Logopraxis

The First State: The State of Exteriors (HH 491-498)

The first state of awakening to life in the spiritual world is called “a state of exteriors”.  It is the first state a spirit awakens to on their entry into the spiritual world and, as is suggested in the name given to it, it is largely concerned with the more external aspects of one’s inner or mental life.

This first state of man after death continues with some for days, with some for months, and with some for a year; but seldom with any one beyond a year; for a shorter or longer time with each one according to the agreement or disagreement of his interiors with his exteriors. For with everyone the exteriors and interior must make one and correspond. In the spiritual world no one is permitted to think and will in one way and speak and act in another. Everyone there must be an image of his own affection or his own love, and therefore such as he is inwardly such he must be outwardly;

and for this reason a spirit's exteriors are first disclosed and reduced to order that they may serve the interiors as a corresponding plane.  (HH 498)

Removal of Exteriorly Held Images of the Self 

The main function involved in this first state is to create a plane in the exterior mind that can faithfully express what is more interior.  This is achieved through a process involving the stripping away of the exteriors of the spirit and then reforming them so that they are responsive to interiors (HH 498).  This process of stripping and ordering is necessary...

For man is accustomed from childhood to maintain a semblance of friendship, benevolence, and sincerity, and to conceal the thoughts of his own will, thereby living from habit a moral and civil life in externals, whatever he may be internally. As a result of this habit man scarcely knows what his interiors are, and gives little thought to them. (HH 492)

A spirit’s introduction to the spiritual world involves coming to terms with a few home truths concerning their sense of self and what the quality of the “thoughts of [their] own will” actually are.  This process involves the removal of any self-deceptive images a spirit carries of themselves and the false thinking that supports this. As we can see in HH 498 the length of time (reflective of states) a newly arrived spirit undergoes of being processed in the world of spirits, is related to the depth of attachment they have to these false images they carry of themselves. This is described as a difficult and even a painful experience. It needs to be remembered that it is a spiritual law that exteriors must match interiors and that it is not permitted for a spirit to have an exterior that doesn’t align with their interiors.

For Logopraxis practitioners, the awakening to the spiritual or interior life of the mind through the practice of the Word, produces the same experience described here of having the exterior self-image one carries, exposed for what it is. When we begin to seek to live by truths from the Word through a practice of self-examination and repentance, our sense of self starts to experience varying degrees of disruption. The process involves coming to see that we are not in fact who we thought we were. This is often a painful experience and because of this there exists a strong cultural tendency to avoid the kind of introspective work required for developing a spiritual life.

Logopraxis looks to support its members so that they can engage in spiritual work but it doesn’t look to offer ways to help people escape from spiritual struggles or avoid passing through genuine spiritual processes.  The core teaching in Logopraxis, that the Word is the Lord, applies here. If we are looking to the Lord as the Word to direct and guide our work, then it follows that no matter how difficult things may appear in the present, He has it all in hand and is able to carry us through. The Lord alone sees what the eternal ends for every life are.  He alone as the Word, is the only one able to manage the incredible level of complexity involved in the regeneration of the individual and collective human mind.

A community that supports its members to engage in genuine spiritual struggles, is what we find described in the first phase of awakening to spiritual life.  Upon awakening, a newly arrived spirit must be told that they have died and that they are actually a spirit.  This is because their life upon awakening, at least initially, reflects their life in the world.  There is hardly any perceptible difference seen in that new spirits after entering the spiritual world tend to forget that they have died and believe that they are still living in the world.

The first state of man after death resembles his state in the world, for he is then likewise in externals, having a like face, like speech, and a like disposition, thus a like moral and civil life; and in consequence he is made aware that he is not still in the world only by giving attention to what he encounters, and from his having been told by the angels when he was resuscitated that he had become a spirit (n.450). Thus is one life continued into the other, and death is merely transition.  (HH 493)

While this “forgetfulness” may seem remarkable, it is not too dissimilar to our own experience of the process of awakening to spiritual life through the practice of the Word. This process not only continues over the duration of our whole life here but in fact we are never fully awake in this world or the next. We are, and will, perpetually, be awakening to the further wonders of spiritual life to eternity. At this level of natural life, we frequently forget that we are spirits in a physical body.  Despite being constantly reminded by the Word of the nature of spiritual life, we often find ourselves being pulled into the sensual appearances of corporeal life where we forget that “real” life is found in what is spiritual and not in the natural world of appearances presenting to our senses.

The reality of this is acknowledged in Logopraxis through the provision of a structure that acts as a continual reminder to keep turning back to the Word as the anchor for our life. In this way we are constantly reminded that the core focus for the spiritual life is the inner life of the mind and that we receive our life from the Lord through the practice of the Word.  It is this that brings us into a spiritually productive relationship with our outer sensual and corporeal life. The practice of truths from the Word opens up moments of insight because the focus is on “giving attention to what is encountered” HH 493. It is through being willing to see life from what the Word offers us to work with, that awakens our spiritual senses. Through the practice of the Word, we are reminded of what it teaches as to the true nature of spiritual life.

 

The Reworking of Relational Ties

Another aspect of the “state of exteriors” in the spiritual world is contact with friends and relatives who have died, including any marriage partners the spirit was with in the world.  Spirits are reunited with spouses so that their mutual state of compatibility can be processed. The basis of their compatibility rests on whether they were initiated into “...a truly conjugial love, which is a conjunction of minds by heavenly love” (HH 494) while in the world.  If this didn’t occur, couples can stay together until they feel the need to part and go their separate ways. Of some couples it is said that they even break out into open hostility towards each other.

Affectional bonds play a significant role in our sense of identity and so are a major focus in the first state of awakening, the state of exteriors. Again, this stage of the awakening process is about having the exterior mind undergo a reorganisation so that it forms a receptive plane for more interior aspects that make up a spirit’s life. As we were reminded earlier, it is a spiritual law that a spirit’s exterior and interior mind be congruent, so that what is expressed exteriorly faithfully corresponds to the interior state of mind.

The processing of affectional bonds in the spiritual or inner world of the mind, often presents as a significant area for inner work in Logopraxis. This is especially the case as we are continually having spiritual principles integrated and becoming active into our sense of what constitutes a spiritual life.

What we see in Logopraxis, is a tendency for practitioners to focus on issues presenting in their relationships with others. For this to be a rich source of material for spiritual work, the focus needs to shift from the other person or persons in the relationship to the actual states of mind that the relationship grounds within one’s own inner mental landscape.

So Logopraxis redefines how we hold the situations and circumstances of our outer life, through offering a perspective that places all that happens into a spiritual frame. The situations, circumstances, and relationships of outer life then become a catalyst for spiritual work as we attend to what arises within our inner mental life whilst interacting with the things of outer life. Working from the Word allows us to see how the outer and inner aspects of life stand in relation to one another.

