What Swedenborg Heard and Saw

The Lord in his divine compassion, has enabled me to understand the inner meaning of the Bible. This meaning contains deeply hidden secrets which no one has ever had the slightest conception of before now. It would be impossible to understand them without knowing what the other life is like, since this is what most all of the Bible’s inner meaning refers to and describes. Now, however, I can tell about what I have heard and seen while I have been with spirits and angels during the last few years.

I realize that many people will say it is not possible for anyone to talk with spirits and angels while still living in the physical body. Some will say I am hallucinating and some will say I am writing these things just to get a following. Others will make other objections. But none of this discourages me, because I have seen, I have heard, and I have fell. — Emanual Swedenborg, Heavenly Secrets 67-68

from Swedenborg Researcher’s Manual

If that higher level, the spiritual level, is not opened in us, we become focused on the physical world and our sense impression (Continued)

There are three kinds of earthly-minded people.  One kind is made up of individuals who have no knowledge of divine precepts, a second of people who know that such precepts exist but give no thought to living by them, and a third of people who trivialize and deny them.  As for the first kind, the ones who have no knowledge of divine precepts, they cannot help remaining earthly-minded because there is no way for them to teach themselves.  We all learn about divine precepts from others, who know about them from their religion.  We do not gain them by direct revelation (see Teachings for the New Jerusalem on Sacred Scripture 114-118).

People of the second kind, the ones who know that divine precepts exist but give no thought to living by them, also remain earthly-minded and are not concerned with anything except what is worldly and physical.  After death they become employees and servants of the spiritual-minded, performing for them the functions for which they are fitted.  This is because an earthly-minded individual is an employee or servant, while a spiritual-minded one is an employer or householder.

People of the third kind, the ones who trivialize and deny divine precepts, not only remain earthly-minded but even become sense-centered to the extent that they trivialize and deny divine precepts.  Sense-centered people are the lowest of the earthly-minded, unable to raise their thoughts above deceptive physical appearances.  After death, they are in hell.

From Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 249

If that higher level, the spiritual level, is not opened in us, we become focused on the physical world and our sense impression

I have just explained that there are three levels of the human mind called earthly, spiritual, and heavenly; that these levels can be opened in us in sequence; that the earthly level is opened first; and that afterward, if we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord, the spiritual level is opened, and ultimately the heavenly level. Since the sequential opening of these levels depends on how we live, it follows that the two higher levels may also not be opened, in which case we stay on the earthly level, which is the most remote.

It is recognized in the world that we have an earthly self and a spiritual self, or an outer and an inner self.  It is not recognized that the earthly self becomes spiritual by the opening of a higher level within, and that this opening is accomplished by a spiritual life, a life in accord with divine precepts, and that unless we live by these precepts, we remain centered on the physical world.

from Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 248

Spiritual light flows in within us through three levels, but not spiritual warmth except to the extend that we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord (Continued)

We are differentiated from animals by the inflow of spiritual light into all three levels of our minds; and beyond what animals can do, we can think analytically; we can see things that are true not only on the earthly level but on the spiritual level as well; and when we see them, we can acknowledge them and so be reformed and regenerated.  Our ability to accept spiritual light is what we call rationality, already discussed [Section 240]. 

It is a gift from the Lord to each one of us, and one that is not taken away, since if it were taken away, we could not be reformed.  It is because of this ability called rationality that we not only can think but can say what we are thinking, which animals cannot do.  Then because of that second ability called freedom, also discussed above, we can do what we have thought intellectually.

Since I dealt with these two abilities that we claim—rationality and freedom—in Section 240, there is no need to say more about them here.

from Divine Love and WIsdom, Section 247

Notes:

Section 240: Published 1/21/2022

Spiritual light flows in within us through three levels, but not spiritual warmth except to the extend that we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord (Continued)

The only way to gain that spiritual warmth is by abstaining from evils as sins and then turning to the Lord, since as long as we are caught up in evil pursuits we are caught up in a love for them.  We are enmeshed in our craving for them; and that love for what is evil, that craving, is a form of love that is opposed to spiritual love and desire.  Further, the only way to get rid of that love or craving is by abstaining from evils as sins; and since we cannot do that on our own, but only by the Lord’s agency, we need to turn to him. 

When we do abstain from our evils by the Lord’s agency, then, our love for evil and warmth are put aside and a love for what is good, with its warmth, is brought in in its place, enabling a higher level to be opened.  The Lord actually flows in from above and opens it and unites the love or spiritual warmth with wisdom or spiritual light.  As a result of this union we begin to blossom spiritually like a tree in springtime.

From Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 246

Spiritual light flows in within us through three levels, but not spiritual warmth except to the extend that we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord (Continued)

Now I need to describe how light flows into the three levels that make up the human mind.  From our birth, the forms that are receptive of warmth and light or love and wisdom (which as already noted [Section 223] are in a threefold pattern or on three levels) are translucent and let spiritual light pass through, the way clear glass lets physical light through.

