritual or God. This belief may be around in society and culture, but it is
not necessary to confirm it and believe in it within our interior mind where we
are free to believe whatever we want. If we do not confirm the ideas of
nonduality we remain open to believing spiritual truths from the Word, that are
not accessible to the natural mind. This belief opens up the spiritual mind,
and we for the first time begin to live like a genuine human. The genuine human
only begins in the spiritual-rational mind. Everything below it in the natural-rational
mind, the sensuous mind, and the corporeal mind, is not genuine human, but
animal (xx). Our natural mind is superior to animals in language and thinking
power, but this is merely a continuum of superiority in physiology and
functioning. The human begins with the spiritual rational at reformation in adult
life. Only the spiritual mind is human, and we are born with the capacity to
become genuinely human and to have our spiritual mind opened in adult life. The
spiritual-rational mind can be opened only by revealed truths from the heaven
from the Lord. This is also why the
Nonduality
permeates our modern culture and is a dictating force in politics,
entertainment, recreation, education, science, the arts, man-woman relations,
and articulated or fashionable lifestyles. Eastern nonduality did not create
nonduality in the Western mind. Rather, the enormous appetite of modernism for nonduality
in Western cultures, have created a mental marketplace for the imported ideas
from the culturally rich fabric of Eastern religions and philosophies, and
their physical and mental disciplines and arts. The imported nonduality mixes
around with the indigenous nonduality with the result that we are surrounded by
a culturally rich web that enters into our mind from everywhere--into public
life, mental health practices, group and individual therapy, popular
followings, professional ethics, morality in relationships, and lifestyle
choices relating to health, physical programs, and “spirituality.” Thus, nonduality in our mind is a
significant presence that must be dealt with first when we start our
reformation in adult life.
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)
You can see
then that nonduality is the mind we have when we begin our reformation and
prior to being on the road to regeneration. The
5. Nonduality In The Mind Opposes
Regeneration
If any
imported element of nonduality were to be admitted and confirmed in the
When we try
to write down the spiritual insight that came in the application, we can do so,
but when we read it in another state of mind, we only see something natural in
it, and we may even believe that this natural that we see, is spiritual. But it
is not. The spiritual-rational only functions in the spiritual mind, and the
spiritual mind is closed when we fall back into a natural state. We need many
years of constant spiritual discipline to be able to remain steadfastly in a
state of mind where we are consciously living from the spiritual mind through
the natural, and not merely from the natural (see Volume 3 for spiritual
disciplines). In the unregenerate state of mind the natural mind is turned
downward towards earth, but at reformation, the natural mind is turned around,
and now faces heaven (xx). When the natural mind faces heaven, it faces the
spiritual mind, and it obeys. Prior to that, it does what it pleases from
itself, and thus, it slides easily into hell. The turning around of the natural mind is effected at reformation by
means of rational analysis of everything in our mind, comparing each element
with the truths of the Writings that we study and endeavor to understand
rationally. All that is needed a this point to make the process effective,
is to apply it to our daily willing and thinking. This application gives birth
to the spiritual mind and opens it for continued growth. By the end of
reformation, everything in the
A constant and
effective mental vigilance is therefore necessary in order to manage our willing
and thinking moment by moment every day. This orientation is fully efficacious
against the spiritual invasion of “strange fires” in the surrounding ocean of
cultural and scientific nonduality. Constant self-witnessing is also an
efficacious mental management technique that gives us the ability to cooperate
with the Lord in our regeneration (BE 69, TCR 615, 577). I discuss this in
Volume 3 under the topic of spiritual disciplines that we can use for the
conscious self-management of our daily activities. Since this is the very arena
of our regeneration it is crucial that we make use of available techniques the
Lord puts at our disposal. I will show that the numerous resistances we
experience in our daily regeneration efforts, stem from ideas of nonduality,
either imported or indigenous. Rational analysis of our ideas that is
informed by the Writings, creates dualities to replace every form of nonduality
in the mind.
It is
important to understand in detail, not just in general, what danger nonduality
poses to the
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. (AC 806)
All nonduality concepts have at
their core nonduality. Search if you like and see if you can find one that is not so marked from
within. Every nonduality concept is opposed to our mind because it contradicts
the duality concepts that we have from the Writings.
Chapter 1, Section 2
I became
aware of the dangers that nonduality might pose to the New Church mind when I
was recently asked to comment on a brief article by Wilson Van Dusen titled
“The Highest Insight in Hinduism and in Swedenborg” (first published in the Messenger
June 2001; reprinted in ISI News, Newsletter of Information Swedenborg,
March 2002, issue 54, pp. 8-9). It was about nonduality and introduces the
issue as follows: (discussed further in Chapter 2 Section 1)
Hinduism's
advaita vedanta or non-dual theology, probably represents the highest mystical
insight possible. It is the insight that ultimately only God exists. My friends
know that I regard Swedenborg's mystical revelations as the greatest ever. We
can then ask the question, Can we also find non-dualism in Swedenborg? The
answer is a resounding yes. The highest revelation of Hinduism is also in
Swedenborg's revelations even though the two traditions had no contact.
In order to
understand what this article is saying in relation to Swedenborg I needed to
research how Hindu nonduality exists in the ideas of Americans today. Searching
for nonduality sites on the World Wide Web yielded a large quantity and
diversity of information on contemporary formulations of traditional
definitions. I then went back to Dr. Van Dusen’s article and felt surprised at
the opening claim, quoted above. How can nonduality be compatible with the
Writings when every concept I know from the Writings is grounded in permanent
and absolute dualism: God/creation; love/wisdom, heaven/hell; create/uncreate;
natural/spiritual; spiritual/celestial; regenerating/unregenerate; good/evil;
truth/falsity; Father/Son, Esse/Existere; infinite/finite; will/understanding;
and so on. Nonduality would deny that these distinctions are absolute and a
permanent feature of reality. As we read in the Writings:
Good exists
from creation, and it varies in degree from the highest to the lowest. When its
lowest degree reaches zero, evil arises on the other side. So there is no
relationship or progress of good to evil, but it relates and progresses to what
is more or less good. Evil relates and progresses to what is more or is less
evil, because these are opposites in every single detail. (CL 444)
There is
therefore an inherent clash in the
1. Evil and good cannot exist together in man's interiors;
and consequently neither can the falsity of evil and the truth of good.
2. Good and the truth of good can be introduced by the Lord
into man's interiors only so far as the evil and the falsity of evil there have
been removed.
3.
If good with its truth were introduced there before or in a greater measure
than evil with its falsity is removed, man would depart from good and return to
his evil. (DP 232)
Chapter 1, Section 3
Nondualism
is opposed to the definition of reality given by dualism because nondualism
asserts the contrary view that all dualities stem from a temporary illusion
created by the mind, which itself is an illusion created by its many
attachments to temporary things. And so, when the individual awakens from this
illusion (maya) all dualities drop off, leaving behind nonduality as the only
reality called God (Brahman). Nondualism urges that every individual mind
awaken from this illusion created by the unreal self (atman), and when all attachments
drop off and the self is emptied, there remains the only Reality (Brahman).
This is the basis and foundation stone of religious and philosophic nonduality.
Every other concept derived from this defining proposition must also be
congruent with nonduality. Therefore not a single concept in nonduality can be
similar in meaning to any concept in the Writings where dualism permeates every
concept to its core assumptions and implications. To attempt to commingle the
two by arguing for similarities leads to a clash of doctrine in the
The
kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he
hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that
field. (Matthew 13:44) (AC 5886)
This
confirms what has been stated in the Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church
in its universal and in its particular form, at the beginning of this work,
namely, "The Lord came into the world to remove Hell from man, and He did
remove it by means of combats with it and victories over it, thereby subduing
it and reducing it to obedience to Himself." And further, "Jehovah
God came down and took upon Him the Human for the purpose of reducing to order
all things in heaven and all things in the church; because at that time the
power of the devil, that is, of hell, prevailed over the power of heaven, and
upon earth the power of evil over that of good and in consequence a total
damnation stood threatening at the door. This impending damnation Jehovah God
removed by means of His Human, thus redeeming angels and men. From this it is
clear that without the Lord's coming no one could have been saved. It is the
same today; and therefore without the Lord's coming again into the world no one
can be saved" (see above, n. 2, 3). (TCR 121)
Given birth
by the Writings, the
all
truths - not only the general ones but also the particular, and indeed the most
specific - must in heaven have been arranged into that order so that one truth
relates to another within a form like that in which the members, organs, and
viscera of the human body relate to one another. That is, their uses relate to
one another in general, also in particular, as well as most specifically, and
act so as to be a single whole. … When therefore truths have been arranged into
an order like that into which heaven is arranged they exist in heavenly order
and are able to enter good. Truths and goods exist in such order with every
angel, and they are also being arranged into such order with every person who
is being regenerated. (AC 4302)
Eastern and
Western nonduality forever strives to empty itself of the rational order into which
the celestial mind is arranged from creation (AC 5113). It grounds itself in
corporeal and experiential things instead. Its religious life of discipline is
in physical and mental disciplines accompanied by prescribed physical exercises
and communal chanting or rituals of initiation. These are traditions that were
established long before the religious civilization initiated in the West by the
First Coming. From the perspective of the New Church mind the highest content
it can find in the mental exercises (often called “meditation”) consist in
sensuous visions and corporeal metaphors of spiritual ideas like God, heaven,
sacred objects, forms of energy, action at a distance, merging into the all,
divine vibration, mystical union, transcendental, universal spirit, and many
such things, all of which are below the rational in the New Church mind.
This is also true of all forms of nonduality including Western and scientific
sources. It is one thing to think about God in a natural way, and
another to think from God in a spiritual way (DP 142). To think about spiritual things in a natural
way means to think of them only in metaphors.
From the
point of view of the Writings, natural
metaphors have no spiritual-rational content except as correspondences of each
other. The knowledge of the correspondences is natural, but from them
one can be introduced to spiritual meanings (AC 9280). The spiritual cannot be
seen in the lower portions of the natural mind, but starts to be seen above the
corporeal and above the sensuous, in the external rational region of the
natural mind (AC 978, 4286; AE 355:14). Below this, there is no spiritual
content because no rational. Correspondences are rational only to the
extent that they are understood from the idea of discrete degrees between the
natural and the spiritual (D. Wis. 2). This alone is rational. Any form of
nonduality cannot rise to the rational level, but sinks down to the material. Material
ideas cannot be spiritually rational because they deny what is not natural.
Scientific theories that assume materialism are based on material concepts or
natural-rational reasonings. They reject or spew out whatever idea that is not
natural. These natural things of the mind that that are the highest in
nonduality, correspond to the lowest spiritual level, and is compared in the
Writings to "the intestines" (AC 10030).
Nonduality
as a religious and philosophic discipline leads to the notion that the control
of the body and the corporeal mind, is a way to spiritual things. There is no
requirement for the rational to be initiated and developed. The spiritual is
said to develop when these physical exercises and mental feats are performed.
Hence the focus and emphasis on corporeal and mental disciplines, martial arts,
initiation rituals, and diet. It is taught that spiritual “energy” issues from
the body in particular places identified as “chakras.” Also, that performing
well practiced physical movements of a certain style help the practitioner to
become “one with the flow, one with nature.” This sensation of integration is
by itself considered as the spiritual attainment. It’s a spirituality that is
emptied of any rational content in contrast to
Chapter 1, Section 4
[3] The human rational - that is to say, the rational formed
from images of worldly things received through the senses, and later on from
images of things analogous to actual worldly ones, such as are received from
factual knowledge and from cognitions - virtually laughs or mocks if it is told
that it does not live of itself but only appears to itself to do so. It
likewise laughs if it is told that the less anyone believes that he lives of
himself, the more he is truly living, that is, the more wise and intelligent he
is, and the more blessed and happy. And it also laughs if it is told that that
life is the life which angels possess, especially those who are celestial and
are inmost or nearest to the Lord; for these know that nobody except Jehovah
alone, that is, the Lord, lives of himself.
[4] This rational would also mock if it were told that it
has nothing of its own, and that its possessing anything of its own is an
illusion or an appearance. Still more would it mock if it were told that the
more it is subject to the illusion that it possesses anything of its own the
less it in fact possesses, and vice versa. It would likewise mock if it were
told that whatever it thinks and does from what is its own is evil, even though
it was good [in its effect], and if it were told that it has no wisdom until it
believes and perceives that all evil comes from hell and all good from the
Lord. This is a conviction, indeed a perception, that exists in all angels, yet
they possess selfhood or a proprium in fuller measure than all others. But they
realize and perceive that their selfhood comes from the Lord, even though it
seems to be completely their own.
[5] This rational would again mock if it were told that in
heaven the greatest are those who are least; that the wisest are those who
believe and perceive that they themselves are the least wise; that the happiest
are those who wish the greatest happiness to others and the least to
themselves; that heaven consists in wishing to be below everyone else, but hell
in wishing to be above everyone else; and that consequently the glory of heaven
does not hold within it anything at all of that which the glory of the world holds.
[6] This rational would similarly mock if it were told that
in the next life space and time do not exist at all but states in accordance
with which there are appearances of space and time, and that life becomes more
heavenly the further removed it is from the things that belong to space and
time and the closer it comes to that which is eternal - for that which is
eternal has absolutely nothing within it that is received from the notion of
time or anything analogous to it. In the same way would the rational mock at
countless other things it could be told.
[7] The Lord
saw that such things were present in the merely human rational and that this
rational therefore mocked Divine things. He did so from the Divine spiritual,
which is meant by the words 'Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian', 2651,
2652. The fact that a person is able from within to have insight into the
things residing with him that are below is well known from experience to those
who have perception, and also to those who have conscience, for they see
clearly enough to reproach themselves for what they think. This exemplifies how
regenerate persons are able to see what their rational prior to regeneration is
like. In man's case however such perception is received from the Lord, but in
the Lord's case it was Self-derived. (AC 2654)
The
Writings reveal that the
In contrast,
the New Testament reinterprets the Old Testament text in a more rational,
abstract, and spiritual way. The New Testament introduces external rational
concepts that can serve as vessels for containing genuine spiritual-rational
ideas, not mere natural representatives of spiritual ideas (NJHD 51; AC 3508).
The representations in themselves are not spiritual just as the literal
sentences of the Word are not spiritual, but only the spiritual correspondences
to which the literal represented.
Truth
Divine is not received by anyone unless it has been accommodated to his
apprehension, consequently unless it appears in a natural form and shape; for
at first human minds apprehend none but earthly and worldly things, and not at
all spiritual and heavenly things. Wherefore if spiritual and heavenly things
were set forth nakedly, they would be rejected as if they were nothing, (AC
8783)
Anyone
reading the Word without at the same time thinking of the spiritual meaning in
the sentences has then read nothing spiritual (AC 9280). Further, the content
of the spiritual meaning one thinks of must be revealed truths about God,
heaven, sin, love, faith, and regeneration. This process of rational analysis
is a necessary step for applying the rational rules of correspondence that have
been revealed. Without this rational
application, the faith of one’s religion, including the
The
Christian mind prior to the Second Coming in the eighteenth century could not be
regenerated from natural to spiritual by means of the ideas it obtained from
the literal text of the New Testament. Christians who passed into the spiritual
world between the First and Second Coming, were kept “in waiting” in the
spiritual world, until such time as the Writings were completed. They then were
instructed in the new spiritual-rational revelations, and by means of these in
their understanding, they were at last admitted to heaven (TCR 115). All those
who were willing to receive the Heavenly Doctrine were made part of the New
Heavens of the Second Coming (TCR 1)
Because it is here said, "until the words of God are
consummated," it shall also be told what is signified by the Lord's last
words to the disciples, which are these:
Go
ye and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you all the days, even
until the consummation of the age. Amen (Matt. 28:19-20).
"Until
the consummation of the age" is until the end of the church (n. 658); and
then, if they do not go to the Lord Himself, and live according to His
commandments, they are left by the Lord; and being left by the Lord they become
like pagans, who have no religion; and then the Lord is with those only, who will
be of His New Church. These things are signified by "until the words of
God are consummated," and by "even until the consummation of the
age." (AR 750)
But before
the Lord’s Second Coming, Christians were not able to be constituted into a new
heaven because unable to receive spiritual-rational truths about the Divine
Human. During the First Advent, the Lord was reticent to multiply miracles
because this strengthens corporeal spirituality and weakens rational
spirituality. Since the Second Advent no miracles are allowed (AC 7290). The
Lord on earth frequently taught abstract and rational ideas, encouraging,
challenging, sometimes teasing, the disciples to prompt them to think more
abstractedly and rationally about Him, heaven, and regeneration. But these rational
vessels were not yet dualist enough. The Lord was unable to bring to them
concepts of absolute dualism, for they were uncomprehending and unwilling. In a
matter of a few generations even these few and obscure rational concepts were
diverted and turned downward towards many forms of heretical nondualities that
prevent regeneration in confirmed believers. When confirmed believers of
Christian nonduality arrive in the afterlife they are unwilling to be
instructed in the dualities of the Heavenly Doctrine (AC 2329, 5256,
10736-10738, 10821; TCR 821; SE 408; HH 321). Thus they cannot be saved.
More
gentiles are saved than Christians. For people who have thought what is good in
regard to their neighbour and have willed for him that which is good accept the
truths of faith in the next life more readily than those who called themselves
Christians; and they acknowledge the Lord more than Christians do. (AC 2284)
The
interiors cannot be so closed up with the heathen as with Christians (n. 9256).
Neither can so thick a cloud exist with the heathen who live in mutual charity
in accordance with their religion as with Christians who live in no charity;
the reasons (n. 1059, 9256). (HH 321)
A principal
example given in the Writings, is the idea implanted by allegiance to the
Nicene Creed (325 AD onward) of a “Son from Eternity” which created a
nonduality between “Three Divine Persons” being of “one substance” and formed
into one “Godhead.” (TCR 174, CAN 43) This idea was called a “mystery” and it
replaced the Father/Son duality that the Lord taught to the disciples, which
was “the Son born in time” and “the Father from Eternity” and not, “the Son
from Eternity in the One Godhead” and “the Father from Eternity in the One
Godhead.” The generations following the apostles were unable to understand the
Incarnation of the Father Himself in the external form of the Son born in time.
The Divinity of “the Son born in time” within whom was God the Father Himself,
could not be understood and believed, until the generations were prepared by
rational science and philosophy to understand more abstract dualist concepts in
discrete degrees. The Lord could say to them “The Father is in Me” but they
could not but take this description in the natural sense. At this level of
thinking, it is not possible to see an identity of Personhood between Father
and Son. Therefore the mind is thrown back to the idea of “Two Divine
Persons in One Godhead.” The only other option is that the Father is Divine
while the Son is human—the “Arian heresy” that the Nicene Creed was designed to
defeat. In the Writings these are also called “Socinian spirits” (DP 231; TCR
94, 380, AR 0, LJ 38).
1. The New Age Of The Second Coming
At last, in
the Writings of the Second Coming, the Lord has brought humankind the gift of spiritual-rational
ideas that are fully suitable for being infilled by the celestial ideas of the
angels. The literal explanations of the Writings are first received in the
external rational of the natural mind. This in itself is not spiritual but is
well suited for the construction of rational “vessels” that can be infilled by
spiritual-rational truths from the Lord through heaven (AC 9280, 8783, 3508).
This infilling is the opening of our spiritual mind. It is the one and only way
the
Cognitions are vessels for receiving good and truth entering
in from the rational. The way in which the vessels receive and the amount they
receive determine the nature of their enlightenment and how far they are
enlightened. Vessels which receive good and truth from the rational are the
truths themselves belonging to the natural, which are no more than facts,
cognitions, and matters of doctrine. From the order according to which they
flow in and from the order which exists among them there they become goods.
This is the origin of the good of the natural. (AC 3508)
The absolute duality of every concept in the
Writings rests on the revealed existence of discrete degrees of separation
between levels of creation, and therefore, between the levels in the mind.
These
levels in the mind can never touch each other or be in the same sphere—they can
only communicate by spiritual-rational correspondence. The natural level which
includes the sensual and corporeal, is the lowest region or outmost level of
the natural mind. It is closest to the body senses and identifies itself with
the physical environment. The physical environment and the body are material,
but the natural mind is natural-spiritual. The highest portion of the natural
mind is called the external rational, which is therefore natural-spiritual, not
yet spiritual-rational or celestial (AC 978, 4286; AE 355:14). The spiritual
itself cannot exist in the external rational because it is in a discrete degree
above it. The spiritual mind has its rational which is called the interior
rational or the spiritual-rational, not from the natural world, but only and
exclusively from the spiritual world by means of influx from the Lord through
heaven (AC 9280, LJ 10).
The existence of these three degrees in people can be seen
from the elevation of a person's mind even to the degrees of love and wisdom
possessed by angels of the second and third heavens. For all angels were born
people, and a person is, in respect to the interior elements which are those of
his mind, a heaven in miniature form. Consequently there are from creation as
many degrees of height in a person as there are heavens. The human being is
furthermore an image and likeness of God, and these three degrees are therefore
engraved on a person because they exist in the human God, which is to say, in
the Lord. (DLW 231)
The
angels with each person inflow into the individual’s spiritual mind by means of
spiritual-rational truths. This inflow is proportional to the extent to which
the individual thinks and wills daily in conformity to the external rational
truths they understand. The more the angels inflow with spiritual-rational truths,
the more we are regenerated, the more we become spiritual-rational and sane and
wise. In this way, we are prepared for heaven, which is living in the highest
level of the mind called the celestial degree. This level is constructed of
interior rational truths that are an image of the Lord’s Divine Rational order
in the universe. Duality is the only reality because all things in the Divine
Rational are arranged into discrete order.
Chapter 1, Section 5
The difference between natural, spiritual and celestial
things is such that there is no proportional relation between them. Therefore
natural things cannot in any way by any approximation approach in likeness
spiritual things, nor spiritual things celestial things. That is why the
heavens are distinct. I have been given to know this from much experience.
Again and again I have been conveyed into the company of spiritual angels, and
I then spoke with them in their spiritual way of speaking, and what I said I
then made a point of remembering. When I returned into my natural state-the
state every person in the world is in-I then tried to recall what I had said
from my earlier remembrance and write it down, but I could not. It was
impossible. No words were to be found and not even any mental concepts by which
to express it. The spiritual mental concepts and words were so removed from
natural mental concepts and words that there was not the least approximation.
Surprisingly, when I was in that heaven and spoke with angels, I then knew no
other than that I was speaking in the same way that I speak with people here.
But afterward I found out that the thoughts and speech were so dissimilar that
the one could not approximate the other, consequently that they have
proportional relation.
[3] There is a similar difference between spiritual and
celestial things.
(De Verbo 3)
It is
therefore very important to distinguish between the external rational of the natural
mind and the interior rational of the spiritual mind, as discussed
before. These two rational levels of the human mind are in discrete degrees (DP
154, TCR 564; AC 978, 4286; AE 355:14). Nothing of the spiritual can exist in
the natural, but only within the natural by correspondence of discrete degrees.
There is no continuity between the external rational and the interior rational
(or spiritual-rational), because one is in the natural mind and the other in
the spiritual mind. This means that it is not possible to keep increasing the
natural-rational (or natural-spiritual) and eventually arrive at the interior
rational (or spiritual-rational). In the New Church mind regeneration is going
on when the external rational is turned around by our rearranging all its
concepts and affections to be in conformity and obedience to the literal
sentences we take up from the Writings into our understanding where it is
called “the Doctrine of the Church” (NJHD 257). This is the process of being
reformed and regenerated. From birth and heredity, the external rational of the
natural mind is arranged according to the world and nature—thus in the
appearances of nonduality:
Human rational truth does not apprehend Divine things,
because these are above the sphere of its understanding, for this truth
communicates with the memory-knowledges which are in the natural man, and in so
far as it looks from these at the things which are above itself, so far it does
not acknowledge them. For this truth is in appearances, which it is not able to
put off; and appearances are born from sensuous things, which induce a belief
as if Divine things themselves also were of a like nature, when yet these are
exempt from all appearances, and when they are stated, this rational truth
cannot possibly believe them, because it cannot apprehend them.
[3] If for example it is stated that man has no life except
what is from the Lord, the rational supposes from appearances that in that case
man cannot live as of himself; whereas he for the first time truly lives when
he perceives that he does so from the Lord.
[4] The rational supposes from appearances that the good
which man does is from himself, and yet there is nothing of good from self, but
all is from the Lord.
[5] From appearances the rational supposes that man merits
salvation when he does what is good; whereas of himself man can merit nothing,
but all merit is the Lord's.
[6] From appearances man supposes that when he is withheld
from evil and is kept in good by the Lord, there is nothing with him but what
is good and just, nay, holy; whereas there is nothing in man but what is evil,
unjust, and profane.
[7] From appearances man supposes that when he does what is
good from charity, he does it from his will; whereas it is not from his will
part, but from his intellectual part, in which charity has been implanted.
[8] From appearances man supposes that there can be no glory
without the glory of the world; whereas in the glory of heaven there is not a
particle of the world's glory.
[9] From appearances man supposes that no one can love his
neighbor more than himself, but that all love begins from self; when yet in
heavenly love there is nothing of the love of self.
[10] From appearances man supposes that there can be no
light but that which is from the light of the world; whereas in the heavens
there is not one whit of the light of the world, and yet the light is so great
that it surpasses the world's
[11] From appearances man supposes that the Lord cannot
shine before the universal heaven as a sun; when yet all the light of heaven is
from Him.
[12] From appearances man cannot apprehend that in the other
life there are motions forward; whereas those who are there appear to
themselves to move forward just as do men on earth-in their dwellings, courts,
and paradises; and still less can he apprehend if it is said that these moving
forward are changes of state, which so appear.
[13] Nor can man from appearances apprehend that spirits and
angels, who are invisible before our eyes, can be seen; nor that they can speak
with man; when yet they appear to the internal sight, or that of the spirit,
more manifestly than man does to man on earth; and their voices are heard as
distinctly; besides thousands of thousands of such things, which man's
rational, from its own light, born from things of sense, and thereby darkened,
cannot possibly believe. Nay, the rational is blinded in natural things
themselves, not being able to apprehend, for instance, how those who dwell on
the opposite side of the globe can stand on their feet and walk; and it is the
same with very many other things. How blind then must the rational not be in
spiritual and heavenly things, which are far above natural things? (AC 2196)
You can
see from this list that nonduality is according to appearances and the rational
thinking of the external mind is not capable of believing contrary to the
sensuous appearances of its life and reasoning. This is why revelation is
necessary! Because from revelation the rational mind that has been formed
to look only outward to the world of the sensuous body, can turn itself around
and face upward to the spiritual world which enters through the
interior-rational mind, and not through the external rational (AC 978, 4286; AE
355:14). Therefore the source of all rational-spiritual concepts we can know is
from revelation in the Writings. Those who deny and reject revelation are
therefore trapped at the level of thinking of their external rational (AC 978,
4286; AE 355:14).
1. Nonduality Is In The Unregenerate Natural
Mind
The devil's hatred is against spiritual truths and goods,
because merely natural truths and goods are the direct opposites of these, for
merely natural truths and goods are in their essence falsities and evils,
although to those who are merely natural and sensual they appear to be truths
and goods (AE 754).
All
ideas and affections in the external rational mind which have not been
reformed, are opposed to all ideas we have from the Doctrine of the Church in
our mind. When we read the Writings as Divine Truth, we acquire in our
conscious mind heavenly concepts that function as external vessels suitable for
being infilled with spiritual-rational truths inflowing from the spiritual
world through heaven as we read the Writings (AC 9280, 3508). This infilling is
proportional to the extent that our daily willing and thinking is made to
conform to the Doctrine of the Church which is in our understanding.
Regarding thoughts: All the thoughts of people, including
each single idea in them, involve conceptions drawn from space, time, person,
or material-things that appear in natural light or the light of the world. For
no one can think anything apart from light, just as nothing can be seen without
light. And natural light or the light of the world is lifeless, being from the
sun of the world, which is nothing but fire. Nevertheless, the light of heaven
flows into that light everywhere and continually, giving it life and making
possible the perception and understanding of things. The light of the world by
itself cannot impart any perceptive or intellectual ability or confer any
natural or rational sight, but it does so from the light of heaven, because the
light of heaven comes from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord and so is life
itself.
The influx of the light of heaven into the light of the
world is like the influx of a cause into its effect-the nature of which will be
explained elsewhere. It is apparent from this what natural thought is like, or
ideas of thought in people, namely, that they are inseparably bound up with
notions of space, time, personality and material. Because of this, those
thoughts or ideas of thought are very limited and restricted, and so are crude,
and must be called material. (De Verbo 3:6)
There are also in our natural self reasonings that are
grounded in falsities impressed from infancy. Moreover, we apprehend by
manifest sense what is in our natural self, but not so what is in our rational,
until we have put off the body. This also causes us to believe the body to be
every thing; and all that does not fall into the natural sense, we scarcely
believe to be anything.
From such causes and many others, it results that we receive
truths in the natural self much later, and with greater difficulty, than our
reception of truth in our rational self. Hence arises combat, which continues
for a considerable time, not ceasing until the vessels recipient of good in our
natural part have been softened by temptations, as before shown …; for truths
are nothing but vessels recipient of good …, which vessels are harder in
proportion as we are more fixedly confirmed in the things which have been
mentioned; and if we are to be regenerated, the more fixedly we have been
confirmed, the more grievous is the combat. (AC 3321:3)
Concepts
of nonduality can only enter the natural mind since they are devoid of
spiritual-rational content. (How this is will be shown in the Sections below.)
There they act by persuasive pressures that strive to oppose the rearrangement
of the external rational ideas into absolute dualities from the Writings. These
absolute dualities are at first only in our external rational mind as we read
the literal of the Writings. There is nothing spiritual in itself about our
memory-knowledges from the Writings (AC 9280, 8783). Yet these
memory-knowledges are necessary as vessels (or cognitive constructs) which can
be infilled through correspondence by the spiritual ideas from the angels that
are with us. They cannot inflow except into rational concepts in our mind
from the literal text of the Writings.
It will also be briefly stated how the Lord casts out lusts
of evil, which beset the internal man from birth, and how He bestows in their
place affections of good when a man as of himself removes evils as sins. It was
shown before that man has a natural mind, a spiritual mind and a celestial
mind; and that he is in the natural mind alone, as long as he is in the lusts
of evil and their delight; and that during this time the spiritual mind is
closed. But as soon as he, after self-examination, acknowledges evils to be
sins against God because they are contrary to Divine laws, and therefore
desires to desist from them, the Lord opens the spiritual mind, and enters into
the natural mind through affections for truth and good; and He also enters into
the rational, and from it disposes in order the things that are contrary to
order below it in the natural. (DP 147)
The
angels understand the Heavenly Doctrines spiritually (in their interior
rational mind), while we understand the Writings naturally (in our external
rational mind). Only if we have formed these external rational vessels can the
interior rational ideas inflow by correspondence. Hence it is that we cannot be
regenerated unless we fill our external rational mind with concepts and
reasonings from the Writings. For the
We don’t
want oppositional concepts or loyalties in our natural mind. Least of all do we
want them in our external rational which is the highest level of our natural
mind (AC 978, 4286; AE 355:14). That level must be filtered and purified to
make sure that only concepts of duality from the Writings are there as vessels
waiting to be infilled by spiritual ideas. This filtering and purification
process is not possible through censorship, sectarianism, or dogmatism. It
is only possible through rational analysis and freedom of thought. Hence
the importance of studying the Writings so that we have available in our mind,
its concepts or ideas, its reasoning process, and all its related affections.
2. The Spiritual Begins With The Rational
Corporeal
spirituality, which may also be called spirituality of the intestines (AC 10030),
is the natural-spiritual level of the mind that identifies with the material
body since it is built up by the sensations from the body’s interaction with
the physical world. This is why their location is in the natural mind (DLW 257,
AE 577). The natural mind is below the spiritual-rational level where genuine
spirituality can exist, which is called spirituality of the chest (AC 10030).
The natural-spiritual mind and the rational-spiritual mind are created into
discrete degrees and cannot interact except by correspondences. (D. Wis. 2)
Rational spirituality is formed only by the inner sensory organs of the
will and understanding, and these spiritual organs are fed by the spiritual Sun
and its world of events and modifications (DP.166). Corporeal spirituality is
formed only by the outer physical senses which are fed by the material world
through the body. The mind in the spiritual world interacts with the body in
the natural world only by correspondences because the two are created into
discrete degrees (DP 166; D. Wis. 2).
The
Writings define the spiritual as only that which is rational, while everything that is below
this level is not spiritual but natural, corporeal, and sensuous from the
natural world (AC 4667). The human begins with the spiritual- rational,
a discrete degree above the natural mind, which in itself is animal or
sub-human (AC 2196, 3570). Meditation, chanting, and initiations are not
considered spiritual activities for the
In the
The pleasures
that are in the bodily or outermost things of man have their origin in delights
that are successively more and more interior. The delights that are perceived
in those outermost or bodily things are relatively vile, for it is the nature
of all delight to become more vile in proportion as it progresses toward the
externals, and more happy in proportion as it advances toward the internals.
For this reason, as before said, in proportion as the externals are stripped
off, or rolled away, the delights become more pleasant and happy, as may be
evident enough from man's delight in pleasures being vile while he lives in the
body, in comparison with his delight after the life of the body, when he comes
into the world of spirits; so vile indeed that good spirits utterly spurn the
delights of the body, nor would they return to them if all in the whole world
should be given them. (AC 996)
Correspondential
communication between the interior and the exterior occurs with the highest
level of the natural mind called the external rational mind (AC 978,
4286; AE 355:14). The ideas we have at this level are suitable “vessels” into
which the spiritual ideas can descend, but not descend directly but only in
correspondential interaction. The natural conscious understanding of what is
spiritual and celestial is achieved when we acquire external rational concepts
that are suitable for reacting correspondentially to spiritual-rational ideas
that we receive into our spiritual mind while reading the Writings and applying
its truths to life. This is how the spirituality of the
When man
becomes internal and is instructed about internal things, external ones are of
no account to him. He then knows what the holy is, namely, charity and the
faith therefrom. According to these are his external things then regarded, that
is to say, according to the amount of charity and faith in the Lord there is in
them. Since the coming of the Lord, therefore, man is not regarded in heaven
from external things, but from internal ones. And if anyone is regarded from
external things it is because he is in simplicity, and in his simplicity there
are innocence and charity, which are in his external things, that is, in his
external worship, from the Lord, without the man's knowledge. (AC 1003)
3. The Spiritual In The New Testament
The power
to be regenerated starts with consciously thinking about rational issues
and living according to them. At first, this rational is not yet a
spiritual-rational but something representing it in the natural mind. This
natural-rational can be infilled with a spiritual-natural such as the ideas
found in the New Testament. The Lord frequently brought up puzzling issues that
encouraged the disciples to be analytic and rational:
The
Before you can be saved you must born again (John 3:4)
The Father and I are one (John
The
Son of Man sows the good seed (Matthew
Who do people say the Son of Man is? (Matthew 16:13)
before Abraham
was born, I am! (John 8:58)
All that is in the Old Testament is about the Christ (Luke
24:27)
In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1)
John the Baptist is the Elijah who was to come. (Matthew
11:14)
Let the man who is without sin cast the first stone (John
8:7)
The kingdom of heaven is made of such as the children
(Matthew 18:3)
I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John
14:20)
What shall we say the
And many
more…
The
rational is crucial to the
The Lord loves man, and from love wills that he may be happy
forever, and man cannot become happy except by a life according to His
commandments, because by means of these a man is regenerated and becomes
spiritual, and in this way can be raised into heaven. (AC 10578)
This is the
burning passionate spirituality of the human rational by which the individual
becomes fit for receiving Divine Rational things, which alone are
spiritual-rational. These are the holy things by which we are saved and by
which we have eternal life. But to nonduality these rational things of
salvation are taken as merely illusory attachments to nonexistent things such
as good and evil, God and self, prudent and foolish. Is it possible to transfer
any idea at all across two systems that are so opposed to each other? Perhaps
only by remaining superficial or most general.
Chapter 1, Section 6
There is a
state of the
Nevertheless
these comparative interests and ideas can be harmful to the
Some months
ago I received an email from someone who came across my article on dualism
posted on the Web (see Note 1 at end). He wrote:
I got here by
accident. I am interested in Swedenborg. Van Dusen has taught me a lot. I think
I started with William James! At present, I am trying to understand more about
monism - reading "Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path" - and I
think you wrote that you think Swedenborg is a dualist. I want to believe that
Swedenborg would be a monist.
Why, I
wondered? Such is the subconscious attractiveness many Americans have for
nonduality and monism. This love for nonduality is the unconscious desire to
annihilate absolute duality in one’s mind and to become more mixed because this
appears more balanced and fair to the natural mind—which is the external
rational doing the thinking and which leads to corporeal spirituality when
applied to spiritual things:
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. (AE 579)
Duality
demands humility—“I am not God and I never can be. I am God’s creation and I’m
next to nothing in comparison to God.” Or: “I am evil by nature but God is
good. I can be saved by God from my evil nature and I can be good from Him.” The
attractiveness of nonduality is the promise it gives of avoiding the suffering
of regeneration. With nonduality, people don’t have to face the idea that
heaven is only for the good, while hell is for the bad. They don’t have to be
responsible for sustaining the idea that salvation is tied to the Word of the
Lord and cannot be obtained from “strange fires.” (Lev. 10:1, AC 10244, 934)
Nonduality offers the more convenient idea of “Universe as Spirit” or “God as
Emptiness.” It is not as personal as the God of Abraham or the Son of God, thus
easier to relate to without having to change, and it offers less demands on the
self. The Writings reveal that in the afterlife, there is no belief in God in
those who in this life annihilated in themselves the idea of God as Person.