We learn through the practice of the Word that it is our own states of mind where our attention needs to be and that the things of our outer life merely offer a way through which we can come to see the inner attachments, attitudes, and beliefs we hold or are even wedded to. Working through the relationships we have formed in our outer life with others such as spouses, family, relatives, friends and work colleagues, etc is all part of the process of awakening to spiritual life.

When in a state of exteriors, outer things tend to dominate interior things in such a way that the quality of interior things is hidden from our awareness.  However, when we allow truths from the Word to bring light on what's arisi

In the work Heaven and Hell 491-520 the reader is offered a description of the experience of awakening from death into the World of Spirits. The premise that underpins the Logopraxis approach is that what’s described in these numbers can provide insights into our own awakening to spiritual life through the practice of the Word while still in the natural world. That the same principles that govern the awakening of a newly arriving spirits to life in the spiritual world also govern the processes everyone must pass through if they are to awaken to spiritual life. The structures and practice method of the Logopraxis approach have been intentionally modeled on this section of Heaven and Hell with the aim of supporting practitioners in their work with the Word as the basis for their individual and collective spiritual life.

Introduction

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was toward God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning toward God.

All were made through Him; and without Him not one was made that was made.

In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.

(John1:1-4)

In Logopraxis, we seek to honour the potential for awakening to spiritual life through the Word, the Logos, by placing the practice of Sacred Texts at the centre of individual and collective spiritual life. Logopraxis is an intentional spiritual approach specifically focused on the practice of the Word as the basis for self-examination and repentance and as such is a process orientated approach for engaging with Sacred Text. Engaging with the Word in this way produces insights born of direct experience, into the processes involved in the regeneration of the human mind. The material produced through each person’s practice forms a rich source of nourishment which, when shared with others, builds a deeper sense of what it means to be a spiritual community. This is especially the case where there is a collective acknowledgement that the Lord is continuously revealing Himself through the shared experience of the Word working in people’s lives.

The core teaching that organises the structures and activities of Logopraxis is the profound idea, expressed in John’s Gospel and affirmed throughout the Heavenly Doctrines, that the Word is the Lord. This is not meant in a metaphorical sense. The teaching is that the Word in the form of Sacred Text is actually the Lord. The implication is that through engaging with the Texts of Divine Revelation as the basis for spiritual life, the conditions are created whereby an encounter with the Lord as the Word is made possible. A leading principle that we work from in Logopraxis is that the Texts of Divine Revelation have been provided to bring about the regeneration of the human mind. It is the regenerating human mind that is meant by the phrase, a “new Church” in the Heavenly Doctrines.

In simple terms, the restructure of the human mind takes place as the Lord’s love flows in and organises truth, bringing light so that evils and falsities can be identified and shunned as sins against the Lord. This is what the term charity means when applied inwardly. This process sees new beliefs and affections implanted, which give a new form to the natural mind so that it is better able to receive the influx of the Lord’s life. What people find when they consciously look to the Word with a view to self-examination and repentance, is that the Word becomes psychoactive.

But what does it mean for the Word to become psychoactive? What we know from the opening chapter of John's Gospel is that it is the Word that brings, “all that have come into being into being.” And while this is true so far as the external world is concerned, which is where material thinking places its focus, it is equally true for that which is brought into being so far as the inner world of the human spirit is concerned. It is the role the Word plays in bringing this inner world into being that is the primary focus for Logopraxis. In Logopraxis, we find that as we engage with the Word in an effort to apply it’s truths to the inner life of the mind, it actually unfolds within the mind in such a way that we are often given a direct experience that illustrates the very thing the stories describe as to their inner or spiritual meaning.

The inner meaning of the Word isn’t concerned with historical peoples or events or even what we take to be the external world around us. The inner level of meaning is only concerned with the inner realities of the spiritual world, this being a world made up of states of mind, and their openness and/or resistance to the inflow of Divine Life.  As something psychoactive, the Word creates what it speaks of within the inner world of our mind as we take in its truths and apply them to examine the quality of the mental states that arise over the course of our day. In describing states of consciousness, which are states of affection and states of thought, the inner or spiritual meaning of the Word offers profound insights into those things that belong to our inner mental world. This world is the world of our spirit or what is referred to in the Heavenly Doctrines as the spiritual world.  It is to this dimension of reality that the internal sense of the Word is directed and so needs to be applied.

In short, we need to learn to read the Word in its letter but think in terms of its inner application to the life of the mind. This is what it means to read spiritually or apart from space and time. Logopraxis asks us to read the letter but to think in terms of states of mind so that we have a way to access those things that need to be drawn out into awareness, if we are to be spiritually reborn. To think in terms of mental states, or states of affection and thought, specifically means that when we engage with the Text we do so with a view to receiving insight into the quality of what passes for our mental life. It is such insights into our mental processes that gives us the ability to respond in a way that supports our awakening to spiritual life. As soon as we remove ideas of person, place, space and time from our thought in regard to an experience or situation, or with regard to the Text itself, we are immediately brought back to how things apply at the level of our mind.  This is what it means to think spiritually or to think apart from space and time from a Logopraxis perspective.

So, when we read in Heaven and Hell about awakening to life in the spiritual world after death, we know that what it describes literally is an event called death that everyone living in the world will experience at some point in their future. But if we read it again with the idea that spiritual Texts deal primarily with states of mind and not events in time, then we may see that the Text simultaneously offers us at least two distinct levels of meaning to which the term ‘death’ can be applied. There is a natural meaning, where the focus is on a future event in time that involves the death of the body and there is a spiritual meaning, where the focus is in the present on the state of mind that is dead to the spiritual realities that lie within the Word. As soon as we see that the future event called death is also a state of mind here and now, then we can see that the phrase “awakening from death” also has more than one level of meaning and application. The Texts of Divine Revelation are then seen as something given to support the awakening of the human mind from its state of death where spiritual realities are concerned.

Once this connection between the descriptions of an awakening in the spiritual world and an awakening to the inner world of our mental life is made, then the works of Divine Revelation in the form of Sacred Texts can be understood in a completely different way. They become eminently practical so far as their application to the life and spiritual transformation of the human mind is concerned. Through the practice of truths, the power of the Word to raise us from the death of a spiritually destitute existence can be realised, not at some point in the future, but in the here and now. Logopraxis seeks to support this end in the hope that the Lord might be known as the ALL in ALL.

 

The Three States of Awakening

There are three states that man passes through after death before he enters either heaven or hell. The first state is the state of his exteriors, the second state the state of his interiors, and the third his state of preparation. These states man passes through in the world of spirits. (HH 491).

Man, from infancy even to adult age, is in the world of spirits as to his spirit, because he is successively in different states, and is then in freedom, so that he can be reformed.  (SE 5163)

The process of awakening to spiritual life is described in the work Heaven and Hell (HH 491-520) where it is broken down into three general states. These are:

1.     “the state of exteriors” (HH 491-498)

2.     “the state of interiors” (HH 499-511)

3.     “the state of preparation’ or “instruction of those who come into heaven” (HH 512-520).

