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)

There are two abilities within us, gifts from the Lord, that distinguish us from animals.  One ability is that we can discern what is true and what is good.  This ability is called “rationality,” and is an ability of our discernment.  The other ability is that we can do what is true and what is good.  This ability is called “freedom,” and is an ability of our volition.  Because of our rationality, we can think what we want to think, either in in favor of God or against God, in favor of our neighbor or against our neighbor.  We can also intend and do what we are thinking, or when we see something evil and are afraid of the penalty, can use our freedom to refrain from doing it.  It is because of these two abilities that we are human and are distinguished from animals.

These two abilities are gifts from the Lord within us.  They come from him constantly and are never taken away, for if they were taken away, that would be the end of our humanity.  The Lord lives in each of us, in the good and evil alike, in these two abilities.  They are the Lord’s dwelling in the human race, which is why everyone, whether good or evil, lives forever.  However, the Lord’s dwelling within us is more intimate as we use these abilities to open the higher levels.  By opening them, we come into consciousness of higher levels of love and wisdom and so come closer to the Lord.  It makes sense, then, that as these levels are opened, we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us.

From Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 240

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)

As long as we are living in this world, we have no knowledge of any opening of levels within us.  This is because our attention is focused on the earthly level which is the most remote.  We are thinking, intending, and talking and acting on that basis; and the spiritual level, which is deeper, does not communicate with the earthly level directly, but only by correspondence.  Communication by correspondence is imperceptible.

However, as soon as we put off the earthly level, which happens when we die, we come into awareness of whatever level has been opened within us in the world, of the spiritual level if that level has been opened, of the heavenly level if that level has been opened.  If we become conscious on the spiritual level after death, then we no longer think, intend, or talk or act in an earthly way, but spiritually.  If we become conscious on the heavenly level, then we think, intend, and talk and act on that level.  Further, since communication among the three levels occurs only by correspondence, the differences in level of love, wisdom, and useful function are so definite that there is no communication between them by direct contact.

We can see from this that we do have three vertical levels and that these can be opened in sequence.

from Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 238

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)

As noted in Section 232 above, these three vertical levels are called earthly, spiritual, and heavenly. When we are born, we come first into the earthly level, which gradually develops within us in keeping with the thing we learn and the intelligence we gain through this learning, all the way to that summit of intelligence called rationality.  This by itself, though, does not open the second level, the one called spiritual.  This level is opened by a love for being useful that comes from our intelligence; but the love for being useful is a spiritual one, a love for our neighbor.

In the same way, this level can develop by incremental steps all the way to its summit; and it does so by our discovering what is true and good or by spiritual truths.  Even so, these do not open that third level that is called heavenly.  This is opened by a heavenly love for being useful that is a love for the Lord; and love for the Lord is nothing but applying the precepts of the Word to our lives, these precepts being essentially to abstain from evil things because they are hellish and demonic and to do good things because they are heavenly and divine.  This is how the three levels are opened in us sequentially.

From Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 237

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.

The existence of three vertical levels in us has not been widely recognized before. This is because vertical levels themselves have not been identified, and as long as these levels have been unrecognized, the only levels people could know about are the gradual ones. When these are the only levels people know about, they can believe that our love and wisdom increase only gradually.

It needs to be realized, though, that we all have these three vertical or distinct levels in us from our birth, one above or within the other, and that each vertical or distinct level has horizontal or gradual levels by which it increases incrementally. This is because there are both kinds of level in everything, no matter how large or small, as explained above in Sections 222-229. Neither kind of level can exist apart from the other.

from Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 236

Notes:

Sections 222-229: Published 4/28/2020-4/30/2020

There are three infinite and uncreated vertical levels in the Lord, and three finite and created levels in us (Continued)

I have said these things about the three-step ladder of vertical levels in generalizations; but since as stated in the preceding section these levels are characteristic of the largest and smallest things, I cannot say anything about them in detail at this point. I can say only that there are levels like this in everything that has to do with love and therefore in everything that has to do with wisdom, and that as a result there are levels like this in everything that has to do with usefulness. However, in the lord they are all infinite, while in angels and in us they are finite. How these levels exist in love, wisdom, and use, though, can be described and unfolded only at some length.

from Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 235

There are three infinite and uncreated vertical levels in the Lord, and three finite and created levels in us (Continued)

The reason the Lord from eternity, or Jehovah, took on this third level by assuming a human nature in this world is that he could not enter this world except through a nature like our own.  The coming could not have been accomplished, then, except by conception from his own Divinity and birth by a virgin.  This enabled him to take off a nature that was intrinsically dead, and yet receptive of Divinity, and take on a divine nature.  This is the meaning of the lord’s two states in the world, called a state of emptying out and a state of transformation, which I have dealt with in Teaching for the New Jerusalem on the Lord.

from Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 234

There are three infinite and uncreated vertical levels in the Lord, and three finite and created levels in us (Continued)

I have received information from heaven that before the Lord from eternity (who is Jehovah) took on a human nature in the world, the first two levels in him were actual while the third level was potential, which is the way things are for angels.  After he took on a human nature in our world, though, he clothed himself with that third level as well, the one we call “earthly,” and in this way became a human being like us in this world.  Still, there was the difference that this level like the others was infinite and uncreated, while in angels and in us the levels are finite and created.

What happened was that although the Divinity that had filled all space without being bound by space (see sections 69-72) also penetrated to the most remote elements of nature, before taking on a human nature the divine inflow into the earthly level was indirect, through the angelic heavens.  After taking on the human nature it was direct from Divinity itself.

This is why all the world’s churches before his coming were representative of spiritual and heavenly realities, while after his coming they became spiritual and heavenly on the earthly level and representational worship was done away with.  This is also the reason why the sun of the angelic heaven (which as already noted [section93] is the first emanation of his divine love and wisdom) shone out with greater radiance and brilliance after he took on a human nature than before.  This is also the meaning of the following words in Isaiah: “In that day the light of the moon will be like the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days” (Isaiah 30:26). 

This is about the state of heaven and the church after the Lord’s coming into the world.  There is also Revelation 1:16, “the Face of the Human-born One looked like the sun shining at full strength”; and such other passages as Isaiah 60:20; 2 Samuel 23:3-4; and Matthew 17:1-2. 

We might compare our indirect enlightenment through the angelic heaven, which obtained before the Lord’s coming, with the moon’s light, which is indirect sunlight.  Since this became a direct enlightenment after the Lord’s coming, it says in [the passage just cited from] Isaiah that the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun; and it says in David, “Righteous people will blossom in his day, and peace in abundance until the moon is no more” (Psalms 72:7).  This too is about the Lord.

From Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 233

There are three infinite and uncreated vertical levels in the Lord, and three finite and created levels in us (Continued)

For angels, these three levels are called heavenly, spiritual, and earthly; and for them, the heavenly level is the level of love, the spiritual level the level of wisdom, and the earthly level the level of useful functions.  The reason for giving the levels these names is that the heavens are divided into two kingdoms, one is called heavenly kingdom and the other the spiritual kingdom, with a third kingdom added where we in the world are, called the earthly one.

Then too, the angels who make up the heavenly kingdom are focused on love, while the angels who make up the spiritual kingdom are focused on wisdom and we in the world are focused on useful functions.  This is why the kingdoms are united.  I will be describing in the next part how to understand the statement that we are focused on useful functions.

From Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 232

There are three infinite and uncreated vertical levels in the Lord, and three finite and created levels in us (Continued)

We can tell that there are these three levels in us from the way human minds are raised all the way into those levels of love and wisdom that angels of the second and third heaven enjoy. All those angels were born human; and in regard to the inner reaches of our minds, each of us is a miniature form of heaven. Count the number of heavens and you have the number of vertical levels within each of us, from our creation. Each of us is an image and likeness of God; so these three levels are written into us because they are in the Divine-Human One–that is, in the Lord.

We can tell that these levels in the Lord are infinite and uncreated while ours are finite and created on the basis of what I presented in Part I, for example from the principle that the Lord is intrinsic love and wisdom, that we are recipients of love and wisdom from the Lord, that only what is infinite can be attributed to the Lord, and that only what is finite can be attributed to us.

from Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 231

There are three infinite and uncreated vertical levels in the Lord, and three finite and created levels in us

The reason there are three infinite and uncreated vertical levels in the Lord is that the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, as explained in Section 28-33.   Since the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, he is also usefulness itself, since love has useful functions as its goal and puts them into effect by means of wisdom.  Apart from usefulness, love and wisdom have no definition or boundary, no dwelling.  This means that we cannot say they exist or are present unless there is a useful function in which they occur.

These three elements constitute three vertical levels in agents of life.  These three are like the first end, the intermediate end that refer to as the means, and the ultimate end that we refer to as the result.  I have already [Sections 167-169, 184] explained and amply documented the fact that purpose, means, and result constitute three vertical levels.

From Divine Love and Wisdom, Section 230

Notes:

Sections 28-33: Published 4/19/2018-4/20/2018

Sections 167-169: Published 1/9/2020-1/10/2020

Section 184: Published 3/28/2020