Without a belief in God as Person they cannot be reformed, regenerated, or
saved from hell.
How
important it is to have a right idea of God can be seen from the fact that the
idea of God forms the inmost element of thought in all who have any religion,
for all constituents of religion and all constituents of worship relate to God.
And because God is universally and specifically involved in all constituents of
religion and worship, therefore without a right idea of God no communication
with the heavens is possible. So it is that every nation in the spiritual world
is allotted its location in accordance with its idea of God as a person; for in
this idea and in no other lies an idea of the Lord. (DLW 13)
Nonduality
introduces in the Western mind a certain peace or quietude that comes from the
idea that we need to be more detached. We don’t have to struggle so hard. We
don’t need to be so desperately always trying to be better or good. There is
the promise of a healthier consciousness, less competitive, less anxious, more
self-confident, even to the point of unshakableness. This introduces a lulling
sense of relaxing the pace of our struggles and of weakening the utmost
determination to reform. Thus it runs contrary to the most important task we
have in this world--to cooperate with the Lord in our regeneration, which must
be effected through the long-term accumulation of all those little struggles
daily (BE 69, TCR 615, 577). The good news is that as we advance in our
regeneration, the Lord gives us more and more rest and peace. This is felt from
within and looks down upon the continuing struggles and stress as something far
and distant and ultimately so small. We do not wish for detachment but pray for
the Lord’s will to be done. This peace we have from the Lord is peace indeed,
whereas the lulling nonduality of some good mixed with some evil, is not peace
in our
Chapter 1, Section 7
The universal principle of faith must be in each thing and in
all things of it. … The universal principle of faith on man's part is that he
should believe in the Lord (TCR 2)
Every idea
or concept in the Writings contains the fundamental duality, which is here
called “the universal of faith.” In the same way every idea that derives from
nonduality has nonduality as its central core presupposition. Every single idea
of nonduality is therefore antagonistic to any idea from the Writings, which
contains only spiritual-rational ideas. This is because the ideas that derive
from the Writings have dualism as their central core presupposition. Dualist
ideas are rational, spiritual, and celestial (AE 708). Nondualist ideas are
corporeal, sensuous, and natural. By mixing these two in the
Duality and
nonduality can be compared to two different cognitive trees. The trunk is the
central idea or supposition and all the branch ideas take their root from the
trunk. Every concept therefore will have at its inmost, the core supposition it
springs from. In the system of thought called nonduality, the central core is
the eradication or dissolution of all duality. Any concept in nonduality that
is admitted into the
dvaita-advaita:
(Sanskrit) "Dual-nondual; twoness-not twoness." Among the most
important terms in the classification of Hindu philosophies. Dvaita and advaita
define two ends of a vast spectrum.
--dvaita: The doctrine of duality, according to which reality is ultimately
composed of two irreducible principles, entities, truths, etc. God and soul,
for example, are seen as eternally separate.
--dualistic: Of or relating to duality, concepts, writings, theories which
treat dualities (good-and-evil, high-and-low, them-and-us) as fixed, rather
than transcendable.
--advaita: The doctrine of nonduality or monism, that
reality is ultimately composed of one whole principle, substance or God, with
no independent parts. In essence, all is God.
Hinduism's Online Lexicon.
(
/www.himalayanacademy.com/books/dws/lexicon/d.html
(Accessed April 2002)
"Advaita" means "not two," nondual. This
is the nature of Reality: it is indivisible. The Self is One. God is One. The
Self and God are one and the same. This is Nonduality; this is Advaita.
(Society of Abidance in Truth (SAT) (Maharishi ). Found on
the Web at www.satramana.org/sswhoare.htm
Accessed April 2002)
I will
present examples from
Second:
Good and the truth of good can be introduced by the Lord into man's interiors
only so far as the evil and the falsity of evil there have been removed. This
is a necessary consequence of what has gone before; for as evil and good cannot
exist together good cannot be introduced before evil has been removed. The term
man's interiors is used, and by these is meant the internal of thought; and in
these, which are now being considered, either the Lord or the devil must be
present.
The
Lord is there after reformation, but the devil is there before it; therefore,
so far as man suffers himself to be reformed the devil is cast out; but so far
as he does not suffer himself to be reformed the devil remains. Everyone may
see that the Lord cannot enter so long as the devil is there; and he is there
so long as man keeps the door closed, where man acts together with the Lord.
(DP 232:3)
The
Writings teach that in the age of the Second Coming, the only way to salvation
is by instruction from the Writings, either in this world or in the afterlife
(TCR 108, DLW 429; AC 1775). Entrance to the New Heavens cannot occur without
acknowledgement and love of the Divine Human (Coronis 1; TCR 2; 121). This is
the beginning and end for the
All good
and truth is from the Lord and remains the Lord’s even when it is in us (DLW
113). This good and truth is Divine and remains absolutely distinct and
separate from anything in us. Because the
Divine is in us we must not conclude that therefore we are Divine! The good
and truth in us from the Divine is accommodated to each individual, and our
use of it for choices is appropriated to us by the Lord. The good and truth
is never ours and we can never become part of it (AC 9338). A permissive and
uncritical attitude for nonduality can insinuate the thought that we are this
good and truth that is in us. And this false notion further insinuates the idea
that we are god. The entire intellectual thrust of nonduality is to have people
accept this identity between self and God. Once this idea gains a foothold in
our
The
following chapters will show how nonduality creates opposition or impediments
to our regeneration, hence salvation.
The Lord is present
with His Divine good and truth with every person (TCR 580)
Chapter 2, Introduction
The New Age or Buddhist-like oneness blurs distinct discrete
degrees between spiritual and natural light, and ends up making man the source
of himself. C.S. Lewis had it right: We slide into pantheism when left to
ourselves.
And esoteric experiences of channeling is inferior to the
written Word, since such contacts can happen even if the will is intent on
evil. A supernatural experience in any case just fades away, turning people
into fanatics (De Verbo 29-13). The whole cosmos snarls up between Ego and
God--anything but oneness with God! By contrast the Word is better and should
come first (AC 129), and the truths of Nature or experie4nce can then confirm
the Word (cf. SE 5709-5710; AC 2568, 2588). The New Age sees God and nature as
different colored marbles rolling in the same plate: Pick whatever you like.
The
(Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom, The New Age and the New Church (Part
Two). New Church Life, June 2002, 251-260)
One theme resonates clearly in the Writings,
reinforced in various ways in every work of Swedenborg. It is that the natural
and spiritual worlds are distinct and discontinuous (non-overlapping and of
different substance), but relate to each other by the laws of correspondences
(D. Wis. 2). The spiritual world is not in time, space, and matter but is
constructed of substances from the spiritual Sun. The natural world is in time,
space, and matter and is constructed out of physical materials from the natural
sun. This is one of the many basic dualities in Swedenborg’s Writings.
The dynamic
relation between the spiritual and natural worlds is reciprocal. If God took
away the physical world, the spiritual world would also disappear. And vice
versa. The created universe is a fundamental duality: spiritual and natural, the
two being interdependent, one “within” the other, both necessary to one
another’s existence, yet always and forever remaining in different worlds, one
natural in time-space, the other, spiritual, outside time and space. These
two worlds cannot be the same or similar in a single thing; they are dual in
every respect. The spiritual is the cause and the natural is the effect.
Without an effect, there is no cause but something potential, imagined, or not
yet real. Reality is born or created when cause and effect are brought
simultaneously together by correspondence.
It is
contradictory to say that nonduality can exist in our mind and not have a
negative effect. All things that exist must have a prior cause (DP 157). If
nonduality exists, it is an effect caused by a spiritual event to which it is
related by correspondence. What has existence must be dual.
What else is
there in life except "I will this, and I understand this," or in
other words, "I love this, and I think this?" As a man wills what he
loves, and thinks what he understands, so all things of the will relate to
love, and all things of the understanding to wisdom; and since love and wisdom
cannot exist in anyone from himself, but only from Him who is Love itself and
Wisdom itself it follows that they exist from the Lord who is from eternity,
that is, Jehovah. If they did not exist from this source man would be love
itself and wisdom itself, thus God from eternity; but from this human reason
itself recoils. Nothing can exist except from what is prior to itself; and this
prior thing can exist only from what is still prior to it, and thus finally
only from the First which is in its Self. (DP 157)
Chapter 2, Section 1
Is it
possible that anything in the Writings can be compatible with nonduality? Here
is what Van Dusen writes:
Though
I have long suspected Swedenborg's theology was also non-dual, only recently
did I find the real evidence. (…) Swedenborg's theology presents the non-dual
in a kind of illuminating paradox. Divine
God rules
all things—this is the cornerstone of Swedenborg’s theology and science. I was
surprised to see that this principle can be considered a non-dual position. The
obvious duality is pictured by the concepts “God rules” and “all things.” These
are in dual reality or status. God creates all things from Himself since there
is nothing else from which creation can be constructed (DLW 283). The idea that
created things can come out of nothing is shown to be irrational by Swedenborg,
who reports that the wise angels who have knowledge far greater than ours,
abhor the idea that something can come out of nothing (DLW 82, 283; DP 3).
Therefore all things that are created by God exist in a reality that is outside
God Himself. Duality is inherent in the idea of creation. Creation has no
meaning at all if one removes duality from it. The fact that all things are
created from God does not mean that these created things are God, for God and
His substance and attributes, are uncreate, having no beginning, while all
created things have a beginning, by definition. The distinctness between
created things and uncreated is absolute, never to be transcended. Uncreate
things include love, truth, and life in infinite variations. Created things
include the physical world, the spiritual world, and the human mind. Created
things are adjoined to uncreate but never become of one substance.
Further, it
is not rational to say that God is the only reality when God creates reality, which
is the universe and its order. In order to create reality God must be
outside reality. Existence cannot be created from existence or within
existence, but only from something prior to it and outside of it. The Writings
teach that the Lord created the universe through Divine Truth from the Divine
Love in Himself (DLW 290). Divine Truth is called His Existere, and Divine Love
is His Esse. The Lord from His Esse created all existence through Divine Truth.
From Esse, God can create existence or reality. Esse is prior to reality and is
the cause of it. Esse, as source or cause, and existere or creation as effect,
are in a dual relationship. One can never become the other and neither can be
missing. Nonduality between God and creation is rationally an impossibility.
Everything
created must needs be from an Uncreate. What is created is also finite, and the
finite can exist only from the Infinite. (DLW 44)
Consider
the difference in the Van Dusen quote above between “God rules all things” (an
idea attributed to Swedenborg’s system) and “Brahman is the all” (an idea attributed
to the Hindu perspective). These two propositions are entirely different in
terms of what they assume and imply. The idea that God rules all things is the
way Swedenborg phrases the creation duality. God rules all things in existence
but not from existence, but from Esse or that which is prior and outside
existence. This is the meaning of the Lord’s I AM (John
The
sentence “Brahman is the all” is represented as a central feature of
nonduality. For example:
From
The Song of Ribhu: The English Translation of the Tamil Ribhu Gita. Translation
by Dr. H. Ramamoorthy and
Advaita
Vedanta, or the Teaching of Nonduality … reveals the utter absence of any
differentiation between Atman (the Self) and Brahman. … Advaita (Sanskrit) …
teaches the oneness of Brahman … with the human spirit-soul, … and the identity
of spirit and matter; also that the divine spirit of the universe is the …
all-productive cause of the periodic coming into being; continuance, and
dissolutions of the universe and that this divine cosmic spirit is the ultimate
truth and sole reality … All else is maya, in proportion to its distance from
the divine source. … It is also regarded as both the efficient and material
cause of the visible universe, … the essence from which all beings are produced
and into which they are absorbed. The entire phenomenal world of beings,
qualities, actions, all manifestations, and so on, is said to be an illusory
superimposition on the imperishable substratum, which is Brahman.
(Accessed on the Web in April 2002 at nonduality.com/whatis9.htm .)
It is clear
from this description of Brahman that it has no relation to God as described in
the Writings. And in fact it is opposed to everything said by Swedenborg about
God. There is no “oneness” of God with “the human spirit-soul.” Humans are part
of creation and God is not part of creation nor can ever be. God must be
outside existence to create existence. God creates all things from His Esse
which is the cause of existence. God and created existence form an indissoluble
duality. Existence is a perpetual coming forth from God and is recreated moment
by moment so that it may subsist (AC 6056).
Love and
wisdom cannot exist in anyone from himself, but only from Him who is Love itself
and Wisdom itself it follows that they exist from the Lord who is from
eternity, that is, Jehovah. If they did not exist from this source man would be
love itself and wisdom itself, thus God from eternity; but from this human
reason itself recoils. Nothing can exist except from what is prior to itself;
and this prior thing can exist only from what is still prior to it, and thus
finally only from the First which is in its Self.
(…)
All good and
truth can come from no other source than Good itself and Truth itself. These
things are acknowledged by every rational man as soon as they are heard. When
it is afterwards stated that everything of the will and the understanding, or
everything of love and wisdom, or everything of affection and thought in a man who
is led by the Lord, has relation to good and truth, it follows that all that
such a man wills and understands, or every activity of his love and wisdom, or
of his affection and thought, is from the Lord.
(DP 157)
The
Writings reveal that the persuasive belief and insanity that self=God led to
the extinction of the first human race on earth (AC 5725). This evolutionary
event is described in the spiritual meaning of the Flood and the story of Noah
in Genesis (AC 553). The last generation of this race is referred to as the
“Nephilim.” It is revealed that their persuasion destroyed the human will so
that it was no longer possible for that race to be regenerated. The Lord then
raised a new race in whom the will and the understanding were separated, and by
means of this independent functioning, the subsequent generations were able to
be regenerated. The natural correspondence to this new creation of the human
mind caused the brain to also be split from birth, the left brain corresponding
to the understanding in the mind, the right brain to the will (AC 641, 4052).
Henceforth the dire persuasions of nonduality between self and God could be
controlled and eliminated by the absolute duality of self and God. The duality
is learned in the understanding as a religious motivation, and this is called
faith. Afterwards the Lord creates a new will in this faith (AC 5354). This is
the mechanism by which we are regenerated today.
Besides the
idea that self=God, Hindu nonduality includes the notion of a “periodic coming
into being; continuance, and dissolutions of the universe” (see The Song of
Ribhu quote above). This says that once creation exists, it develops, changes,
and goes through dissolution so that only “Dharma” remains. This notion of the
universe is the opposite of what Swedenborg says about creation or existence,
namely that it is permanent (DLW 168). There is no universal un-creation. Human
beings are born on some natural earth, die, and awaken as a spirit in the
spiritual world where they continue their individual existence to eternity,
either as an angel or a devil (CL 355). There can be no relation whatsoever
between Brahman and the Lord who is God-Man incarnated, showing Himself in
history and having a Human character or Proprium. God loves what is good and truth
and hates sin and evil inasmuch as “good hates evil” (AC 10618), while Brahman
is represented as separate from both good and evil, who neither loves nor
hates, who isn’t partial to human beings created and lost in existential
illusion. For the
Van Dusen
argues that since God has all power in the created universe the choices we make
in life for good or evil are not real but an image of the real:
Now
when we zero in on the person in the midst of this
It is the
case that we have no life from ourselves but by continuous influx from the
Lord. It is the case that what we take to be our self has no power of its own,
for all power is the Lord’s power activating every event and motion, and
maintaining every thing in its created form. Life is uncreate hence it cannot
be a substantive part of us, of our self. But from this point on one’s
explanation could go in two directions: the way of nonduality and duality.
The mind in
nonduality concludes that therefore there is no real self. It argues that since
our prudence is not really prudence, our struggle to reform and regenerate is
not real either, but merely another grasp at more illusion. This characteristic
mode of nonduality always comes up against our struggle for reformation and
regeneration, combating against it, hoping to weaken the burden and effort at
character reformation. This feels attractive from a distance, with the seeping
in of the lulling thought that maybe I won’t have to reject the delights and
comforts of my evils.
The mind of
duality concludes that therefore we need to get a right idea of the self from
the Writings. And we already know that the Lord grants an as-of self for the
sake of our contentment and freedom (xx). And we also know that we must
struggle as-of self to act prudently according to our understanding (xx), and
to act charitably to the neighbor according to the good in the neighbor (xx). And
we are required to put up the effort of rearranging everything in our natural
mind to be ordered consistently according to the Doctrine we have from the
Writings (xx). And we are required to do all this with sincere motives and
persistently without relenting, and with love unto the Lord in appreciation of
His supplying the power and the wisdom for the process of our reformation and
regeneration to be successful. If we do all this, then at last we are admitted
into true human hood—a celestial mind in conjugial love in heaven to eternity.
Everything about this wonderful Divine process is real and permanent. The same
unique individual that lived on this earth eons ago, is that same individual
who is now an inhabitant of a heavenly city, jointly with friends and citizens
(xx). Nothing is lost from earth to heaven to eternity.
Consider
the conclusion of nonduality quoted just above: “So our doing is relatively an
image within the real doing. Our effort at conjunction with God is met by the
real and substantial work of the Lord.” This belief assumes a nonduality
because it detracts from the reality of our as-of self efforts. Our doing is an
“image within the real doing” does not take into account of the process of
reformation and regeneration, in which our doing is the primary of it, this
being our initiative or willingness to cooperate with the Lord. The Lord is
waiting for us to take this initiative, for without it He cannot remove the
interior evils of our character of which we are totally unconscious (xx). Yet
it is these unconscious affections of evil delights that pull the string in our
conscious external mind.
At first
one might think that this is unfair. If we are puppets pulled by unconscious
strings, why are we held responsible for detesting our evil delights?
But the
answer comes when we continue to seek the truth about it. The Lord sees, knows,
and maintains these affectional chains to evil societies in the hells. Our
inheritance and our tolerance for evil delights prevents the Lord from breaking
those chains. The process is compared to agriculture or to the digestion of
food in the body and its use for energy and vitality (xx). These are
physiological processes in that plants and body organs are constructed out of
cells and the overall energy and vitality of the body, or the health of the plant,
is determined by the cumulative integrated action of billions of cells in each
plant or body. The process is constantly going on, constantly stepping through
to the next cycle and motion of cells and the particles below the cells that
are still more numerous, and down to the biochemical action of atoms,
particles, and energies. From all this there is built up a global action such
as the purposeful movement of a finger or the flowering of a plant. This same
type of physiological process must take place at the mental level in our
willing and thinking moment by moment.
You can see
why reformation and then regeneration must take the entire life we have in the
physical body (xx). To be reborn, to be reformed, to be regenerated in
character in thousands of areas of living, in billions of acts of willing,
thinking, doing for many years for millions of seconds. There is a lot to
regrow, reinstall, rewire, for the will and the understanding are spiritual organs
made of coiled fibers of great number (xx). Every moment of experience, every
act of willing, loving, desiring, thinking, feeling, doing over our years here
on hearth is “recorded” in the spiritual mind, “hard-wired” as it is said in
computer language. Swedenborg has many times witnessed the opening of a
person’s mind when they arrive into the afterlife, and it was proven to him
that nothing is lost and that angels can read with ease and precision a
person’s book of life (xx)
The Lord
has now revealed in the Writings how He manages this psychological growth
process called reformation and regeneration in every individual. The central
feature of this process is the as-of self effort involved in rejecting evil
delights, in resisting to do them, and in holding them in aversion or
detestation. This is the real part of the process. It determines the pace and
the outcome. The Lord does not, because He withholds Himself for the sake of
the individual, and should He determine the pace and the outcome, the individual
could never be regenerated, and it would be like condemning this person to hell
forever (xx). Obviously, to let us determine the pace and the outcome is in the
Lord’s Divine order, from His infinite compassion for the human race. And this
is what makes the process of spiritual growth real—each of us in that struggle
by our own determination.
The idea
that God alone has power does not imply that only God is real and that we are
not real, or, our self is not real, etc.. Created things are real and define
the real because they have been created in Divine rational order. Even
appearances are real (AC 4882). For instance, the appearances in the spiritual
world are real despite their instantaneously come and gone character. The
as-of-self is an appearance of acting from self—this as-of-self is real. By
saying that God alone is real, one implies that all things created are not
real. And yet everything God creates is real. Creation implies reality.
Appearances brought about by correspondences are real. The natural world is
real. Even a dream is real: the imagined events are real spiritual productions,
instantiated through the action of spiritual societies who are in communication
with the sleeper. There never is a “oneness” between God and creation as
supposed in Hinduism and Buddhism. Rather, God’s love is nothing unless it can
be given to created others who are not God:
It
is the essential of love not to love self, but to love others, and to be
conjoined with others by love. It is the essential of love, moreover, to be
loved by others, for thus conjunction is effected. … Divine Love must
necessarily have being (esse) and have form (existere) in others whom it may
love, and by whom it may be loved. … It is impossible for Him [God] to love
others … in whom there is … anything of the Divine. For … it would be … God
loving Himself. … Consequently, … there must be others in whom there is nothing
of the Divine in itself. (DLW 47-49)
Created
things are finite and are never Divine, but the Divine can be in them:
Of things created and finite Esse [Being] and Existere
[Taking Form] can be predicated, likewise substance and form, also life, and
even love and wisdom; but these are all created and finite. This can be said of
things created and finite, not because they possess anything Divine, but
because they are in the Divine, and the Divine is in them. For everything that
has been created is, in itself, inanimate and dead, but all things are animated
and made alive by this, that the Divine is in them, and that they are in the
Divine. (DLW 53)
Every
feeling in our will and every thought in our understanding is from the Lord and
is real—nothing whatsoever that we do is from ourselves (DP 157).
2. No Overlap Between Nonduality And Duality
Continuing
with the Van Dusen article:
So
the highest teaching of the Upanishads and of Hindu advaita vedanta also exist
in what Swedenborg found in his great exploration. The non-dual position in
Hinduism helped me to see it in Swedenborg's writings. But in a way, the
writings better illuminate the human situation by providing a direct way to
move from a dualistic struggle to oneness. The very struggle of mankind is
Divine Providence at work in the greatest and even the least of things. Our
struggle is an aspect of Divine Providence at work. There are other ways where
the writings of Swedenborg see reality in a unitary way. But this is a good
first statement. All our efforts to improve ourselves do not create an
us-versus-God dualistic situation-but rather our efforts are a part of the working
out of Divine Providence. We are better off to see it as such because that is
the truth. In this way we can sense God working right in the midst of our
situation.
Here it is
asserted that the Writings, on the one hand, and the “Upanishads and Hindu advaita
vedanta” on the other hand, contain overlapping ideas and explanations. But
this is impossible since everything in the Hindu vedanta has nonduality within
it and everything in the Writings have duality within it. In addition, the content
of the Writings are the new truths and understandings of the new age of the
Second Coming. This event of a new revelation replaces the old revelations when
there is no longer any spiritual truth left (xx). The reason the Lord must wait
for a full consummation is for the sake of the people, so that they may not
profane the new truths. This doesn’t happen when there are no more spiritual truths
because then people only see the literal of the revelation, and this cannot be
profaned, even if denied or ridiculed. So it is a spiritual necessity that old
truths and revelations are of no service to new truths and revelations (xx).
All this is said about the
Another
assertion made in the above quote is
that “the writings better illuminate the human situation by providing a
direct way to move from a dualistic struggle to oneness.” But there is never a
move from struggle to oneness, meaning that the duality of self and God is
permanent to eternity. It is further stated that “The very struggle of mankind
is Divine Providence at work in the greatest and even the least of things.” But
this is not so since the Divine Providence, although at work in the greatest
and even the least of things, is not one with the things. We are not one with
the Lord in our struggles for reformation, though we attribute the power to
Him. Because it is His power, it does not turn us and Him into a one, for this
is impossible from creation and Divine order (xx). And further, it is stated
that “All our efforts to improve ourselves do not create an us-versus-God
dualistic situation-but rather our efforts are a part of the working out of
Divine Providence.” This is not so. The us-versus-God duality is permanent by
creation and Divine order. The very purpose of creation is for God to have
others who are not Him, whom He can make happy from Himself (xx). To make a one
with Him is contrary to the purpose of creation and cannot exist.
Our efforts
are empowered by God, true, but the duality remains: us and God. There never
ceases to be a condition or state where the duality of “us and God” ceases.
Even angels of the highest heaven and closest to the Lord are yet separate and
distinct from Him (DLW 202). The Lord is the all in all in heaven and in angels
and yet the duality remains. The Grand Human and God is an eternal duality.
Everything is from God (DLW 53). But
what we have from God is not God, but things from God, and though what we
receive from God is Divine and is the same with everyone, each individual
receives only what it can assimilate—and this is unique with each person (DLW
54). Therefore it is written that “not the least thing is the same as another”
(DLW 226).
Here is
another example from an article in the Arcana journal (Swedenborg
Scientific Association, Bryn Athyn) titled “In the Hindu Tradition: Appearance
and Reality in the Relationship Between Finite Soul and Infinite Soul” by
Michael Stanley (Vol. 1, No. 1, 22-34). The article originally appeared in the
book Swedenborg and His Influence (edited by Erland Brock et. al.,
Academy of the
The
Hindu View of the Self: Much Hindu philosophy, like Swedenborg, takes the line
that anything that changes or lacks permanence cannot be said to be really
real. … When we look into ourselves, what do we find but changing images,
thoughts, ideas and feelings? Therefore any real self cannot be any of these…
The
discussion just above showed that this is a general feature of nonduality,
namely to want to make the self not “really real,” which as I pointed earlier,
weakens the struggle to maintain permanent duality. It cannot be therefore that
anything in the Writings can overlap with anything in Hindu philosophy. Here it
is asserted that because the self constantly changes there is no “real self.”
But constant change is of Divine order for real things, and especially for the
human self, for which the Lord creates all things in the universe, and this
constant creation will never end, for that is contrary to His purpose (xx). It
is said in the quote that the “real self” cannot be the self that is constantly
changing. And yet it is, for there is only one self, created immortal and
unique to eternity. Every individual has such a self.
While it
may be correct to think that nonduality was a genuine revelation thousands of
years ago in
We know
that the self is real. The proprium is real. Change of character (or
regeneration) is real. By Divine Law all created things change and no two
things can be identical. Permanence is not a condition for reality since
reality consists of continuous change, and a reality without change is
impossible because not rational and purposeful. Reality is the universe created
into a rational order in accordance with God’s rationality or wisdom which is
uncreate and has no beginning. All things in the created universe must have
reality. God is not part of the reality of created things but the Creator of
reality. The created universe is outside God, not within Himself. This duality
between God and created things cannot be removed or transcended. It enters into
every single created thing such as rocks, animals, the self or proprium,
thoughts, affections, heaven, hell. Nonduality cannot exist as a property of
reality since it is opposed to the fundamental duality of God and created
things.
Continuing
with the Arcana article by Dr. Stanley:
The
central reiterated teaching of the Hindu Upanishad Scriptures is that my true
or Higher Self (atman) is identical with the creator of all forms (Brahman).
Atman is Brahman. The appearance I have of being a separate isolated individual
is an illusion. … This apparent self is termed by Swedenborg the “proprium”
…Quoting Arcana Coelestia 4623: “Whatever comes from the Divine (that is, from
the Lord) is real, because it comes from the very being of things, and from
life in itself, but whatever comes from a spirit's own is not real, because it
does not come from the being of things, nor from life in itself.”
Again, what
the Writings mean by unreal is opposed to what nonduality means when saying
that the self is “unreal” or an “illusion.” Nonduality says that the self is
unreal, and the only thing real about us is our “Higher Self” which is
“identical” with God, and therefore we are God, and only illusion of self keeps
one from realizing one’s divinity. The notion continues: once we learn how to
empty ourselves from self, what remains is God. Once this persuasion is
established in the mind, one can read the Writings in the literal and without
integrating passages, one can have the impression that Swedenborg supports this
type of nonduality in one or more respects. In the above quote the author uses
a passage in the Writings to support the nondualist idea of the unreal self.
But it is clear that the quoted Number from the Writings does not give support
to the nonduality between self and the Lord. Note that it contrasts two ideas:
“whatever comes from the Lord” versus “whatever comes from a spirit's own.” It
does not contrast “the Lord” versus “the self.” And it says that whatever
proceeds form the Lord is real because it is good and true, and only this has
real existence. This is the existence we have when the Lord’s good and true is
appropriated to our self. And this appropriation only happens when we reject
whatever comes from self, which is evil and falsity. Therefore the contrast is
between good and truth versus evil and falsity, and the latter is unreal
because it is only a fantasy and an insanity.
The nondualist system does not see that it is
irrational to say that self becomes God and is God. To say that “My true self
is identical with the creator” is not a rational thing to say from the
perspective of the Writings. It is a total misunderstanding to say that
Swedenborg teaches this view. The Writings teach that the literal of the Word
can be used to support any heresy or fallacy, especially by the ingenious (TCR
254). But when these fallacies and heresies are examined from a rational
perspective such as we gain from the Writings, it is straightforward to see and
show the misunderstanding in it. Here we see a clear misunderstanding of the
notion of the proprium and what is real and not real. The proprium is real
because it is created by God and God creates only real things. The quote above
given from Arcana Coelestia says that “whatever comes from a spirit's own is
not real” and this is taken to mean that the proprium or self or ego is not
real. Instead, it means that evil, which is what comes from the proprium, does
not have within it anything from God, that is, truth and good. One can clearly see
this when we look at the full number referred to in the
AC 4623. But
be it known that the life of sense with spirits is twofold, namely, real and
not real. The one is distinguished from the other by the fact that everything
is real which appears to those who are in heaven, whereas everything is unreal
which appears to those who are in hell. For whatever comes from the Divine
(that is, from the Lord) is real, because it comes from the very being of
things, and from life in itself, but whatever comes from a spirit's own is not
real, because it does not come from the being of things, nor from life in
itself. They who are in the affection of good and truth are in the Lord's life,
thus in real life, for the Lord is present in good and truth through the
affection; but they who are in evil and falsity through the affection, are in
the life of what is their own, thus in a life not real, for the Lord is not
present in evil and falsity. The real is distinguished from the not real in
this-that the real is actually such as it appears, and that the not real is
actually not such as it appears.
[2] They who
are in hell have sensations equally with others, and are not aware but that
everything is really or actually just as it appears to their senses; and yet
when they are looked at by the angels, the same things appear as phantasms, and
disappear, and they themselves do not appear as men, but as monsters. It has
also been given me to speak with them on this subject, and some of them said
that they believe things to be real because they see and touch them, adding
that sense cannot deceive. But it was given me to reply that no matter how real
these things may appear to them, they nevertheless are not real, and this
because they themselves are in things contrary or opposite to the Divine,
namely, in evils and falsities, and moreover are themselves nothing but
fantasies insofar as their thoughts are concerned, to the extent that they are
in cupidities of evil and persuasions of falsity; and to see anything from fantasies
is to see things that are real as not real, and things that are not real as
real; and that unless it were given them of the Lord's Divine mercy to have
their senses affected in this manner, they would have no sensitive life,
consequently no life at all, because that which is sensitive constitutes the
whole of life. To adduce all my experience on these subjects would be to fill
many pages.
[3] Therefore
when you enter the other life beware of being deceived, for evil spirits know
how to conjure up illusions of many kinds before those who come fresh from the
world, and if they cannot deceive them, they nevertheless thereby endeavor to
persuade them that nothing is real, but that all things are ideal, even those
which are in heaven.
Clearly then one cannot say that self is unreal when
it explicitly states that the self in heaven is only real, while the self in
hell is full of fantasies that are not real. The contrast here is between the
self in which the content is from hell (unreal fantasies) and the self in which
the content is from heaven (real realities). What is real and unreal is not the
self but the content of the self, this being fantasy (in hell) or reality (in
heaven). For reality is good and truth from the Lord while unreality is turning
these into their opposites.
The notion that nothing is real except God is a
persuasion that puts us at risk of spiritual deception and illusion. The
Writings give a clear definition: “The real is distinguished from the not real
in this-that the real is actually such as it appears, and that the not real is
actually not such as it appears” (above quote in AC 4623). Hell is real and to
the inhabitants of heaven when they look down, it appears as it is in
reality—deformed and devoid of rationality. But to the inhabitants of hell the
appearance there is not such as it is, and this (appearance) is what’s unreal.
To continue
the thought of the Arcana article by Dr. Stanley:
Swedenborg
agrees with the Hindu view that although man has the ego experience he cannot
be said to actually have a thing called an ego [proprium]. As opposed to the
pure soul itself, ego is essentially unreal. My self as I feel and experience
it to exist, is an illusion. As Swedenborg puts it, “There is not anything proper
(proprium) to man, but it appears to him as if there were” DP 78:3
Here again
nonduality misconstrues what the Writings say about the proprium. The full
number makes it clear that the evil self doesn’t have the Divine within and yet
is fully and inexorably real, permanent, and allowed to keep itself in disorder
by the Divine Laws of Permission (DP 234). This is the meaning of the assertion
above that this evil “is appropriated to him as his own, and remains with him”:
The reason is that man's proprium and his freedom make one.
Man's proprium is of his life; and what a man does from his life he does from
freedom. Further, man's proprium is what is of his love, for love is the life
of everyone, and what a man does from his life's love that also he does from
freedom. Man acts from freedom according to thought, because whatever is of the life or love of anyone is also an
object of thought and is confirmed by thought; and when it has been confirmed
then he does it from freedom according to his thought. [2] For whatever a man
does, he does from the will by means of the understanding; and freedom is of
the will, and thought is of the understanding.
Moreover,
man can act from freedom contrary to reason, and he can also act according to
reason and not from freedom; but such acts are not appropriated to the man,
being only the acts of his lips and of his body, and not of his spirit or
heart; but the acts of his spirit and heart, when they also become the acts of
his lips and of his body, are appropriated to him. That this is so could be
shown by many illustrations; but this is not the place for them.
[3]
By being appropriated to man is meant to enter his life and become part of it,
consequently to become his own. However, it will be seen in what follows that
there is nothing that is man's own: it merely seems as if it were. Here it
needs only to be said that all the good which a man does from freedom according
to reason is appropriated to him as his own, because in thinking, willing,
speaking and doing it appears to him to be his own; and yet, the good is not
man's but belongs to the Lord in him, as may be seen above (n. 76). But how
evil is appropriated to man will be seen in the proper article. (DP 78)
This
passage explains that what is appropriated to the self remains forever.
Further, that both evil and good can be so appropriated. Clearly then what is
appropriated and belongs to the self MUST BE REAL. When evil is appropriated to
the self, it is a real appropriation of real remains and it is permanent. When good
or truth is appropriated to the self, it is a real appropriation that is
permanent. Clearly it is not possible to have the self drop away or empty
itself, as is predicated in all of nonduality.
Chapter 2, Section 3
My research
on the Web indicates that the Hindu idea of nonduality has been incorporated
into the Western intellectual diversity. A google.com search on
nonduality yields thousands of Web sites, almost all in the
Experiencing Nonduality is the path, the means and the
realization of our true nature as unqualified Oneness, Consciousness or
Presence. Nondual proclaims the truth that everything is an expression of
unqualified Oneness. It is the ‘pathless path’ we traverse while healing our
misperceptions of separation. And it is the means we utilize in realizing this
truth of Oneness. Experiencing Nonduality is the path of welcoming all that is.
Ultimately, nothing needs to be changed. Everything is always unfolding in
mysterious perfection—always. This is the first and final understanding.
Experiencing Nonduality by Richard Miller, Ph.D. Web
document accessed April 2002: www.nondual.com/advaitayana.html
Everything
in the Writings contradict this perspective on life and reality. Everything in
the Writings insist on duality everywhere and always. We are born immortal
spirits and God’s purpose for making us is to elevate our consciousness into the
celestial spheres of our mind. Eternal life in heaven is a ceaseless growth
towards human perfection (LJ 12). It never ceases for every individual who
achieves this celestial state through regeneration. Individuality is unique
from birth to eternity (ISB 14, AC 5354; DLW 226; CL 355). Once an individual,
always an individual. Nonduality in the Western intellect advocates the
“pathless path” that “welcomes all that is” because “nothing needs to be
changed.” The opposite is taught in the Writings of Swedenborg. Our path is
straight and narrow, and only welcomes that which is good and true. Ultimately,
everything needs to be changed because we are born infernal and totally
corrupted in spirit and needing to become a new creation so that we may enter
the celestial state (AC 4594[2]).
Without
personal effort at changing our character (loves and understandings) there is
no new creation of the spirit called regeneration. The Lord cannot heal us by
His own omnipotent power, or else He would do that to all, such is His
universal love for the human race (DP 91). Our regeneration is effected
solely by means of temptations of character provided by the Divine Therapist
day by day, minute by minute (AC 227). Such is the amazing close connection
between the Lord and the
Continuing
with Dr. Miller on nonduality:
Experiencing
Nonduality is an exploration into the nature of Oneness and is not in the
becoming process for we cannot become what we already are. There is nothing we
can add to our self to make our self one iota better. We are already perfect as
we are.
It is not
possible for the
Another
example of the Americanization of Hindu nonduality is found in the work of
Jerry Katz who founded a Web discussion community called “Nonduality Salon”:
“There is the natural state. It invites itself into itself.
And this invitation of itself into itself is given many names, such as satchitananda,
being consciousness bliss. It invites itself into itself. .... Bliss is
generated from this coming of the natural state into itself. Consciousness is
another word for the churning of the natural state. Being is being the natural
state …The problem is the suffering of it. Not it. I'm sure I've done all kinds
of crazy things in my life, but one understanding has never changed since the
age of 7. I AM. That plainly shines forth.