Spirits enter the spiritual world in various states of preparation related to the life they cultivated for themselves in the natural world.  This means that there are those who can enter heaven almost immediately, whereas there are others who, in order to complete their transition, will have to be processed by passing through a series of states in the World of Spirits…

The good spirits who are to be instructed are brought by the Lord to these places when they have completed their second state in the world of spirits, and yet not all; for there are some that have been instructed in the world, and have been prepared there by the Lord for heaven, and these are taken up into heaven by another way-some immediately after death.

… some after a short stay with good spirits, where the grosser things of their thoughts and affections which they had contracted

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528. IT IS NOT SO DIFFICULT TO LIVE THE LIFE THAT LEADS TO HEAVEN AS IS BELIEVED.

There are some who believe that to live the life that leads to heaven, which is called the spiritual life, is difficult, because they have been told that man must renounce the world, must divest himself of the lusts called the lusts of the body and the flesh, and must live spiritually; and they understand this to mean that they must discard worldly things, which consist chiefly in riches and honors; that they must walk continually in pious meditation on God, salvation, and eternal life; and must spend their life in prayers and in reading the Word and pious books. Such is their idea of renouncing the world, and living in the spirit and not in the flesh. But that this is not at all true it has been given me to know by much experience and from conversation with the angels. I have learned, in fact, that those who renounce the world and live in the spirit in this manner acquire a sorrowful life that is not receptive of heavenly joy, since everyone's life continues the same after death. On the contrary, to receive the life of heaven a man must needs live in the world and engage in its business and employments, and by means of a moral and civil life there receive the spiritual life. In no other way can the spiritual life be formed in man, or his spirit prepared for heaven; for to live an internal life and not at the same time an external life is like dwelling in a house that has no foundation, that gradually sinks or becomes cracked and rent asunder, or totters till it falls.

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529. When the life of man is scanned and explored by rational insight it is found to be threefold, namely, spiritual, moral, and civil, with these three lives distinct from each other. For there are men who live a civil life and not as yet a moral and spiritual life; and there are men who live a moral life and not as yet a spiritual life; and there are those who live a civil life, a moral life, and a spiritual life at the same time. These live the life of heaven; but the former live the life of the world separated from the life of heaven. This shows, in the first place, that the spiritual life is not a life separated from natural life or the life of the world, but is joined with it as the soul is joined with its body, and if it were separated it would be, as was said, like living in a house that has no foundation. For moral and civil life is the active plane of the spiritual life, since to will well is the province of the spiritual life, and to act well of the moral and civil life, and if the latter is separated from the former the spiritual life consists solely of thought and speech, and the will, left with no support, recedes; and yet the will is the very spiritual part of man.

530. That it is not so difficult as some believe to live the life that leads to heaven will now be shown. Who cannot live a civil and moral life? For everyone from his childhood is initiated into that life, and learns what it is by living in the world. Moreover, everyone, whether evil or good, lives that life; for who does not wish to be called honest, and who does not wish to be called just? Almost everyone practices honesty and justice outwardly, so far as to seem to be honest and just at heart, or to seem to act from real honesty and justice. The spiritual man ought to live in like manner, and can do so as easily as the natural man can, with this difference only, that the spiritual man believes in the Divine, and acts honestly and justly, not solely because to so act is in accord with civil and moral laws, but also because it is in accord with Divine laws. As the spiritual man, in whatever he is doing, thinks about Divine things, he has communication with the angels of heaven; and so far as this takes place he is conjoined with them; and thereby his internal man, which regarded in itself is the spiritual man, is opened. When man comes into this state he is adopted and led by the Lord, although himself unconscious of it, and then whatever he does that is honest and just pertaining to moral and civil life, is done from a spiritual motive; and doing what is honest and just from a spiritual motive is doing it from honesty and justice itself, or doing it from the heart. [2] His justice and honesty appear outwardly precisely the same as the justice and honesty of natural men and even of evil and infernal men; but in inward form they are wholly unlike. For evil men act justly and honestly solely for the sake of themselves and the world; and therefore if they had no fear of laws and penalties, or the loss of reputation, of honor, of gain, and of life, they would act in every respect dishonestly and unjustly, since they neither fear God nor any Divine law, and therefore are not restrained by any internal bond; consequently they would use every opportunity to defraud, plunder, and spoil others, and this from delight. That inwardly they are such can be clearly seen from those of the same character in the other life, while everyone's externals are taken away, and his internals in which he at last lives to eternity are opened (see above, n. 499-511). As such then act without external restraints, which are, as just said, fear of the law, of the loss of reputation, of honor, of gain, and of life, they act insanely, and laugh at honesty and justice. [3] But those who have acted honestly and justly from regard to Divine laws, when their externals are taken away and they are left to their internals, act wisely, because they are conjoined to the angels of heaven, from whom wisdom is communicated to them. From all this it can now be seen, in the first place, that when the internal man, that is, the will and thought, are conjoined to the Divine, the civil and moral life of the spiritual man may be wholly like the civil and moral life of the natural man (see above, n. 358-360).

531. Furthermore, the laws of spiritual life, the laws of civil life, and the laws of moral life are set forth in the ten commandments of the Decalogue; in the first three the laws of spiritual life, in the four that follow the laws of civil life, and in the last three the laws of moral life. Outwardly the merely natural man lives in accordance with the same commandments in the same way as the spiritual man does, for in like manner he worships the Divine, goes to church, listens to preachings, and assumes a devout countenance, refrains from committing murder, adultery, and theft, from bearing false witness, and from defrauding his companions of their goods. But all this he does merely for the sake of himself and the world, to keep up appearances; while inwardly such a person is the direct opposite of what he appears outwardly, since in heart he denies the Divine, in worship acts the hypocrite, and when left to himself and his own thoughts laughs at the holy things of the church, believing that they merely serve as a restraint for the simple multitude. [2] Consequently he is wholly disjoined from heaven, and not being a spiritual man he is neither a moral man nor a civil man. For although he refrains from committing murder he hates everyone who opposes him, and from his hatred burns with revenge, and would therefore commit murder if he were not restrained by civil laws and external bonds, which he fears; and as he longs to do so it follows that he is continually committing murder. Although he does not commit adultery, yet as he believes it to be allowable he is all the while an adulterer, since he commits adultery to the extent that he has the ability and as often as he has opportunity. Although he does not steal, yet as he covets the goods of others and does not regard fraud and wicked devices as opposed to what is lawful, in intent he is continually acting the thief. The same is true of the commandments relating to moral life, which forbid false witness and coveting the goods of others. Such is every man who denies the Divine, and who has no conscience derived from religion. That he is such is clearly evident from those of like character in the other life when their externals have been removed and they are let into their internals. As they are then separated from heaven they act in unity with hell, and in consequence are affiliated with those who are in hell. [3] It is not so with those who in heart have acknowledged the Divine, and in the actions of their lives have had respect to Divine laws, and have lived as fully in accord with the first three commandments of the Decalogue as they have in accordance with the others. When the externals of such are removed and they are let into their internals they are wiser than they were in the world; for entering into their internals is like entering from darkness into light, from ignorance into wisdom, and from a sorrowful life into a happy life, because they are in the Divine, thus in heaven. This has been said to make known what the one kind of man is and what the other is, although they have both lived the same external life.

