Logopraxis

Letting Go of Ownership Over Our States

We are told that those entering the second state of awakening who are evil, or those states of exteriors that project what is “good” to conceal hellish interiors, are permitted to move back and forth between their exterior and interior states of mind. This process of back and forth movement provides the contrast needed to bring about the necessary acknowledgment of the quality of interiors when separated from exteriors, so that the awakening process can move toward its next phase. This is described as follows:

This being their character, while in the second state they are let down by short intervals into the state of their exteriors, and into a recollection of their actions when they were in the state of their interiors;

And some of them then feel ashamed, and confess that they have been insane; some do not feel ashamed;

And some are angry because they are not permitted to remain permanently in the state of their exteriors. But these are shown what they would be if they were to continue in that state, namely, that they would attempt to accomplish in secret ways the same evil ends, and by semblances of goodness, honesty, and justice, would mislead the simple in heart and faith (HH 506-3).

As we practice self-examination by the light of truths from the Word, we begin to see the quality of interior states belonging to the hellish proprium and can therefore encounter similar corresponding experiences to those described here. There can be an inner sense of embarrassment as we come to acknowledge the insanity of the behavior of the hellish proprium, that we have identified with as our self.

There are other times when we have caught a flash of the true nature of some hellish quality moving within us but we are belligerent in our unwillingness to call it out for what it is and so “some do not feel ashamed.”

And there are other times yet again where resentment can present as an internalized anger directed at the self in the struggle to separate from the evils we have identified as present “in us”. The investment of our identity in what is opposed to the Lord can be difficult to acknowledge. But acknowledge it we must if we are to come to see that these things are not “us” but belong to the hells, to the hellish proprium. We may find ourselves judging our states and thinking that we are getting worse, not realizing that this is the work of the hellish proprium trying to condemn us. When we fall into identifying with these evils then we experience states of desolation that can foster feelings of self-pity, guilt, depression, anxiety, and negative self-talk.

This often spirals us into what is referred to in Logopraxis as the ‘merit-guilt cycle’. This cycle is based on the belief that religion is about making ourselves ‘better people’. So, we try to be good. And all goes along fine until something happens and our response reveals that we are “not good”. In fact, what often occurs is that states we never imagined we were capable of entertaining, begin to present to our conscious awareness. We are put squarely in front of the hellish proprium’s hold and influence over us. Because this is so contrary to our moral and civil self-image, we find we are assaulted with feelings of low self-worth, a sense of failure, feelings of guilt and thoughts of self-condemnation. We mistakenly believe that these evils and falsities are sourced in ourselves, not realising that they arise from the hells. As this state passes, we once again try to compensate for this negative aspect of “our self” through resolving to be a better person going forward. And so the conditions are created in which the cycle can continue to play out.

What we fail to see is that we cannot make the hellish proprium good and that it is our efforts to do this that opens us up to the merit-guilt cycle.

Arcana Coelestia 

141. Innumerable things might be said about man’s proprium in describing its nature with the corporeal and worldly man, with the spiritual man, and with the celestial man.

With the corporeal and worldly man, his proprium is his all, he knows of nothing else than his proprium, and imagines, as before said, that if he were to lose this proprium he would perish.

With the spiritual man also his proprium has a similar appearance, for although he knows that the Lord is the life of all, and gives wisdom and understanding, and consequently the power to think and to act, yet this knowledge is rather the profession of his lips than the belief of his heart.

But the celestial man discerns that the Lord is the life of all and gives the power to think and to act, for he perceives that it is really so. He never desires his proprium, nevertheless a proprium is given him by the Lord, which is conjoined with all perception of what is good and true, and with all happiness. The angels are in such a proprium, and are at the same time in the highest peace and tranquility, for in their proprium are those things which are the Lord’s, who governs their proprium, or them by means of their proprium. This proprium is the veriest celestial itself, whereas that of the corporeal man is infernal. 

 

 

868. Until the waters were dried up from off the earth. That this signifies the apparent dissipation of falsities, is evident from the state of man when he is being regenerated. Everyone believes at the present day that the evils and falsities in man are entirely separated and abolished during regeneration, so that when he becomes regenerate, nothing of evil or falsity remains, but he is clean and righteous, like one washed and purified with water. This notion is, however, utterly false; for not a single evil or falsity can be so shaken off as to be abolished; but whatever has been hereditarily derived from infancy, and acquired by act and deed, remains; so that man, notwithstanding his being regenerate, is nothing but evil and falsity, as is shown to the life to souls after death.

The truth of this may be sufficiently manifest from the consideration, that there is nothing of good and nothing of truth in man except from the Lord, and that all evil and falsity are man’s from his proprium; and that man, and spirit, and even angel, if left in the least to himself, would rush of himself into hell; wherefore also it is said in the Word that heaven is not pure. This is acknowledged by angels, and he who does not acknowledge it cannot be among angels. It is the Lord’s mercy alone that liberates them, and even draws them out of hell and keeps them from rushing thither of themselves. That they are kept by the Lord from rushing into hell, is manifestly perceived by the angels, and even in a measure by good spirits. Evil spirits, however, like men, do not believe this; but it has often been shown them, as of the Lord’s Divine mercy will be told from experience hereafter.

[2] Since therefore the state of man is such that no evil and falsity can ever be so shaken off as to be abolished, because the life that is proper to him consists in evil and falsity, the Lord, from Divine mercy, while He regenerates man, through temptations so subdues his evils and falsities that they appear as if dead, though they are not dead, but are only subdued so that they cannot fight against the goods and truths which are from the Lord. At the same time also the Lord through temptations gives man a new faculty of receiving goods and truths, by gifting him with ideas and affections of good and of truth, to which evils and falsities can be bent, and by inserting in his generals (of which above) particulars, and in these singulars, which are stored up in man and which he knows nothing about, for they are interior to the sphere of his apprehension and perception. These are of a nature to serve for receptacles or vessels, so that charity can be insinuated into them by the Lord, and into charity innocence.