(Nonduality Salon at www3.ns.sympatico.ca/umbada/
Accessed April 2002):
Nonduality
is a point of view that opposes the struggle of regeneration in the
Chapter 2, Section 4
Another
instance of nonduality as corporeal spirituality are the notions given in
relation to Tantric sex. According to one text titled “A Contemporary Guide to
Sacred Sexuality and Sex Magick” (accessed in April 2002 on the Web at www.geocities.com/iona_m/Virtualtantra/ball-lightning.html
) sex is the path to immortality and divinity:
Tantra
presents the ultimate Nondual reality as the sexual embrace of God and Goddess,
of Shiva and Shakti, of Emptiness and Form.
"I am in
the creature's desire." –
"The
union of man and woman is like the mating of Heaven and Earth.
It is because
of their correct mating that Heaven and Earth last forever.
Humans have
lost this secret and have therefore become mortal.
By knowing it
the Path to Immortality is opened." - Shang-Ku-San-Tai
"Sexual love is the purest energy of the divine state,
for lovers in their embrace form one angel." –
Swedenborg
What a
curious reference to Swedenborg in this context! It is presented as a direct
quote but we can tell that it is not (no actual reference is given). The
Writings do not use the expression “sexual love” so it must be a rendering for
conjugial love. Neither do the Writings talk about “energy” in relation to
conjugial love. And the appearance of a husband and wife as one angel when they
are seen from a distance (CL 42) is here fancifully modified to refer to the
embrace of lovers.
Other
similar notions are further given:
The core experience of Tantra is revelation of its sexual
secrets. Sexual union symbolizes the
quintessence of the elements. Sacred sex
reveals eternal truth and transcendence.
It is a way of redemption -- union of the personal self with the
transpersonal Self.
The acts of the lovers mirror the primordial creation and
subsequent fecundity. In desiring his
opposite, the Supreme Being impregnates Nature.
The attraction of the two principles for each other engenders all life.
Neither asleep nor awake the spirit is set free by perfect exhaustion of the
body. Through tantric sex a twilight
state is produced. Then there is a
dramatic paradoxical shift from sympathetic arousal to the afterglow of
parasympathetic tranquility. This "calmed violence" is the essence of
the Real.
Here it is asserted
that “sacred” sex reveals what eternal truth is and is a way to redemption.
Once again we see here the persistent view in nonduality that some particular
act of the body has the spiritual effect of salvation and divinity.
Another
version of what is called spiritual or sacred sex may be seen in this sample
called Kundalini:
Orgasms CAN be used to increase spiritual/life energy. It
depends what you do with the energy, your attitudes around sexuality.
Especially for Women, but for men it is intensified if they learn to have
orgasms without ejaculating. Partly, because you can have more orgasms, and
build your energy with each one. Of course we release energy.
It's about how
clear you are to the free flow of energy through you, shaping your life, not
how much is stuck inside. It can be another way to love yourself and give love
to Gaia. Focus on unconditional self-love, give thanks for being alive and
having a body that can feel pleasure. In Orgasm, release the energy out through
the top of your head, and through your feet, with love for the beautiful
planet.
(“Mind Body Spirit Kundalini the Grounding” on the Web at www.domin8rex.com/serpent/spirit/gaia.htm
Accessed June 2002)
Consider the statement in the Tantric Sex Guide
quoted above: "The union of man and woman is like the mating of Heaven and
Earth” In the New Church mind there already is the idea that the union of man
and wife is through conjugial love—a celestial-rational concept that can be
understood only by those who study the Writings and strive to live according to
its rational truths. This husband-wife union is holy and angelic. On the other
hand heaven and earth do not “mate” and do not form a union—ever. Heaven and
earth, or the spiritual/celestial and the natural, are in correspondence of
discrete degrees and no union is possible between them. There is not a “mating”
between angels of the Second Heaven (called spiritual Angels) and those of the
First Heaven (called natural Angels). There is only a relation by
correspondence and no direct communication, contact, or overlap in substance
and form (De Verbo 3). However, we say instead that there is a marriage (or
union) between the Lord (or heaven) and the Church, or the church in each of
us. The church within us is in the mind, not the earthly body. There can never
be a “mating” between the body on the earth and the church in the mind for they
are in discrete degrees. The Writings define the Church as heaven on earth, by
which is meant, heaven in the mind of the person still living on earth (HH
57). All dualities
must be maintained because they are unique permanent distinctions that never
cease to eternity (DLW 226).
Comparing
the union of man and wife (“woman”) to the “mating” of heaven and earth
destroys the real duality of order into which the universe is created. It
fudges and obscures the discreteness (duality) of the natural and the
spiritual. It also empties conjugial love from its rational basis. The
conjugial union between man and wife is angelic and takes place only in
continuous degree. Obviously both husband and wife must belong to the same
heaven or level of consciousness. All that is within one heaven is in
continuous degree, not discrete. There cannot be a union between a man in the
First Heaven and a woman in the Second heaven, or vice versa! Angel couples are
united in a “sexual embrace” like on earth, but the offspring is spiritual (SE
6110). It is further specified:
Love of the
married partner does not result from the sexual embrace, as with adulterers,
but the sexual embrace from the love of the partner; so that the love of the
partner does not depend on the fire of that organ, but the reverse. The love of
the partner is full of delights, irrespective of sexual intercourse, and is a
delightful dwelling together. Between that love apart from the sexual embrace,
and the sexual embrace itself, there is a determination, just as there is
between that which a man thinks from the will, which is intention, and act, or
speech. Between these, intervenes determination, which is as it were the
opening of the mind to doing a thing, like the opening of a door. (SE 6110)
The
Writings show that the mind/body duality is the same as the duality between the
spiritual and the natural. Consider the statement in the David Loy quote above:
“The sense of a within apart from the world is the self-delusion that needs to
be overcome”. By accepting the notion that mind and body belong to the same
realm, the idea of correspondences is destroyed, and so is the idea of discrete
degrees. As a result, the person sinks down into the state of corporeal
spirituality discussed above, and this is an infernal state in the afterlife:
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)
1. Nonduality Between The Physical And The Spiritual
Nonduality
between the physical and the spiritual is clearly visible in the following
excerpts of an article on sexuality at the Web based Yoga Research and
The dynamics
between biological needs (specifically genital urges) and higher evolutionary
or transpersonal aspirations is a crucial part of all moral, religious, and
spiritual traditions of the world. Typically we experience these two sets of
wants or needs as being at war with each other: Don’t let the cerebrum know
what the genitals are doing. Suppress your desires. Curb your sexual curiosity.
Feel ashamed about having genitals. Feel guilty about sex.
(…)
This body- and
sex-negative orientation is epitomized in the religious doctrine according to
which the “flesh” is the enemy of the “Spirit.” For love to be “pure,” it must
be devoid of sexual connotations. At best sex is regarded as a necessary evil.
As the British mathematician-philosopher Bertrand Russell observed, this view
has caused millions of people untold misery. For they had to suppress their
sexual instincts in the hope of a better life in the hereafter where they, as
sexless angelic beings, could participate in the joys of heaven beyond all
genitality and sexual complications.
(…)
This dualistic
[sic] idea, which splits the human being into genital or sensual and spiritual
or ascetical compartments, is at home in Christianity and Judaism as much as it
is in Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. For instance, the ancient Rig-Veda, the
“Old Testament” of Hinduism, records a domestic quarrel between Sage Agastya
and his wife Lopâmudrâ. Their quarrel, of course, was over sex or rather the
lack thereof. Agastya, who was a renowned ascetic and a paragon of the virtue
of chastity, was neglecting his husbandly duties. He preferred to meditate in
solitude over making love to his wife. Understandably, she was beginning to
feel frustrated and started to complain and make demands.
(…)
This struggle,
which has brought many would-be ascetics to their knees, has been fought by men
and women ever since religions began to propagandize the idea that in order to
fulfill spiritual life one must curb the passions of the flesh. Whole traditions
arose that were based on this mistaken idea, namely that communion with the
Divine, or God-realization, depends on repressing or confining the sexual urge.
(…)
For the
ascetic, lust is the ally of death. The reason for this is that the loss of
semen signals to him the loss of power, energy, and hard-earned merit. The
ascetic needs good merit to cheat the iron law of karma, and he requires the
body’s energy to accomplish the magnificent work of self-transformation that is
the goal of all austerities. The ascetic is a hoarder at psychosomatic energy.
He guards all bodily openings, especially the genitals. Semen is, for him, not
merely semen but a substance of power that must be accumulated, not squandered.
The typical ascetic is always worrying about the involuntary loss of semen, or
becoming sexually aroused to the point where he loses control over his
thoughts.
(…)
Both the
Tantric master and the Taoist adepts knew that sexuality in itself is not a
hindrance to spiritual maturation. They promoted, on the contrary, the idea
that an impotent eunuch stands a slim chance of realizing the supreme potential
of spiritual evolution—enlightenment or liberation. Instead of recommending the
anxious suppression of the libido lest it should interfere with the sacred task
of spiritual transformation, they favored a sex-positive philosophy. They even
designed special practices to utilize this most powerful impulse in us for the
process of psychospiritual transmutation. Of course, they did not condone the
kind of “sexploitation” that is the liability of the ordinary individual,
particularly in our post-sexual-revolution days. Rather, they were interested
in the right use of the sexual energy.
(…)
However, the
left-hand approach which involves sexual intercourse with a suitable partner,
has the advantage of increasing the level of psychosomatic energy and thus of
including the physical dimension in the process of psychospiritual
transformation. Actual sexual intercourse involves an energy exchange between
the partners in the Tantric ritual, which enhances the unification process that
is strived for on the level of consciousness.
At the point
of enlightenment, the Tantric practitioner realizes the transcendental unity of
Male and Female, Shiva and Shakti. This condition is known as “great delight”
(mahâ-sukha) since it cannot be diminished by anything, not even by the act of
ejaculation, which typically concludes the male partner’s experience of sexual
pleasure in ordinary circumstances.
Tantra is the
technology of joy on many levels—from sexual pleasure to transcendental bliss.
(…)
(“Sex, Asceticism, and Mythology” by Georg
Feuerstein on the Web at www.yrec.org/sex_ascet.html Accessed June 2002)
The
commentator’s nonduality perspective shows in how he interprets the flesh and
spirit theme in traditional religions. He calls this “dualistic” which he sees
as contrary to our nature, which is that we are as much as our body as our
mind—both, mixed, equal. This nonduality sees the duality model as un-natural
and psychotic. This same nonduality is also responsible for the Western idea of
chivalry and pure love, namely, that it is spoiled by sex when it is brought
down to that level. Religious or moral purity was seen as incompatible with
sexuality. On the surface this looks like a duality, as seen by those in
nonduality. But actually this is also a nonduality since it assumes that
spiritual chastity and natural sexuality were on the same continuum, except
that one was high up and the other was low down. Duality would be different. It
sees that sexuality and spiritual purity go together as integral parts to the
unity of the conjugial couple. It is not sensuous sex and mental sacredness
that are the opposite ends of a continuum. The Writings define chastity, not as
those who are virgins, but marrieds who reject all forms of adultery or
pornography (CL 152, 452).
Until you practice conjugial sex, you cannot be totally chaste, pure, and holy.
If a man concentrates his love upon his wife, by shunning
adultery as sin, then love with its potency increases daily; but if men take
from that love and consume it with harlots, conjugial love becomes like chaff,
and dies.
(…)
There is no lasciviousness in conjugial love, for
lasciviousness is unchaste. There is the identical sensation with those who are
in conjugial love; consequently, there is nothing unclean, but pure. It appears
as if there were, but yet there is not. The reason is, because inwardly in
conjugial love, even to the ultimates, is heaven, and inwardly in the love of
adultery is hell; and the ultimates of each appear similar, as to their
delights, but yet they are not. The difference is not perceived except by
conjugial love. (SE 6110)
Note the
commentator’s details about “tantric sex” which are practices that instantly
destroy conjugial love, union of husband and wife, and consequent eternal
angelic bliss and blessedness in the
Christian spirits cannot endure the spiritual sphere of the
feminine and the masculine. They cannot endure the spiritual sphere of
conjugial love; and the hells, at such times, are roused to fury. They cannot
endure the sphere of nakedness between married partners; and, at such times,
flee away. They cannot endure any sphere of love from a married partner. They
loathe the sphere of customary [intercourse]; that is, when conjunction with
the wife becomes ordinary, or freely permitted, it produces nausea. (SE
6110:65)
The attempt
to overcome sexual guilt became a cultural movement in twentieth century
Love of the
married partner does not result from the sexual embrace, as with adulterers,
but the sexual embrace from the love of the partner; so that the love of the partner
does not depend on the fire of that organ, but the reverse. The love of the
partner is full of delights, irrespective of sexual intercourse, and is a
delightful dwelling together. Between that love apart from the sexual embrace,
and the sexual embrace itself, there is a determination, just as there is
between that which a man thinks from the will, which is intention, and act, or
speech. Between these, intervenes determination, which is as it were the
opening of the mind to doing a thing, like the opening of a door. (SE 6110)
The idea
that there is no sex in heaven is a Christian nonduality. The Writings give us
a rational solution to this puzzle, namely, that sex in the physical body and
sex in the spirit-body are a discrete duality forever separated. Heaven is part
of sex through the heavenly body which is a more perfect rendition of the
physical body in its early youth (HH 414). Sex among conjugial pairs in
heaven is performed through this more perfect human body (HH
386, CL 46). Angels are
called holy because they operate from the Lord’s Proprium (or Character) form
inward influx into their will and understanding (AC 9820). Everything they do is holy,
therefore also their sexual activity.
[They enjoy]
delights and pleasures by the mere touch of hands and of lips, when they think
from love, such things from the Word, from objects, from various concordant
delights, as are applicable. They have exquisite sensations of their separate,
and of their common [states]. These arise from the delights of affection and
thought, and of the conjunction thereof; and the sensation is the more
exquisite as the conjunction is more interior. That there is such delight from
the conjunction of female and male, is because there is such [from that] of
good and truth. There are still more delights of conjunction of the external
senses, as of sight, of hearing, of smell; particularly of the respiration, in
which innumerable things lie concealed: they lie concealed especially in the
sound itself of the speech. (SE 6110)
The above
discussion illustrates the rational debunking process the
Chapter 2, Section 5
A popular
form of Eastern nonduality in Western countries is the corporeal spirituality
of the followers of Maharishi and practitioners of transcendental meditation.
The Web details its activities through “Vedic Universities” dispersed through
many countries, and doing research on corporeal spirituality. One instance of
this may be seen in the nonduality concepts they use for the relationship
between physical energy and spirituality:
"Maharishi's
Science of Creative Intelligence, which connects modern science with ancient
Vedic science, is the foundation of all knowledge -- complete knowledge -- and
therefore is the basis of complete fulfillment. Introducing the Science of
Creative Intelligence and the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field into
education is the one way for all mankind to stop violation of Natural Law and
end the long tradition of problems and suffering in life individually and
globally." Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Transcendental
Meditation opens the awareness to the infinite reservoir of energy, creativity,
and intelligence that lies deep within everyone.
"By
enlivening this most basic level of life, Transcendental Meditation is that one
simple procedure which can raise the life of every individual and every society
to its full dignity, in which problems are absent and perfect health,
happiness, and a rapid pace of progress are the natural features of life."
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
As a new science of consciousness, the Science of Creative
Intelligence® provides a practical means to unfold the permanent experience of
higher states of consciousness and offers the theoretical understanding of that
experience which is necessary for the most rapid growth towards enlightenment.
Transcendental Consciousness is the home of all the Laws of
Nature, the pure field of creative intelligence from which all of creation
arises. By contacting this pure field of creative intelligence one experiences
directly the nature, range, development and application of this field of
creative intelligence which governs everything in creation.
The Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health offers comprehensive
programs which are prevention-oriented, time-tested, free from harmful side
effects, and easily applied. This approach re-establishes the balance between
the body and its own inner intelligence through Vedic knowledge and its
application.
Maharishi Vedic Vibration Technology utilizes a refined
impulse of Vedic sound, or Vedic vibration, to enliven the inner intelligence
of the body and restore proper functioning.
(“Maharishi's
Science of Creative Intelligence” on the Web at www.vedicvibration.com
Accessed on the Web in May 2002)
There are
two ideas contained in this approach we need especially to consider. First, the
idea that what creates the universe is called “creative intelligence” (“which
governs everything in creation”) and is something that the individual
possesses. This comes from the idea that self and God are one and the same and
forming a nonduality. Second, the idea that this “higher consciousness” can be
reached by meditation and physical procedures with the body, a nonduality
between the body and mind. Transcendental laws of consciousness and creative
intelligence are in the same continuous degree with the physical world
(“Transcendental Consciousness is the home of all the Laws of Nature”).
The first
idea denies the absolute duality of the Lord and creation and the second denies
the discrete degrees between natural and spiritual. Either of these two denials
bar entry to the
A current
“living Master” of nonduality who draws audiences of thousands in Western
cities and other tours, is known as Supreme Master Ching Hai. She often refers
to Jesus as a former Master and
frequently uses expressions and ideas from the New Testament like the idea that
the
Satan
is born of the
(“The
Teachings of The Supreme Master Ching Hai.” on the Web at www.chinghai.com/TOPICS.html Accessed May 2002)
According
to this notion, hell exists, but mainly for people who are very disturbed in
their minds--people who are virtuous and good never experience hell, and those
who are “initiated” by Ching Hai, never have to go to hell. Hell is portrayed
as a great hospital to help people whose spirits and minds are sick. It is
compared to
hospitals on
earth where illnesses are cured. … So it is better that we always think good,
do good, and talk good, think God, do God and talk God, and to realize God is
even better. … So we cannot say that the evil is within or without us. It is
both, just like God is within and without us and everywhere. (Ching Hai Ibid)
These
notions are opposed to the Biblical ideas in multiple ways. It reinterprets
what hell is to fit the ideas of nonduality. Since it sees each person as God
in reality and self in illusion, hell becomes a temporary “hospital” where the
self is healed from its insanities. Further, Satan is part of the “
Continuing
with Ching Hai:
So when we
meditate, we use the technique to tune into the
It is a consistent theme in nonduality to say that “God is
nothing but ourselves.” It is also common to refer to Jesus as a human being
like we are who has achieved enlightenment by becoming one with God. It is
asserted that when we reach this enlightenment we too can say that we are one
with the Father and that we do nothing but what the Father does (“We become the
author of everything”). Here is another way in which our divinity is asserted:
No matter
how good our intentions may be, we have to first seek the
Karma is a
concept that sounds attractive to many Westerners because it seems logical and
fair. Part of its acceptance is a superficial similarity to the oft repeated
Biblical assertion of a connection between sowing and reaping (e.g., “He who
sows injustice will reap calamity” (Prov 22:8.6); or: “As I have seen, those
who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.” (Job 4:8.12). But karma is
always bound to reincarnation, as in this statement by Ching Hai:
There are two
types of karma: human karma and universal karma. Men's laws are governed by an
invisible force that cannot be grasped by human understanding. This is called
in Sanskrit 'karma', meaning the Law of Cause and Effect. It is mentioned in
the Bible as 'What you sow, so shall you reap.' There is good and bad karma,
but both imply attachment for you on earth. After initiation, the karma from
past lives will be erased, but the Master does not touch the karma from this
life. If not, you would die immediately. We must stay here for a while to bless
the world and to help our friends. Afterward, we can go to Heaven and return
whenever, if this is our wish. Karma is an invisible force, very fair and strong.
What we have created will come back to us. This is the law of cause and effect.
(Ching Hai Ibid)
The
reference to “initiation” designates a divine act of the “Master” or guru by
which she claims to “erase karma” for the individual who is being initiated
into her discipleship. Comparisons between the Master and Jesus abound, as
here:
A real Master
can only give and not take. His disciples are comfortable but the Master has to
suffer. That is why it is said that Jesus had to uplift mankind and that He had
to be crucified. He couldn't enjoy any privilege. That is why people scolded
Him and crucified Him. … When you see darkness every day and he gives you the
light, then that is a guru. And then the sound must also be heard, because, In
the beginning was the 'Word' and the 'Word' was God. If you don't hear the
sound, then you have not completely contacted yet with God. The light is only
one attribute of God; not perfect. You have to also hear the sound. … By coming
in contact with these vibrations, or the so-called 'Word" in the Bible, we
become all-knowing, we become all-power, all-blessing, all-virtuous,
all-satisfied, all-happiness and all-bliss bestowing to the people in our
environment, and even to our surroundings. Our surroundings will be blessed
with out presence. Everywhere we go, those beings, or those places will become
sacred. … (Ching Hai Ibid)
This
reflects an amazing but typical amalgam of Bible concepts and Hindu/Buddhist
nonduality. The act of “remembering” that you are God bestows the divine powers
of a Master:
Masters are
those who remember their origin and, out of love, share this knowledge with
whomever seeks it, and take no pay for their work. … When we reach this level
of mastership, not only do we know our origin, but we can also help others to
know their true worth. … While a living Master is on earth he takes on some of
the karma of the people, especially those who believe in the Master, and even
more so those who are disciples of the Master. … A Master has to manifest a
physical body to take on all the troubles and sufferings. … Any Master has to
go through this kind of thing [suffering for others]. You can see it for
yourself, even Buddha, Mohammed, Christ and many other Masters in the East or
West.
As is the
case with many of the activities within guru-type relationships some of the
ideas and practices are not publicized and disciples are warned not to discuss
initiation details with others who are not disciples. Her followers must go
through initiation steps at various levels. This is said to prepare the
disciples for spiritual evolution, liberation, and enlightenment. This
salvation process cannot progress without the Master’s direct intervention
which is done unbeknownst and unconsciously through the spiritual powers of the
Master who is present everywhere where disciples are. This includes coming to
the disciples in their dreams and other secret modes not disclosed. The
divine-like power of Masters lasts up to 500 years, independently of their
physical body. This is why, according to Ching Hai, “the power of Jesus” has
long vanished from the world.
About the
claim of erasing the disciple’s karma, a relevant comment in the Writings may
be this:
Truth
is falsified when it is said that sins are wiped and washed away like filth by water;
and truth is still more falsified when it is said that man has the power of
remitting sins, and that when they have been remitted, they are altogether
wiped away, and the man is pure. (…) There are countless such things as these,
for there is not a single truth which cannot be falsified, and the
falsification confirmed by reasonings from fallacies. (AC 7318)
The notion
by which many secular truth seekers are attracted is the promise that there is
something beyond human thinking that is reachable through specialized training
procedures. In my thirties I once agreed to have a postal relationship with a
guru who lived thousands of miles away. I would read his books and lectures,
listen to this tapes, follow a prescribed dietary regimen, stay out of trouble,
continue with my employment, and continue my study of the guru’s writings and
communications. I would have to meditate every day and fixate my inner gaze on
a visualization of the guru sitting before me, and slightly elevated and
surrounded by light. It was then that the guru would “come to me” and instruct
me. All I had to do is to fixate my attention on the visualized image of him.
I had to
learn to imbue this image with spiritual strength, which came from full
obedience and devout worship of the guru. The more I was to worship him in
visualization and daily practice, the more I was to gain power to imbue his
visualization with real spiritual energy. This energy is given by the guru, but
sometimes by other enlightened masters who “were active” in that period or
sphere. This process would then continue indefinitely. In the meantime, the
guru would communicate with me by letter, or on occasion in face to face
visits, and inform me how well I’m progressing. Sometimes this is to be done in
statements, sometimes by super-conscious contact. The disciple is expected to
experience these super-conscious contacts by peculiar sensations in the body.
There is no
content to any of this, as you will notice. The result is either in the
experiencing of corporeal images and sensations—called ecstatic states, or, in
the experiencing of something near to emptiness of consciousness or absence of
anything particular. I enacted for a few months being a long-distance disciple
and then I quit, having no motivation to continue. I wanted something I could
understand, not feel. From then on I was never attracted again to gurus. I
gravitated to “thinking” paths to truth—Cabala, numerology, astrology, I Ching,
anthroposophy—but did not stay long with any of them, until at last I read the
New Testament. Here I found a thinking man’s haven for truth with explanations,
parables, specific principles of living, and specific description of the end
result. This made sense to me. And a year or two later I found the Writings. I
saw immediately that this above anything else I’ve read, is filled with the
content of truth and the specifics of the end results. I wasn’t left wondering
about “the rest of it.” I wasn’t promised anything obscure or mystical or
corporeal. Just the simple truth of reality such as it is created by the Lord,
moment of existence by moment of existence for every single thing or detail.
Hardly anything can be simpler to understand than the true reality.
Note this
important reality:
It
is the understanding which acts from the will, not the will which acts by means
of the understanding. (TCR 105)
This is the
great heavenly secret that protects the
Of course
this is only an enactment of no longer being human, not a real situation
of actually not being a human. One can never lose one’s humanity, which is to
be in internal liberty to act in accordance with one’s understanding (DP
87).The reality is that
it is the disciple, not the guru, that keeps the relationship going. For at any
moment the disciple can quit. However thinking from oneself is not easy when we
are in persuasive faith (NJHD 118). As long as we hold on to the persuasive faith, we
do think from our own self. Thus we lead a life in which we act like we are not
really human, mimicking a zombie. When this game is carried all the way the
person may lose all motivation to ever give up the delusion and thus to remain
in it forever. Swedenborg has met many people who live in that state in the
portion of the spiritual world called hell (SE 4875, 5015). This portion of the human mind is
called hell because it is devoid of any good and truth. When disciples enter
the afterlife in such inner persuasion they become spiritual slaves to those
there who claim the status and power of a guru. However, they don’t call themselves
gurus but “gods” (SE 4723).
3. Hell Is A Choice, Not A Punishment
The
This prohibitive principle has its origin in a law of the
spiritual world. No one is punished in that world for evils he has done here,
but for those he does there. The evil state acquired returns after death, and
leads him to do similar deeds. For these he is punished, but not for those done
in the former life. (See AE 989; SD 3489). If he then refrains from committing
them, there will be no punishment. (Pendleton, Topics, p. 11)
(see Note 2 at end)
Karma is a
mechanical concept of nonduality, while the idea of “no ex post facto
punishment” is a rational and moral concept of duality. The idea of undergoing
cycles of karma through reincarnated lives creates a continuum between this
life and the next life. The relationship is described by a mechanical balance
model—the amount you sin in this life will set you back by that much in the
next reincarnation, until you can learn to balance right and wrong, and then
you ascend by the amount of negative karma that you get rid of. The suffering
you are experiencing now is a punishment for the sins of your former life.
But in the
Writings we learn that an absolute distinct and permanent duality is created
between this life and the afterlife. Nothing happens to you in the afterlife
because of something you did in this life. It’s easy to fall into this false
idea when we read:
He who thinks
against God is rarely punished in the natural world, because there he is always
in a state subject to reformation; but he is punished in the spiritual world
after death, for then he can no longer be reformed. (DP 249)
When evil spirits are in this second state, as they rush
into evils of every kind they are subjected to frequent and grievous
punishments. In the world of spirits there are many kinds of punishment (HH
509; see below for the rest of the quote).
But note
that this only establishes the fact that there are punishments in the
afterlife. It doesn’t state what these punishments are for. These are not for
misdeeds committed in one’s life on earth:
When evil spirits are in this second state, as they rush
into evils of every kind they are subjected to frequent and grievous
punishments. In the world of spirits there are many kinds of punishment; and
there is no regard for person, whether one had been in the world a king or a
servant. Every evil carries its punishment with it, the two making one;
therefore whoever is in evil is also in the punishment of evil. And yet no one
in the other world suffers punishment on account of the evils that he had done
in this world, but only on account of the evils that he then does; although it
amounts to the same and is the same thing whether it be said that men suffer
punishment on account of their evils in the world or that they suffer punishment
on account of the evils they do in the other life, since everyone after death
returns into his own life and thus into like evils; and the man continues the
same as he had been in the life of the body (n. 470-484).
Men are punished for the reason that the fear of punishment
is the sole means of subduing evils in this state. Exhortation is no longer of
any avail, neither is instruction or fear of the law and of the loss of
reputation, since everyone then acts from his nature; and that nature can be restrained
and broken only by punishments.
But good spirits, although they had done evils in the world,
are never punished, because their evils do not return. Moreover, I have learned
that the evils they did were of a different kind or nature, not being done
purposely in opposition to the truth, or from any other badness of heart than
that which they received by inheritance from their parents, and that they were
borne into this by a blind delight when they were in externals separate from
internals. (HH 505(
It is clear from this that the
punishment in the afterlife is for the deeds committed there and not on earth. Note well that if we love evils in
this life, they remain forever. These evil loves, or lusts and cupidities,
prompt the individual in the afterlife to commit deeds that are forbidden
there. Punishment is then dispensed for those deeds. The punishment is as
severe as is needed for the individual to desist from doing the forbidden acts.
Experience shows that no other method but severe punishments can help those
individuals to suppress their lust from being expressed outwardly as a deed.
Examples of such punishable misdeeds include
infesting the
upright in the other life who are being vastated as to the truths of faith that
belong to the church, a vastation they need to go through for reformation (AC
7502)
thinking and speaking lasciviously, which in the spiritual
world are automatically communicated to other spirits, creating disturbances
(AC 829)
having abominable principles: as that wives, especially
those that are young and beautiful, ought not to be for a husband, but for
themselves and their like, which disturbs those to whom the ideas are
communicated (AC 829)
those who have acquired truths from the Word but mixed them
with disorderly thoughts by hypocrisy or inward irreverence for them—they must
be isolated from contact with other spirits and kept confined in a deep hell
(AC 1008)
thinking that a sharing of sexual intercourse between women
and men to be not only allowable, but even holy, and reviling marriage, undergo
“very severe” punishment until they desist from engaging in such intentions (SE
1976)
those who outwardly put on an appearance of friendliness,
but inwardly wish others ill, even condemning them to hell; they undergo “grievous punishment of
dismemberment as to the whole head” (SE 3170)
those who are in the “endeavor to sunder the love of a wife
by such allurements from that of her husband” (SE 1788)
those who attempt to rise in the spiritual world above hell
for the purpose of infesting other spirits (SE 4471)
sirens who seek to obsess men, thinking they are still on
earth with them; they get punished by
“laceration as to the head and bones, which were in fact completely broken,
with excessive pain - a punishment continued for a long time, even for hours”
(SE 4420)
those who attribute everything to their prudence are forced
to live with dragons and serpents that bite them (SE 3747)
“those who are carried away by the lust for virginities” are
punished by the sensation that they are “mounted on a mad horse that bucks them
up and forwards … which seems to them to be trying to kill them” (SE 2704)
The above
is but a small sample!
Chapter 2, Section 6
Chapter 2, Section 7
I quote
from an article by David Loy titled “The Dharma of Emanuel Swedenborg”:
Perhaps
this understanding of our mental life becomes more meaningful if we relate
Swedenborg's doctrine to two fundamental Mahayana Buddhist teachings: the
denial of a duality between subject and object, and the denial of duality
between mind and body. Both resonate deeply with important Swedenborgian
claims. The denial of subject-object nonduality is found in many Mahayana
canonical texts and commentaries. As the Japanese Zen master Dogen put it,
"I came to realize that mind is no other than mountains and rivers and the
great wide earth, the sun and the moon and the stars."(10) If there is no
self inside, it also makes no sense to talk about the world as being
"outside" one's mind. Everything becomes "my" mind.
(David Loy
“The Dharma of Emanuel Swedenborg: A Buddhist Perspective” which appeared in Arcana (Journal of the Swedenborg
Association) Volume 2, Number 1, 1995, pp.11-35)
To the
And yet
we know from the Writings that there is no identity, connection, or overlap
whatsoever between the mind and the physical body and universe (DLW 186). They
communicate only by means of correspondences (D. Wis. 2). No section of the
mind is part of the physical body. They are distinct in content and substance.
They each exist on their own account, though they depend on each other for
survival. All of the mind is part of the spiritual world from birth to
eternity. To identify body and mind, as the Zen master does, is to fall into
corporeal spirituality.
More on
this will be said below.
Continuing
with the Arcana article by David Loy:
I
think this illuminates a Swedenborgian claim which is otherwise difficult to
understand: he writes that the divine influx is not experienced as coming from
our internals, rather it comes through the forehead into our internals:
"The influx of the Lord Himself into man is into his forehead, and from
there into the whole face" (HH 251). If I understand this correctly, the
implication is a very Buddhist one: not (as in so much Christian mysticism)
that we must realize the God within, but rather that the sense of a within
apart from the world is the self-delusion that needs to be overcome. How is
this delusion of self to be overcome? Dogen also provides a succinct
explanation of the Buddhist approach: "To study the Buddha way is to study
the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be
actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and
mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of
realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly. "
The Number
of Heaven and Hell (251) cited in this quote ends as follows:
The
"forehead" corresponds to heavenly love, and consequently in the Word
signifies that love ... The "face" corresponds to the interiors of
man, which belong to thought and affection … The face is formed by
correspondence with the interiors ... Consequently the "face," in the
Word, signifies the interiors …
Clearly
then the physical forehead or face is not meant and the Buddhist
implication drawn does not hold. It is said by Dogen in the quote above that we
become actualized by forgetting self and realizing that “your body and mind as
well as the bodies and minds of others drop away.” But the Writings teach and
prove that the physical body only drops away at death and that we then continue
life to eternity in a spiritual body that houses our soul and spirit (AC 5354;
CL 355). Therefore the body/mind duality never stops though it changes to
reflect the new environmental laws of the spiritual world. From the perspective
of the Writings it is not possible or meaningful to achieve self-realization by
eliminating body/mind duality. Far from being “emptied” of quality and
character, the angelic mind and consciousness is enriched and infilled with new
and superior qualities and character. When we become genuine human beings in
the angelic form our interior is enriched and made more complex, not more
meager or empty.
A further
example may be given from an article by Michelle Rose titled “Common Ground:
Echoes Between the Tao Te Ching and the Writings of Swedenborg” (Arcana
1994 v1 n2 pp. 35-41). The author introduces the subject by saying that “The
Tao Te Ching is widely recognized as sharing basic truths with many religious
scriptures, such as the Bhagavad Gita and the New Testament.” (p. 35). To
attempt to show this she selects particular passages from Tao Te Ching by Lao
Tsu in parallel to particular passages from the Writings. Two examples may be
given here:
|
[25] Man
follows the earth. Earth follows heaven. Heaven follows the Tao. Tao follows
what is natural. |
For the
influx from the Divine passes first into the perception which is of the
understanding with the man, thence it passes into the will, and next into
act, that is, into good work, which is use, and there it ceases. When the
influx of good and truth from the Lord makes this passage, then the good and
truth are appropriated to the man; for then the influx goes down into the
ultimate of order, that is, into the ultimate of nature, whither all Divine
influx aims to come. (AC 8439) |
|
[28] Be
the stream of the universe! Being the stream of the universe, Ever true and
unswerving, Become as a little child once more. |
Be it
known that the Divine Providence is universal, that is, in things the most
minute; and that they who are in the stream of Providence are all the time
carried along toward everything that is happy, whatever may be the appearance
of the means; and that those are in the stream of Providence who put their
trust in the Divine and attribute all things to Him; … insofar as anyone is
in the stream of Providence, so far he is in a state of peace; also that
insofar as anyone is in a state of peace. (AC 8478) |
|
[2] Under
heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can
know good as good only because there is evil. |
for every
good there is an opposite evil, and for every truth an opposite falsity …
nothing can exist without relation to its opposite …and from this all
perception and sensation is derived. (HH 541) |
The author
doesn’t give explanations for these comparisons. As I look at them, I can see
parallels but only by going from the Writings (right hand side) to Lao Tsu
(left hand side). But in itself the Tao statements are natural without any rational
content. Without rational content there is no spirituality for the
“Therefore the sage is guided by what he feels and not by
what he sees. He lets go of that and chooses this.” (On the Web at www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/lao.html
Accessed May 2002)
Note that
for the
The
main principle of T'ai Chi is to understand the flow of energy--our energy, as
well as the energy of others. The question is how to deal with energy coming
towards us in any form, whether it is physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.
A
well-executed power discharge should include these elements: strong internal
strength, the use of the Yi (mind/intent), qi (bio-energy), whole body force,
total relaxation. For power discharge to be effective, you need to accumulate
strong internal strength first; otherwise, it is useless.
(Tai
Chi Magazine on the Web at www.tai-chi.com/magazine.htm
accessed May 2002)
From the
rational perspective of what the Writings say one can look down upon what
Lao-Tsu says about the natural and see in his statements purely corporeal
metaphors.
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. (AC 1914)
The fact
that one cannot go from Tao Te Ching to the Writings clearly shows that there
is in fact no relationship to the Writings within the statements of Tao Te
Ching. But the fact that one can go from the Writings to the Tao Te Ching
indicates that it is often possible to infuse natural statements and insights
with rational ideas. This is a form of confirmation of spiritual things in the
natural, that the Writings consider useful and allowable (DP 317, SEM 4657).
But it’s crucial to see that the infusion must be from the rational to the
natural, and cannot be done the other way round (DP 318). Nothing in the Tao Te
Ching can contain anything spiritual from itself because spiritual is defined
as rational things from the Writings. Thousands of years separate Lao Tsu from
Swedenborg, and the span is filled by the First Coming of the Lord and then the
Second Coming.