532. Everyone may know that thoughts are led or tend in accord with the intentions, that is, in the directions that one intends; for thought is man's internal sight, and resembles the external sight in this, that to whatever point it is directed or aimed, thither it turns and there it rests. Therefore when the internal sight or the thought is turned towards the world and rests there, the thought in consequence becomes worldly; when it turns to self and self-honor it becomes corporeal; but when it is turned heavenwards it becomes heavenly. So, too, when turned heavenwards it is elevated; but when turned selfward it is drawn down from heaven and immersed in what is corporeal; and when turned towards the world it is also turned down-wards from heaven, and is spent upon those objects that are presented to the natural sight. [2] Man's love is what constitutes his intention and determines his internal sight or th

A short guided meditation to support the work of conscious practice.

Psalm 127: Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

For further exploration on the idea of the Text being the Divine Human you might like to listen/read:

The servant and His Love

Understanding Creation from a Spiritual Perspective

The human form is love, wisdom and use

Conjugial Love 183. After this, the angels said, Let us have an exchange of speech by questions and answers; for when a subject is taken in solely from hearing, the perception of that subject does indeed flow in, but unless the hearer think of it from himself and ask questions, it does not remain.

[3] Some among that conjugial gathering then said to the angels, We have heard that the origin of conjugial love is Divine-celestial because it is from influx from the Lord into men's souls; and that, being from the Lord, it is love, wisdom, and use, these being the three essentials which together make the one Divine essence, and nothing can proceed from Him and flow into man's inmost which is called his soul save what is of the Divine essence; also that, in their descent into the body, these three essentials are changed into things analogous and correspondential. Therefore, we now ask you first, What is meant by the third essential--the proceeding Divine which is called use?

The angels replied: Without use, love and wisdom are merely abstract ideas of thought, and after some tarrying in the mind, these pass away like the wind; but in use, the two are brought together and become a one which is called real. Love, being the activity of life, cannot rest unless it is doing something; nor can wisdom exist and subsist except when doing something from love and with it; and doing is use. Therefore we define use as the doing of good from love by means of wisdom. Use is good itself.

[4] Since these three, love, wisdom, and use, flow into the souls of men, it can be evident whence comes the saying that all good is from God; for every deed done from love by means of wisdom is called good, and use is also a deed. What is love without wisdom but something fatuous? and, without use, what is love together with wisdom but a state of the mind? But with use, love and wisdom not only make the man, they are the man. Indeed, and this perhaps will astonish you, they propagate man; for in man's seed is his soul in perfect human form, covered over with substances from the purest things of nature, from which, in the mother's womb, is formed a body. This use is the supreme and ultimate use of Divine Love by means of Divine Wisdom.

[5] Finally the angels said: The conclusion then must be that in its origin all fructification, all propagation, and all prolification is from the influx of love, wisdom, and use from the Lord---from immediate influx from the Lord into the souls of men, from mediate influx into the souls of animals, and from influx yet more mediate into the inmost parts of plants; and all are effected in ultimates from firsts. That fructifications, propagations, and prolifications are continuations of creation is evident; for creation can come from no other source than Divine Love by means of Divine wisdom in Divine Use. Therefore, all things in the universe are procreated and formed from use, in use, and for use.

True Christian Religion 387(3)…. Love and wisdom without the good of use are nothing; they are only ideal entities, and do not become realities until they exist in use. Love, wisdom and use are three things which cannot be separated; if separated, they are nothing. Love is nothing without wisdom; but by means of wisdom it assumes a form, which is use; therefore, when love by means of wisdom is expressed in use, then it really is, because then it actually exists. Love, wisdom and use are like end, cause and effect; the end is nothing unless it is in the effect by means of the cause; and if one of these three is destroyed, the whole is destroyed, and nothing remains.

CL13(6).In its essence, heavenly food is nothing else than love, wisdom, and use together, that is, use from love by means of wisdom. Therefore, in heaven, food for the body is given to every one according to the use which he performs, sumptuous to those who are in eminent use, moderate but of exquisite flavor to those in a use of medium degree, common to those in a common use, but none at all to the slothful.

 

Thinking from essence to person

Index AR 2- #12. God is to be thought of from essence to person, and not from person to essence, and they who think concerning God from person, make God three, but they who think from essence make God one, illustrated n. 611. They also make God one, who think concerning God from the attributes of the Divine essence also from the proceeding attributes which are creation, preservation, salvation, and redemption, enlightenment, and instruction, illustrated n. 611, illustrated n. 961.

Apocalypse Revealed  611 [6] The boys then asked, What is it to meditate on the Word spiritually and materially? And the master replied, I will illustrate it by examples. Who, when he reads the Word, does not think of God, his neighbor, and heaven?

Everyone who thinks of God only from Person, and not from Essence, thinks materially; also he who thinks of the neighbor only from form, and not from quality, thinks materially; and he who thinks of heaven only from place, and not from the love and wisdom which heaven is, he also thinks materially. But the boys said, We have thought of God from Person, of the neighbor from form, that he is a man, and of heaven from place; did we therefore, when we were reading the Word, appear to anyone as dead horses?

[7] The master said, No, you are yet boys, and could not think otherwise; but I have perceived in you an affection of knowing and understanding, which, because it is spiritual, shows that you have also thought spiritually. But I will return to what I said at first, that he who thinks materially, when he reads the Word or is meditating from it, appears at a distance like a dead horse; but he who reads it spiritually, like a living horse; and that he thinks materially concerning God and the Trinity, who thinks of God only from Person, and not from essence. For there are many attributes of the Divine essence, such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, mercy, grace, eternity, and others; and there are attributes proceeding from the Divine essence, which are creation and preservation, salvation and redemption, enlightenment and instruction. Everyone who thinks of God only from person, makes three Gods, saying that one God is the Creator and Preserver, another the Saviour and Redeemer, and the third the Enlightener and Instructor. But everyone who thinks of God from essence, makes one God, saying, God created and preserves us, redeems and saves us, enlightens and instructs us.

This is the reason why they who think of the Trinity in God from Person, and thus materially, cannot, from the ideas of their thought, which are material, do otherwise than out of one God make three; but yet, contrary to their thought, they are held to saying, that in each there is a communion of all the attributes, and this solely because they have also thought of God obscurely from essence. Therefore, my pupils, think of God from His essence, and from that of His Person, and not from His Person, and from this of His essence, for to think of His essence from Person, is to think materially of His essence also; but to think of His Person from essence, is to think spiritually even of His Person. The ancient Gentiles, because as they thought materially of God, and also of the attributes of God, not only imagined three gods, but many even to the number of a hundred. Know then that the material does not flow into the spiritual, but the spiritual into the material. It is similar with the thought of the neighbor from form, and not from his quality, and with the thought of heaven from place, and not from the love and wisdom which heaven is. It is similar with each and everything in the Word. Therefore, he who cherishes a material idea of God, and likewise of the neighbor and of heaven, cannot understand anything there. The Word is to him a dead letter, and he himself, when he reads it or meditates on it, appears at a distance as a dead horse.