This is why we can be raised up all the wayto the third level in respect to our wisdom.  These forms are not opened, though, until spiritual warmth, or the love of wisdom, is united to the spiritual light.  It is through this union that the translucent forms are opened level by level.

This is like the light and warmth of the world’s sun and plant life on earth.  The winter light is just as bright as summer light, but it does not open anything in seeds or trees.  However, when the warmth of spring is united to that light then things open.  The resemblance stems from the fact that spiritual light is analogous to physical light and spiritual warmth is analogous to physical warmth.

From Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 245

Spiritual light flows in within us through three levels, but not spiritual warmth except to the extend that we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord (Continued)

It is the same in this world.  Anyone who has any sense at all and has not become inwardly convinced of false principles on the grounds of intellectual pride, on hearing people talk about higher things or on reading about them understands, retains them, and eventually affirms them if there is any desire for learning.  This holds true for evil and good people alike.  Even evil people who at heart deny the divine gifts of the church can understand, discuss, and preach higher things, and can defend them in scholarly writing.  However, when they are left on their own to think about them, their thinking is based on their hellish self-centeredness, and they deny them.  We can see from this that our discernment can be in spiritual light even though our volition may not be in spiritual warmth.

It also follows from this that our discernment does not lead our volition, or that wisdom does not give rise to love.  It merely teaches and shows the way.  It teaches how we should live and shows us the way we should follow.  It also follows from this that our volition leads our discernment and gets it to work in unison with itself.  The love that is the substance of our volition gives the name of “wisdom” to whatever in our discernment it finds harmonious.

It will be showing below that on its own, apart from discernment, our volition accomplishes nothing [Section 409].  Everything it does, it does in conjunction with our discernment.  However, our volition gains the cooperation of our discernment by flowing into it, and not the other way around.

from Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 244

Spiritual light flows in within us through three levels, but not spiritual warmth except to the extend that we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord (Continued)

It has become abundantly clear to me from my experiences in the spiritual world that our discernment can be raised up into heaven’s light, or into angelic wisdom, but that our volition cannot be raised up into heaven’s warmth or angelic love unless we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord.  I have often seen and sensed that very ordinary spirits who knew only that God exists and that the Lord was born as a human—hardly anything else—understood the mysteries of angelic wisdom completely, almost the way angels do.  Nor were they the only ones.  Even many members of the demonic mob understood.  They understood while they were listening, that is, but not in their private thinking. 

When they were listening, light flowed into them from above; but in their private thinking the only light that could get in was the light that agreed with their warmth or love.  So even after they had heard these mysteries and grasped them, when they turned their hearing away they retained nothing.  In fact, the members of devil’s mob spat it out and denied it categorically.  The reason was that the fire of their love and its light, being mindless, brought down a darkness that snuffed out the heavenly light that was flowing in from above.

From Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 243

Spiritual light flows in within us through three levels, but not spiritual warmth except to the extend that we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord

What I presented thus far indicates that light and warmth emanate from the sun of heaven, that sun, described in part 2, that is the first emanation of divine love and wisdom. The light emanates from his wisdom and the warmth from his love.  Further, the light is the vessel of wisdom and the warmth is the vessel of love; and the more we are engaged in wisdom, the more we come into that divine light, and the more we are engaged in love, the more we come into that divine warmth.

We can also tell from what has been presented that there are three levels of light and three levels of warmth, or three levels of wisdom and three levels of love, and that these levels are formed within us in such a way that we are open to divine love and wisdom and therefore to the Lord.

The present task, then, is to show that while spiritual light flows in through these three levels in us, spiritual warmth does not—except to the extent that we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord; or what amounts to the same thing, to show that we can accept wisdom all the way to the third level, but not love—unless we abstain from evils as sins and turn to the Lord; or (what again amounts to the same thing) to show that our discernment can be raised up into wisdom, but our volition cannot be raised up [into love]—except to the extent that we abstain from evils as sins.

From Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 242

These three vertical levels exist in each of us from birth and can be opened in sequence. As they are opened, we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us. (Continued)

I have noted above [Sections 212-213] that the three vertical levels are like a purpose, a means, and a result, and that the sequence of love, wisdom, and usefulness follows this sequence.  I need at this point, then, to say a little about love as the purpose, wisdom as the means, and usefulness as the result.

People who pay attention to their reason when that reason is in the light can see that our love is the purpose of everything we do, since it is what we love that we think about, decide upon, and do, so it is what we have as our purpose.  Our reason can also show us that wisdom is the means, since the love that is our purpose gathers in our discernment the means it needs to reach its goal.  So it listens to its wisdom, and these resources constitute the means through which it works.  We can see without further explanation the usefulness is the result.

Love, though, is not the same in one individual as in another, so wisdom is not the same in one individual as in another, and neither is usefulness.  Since these three are matched in kind (as explained in Sections 189-194 above), the quality of our love determines the quality of our wisdom, and of our usefulness.  I say “wisdom,” but this means whatever is characteristic of our discernment.

from Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 241

Notes:

Sections 189-194: Published 4/2/2020-4/5/2020

Sections 212-213: Published 4/20/2020