A
redemption has also been accomplished by the Lord at this day, because at this
day is His Second Coming according to prophecy; by which, having been an
eye-witness thereof I have been made certain of the truth of the foregoing
arcana. (Coronis 21)
To-day
the Second Coming of the Lord is taking place, and a new church is to be
established (TCR 115)
The New
Testament contains interior spiritual revelations (AE 514[20] ). They are the
highest rational things given to humankind until that period. They could not
have been given to any prior generation in a sensuous way through the Divine
Natural of the Lord until the Incarnation. Similarly the revelations of the
Second Coming given through the Divine Rational of the Lord could not have been
given to any generation prior to Swedenborg. All comparisons between Swedenborg
and prior authors must draw an absolute line between them so that the semantic
content of one can never reach up to the semantic content of the other as they
are in a discrete relationship. Just as no idea of the second heaven can be
similar to any idea of the first heaven:
The difference
between the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial is such, that there is no
ratio between them, for which reason the natural can in no wise by any
approximation approach towards the spiritual, nor the spiritual towards the
natural; hence it is that the heavens are distinct. This it has been given me
to know by much experience; I have often been sent among the spiritual angels,
and I then spoke with them spiritually, and then, retaining in my memory what I
had spoken, when I returned into my natural state, in which every man is in
this world, I then wished to bring it forth from the former memory and describe
it, but I could not, it was impossible; there were no expressions, nor even
ideas of thought, by which I could express it; they were spiritual ideas of
thought and spiritual expressions so remote from natural ideas of thought and
natural expressions, that they did not approximate in the least. (De Verbo 3).
The duality
between levels of revelation must be maintained within discrete degrees. If
comparisons are made across revelations and similarities are drawn there is a
certain danger in the
1. Rational Versus Corporeal Spirituality
The
rational spirituality revealed in the Writings is thoroughly dualist and
opposed to corporeal spirituality in nonduality. The Grand Human has been cited
as a nondualist concept in the Writings, especially this: “In the eyes of the
Lord, the entire human race appears as one man” (HH 78). But to call this
nonduality is a misinterpretation. The “oneness” in the Grand Human is a
functional unity of diverse and disparate parts (societies), each different and
unique, acting together in coordination and form, by which is produced the
Grand Human (HH 64). The more there are unique parts the greater is the
perfection and unity of the whole when acting as one (HH 56, LJ 12). This is
opposite to the concept of nonduality where the thrust is always on eliminating
differences, not maintaining them.
The
corporeal spirituality of Eastern nonduality is active today in the American
culture. The ancient explanations about prana, qi, or chi energy is recast in
modern concepts of “bio-energy” and “life-force” and “spirit.” One popular
version is called “Reiki energy” which denotes patterns of personal energy that
are said to be “subtle” and unique “like fingerprints.” It is associated with
holistic health, natural healing systems, and new age spirituality. It is
performed by certified practitioners sometimes called Reiki Masters.
Reiki
is a natural healing method that uses the hands of a healer to channel energy
to another person through chakras or energy centers. It has been practiced for thousands of years.
It was reintroduced in the 1800's by Mikao Usui in
(“Reiki
Therapy.” Accessed on the Web in May 2002 at www.debreiki.co
)
When
a Reiki session is experienced, all kinds of thoughts and feelings come up and
out. The client simply witnesses them as they show their face in order to say
goodbye. This gentle process requires courage. Little by little, negativities
are released from the body, mind, and soul. Along with them go their
problematic symptoms, such as stress, anxiety, tension, and many physical or
emotional difficulties.
(“What is
Reiki?” Accessed on the Web in May 2002 at
A
distance treatment is an advanced Reiki technique for transferring energy
without actually physically touching the persons or objects being treated. As
modern physics teaches us, the relationship of energy and matter to time and
space is relative. Just as the energy involved in a phone call between people
half a world apart can travel almost instantaneously, so Reiki energy can also
travel (though our understanding of exactly how this occurs is less complete
than for the telephone example). Distance treatments should only be given by
Second or Third Degree practitioners.
(Questions
Frequently Asked About Reiki. on the Web at www.whidbey.com/turtle/reiki/reikifaq.htm
Accessed May 2002)
The
nonduality between physical energy and “spirit” makes rational consciousness
irrelevant and abstract. It leads to the total flattening of meaning of what is
spiritual leading to absurdity, as in this advertising:
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Falsities ought by
all means to be rooted out (INV 16)
Chapter 3, Section 1
New-age belief
systems in the
q
God is the only reality.
q
Creation is the splintering of the
God-consciousness into individual minds filled with temporary qualities that
appear to have real existence--good and evil, true and false.
q
Salvation consists in remembering
oneself as the only God and emptying oneself of all that is good or evil, true
or false.
q
This can only be accomplished by
becoming a disciple to a self-realized “Living Master” who has divine-like
powers for appearing unconsciously to the disciples and effecting healing,
forgiving, and setting things right.
q
Without this intervention people are
compelled to live the life of karma through many reincarnations.
q
Progress towards liberation from
this life of illusion is possible through meditation, vegetarianism, and the
abandonment of moral and intellectual distinctions and struggles.
q
At one point one experiences
enlightenment and cosmic consciousness. One discovers and remembers oneself as
the one God. In that highest state one is capable of omnipresence and omnipotence
and one shares the bliss with others, helping them to the same realization.
Regarding
reincarnation, the mystery was forever solved and laid to rest in the
revelations of the Writings:
God's
omnipotence shines forth also from the heaven that is above or within our
visible heaven, and from the globe there that is inhabited by angels, as ours
is by men. There are wonderful testimonies there to the Divine omnipotence; and
as these have been seen by me and revealed to me, I am permitted to mention them.
All men that have died from the first creation of the world are there; and
these after death continue to be men in form, but are spirits in essence. (AE
1133)
Imported
ideas of nonduality are harmful when Christians adopt any of them because they
weaken the fundamental love they must have for the Lord—the First and Greatest
Commandment. The Writings teach that one cannot love an unknown and invisible
God (TCR 339). Salvation and eternal life depend on allowing the Lord to
regenerate us. This is possible only to the extent that we cooperate and suffer
ourselves to undergo spiritual temptations (NJHD 197; AC 227). We cannot
accomplish this without acknowledging in our mind the Lord as the Divine Person
to Whom we must go for every step in our regeneration (AR 750). Any nonduality
that removes the duality of a Divine Person, distinct and separate from self,
interferes with our ability to think of God as Divine Person. This is a form of
Christian paganism (AR 750).
This
potential danger also applies to
These
attempts at connections may not pose a serious danger when it is left at the
broadest general level of comparison such as these assertions: Religion is
essential, there is God, there is the spiritual, there is evil, there are
spirits, there is heaven and hell, there is revelation. But as soon as one is
led to unpack the more specific concepts that make up these ideas of God,
spirit, and evil, a whole new ideational world comes to view. This is a strange
world that serves a strange God and can lead a Christian to spiritual
confusion. There is far more danger for those who confirm themselves of these
opposing ideas through comparisons and justifications from the Writings. It is
prudent to examine under what conditions such connections are beneficial or a
hindrance to understanding the rational ideas of the Writings.
A neighbor
acquaintance recently told me that a Hindu man regularly attends her Bible
study class. At first she thought this was odd but she changed her mind as he
kept pointing out similarities between the Bible and Hinduism. She was
especially impressed by his idea of “one-mindedness” which she explained was
the notion that God is the actual power behind good and bad events that happen.
If you worry about the bad things happening you are dual-minded but since there
is only one Power the bad things are just as much God’s doing as the good
things. This gave her a sense of relief since she no longer had to worry about
anything happening since all is God’s doing.
She didn’t
use the word nonduality but it’s clear that that’s what she admitted into her
mind. It’s the nonduality between good and evil as having the same source. To a
Christian mind this thinking is pernicious and insidious, and if admitted,
spiritually injurious. The idea is attractive to the unregenerate mind because
it hides one’s responsibility in distinguishing between falsities and truths
and, hating evil and loving good. The Writings teach that only good can come
from God and that evil comes from self, hence hell, which is turned away from
God and in opposition to Him (AC 4997). Truth from God flows into the soul and
mind of every human being and then each individual adapts it and sometimes
turns it this way or that, and at last into the opposite of truth. This falsity
(or falsified truth) in the mind is better suited to one’s evil loves, and the
two couple each other in the infernal marriage (HH 377). Once this is
accomplished (or confirmed), hell rules the mind. The evil never comes from God
(DLW 264). Good and evil are dualities in relation to each other and in
relation to God.
The idea
that evil comes from God (nonduality), when admitted into the
Chapter 3, Section 2
Hindu
nonduality is affecting how some Christians may come to view the Lord’s
revelations in the New Testament concerning Himself as being one with the
Father. Here is one example of how some New Testament verses are being
commingled within nonduality:
From: Christmas Thought: The Nondual Teachings Of Christ by
Pieter Schoonheim Samara (Web document accessed April 2002 at: www.nonduality.com/1208ps.htm
"All things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made that was made." John I: 3 "That (Christ) was the true
Light, which lighteth every man that is born into this world." John I: 9
Christ to John in Revelations, Ch I: 8: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the ending" sayeth the Lord, "which is, and which was,
and which is to come, the Almighty." "For I have not spoken of
myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should
say, and what I should speak." John 12: 49
(…) One might think from reading these passages that Christ
always speaks as the Atman and of the Father as Brahman, or as the Self
realized being One in relation to the All pervasive and timeless Self. Just as
This
non-dual teaching is easily paraphrased as follows: The part of you that sees
(the seer, one's Self) is your true light. Therefore, if you hold on to (i.e.,
abide as) the seer (subject-"I"), singly or exclusively (i.e.,
relinquishing attention to thoughts), you will have illumination - or what some
call the "enlightenment of the whole body". This is said to be the
exact instruction given in the non-dual Vedanta tradition, with the same
described outcome, as already discussed above.
It is known
from the Writings that when the Lord referred to Himself and the Father as One,
He was referring to the identity of Personhood between Himself and the Father.
No one was able to comprehend this at that time, or later, until the new
revelations of the Second Coming effected in Swedenborg’s Writings (completed
in 1771). No one today comprehends the Divine Father/Son relation save those
who acknowledge the Writings as the Lord in His Word of the Second Coming, as a
result of which they receive enlightenment from the Lord, in proportion to
their willingness to suffer themselves to be regenerated by Him. The Writings
themselves assert this idea as a central tenet (De Verbo 12).
This
identity of Personhood is not to be considered a form of nonduality, as is done
in the Schoonheim quote above. Those who think within the Eastern philosophy
system interpret the Father/Son relation as a nonduality in the sense that the
illusory self of the individual can end, leaving behind God alone as the one
only reality. Transferring this reasoning to the New Testament, they see Jesus
as the illusory Self (Atman) that is to be transcended or eliminated at
illumination, leaving only the Father. This nonduality is entirely opposed to the
1. Who Runs The Universe: The Divine Father Or The Divine Human?
Sixth: This
One Only and the Self is the Lord from eternity, or Jehovah. It was shown in
THE DOCTRINE OR THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE LORD that God is One in
essence and in person, and that this God is the Lord; and that the Divine
itself, which is called Jehovah the Father, is the Lord from eternity; that the
Divine Human is the Son conceived from His Divine from eternity and born in the
world, and that the Divine Proceeding is the Holy Spirit. (DP 157:9)
This
passage indicates how the Divine Rational can resonate by correspondence in our
interior-rational perception. The passage is describing a spiritual truth about
the Lord. We can resonate to it by allowing the Letter to stand for this
spiritual truth, only by correspondence. This orientation to the passage allows
the literal meaning to recede somewhat so it doesn’t dominate and become opaque
instead of translucent. The expression is used, “the Lord from eternity, or
Jehovah.” At first the literal meaning dominates the internal truth, and so
makes itself opaque, hiding the spiritual tucked within it. But then we ask the
question: How do we take this expression as a correspondence for its spiritual-rational
truth?
“The Lord
from eternity, or Jehovah.” Who is the Lord from eternity? In the literal
meaning this refers to the contrastive expression “the Lord born in time.” We
are familiar with the idea that “the Lord born in time” is Jesus, who glorified
His Human and made it one with the Divine (xx). We are familiar with the Divine
as the Father, or Jehovah. So in the Letter we have the idea that the identity
of Personhood was an achieved identity. Therefore, this important rational truth
follows: We are not to think that it was Jehovah who descended from the Heaven
under the assumed name and identity of Jesus. This truth is proven by the
distinction the passage makes between “The Lord from eternity” vs. “the Lord
born in time.” The Lord born in time, namely the Child Jesus, was not born
glorified. The Child Jesus was Divine, as specified in the New Testament and
the Writings. But we have to enter into a more spiritual view of how this is
true. So the literal must recede, as the spiritual comes to the fore.
This more interior rational
perception is that Jesus and Jehovah are not the same, though they are the same
Person.
Looked at
from the literal, this sentence sounds like a contradiction or a metaphor for
something vague, not specified. But look at it from the idea that the sentence
is a correspondence for the interior-rational idea. In this new orientation,
the literal becomes less opaque allowing us to perceive the interior, to some varying
extent. The sentence is an instance of the spiritual Doctrine discussed
throughout the book. By looking at it as a correspondence, we can reflect of
how it applies to our willing and thinking every hour of the day. This makes
sense since the glorification series recapitulate how we are to be regenerated
(xx). Jesus had a threefold self as we do, meaning He had inherited and
acquired affections in the will, He had memory-knowledges from the Old
Testament that He acquired by studying it as the Word, and He had a
sensorimotor mind that served to exert control over His corporeal functions. The
Writings explain that, as Jesus grew He experienced a revelation from within
that He was the Word He was reading (xx). This happened at an early age in childhood
and the details of it are explained Arcana Coelestia when discussing the Call
of Abraham and Abram’s first realization of the existence and presence of
Jehovah (xx).
Now Jesus
knew who He was and how He is to redeem the human race. He was the same Person
as Jehovah, the Lord from eternity, but He was not the same conscious
awareness. Applying this to ourself: If you have undergone reformation you can
ask yourself: Was this the same me before and after? As I look back on myself,
I shudder at how I was. But I can also look at myself today and have plenty
things to be aghast about. Myself who is feeling ashamed, aghast, and repentant
is myself from eternity because it is my conscience, and my conscience is the
Lord (xx). Myself from eternity is as different from myself born in time, as
heaven is different from earth, or as an angel is different from a man on
earth. Yet it would be foolish to say that I’m not the same person.
When I get
to heaven and I become an angel, what happens? It is an image of the glorification
series. My self born on earth is united to myself born from eternity, and thus
I am an angel. The same Person as Jehovah is not the same willing, thinking,
and sensing by Jesus. Myself born from eternity is my rational consciousness as
my conscience. This is the correspondence to the Divine. When you read about
conscience in the Writings you are being told something about how the Divine of
the Lord is within His Human. This is what we call the Divine Human, namely,
how the Lord from eternity is within the Lord born in time.
Note
further, that it would be foolish to think that Jehovah does things by means of
Jesus, as many people believe who pray the Father in the Name of Jesus (xx). It
would be equivalent in saying that myself from eternity does things by means of
myself born in time. In other words, everybody sees that we cannot go around in
our daily activities and claim that we are not doing the things, but our
conscience is. This is speaking foolishly. Instead, we say that we are doing
the things from conscience, or in accordance with conscience. Jehovah does not
act by means of Jesus, but rather, Jesus acts from Jehovah, or in accordance
with Jehovah (xx). “The expression, “I and the Father are one” refers to the
idea that, since the Lord glorified Himself, it is the Human of the Lord that
now acts. It acts from the Divine, or in accordance with the Divine.
The mind
that thinks that the Father acts by means of Jesus, or for the sake of Jesus, is
in the Letter, which is natural. The mind that thinks the Jesus acts from the
Father, is a
The mind in
the natural of the Letter cannot see a distinction between the two ways of
phrasing it, and whatever difference there may be, it cannot see it. What you
can’t see, you can’t understand, and what you can’t understand you can’t love,
and what you can’t love is not yours, hence useless for salvation. So the Lord
gives us to see the distinction. We do not see distinctly or clearly, to be
sure. This is a matter of further and further enlightenment about something we
already have implanted within the initial perception of it. Think how you would
feel if someone persisted in addressing your conscience instead of you. It
would be ludicrous and could not support normal social relations, hence all of
society would fall. This is why the
There is a
resistance in us to the idea that it is not the Divine Father who runs things
in the universe, but the Divine Human as Jesus, who runs the universe from the
Divine Father. Our evil affections have a hope of surviving in us if it is the
Divine Father who runs things, but they are annihilated and banished in us if
it is the Divine Human who runs things. The reasons for this will be confirmed
one day by the Letter as the men of the Church are gradually regenerated. We
need the idea of the Divine Human running the universe, in order to regenerate.
We cannot regenerate as long as we hold on to the notion that it is the Divine
Father who runs things.
To the
Western Christian Church there is an indigenous nonduality between Father and
Son. The Athanasian Creed asserts that Father and Son are of “one substance”
but of “two Persons.” Both propositions are false and led to the vastation of
that Church (AE 114; xx). The idea of one substance is a nonduality and was
forced upon the mind by the necessity to maintain the idea of “Two Divine Persons
from Eternity.” Without knowledge of discrete degrees (DLW 173-281) the mind can only think of one
substance for both Father and Son. Nonduality is what the mind falls back on
again and again without the knowledge of discrete degrees (to be found only in
the Writings). The duality in all of the Writings applies here as well: The
Father is the substance called Esse or Divine Love; the Son is the form of the
substance, called Existere or Divine Truth. This duality of substance and form
is also a duality in aspects of function because function or use arises from
substance in a particular form (DL 4).
Chapter 3, Section 3
The concept
of “unity” is entirely different from the concept of nonduality. In unity
dualities do not change or lose their absolute and permanent distinctiveness,
but rather contribute to a new function (or use), so that the function possible
when there is a union is higher or more perfect than the function possible when
the two or more are single and are not united into one. In God, infinite
dualities are united into one (DLW 17, 22). The Lord sees the entire human
race—past, present, and future, as one Grand Human in which numberless
dualities and distinctions function together in an integrated whole (HH 59).
Each elements in such a union contribute something diverse and unique to the
whole as is communicated mutually to every one else, thus enhancing the
perfection of the whole. In contrast, a collection of homogenous elements
cannot function as a unity.
The
Writings teach a view of the Holy Spirit that is compatible with this rational
idea of unity. The Lord’s management of the universe has three universal
aspects—creating, preserving, and re-creating. “Creating” refers to bringing
the physical and spiritual worlds into existence. “Preserving” refers to
managing every event so that the whole doesn’t break down and keeps growing and
being perfected. “Re-creating” refers to new creations within what’s already
been created, so that the perfection of the whole can continue to eternity. In
ancient times these three universal functions of God were represented by
different Names given to God. For creating, the Name of Creator—in
Christian tradition Jehovah, or the Father. For preserving, the Name of
the Son—Jesus Christ or the Messiah, in Christian tradition. For re-creating,
the Name of the Holy Spirit. In religious terms, the three functions are
Creator, Savior, and Holy Spirit.
These three
functions represent three evolutionary steps in the human race’s capacity to
relate to God more and more spiritually, rather than naturally. For instance,
Jehovah the Creator was revealed in the Old Testament thousands of years ago.
Then, Jesus Christ the Messiah was revealed in the New Testament two thousand
years ago. Then, the Divine Human, was revealed in the eighteenth century in
the Writings. This last revelation shows that what was historically believed to
be God in three Persons is actually God in One Person and the three Divine functions.
In the
Divine Human, that is the Lord, the three discrete and absolutely distinct
aspects are united into one. Jehovah is united to Jesus, making one Divine
Person whose inmost is Jehovah and whose outmost is Jesus. The third aspect or
function issues from this absolute duality in the One Lord. The Writings call
this the Divine Proceeding or Holy spirit.
The
Writings teach that the Lord creates everything by intermediaries, not by
disconnected elements (HH 9, 37). The first step in creation was the spiritual
Sun which is made of Divine Good, in the interior, and Divine Truth in the
exterior. These Divine Substances are infinite, uncreate, and the Divine in
Itself, Changeless, eternally the same. The light proceeding from this
Sun, with the heat within it, was the next step. As it proceeded away and
outward, it created atmospheres of increasing “density.” These atmospheres are
arranged into discrete degrees of perfection from most perfect as it proceeds,
to less and less perfect until it reaches the outmost reaches called matter,
space, and time. This successive sequence of discrete atmospheres is retained
in every element or compound down the line. The earliest atmospheres (closest
to the spiritual Sun) are inmost within the constitution of every object. The
later atmospheres (furthest away from the spiritual Sun) are least perfect,
most gross in their quality and capacity.
Every
object is maintained in existence by this simultaneous order, from which the
Lord operates from firsts (or inmosts) to lasts (or ultimates) (DP 124[4] ).
And it is this way that the Lord manages every detail in the universe. The
purpose of creation is to provide a habitation for human beings (DP 324). They
are first born in a physical body on some earth in the natural universe. Their
mind is created out of spiritual elements, not natural like the body. When the
body dies, the mind then awakens in the spiritual world and in a spiritual body
to live forever. The quality of life in the spiritual world is determined by
the mind’s constitution or formation. This formation is achieved during life in
the body. It becomes of utmost importance therefore to form the
1. Spiritual Unity Is Different From Nonduality
From the
spiritual Sun proceed love (=spiritual heat) and truth (=spiritual light) as
two distinct things, but united into one. Although these two Proceed as One
from the spiritual Sun, they are then divided in creation (DP 14-5). The idea
of Divine Love and Wisdom United as One may appear at first as a nonduality,
but they are a duality. To make a one, the composing elements must retain their
permanent distinct character which makes them different (AC 9613, DLW 22). It
is the unity that is one, not the composing dualities. The duality of the
composing elements remains absolute and permanent. In nonduality there is no
such unity of distinct elements but an amalgam that eliminates the
distinctiveness of the elements. In nonduality discrete degrees become
continuous, which is an impossibility in the duality of the Writings.
People who have turned away from thinking about the Divine
when they see wonders in nature, and as a result become sense-oriented, do not
consider that the sight of the eye is so crude that it sees a number of tiny
insects as a single, indistinct mass, and yet that each of them is organically
formed to be capable of sensation and movement, thus that they have been
endowed with fibers and vessels, including little hearts, air passages, viscera
and brains; that these have been woven together out of the finest elements in
nature; and that these structures correspond to some activity of life, by which
even the least of these are individually actuated.
Since the vision
of the eye is so crude that a number of such creatures, each with countless
components in it, looks to the sight like a small, indistinct mass, and yet
people who are sense-oriented think and judge in accordance with that sight, it
is apparent how obtuse their minds have become, and thus in what darkness they
are regarding spiritual matters. (DLW 353)
The
Writings discuss the history of the idea of a Trinity in the Christian Church
and identifies it as the chief cause of spiritual breakdown in the Christian
Church that eventually led to its vastation (TCR 177). The idea of Three Divine
Persons is injurious because the mind is then logically compelled to think of
three Divine Gods, but this is forbidden by Church Doctrine. And so the mind of
the believer is beleaguered with an idea impossible to believe rationally. Yet
this idea continues to be taught generation after generation, despite the
irrationality of it, as recognized by those who yet uphold it as Church
Doctrine. Here is a current version of its intellectual justification:
The Christian Church believes in the doctrine of the
Trinity. That means the Church believes that God is three persons and yet God
is one God. What does this mean, and why does it matter? Some say it is the
theology of a free and democratic society. Others say it is impossible
arithmetic.
(…)
So the church worships and prays to the three persons: God
the Father, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit. They are quite clearly
distinct from each other, and yet they freely work together in harmony. We pray
to each of these as truly divine.
So why not say "three Gods"?
But the church does not speak about the three gods. It
speaks about the threeness of God. Why? Because they can't be separated in our
minds like three human beings can. Three people may be close friends, but they
still look different and have different thoughts and feelings. The three divine
persons are not in different places, for God is not a being in space and time,
and has no place, shape, size or color. God is equally present everywhere. The
three persons are not like stories of the ancient Greek gods, who often
disagreed and fought with each other. They share one purpose of love for us,
and act together for that purpose. When the church says "three persons,
yet one God", it means that these three persons freely choose to share one
purpose.
Thus the Trinity is a very simple idea.
(Critical Questions about the Christian Faith: Douglas
Miller “The Trinity: why does it matter?” on the Web at
vic.uca.org.au/doclit/trinity.html
accessed June 2002)
You
can see where the logic is placed in this position: “They share one purpose of
love for us, and act together for that purpose.” There is an underlying
conviction of the Oneness of God based on the entire Bible with the invented
idea of three Divine Persons in the one Godhead. This idea does not appear in
the Bible—it couldn’t since it’s not rational. It is recognized that the idea
was invented by the Nicene Council of Bishops in 325 AD, for the purpose of
fighting the Arian heresy that was threatening the Christian religion (TCR
137). This heresy was that Jesus was human, not Divine. The Council convened in
Nicea and issued the new idea of Jesus as the “Son from Eternity” and “born in
time.” Nowhere in the New Testament is such an idea to be found. Instead, the
Apostles all knew and understood that Jesus was the incarnated Jehovah Himself.
Current belief in the idea of Three Divine Persons is further reinforced by many
passages in the New Testament that appear to agree with the idea. People are
faced with passages that talk as if there were three Persons of Deity involved
in the events. Here is one modern version:
God is a
community
Now the New
Testament never uses the word "Trinity", but it often speaks about
the three different persons. We read that Christ prayed to the Father. We read
that the Father would send the Holy Spirit to recall people to Christ. Paul
often speaks of "God the Father", "the Lord Jesus Christ",
and "the Holy Spirit". So the notion that we praise all three persons
as God, yet as different from each other, is already there in the New
Testament.
One example:
in Mark's gospel, we read the story of Jesus' baptism (Mark 1:9-11). We read
that Jesus was baptized by John in the river
(Miller,
ibid.)
Note the
subtitle on top: “God is a community.” And the sentence in the prior quote:
“They share one purpose of love for us, and act together for that purpose. When
the church says "three persons, yet one God", it means that these
three persons freely choose to share one purpose.” The nonduality in this
explanation is to view God in terms that appropriate for human beings, rather
than the other way round, as in dualism. The idea of “God is a community” and
the related idea of “three persons freely choosing one purpose” are not
rational ideas about God but natural, invented not received. In dualism we are
mindful that there is a distinct and discrete difference between uncreate and
create, and they cannot be commingled. God cannot be a community of persons like
human beings are. God is called King, because “king” corresponds to truth in
the Word. God is not actually a king—He is called King on account of the
correspondences (LORD 42).
God cannot
be a community, which is a compound concept applied to human beings. Humans can
be properly said to love this or that even though the Lord is Love and Wisdom
Itself. In dualism this is explained by pointing out that the love humans have
does not belong to them but remains the Lord’s love in them. The Lord grants
human beings to receive Love from Him into the will, and this love in them
remains His (BE 5). The love in us is not the same as His Love, but it is an
individual adaptation and reception. Nevertheless, the essence or inmost of
this adapted love is still the Lord. At no time can we say that humans have
love from themselves for love is uncreate and humans are created—the two can
never be commingled. Whenever they are commingled, duality is destroyed and
nonduality reigns.
The
passages in the New Testament that refer to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can be
logically explained if dualism is maintained. This is done in the Writings
(TCR, chs. I-III). The dualist explanation is given in both the Old and New
Testaments if one pays attention to all the relevant passages. One idea is that
it is the Father Himself, or the Lord Jehovah from eternity, who was incarnated
as the Divine Child (LORD 19). The second idea is that Jehovah God calls
Himself repeatedly as the Only Savior and Redeemer, who by His Own Hand redeems
and saves the world (TCR 81). And a third idea is that Jesus underwent a
gradual change from His Birth to His Resurrection and Ascension. His change is
described by alternating states between being weak--suffering, tempted and
praying to the Father in Himself, and states of being Divine and One with the
Father—performing miracles, glowing like the sun and speaking to spirits,
passing through physical barriers, appearing in several places simultaneously,
declaring Himself to be the Word or the Creator from the beginning, etc.
Clearly all
the pieces of the puzzle are in revelation so that there is no need at all to
fabricate human explanations, which invariably, will downgrade into nonduality
and a mere natural idea of God. Into this idea no Divine influx is possible and
a religion based on it becomes spurious and no longer serviceable for
regeneration, hence salvation (DLW 285).
On the
other hand, if we affirm the identity of Person between Father/Son are we not
creating another nonduality? No, since the identity of Father/Son as Person is
nothing else than the unity of substance between Love and Truth. Father as such
is not a Person; Son as such is not a Person—there is no nonduality here. If
Father had been a Person, and if Son had been a Person, then asserting that
they are one Person would be nonduality. It is like the unity in the human
being that images the unity of the Lord who is the Divine Human. A human person
is achieved when three functions (or aspects) unite into a one:
q
the soul-spirit-mind (created as an
image of the Father function)
q
the brain-body-senses (created as an
image of the Son function)
q
the motor power that issues from the
first two when they are united into one (created as an image of the Holy
Spirit)
The unity
of these three cannot be considered a nonduality since all the originating
aspects are retained in the unity. Nonduality requires that only one part of
each duality be retained while any other is dissipated. It is similar with the
body that contains innumerable dualities of function (or aspect) being united
into one. Care must therefore be taken that unity be not confused with
nonduality. A conjugial couple is united into one (CL 158). This cannot be
considered a nonduality but only a psychobiological unity of function between
husband and wife—an eternal duality.
The
Jesus/Jehovah duality, or Son/Father duality, is a real duality that does not
dissolve. The Father Aspect remains a permanent reference for the Lord’s Esse
(Divine Love), while the Son Aspect remains a permanent reference for the
Lord’s Existere (Divine Truth). It is never the case that this permanent
duality of Aspect can ever be dissolved into a nonduality of substance. The
expression in the New Testament “I and the Father are One” (John
This is a
Divine reaffirmation of a permanent duality between the invisible and visible
Aspects of God. It may be that only a
Chapter 3, Section 4
For every nation the
Lord provides a universal means of salvation. (AE 1180)
The idea
that people are saved by religious membership is a subtle and pernicious form
of nonduality in the Christian religion, but also in all religions. And there
may be those that are of the
In the new
age of the Second Coming, no one can be regenerated except through the Writings
and the truths with humankind that henceforth will come from the Writings .
Those who do not know the Writings in this life are instructed in its truths by
the angels when they arrive in the afterlife (HH 512, 516).
It strikes
people as hyperbole or dogmatism to say that one can regenerate only through
the Writings when the Writings have remained a minute part of the readership on
this planet even though they’ve been around and public for 231 years. Why would
God choose such an ineffective method of regeneration when His purpose is to
save as many as He can? And would it be fair and loving to keep the Writings
from most people and then to condemn them for not habit it around? By way of
answer let’s study this next passage from the True Christian Religion, the last
work of the Writings that was published by Swedenborg in 1771, just a few
months before his passing on to the world he had described in so much detail in
these books for the last 27 years of his life in the physical body. The passage
deals with how every individual on earth is regenerated by the Lord.
The reason why everyone can be regenerated depending on his
state, is that the process is different with the simple and the learned, with
those who have different pursuits, and undertake different duties; with those
who research into the externals of the Word and those who research into its
internals; with those whose parentage has brought them into natural good and
those who have been brought into evil; with those who from childhood have plunged
into the world's vanities, and those who have sooner or later distanced
themselves from them. In short, there is a difference between those who make up
the Lord's external church and those who make up the internal one. In this
there is infinite variety, just as there is in faces and characters. But still
each can be regenerated and saved depending on his state.
[2] The truth of this can be established from the heavens,
to which all who are regenerated come, being three, highest, middle and lowest.
Those come to the highest who through regeneration have acquired love to the
Lord; to the middle one those who have acquired love towards the neighbour; to
the lowest those who only exhibit external charity, and at the same time
acknowledge the Lord as God the Redeemer and Savior. All of these are saved,
but in different ways.
[3] The reason why all can be regenerated and so saved is
that the Lord is present with His Divine good and truth with every person. This
is the source of his life, and of his ability to understand and will, and of
the free will he has in spiritual matters; no one is without these. Moreover
the means are given. Christians have the means in the Word, non-Christians in
any religion at all, if it teaches the existence of God and commandments about
good and evil. From this it follows that everyone can be saved. Consequently,
if a person is not saved, it is not the Lord who is to blame but the person;
and he is to blame for failing to co-operate. (TCR 580)
Note
especially this in paragraph 1: “each can be regenerated and saved depending on
his state.” So this is the first thing to establish from the Writings, namely,
that everyone can be regenerated. There is no condemning of the Lord to hell
because someone has never heard of the Writings, or even, having heard of it
and read some, have walked away from it. There are no exceptions to this Divine
rule: each can be regenerated.
1. Everyone Can Be Regenerated
Next, we
can note that the process of being regenerated is unique to each person’s “state”
or “character.” This makes sense because reformation is the process of
character modification and regeneration is the ensuing process of character
rebirth and up building. Therefore the modification and up building of a
regenerated character is going to depend on each unique individual and
character. Note also that even those who have the Writings are regenerated
according to their own state. Those who focus on the literal of the Writings, “those
who research into the externals,” are regenerated differently than those who
focus on the spiritual sense of the Writings, “those who research into its
internals.” And the character we form for ourselves prior to reformation also
influences how we are regenerated. Those who ignored the voice of their conscience,
“those who from childhood have plunged into the world's vanities,” are
regenerated differently than those who listened to their conscience instead of
their evil desires, “those who have sooner or later distanced themselves from
them.” It makes sense therefore that regeneration is accomplished by the Lord
in “infinite variety, just as there is in faces and characters.”
All those
who are regenerated by the Lord enter heaven, and since they are all of different
character it must be that there is an infinite variety of heavens, though they
are grouped into three main regions or lifestyles. The highest group, called
the Third Heaven of the Celestial Angels, are those who have been regenerated
to the highest level of their mind called the celestial. This type of
regeneration is effected by one’s love for the Lord. Since we can struggle
against our evil affections from many motives and goals, the outcome will also
depend on what the goal or motive was. Those whose motive was their love for
the Lord, and especially, as the Divine Human, are regenerated to the highest
level of human existence. They are “those who have acquired love towards the Lord.”
But doesn’t
every good person love God? Yes, but not in the same way. People who are
regenerated to the level of their spiritual mind, which below the celestial,
are congregated in the Second Heaven of the Spiritual Angels. They are “those
who have acquired love towards the neighbour.” They love the Lord, but they
love His Word and Church more. They have religion and faith, while the
celestial angels do not have religion or faith but perception, which is an more
direct way of relating to the Divine Truth, and they have this as a result of
their love for the Lord. While the spiritual angels have understanding of the Lord,
but not perception, because their affections are centered on the Writings
first, and then, and the Lord. Both love the Lord and the Divine of the Writings,
but not in the same way. And those who are regenerated to the natural-spiritual
level make up the First Heaven of Natural Angels. They are “those who only
exhibit external charity” by obedience to religious duties and therefore they
only acknowledge God and the Writings as the highest authority, but do not
rearrange everything in their mind according to the Writings. Internally they
retain their passion for their culture, interests, and activities.
Note this
statement in the last paragraph of the quote above (TCR 580): “The reason why
all can be regenerated and so saved is that the Lord is present with His Divine
good and truth with every person. This is the source of his life, and of his
ability to understand and will, and of the free will he has in spiritual matters;
no one is without these.” This is an
affirmation of the fact that the Lord’s relationship to each individual is
independent of their religion or belief system! This new idea and
revelation runs smack against almost all other religions and human
associations. It is generally believed that your group is closer to God than another
group, and that to get close to God everybody must do what your group is doing
and believing. And yet this is not true any more today and for all the future
to come. With the Second Coming the Lord has completed the creation or
evolution of the human race (xx).
And He now
has revealed Himself in His Divine Rational so that our rational mind can fully
understand and perceive Him. Nothing more is left to reveal on the outside, but
only on the inside. Hence the Writings are the last of the threefold Word, the Crown
of Churches (xx). From now on to forever
the Lord is with every individual independently of religion, worship, and
knowledge. “This is the source of his life, and of his ability to
understand and will, and of the free will he has in spiritual matters; no one
is without these.”
So now the
only requirement for regeneration is for the individual to acknowledge the
reality of the Lord’s presence in him. This acknowledgment, when sincere, then
leads to the desire to reform and regenerate. This activity is the preparation
for one of the many heavens. And if there is permanent unwillingness of the
individual to acknowledge the Lord’s presence, there is no preparation for heaven,
in which case, the individual who arrives that way in the afterlife, sinks down
from the evil affections that are still present. And they take the individual
to one of the varieties of hells, in accordance with the variety of their
evils. There they live with others like themselves, amidst their evils.
The passage
ends this way: “Christians have the means in the Word, non-Christians in any
religion at all, if it teaches the existence of God and commandments about good
and evil. From this it follows that everyone can be saved. Consequently, if a
person is not saved, it is not the Lord who is to blame but the person; and he
is to blame for failing to co-operate” (TCR 580). For the
The Lord
never insists that people change their childhood religion in order to be
admitted to their Heaven (LJP 98). For those who are forming the
At
this day the spiritual sense of the Word has been revealed from the Lord,
because the doctrine of genuine truth has now been revealed, which doctrine is
partly contained in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, and now in the small
works, which are being given to the public; and because that doctrine, and no
other, agrees with the spiritual sense of the Word, therefore that sense,
together with the science of correspondences, has now for the first time been disclosed.