[8] They whom you saw falling from heaven, and who appeared in your sight like dead horses, were such as had closed the rational sight in themselves and others by this peculiar dogma, that the understanding is to be kept in subjection to their faith; not considering that the understanding, when closed by religion, is as blind as a mole, and there is mere thick darkness in it, and such thick darkness as rejects from itself all spiritual light, opposes its influx from the Lord and from heaven, and sets up a barrier against it in the sensual corporeal part, far below the rational in matters of faith, that is, places it near the nose, and fixes it in its cartilage, on which account they cannot afterwards so much as scent spiritual things; whence some have become such that when they sensate the odor from spiritual things they fall into a swoon; by odor I mean perception. These are they who make God three. They say indeed from essence that God is one; but yet when they pray from their faith, which is that God the Father would have mercy for the sake of the Son and send the Holy Spirit, they evidently make three Gods. They cannot do otherwise, for they pray to one to have mercy for the sake of another, and send a third. And then their master taught them concerning the Lord, that He is the one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity.

 

Giving finite attributes to the Divine 

True Christian Religion 19. Since God alone is I am or Being, that is, Jehovah, therefore there cannot be anything in the created universe which does not owe its being to Him;

TCR 21.Jehovah God is Being in itself, because He is I am, the very, sole and prime source, from eternity to eternity, of everything in existence, which allows it to exist. In this and no other sense He is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, Alpha and Omega. One cannot say that His Being is from itself,...

Esse and Existere

Apocalypse Explained 1069.2-3 [2] Since the Word is the Divine truth, and this proceeds from the Lord's Divine Being [Esse] as light proceeds from the sun, it follows as a consequence that the Lord is the Word because He is the Divine truth. The Lord is the Word, because He is the Divine truth, and this proceeds from His Divine Being [Esse], which is the Divine love, because the Divine love was in Him when He was in the world as the soul is in its body; and as the Divine truth proceeds from the Divine love as light proceeds from the sun, as has been said, therefore the Lord's Human in the world was the Divine truth proceeding from the Divine love that was in Him.

Divine Love and Wisdom 4. IN GOD-MAN ESSE AND EXISTERE  ARE ONE DISTINCTLY Where there is Esse [being] there is Existere [taking form]; one is not possible apart from the other. For Esse is by means of Existere, and not apart from it. This the rational mind comprehends when it thinks whether there can possibly be any Esse [being] which does not Exist [take form], and whether there can possibly be Existere except from Esse. And since one is possible with the other, and not apart from the other, it follows that they are one, but one distinctly. They are one distinctly, like Love and Wisdom; in fact, love is Esse, and wisdom is Existere; for there can be no love except in wisdom, nor can there be any wisdom except from love; consequently when love is in wisdom, then it EXISTS.

These two are one in such a way that they may be distinguished in thought but not in operation, and because they may be distinguished in thought though not in operation, it is said that they are one distinctly. Esse and Existere in God-Man are also one distinctly like soul and body. There can be no soul apart from its body, nor body apart from its soul. The Divine soul of God-Man is what is meant by Divine Esse, and the Divine Body is what is meant by Divine Existere. That a soul can exist apart from a body, and can think and be wise, is an error springing from fallacies; for every man's soul is in a spiritual body after it has cast off the material coverings which it carried about in the world.

 

The form of manifestation is according to reception

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 4206 ​That such various things of the Lord are represented, is not because various things are in the Lord, but because His Divine is variously received by men.

Index Arcana Coelestia 10. The Lord appears to all according to their love: as a creating and renewing fire to the good, and as a consuming fire to the evil; so to the Jews, 9434:3.

True Christian Religion 25(3) ... the Divine Esse, which is in itself God, is the Same; not the Same simply, but infinitely, that is, the Same from eternity to eternity; the Same every where and the Same with everyone and in everyone; and that all variableness and change are in the recipient, caused by the state of the recipient. ​

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That the Divine Esse which is God in Himself is the Itself, they illustrated thus: God is the Itself because He is love itself and wisdom itself, that is, He is good itself and truth itself, and therefore life itself. Unless these in God were love and wisdom itself and were good and truth itself and therefore life itself, they would not be anything in heaven and in the world, because there would be nothing in them related to the Itself. Every quality is what it is from the fact that there is an Itself in which it originates, and to which it must be related in order to be what it is. This Itself, which is the Divine Esse, is not in place; but it is present with and in those who are in place in accordance with their reception of it, since place, or progress from place to place, cannot be predicated of love and wisdom nor of good and truth, nor of life therefrom, which are Itself in God, and are even God Himself. On this rests His omnipotence. So the Lord says that He is in the midst of them, and that He is in them and they in Him. ​

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TCR 366. (3) What flows in from the Lord is received by man according to his form. Form means here man's state in respect both to his love and to his wisdom, consequently in respect both to his affections for the goods of charity and to his perceptions of the truths of faith. That God is one, indivisible, and the same, from eternity to eternity, not the same simply but infinitely the same, and that all variableness is in the subject in which He dwells... That the recipient form or state induces variations, can be seen from the life of infants, children, youths, adults, and aged persons; in each there is the same life, because the same soul, from infancy to old age; but as one's state is varied according to age and what is suitable thereto, in like manner is life perceived.

AC 8988. The reason is that the Divine good is Being itself, and the Divine truth is the derivative Coming-forth; for that which proceeds comes forth by so doing. The case is similar with good and truth in heaven, or with the angels, and also in the church with men. The good there is being itself, and the truth is the derivative coming-forth; or what is the same, love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor are the very being of heaven and of the church, but faith is the derivative coming-forth. From this it is clear whence it is that “God” denotes also Divine order, for it is the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord which makes order in heaven, insomuch that Divine truth is order itself. (That Divine truth is order, see n. 1728, 1919, 7995, 8700.) And therefore when a man or an angel receives Divine truth from the Lord in good, there is with him the order which is in the heavens, consequently he is a heaven or kingdom of the Lord in particular; and this in the degree in which he is in good from truths, and afterward in the degree in which he is in truths from good; and-what is a secret-the angels themselves appear in a human form in the heavens absolutely according to the truths which pertain to them in good, with a beauty and brightness according to the quality of the good from truths. As to their souls so also do the men of the church appear in heaven. It is the Divine truth itself proceeding from the Lord that leads to this, as can be seen from what has been shown about heaven as the Grand Man, and about its correspondence with everything in man, at the end of many chapters.

AC 4320. That the life which is from the Lord alone appears with everyone as if it were in himself, is from the Lord’s love or mercy toward the universal human race, in that He wills to appropriate to each one what is His own, and to give to everyone eternal happiness. It is known that love appropriates to another what is its own; for it presents itself within the other, and makes itself present in him. How much more the Divine love! That the evil also receive the life which is from the Lord, is as with objects in the world, all of which receive light from the sun, and thereby colors, but according to their forms. Objects which suffocate and pervert the light appear of a black or foul color, but yet have their blackness and foulness from the sun’s light. So is it with the light or life from the Lord with the evil; but this life is not life, but is (as it is called) spiritual death.

 

The Word manifested in written form on this earth 

Earths in the Universe 122. To the reasons above adduced, may be added, that the inhabitants and spirits of our earth, in the Greatest Man, have relation to the natural and external sense, which sense is the ultimate wherein the interiors of life close, and rest as on their common basis. The case is similar in regard to the Divine truth in the letter, which is called the Word, and which for this reason also was given on this earth, and not on any other: and because the Lord is the Word, and is the First and the Last thereof, therefore, that all things might exist according to order, He was willing to be born on this earth, and be made the Word, according to what is written in John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made which was made. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father. No one has seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath brought Him forth to view (John1:1-14, 18).

The Word is the Lord as to the Divine truth, thus the Divine truth from the Lord. But this is an arcanum which falls within the understanding of only a few.

115. That the Word might be written on our earth, is because the art of writing has existed here from the most ancient time, first on the bark of trees, next on parchment, afterwards on paper, and lastly published by types. This was provided by the Lord for the sake of the Word.

116. That the Word might afterwards be published through out the whole earth, is because there is commerce here between all nations, both by land and water, to all parts of the globe; hence that the Word once written might be conveyed from one nation to another, and be taught everywhere.

 

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.

The literal Text offers an object that can be taken into the mind

Arcana Coelestia 10126. The Word in the letter consists of representatives of celestial and spiritual things, which are of heaven and the church, and therefore in the internal sense these are signified. Hence the Word of the Lord may be called as it were heaven in ultimates, for in the ultimates of heaven all things which are seen and heard are representatives of such things as angels in the higher heavens are speaking and thinking, all which bear relation to the truths of faith and to the goods of love. That in the ultimates of heaven such things are representative, is because they who are in the ultimates of heaven do not apprehend the interior things of angelic wisdom, but only such things as represent them. It is also according to Divine order that when higher things fall down into lower, they are turned into such as are similar, and are thus presented before the external senses, thus accommodated to the apprehension of everyone. From this it is that the Word in ultimates, that is, in the sense of the letter, is representative, and consequently significative, of celestial and spiritual things which are in the higher heavens, and is hereby presented in a form accommodated to the apprehension of men. In this way it is also of service to the heavens as a basis and foundation.

AC 5373(3)... The memory-knowledges that belong to the natural are the ultimates of order, and things prior must be in ultimates in order to come into existence and to appear in that sphere; and besides this all prior things tend to ultimates as to their boundaries or ends, and come into existence together therein as causes do in their effects, or as higher things do in lower as in their vessels. The memory-knowledges of the natural are such ultimates. Hence it is that the spiritual world is terminated in man’s natural, in which the things of the spiritual world are representatively presented. Unless spiritual things were presented representatively in the natural, thus by such things as are in the world, they would not be apprehended at all

 

 

The Word is the Lord

Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 47... Where the Lord is meant, there also is meant the Word, for the Lord is the Word.

DSS 100. Few understand how the Lord is the Word, for they think that the Lord may indeed enlighten and teach men by means of the Word without His being on that account called the Word.  Be it known however that every man is his own love, and consequently his own good and his own truth.  It is solely from this that a man is a man, and there is nothing else in him that is man.  It is from the fact that a man is his own good and his own truth that angels and spirits are men, for all the good and truth that proceeds from the Lord is in its form a man.  And as the Lord is Divine good and Divine truth itself, He is the Man, from whom every man is a man.  That all Divine good and Divine truth is in its form a man, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (HH n. 460), and more clearly in treatises that are to follow, on the subject of Angelic Wisdom.

DSS 3. But the natural man cannot be persuaded by these considerations to believe that the Word is Divine truth itself wherein are Divine wisdom and Divine life; for he judges it by its style, and in this they do not appear. Yet the style of the Word is the Divine style itself, with which no other style, however sublime and excellent it may seem, is at all to be compared; for every other style is as darkness is to light. The style of the Word is such that there is holiness in every sentence, and in every word, and in some places in even the very letters. This is why the Word conjoins man with the Lord, and opens heaven. From the Lord proceed two things: Divine love, and Divine wisdom (or, what is the same, Divine good, and Divine truth, for Divine good is of His Divine love, and Divine truth is of His Divine wisdom), and in its essence the Word is both of these; and as it conjoins man with the Lord, and opens heaven, it follows that the man who reads it from the Lord, and not from himself alone, is filled by it with the good of love and the truths of wisdom; his will with the good of love, and his understanding with the truths of wisdom. In this way man has life by means of the Word.

DSS 4. Therefore in order to remove all doubt as to such being the character of the Word, the Lord has revealed to me the Word's internal sense. In its essence this sense is spiritual, and in relation to the external sense, which is natural, is as soul is to body. This sense is the spirit which gives life to the letter; it can therefore bear witness to the divinity and holiness of the Word, and convince even the natural man, if he is willing to be convinced.

AC 10131. When heaven is spoken of, the church is also meant for the heaven of the Lord on earth is the church; and in whomsoever the church is, in him also is heaven; for the Lord is in him; and where the Lord is, there is heaven.  Moreover the church makes one with heaven, for the one depends upon the other by an indissoluble connection. It is the Word which conjoins; in the Word is the Lord, and the Lord is the Word (John 1:1).

Conjugial Love 516 ... the Church is from the word, and the word is the Lord. The Lord is the Word because He is the Divine Good and the Divine Truth therein. That the word is that marriage may be seen fully confirmed in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURES, nos. 80-90.

Apocalypse Explained (Whitehead) n. 151 ... the Word is the Lord in respect to the Divine Human and Divine truth proceeding therefrom

 

Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you ...

Matthew 16: 13-19 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 1. I. THE HOLY SCRIPTURE OR WORD IS DIVINE TRUTH ITSELF. It is in everybody's mouth that the Word is from God, is Divinely inspired, and is therefore holy; and yet hitherto no one has known wherein it is Divine. For in the letter the Word appears like a common writing, in a style that is strange, and neither so sublime nor so brilliant as apparently are the writings of the day. For this reason a man who worships nature as God, or in preference to God, and who consequently thinks from himself and what is proper to himself, and not from heaven from the Lord, may easily fall into error in respect to the Word, and into contempt for it, and while reading it may say to himself, What is this? What is that? Can this be Divine? Could God, whose wisdom is infinite, speak in this manner? Wherein consists its holiness, and whence comes its holiness, except from religious feeling and its consequent persuasion?