That sense is also signified by the Lord's appearing in the clouds of heaven
with glory and power (Matt. 24:30, 31), in which chapter it treats of the
consummation of the age, by which is meant the last time of the church. (De
Verbo 7)
“At this
day” refers to the regeneration of the
What in
particular concerns the doctrine that now follows, is that it also is out of
heaven, because it is from the spiritual sense of the Word; and the spiritual
sense of the Word is identical with the doctrine which is in heaven. (NJHD 7)
2. Regeneration Leads To Enlightenment
But after
reformation and when regeneration begins, the Lord gives enlightenment as we
read the Writings and apply it to our daily willing in thinking. Now we can
perceive new meaning in the old familiar sentences. This new meaning is the
spiritual sense of the Writings. This sense is given gradually and in parts, in
exact proportion to our progress in regeneration. Now for example, when we read
anything in the Writings about “the Word” we can perceive that it is talking
about the Writings. (See Chapter 8 Sections 3 to 5). Now we can see that the
Heavenly Doctrine cannot be expressed in natural language and that the
spiritual sense being discussed everywhere in the Writings is not in the
literal sentences but in the understanding when enlightened.
The literal
of the Writings are for the external rational level of thinking. This is in the
unregenerate rational mind. These external rational ideas and reasoning must be
then be taken into our mind, digested there, and finally understood in a
spiritual sense when enlightened by the Lord. This new inner understanding is
called Doctrine (TCR 245). Therefore Doctrine in our understanding is at first
natural, but later, spiritual.
This spiritual
Doctrine in the understanding must be the basis of our willing and thinking in
our everyday activities and judgments. Of course, without the external literal
of the Writings, this spiritual Doctrine could not exist in our mind, or
anywhere else. The spiritual Doctrine in our understanding is the spiritual
meaning perceivable within the letter of the Writings when enlightened, and therefore the spiritual sense can only exist
in our mind and never in the literal
of a natural language. It is in the interior of the understanding that we
receive enlightenment from the Lord. Without this enlightenment from within,
there is no spiritual Doctrine in our mind but only the literal statements of
the Writings (TCR 226). Clearly, then, ideas that come to us from elsewhere
than the literal of the Writings cannot be so enlightened by the Lord and
cannot produce any spiritual Doctrine. This is because the Lord enlightens only
that which comes from Him, and everything in the Writings comes from Him (TCR
779).
This mental
process of regeneration shaped exclusively by the Writings applies to the
generations on this planet born since the Second Coming. Prior generations or
civilizations each received their own revelations from the Lord (AC 10632). But
in the course of time these revelations (or the Church) are consummated by the
love of self and the world (DP 328). Until at last there is not a single truth
left in that Church and it is called a “dry land.” (AC 806). The Lord then
raises a new Church through new revelations given through an individual. These
new revelations are specifically suited and adapted to the genius of the new
human civilization (or mind). Not a single spiritual truth given to an
earlier Church can be transferred or used by the new Church (SPECIMEN 14,
INV 5). To attempt to do so would be to commingle what is false with what is
true, and this permanently destroys the rationality of the
The
revelations historically retained by the many forms of Eastern nonduality may
have had beneficial uses to those generations in
Fourth: When
man is in evil many truths may be introduced into his understanding, and these
may be stored up in his memory, and yet not be profaned. This is because the
understanding does not flow into the will, but the will into the understanding;
and as it does not flow into the will many truths may be received by the
understanding and stored up in the memory, and yet not be mingled with the evil
of the will; and thus what is holy may not be profaned. Moreover, it is incumbent
upon everyone to learn truths from the Word or from preaching, to lay them up
in the memory and to ponder over them. For from the truths that are in the
memory and that enter the thought from the memory the understanding must teach
the will, that is, must teach the man what to do. This, therefore, is the
principal means of reformation. When truths are only in the understanding and
from it in the memory, they are not in the man, but outside of him. (DP 233:7;
see also DP 234)
One
commentator of an earlier draft of this book objected to the idea that not a
single spiritual truth can be admitted in the New Church mind if its source is
not the Writings: “Notice, for example, how the Lord made use of plenty of
truths from the letters of Paul in the Writings. As long as we view all things
in the light of the Writings, it can be used in the
Since, then, everyone in every religion knows the evils and
falsities from evils that must be shunned, and having shunned them knows the
goods that must be done and the truths that must be believed, it is clear that
this is provided by the Lord as the universal means of salvation with every
nation that has any religion.
[2] With Christians this means exists in all fullness; it
also exists, though not in fullness, with Mohammedans and Gentiles. The
remaining things, by which they are distinguished, are either ceremonials which
are of little consequence, or are goods that may be done or not done, or truths
that may be believed or not believed, and yet man be saved. What these things
amount to man can see when evils are removed.
A Christian sees this from the Word, a Mohammedan from the
Koran, and a Gentile from his religious principle.
A Christian sees from the Word that God is one, that the
Lord is the Savior of the world, that all good that is good in itself, and all
truth that is true in itself, is from God, and nothing of it from man; that
there must be Baptism and the Holy Supper, that there is a heaven and that
there is a hell, that there is a life after death, and that he who does good
comes into heaven, and he who does evil into hell. These things he believes
from truth and does from good when he is not in evil. Other things that are not
in accord with these and with the Decalogue he may pass by.
A Mohammedan sees from the Koran that God is one, that the
Lord is the Son of God, and that all good is from God, that there is a heaven
and that there is a hell, that there is a life after death, and that the evils
forbidden in the commandments of the Decalogue must be shunned. If he does
these latter things he also believes the former and is saved.
A Gentile sees from his religious principle that there is a
God, that He must be regarded as holy and be worshiped, that good is from Him,
that there is a heaven and that there is a hell, that there is a life after
death, that the evils forbidden in the Decalogue must be shunned. If he does
these things and believes them he is saved.
And as many Gentiles perceive God to be Man, and as God-Man
is the Lord, so after death when they are instructed by angels they acknowledge
the Lord, and afterwards receive truths from the Lord that they had not before
known. They are not condemned because of their not having the ordinances of
Baptism and the Holy Supper; the Holy Supper and Baptism are for those only who
are in possession of the Word, and to whom the Lord is known from the Word; for
they are symbols of that church, and are attestations and certifications that
those who believe and live according to the Lord's commandments in the Word are
saved. (AE 1180)
Here we see
again that the Lord has taken charge of all religions and of all individuals.
There is something more important than religious membership, namely, shunning
evils as sins against God. This formula is of the
Chapter 3, Section 5
There are
concepts of nonduality in both Eastern and Western traditions since discrete
degrees are unknown. A universal example is the widespread belief that
spiritual forces from spirits or demons can inflow into the body and cause
diseases. This is found in Hinduism and other Eastern religions as well as in
Western forms of voodoo and Judaeo-Christian notions involving superstition,
possession, and exorcism. In contrast, the Writings give us rational concepts
of dualism to account for how diseases of the body are caused by the activity
of infernal spirits:
It
is only permitted for Hell to inflow into the cupidities and falsities
pertaining to man - not into man's organs." (SD 4585)
Spirits can
only inflow into the falsities and lusts of the mind since the mind and the
spirits are in continuous degree within the spiritual world. Diseases of the
body are caused by correspondence to these interactions in the mind between
spirit societies and each individual on earth. Without the idea of discrete
degrees, people’s thinking process must slide down into nonduality, and hence corporeal
spirituality. The infernal spirits are in this state of mind.
Western
nonduality is rooted in the traditions of religious mysticism that fosters the
notion of a sensuous and direct contact with the Lord. Various specialized
sensuous practices are said to facilitate this “ecstatic” state of
consciousness—solitude, fasting, self-inflicted pain, vow of silence, vow of
celibacy, repeating prayers over and over again, concentrating very hard while
praying or reading the Bible, doing low level or denigrating jobs to punish
one’s spirit for pride, abstaining from certain foods, special initiation
rituals, etc. Mysticism and New Age spirituality are Western concepts of
nonduality whose central goal is to achieve direct sensuous God-consciousness.
This is a form nonduality because direct sensuous contact with God necessarily
assumes that God and human beings are of the same discrete substance. Only
within the same discrete substance can direct sensuous contact take place.
In contrast
to this,
The
manifestation of the Lord in person, and introduction by the Lord into the spiritual
world, both as to sight and as to hearing and speech, surpasses all miracles;
for nowhere in history do we read that such an intercourse with angels and
spirits has been granted from the creation of the world. For I am there with
the angels daily, even as I am in the world with men, and now for twenty-seven
years.
Evidences of
this intercourse are the books published by me concerning Heaven and Hell, and
also the memorable relations in the last work, entitled THE TRUE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION; further, what has been there related concerning Luther, Melanchthon,
Calvin, and concerning the inhabitants of a number of kingdoms; besides the
various evidences which are known in the world, and, in addition, many others
which are not known. Say, who has ever before known anything concerning heaven
and hell? Who has known anything concerning man's state after death? Who,
anything concerning spirits and angels? etc., etc. (INV 43)
There is a
rational explanation why no one else can expect to duplicate Swedenborg’s unique
experience. In the age of rational faith the Lord avoids sensuous communication
or contact with anyone because this hurts the development of the person’s
rational consciousness (AC 7809; HH 249). In the afterlife we need the interior
rational consciousness to reach our celestial level from which we can then
enjoy the sensuous experiences of heaven such as the surrounding beauty and the
delights of conjugial love. But if we reverse this order so that we arrive in
the afterlife with a sensuous consciousness of God in which there is little
rational consciousness, the spirit sinks down into corporeal consciousness and
existence, and this is infernal (HD 170). God cannot come to such spirits as
the path outward to awareness in the spirit’s mind is blocked by the external
rational. This external rational is turned outward (or downward) and believes
only that which is sensuous in the external (AC 978, 4286; AE 355:14). In the
afterlife such external beliefs of religion fall off and vanish, leaving behind
a ferocious sub-human who believes only in self (TCR 69). Nonduality is nothing
else than sensuous consciousness united to an external rational in which there
is nothing spiritual whatsoever. For the genuine spiritual or celestial comes
only from heaven through the interior rational that must be gradually opened by
a life of genuine religion and regeneration.
For more
discussion on sensuous and rational consciousness, see Chapter 5, Sections 3.
1. God Is Separate From Creation
Nonduality
in the Western mind forces an identity of substance between God, the cosmos,
and self. This notion is clearly evident in the popular book “A Brief History
of Everything” by Ken Wilber (Shambhala Books, 1996). The incompatibility
between New Age nonduality and Christian dualism is explicitly pointed out in a
review of the book by Douglas Groothuis, and published on the Web by the
Christian Research Institute. (Accessed on the Web April 2002:
www.equip.org/free/DN267.htm). Wilber’s cosmology is lukewarm in that it
commingles nondualist and dualist concepts. He rejects the nonduality of
scientific monism (only matter, space, and time exist), and wants to expand it
to include “subjective experience, values, or mystical awareness.” These aren’t
quantifiable yet they exist and are part of reality. Wilber’s name for these
human dimensions is Spirit. One can see the damage of commingling when Wilber
discards the dualist idea of God as Divine Person and instantiates a non-
anthropomorphic Spirit. His rational idea of matter/spirit duality is immersed
in the sensuous idea of a universal force dispersed in the universe. Quoting
from the review by Groothuis:
"Kosmos
is the manner in which Spirit manifests itself through certain invariant
stages. … He views the source of the Kosmos as "Emptiness," which is
"unbounded and unqualifiable" (27; see also 133). Wilber takes the
mystical experience of Emptiness to be the highest state of consciousness. In
this state, the subject-object relationship drops out and one realizes that he
or she is one with the nondual reality." … "Wilber insists that the
final reality is nondual an all-encompassing and absolute oneness (see 226-32).
It is
evident that Western concepts of nonduality are commingled with remains of
duality that are implied in the Western intellectual system and cannot be
easily eradicated from the mind. But without the rational protection of
discrete degrees and correspondences this commingling throws the mind into
corporeal spirituality which invades the mind to the core and destroys the potential
for opening the interior rational mind. This is the mind that sustains high
consciousness levels (or heavens) in the afterlife. The absence of the rational
is clearly seen in “mystical” statements such as this one, quoted by Groothuis:
“You
are not in the Kosmos, the Kosmos is in you, and you are purest Emptiness. The
entire universe is a transparent shimmering of the purest Emptiness. The entire
universe is a transparent shimmering of the Divine" (229).
Groothuis
clearly sees the absence of rationality in these nondual notions:
If
nonduality is the comprehensive reality, as Wilber claims, this destroys all
duality ... God's creation is one universe, but it consists of a great
diversity of objects, events, and relationships. Neither God nor His creation
will dissolve into a faceless oneness. ... One cannot have a personal
relationship with Emptiness. If all is one, there can be no relationships, for
a relationship involves at least two entities. Wilber says that "the
twoness of experience is the fundamental lie, the primordial
untruthfulness" (233).
Wilbers
use of personal language for the impersonal absolute is a classic case of what
Francis Schaeffer called "semantic mysticism"-- terms that have no
philosophical application within a world view are invoked for a deceptive
emotional effect. ... The problem of good and evil also plagues Wilber. Since
Spirit is nondual, it is beyond ethical categories. Meaningful moral
distinctions require an objective difference between the dualities of good and
evil."
Here we see
the spiritual danger: the denial of God’s Personhood which results in ourselves
being God, an idea that is hostile to character regeneration since this
requires a duality of superior to lower. If I am God, my salvation is not to
change from evil to good with the help of God, but to let both fall off that I
may awaken as God. In the end, Western nonduality falls into the corporeal
spirituality called “mysticism” and “oneness with the universe.” Quoting
Groothuis once more:
Wilber
affirms that the ultimate reality is "unqualifiable" (137, 225). If
so, then no one can logically affirm anything about it. What cannot be
described cannot serve as an explanation for anything. Nevertheless, Wilber
does qualify the Emptiness by saying it is the ground and goal of evolution,
the source of all historical manifestations, the highest state of
consciousness, and so forth. This is contradictory; he should remain silent
(along with Emptiness)."
Chapter 3, Section 6
New Age spirituality
and mystical ideas of Spirit, Universe, or God-consciousness, enter the mind
through nonduality which is the denial or ignorance of discrete degrees and
correspondences into which the universe is created (DLW 173-281). Nonduality in
the form of secular humanism, pluralism, and religious mysticism are systems of
thinking that are opposed to the fundamental dualities we take up from the
Writings. In the afterlife all of these natural belief systems fall off and are
dissipated since they are not part of the internal mind. What is then left
behind is the denial of God and heaven. Religion occupies the highest place in
the human mind and without the worship and love of God as Person all that is
below is false and of no use. Nonduality in the mind is antagonistic to the
worship and love of the Divine Human in whom infinite distinct things make a
one. The perfection of the Lord is that distinct things are united in Him. Were
we to think that the distinct things commingle and are amalgamated into an “indistinct
mass” of nonduality we close the mind to understanding the Lord’s perfection
(DLW 352, SE 682). As the angels said to Swedenborg “what is indistinct is
confused, whence results all imperfection of form” (DP 4).
The
nonduality of Christian Science theology is evident from the core idea that
permeates all sub-ideas, as here:
With the
inspired Word of the Scriptures as its foundation, Christian Science reveals
that God is infinite Spirit, the only Mind, boundless Soul, ever present Love,
perfect Life, unrivaled Truth, omnipotent Principle. … Infinite Spirit never
had a visible opposite, called matter nor an invisible opposite, called an
atom. Infinite Mind never had a visible opposite, called a human brain, nor an
invisible opposite, called mortal mind. … Consequently, the thought that there
is something unlike or besides God should be rejected with the same finality
with which those turnips were rejected.
The Discoverer
and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, perceived the true import of
God's allness as no one else has since Christ Jesus. In the Christian Science
textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy writes,
"Spirit, God, has created all in and of Himself. Spirit never created
matter." And she continues, "Spirit is the only substance, the
invisible and indivisible infinite God." The more we understand the
unqualified allness of Spirit, the more we understand the unqualified
nothingness of matter.
(On the Web at mbeinstitute.org/cern2.html
Accessed May 2002)
Clearly,
the nonduality expressed here is not drawn from the Word but from the mind of
Mary Baker Eddy. We know this for certain from what the Writings teach
concerning discrete degrees. The Lord creates everything in three discrete
degrees. The natural world (“matter”) is a real and permanent creation, that
contains within it the spiritual and the celestial (DP 220). Take away one and
creation collapses into chaos and dissipates.
Once,
having been asked by the Pharisees when the
Heaven
is in the man; and there is a place for him in heaven according to the state of
life and of faith in which he is (AC 9305)
It cannot
be said that Christian nonduality is Christian, but only that nonduality has
been infused into the ideas of many Christians who acknowledge the Bible as the
Holy Word. But this acknowledgement is only in their natural mind, thus devoid
of any spiritual ideas that only start above the external natural-rational,
that is, in the interior rational or spiritual-rational.
Chapter 3, Section 7
Author-philosopher
Ayn Rand continues to be a significant influence on college students today.
Millions of young Americans are exposed to her ideas in high school and college
classrooms and read her books along with the collateral literature of
followers. Her version of nonduality relates to Nietzsche’s “superman” concept
that popularized the notion that morality is to be taken from natural reality,
since human reason is from nature and nothing exists but what comes from
nature.
Ayn Rand
named her philosophy “Objectivism” and described it as a philosophy for living
on earth. Objectivism is an integrated system of thought that defines the
abstract principles by which a man must think and act if he is to live the life
proper to man. Ayn Rand first portrayed her philosophy in the form of the
heroes of her best-selling novels, The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas
Shrugged (1957). She later expressed her philosophy in nonfiction form. The
basic principles of Objectivism can be summarized as follows:
Metaphysics
“Reality, the
external world, exists independent of man’s consciousness, independent of any
observer’s knowledge, beliefs, feelings, desires or fears. This means that A is
A, that facts are facts, that things are what they are — and that the task of
man’s consciousness is to perceive reality, not to create or invent it.” Thus
Objectivism rejects any belief in the supernatural — and any claim that individuals
or groups create their own reality.
Human Nature
Man is a rational being. Reason, as man’s only means of
knowledge, is his basic means of survival. But the exercise of reason depends
on each individual’s choice. “Man is a being of volitional consciousness.”
“That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which
you call ‘free will’ is your mind’s freedom to think or not, the only will you
have, your only freedom. This is the choice that controls all the choices you
make and determines your life and character.” Thus Objectivism rejects any form
of determinism, the belief that man is a victim of forces beyond his control
(such as God, fate, upbringing, genes, or economic conditions).
Ethics
“Reason is man’s only proper judge of values and his only
proper guide to action. The proper standard of ethics is: man’s survival qua
man — i.e., that which is required by man’s nature for his survival as a
rational being (not his momentary physical survival as a mindless brute).
Rationality is man’s basic virtue, and his three fundamental values are:
reason, purpose, self-esteem. Man — every man — is an end in himself, not a
means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing
himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his
rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the
highest moral purpose of his life.” Thus Objectivism rejects any form of
altruism — the claim that morality consists in living for others or for society.
(“The Ayn Rand Institute, Center for the Advancement of
Objectivism.” On the Web at www.aynrand.org/objectivism/essentials.html
Accessed May 2002
The
attitude of hostility towards religion and duality is made quite apparent as
part of its appeal, I think. Westerners who want to take an anti-religion stand
in opposition to their upbringing, find it in a modern philosophy that
justifies ridiculing religious ideas about God and self. The rationale for
justifying this rejection is given as a simple minded theory that objective
thinking or “Reason” is solely from nature through sensory input.
And the serpent was subtle, more than every wild animal of
the field that Jehovah God had made. And it said to the woman, Has God indeed
said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
'The serpent is here used to mean man's sensory perception
in which he trusts. 'Wild animal of the field' here, as previously, means every
affection that belongs to the external man. 'Woman' means the proprium. 'The
serpent said, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree' means that
for the first time they entertained doubts. The subject is the third generation
of the descendants of the
This
generalized form of nonduality leads to the devastating attitude that the self
is the only source of truth, morality, and happiness. Altruism, which we may
call charity or love of neighbor, is an idealistic or non-objective fabrication
which are rejected by realistic and strong individuals. They are the ones who
are going to succeed in their productivity and happiness. “Rational
self-interest” is described as the highest goal of human consciousness and
reason. Acting on our own behalf is said to be morally and objectively superior
to acting on behalf of someone else because our survival depends on acting on
our own behalf.
The
nonduality of
The
devastating effect this philosophy can have on one’s understanding is
illustrated in the essays written by high school students and published on the
Ayn Rand Institute Web site. This student decided to present her ideas on
objectivism for her high school graduation commencement speech. Her teacher saw
the speech and suggested some changes:
My old history teacher, an extreme liberal, advised me to
completely remove the word “selfish” and change it to another word, like
“self-reliance.” But as I saw it, changing that word meant changing the meaning
of my speech. To review, “selfish,” according to the American Heritage
Dictionary, means “concerned chiefly or only with oneself without regard for
the well being of others.” The committee had a problem with the definition, and
basically, the philosophical ideas I was implementing. I was not advocating
caring only for yourself at all times—I was advocating selfishness toward one’s
own goals and dreams.
(“Collected Student Writings: The Virtue of Individualism”
On the Web at www.aynrand.org/ROC/individual_virtue_main.shtml
Accessed May 2002).
In contrast
to this is the revealed truth in the Writings:
Man is born
not for the sake of himself but for the sake of others; that is, he is born not
to live for himself alone but for others; otherwise there could be no cohesive
society, nor any good therein. It is a common saying that every man is a
neighbor to himself; but the doctrine of charity teaches how this is to be
understood, namely, that everyone should provide for himself the necessaries of
life, as food, clothing, a dwelling, and other things which are necessarily
required in the social life in which he is, and this not only for himself, but
also for his family, nor for the present alone, but also for the future.
For unless a
man acquires for himself the necessaries of life, he is not in a condition to
exercise charity, since he is in want of everything. But how every man ought to
be a neighbor to himself may be seen from the following comparison: Every man
ought to provide his body with food; this must be first, but the end should be
that he may have a sound mind in a sound body; and every man ought to provide
his mind with food, namely, with such things as pertain to intelligence and
judgment; but the end should be that he may thereby be in a state to serve his
fellow-citizens, society, his country, the church, and thus the Lord. He who
does this provides well for himself to eternity. (TCR 406)
The
American intellectual spectrum is divided into two factions that might be
called Establishment and New Age. One is indigenous to the West, the other imported
from the East. The Establishment intellectualism is constructed on the usual
left-right ideology that characterizes political activity and social policy.
Ayn Rand’s Objectivism is on the right and is rationalized on the basis of
materialistic monism and survival of the fittest, a point of view that was
elaborated into a modernity outlook by 19th Century British and
German philosophers (Weber, Huxley, xx). Opposing Objectivism is the left
oriented secular humanism as represented by The Aquarian Conspiracy
which popularized a fully modernized personal philosophy that millions of
individuals have taken on as their habitual way of thinking and reasoning about
social issues, psychology, morality, and spirituality.
The
nonduality of the left takes a different form from that on the right, though
both agree in the departure cornerstone—only the material world of nature is
the reality around us, and therefore good is what promotes self and its
self-centered goals. There is a background assumption in all nonduality that is
a blind persuasive faith in the mystery of the unknown in nature. This is the
substitute for the inherited faith in God that every individual is born with
(TCR 8). Objectivism on the right of the spectrum relies on an unexamined
super-rational role attributed to nature in the form of its not-understood
“intelligent” forces that counteract chaos. The Aquarian Conspiracy on the left
relies on a mystical Wholeness that exists and exerts a beneficial influence on
the parts. Some of these parts are human beings who can reason and figure out
what the Wholeness is up to. This knowledge is valuable because it allows us to
manage the forces of Wholeness, or to manage things around us to conform to the
forces of the Wholeness. By doing this kind of management we are transformed
and raised to a higher level of our being and existence. The notion of a
“conspiracy” by the “Aquarian” forces shows that the mysterious activity of the
Wholeness work in the background of our awareness and calling these forces “Aquarian”
indicates that they are beneficial and oriented towards the evolution of human
consciousness.
A great
shuddering, irrevocable shift is overtaking us. … It is a new mind—a turnabout
in consciousness in critical numbers of individuals, a network powerful enough
to bring about radical change in our culture. This network—the Aquarian
Conspiracy—has already enlisted the minds, hearts, and resources of some of our
most advanced thinkers and steadily growing numbers from every corner of
American society. Marilyn Ferguson is the publisher of Brain/Mind Bulletin, the
most widely read newsletter in the areas of brain research and consciousness,
and The Leading Edge, a newsletter dealing with the frontiers of social
transformation. (From the book jacket.)
Meditation,
chanting, and similar techniques increase the coherence and harmony in the
brainwave patterns; they bring about greater synchrony between the hemispheres,
which suggests that higher order is achieved. (p. 79)
Beyond the
personal reunification, the inner reconnection, the re-annexing of lost
portions of oneself, there is the connection to an even larger Self—the
invisible continent on which we all make our home. … The separate self is an
illusion. … When the self joins the Self, there is power. … This perfection,
this wholeness, does not refer to superior achievement, moral rectitude,
personality. It is not comparative and not even personal. Rather, it is an
insight into nature…If only briefly, we recognize ourselves as children of
nature, not as strangers in the world. (p. 97-100).
Spiritual or
mystical experience is … a direct perception of nature’s unity, the inside of
the mysteries of science tries valiantly to know from the outside. … Millions
living today have experienced transcendent aspects of reality and have
incorporated this knowledge into their lives. A mystical experience, however,
brief, is validation for those attracted to the spiritual search. (p. 362)
(“The
Aquarian Conspiracy” by Marilyn Ferguson.
What is
called “transcendent” and “mystical” in nonduality systems is a corporeal
feeling of “unity with the universe” or a sensuous vision of nothing
experienced before. Both of these “spiritual self-transformations” are
interpreted as occurring in one’s “consciousness” which is pictured like a sort
of elevator shaft that goes from bottom self to divine. Despite the tremendous
bibliographic efforts put out around this and similar “psychotechnologies,”
there is not one rational duality included anywhere. The Writings describe this
result and explain it as the absolute restriction of the natural mind to the
natural discrete degree (see Chapter 7 Section 1). Not a single
rational-spiritual idea can exist in natural systems of nonduality (DLW 185).
The
“Aquarian Conspiracy” is indeed a conspiracy, but not the one described in the
book. The real conspiracy is the denial of duality. The purpose of this
conspiracy is to maintain the current supremacy of self and the human
intellect. This is done by systematic exclusion or filtering out of dualist
concepts from the Second Coming. The dualist rational absolutist concepts of
the Writings dethrone the supremacy of the self and destroy the fiery serpent
living in the formula: self=divine. Prior to reformation the dethroning of the
self from its divine position is experienced as death and dying. Naturally,
then, the filtering process against duality will continue as it is endemic.
Because of this, the Lord provides for each person a way out of
self—reformation and regeneration. This is the suffering we must be willing to
undergo. No other way exists. But the burden is light, says the Lord (Matt
Further,
those born in the
To undergo
reformation we must let go of all our nondualities stuck in the natural mind,
no matter what religion we are born into. The first to go is the fundamental
one that keeps all others in power: the formula self=divine. I recall when I
went through that phase (see Note 3 at end). I was an avatar to myself, a god,
evidence of which were my great spiritual accomplishments—my insights into all
things rational, my ecstatic experiences of oneness with the universe, my
emotional detachment regarding what riles everyone else around me, my absolute
independence and self-reliance in internal things—these were the proof for my
having reached the divine status. And then I had to give it up quickly as the
Lord allowed me to plummet down quickly into anxiety, doubt, lifelessness, and
dread. Thus vastated, my insane persuasion dissolved and I was able to grasp
and hold on to the new found inner experience of worship and love of the Lord
through loving, studying, and obeying His Word. This was higher consciousness.
This is reality. This direction of movement will pay off with salvation and eternity,
while the prior one with sinking deeper and deeper into the sink-hole of
insanity. This may sound like an extreme view by those who do not see that it
is what the Writings teach in particular and in general everywhere.
A popular
book that has had a large following is James Redfield’s The Celestine
Prophecy (Warner Books, New York 1994), a novel seen as a spiritual guide
for the New Age. It is still a best seller in 2002. The book purports to reveal
ancient truth that has been suppressed by the “established orthodoxy” now that
we are on the verge of a paradigm shift in human evolution. In reality we are
all truly God but the Christian Church has kept this truth from the people,
along with the Bible and Western science. Since we are co-creators of the
universe, we create our own reality. By rejecting all fear and doubt we raise
our spiritual energy to our “higher self”
One critical reviewer asks, “Do we have a new guru with a new religious
movement here?” Another reviewer summarizes the new knowledge as follows:
#1. Feeling restless? You're not alone: Everybody's starting
to look for more meaning in life. Start paying closer attention to those
seemingly "Chance Coincidences" - strange occurrences that feel like
they were meant to happen. They are actually synchronistic events, and
following them will start you on your path to spiritual truth.
#2. Observe our culture within its proper historical
context. The first half of the past millennium was spent under the thumb of the
church; in the second half we became preoccupied with material comfort. Now, at
the end of the twentieth century, we've exhausted that preoccupation. We're
ready to discover life's ultimate purpose.
#3. Start to get acquainted with the subtle energy that
infuses all things. With practice, you can learn to see the aura around any
living being and to project your own energy around it to give it strength.
#5. The key to overcoming conflict in the world is the
mystical experience, which is available to everyone. To nurture the mystical
and build your energy, allow yourself to be filled with a sense of love.
#7. Once cleared of traumas, you can build energy through
contemplation and meditation, focus on you basic life question, and start
riding a steady stream of intuitions, dreams, and synchronistic coincidences,
all guiding you in the direction of your own evolution and transformation.
#9. Our purpose here is to evolve beyond this plane. … We
can connect to God's energy in such a way that we will eventually become beings
of light, and walk straight into heaven.
(The Nine Insights of the Celestine Prophecy by James
Redfield, summary by Alan Atkisson (Aug/1994) on the Web at www.spiritweb.org/Spirit/celestine-9-insights.html
Accessed June 2002)
The
“Celestine Prophecy” is regarded by followers as a modern day revelation of the
next step in human evolution. It has surfaced now because a “critical mass” of
people are reaching a new spiritual development through insights that the
higher self reveals to the lower self. Humans have “dynamic sacred energy” they
can project to influence the seeming coincidences in our lives. The “mystic
experience of an inner connection with divine energy within” has been known in
Eastern traditions but now anyone can experience this through acquiring
“personal energy and awareness of our spiritual mission.” This is revealed to
the person gradually—questions, daydreams, intuition—leading to similar revelations
that others experience “synchronously” and “ultimately transforming our bodies
into spiritual form and uniting this dimension of existence with the after-life
dimension, ending the cycle of birth and death” (from a review online).
All
philosophic forms of nonduality are self-based formulations. In the East they
take the form that the self is really God not an individual. In the West God is
left out of the account and replaced by a mystical idea about a
self-intelligent universe or evolutionary process. The result of all forms of
nonduality is to allow people to invent their own ideas of morality and
spirituality. This is the imagined victory of the human over the Divine, which
in the Word is described as eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil (AC 126). The tree of life is discarded. The result of this is spiritual
death with no knowledge left of any spiritual truths (AC 128, 265).
There is
also a middle of the road nonduality which might be called psychological
humanism. It is the orientation that gifts the natural mind with having the
ability to improve itself to an indefinite degree into the future. It creates a
continuum of intelligence in the natural discrete degree spanning from animal
to the highest level humans can attain. The method by which this can achieved
is critical thinking. A similar notion is promoted in related philosophical
systems of secular humanism, one of the widest known is the general semantics
movement started by Korzybsky (xx). According to the Foundation for Critical
Thinking the human mind is natural and contains various levels and functions.
Thoughts and feelings are organized by either of two drives: “egocentric
tendencies” or “rational capacities.” One is “unsuccessful” leading to negative
emotions--anger, depression, alienation, arrogance, defensiveness, domination,
submission. The other helps us attain our goals, develop our potentials, and
lead a fulfilling life. The focus ought to be on “continual self-improvement
while respecting the rights and needs of others.” (The Human Mind,
Foundation for Critical Thinking, on the Web at www.criticalthinking.org )
All
philosophies, psychologies, sciences, and religions that are founded on the
cornerstone of nonduality are invariably stuck in the natural world and the
natural mind. Rejecting the idea of dualism, they leave no exit from this
world. The individual can only have a temporary existence. People have a
choice as to how they’re going to spend this limited time, well or not well.
What it means to live life well in the mental health profession is identified
along various measures of living and achieving—
q
self-improvement and stagnation
q
adaptive and maladjusted
q
successful and being extinguished
q
rational and egocentric
q
clear and obscure
q
cooperative and antagonistic
q
outstanding and normal
q
self-reliant and dependant
q
and so on.
Each life
continuum is defined by two opposites in choices that determine our lifestyle,
our personality, and our destiny. This type of positive and upward mobile
character image may have a certain attractiveness to the
Every
change and variation of state of the human mind makes some change and variation
in the series of things present and consequently of things that follow; what,
then, must it not do in the progression to eternity? (DP 202:3)
Evils
are as it were heavy, and fall of themselves into hell; and so also falsities
that are from evil (n. 8279, 8298). (HD 170)
For
example, consider what is to be taught to school children at various levels.
For instance, one Lesson on “What Will Decompose?” as designed for 2nd
and 3rd Grades, explains the difference between “man-made” and
“natural objects.” And then encourages discussion that can stimulate critical
thinking about “categories of things” and which would decompose. This appears
fine at first, and is intended to lay the logical foundation for later ideas of
conservation and recycling. But upon second thought we would not want to teach
our
This
duality context then sets the foundation for the morality of recycling as an
individual motivation and choice. The religious motive for recycling is the
only spiritual one, but this only to the extent that one’s religion is
spiritual-natural and not merely corporeal-sensuous natural. It would threaten
the children’s ability to understand the Writings if we were too teach them the
two categories of man-made and natural without at the same time
embedding these categories into a more inclusive category of man-made from God
and nature-made from God. This is necessary to insure that all concepts in our
mind are connected to God. Because this is the reality, teaching it instills an
external rational system that can receive the genuine spiritual-rational system
from the Writings.
It should
be noted note that the secular orientation of Skepticism teaches critical
thinking analysis for debunking religious dogma and uncritical acceptance of
various claims regarding miracles and the power of prayer. The Skeptic’s
Dictionary online (skepdic.com/prayer.html
) uses this critical approach not only with the dubious claims of certain
enthusiastic preachers but also those of the professional medical research
literature that publishes prayer experiments with flawed designs. Clearly these
critical thinking skills are valuable to build the external rational, so long
as the context of duality is provided for it.
A
Mark
Carlson's article on evolution theory and the limbus gives us the third
illustration of the incorporation of religious concepts from Swedenborg into
modern science.[14] First he cautions that atheistic evolution theory can be a
"real danger" to "the simple-minded" because of its
"sophisticated arguments against God" (p.259). To assume that a
"random process can 'create' life" is "inherently unreasonable
and illogical" (p.259). The "neo-Darwinian" views of
sociobiologists (he mentions Richard Dawkins) are mere "foolishness,"
such as the theory that our genes "manipulate us and our world by remote
control for the sake of their own survival" (p.260).
For
additional discussion on
Chapter 3, Section 8
The
Anthroposophy Movement that Steiner founded and led until his death in 1924
survives today in a select following, small but widespread in Western
countries. It is not generally known that he started the Waldorf education
movement that is inspired by his occult ideas. I have made an attempt to study
Steiner’s books and consulted followers who are active in anthroposophy, but I
abandoned my studies after three years and a dozen books, being convinced that
I will obtain nothing coherent from his obscure web of mystical ideas. I might
note the hand of
Regarding
the spiritual world:
When
the ether-body is detached from the human being after death (see Chapter III,)
something that may be described as a kind of extract or quintessence of it
remains for the whole of his future evolution. This extract contains the fruits
of the past life. It is the bearer of the “seed” of his coming life — the seed
which is developing throughout man's spiritual evolution between death and a
new birth.
Steiner
teaches reincarnation as the vehicle of evolution of an individual’s
consciousness. Between births, the individual undergoes various experiences in
some spiritual realm or state. The psycho-dynamic forces that drive or create
these experiences are said to be mysterious inner forces of an intelligent
universe. Steiner said he was able to “sense” these forces by subtle forms of
“supersensible cognition,” especially just before fully awakening in the
morning, while in a sort of middle state between sleep and consciousness. The
more “evolved” an individual is, the more attuned to these mysterious forces
called “Beings,” and the more one can understand how they run the universe.
While the Ego
is in the spiritual worlds, man's earthly dwelling-place is changing. In one
respect this change is connected with the changes that are taking place in the
great Universe — changes for example, in the relative position of the Earth to
the Sun. Periodic changes involving cosmic repetitions are connected with the
development of new conditions on the Earth.
Through
Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition supersensible cognition gradually
reaches up into the regions of the spiritual world where it can apprehend the
Beings who participate in the evolution of the World and
It may be
asked whether by meditation, contemplation and kindred methods of attaining
supersensible cognition described in this book, we arrive at the general
realities — say, of the life between death and rebirth, and other spiritual
facts — or whether we are also enabled to perceive particular events and
beings, for example an individual human soul after death. The answer is that
one who has thus acquired the ability to see into the spiritual world also
becomes able to perceive in detail what is going on there.
At one time I
was hopeful that I too might meet these Beings or see what’s going on in the
spiritual world—but no such luck! I could see how it would be possible for me
to start imagining these things and build elaborate astrological events
surrounding momentous evolutionary upheavals of ages ending and new ages
beginning, and even how I had a hand in all this, being situated spiritually
where I was. Etc. But all this was not to be, as Swedenborg was waiting around
the next bend (in the library).