 

 

Putting off the human from the mother

Listen to this Third Round audio: EVERYTHING DESCRIBED IN THE WORD IS A RE-PRESENTATION OF WHAT HAS TO TAKE PLACE IN US ALL

 

 

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.

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512. LIII. THIRD STATE OF MAN AFTER DEATH, WHICH IS A STATE OF INSTRUCTION FOR THOSE WHO ENTER HEAVEN.

The third state of man after death, that is, of his spirit, is a state of instruction. This state is for those who enter heaven and become angels. It is not for those who enter hell, because such are incapable of being taught, and therefore their second state is also their third, ending in this, that they are wholly turned to their own love, thus to that infernal society which is in a like love. When this has been done they will and think from that love and as that love is infernal they will nothing but what is evil and think nothing but what is false; and in such thinking and willing they find their delights, because these belong to their love; and in consequence of this they reject everything good and true which they had previously adopted as serviceable to their love as means. [2] Good spirits, on the other hand, are led from the second state into the third, which is the state of their preparation for heaven by means of instruction. For one can be prepared for heaven only by means of knowledges of good and truth, that is, only by means of instruction, since one can know what spiritual good and truth are, and what evil and falsity are, which are their opposites, only by being taught. One can learn in the world what civil and moral good and truth are, which are called justice and honesty, because there are civil laws in the world that teach what is just, and there is interaction with others whereby man learns to live in accordance with moral laws, all of which have relation to what is honest and right. But spiritual good and truth are learned from heaven, not from the world. They can be learned from the Word and from the doctrine of the church that is drawn from the Word and yet unless man in respect to his interiors which belong to his mind is in heaven spiritual good and truth cannot flow into his life; and man is in heaven when he both acknowledges the Divine and acts justly and honestly for the reason that he ought so to act because it is commanded in the Word. This is living justly and honestly for the sake of the Divine, and not for the sake of self and the world, as ends. [3] But no one can so act until he has been taught, for example, that there is a God, that there is a heaven and a hell, that there is a life after death, that God ought to be loved supremely, and the neighbor as oneself, and that what is taught in the Word, ought to be believed because the Word is Divine. Without a knowledge and acknowledgment of these things man is unable to think spiritually; and if he has no thought about them he does not will them; for what a man does not know he cannot think, and what he does not think he cannot will. So it is when man wills these things that heaven flows into his life, that is, the Lord through heaven, for the Lord flows into the will and through the will into the thought, and through both into the life, and the whole life of man is from these. All this makes clear that spiritual good and truth are learned not from the world but from heaven, and that one can be prepared for heaven only by means of instruction. [4] Moreover, so far as the Lord flows into the life of any one He instructs him, for so far He kindles the will with the love of knowing truths and enlightens the thought to know them; and so far as this is done the interiors of man are opened and heaven is implanted in them; and furthermore, what is Divine and heavenly flows into the honest things pertaining to moral life and into the just things pertaining to civil life in man, and makes them spiritual, since man then does these things from the Divine, which is doing them for the sake of the Divine. For the things honest and just pertaining to moral and civil life which a man does from that source are the essential effects of spiritual life; and the effect derives its all from the effecting cause, since such as the cause is such is the effect.

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513. Instruction is given by the angels of many societies, especially those in the northern and southern quarters, because those angelic societies are in intelligence and wisdom from a knowledge of good and truth. The places of instruction are towards the north and are various, arranged and distinguished according to the kinds and varieties of heavenly goods, that all and each may be instructed there according to their disposition and ability to receive; the places extending round about to a great distance. The good spirits who are to be instructed are brought by the Lord to these places when they have completed their second state in the world of spirits, and yet not all; for there are some that have been instructed in the world, and have been prepared there by the Lord for heaven, and these are taken up into heaven by another way-some immediately after death, some after a short stay with good spirits, where the grosser things of their thoughts and affections which they had contracted from honors and riches in the world are removed, and in that way they are purified. Some first endure vastations, which is effected in places under the soles of the feet, called the lower earth, where some suffer severely. These are such as had confirmed themselves in falsities and yet had led good lives, for when falsities have been confirmed they inhere with much force, and until they have been dispersed truths cannot be seen, and thus cannot be accepted. But vastations and how they are effected have been treated of in the Arcana Coelestia, from which the notes below have been collected.[1]

[1] Vastations are effected in the other life, that is, those that pass into the other life from the world are vastated (see numbers 698, 7122, 7474, 9763).

The well disposed are vastated in respect to falsities, while the evil are vastated in respect to truths (n, 7474, 7541, 7542).

The well disposed undergo vastations that they also may be divested of what pertains to the earth and the world, which they had contracted while living in the world (see numbers 7186, 9763).

Also that evils and falsities may be removed, and thus there may be room for the influx of goods and truths out of heaven from the Lord, and ability to accept these (see numbers 7122, 9330).

Elevation into heaven is impossible until such things have been removed, because they obstruct heavenly things and are not in harmony with them (see numbers 6928, 7122, 7186, 7541, 7542, 9763).

Those who are to be raised up into heaven are thus prepared for it (see numbers 4728, 7090).

It is dangerous to come into heaven before being prepared (see numbers 537, 538).

The state of enlightenment and the joy of those who come out of vastation and are raised up into heaven, and their reception there (see numbers 2699, 2701, 2704).

The region where those vastations are effected is called the lower earth (see numbers 4728, 7090).

That region is under the soles of the feet surrounded by the hells; its nature described (numbers 4940-4951, 7090); from experience (see number 699).

What the hells are which more than others infest and vastate (see numbers 7317, 7502, 7545).

Those that have infested and vastated the well disposed are afterwards afraid of them, shun them, and turn away from them (see number 7768).

These infestations and vastations are effected in different ways in accordance with the adhesion of evils and falsities, and they continue in accordance with their quality and quantity (numbers 1106-1113).

Some are quite willing to be vastated (see number 1107).

Some are vastated by fears (see number 4942).

Some by being infested with the evils they have done in the world, and with the falsities they have thought in the world, from which they have anxieties and pangs of conscience (see number 1106).

Some by spiritual captivity, which is ignorance of truth and interception of truth, combined with a longing to know truths (see numbers 1109, 2694).

Some by sleep; some by a middle state between wakefulness and sleep (see number 1108). Those that have placed merit in works seem to themselves to be cutting wood (see number 1110).

Others in other ways, with great variety (see number 699).

514. All who are in places of instruction dwell apart; for each one is connected in regard to his interiors with that society of heaven which he is about to enter; thus as the societies of heaven are arranged in accord with the heavenly form (see above, n. 200-212), so are the places there where instruction is given; and for this reason when those places are viewed from heaven something like a heaven in a smaller form is seen. They are spread out in length from east to west, and in breadth from south to north; but the breadth appears to be less than the length. The arrangement in general is as follows. In front are those who died in childhood and have been brought up in heaven to the age of early youth; these after passing the state of their infancy with those having charge of them, are brought hither by the Lord and instructed. Behind these are the places where those are taught who died in adult age, and who in the world had an affection for truth derived from good of life. Again, behind these are those who in the world were connected with the Mohammedan religion, and lived a moral life and acknowledged one Divine, and the Lord as the very Prophet. When these withdraw from Mohammed, because he can give them no help, they approach the Lord and worship Him and acknowledge His Divinity, and they are then instructed in the Christian religion. Behind these more to the north are the places of instruction of various heathen nations who in the world have lived a good life in conformity with their religion, and have thereby acquired a kind of conscience, and have done what is just and right not so much from a regard to the laws of their government, as from a regard to the laws of religion,...