When we look
back into olden times, we see rise up before us within the traditions of
Judaism the prophetic figure of Elijah. We know what significance the prophet
Elijah had for the people of the Old Testament, and therewith for all mankind;
we know how he set before them the goal and destiny of their existence. And we
have shown how in the course of time the being who was present in Elijah
appeared again at the very most important moment of human evolution, appeared
again so that Christ Jesus Himself could give him the Initiation he was to
receive for the evolution of mankind. For the being of Elijah appeared again in
Lazarus-John — who are in truth one and the same figure as you will have
understood from my book “Christianity as Mystical Fact.” … We see how in the
Sun sphere he is able to live through over again in a deep and intimate sense —
in another way now than when he was on Earth as a companion of Christ Jesus —
he is able to live over again what he underwent when, through the Initiation of
Christ Jesus, he, Lazarus, became John.
In recent
months we have frequently spoken, my dear friends, of the instreaming of the
Michael-Power into the spiritual events of man's life on earth. … This work is:
to let the Michael Power and the Michael Will penetrate the whole of life. The
Michael Power and the Michael Will are none other than the Christ Will and the
Christ Power, going before in order to implant in the right way into the Earth
the Power of the Christ.
(“Rudolf
Steiner Archive, Occult Science - An Outline, Details From the Domain of
Spiritual Science, The Ether-Body of
wn.elib.com/Steiner/Books/GA013/English/RSP1963/GA013_c07.html#N3
Accessed May 2002)
I met a
fellow Jewish man at an Anthroposophy meeting and after awhile I had occasion
to ask him how he felt about Steiner’s references to Christ. He told me that
Steiner doesn’t refer to Christ but to the “Christ Impulse” or “Christ Power”
and “Christ Will” but never to Christ. So he felt comfortable with the idea
that Anthroposophy had nothing to do with the Christian religion. And he was
correct. Steiner uses New Testament names, events, and ideas to label what
Steiner needed a name for, or a peg upon which to hang one of his ideas, but
never in the Christian religious sense that Christians have for their Bible.
For awhile,
prior to my being led to the Writings, I found Rudolf Steiner an attractive
figure. He was flamboyant and mystical, cultured and sophisticated, an erudite
curator of Goethe’s library, a talented architect and sculptor in the style of
Blake’s etchings of the muses and cruelties in hell. He was an innovative
educator deeply interested in the mental and spiritual development of children,
and had esoteric knowledge of non-traditional medicine, macro-biotic
agriculture, and other interests besides. I was told that he ended his lectures
and classes with a brief meditative session that appealed to the Beings and
Forces in the spirit of the Christ Power. The Waldorf schools he created first
in
Anthroposophy
is a giant collection of nondualities that creates one large soup of
everything. It has nothing to offer to the
Chapter 3, Section 9
Anti-semitism
is racial and ethnic hatred against the Jews. Many books have been written
about it over the centuries and modern studies and institutes are active today.
Anti-semitism in
Wiesel has
had two areas of influence intellectually: secular and religious. The influence
on secular humanism has been to promote the notion that anti-semitism is a
political and moral plague on society, corrupting it, turning it into sub-human
levels of functioning. The only way society can escape this fate is to
constitute itself into a community of hatred against anti-semitism. Extensions
of this idea are seen in the formation of anti-discrimination agencies and
institutes specifically focused on anti-semitism in society—the laws, the
media, the image, the philosophies, and the practices of it. Wiesel’s religious
influence has been felt by Christians who desire a philosophical explanation of
anti-semitism in relation to the Christian Church. There seems to be a need for
alleviating feelings of guilt for the role of the Christian clergy in
contributing to anti-semitism over the centuries. One commentator on Wiesel
writes:
The second
part explores the theological and ethical questions involved in the journey of
those who hear Wiesel. The author confronts Wiesel's assertion: "The
sincere Christian knows that what died in
(William A. Hartfelder, Jr. “Review of: Elie
Wiesel: Messenger to All Humanity” by Robert McAfee Brown Notre Dame,
The modern
Jewish perspective on God has become influential with Christians since the
Holocaust literature has become prominent in seminaries and an official
ecumenical relationship has been formed between Christian Church leaders and
American Jewish Rabbis. One of the best known author and critic in the
holocaust literature is Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Nazi extermination camps,
and honored with a Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his humanitarian activities in
relation to “remember the holocaust” which he argued was a great human failure,
not merely a Jewish tragedy. Christian theologians began to argue that the
holocaust requires a change in the idea that Christians have of Redemption.
Here is one example that uses the holocaust as a justification for Christian
political support for the survival of
Ellis provides an illuminating overview of what has been
described as "Holocaust theology," that worldview which places Jewish
destiny within the parameters of the Holocaust and the state of
(…)
Like other writers, Ellis attributes the restraint that
generally characterizes Western criticism of
(Book Reviews: Beyond Innocence and Redemption: Confronting
the Holocaust and Israeli Power. By Marc H. Ellis. Harper & Row, 1990.
Reviewed by John Dirlik. December/January 1992/93 on the Web at
www.washington-report.org/backissues/1292/9212074a.html
accessed June 2002)
1. Tenets Of Holocaust Theology
Some of the
tenets of “holocaust theology” are expressed here:
Some have
argued that as God granted human beings free will, the terrors of the Holocaust
were manifestations of purely human evil. Others have suggested that God
suffered in the death camps with his chosen people. Radical theologians,
however, have contended that our understanding of God must be altered in the
light of the Nazi terror.
Pre-eminent
among such Jewish theologians is the Conservative rabbi Richard Rubenstein, who
argues that it is no longer possible to believe in a supernatural deity who
acts in history. Jews today, he contends, live in the time of the death of God.
Elie Wiesel
described in his autobiographical novel, Night , the evolution of his
religious doubt as he experienced the horrors of the Nazi regime. His rebellion
was heightened during the high holy days when, unable to pray, he turned
accuser. On the day of atonement, he refused to fast, rejecting God's silence
in the face of suffering and murder.
(…)
A shift in
perspective has also taken place in Christian circles. A number of Christian
thinkers insist that our theological understanding has been fundamentally
altered by the events of the Nazi era. In Anti-Semitism and Christian Theology
, the Christian feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether argues that the
church must repudiate its traditional conviction that Christianity is the only
true path to salvation.
The Catholic
theologian John Pawlikowski says Christians should forge a new conception of
the relationship between God and human beings in the light of the Holocaust. In
his view, the initial act of creation constituted the liberation of humankind
from its total encasement in the godhead. Christianity's role is to guide
humans in how they use this power and freedom.
(…)
These and
other thinkers have recast the theological approach to the problem of God's
presence and human suffering. In a post-Holocaust world, traditional views of
God are arguably invalid. In his article "Christians and Jews after
(Dan
Cohn-Sherbok. “Where was God when evil struck?” This article first appeared in
the Times Higher Educational Supplement,
www.lamp.ac.uk/trs/studyofjudaism/wherewasgod.html accessed June 2002.
The basis
of all doubts about God regarding the Jewish holocaust is the tendency of
people generally and theologians in particular to apply a nonduality between
historical events and God’s omnipotence. This particular tendency is a sub-set
of the larger issue within which it is discussed: Why does God permit evil of
any kind? The crisis of the holocaust is precipitated by the horrific number of
victims in one historical event. The unprecedented evil unleashed in the 1800
days of World War II made brought on the death of 6 million Jews, 20 million
Germans, 20 million Russians, and millions of Poles, British, American,
Japanese, and others. These people must have had some face off when they
arrived in the spiritual world, as often is the case with victims and their
tormentors (SE 4493). It is significant to note that I could find not a single
reference to this idea in all of my research on holocaust theology. There
appears to be a total and absolute disinterest in following these victims to
their fate in the afterlife. It’s as if the afterlife did not exist and was not
relevant. But to the
2. The Victims In The Afterlife
Jewish and
Christian nonduality are equal in prohibiting discussion of the afterlife of
those 50 million people who entered the spiritual world from deaths caused by
the five-year war. Almost one million people died each month during that war.
Every one of these deaths meant a new beginning and a new future. It’s
irrational to stop the discussion at the point of death, as if these people
disappear from the human race. Nonduality wants to focus on the size of the
numbers—but this remains a natural focus, not spiritual. The number of deaths
has significance for a natural theology and for politics. Angels do not think
in numbers about anything (AC 5291). Dualism from the Writings allow us to go
deeper into the spiritual significance of any event. Not a single death from
among the 50 million was caused by human evil as an impotent God looked on.
Every death, and its horrific attendant details, occurred with the Lord’s Laws
of Permissions. Nothing could occur without the Lord giving it power to occur.
The Lord permitted every horrific event and supplied the power for its
occurrence—the power of the trains carrying the victims, the intelligence of
the Nazis in figuring out efficient killing methods for millions, the attitudes
of the world’s leaders who did nothing and were not outraged, the last twitch
of a hand in agony, the last heart beat—every single detail was powered by
Divine Omnipotence through the Divine Laws of Permissions. And it doesn’t stop
there!
Every
individual needed to be awakened in the spiritual world, all 50 million of
them. Each was treated personally by the best possible care: two angels of the
Lord supervising with great care the operations of resuscitation. And my
grandparents and uncles and cousins, and all the soldiers, and all the Nazis
who died, and all the Russians, and all the Poles, and so on. They were all
resuscitated within 36 hours into the caring hands of angels. And from there
they carried on, freer than before, with more capacity to enjoy and discover
the deepest desires and delights. There is no way of accurately telling the
holocaust story without going beyond the point of death. There are two reasons:
psychological and spiritual.
Psychologically,
if we stop at the point of the dying of the millions, there is no resolution
possible. The only available alternatives are pathological. There is no
rational resolution possible. People then fall into two main syndromes. One is
to hold on to the memory with hatred for part of the human. This perpetual
reminding and vigilance become possible
mechanisms for escaping a repetition. The other is to forgive and not to want
to remember, and not to want to attribute it to human nature in general.
Neither approach gives satisfaction and resolution.
Spiritually,
if we stop at the point of the dying of the millions, there is no resolution
with respect to why God allowed it. There is a general acknowledgement that God
sees the larger picture we do not, and therefore in God’s unfathomable Wisdom,
there is a justification for it. This is not a resolution but a the creation of
a mystery. It prevents the deepening of our ideas about God, a deepening that
we need to advance in our regeneration. The
The world of spirits is not heaven, nor is it hell, but it
is the intermediate place or state between the two; for it is the place that
man first enters after death; and from which after a suitable time he is either
raised up into heaven or cast down into hell in accord with his life in the
world. (HH 421)
Every
individual regardless of race, inheritance, religion, or health, inherits at
birth a mental connection to those evil lusts and cupidities. These flow in
into the will of the natural mind, and each time we carry them out in thought
and action, we experience delight. We are a race delighted with evil, with
lust, with cupidities, and especially can we enjoy these fallen delights when
we justify them in our understanding as something good and allowable. This is
called the infernal marriage and takes us straight to hell from where we cannot
escape to eternity. The Lord cannot prevent these events on our own account.
This is because we are so fallen that nothing would be left in our delight or
animated life if the Lord prevented the evils from being done. Our delights
would instantly cease and we would have no motive to move or think anything. If
we had enough good things we loved, the Lord could then prevent the bad things
we also love, and we would still feel alive, and in our heaven. But if there
are no good loves or affections left, not a one, then the Lord goes along with
the lusts and their evil acts, and gives Permission. That is, the Lord allows
it to happen, doesn’t stop it, but gives the power and the knowledge for the
criminal and cruel act to take place against the victim.
Further,
the Lord governs these events so that He mitigates each detail, bending but
never forcing, working in the background to make things happen as if by chance
or foresight (AC 4364[2] ). The Lord is present very closely with the
individual’s inner mind of which there is no conscious awareness. Regardless of
the person’s religion or morality, the Lord is there close, governing and
managing and healing. How good it is that He doesn’t leave things to us, for then
hell would be far worse. He only lets us carry on the impression that He is
absent or that we are accomplishing anything from ourselves. The holocaust is
psychologically and spiritually impossible to resolve without knowing about the
Divine Laws of Permissions and the Laws of Divine Providence. These have now
been revealed in the Writings and we can have a perspective on anti-semitism
that is rational and purposeful, not random and abandoned.
The
There are
thousands and thousands of arcana, of which scarcely a single one is known to
man, whereby a man is led by the Lord out of the life of hell into the life of
heaven. (AC 9336)
There
are many like Elie Wiesel who see the holocaust as God’s failure, Christianity’s
failure, humanity’s failure. These represent a continuation of the struggles
for him and others. But we know from the Writings that in reality there is
never a failure by the Lord. What is happening is that the Lord manages
everyone’s fate and biography in accordance with His Perfect Divine Order and
with a constant focus on the individual’s regeneration and preparation for
spiritual life. The style by which we live in war and in peace is something we
ourselves insist on, even as the Lord manages to work around it so that all
things contribute to the individual’s spiritual salvation and eternal life.
There has been no failure of anything, only man’s cruelty at work prior to
regeneration.
Jewish
nonduality as it is manifested in Christian thinking is exhibited in the
popularity of Rabbi Harold Kushner’s bestsellers read by millions of Americans.
Question: This year is the 20th anniversary of your hugely best-selling book, When
Bad Things Happen to Good People. Did the response to that book surprise
you?
Answer: It still surprises me 20 years later that so many people, Christians,
Jews and agnostics, were comforted by that book, that it is used in college
courses and taught at Christian seminaries.
Question: What is it about us that craves significance?
Answer: Once we come to understand that
we're not going to live forever, we feel the need to leave our mark on the
world, so that when we are gone, people will know that we were once there. It's
not mortality that frightens us, it's invisibility, the dreadful feeling that
neither our living nor our dying will make a difference to the world. Religion
tries to help us conquer that fear by giving us good things to do and by
reassuring us that our choices matter at the highest level. We may not be famous,
but we matter to the people close to us and we matter to God.
(BookPage
interview with the author. Rabbi Harold Kushner Living a Life That Matters:
Resolving the Conflict Between Conscience and Success (Knopf 2001) On the Web
at www.bookpage.com/0109bp/rabbi_kushner.html
Accessed June 2002)
Note the
inability to consider the continuation of life as a normal part of assessing
the “significance” of our life on earth. Nonduality restricts an individual’s
significance to a strictly natural property—that of “leaving a mark” in the
physical world. In the Eulogy at funerals Christians often take solace in
affirming the rock bottom fact that the individual who died will yet continue
life “in the memories” of those he or she influenced for good. This is
considered equivalent to immortality. But it is not. The individual continues
life in the spiritual world and has nothing to do with the memories of those
left behind. Dualism grants us freedom from the oppressive ideas of nonduality.
I once sent
a copy of this book to Oprah after she had devoted a series of shows to what is
spiritual. Of course I never received an acknowledgment from the producers who
open her mail. After teaching a history of psychology course focusing on
Swedenborg I was delighted to read Part 1 of the students’ reports which was
divided into two parts: What the book says, and What I think of it. The
majority did an excellent job of representing one of the three books being considered
(Heaven and Hell, Divine Love and Wisdom, Divine
Providence). Their summaries were accurate and they picked up important
threads which they were able to render precisely in their words.
But when I
got to Part 2 of their report I was shaken a bit to see that they did not
accept what they summarized, though they all had a favorable view of the author
whom they deemed sincere in his intentions. So I learned of the futility of
merely exposing others to the Writings and expecting instant acceptance. I
believed this naively because that’s how it happened to me. I was a seeker of
truth and meaning in life. I hated the idea of dying and disappearing. I felt
it was such a colossal waste—all the effort I put into my life going poof!
What’s the point? No I did not care much about living “in the memory” of
others. What’s that to me? I wanted immortality. I loved it when I first read
the New Testament in 1980—overcoming my long standing aversion of it, as it was
forbidden for an Orthodox Jew to read it or touch it. I especially loved the
parts that promised eternal life. This was my first rational duality. It
was given as a gift from the Lord through His New Testament Word. From an
Orthodox Jew I instantly became a Jewish Christian. But a year later the Lord
gave me the rest of the gift to complete the whole that He wished to give me
about Himself and from Himself. I found the books of the Writings in our
university library as I was browsing for “Bible commentaries.” Then my mind was
immediately changed again into full living dualism. Now I have a
I realize
that it is not possible to believe Swedenborg’s accounts of the spiritual world
without reading and understanding the rational explanations given for all the
experiences and observations he was able to make directly. There were many
illustrious readers of Swedenborg among the intelligentsia of the 18th
, 19th and 20th
century (for the long list see Note 5 at end). They generally divided
what he wrote into two parts: philosophy-theology and fantasy-spiritism. It’s
astonishing to me that they were able to separate these two and to admire one
for its enlightening rationality, but to dismiss the other for its childish and
rather unimaginative inventiveness. I was puzzled.
3. The Spiritual Meaning Of Anti-Semitism
I believe
that future research in theistic science based on the Writings could uncover
the reasons for the history of anti-semitism. We already know that it has a
spiritual cause, because all historical events on earth are effects while none
of them are causes (HH 89). What are the spiritual causes of anti-semitism?
There may be many, general causes and specific causes. General causes fall into
the category of love of self and love of dominion by those who make use of any
social or political situation to make victims. This is what they love. But
there are also specific causes that relate to evils of religion by those who
make use of religion to victimize others. Other specific reasons relate to the
states of spiritual development, what is inherited down the line of one’s
ancestors (DP 277). The Writings tells us that all historical events in the Old
Testament took place as described and that only those were permitted by the
Lord that could be for the benefit of the people involved in the events, and
could also serve for the Word and its representations by correspondence. The
inner content of the Old Testament is its spiritual content, and this content
is arranged in infinite rational series which the angels marvel at (AE 112[4];
NJHD 260). The historical events were allowed to take place so that they could
serve to represent and contain these heavenly truths. These truths are for the
salvation of humankind, and without them, no one could be saved (TCR 318).
The Jewish
history in the Old Testament had a Divine purpose for its every detail. This
purpose was related to the evolution of the human race. This evolution is
accomplished by means of the Divine Truths contained by correspondence in the
historical events of the Word, in every geographic name, in every number, in
every animal mentioned, in every miracle, in every poetic expression (AC 66[2]
). The Jewish people did not go through these events merely for their own
sake but for the sake of the entire human race. This is the meaning of the
“Chosen People of God.” They were accepted to the Divine task of being the
living events of what the Lord needs to accomplish to save the world. Every
detail in the Old Testament is about the Lord and His work of Redemption. It
appears on the surface that every detail is about the Jewish people and their
land. This is true. But much more than this, it is also the containant of the
universal meaning—the latter within the former, by correspondence (DLW 221, AC
1886).
For instance,
when we read about Abraham and the events recorded about him, we are reading in
the spiritual sense, the events about the Lord when He was on earth and
accomplished His work of Deliverance and Redemption. And further, these very
same details about Redemption are also the details about the spiritual
evolution of the race, and the spiritual development of every individual. This
is the level of theistic science. At this level of thinking we read about
Abraham, but we think about the Lord. We read about Esau and Jacob, but we
think about our own states of regeneration. Esau represents the good of faith,
Jacob the truth of faith. When we read about Jehovah telling Abraham to hearken
unto Sarah, we are thinking about the external rational mind being in obedience
to the internal rational mind. When we read about the prophet who was ordered
to eat dung, we are reading about the profanation of good and truth in our
mind:
In Ezekiel, the Spirit of Jehovah said to the prophet:
Take
unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and
put them into one vessel, and make thee bread thereof. With the ordure of man's
dung shalt thou make a cake before their eyes. Thus shall the sons of
where the
profanation of good and truth is treated of; the "wheat, barley, beans,
lentils, millet, and spelt" denote the kinds of good and its derivative
truth; the "bread" or "cake" "made thereof with the
ordure of human dung," denotes the profanation of all of them. (AC 3941)
Similarly
in the New Testament and in the Writings because the Word is always written in
this style, and without this, it would not be Holy and would not be able to
conjoin heaven and earth, and thereby save the human race. The Writings were
given for the entire universe, for the earths, and for the heavens. Many
nations and historical figures are mentioned in it. All these are
representations of spiritual things that correspond to them. These spiritual
things are human states that apply universally. The Laws of Divine government
have been revealed but not understood, hardly studied. But the future will be
different as the human race gradually returns to its state of wholeness and
pristine perfection (Coronis Summary LIII).
As the
Writings become more widely known the issue of anti-semitism in it is
inevitably going to crop up. I recall when I first read the New Testament at
around age 40 I accepted it without hesitation as the continuation of the Old
Testament, with which I was raised as an Orthodox Jew. But despite this, I
sometimes got the feeling that it was anti-semitic in certain places where it
refers to the Jews in derogatory terms. This reaction is inherent in every Jew.
I started examining the exact expressions to see if it could have been written
differently. For example, instead of saying “the Jews” should it not have said
“certain among the Jews” or “the Jewish clergy” and so on. But later, through
the Writings, I gained the perspective of the Word as the Divine Truth with its
inner spiritual meaning in every expression and word. Then it is clear that the
Word is universal and above sectarianism. But real historical events and people
are involved in the surface literal prose of the Word. These names, places, and
events are to be transcended or seen through so that they disappear altogether,
and what is perceived then is the spiritual universal sense. This has nothing
whatsoever to do with the people or places mentioned.
The nature of representatives becomes clear from the historical
parts of the Word, where all the acts of those forefathers, that is to say, the
acts of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, and later on of Moses, the judges, and the
kings of
[4] But the
nature of representatives is such that no attention at all is paid to the
character of the representative person, only to the thing which he represents
For all the kings of Judah and Israel, no matter what kind of men they were,
represented the Lord's Royalty, and all the priests, no matter what kind of men
these were, His Priesthood. Thus bad men as well as good were able to represent
the Lord, and the celestial and spiritual things of His kingdom, for, as stated
and shown already, representatives were entirely separate from the person
involved. So then all the historical narratives of the Word are representative,
and as this is so it follows that all the words of the Word carry a spiritual
meaning, that is, they mean something different in the internal sense from what
they do in the sense of the letter. (AC 1409)
Since this
nation, although of such a quality, represented the Church; and since the Word
was written among them and concerning them; therefore Divine-celestial things
were signified by their names, as by Reuben, Simeon,
In the same
way we can deal with many passages in the Writings that appear to be
anti-semitic to the Jewish reader. The Jewish reader will not be convinced that
it makes a difference that there is also an internal spiritual sense. The fact
remains to their eyes that the literal says negative things about Jews and some
of the ancestors they consider part of their holy worship—King David, Judah,
and Jacob, for instance, and many others. The Writings speak of them as not
being among the heavenly persons. Their importance is not their personal
character, which could be either good or evil. Their spiritual importance is
that they represented something spiritual, just as the High Priest may
represent the Lord while in his robes at the altar in the temple, but when not
in his robes, and in private life, he may be a wicked and unlawful man. His
personal wickedness does not interfere with his priestly representation and
office. So even though Jacob represents the Lord in His Divine Natural, he is
described in dishonorable terms in terms of his inherited character (e.g., SE
37; NJHD 248).
In fact,
the Writings state that the Jews are entrusted with keeping intact the Word of
the Old Testament and it is through this that there is connection between
heaven and earth. Without the religious motivation of Jews to safeguard the Old
Testament text, the world could not survive and the entire creation would be
destroyed!
The Lord saw to it that to prevent the Word being lost, the
Jewish race, which possesses the Word of the Old Testament in its original
language, should survive, and live scattered throughout much of the world.
Although they deny the Lord to be the Messiah or Christ who was foretold by the
Prophets, and although they are wicked at heart, still their reading of the
Word creates communication with certain heavens. For correspondences open up
communication, whatever sort of person the reader may be, so long as he
acknowledges it as Divine. This continues today as in the past. For when they
reverence as if minor deities Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David, Elijah
and many others who are named in the Word, then the heavens perceive instead
the Lord, being unaware of the person in the world who is the origin of that
holy element in their worship. That is how heaven is linked with people by
means of the Word. (DE VERBO 16)
4. The Old Testament’s View Of The Chosen
People
It’s also important to remember that the Old Testament from Moses to
all the prophets is replete with passages that describe the Jews in very
negative terms. Remember
what God says about His chosen people:
the iniquity
of My people is become greater than the sin of
Woe to the
sinful nation, to a people laden with iniquity (Isa. 1:4). (SS 86)
Because this
people have drawn near with their mouth, and honored Me with their lips, but
their heart has been far from Me, and their fear of Me has been a commandment
of men that has been taught to them.... Isa. 29: 13. (AC 2826)
your new moons
and your appointed feasts My soul hateth; therefore when ye spread forth your
hands I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, if ye make many prayers, I will not
hear; your hands are full of bloods. (Isa. 1:10-18) (Life 30)
I was angry
with My people, I rendered My heritage unholy, and I gave them into your hand
Isa. 47:5, 6, 9. (AC 1368)
I will hide My faces from them, I will see what is the last
of them; for they are a generation of perversities, sons in whom is no truth. I
would exterminate them, I would cause their memory to cease from man, were it
not that I feared the indignation of the enemy. For they are a nation that
perisheth in counsels, and there is no intelligence in them; for their vine is
of the vine of Sodom, and their grapes are of the fields of Gomorrah; their
grapes are hemlock, the clusters are bitter to them. Their wine is the poison
of dragons, and the cruel head of asps. Is not this laid up in store with Me,
sealed in My treasures? (Deut. 32:20, 26-34);
The Lord,
through Moses, describes the children of
This tendency
and proneness to evils just mentioned, which is transmitted from parents to
their children and descendants, can only be broken down by a person being born
anew by the Lord's help, a process called regeneration. Without this not only
does the tendency remain unbroken, but it is reinforced by a succession of
parents, becoming more prone to evils, and eventually to every kind of evil.
That is why the Jews are still copies of their ancestor Judah, who married a
Canaanite wife, and fathered three lines of descent by adultery with Tamar, his
daughter-in-law. This heredity has become so amplified in the course of time
that the Jews are unable to embrace the Christian religion and believe it in
their hearts. I say they are unable, because the inner will in their minds
resists, and it is this will which creates the impossibility. (TCR 521)
A spirit
himself also is nothing else than his own quality; on this account everyone in
that world drops his baptismal name, and the name of his family, and is named
according to his quality. Hence it is that "name" in the Word does
not signify name, but quality. (INV 41)
This is
not anti-semitism but spiritual psychobiology of the unregenerate person. It is
true of every individual’s inheritance regardless of ethnicity, race, or
religion.
Anti-semitism
is an evil of society because it is the hatred of others instead of love of
neighbor. The negative things the Word says about the Jews is not anti-semitism
because the Word is only love. The Old Testament, the New Testament, and the
Writings say similar critical things about the Jews, as about the Christians,
and still others. Everyone who is not regenerate is evil regardless of the
religion one belongs to. As a Jewish boy growing up in Rumania I was raised to
fear and despise Christians, to view with suspicion dark skinned races, and to
believe that Jews are a superior race, superior in intelligence, superior in
holiness. I was not taught to love my neighbor. I was taught all sorts of
superstitious nonsense about other groups. The point is that Jews are filled
with hatred for those who hate them. And this is natural. People of all
religions also feel this way and act this way.
If
Swedenborg had been anti-semitic he could not have discussed Christians in the
same spiritually negative terms as he discussed the Jews, and yet this is what
he has done:
That the Lord enters into a covenant, or conjoins Himself by
charity, with Gentiles also who are outside the church, shall now be shown.
The man of the church supposes that all who are out of the
church, and are called Gentiles, cannot be saved, because they have no
knowledges of faith, and are therefore wholly ignorant of the Lord, saying that
without faith and without knowledge of the Lord there is no salvation, and thus
he condemns all who are out of the church. Indeed many of this sort who are in
some doctrine, even if it be heresy, suppose that all outside this, that is,
all who do not hold the same opinion, cannot be saved; when in fact the case is
not so at all. The Lord has mercy toward the whole human race, and wills to save
and draw to Himself all who are in the universe.
[2] The mercy of the Lord is infinite, and does not suffer
itself to be limited to those few who are within the church, but extends itself
to all in the whole world. Their being born out of the church and being thus in
ignorance of faith, is not their fault; and no one is ever condemned for not
having faith in the Lord when he is ignorant of Him.
Who that thinks aright will ever say that the greatest part
of the human race must perish in eternal death because they were not born in
And besides, those who are out of the church, and are called
Gentiles, live a much more moral life than those who are within the church, and
embrace much more easily the doctrine of true faith, as is still more evident
from souls in the other life. The worst of all come from the so-called
Christian world, holding the neighbor in deadly hatred, and even the Lord.
Above all others in the whole world they are adulterers.
[3] It is not so with those from other parts of the world.
Very many of those who have worshiped idols are of such a disposition as to
abhor hatred and adultery, and to fear Christians because of their being of
this character and desirous of tormenting everyone. Indeed Gentiles are so
disposed as to listen readily, when taught by angels about the truths of faith,
and that the Lord rules the universe, and to be easily imbued with faith and
thus to reject their idols. For this reason Gentiles who have lived a moral
life and in mutual charity and innocence, are regenerated in the other life.
While they
live in the world the Lord is present with them in charity and innocence, for
there is nothing of charity and innocence except from the Lord. The Lord also
gives them a conscience of what is right and good according to their religion,
and insinuates innocence and charity into that conscience; and when there is
innocence and charity in the conscience, they easily suffer themselves to be
imbued with the truth of faith from good. The Lord Himself said this, in Luke:
And
one said unto Him, Lord, are they few that be saved? and He said unto them, Ye
shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of
God, and yourselves cast forth without; and they shall come from the east and
the west, and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the
kingdom of God; and behold, there are last who shall be first, and there are
first who shall be last (Luke 13:23, 28-30).
By
"Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" are here meant all who have love, as
shown above.
(AC 1032)
(Italics added for emphasis)
This
passage declares the Christians to be “the worst of all” the spirits that come
from this earth into the afterlife. Clearly, Swedenborg could not have been
anti-semitic and pro-Christian. He merely described what he saw in the
spiritual world regarding the spiritual character of people from different
nations (see LJ 2-24 and other places). It’s also clear from this and other
passages, that religious membership is not the basis for spiritual judgment.
Rather, how one lives—morally or not, as a matter of conscience and religion,
determines one’s spiritual fate in the afterlife. Anti-semitism never takes
this tolerant and universal attitude.
Moses and the
Prophets, that is, all and everything in the Word, in the internal sense,
treats of Him; and that all the rites of the Jewish Church represented Him (AC
2751).
All the rites
of the
External rites
are called "signs of a covenant" for the reason chiefly that interior
things may be kept in mind by them, that is, the things signified by them. All
the rites of the Jewish Church were nothing else. And for this reason they were
also called "signs" that the people might be reminded by them of interior
things-as for instance, the binding of the chief commandment on the hand and on
the forehead, as in Moses:
Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy might; and these words thou shalt bind for a
sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes (Deut.
6:5, 8;
All the rites
of the Jewish Church were types representative of the Lord, consequently of
love and charity, and of all things therefrom.
(AC 1038)
The things that were represented in the Jewish Church, and
in the Word, are the Lord and His kingdom, consequently the celestial things of
love, and the spiritual things of faith: these are what were represented,
besides many things that pertain to these, such as all things that belong to
the church. (AC 1361)
And it was He who has represented by all the rites of the
Jewish Church, and whom they worshiped. (AC 1607)
All things of the Word in its inmost sense treat solely of
the Lord, (AC 9925)
In the Word "Jehovah" denotes the Lord (n. 1343,
2921, 3035, 5663, 6280, 6281, 6303, 6945, 6956, 8864).
Unless these things had been as if present to the angels,
through the Word, and also through all the rites in the Jewish Church, the Lord
would have been obliged to come into the world immediately after the fall of
the Most Ancient Church … (AC 2523)
5. All Old Testament Details Represent The Lord
In these
passages of the Writings (and many others can be brought forward), it is
declared that every detail of Jewish worship and history represents something
about the Lord Jesus Christ! Anti-semitism hates Jewish worship and history,
while Swedenborg elevates these things to the highest sacred level possible!
Readers of Swedenborg who are not in the
All the rites
of the
Every
detail of the journeys of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, represents the details of
how Jesus Christ grew up among the Jews and the mental states of development He
underwent to unify His Human with His Divine. Every vision of every prophet was
about Him, how He pleads with the
The
Writings proclaim that Jews, Muslims, and Gentiles are saved equally with
Christians when they arrive in the afterlife, are instructed, and can accept
spiritual truths:
So in regard
to the Jews and Gentiles; [as for instance] concerning the Jewish children who,
from the persuasion of their parents that the Lord is not the Messiah, are not
instructed to believe it; yet as it is owing simply to circumstances that the
children cannot believe otherwise than they do, this does not abolish with them
the truth, that the Lord is the promised Messiah. And thus as to the Gentiles
who are in ignorance, not knowing that the Lord rules the universe; this
ignorance, being a circumstance, does not preclude their being instructed in
the other life, and thus saved; besides many other things. - 1748, October 11.
(SE 3537) (see also SE 5880)
That the
Mohammedan religion is received by more nations than the Christian religion,
may be a stumbling-block to those who meditate upon the Divine Providence and
believe at the same time that only those who are born Christians can be saved.
But the Mohammedan religion is not a stumbling-block to those who believe that
all things are of the Divine Providence. (TCR 833)
6. The Meaning Of “Jews” In The New Church
Mind
Further, to
the
Religious
rituals, religious prayers, religious sacrifices, fastings, meditations—none of
it can prevail. Only what can prevail is a reformed character in daily willing
and thinking for the sake of God and religion (LIFE 1). No one has the power to
attain this. But anyone can turn to the Lord and ask Him to do it, for He can.
And He has laid out in His Word what we must do in order for Him to regenerate
us. This He does to anyone from any religion with any background universally.
In heaven there are no religions, but only conscious life in accordance with
the Word (AR 918).
The Lord
has also laid out in His Word what happens to those who are not regenerated,
those who are unwilling to turn to God and order their life according to His
Commandments. They live out their few years on earth confirming their inherited
evils, living them, becoming them. Their mind is built up through these evil
loves and their falsities. There is nothing in the inmost of this mind except
those evil loves. When they arrive in the afterlife they enter in total freedom
within who they are, that is, they enter those evil loves. In the spiritual
world those who are in evil loves see around themselves a hell—ugly rocky
places, foul disgusting sickening smells, full of dangerous and poisonous
animals, full of infernal humans who act like beasts and relate to each other through
dominion and mutual enslavement. These things are not punishments for sins.
They are the character of spiritual nature of evil loves. They are the exact
opposite of good loves. Those in the spiritual world who arrive with good loves
within them see a heaven around them—beautiful palaces with amazing art work,
large complex fragrant gardens, filled with angelic people who act civilized
and with compassion to each other, engaged in sharing their individual
uniquenesses and benefiting everyone around them.
7. Anti-Semitism Is An Evil Love of the Unregenerate
Mind
Anti-semitism
is an evil love. It is inherited. Every individual then has a choice to make in
adult life: Do I go along with this cultural norm or not? All sorts of
justifications are learned from societal beliefs and practices—religious (“They
are Christ killers”), socio-political (“They control the money”), psychological
(“They are in-groupish”, “They are cowards”), pathological (“They are
depraved”), and so on. As an adult every individual can think and reflect
whether this attitude is justified or whether it is a prejudice and an
injustice. Every individual can feel the delight of hatred in being
anti-semitic, and then must reflect on its rightness or wrongness. Conscience
will cry out in condemnation of all prejudice. Few are they who listen to
conscience and are saved; many are they who kill their conscience and are in
hell. For conscience is the voice of God speaking to the individual’s awareness
(NJHD 139). To kill conscience, or to weaken it, is to cut off that source of
communication and interaction between the individual and God. This conscious
interaction on a daily basis is required for regeneration. It is not religion
that saves, but regeneration (NJHD 183). And regeneration is available to
anyone of any background through the Word.
In today’s
world the Word is not known in many places but the Lord insures that every
nation has some religion by which the people know the minimal facts required to
be saved—to believe in God, to obey His Commandments, and to look to Him for
all their daily needs. All individuals who live in this way are saved (AC
2589-2604). When they arrive in the afterlife they are instructed and enter the
heaven of their religion (HH 512). Their mind can exist in good loves to
eternity. But those who do not live their life by acknowledging and obeying
God’s Commandments, are evolving a spiritual mind that can live in evil loves.
When they arrive in the afterlife these evil loves within them reject the
instruction they receive in the truths of religion. They go away on their own
and pick up the falsities that agree with their evil loves. Thus, they enter a
life of hell to eternity.
The
That the
gentiles equally with Christians are saved, anyone can see who knows what it is
that makes heaven in man; for heaven is within a man, and those who have heaven
within them come into heaven. (HH 319)
Experiences
and choices we make in the spiritual world are aligned with the mind such as it
has already been formed. The direction of the spiritual coils constrain further
development. There cannot be a reformation (DLW 263). This must occur prior to
leaving this world. And so those who arrive with good loves, get more and more
of them to eternity, while those who arrive with bad loves, get more and more
of those. What about those who arrive with both kinds of loves? In fact
everyone arrives in the afterlife with both kinds of loves, but with a critical
difference—Which loves are inmost? Those who have their evil loves in the
inmost see them drive out every single good love found in the surface of the
character. They then make free choices that take them further and further into
those evil loves, and permanent hell. Those who have their good loves in the
inmost see them drive out all the evil loves that are still embedded in the
surface of their personality. This purification process is painful but short.
They then have a mind that can live in heaven.
Knowing
this spiritual psychobiology is helpful because it strengthens the motivation
for regeneration and sincerity in life. And these are possible to the extent
that one avoids evil loves and fights against them by looking to the Lord for
help. This process insures that the good loves will be in the inmost when we
arrive in the afterlife.
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 about the Writings oppose each other. The nonduality view of the Writings
as “inspired work,” flattens its core fundamental duality, and threatens 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 as Sacred Scripture. From then on self-intelligence and individual
experience take 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 New Church 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 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 spiritually or rationally (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
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). The desire to show similarities, rather than absolute
differences, between ideas from the Writings and Eastern religions, is
dissipated when we undergo reformation in adult life. Reformation for the
Chapter 4, Section 2
Gurdijeff’s
system of "esoteric Christianity" includes mental exercises that are
believed by adherents 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 this content
originates from heaven by influx, not from the natural mind and the world.
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 unregenerate
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 be 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 current 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
Some
The
Writings, in due course, can be and will be acknowledged universally by science,
and in that case it will be taught in the schools and universities of every
nation in all religions. Because the
2. Commingling Secular Psychology With New Church Dualism
What
about the potential usefulness of extraneous or collateral information and 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 in the past by Peter Rhodes may be of this type.
For instance, as was described above, he used to recommend 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 may be
called “true Swedenborgian therapy” it is not sufficient for salvation 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 [of the Writings] 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 [of the Writings]. (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" refer to neither spiritual nor esoteric things (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 from 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.
[This is an invitation for Peter Rhodes to add a section
here that updates us on his views since the days of the “spiritual growth
groups” in Bryn Athyn.]
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.
[I invite
Leon Rhodes of Bryn Athyn, founder of IANDS, to add a section here outlining
his views and experience with near death expriences. See Note 24 for more
details.]
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 naďve 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.
The
Chapter 6, Introduction
Our
spiritual inheritance (from the father line), our natural inclinations
inherited from both parents, our cultural upbringing (socialization and
education), and the socio-political milieu in
All around
us substitute explanations and opinions are constantly created by the
intellectual fervor of the day. We are exposed to all sorts of ideas and
propositions of life that are contrary to the rational order of the
The
defining proposition that creates the
Only
that which is directly from the Writings can be the spiritual truth in our mind
on this earth; and all that is not from the Writings is not the spiritual
truth.
Educated
people who are also fair-minded feel an inner resistance to this type of
absolutist propositions. No, that can’t be. It’s too extreme. What about the
people who never hear about the Writings? What about other valid religions that
form the Lord’s
What about
science and the accumulating knowledge of the human intellect? Should we then
throw away all books like religious fanatics do? The Writings answer this by
revealing two things: first, it pleases the Lord to unconsciously direct the
minds of scientists to bring out rational thinking; second, the products of
this type of Divine tutelage is not truth but knowledges or “scientifics” (AC
5477). Truth starts in the human mind above scientifics and their only source
is the interior rational which receives the truth from the Lord through the
communicating heavens. There is no other source for truth. Truth descending
into our conscious mind cannot be accomplished when reading any author or doing
any self-discovery activity. It cannot be accomplished by reading the Bible,
unless we read it from the perspective of the Writings.
1. Only The Writings Have Spiritual Truth
The Word is Divine
Truth emanating from the Lord (AC 9407)
But do we
not reject others if we say that only the Writings have spiritual truth? No, it
is not a rejection of others to define our own mind. But we are rejecting
“their truth”? No, we are only defining what the truth is for us. Can we be
friends then? Yes, because people with diverse ideas and convictions can agree
to share the outside world with each other in accordance with morality, the
law, and an inalienable respect for every human being. However, in marriage
relations, inmost friendship cannot be formed with a spouse who does not
acknowledge the Writings as the Lord in His Word since then their religion is
not the same (CL 241).
But what
about partial truths? Can’t some author or system have some truth even if it
doesn’t have the entire truth? No, because there are no partial truths or
half-truths. The Writings reveal that there are only truths and falsified
truths or falsities (AE 519). There may be both truths and falsities in the
same mind (AC 4551) but not half-truths or half-falsities. And so we need to
learn to deconstruct concepts found outside the Writings in the light of the
truths in the Writings. Some of the outside concepts may give us the impression
that they are similar to truths in the Writings. For example we may read in a
book that there is God or that we should love the neighbor. But when you
analyze the two ideas in terms of their larger context from which they take
meaning, you can see that God doesn’t mean the Divine Human, hence the Lord,
and that loving the neighbor doesn’t mean that our love is to be in accordance
with the good in the neighbor (AC 5008).
Or we can
read in a book that children respond better to rewards than to punishment. We
need to see that this is not a truth but a scientific, similar to saying that
intelligence facilitates success, or using fertilizers make this plant grow
faster, or lowering the prime lending rate will heat up the economy. These are
facts and they are either correct or incorrect. A truth or falsity would be
saying that the universe has created itself, or that conscience should be
suppressed, or that children do not need a caring parent, or that premarital
promiscuity is not injurious to our future married life. What then is the
difference between correct/incorrect (facts or scientifics), and truth/falsity
(rational propositions)? The difference is that facts are about the outward
world and truths are about the inner world’s relation to the outward world. The
Writings present truths in every word and sentence (SS 35) and are the only
source for genuine intelligence:
Read
the Word,' the angels said to this, 'and believe in the Lord, and you will see
truths which will be your guides to faith and life. All Christian people draw
their doctrines from the Word as being their one and only source.' (TCR 621)
The
only source of wisdom is from Divine truths analytically arranged by means of
the light which falls on them, coming from the Lord. Nor is there any other
source of human intelligence, if it is truly intelligence. (TCR 350) (See also:
NJHD 257; AC 8939; TCR 340, 347; SS 111; SE 5961).
After
debunking all this, we come back to the defining proposition of the
Even if
these matters were described they would not be understood except by those who
see with heavenly perception; nothing at all would be understood by those who
see with merely natural perception. For those who see with heavenly perception
dwell in the light of heaven which comes from the Lord, a light that holds
intelligence and wisdom within it. But those who dwell in natural light do not
possess any intelligence or wisdom except insofar as the light of heaven flows
into that natural light and uses it in such a way that things belonging to
heaven may be seen - as in a mirror or in some representative image - within
things belonging to natural light. For natural light does not render any
spiritual truth visible unless the light of heaven is flowing into it. (AC
4302)
Every
proposition of life is a spiritual truth or falsity. We are exposed to many
propositions of life through culture, the media, and personal communication.
Nothing that is about the spiritual must be admitted into the mind
except from the Writings. Sometimes we admit ideas that lie in our memory,
unexamined and unstamped, which can then become like leaven that gradually
spreads through the entire dough. Mental pollution or spiritual contamination
is real. Here is a cognitive rule that governs our mental reasoning:
If
we admit a concept, we also admit all its presuppositions and implications.
If we do
not examine carefully what we admit, the assumptions that are necessarily tied
to all concepts, secretly exert dynamic influences on our reasoning and our
readiness to undergo regeneration.
Since the
Second Coming is a rational faith and science, this activity of deconstructing
incoming concepts and propositions is entirely different from the sectarian
notion that this or that object or idea is to be banned or suppressed. Dogmatic
censorship and intolerance are not from the Writings. Instead, by
deconstructing incoming concepts and attitudes we are putting them through the
filter of rationality as this is revealed and defined in the Writings. We
are not intolerant of or prejudiced against other people’s ideas, traditions,
or values. We give all others the freedom we claim for ourselves. And this
freedom is to examine in the light of one’s rational faith and science every
single concept and attitude that one is exposed to. We encourage and approve of
this universal freedom for all, not just for the
The
following is a sample of nondualist propositions that can creep into the
Chapter 6, Section 2
This is an
impediment to regeneration because it weakens our resolve to change ourselves.
We know that we must change or be regenerated because we are all born infernal
with only the liberty or possibility of becoming human and celestial (DP 87, AC
3928[2]). The opposing view formulated in the David Loy quote above is: “the
sense of a within apart from the world is the self-delusion that needs to be
overcome.” If self is an illusion and heaven and hell are within us, then
heaven and hell are an illusion. Further, good and evil are then somewhat
similar, and as a consequence, we don’t have to give up all our loves, only
some. Yet the reality is that there is zero similarity or overlap between
heaven and hell. And the fact is that if we allow a single overlap, we are
doomed, for falsity and truth in the same mind, when commingled, destroy all
truth and good (AE 519). Self is real because it is the unique proprium that
the Lord creates for each individual. All that the Lord creates is real and
remains unique as itself forever (DLW 226). We must not let ourselves doubt the
reality of self. This is not a matter of individual preference or a matter of
tolerance towards other traditions. It is a matter of rationality and reality
in our own mind.
Every person, as long as he lives in the world, treads a
path mid-way between heaven and hell; and he is in equilibrium, that is, he has
free will to look up to God or down to hell. If he looks up to God, he
acknowledges that all wisdom comes from God, and his spirit is really present
among the angels in heaven. The person who looks down, as everyone does whose
evil puts him under the power of falsities, is in his spirit really among the
devils in hell. (TCR 69)
Chapter 6, Section 3
THE STATE AND CONDITION IN THE NEXT LIFE OF NATIONS AND
PEOPLES BORN OUTSIDE THE CHURCH
It is commonly supposed that those born outside the Church,
who are called heathens and gentiles, cannot be saved for the reason that they
do not possess the Word and so do not know the Lord, without whom there is no
salvation. But that gentiles too are saved may be known from the single
consideration that the Lord's mercy is universal - that is, it reaches out to
every individual human being. For gentiles are born human beings the same as
those within the Church, who are a relative minority; and they are not to blame
because they do not know the Lord. Consequently the nature of their state and
condition in the next life has in the Lord's Divine mercy been shown to me. (AC
2589)
The Lord in
the Word of His Second Coming has now revealed His relationship to all
religions. This relationship is determined not by religious membership or
affiliation but by the genuineness or purity of the spiritual truths anyone has
of Him from Him.
Good is in essence a single entity, but it acquires a
specific character from the truths implanted in it and in this way is made
various. The truths that are seen by gentiles as truths are in general the idea
that they should worship some God from whom they seek their own good and to
whom they attribute it - though they do not know so long as they live in this
world that that God is the Lord; also the idea that they should adore their God
under images which they hold sacred; besides many other ideas. But these ideas
do not make it any less possible for them to be saved than for Christians,
provided that they lead lives in which love to their God and love towards the
neighbour are present. For by leading such lives they have the ability to
receive interior truths in the next life … (AC 3778)
This
passage, along with many others, teach that people’s relationship to the Lord
is fixed to a position of closeness that depends on the idea they have of Him.
All good or love is from the Lord for He alone is Love itself (AC 2500, AR 58).
Clearly then, anyone anywhere on any planet at any time, has love or good from
the Lord and belongs to the Lord. But people’s relationship to the Lord can be
distant or close. That is, the amount and purity of the good or love an
individual can receive from Him is proportional to the idea one has of Him. The
more interior is the idea of the Lord
we have, the more good and love we can receive from Him. This is indicated by
the fact that people’s habitations or societies in which they live in the
afterlife, are arranged at various distances from the spiritual Sun, in which
the Lord is, and from which He Proceeds into the universe and the minds of
people.
THE FORM OF HEAVEN WHICH DETERMINES AFFILIATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS THERE.
What the form
of heaven is can be seen in some measure from what has been shown in
the preceding chapters; as that heaven
is like itself both in its greatest and in its least divisions (n. 72); that
consequently each society is a heaven
in a lesser form, and each angel
in the least form (n. 51-58);
that as the entire heaven
reflects a single man, so each society of
heaven reflects a man in a
lesser form, and each angel in
the least form (n. 59-77); that
the wisest are at the center,
and the less wise are round about even to the borders, and the like is true of each society (n. 43); and that
those who are in the good of
love dwell from the east to the west in heaven,
and those who are in truths from good from the south to the north; and the same
is true of each society (n. 148,
149). All this is in accord with the form
of heaven; consequently it may be concluded from this what this form is in general. (HH 200)
This
passage shows that people’s relationship to the Lord is variable, and
consequently religions are not equivalent since they each form a different idea
of the Lord. Such as this idea is, such is their relationship to the Lord. It
is said that “the wisest are at the center,
and the less wise are round about even to the borders.” There is thus a
spiritual geography of the inhabitations in the afterlife (see LJ 48), and the
closest to the spiritual Sun are called wise, but not the others. Since
spiritual truths cannot be discovered or invented by people, it is necessary
that the Lord provide revelations of Himself in order that people may have a true
idea of Him. The Lord effects this communication process through the Word.
Those who are willing and able to draw spiritual truths from the Word, and live
accordingly in their daily willing and thinking, they are called the wise, and
they are the closest to Him. That is, they are capable of receiving more love
and good from the Lord than others.
But man has severed this connection with heaven by turning
his interiors away from heaven, and turning them to the world and to self by
means of his love of self and of the world, thereby so withdrawing himself that
he no longer serves as a basis and foundation for heaven; therefore the Lord
has provided a medium to serve in place of this basis and foundation for
heaven, and also for the conjunction of heaven with man. This medium is the
Word. How the Word serves as such a medium has been shown in many places in
ARCANA CAELESTIA, all of which may be seen gathered up in the little work on
THE WHITE HORSE mentioned in Revelation; also in the APPENDIX TO THE NEW
JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE, from which some notes are here appended.
And it [the Word] is accommodated both to men and to angels
at the same … And it is a means of
uniting heaven and earth … The
conjunction of the Lord with man is through the Word, by means of the internal
sense … There is conjunction by means of all things and each particular thing
of the Word, and in consequence the Word is wonderful above all other writing …
Since the Word was written the Lord speaks with men by means of it …
The Church where the Word is and the Lord is known by means
of it, in relation to those outside the Church where there is no Word and the
Lord is unknown is like the heart and lungs in man in comparison with the other
parts of the body, which live from them as from the fountains of their life … Before
the Lord the universal Church on the earth is as one Man … Consequently unless
there were on this earth a Church where the Word is, and where the Lord is
known by means of it, the human race here would perish. (HH 305)
1. The Lord’s New Revelation Regarding All
Religions
It has now
been revealed regarding all religions that closeness or conjunction with the
Lord does not depend on religious membership or on religious behavior and
piousness. It only depends on the purity and genuineness of the idea we have of
Him regardless of one’s religious or other background. And since no spiritual
idea of Him can ever be discovered from society or self, there is no other way provided by which anyone can have a genuine idea
of Him except through the Word.
The Word in the heavens.
The Word exists in all the heavens, and it is read there as
it is in the world, and sermons are based on it. For it is the Divine Truth
which is the source of the angels' intelligence and wisdom. For without the
Word no one knows anything about the Lord, love and faith, redemption, and all
the other secrets of heavenly wisdom. In fact without the Word heaven would not
exist, just as without the Word there would be no church in the world, so that
there would be no linking with the Lord. I demonstrated above that natural
theology is impossible without revelation, and in the Christian world without
the Word. If it is not granted in the world, neither would it be granted after
death. For the nature of a person's religious belief in the world dictates its
nature after death, when he becomes a spirit. (De Verbo 14. XIV)
The Lord
has now provided a New Word in His Second Coming. This new revelation is the
Writings. An entirely new history has now begun for the human race, past,
present, and future. The Writings are on this earth in a natural language, but
in the spiritual world they are in a spiritual language. In the Number quoted
from above (HH 305), it is said about the Word that
it is accommodated both to men and to angels at the same
time (n. 1769-1772, 1887, 2143, 2157, 2275, 2333, 2395, 2540, 2541, 2547, 2553,
7381, 8862, 10322). (These Numbers refer to AC)
No other
means of conjunction is possible for the human race but through the Writings.
In the Writings the Lord has revealed Himself in a way not previously possible
in the history of the human race. The conjunction with Him is not by owning the
books of Swedenborg but by the spiritual truths and concepts we form in our
mind about what is written therein.
Truths drawn from the Word have to be marshaled into
doctrine in order that they may be put to use. The marshalling must be done by
those who see things in light received from the Lord; and those so enlightened
when they read the Word are people who desire truth for its own sake and for
the sake of goodness of life, not those who desire it for the sake of
self-glorification, reputation, or gain. Doctrine drawn from the Word is wholly
essential for understanding the Word, see 9025, 9409, 9410, 9424, 9430; and
those who gather doctrine from the Word must see things in light received from
the Lord … (AC 10105 [2] )
In what is internal there are thousands and thousands of
things that appear in what is external as one general thing … Consequently as
thought and perception are more interior they are clearer (HH 267)
In the New
Age and henceforth to all times, conjunction with the Lord takes place through
spiritual truths in our mind from the Writings. The more interior these truths
we can form for ourselves, the closer we can be conjoined to the Lord. This is
why the inhabitations and societies in the afterlife are arranged in a spiritual
geography that has a center and a direction marked by the spiritual Sun, as
discussed above (LJ 48). Those who have acquired for themselves more external
ideas of the Lord are further from the center and away from the direction of
the spiritual Sun. This is because reception of the Lord’s love and wisdom is
obscured to various extents depending on departures from genuine ideas of Him.
The Writings henceforth are the only source of genuine ideas of Him,
supplanting all previous ideas given to the human race:
Revelations have succeeded one another from the most ancient
ages to the present time; and that at this day revelation is given solely
through the Word … The Lord is the Word itself, because the Word is Divine
truth, and Divine truth is the Lord in heaven, because it is from the Lord. (AC
10355)
Knowledge and consequent acknowledgment of God are not
possible without revelation; nor are a knowledge of the Lord … It is by the
revelation given to man that he is able to approach God and to receive influx,
and thereby from being natural to become spiritual. … A man's knowledge of God
is his mirror of God, and … those who know nothing about God do not see God in
a mirror with its face toward them, but in a mirror with its back toward them;
and as this is covered with quicksilver, or some dark paste, it does not
reflect the image but extinguishes it. (TCR 11)
This new church is the crown of all the churches which have
up to now existed upon earth (TCR 786)
This
The
Chapter 6, Section 4
It is believed by some that raising spiritual consciousness
can be achieved by performing prescribed physical or mental acts such as
sitting in meditation or undergoing spiritual imitation acts of the following
types:
|
q
being touched |
q
having visions |
|
q
being anointed with oil |
q
going through vibrational levels |
|
q
performing a visible miracle feat |
q
feeling energies |
|
q
verbalizing a secret mantra |
q
predicting of events through divination |
|
q
chanting ritually |
q
possessing special energy that perform psychic powers |
|
q
walking on hot coals |
q
omnipresence in physical space |
|
q
bathing in a special river |
q
practicing certain sexual acts |
|
q
burning incense |
q
sticking to a prescribed diet |
|
q
lighting candles q
going into a trance |
q
enduring pain |
The
Writings teach that nothing can contribute to our salvation except regeneration
through temptations (AC 227). The practice of meditation involves a particular
use of inner sensations one can have. According to the Ching Hai quote above:
“when we meditate, we use the technique to tune into the
At first it
appears to the uncritical
The Lord's Kingdom is within you (Luke
It is through the Word that the Lord is present with a man
and is conjoined with him, for the Lord is the Word, and speaks with the man in
it. The Lord is also Divine truth itself, as likewise is the Word. The Lord is
indeed present with a man through reading of the Word, but He is conjoined with
him through the understanding of truth from the Word; and in the same
proportion the church is within man. This is what is meant by the Lord's words,
"The
So the
(…)
The Lord's Kingdom is within us when the truth of the word
is lived. A growth group activity is a useful exercise of the as of self in our
salvation. But it is not by self that evil is removed. It is by truth. … Only
from the Writings can heaven, the Lord's kingdom, come on earth.
(Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom, The New Age and the New Church
(Part Two). New Church Life, June 2002, 251-260)
In the new
era of the Second Coming there is only one source for rational truths—the
Writings of Swedenborg. And we appropriate these rational truths from the
Writings to the extent we love them, that is, live daily according to them and
suffer ourselves to undergo temptations (AC 227). It is impossible for the
But affection
of use in general is of two kinds; there is the spiritual affection of use and
there is the natural affection of use. In external form the two are alike, but
in internal wholly unlike; for this reason they are not known the one from the
other by men in the world, but are readily known by angels in heaven; for they
are wholly opposite, since the spiritual affection of use gives heaven to man,
while natural affection of use, without the spiritual, gives hell; for the
natural affection of use looks only to honors and gains, thus to self and the
world as ends, while spiritual affection of use looks to the glory of God and
to uses themselves, thus to the Lord and the neighbor as ends. (D. Love 17:2)
The process
of character regeneration involves our motives or affections in the will, our
thoughts or ideas in the understanding, and our actions or uses to others
(works of charity). The Lord takes charge of this process by allowing us to
fall into those kinds of temptations that challenge the beliefs and ideas we
hold dear. We then fight as-of-self against our character, winning only when we
call upon the Lord to give us the power to overcome, realizing that by
ourselves we have zero power to fight any temptation (AC 47, 233, 1712, 2877,
5664, 10299; NJHD 148; DP 102; CL 82; SE 5958; LJ 299; AE 864).
Regeneration
of one’s inherited spiritual character is a psychobiological process of
spiritual growth, consequently the only way to salvation and heaven for the
Consider
the statement in the above quote by Dr. Miller : “Experiencing nonduality is
the path of welcoming all that is.” In the New Church mind this proposition
runs contrary to the idea in the Writings that our salvation depends on
learning to hate the evil and to love the good (DLW 270). We are commanded to
treat the neighbor with a difference in proportion to the good we can see in an
individual or cause (AC 6023). We must not welcome “all that is” for this would
be perdition. Altruistic tolerance and respect for all races and creeds must
not be turned into ”welcoming” their ideas into our mind. We must grant to
anyone the liberty of “experiencing nonduality” (Miller quote above) if they so
wish, by “welcoming all that is” (Miller’s words)—but we cannot ourselves
desire to do this once we understand the implications of nonduality. And this
is our liberty to do.
Chapter 6,
Section 5
(to be completed)
Chapter 6, Section 6
Consider
the assertion in the Miller quote above: “We are already perfect as we are.”
This notion may be taken in through a variant form that sounds more acceptable
to Westerners: Everyone is basically good. This idea is opposite to every truth
we gather from the Writings where it is revealed that everyone is born infernal
and with only the potential of becoming human (AC 3928). The human spirit is
heavenly or spiritual but the spirit we’re born as is infernal. One must
therefore allow the Lord to surgically remove the infernal character and to
create in us a new spirit that is heavenly. This process of new creation is
called regeneration and is achieved only through undergoing temptations
throughout our life in the body (AC 227).
To admit
into the
Chapter 6, Section 7
“Relating to nature in a respectful and loving way, and to
its mountains, plants, and all its creatures, is a spiritual act that raises
one’s consciousness to divinity.” This feature of nonduality is very attractive
to many Americans (see the Jerry Katz quote above). The New Church mind may be
tempted to admit this idea since the Writings teach that all natural events or
objects are correspondences to spiritual things and that these spiritual things
are within the natural things as the cause is within its effect (AC 6275). This
is true. But it doesn’t follow that loving nature and being respectful to its
plants and creatures, is a spiritual act. Rather, the spiritual act is
performed ONLY when we rationally (not sensually) identify the natural event or
object as a physical consequence representing a spiritual truth. There is no
spiritual value to nature in itself, only to nature as a vessel or containant
of spiritual things. It is the same with the Word. There is no sacredness in
the literal of the Word, but only in the literal of the Word within which lies
the spiritual, and that is what makes the literal holy. When the literal is
rationally taken as the vessel, and what is contained within it as the holy,
THEN the literal is holy (TCR 200). But not the literal by itself. Similarly
with the Communion Bread and Wine.
Conservation
and nature-loving is eminently laudable, but it is not a spiritual act in
itself. The spiritual must be added rationally through knowledge of the
spiritual within. This can be done not merely with the pleasant things of
nature but all things of nature including natural disasters, plant diseases,
and destructive animals (AC 1632, DLW 338).
All things of nature are like sheaths around spiritual
things (TCR Additions 1)
Chapter 6, Section 8
A
potentially harmful form of nonduality has swept across
But there
are critics of this popular approach who see in it a mere convenient excuse for
rejecting traditional values of good and bad and legitimizing a philosophy of
convenience over self-improvement.
“Vile
Suggestion, Vain Imagination, and Strong Delusion” (1999) (Accessed on the Web
in May 2000 at www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/7510/recovery.html)
We
keep on deceiving ourselves in regard to our faults, until we at last, come to
look upon them as virtues. (Heine)
The
recovery movement rather than a path to healing is a sham and actually promotes
"victim mentality" and chronic dysfunction. Hundreds of thousands,
perhaps millions of people, attend emotional support groups for all types of
behavioral problems such as: overeating, gambling, codependency, sexual
addiction, alcoholism, incest survival, manic depression, adult children, etc.
The
idea of supporting one another is not a bad one, but the basis on which they
relate their conduct to the disease model rather to lack of self control is
misleading and destructive. Furthermore, there is a lot of blaming of others,
especially parents, within these groups, even those with so-called Christian
perspectives.
Necessary
rebukes, in love, go unsaid. False idols are allowed to be worshiped without
any call for necessary repentance. Bad advice, however, is allowed to filter
through to the group. One hears, "Divorce him! You deserve better! You
must be a codependent. Don't speak to your parents anymore. They are evil. You
should always trust your feelings."
Unconditional
love as put forth by psychologists and therapists and espoused by all 12 step
recovery groups is a deceptive and destructive concept. What passes for
unconditional love is not real love. It is flattery and cruel when what is
really needed is a rebuke from a friend who does not mince words.
Only
God has unconditional love.
Even
God does not accept people unconditionally. He loves all men but he does not
accept them without condition. He points out their sins and demands they come
into line with his standards. He tells them to go and sin no more. Recovery
groups which discard godly standards for right behavior and thought are more in
line with Satan than they are with God.
The anonymous
author of this remarkable insight also points out that health professionals
continue to practice a medical model of mental malfunctioning: “Psychiatrists
Thomas Szasz and E. Fuller Torrey have discussed these wrong uses of the
medical model in depth.”
The
1. Spiritual Events In The Inner Mind
Body
diseases such as alcoholism and other physiological addictions or sensitivities
are the effects of inner spiritual events in the mind. The mind is not an
isolated or independently functioning entity. Our mind is among other minds in
the spiritual world. Those who are already there can see the spirit-body of
those who are still on an earth, though there is no conscious and direct
interaction (TCR 475).
THAT A MAN'S SPIRIT APPEARS IN THE OTHER LIFE.
Sometimes man appears as to his spirit among others there.
They said that they sometimes see them, and nevertheless know that it is not a
spirit as yet after decease from the world, from certain signs. But it happens
only with those who think inwardly in themselves more deeply than the rest. At
the time, with him, his thought is withdrawn from the sensual of the body, and
he appears thus. They, however, who think only in their sensual, and do not
raise their thoughts above it, never appear. Nor do spirits know anything about
man, where he is; inasmuch as the corporeal does not appear before their eyes,
as spirits do not appear before men's eyes. (SE 5645)
The sphere
of the other spirits all around and closest to our spirit-body exert a strong
influence on us through their proximity. The Lord determines instant by instant
which spirits and spirit societies are in spiritual proximity to our mind. The
Lord’s purpose and procedures in this ceaseless process have been revealed
through the Writings and they are detailed throughout under the general topic
of regeneration (NJHD 183-6). The principal purpose of all revelations is to
give us the knowledge by which we can cooperate with the Divine in our
regeneration. No other method has been created for regeneration, a process
whose outcome determines our eternal place in heaven or in hell. Therefore
nothing can be more important to know than this.
CONCERNING THE STATE OF
During a whole
night, while I was asleep, I was tormented in hell, in order that I might know
the nature of the state [of those] there; for they fell upon me, inasmuch as
they were then able to torture the spirit; but, still, I had no consciousness
of a dream. It was a continual torture, one [of them] after another. [Persons]
are there placed upon tables, and are miserably torn asunder, and their lust of
ruling is called forth, and, as long as that cupidity lasts, they are tortured
until it abates. [They are treated] thus, by one devil after another, as [they
pass] from one part of hell to another, upon the tables. When the lust abates,
then a little respite is given, so that they may be able to be in some cupidity
of their own. Thus is the head of the serpent trampled under foot. (SE 4698)
We are
unconscious of all this activity and it is not possible to discover it by any
method known to science: introspection, cat scans, psychiatric profiles,
medications, meditation, imagination, delusion, psychic “powers,” reasoning,
luck. The reality of spiritual societies can be known in only one way—revelations
from the Lord. We know therefore that the main outward problems that plague our
society are caused by inward mental or spiritual states of mind: alcoholism,
wife abuse, road rage, pedophilia, criminality, drug addiction, high divorce
rate, chronic depression, racial prejudice, absence of compassion, avarice,
scortation, poverty, maladjustment, ignorance, incompetence, and mistakes and
blunders. All of the negativity that fills our day is caused by the
spiritual societies with which we are in communication. (DLW 343, NJHD 277)
This is
equally true of all the good things, which come to us through good spirits and
angelic societies with which the Lord puts us in correspondential connection.
(HH 304)
As a first
reaction we might cry out in innocence: Why doesn’t the Lord keep us connected
to the angelic societies all the time—surely that would be so much better.
Of course!
Yes it would be very convenient for us—if only He could. It would be the Lord’s
greatest desire to instantly regenerate every person and keep everyone in
connection with angels from birth on earth until arrival in one of the heavenly
societies (DP 329). The Writings explain that indeed this is how the Lord
creates the earths in the universe, and our earth was no exception. The life of
the early generations on this planet, called the
This
liberty is part of creation and of what is human-ness. It is always there to
eternity (AC 5354). The angels have it and the instant they stop cleaving to
the Lord’s Proprium, their old proprium from earth is resuscitated from the
outer limits of their personality and they cast themselves out of heaven down
into the spiritual world or lower into hell (DLW 25, SE 2555). Clearly then,
regeneration is always necessary for the human race. Regeneration cannot start
once the spirit is no longer connected to the physical body, but once it starts
before we pass on, it will then continue to eternity as we are continuously
perfected by the Lord to eternity (AC 5354). You can see therefore that nothing
is more important for us to know than how we must regenerate before it is too
late.
And the
knowledge of regeneration is what is needed to repair society from its
mental malfunctioning. From it will also come liberating society from its
plagues and the body from its diseases, for this comes from that. This
knowledge cannot be invented by science or the professions. Revelation in the
Writings is the only source for it (NJHD 257; AC 8939; TCR 340, 347, 350; SS
111; SE 5961). . This is why the Writings are called the greatest miracle the
Lord has granted since the beginning of the world (INV 43).
2. Everyone Is Born Into The Slavery Of An
Addiction
CONCERNING DISEASES.
All the infernals induce diseases, but with a difference
according to the part to which they are attached, so that they may act from the
opposite, to wit, in opposition to those in heaven, to whom the parts of the
body correspond - for there are opposites to every society in heaven; for, as
angels or angelic societies preserve in connection and soundness all things in
man, so infernals, from the opposite [side], divide them. But it is only
permitted them to inflow into the cupidities and falsities pertaining to man -
not into man's organs. Only when man falls into disease, then they inflow also
into those [organs] in man where the disease is; for nothing ever exists with
man, save by a cause from the spiritual world.
Man supposes that such things exist in him, and that there
is nothing outside him that acts; when, yet, every natural has its cause from a
spiritual, otherwise it would be without a cause; but, still, this does not
interfere with the fact that they can be, and also ought to be, cured, or made
sound, by natural means. The Lord's providence then concurs with such means:
and thus, also, man is kept the longer away from faith concerning a providence
in the minutest particulars; for, if he should believe this, and afterwards
deny it, he would profane a sacred truth, which is itself a most dreadful hell.
(SD 4585)
First, note
that the activities of the disease process in the body are caused by the evil
spirits whom the Lord allows to inflow by correspondence, which is a dualist
concept. This is not at all like demon possession or voodoo magic which are
nondualist concepts. The inflow is not into the body directly but into the
“cupidities and falsities pertaining to man.” Second, note that medical and
natural remedies heal the disease, or stop the action of the evil spirits, when
the Lord heals the disease. The action of healing is initiated and remains in
the natural world (by the Lord) and there is no direct influence on the spirits
since the two are in discrete duality. This is not at all like the nonduality
of Christian Science that puts the healing directly into the spiritual realm. They
have this notion from the idea that matter is not real and only Spirit is real
(nonduality). (See discussion in Chapter 3 Section 5.)
It’s
important to avoid a wrong conclusion that inevitably occurs to the mind,
namely that people who are more sick than others are more wicked—this is an
error in thinking. The societies the Lord connects us to are those that make
our inherited life. Until we become an adult and are ready to begin our
regeneration we are in the life of what we inherit and what is all around us.
The Lord attempts to disconnect us whenever we allow it to allow us to grow
some new life that is spiritual, rational, and in Divine order. Were He to
disconnect us from many or most of our hereditary connections to spiritual
societies, the result for us would be to feel like we are dying and the ebb of
life is flowing out of us. Obviously we cannot make progress in our
regeneration if we are in this lifeless state. So the Lord must wisely manage
the rate at which He can disconnect us from evil societies and connect us to
good spirits and angelic societies. The more we consciously cooperate with Him,
the faster, shorter, less painful, and more thorough regeneration is.
It’s
important to avoid the pitfall in the idea that because something like alcoholism
or drug addiction is a disease therefore the individual is not responsible for
failing to control it. A Eulogy given at the memorial service for a neighbor’s
young adult son said in part:
He
suffered through this life battle the same as his uncle and cousin. He was not
alone. Ten percent of Americans are alcoholics. For years people with alcohol
problems were perceived as morally defective. He struggled with this disease
that is treatable but not curable. He struggled with this demon since high school.
This demon took his youth, his future, his health. He fought the demon and
lost. It took destroying himself to destroy the demon. Thus he gave his family
peace. Accept his gift of peace.
All of us
are born into the slavery of an addiction, character malfunctioning, or
personality and behavior disorder. There are no exceptions (AC 5280). There is
an immense diversity of these disorders due to the inherited accumulation of
countless disabilities in our spiritual genetic line. Every generation adds to
this pool as they acquire and develop new disabilities and pass them on to
their offspring on top of what was passed on to them (CL 202). In this way all
the growing population of the hells and evil spiritual societies experience
their “pleasures” or infernal delights. This is their life. Without their being
connected by the Lord to our disabilities and bad luck, which they cause, they
would have no life of their own:
(((There are also spirits, not far from thence, who infuse
cold, and, thereby, paroxysms of cold fever:))) ((which it was also given me to
know by living and sensible experience. In that region are the most malicious,
the most skilful of all in the art of destroying others and the human race:))
(they study nothing else; they continually seek after new things of such a
character whereby they can injure; and they put them into act amongst
themselves, so that they may know - for they can induce infirmities; they can
[effect] such things as disturb the mind, and deprive man of his external
vitality:) hence he is as if inclined to fall, just as in sickness, when he
begins to come near [them], etc. In a word, they are most malicious:
They separate interiors and exteriors, in various modes, and
fill up the exteriors with offensive things, injurious to man: hence, when
interiors fall into [exteriors] of such a kind, they are turned into shocking
and deplorable things; for, if the recipient forms are perverted, whatever
falls therein is perverted also. In such a manner, also, are interiors
disunited from exteriors; and, when this is done, man is no longer of a sound
mind - as, also, is the case in fevers. [Their] operation is principally into
the stomach, and also into the biles, both of the pancreas and the liver; and,
from thence, arise such effects [as have been described] and also vomitings,
whereto they excite an endeavor. They are indescribably obstinate; they never
desist unless they are driven away.
((There are in hell very hot places, which it was also
granted me to feel, for the sake of knowing [where are] such as induce fevers.
They know almost everything; and from those places they throw forth that impure
and merely corporeal heat, separate from vitality; for, in the other life,
[evil spirits] know how to transfer such things skillfully, and they likewise
know by what shifts they can determine them into the body. Such [spirits] are
of the most pernicious character, so obstinate as never to desist unless driven
away by the Lord; and when they are driven away, immediately the febrile heat
ceases. Wherefore, they also speak truly who have been sick when they ascribe
their recovery of health to God, and give thanks to Him; although very many do
this only from a custom derived from infancy, and, when left to themselves,
ascribe it to nature.)) (SE 4572)
3. Good Loves And Genuine Truths
Regeneration
is the slow process by which we acquire good loves and genuine truths and apply
them to our daily activities. The Lord always maintains in equilibrium: He
arranges that we always have a good choice or an evil one, second by second,
all day long. The good spirits surrounding our mind in the spiritual world come
nearer and drive away the evil spirits as we choose good; the evil spirits come
nearer and the good spirits retreat, as we choose bad. The good spirits choose
to retreat not from weakness but from loving fear that they might not deprive
us of “pleasures” which make our current life. Thus when we choose evil, they
look away, and patiently wait until we are ready to make a good choice.
This
process of equilibrium is described as follows:
Good exists
from creation, and it varies in degree from the highest to the lowest. When its
lowest degree reaches zero, evil arises on the other side. So there is no
relationship or progress of good to evil, but it relates and progresses to what
is more or less good. Evil relates and progresses to what is more or is less
evil, because these are opposites in every single detail. Since evil and good
are opposites, there must be a mean point distinguished by equilibrium, where
evil acts against good; but because it is not stronger, it cannot advance
beyond making the effort.