On the Merit-Guilt cycle

Click here for a post On the Merit Guilt Cycle : An excerpt from “Awakening to Spiritual Life Heaven and Hell 491-520 – Part 2”

All life flows in

Arcana Coelestia 4151 ...But that few, nay, very few, believe it to be so, may be seen from the fact that they suppose all life to be in themselves, and scarcely any think that life flows in. All man’s life consists in the faculty of being able to think and of being able to will; for if the faculty of thinking and willing is taken away, nothing of life remains. And the veriest life consists in thinking good and willing good, and also in thinking truth, and in willing that which we think to be true. As it is in accordance with the doctrinals of the church which are from the Word that these things are not of man, but of the Lord, and that they flow in from the Lord through heaven, those who possess any judgment and are able to reflect, might conclude therefrom that all life flows in.

[5] The same is the case with evil and falsity. According to the doctrinals from the Word, the devil is continually endeavoring to seduce man, and is continually inspiring evil; and therefore when anyone commits a great crime; it is said that he has suffered himself to be led astray by the devil. And this is the real fact, although few if any believe it; for as all good and truth are from the Lord, so all evil and falsity are from hell, that is, from the devil, for hell is the devil. From this we can also see that as all good and truth flow in, so also do all evil and falsity, and consequently also all the thinking and willing of evil. As these also flow in, all who have any judgment and are able to reflect, can infer that all life flows in, although it appears as if it were in man.

[6] That this is the case has frequently been shown to spirits who had come recently from the world into the other life. But some of them have said that if all evil and falsity also flow in, nothing of evil and falsity can be attributed to them, and they are not in fault, because these come from another source. But they received for answer that they had appropriated evil and falsity by believing that they think and will of themselves; whereas if they had believed as the case really is, they would not then have appropriated the evil and falsity, for they would have believed all good and truth to be from the Lord; and if they had believed this, they would have suffered themselves to be led by the Lord, and therefore would have been in a different state; and then the evil which entered into their thought and will would not have affected them, because not evil but good would have gone out of them; for it is not the things that enter in, but those which go out that affect us; according to the Lord’s words in Mark 7:15.

[7] Many can know this, but few believe it. Even those who are evil can know, but still not believe it, for they desire to be in what is their own, and they love this to such a degree that when they are shown that everything flows in, they come into anxiety and urgently entreat that they may be permitted to live in what is their own, insisting that if this should be taken away from them, they could live no longer. Such is the belief even of those who know. These things have been said in order that it may be known how the case is with societies of spirits which are in mediate good, when they are conjoined with others and when they are separated from them; namely, that when they are conjoined, they know no otherwise than that the goods and truths are their own, although they are not theirs.

Conjugial Love 315 ... Listen, I pray. Who does not believe the soul to be the inmost and subtlest essence of man! and what is an essence without a form but an imaginary entity? The soul, therefore, is a form. As to the nature of its form, this shall now be told. It is the form of all things pertaining to love, and of all things pertaining to wisdom. All things pertaining to love are called affections, and all pertaining to wisdom are called perceptions. The latter are from the former, and the two together thus make one form wherein innumerable things are in such order, series, and coherence, that they can be called a one. They can be called a one because, if that one is to remain what it is, nothing can be taken away from it, nor anything be added. What is the human soul but such a form? Are not all things pertaining to love, and all things pertaining to wisdom, the essentials of that form? And with man these are in his soul and, from his soul, in his head and body.

[11] You are called spirits and angels; and in the world you thought that spirits and angels and thus minds and animi are as winds or ethers. But now you see clearly that you are truly, really, and actually men--men who in the world had lived and thought in a material body. You knew that it is not the material body that lives and thinks but the spiritual substance in that body. You called this the soul, but did not know its form. Yet, you have now seen it and still see it. All here present are souls, about the immortality of which you have heard, thought, spoken, and written so much; and being forms of love and wisdom from God, you cannot die to all eternity. The soul then is a human form from which not the least thing can be taken away, and to which not the least can be added. It is also the inmost form of all the forms of the entire body. And since the forms which are outside it take their essence and form from this inmost form, therefore you, just as you appear to yourselves and to us, are souls. In a word, the soul, being the inmost man, is the man himself, and therefore its form is the human form in all fullness and perfection. Yet it is not life but the nearest receptacle of life from God, and thus the dwelling-place of God.

Arcana Coelestia 6325. It is an eternal truth that the Lord rules heaven and earth, and also that no one besides the Lord lives of himself, consequently that everything of life flows in-the good of life from the Lord, and the evil of life from hell. This is the faith of the heavens. When a man is in this faith (and he can be in it when he is in good), then evil cannot be fastened and appropriated to him, because he knows that it is not from himself, but from hell. When a man is in this state, he can then be gifted with peace, for then he will trust solely in the Lord. Neither can peace be given to any others than those who are in this faith from charity; for others continually cast themselves into anxieties and cupidities, whence come disquietudes. Spirits who desire to direct themselves, suppose that this would be to lose their own will, thus their freedom, consequently all delight, thus all life and its sweetness. This they say and suppose, because they do not know how the case really is; for the man who is led by the Lord is in freedom itself, and thus in delight and bliss itself; goods and truths are appropriated to him; there is given him an affection and desire for doing what is good, and then nothing is more delightful to him than to perform uses. There is given him a perception of good, and also a sensation of it; and there is given him intelligence and wisdom; and all these as his own; for he is then a recipient of the Lord’s life. It is known in the learned world that the principal cause and the instrumental cause act together as a one: man, being a form recipient of the Lord’s life, is an instrumental cause, and the life from the Lord is the principal cause. This life is felt in the instrumental cause as of it, when yet it is not of it.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.

A short guided meditation to support the work of conscious practice.

Psalm 137: By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion. We hung our harps Upon the willows in the midst of it. For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, And those who plundered us requested mirth, Saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion! How shall we sing the Lord's song In a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget its skill! If I do not remember you, Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth-- If I do not exalt Jerusalem Above my chief joy. Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom The day of Jerusalem, Who said, Raze it, raze it, To its very foundation! O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, Happy the one who repays you as you have served us! Happy the one who takes and dashes Your little ones against the rock!

For further exploration on the idea of the Text being something that is Divine  you might like to listen/read to  “The Stone at the Entrance of the Tomb- what prevents us from seeing into deeper things” – Scripture Expounded as Process.