'Everyone is
brought up in this state of equilibrium; and since this is between good and
evil, or what is the same thing, between heaven and hell, it is a spiritual
equilibrium, and this confers freedom on those who enjoy it. As the result of
this equilibrium the Lord draws all to Himself; and if a person freely follows
Him, He leads him out of evil into good, and so to heaven. (CL 444)
This is the
process of regeneration, and progress depends on our cooperation. (DP 114)
Cooperation means that we (a) acknowledge some truth from the Divine and (b)
strive to live according to it. To live it means to think and will accordingly
(AC 10638). This is painful in the beginning our reformation because the
feeling one experiences when avoiding the bad that we enjoy, is that we are
giving up our life. This is done with regrets, doubts, and relapses. The drug
addict, pedophile, rapist, or habitual criminal experience the feeling of loss
of life when they contemplate giving up what they are used to and what forms
the basis of their current living. Similarly with personality and behavior
disorders. The angry man, the abusive husband, the promiscuous teenager, the depressed
neighbor, the annoying practical joker, the negligent worker, the intolerant
sectarian, the secular atheist, thus all of us--find ourselves in
malfunctioning mental states because we remain connected to evil societies,
each having their own brand of disorder they inflict on us and enjoy.
Those of us
who seem to have more problems than others are not sicker or more wicked. It
only means that the character of the disorder we inherited are more prominent
in visible directions (CL 202). When you consider the dyadic relations in our
society, like doctor and patient, psychologist and client, judge and convict,
victim and abuser, it appears that one is better off than the other in terms of
good and bad, truth and delusion. But this only an appearance related to what
is visible and what is beneath the surface of behavior and mental state. When
this spiritual content is looked at, there are no exceptions according to role,
status, or success. Everyone is connected to evil societies upon which their
unregenerated life depends for happiness and normalcy. Each one must undergo
the same process of regeneration.
The
question then arises: Who then gets to regenerate and how?
The answers
are given in the Writings (NJHD 186). Those who are not in the
For the
The
nonduality of unconditional love assails the
Faking for
the sake of selfish gain and manipulating others against their good is
hypocritical and evil. It destroys the person who does this by habit and
justifies it by philosophy or reasoning. But put-ons and simulations motivated
by the desire to keep the peace and to protect others from needless distress,
is good and is the love of neighbor and God.
4. What’s Wrong With Unconditional Self-acceptance
Unconditional
love is not part of the good put-on for the sake of peace because it is
promoted as an inward process, outlook, or state of mind, not outward.
Psychologists, counselors, and teachers promote the idea that unconditional
love is the result of unconditional acceptance. This is defined as an
absolute legitimization of one’s own self and the self of all others. From the
The culture
of unconditional love and self-acceptance is an ideal that is not practiced, as
it is obvious from the many plagues that beseech our society, as already
discussed. National surveys and polls show that the majority of people hate
their neighbors, disapprove of many things about them, hate their co-workers
and complain about many of their traits, and can make a long list of what they
would change about their partners if they could. Nevertheless acknowledging the
culture of unconditional love as a creed or orientation makes it easier to open
the door for other concepts of nonduality. Acceptance unguided by categorical
dualities gradually erodes the power of one’s conscience, making it weak and
hardly audible. One then leads life in slavery attracted by this, impressed by
that, pulled in contradictory directions so that one’s moral integrity breaks
up and one loses the way.
Consider
the people around you, the successful business men, the famous lawyers, the political
leadership, the admired artists, the experts who have a reputation of being
brilliant at what they do, in short the most competent and intelligent people
of our society. Despite their goodness in their area of operation they show
many weaknesses and evils in private life. They get into rage and depression,
alcoholism and drug addiction. They are overweight and unhealthy. They engage
in fraud and they lie. They make promises they don’t intend to keep. They get
divorced, abuse their wives, are active in secret lusts, and love themselves
more than others. Their intelligence and superiority in many traits do not lead
them to avoid these hereditary evils we all have. Nonduality legitimizes this
commingling of good and bad loves as natural or human rather than as abnormal
and animal. Unconditional love and self-acceptance are similar mechanisms for
legitimizing the commingling of good and evil loves.
Clearly the
The interiors of man are distinct according to degrees by
means of derivations, and according to these degrees are also the lights. The
internal sensuous, which is nearest the sensuous things of the body, has the
most gross light. This light it has been given me to discern by much
experience, and I have noticed that whenever I sank into this light, falsities
and evils of many kinds presented themselves, and even things scandalous
against heavenly and Divine things, besides things filthy and foul. The reason
is that this light rules in the hells, and by means of it chiefly do the hells
flow into man. When a man is in this light, his thought is in nearly the same
light as that in which is his external sight, and is then almost in the body.
(AC 6310)
Thus the
love of self must be completely put to sleep if we are going to love the
neighbor instead. We are where our love is, and when we love the neighbor we
are in the celestial regions of our mind because love of neighbor and the Lord
is only there and cannot descend below. It is stuck in its discrete degree. The
idea of “love yourself” is a nonduality allied to self-acceptance and
unconditional love. The Writings teach the opposite in the form of interrelated
dualities:
Love of
self is the opposite of love of neighbor (AC 6023, HH 558b). We are born into
the love of self and must remove that love or go to hell (DP 102). We remove
the love of self by non-acceptance of its traits (AC 3147). We must
examine ourselves, find our sins, judge them, repent from them, refrain from
them, and finally, hold them in deep aversion (AE 1164). Everyone who does this
is an angel; no one who fails to do this can be an angel, in which case one is
a devil with nothing in between. (AE 971[4])
5. Spiritual Dualities From the Writings Are To
Be Loved And Lived
These
absolute dualities are in the
Nearly all people in the natural world can be associated
together in respect to their outward affections, but not in respect to their
inner affections if these differ and become apparent. The reason is that in the
world a person is invested with a material body, and this is filled with urges,
which in it are like dregs that settle to the bottom when newly fermented wine
is being clarified.
From such elements come the materials of which the bodies of
people in the world are composed. As a
result, inward affections that belong to the mind do not appear, and in many
cases scarcely a trace of them is visible. For either the body swallows them up
and immerses them in its dregs, or from a habit of dissembling learned from
early childhood, it hides them deep within and conceals them from the sight of
others.
This also
enables it to enter into the state of some affection which it observes in
someone else, and to attract the other's affection to it, so that they form a
relationship. They form a relationship,
because every affection has its delight, and delights are what join hearts
together.
It would be different, however, if inward affections were
like outward ones, visible in the expression of the face and gesture and
audible in the sound of the speech, or if their delights were noticeable to the
nose and smelled, as is the case in the spiritual world. If these affections
were then dissimilar to the point of friction and conflict, they would separate
their hearts from each other and part, removing themselves to a distance commensurate
with their perception of antipathy.
It is apparent
from this that nearly all people in the natural world can be associated
together in respect to outward affections, but not in respect to their inner
affections, if these differ and become apparent.
(CL 272)
The
first duality we
need to hold up to ourselves is the separation between the outer self and inner
self, as explained in the quote above (CL 272; see also AC 5354). The outer
self is what we appear to be to others by means of our personality traits and
habits. The inner self is private and we alone have access to knowing what is
there. When we are being sincere and feel secure, our external visible self
reflects what is in our private inner self. We sit loose and let it all hang
out, as the saying goes. But when we are insincere or fear persecution our
outer self no longer reflects our private life, but is only a convenient put-on
designed to cover up what is in our private inner self. Note that both the
inner and outer self are in the natural mind. Above this natural mind is the
spiritual-rational mind which is in a discrete degree higher. It too has an
inner and an outer self (AC 5354). It’s important not to confuse the private
inner self of the natural mind with the spiritual mind. Meditation, for
instance, take place in the private inner self of the natural mind, and
therefore it is not spiritual in and of itself. But all that takes place in the
spiritual-rational mind is spiritual in and of itself.
Now
consider the relationship between two married partners, two close friends, two
co-workers who get along well together, people who share entertainment and
recreation activities and enjoy each other’s company. All these relationships
may be based on the external self of each getting along with the external self
of the others. This is what creates law and order in a community. But what
happens when they suddenly slide into interacting from the inward self, as it
sometimes happens due to circumstances and Divine laws in action. Internecine warfare—that’s
what happens. I looked up the definition of “internecine” and it is composed of
these words: destroy, slaughter, kill, conflict, violent death, mutual
destruction. That describes accurately how these friends, co-workers, and
amusement partners feel toward one another in the inward self. There is never
any unconditional love or neighborly love or charity and compassion in the
inner self when this is still unregenerate (AC 977). It is against our nature
to love the neighbor before we are reformed and are undergoing regeneration
(Charity 210).
The
unregenerate man has no conscience, or if any, it is not a conscience of doing
good from charity, and of thinking truth from faith, but is based on some love
that regards himself or the world, wherefore it is a spurious or false
conscience. (AC 977)
In addition
to the distinctiveness of the outer and inner self, the second duality
we need to hold up is the discrete categories of neighbor whom we are to love
(AC 6023, 2425). Consider the Second of the Two Great Commandments: Love your
neighbor at least as much as yourself or more than yourself (Luke
Anyone,
from the principle that it is Christian not to do evil to the neighbor, also
does not do it. He, however, who from that principle only does not do evil to
the neighbor and does good to him, still does not love him. It is from
obedience to the Divine laws that he does not do evil to him, and not from an
affection of love towards the neighbor. No one knows anything of this affection
but he who shuns evils as sins, that is, who does not love evils. Such a man
comes into the affection of that love.
For it is one
thing not to do evil but good from obedience, and another not to do evil but
good to him from an affection of love towards the neighbor. (Charity 210).
Scientists
cannot discover this striking principle on their own since it is spiritual and
must be revealed to be known. The principle is that love of neighbor cannot
exist in the mind that still loves mixed affections, some good, some bad. If we
allow ourselves a few bad feelings or intentions towards the neighbor we love
evil, sometimes. The natural mind filled with nonduality wants equity and
balance in judging a person. It’s common for people to say: He is a good man.
He’s got a few bad traits, but in the balance he is among the good. Etc. This
idea involves the model by which “being a good man” is something that you
measure on a continuum, figuring out the balance between good and bad, and
their seriousness. This approach works only in terms of the external person’s
behavior and performance. It is suitable and practical for running society or a
business but not for assessing spiritual content.
The
Writings reveal that the good we do when we allow both good and bad in
ourselves, is not good to begin with and can never become genuine good (DP 14).
It is only an appearance of the outward behavior. Society could not survive
without this appearance which compels people to withhold themselves from doing
more evil and to put-on good behavior most of the time. But this outward good
that keeps society running is not spiritually good because as soon as the
individual arrives in the afterlife, all pretense of good is thrown off, and
only the evil inside remains (AC 7790, HH 499).
Therefore
love of neighbor is genuine good love only when one is being regenerated. This
happens to the extent that we shun evils and thereafter do good (Charity 210).
Reformation consists of self-examining our thoughts and feelings, finding the
selfish and evil ones, judging them, repenting of them, and struggling
constantly not to repeat them. This struggle sets up the process of starting
our regeneration. To the extent that we shun denigrating thoughts and hurtful
motives toward others, to that extent we can start doing good that is genuine
good, or spiritual good. It must be an absolute duality in our mind. Not a
single evil can be allowed, once detected to our awareness. The process of
uncovering evils to our awareness is carefully managed by the Lord who brings
those evils to our attention that we are willing to shun at any one time (DP
278).
We have
discussed two dualities: the separation between outer an inner self, and the
degrees of love for the neighbor. The third duality is needed to connect to
these two relates to regeneration: a person is either regenerating or
unregenerate. We are in an unregenerate state prior to beginning of our
regeneration, a state called reformation (TCR 571). Until we begin our
reformation we are in a discrete degree separate from the spiritual mind which
begins with regeneration.
Putting the
three dualities together we have this thesis about unconditional love and
self-acceptance:
When we are in
an unregenerate state our outer self is in its loves within “the dregs” of the
body and the corporeal-sensuous mind. Though we declare unconditional love as
our operating system, this is nothing but the love of self. Our inner self is
in the hatred of all people except a few who favor us and whom we can exploit
for our needs. But the moment they stop favoring us or serving our needs, our
inner self holds them in hatred. What lies inside unconditional love is
therefore unconditional hatred, one in the outer self, the other in the inner
self (SEM 4717; SE 409; HH 377; CL 365; AE 624).
When we
undergo repentance and reformation of life and turn ourselves sincerely to
regeneration, the inner self is first modified so that the hatred which reigns
in it is suppressed, judged, and exiled to the far reaches of one’s character.
This is called “crucifying the flesh” by Paul (Gal.
A remaining
issue is the kind of love that we must show to the neighbor.
7. What Is Loving The Neighbor?
Every
man is indeed the neighbor, but each one with a difference; that he is most the
neighbor who is in good, and this also with a difference according to the
quality of the good; that the origin of the neighbor is from the Lord Himself,
so that the nearer any are to Him, that is, the more they are in good, the more
they are the neighbor; and the more remote they are from Him, the less; and
also that a society is more the neighbor than an individual man, and a kingdom
in general more than a society, but our own country more than other kingdoms;
that the church is still more the neighbor than our country, and the Lord's
kingdom still more; and also that the neighbor is loved when anyone discharges
his office aright for the good of others, or of his country, or of the church;
and so on. (AC 6023)
From these doctrinal things they also knew what charity is,
namely, the affection of being of service to others without any end of
recompense; and also what is the neighbor toward whom there should be charity,
namely, all in the universe, but still each with discrimination. (AC 3419)
The quality of
the love determines who is the neighbor. (AC 6711)
The origin of the neighbor must be drawn from the Lord,
therefore the distinguishing differences of the neighbor are according to the
Lord's presence in good, thus according to the quality of the good. (AC 6707)
They who are in evil are indeed the neighbor, but in quite a
different respect; and for this reason they are to be benefited in a different
way. (AC 6708)
The idea
that we must show the same love to everyone is a nonduality. Henry James, Sr.
made this idea a cornerstone of his “Christology” (see Chapter 4 Section 2).
Christians tend to interpret the Lord’s Commandment of “Love your neighbor” as
loving everyone equally. This too is a nonduality. Jews interpret this
Commandment from the Old Testament as meaning that they should love all Jews,
not just one’s family or tribe. Secular Christians or humanists often quote
Jesus to support their view that all human beings must be loved and treated
equally on account of their being human. But the Writings teach a more
differentiated and distinct idea of who the neighbor is, as in the quotes
above, and this one:
Those who
are in the love of self … acknowledge as the neighbor those who love them the
most; that is, insofar as they are theirs; thus are in themselves. These they
embrace, these they kiss, these they benefit, and these they call brethren;
nay, because they are evil, they say that these are the neighbor more than
others. (AC 6710)
To love the
neighbor does not consist in loving his person, but in loving that with him
from which he is, consequently good and truth (n. 5028, 10336). They who love
the person, and not that which is with him from which he is, love evil as well
as good (n. 3820). And they do good to the evil as well as to the good, when
nevertheless doing good to the evil is doing evil to the good, which is not
loving the neighbor (n. 3820, 6703, 8120). (NJHD 106)
From these
and many other passages it is made clear to the
It’s a
practical matter as well. Everyone understands that the homeless person to whom
we serve a meal cannot expect to move in with the benefactor. The Salvation
Army truck driver who comes to pick up give away clothes doesn’t expect you to
give them your new clothes but only the discards. An acquaintance who goes
bankrupt in his business cannot expect you to support him but must find some
other permanent arrangement. Your wife and children come before your uncles and
cousins when it comes to allocate your budget. A neighbor who won’t curb his
aggressive dog will get sued by the other neighbors. Likewise with a client who
received services or goods for a fee and will not pay up. The judge who
“punishes the evil that they may be amended, and that the good may not be
contaminated by them, loves the neighbor” (NJHD 106). A friend who turns out to
engage in criminal activity must not be treated in the same way as other
friends who are law abiding. An employee who is devoted and responsible is
loved more than one who is insincere and irresponsible. People who are found to
have special talents are to be encouraged and helped in developing them, for
all talents are goods from the Lord and it is the good in people from the Lord
that we must love, not their person.
We conclude
therefore that unconditional love for all is neither rational nor good, but
conditional love according to the situation is rational and good.
A
well-liked sermon by Rev. Douglas Taylor on the subject of self-esteem explores
the conflict in the
The idea of
self-esteem is a difficult one for many
(…) If we have
nothing but such evils, how can we possibly have any self-esteem, any feeling
of self-worth? How can we love those qualities in ourselves? They are directly
opposite to the heavenly qualities that we wish for.
(“Self-Esteem—A
Sermon by Rev. Douglas M. Taylor” New Church Life March 2002 v.CXXII No.3 pp.
99-105)
Rev. Taylor
draws a valid distinction between the inherited qualities we have in the
unregenerate state, on the one hand. And on the other, the qualities of good
that we receive from the Lord as we are regenerating. We cannot have a
legitimate love for the evil affections we inherit and acquire ourselves in
daily living. But we are commanded to love those heavenly qualities we have
from the Lord because it is to love the Lord. These good affections are not
from our proprium, and neither are they ours. They are the Lord’s since
whatever is from the Lord remains the Lord’s and can never be ours. If we
angels would forget for one instant they are the Lord’s in them, they would
immediately cast themselves out of their heaven. For to attribute anything that
is the Lord’s to our self is meritoriousness, which is damnation itself (AC
4174).
The good
affections in us that are the Lord’s are unconsciously implanted by the Lord
starting in infancy and beyond. These
Divine implants in us are called “remains.”
What remains are, has been stated and shown above …, namely,
that they are all the states of the affection of good and truth with which a
man is gifted by the Lord, from earliest infancy even to the end of life; which
states are stored up for him for the use of his life after death; for in the
other life all the states of his life return in succession, and are then
tempered by the states of good and truth with which he has been gifted by the
Lord. The more remains therefore that a man has received in the life of the
body, that is, the more of good and truth, the more delightful and beautiful do
the rest of his states appear when they return.
That
this is really so may be evident to everyone, if he will consider. When a man
is born he has not a particle of good of himself, but is wholly defiled
throughout with hereditary evil, and all that is good flows in, such as his
love for his parents, his nurses, his companions; and this from innocence. Such
are the things that flow in from the Lord through the heaven of innocence and
peace, which is the inmost heaven, and thus is man imbued with them in his
infancy.
[2]
Afterwards, when he grows up, this good, innocent, and peaceful state of
infancy recedes little by little; and so far as he is introduced into the
world, he comes into its pleasures, and into cupidities, and thus into evils;
and so far the celestial or good things of the age of infancy begin to
disappear; but still they remain, and the states which the man afterwards puts
on or acquires are tempered by them. (AC 1906)
As the
Everyone who heareth these words of Mine, and doeth
them, shall be likened to a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and
everyone that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened
unto a foolish man who built his house upon the sand ([Matt.] verses 24, 26).
(Life 2)
However,
very few can apprehend with the understanding that the acknowledgment of the
Lord, and the acknowledgment that all that is good and true is from Him, are
what cause a man to be reformed and regenerated.
But
he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built
an house upon the earth. Luke vi 46-49.
(DP 91)
The
9. A Poisonous Serpent And Cockatrice
Self-esteem
in the
The
reason why the "serpent" means all evil in general, and specifically
the love of self, is that all evil has had its rise from that sensuous part of
the mind, and also from that memory-knowledge [scientifica], which at first
were signified by the "serpent;" and therefore it here denotes evil
of every kind, and specifically the love of self, or hatred against the
neighbor and the Lord, which is the same thing. As this evil or hatred was
various, consisting of numerous genera and still more numerous species, it is
described in the Word by various kinds of serpents, as "snakes"
"cockatrices" "asps" "adders" "fiery
serpents" "serpents that fly" and "that creep" and
"vipers" according to the differences of the poison, which is hatred.
(AC 251; see also TCR 487)
The
self-esteem we derive from knowing about remains and loving them as from the
Lord also applies to the love we have for our employment and country. Our
employment and other uses we perform daily such as parenting and being a
spouse, are also a source of legitimate self-esteem and a feeling of self-worth
because all uses are also from the Lord and our performing them sincerely
constitutes love of neighbor and the Lord (TCR 744). Patriotism can be merely a
natural love or spiritual. The patriotism of the unregenerate mind is natural
without any spiritual in it. The love and loyalty for country is like
unconditional love discussed above in this section. One loves the country
merely because it is our country of birth or naturalization. This love is to
love what is one’s own regardless of the good that is in it or absent—“My
country right or wrong.”
Spiritual
love of country is the love of the good that is in the country. This good is
from the Lord. We can love the civil good that is in the practice of its laws
and judiciary. We can also love the moral good which is in the virtues in its
values and institutions. We can also love its spiritual good which is in its
life of religion and freedom of worship that it safeguards for all its
citizens. To love the different kinds of good in the country—civil, moral,
spiritual—is a spiritual love. This love has within it the love of the Lord and
the idea that it is He that governs the country, and from this alone can its
citizens have genuine self-esteem with regard to self and their country.
Chapter 6 Section 9
The Lord …
said that people were to forgive their brother not seven times but seventy
times seven, Matt. 18:21, 22. By this He meant that they were to forgive as
often as he sinned. Their forgiveness was to know no limits, that is, was to be
eternal and timeless, which is holy. (AC 433)
I have heard from heaven that the Lord forgives to everyone
his sins, and never takes vengeance nor even imputes sin, because He is love
itself and good itself; nevertheless, sins are not thereby washed away, for
this can be done only by repentance. For when He told Peter to forgive until
seventy times seven, what will not the Lord do? (TCR 409)
In the exercise of charity man should see clearly whether he
is acting from justice, and this he sees from judgment. For a man may do evil
by deeds of beneficence; and by what appear to be evil deeds he may do good.
For example: One who gives to a needy robber the means wherewith to buy a
sword, by a beneficent act is doing evil; although the robber in begging the
money did not tell what he would do with it. So again, if one rescues a robber from
prison and shows him the way to a forest, saying to himself, It is not my fault
that he commits robbery; I have given succor to the man.
(…)
[15] On the other hand, a man may do good through what
appear to be evil deeds. Take as an example a judge who acquits an evil-doer
because he sheds tears, pours out words of piety, and begs the judge to pardon
him because he is his neighbor. But in fact a judge performs a work of charity
when he decrees the man's punishment according to the law; for he thus guards
against the man's doing further evil and being a pest to society, which is the
neighbor in a higher degree, and he prevents also the scandal of an unjust
judgment. Who does not know also, that it is good for servants to be chastised
by their masters, or children by their parents, when they do wrong? The same is
true of those in hell, all of whom are in the love of doing evil. They are kept
shut up in prisons, and when they do evil are punished, which the Lord permits
for the sake of their amendment. (TCR 459)
The New
Church mind seeks the Writings for the Doctrine which we are to extract from
the Writings so that it resides in our understanding and from there directs our
willing and thinking in daily activities. Forgiveness is discussed in many
places with the related ideas of love of neighbor and charity. Here are some
summary points of passages in the Writings about forgiveness:
q
The Lord always forgives anyone, no
matter what
q
There are no limits to
forgiveness--always forgive, no matter what
q
To forgive people does not mean that
we should do nothing when we are victimized by them or that they are not
required to face responsibility for their actions
q
To forgive ourselves does not mean
that we are not required to shun our evils and weaknesses
In the
prior discussion on unconditional self-acceptance it was pointed out that such
an attitude would be disastrous to the
The
inherited mind, strengthened even more by our life choices, is formed by
spiritual fibers called affections and thoughts. These fibers can be seen in
the spiritual world. Swedenborg reports that the unregenerate mind is twisted
into coils that spiral in the opposite direction of the spirals in the
regenerate mind (DLW 275). In the spiritual world the coils remain such as they
were on arrival in the afterlife (xx). To start one’s regeneration is possible
only on earth because in that state, while attached to the physical body, it is
possible for the mind to grow a new shoot engrafted in the spiritual portion of
it that is tilled and implanted by the Lord. This implanting, or opening of
function, is achieved only to the extent that we voluntarily and consciously
change how we think and what we intend all day long. The new spiritual mind is
not tinted in any way by heredity or personal sin. It is the Lord’s dwelling
through Divine Truth implanted in accommodation to our unique individuality.
This Divine Truth must come to us from the external rational mind, that is,
through the senses, by reading and hearing the Writings and its Doctrines as
being Divine Truth.
The
opening of the spiritual mind is within the Doctrine from the Writings that we
took up into the conscious rational mind (external rational).
1. Forgiveness Is Always Granted Immediately by
the Lord
When you
reflect on this process of regeneration and spiritual growth you can see that
the issue in salvation is not to get the Lord to forgive us our sins. His
forgiveness is granted immediately to everyone without having to ask (TCR 539).
Yet this does not remove the sin! Similarly, you can forgive yourself
for the things you willed and thought, yet you still are required to reform
from those things. Sin is evil willing and false thinking. Therefore, neither
the Lord’s forgiveness of our sins, nor our own forgiving ourselves, removes
the sins. In a state of corporeal spirituality prior to our reformation we hang
on to the idea that being forgiven removes sin. This is really convenient. But
it’s false. Sin remains after forgiveness.
Sin is to
will evil, in other words to accept evil affections such as selfishness and its
corrupting derivatives, and the love of dominion, and its cruel derivatives. To
accept these affections is to love them. Not to love them is to shun them (AE
971[2]). So the only way sin is removed is to shun these affections of evil in
us (LJP 350). Shunning them means to resist them and to strive to put them
aside with the help of the Lord’s power given to us for that purpose. Once
we shun evil affections, the Lord puts them aside, and gives us new affections
by putting us in communication with good spirits.
Sin is a
state of connection to evil spirits. The Lord cannot forcibly remove these
connections, for if He did, we would feel like our immortal spirit is quickly
dying. And so we would because our aliveness is nothing else then our
affections (DP 279). Hence the Lord cannot remove our evil affections forcibly
for that would be removing our life with nothing left to replace it. But if we
shun these affections, then He can remove the spiritual connections. Why?
Because we as-of self shun them, reject them, don’t want them around any more.
So, as the
evil affections are being removed, we can accept the new life that flows in
through the new spirits. Our spiritual life doesn’t feel like it is dying, but
growing, through the new good affections which give us far more intense and
elevated life than the evil affections ever did. But we don’t get to find this
out until we’ve made the switch. This is why we must trust and love the Lord,
or else we are unable to make the big jump into the unknown.
Now you can
see why unconditional self-acceptance is so deadly to the
Thus what
animates the fibers is the opposite of the truth that came in. The unregenerate
mind in the afterlife is like an anti-truth machine. It transforms every truth
into its opposite. Swedenborg reports numerous conversations he had with such
people and they appear normal when taken out of their madness by the action of good
spirits, But very soon they precipitate themselves forcefully back into the
madness of their hell states. And this over and over, forever. It is organic.
There is no possibility for learning except in limited ways by extreme
punishments carried on for a long time (TCR 796). But there never is any real
progress because their inherent madness pulls them back into themselves.
The
idea of forgiveness as spiritual psychobiology is an interior or spiritual
view. People recognize two venues for forgiveness—outward and inward. Outward
forgiveness refers to behavior and conduct. For example, if you forgive someone
something bad they did to you, you will be expected not to mention it again
(except maybe in good humor), and you will be expected to act like it never
happen. People often say, “Forget it. It’s OK. I forgive you.” But everyone
knows that inwardly there may or may not be forgiveness, and instead, there may
be resentment, ill will, and the desire for revenge. This inward forgiveness is
more difficult to achieve than outward behavioral forgiveness. And yet there is
another level, even more inward, which is spiritual. This level is more
rational and involves justification and confirmation of our forgiveness or
resentment.
This more
interior level can look down upon the natural inward or private level, and
assess it, whether it is from hell or from heaven. It can see that the motive
for forgiveness is equity, fairness, or self-esteem. This is from self,
therefore from hell. Or, it can see that the motive for forgiveness is the
understanding that resentment or revenge are corrupting motives and lead us to
hell. This is a spiritual motive, not social or moral or psychological.
Spiritual motives are a discrete degree higher in rationality than the others
because spiritual motives involves the idea of God while the others involve the
idea of nature, evolution, culture, humanism, and the like (xx). These are
natural-rational, while the idea of God is spiritual-rational, and what is
spiritual is more rational (TCR 369[3]).
Further
aspects to the
Chapter 6 Section 10
A
contemporary version of secular forgiveness may be examined in the following
statements:
Forgiveness is completely letting go of the past, its pain,
anger, and grief. Forgiveness is operating in the here and now - where this
event is no longer occurring.
Forgiveness
focuses you on the reality of what happens and asks you to accept it as karma
to engender your evolution to a higher level. You need to learn from your bad
karma and begin to understand how your actions helped bring this change to your
world. If you hold onto it, seek revenge, or refuse to let go, you are ADDING
your current strength and power to this negative memory.
As long as you
hold on to the anger, victimization, and pain, you will have this negative
energy locked inside you making you ill - mentally, spiritually, and
physically.
What is
forgiveness?
It starts in
your heart with understanding, a heaping measure of love, acceptance of the
truth, the truth of the light of consciousness, God's grace - or whatever you
wish to call it - and is followed by healing actions. Any ongoing conflicts,
such as lawsuits, arguments, or refusals to communicate must be resolved. Words
of resolution should be communicated either in person (preferably), by phone,
or with a nice letter. It must be heart-felt, not mechanical, not just an act
of going through the motions. Fake it until you make it - that's a start. It
can lead to a transformational experience if repeated often enough, but the
results will be slow until it is truly from your heart. The more you focus your
attention on this healing, the faster your pain and the chaos you cause in
everything around you, will dissipate.
(“The Power
of Forgiveness” by Brian Sheen on the Web at www.innerself.com/Magazine/Behavior_Modification/Power_of_Forgiveness.htm
Accessed June 2002)
Forgiveness is
not Condemnation. Forgiveness does not mean you agree with what the other
person did to you. It does not mean you can change what happened or erase what
they did. What’s done is done. All you can do is release yourself.
Forgiveness is
Not for Them, It’s for You. Forgiveness is not something you do for someone
else, but to free YOURSELF from the continuation of pain and anger. It is a
gift to your peace of mind, your self esteem, your relationships with others,
your future.
Why
forgiveness?
(“Why
Forgiveness? Forgiveness is a way of releasing ourselves from the pain we have
experienced at the hands of others...” By Kenneth Cloke on the Web at
makinglemonade.com/newcreative/creative_forgiveness.htm
Accessed June 2002)
Summarizing
the secular view of forgiveness, we can make the following list of items:
Chapter 6 Section 11
The first step in forgiveness is to recognize your
resentment against an enemy. You must understand who the enemy is and what he
has done to hurt you. Then you must consciously say, "I forgive that
person for the following wrongs against me." Then repent of your feelings
against your enemy and ask God to forgive you, even as "we also forgive
everyone who is indebted to us" (Luke 11:4).
After that, begin to pray actively for your enemy's good.
Jesus told us to pray for our enemies and that doing this will help to fill us
with love for them.
When you pray for your enemies, asking God to meet their
needs and manifest Himself to them, you are overcoming evil with good. Instead
of fighting negative thoughts in your mind, you are filling your mind with
positive thoughts. You are now on the side of your enemy; you have a spiritual
stake in his well-being. If God answers your prayer, which you want Him to do,
the person prayed for will be blessed, and you will learn about redemption--the
ultimate form of forgiveness.
Keep in mind that if you ask God to bless somebody, God will
bring that person to a condition where blessing is possible. God will not bless
an evildoer until he or she repents of sin, provides restitution where
necessary, and gets right with God. So if you ask God to bless someone who has
wronged you, the result may well be a repentant sinner and a new brother or sister
in the Lord!
Pat Robertson. “Ethics: A Christian Viewpoint Commandments,
virtues, vices, employees and more” on the web at
www.cbnindia.org/200Questions/article.php?topic=17
Accessed June 2002)
The
Christian view of forgiveness as seen today in the light of the Lord’s Word of
the First Coming, or New Testament, can be summarized in these points based on
the interpretation by Pat Robertson, a well known and intellectually influential
Christian TV broadcaster:
(1) “The
first step in forgiveness is to recognize your resentment against an enemy.”
This requires that we monitor our thoughts every day to discover when and how
we have resentful feelings and thoughts. Without self-witnessing the many
particulars of the feelings and thoughts we have every day, the step of
repentance cannot be taken, hence forgiveness is put out of the mind and
doesn’t show itself.
(2) “Then
you must consciously say, "I forgive that person for the following wrongs
against me.” This act conforms to the Lord’s Commandment to Peter, who had
asked Him, how many times he should forgive his enemies. This exchange during
the Lord’s First Advent, is interpreted in the Lord’s Second Advent, as
follows:
And when Peter asked Him how many times he should forgive
one who sinned against him, whether it should be as many as seven times, He
replied:
Not up to seven times, I tell you, but up to seventy times
seven times. Matt. 18:21, 22.
I have been told from heaven that the Lord forgives everyone
his sins, and never punishes him for them, or even imputes them to him, because
He is love itself and good itself. Nevertheless the sins are not wiped away by
this, for it is only by repentance that they can be wiped away. For if he told
Peter to forgive up to seventy times seven times, is there anything that the
Lord Himself would not do? (TCR 409)
To forgive
our enemies is a Commandment. By declaring that we forgive means that we can
fight against the temptations to come, by which we fall back on the desire for
revenge and punishment. In that evil state we can focus on the fact that we
pronounced forgiveness, and thus no longer have a just claim for retaliation.
But note that even this declaration will not stand in future temptations,
unless it is accompanied by repentance. We must repent since we broke the
Commandment prior to our declaration of forgiveness. During the days, hours, minutes,
or seconds prior to the our declaration of forgiveness, what we were we doing
in our willing and thinking about the enemy who did us wrong? We were breaking
the Commandment. Not until the moment of declaring forgiveness, and not yet
until we feel repentance, can we say that we have at last compelled ourselves
to follow the Lord’s Commandment.
The Lord
forgives immediately when we sin against Him. There is no intervening moment of
anger, and then repentance for Him, despite what the Old Testament says about
Jehovah, that He was angry, did evil to the people, then repented Himself. This
is written by correspondences, and the literal only reflects the perspective of
the unregenerate mind (xx). Neither do angels wait an instant to forgive, so
that they would then have to repent, but they avert their eyes and their focus
from the evils in the spirit for whom they provide services. But while we are
regenerating on earth our inherited and acquired evils are full of revenge,
hatred, and rage against the enemy, whom we define as anyone who doesn’t favor
us and accept what we do or think. In that unregenerate state we will be raging
and hating, so that we must compel ourselves to forgive, which comes as soon as
we repent of our raging and hating because it is a sin against the Lord.
(3) “After
that, begin to pray actively for your enemy's good. Jesus told us to pray for
our enemies and that doing this will help to fill us with love for them.” This
is most difficult to do, and cannot be done on our own, hence we must begin to
pray. By praying, we acknowledge that we have no power and all power is the
Lord’s. So we beg Him to give us the power to be sincere about wishing the
enemy well. why did the Lord command us to pray for our enemies?
Before the Lord came into the world hardly anyone knew what
the internal man was or what charity was. This is why in many places He taught
loving care, which is charity; and this is a difference between the Old and New
Testaments (or Covenants). The Lord taught that kindness should be done out of
charity to an opponent or enemy in this passage of Matthew:
You have heard that the men of old were told, You are to
love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies,
bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those
who hurt and persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in the
heavens. Matt. 5:43-45.
(TCR 409)
How does
praying for our enemies fill us with love? Some might think that when we pray
for our enemies, we must also love them, as we love our countrymen, neighbors
and friends. But this is not the case, as anyone may know who has prayed for
the enemy who is a murderer, a rapist, or a terrorist. No love for them fills
our heart like the pity we feel for the victims. Nevertheless we must pray for
our enemy because the Lord commands it. And when we obey the Lord’s commandment
He fills us with His Love, and it is this Love that we feel. This love in us
chases away the evil spirits who urge us to hate the enemy. This love protects
us from hating the enemy even as if we kill them in a battle. For to kill them
may be necessary to protect our country and neighbor, and not to kill them, is
to hate our country and neighbor whom we should protect and not leave
defenseless. Similarly with bringing the criminal to justice—the Lord wants us
to pray for them, even as we administer due process. And this also means that
in this process of executing justice or waging defensive war, we must not be
cruel and arrogant. To pray for the enemy will prevent us from falling into the
evils of cruelty and arrogance.
(4) To
quote Robertson again:
“Keep in mind that if you ask God to bless somebody, God
will bring that person to a condition where blessing is possible. God will not
bless an evildoer until he or she repents of sin, provides restitution where
necessary, and gets right with God. So if you ask God to bless someone who has
wronged you, the result may well be a repentant sinner and a new brother or
sister in the Lord!“
This
reminds me of what angels do. They have the strong desire to share their love
and their truths with everyone. Nothing makes them happier than to bring
another human being into their heaven where they can share its goods and truths
(xx). They also know that those who reject the heavenly goods and truths are
taken care of by the Laws of Divine Providence and Permissions. Nothing in the
universe is loose, but everything is tied inexorably by these Laws. Evil
returns to the evil and no one gets off with anything (xx). Hence it is not up
to people on earth or angels in heaven to insure the spiritual punishment of
the evil, for the Lord takes care of that.
Then thou shalt give soul for soul. That this signifies the
law of order that thou shalt do to thy neighbor as thou wouldest have another
do to thee, consequently that what thou doest to another shall be done to thee,
is evident from the fact that "to give soul for soul, eye for eye, tooth
for tooth," and so forth, denotes that as thou hast done to another so
shall it be done to thee.
The reason why this law was given to the sons of