By their wonderful tempering with man, spirit, and angel, a kind of rainbow may be represented, and for this reason the rainbow was made the sign of the covenant (Genesis 9:12-17), concerning which, of the Lord’s Divine mercy we shall speak under that chapter. When man has been thus formed, he is said to be regenerate, all his evils and falsities still remaining, yet at the same time all his goods and truths being preserved. With an evil man all his evils and falsities, just as he had them in the life of the body, return in the other life and are turned into infernal phantasies and punishments. But with a good man, all his states of good and truth, such as those of friendship, of charity, and of innocence, are recalled in the other life, and together with their delights and happinesses, are there immensely augmented and multiplied. These things then are what is signified by the drying of the waters, which is the apparent dissipation of falsities.

 

Divine Love and Wisdom

114 . Not only is the Lord in heaven but He also is heaven itself, because love and wisdom make the angel, and these two with angels are the Lord's. Hence it follows that the Lord is heaven. For angels are not angels from their proprium.  Their proprium is exactly like that of a man and this is evil. That an angel's proprium is such is because all angels have been men, and that proprium adheres to them from birth. It is only removed, and to the extent that it is removed, to that extent they receive love and wisdom, that is, the Lord in themselves. Anyone can see if only he will raise his understanding a little that the Lord can dwell with angels only in what is His, that is, in what is His Very Own, which is Love and Wisdom, and certainly not in the angels' proprium which is evil. Hence it is that so far as evil is removed, so far the Lord is in them, and so far they are angels. The very angelic itself of heaven is the Divine Love and Wisdom. This Divine is called the angelic when it is in angels. From this again it is clear that angels are angels from the Lord, and not from themselves; consequently, the same is true regarding heaven.

 

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.

Arcana Coelestia

5929. And he kissed all his brethren. That this signifies adjunction from grace, is evident from the signification of “to kiss,” as being conjunction from affection (see n. 3573, 3574, 4353), here adjunction from grace, because the truths of the church in the natural, which are represented by the sons of Jacob, are more remote from internal good, which is Joseph; and things more remote are indeed conjoined through the intermediate with internal good, but yet long retain such things as do not correspond with internal good; and therefore by “kissing his brethren” is signified adjunction from grace.

It is said from grace, not from mercy, because things more remote and not fully correspondent are not in such humiliation that they can implore mercy; from the heart they cannot even mention mercy, but instead thereof grace; and this because the non-correspondent things which adhere are from the love of self, and he who loves himself cannot possibly humble himself from the heart; for he sets himself up, because he regards himself in everything, and makes small account of what is outside of himself.

5946 ...The will, in order to see or know anything, must do it through the understanding: there is its sight or eye.

5949 ...if essential and not instrumental things are cared for, they shall have instrumental things in abundance. For example: if truths are cared for, they shall have memory-knowledges in abundance, which are the “good of the land of Egypt.” In like manner if good is cared for, they shall have truths in abundance. Memory-knowledges, and also truths, must be cared for, but men must regard good as the end. If the eye is upon good as in the end, the man is then in full view of the consequent things, or in the perception of such as are derived from it, which perception is never possible unless good is the end, that is, unless it reigns universally in each and all things.

 

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.

Heaven and Hell

115. I have been taught from heaven that the most ancient peoples on our earth, who were celestial men, thought from correspondences themselves, the natural things of the world before their eyes serving them as the means of thinking in this way. Being of such character, they were in fellowship with angels and spoke with them. Thus, through them heaven was conjoined to the world. For this reason, that period was called the Golden Age, of which it is said by ancient writers that the inhabitants of heaven dwelt with men and associated with them as friends with friends.

But, after their times, there succeeded those who thought not from correspondences themselves but from a knowledge of correspondences, and there was then also a conjunction of heaven with man, but not so intimate. Their period is what is called the Silver Age.

After this, there followed men who had some knowledge of correspondences but did not think from that knowledge, on account of their being in natural good and not, like those before them, in spiritual good. This period was called the Copper Age.

After those times, men gradually became external, and finally corporeal, and then the knowledge of correspondences was completely lost, and with it a true idea of heaven and of the many things pertaining to heaven. It was also from correspondence that these ages were named from gold, silver and copper, because from correspondence  gold signifies the celestial good in which were the most ancient people; silver signifies the spiritual good in which were the ancient people after them; and copper signifies the natural good in which were the next posterity; while iron from which the last age was named signifies hard truth apart from good.

 

112. How the conjunction of heaven with the world is effected by means of correspondences, will also be told in a few words. The Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of ends which are uses, or what is the same thing, a kingdom of uses which are ends. On this account, the universe has been so created and formed by the Divine that uses may be everywhere clothed in such a way as to be presented in act or in effect, first in heaven and afterwards in the world, thus by degrees and successively down to the ultimates of nature. Hence it is evident that the correspondence of natural things with spiritual things, or of the world with heaven, is through uses and that uses conjoin. And the forms in which uses are clothed are correspondences and means of conjunction just to the extent that they are forms of uses. In nature, in its threefold kingdom, all things that come into existence in accordance with order are forms of uses, or effects formed from use for use, and this is why the things in nature are correspondences.

With man, however, so far as he lives in accordance with Divine order, thus, so far as he is in love to the Lord and in charity towards the neighbour, to that extent, his actions are uses in form and are correspondences by means of which he is conjoined with heaven. To love the Lord and the neighbour means in general to perform uses.  

Further, it ought to be known that man is the means by which the natural world is conjoined with the spiritual world, that is, man is the medium of conjunction; for in him there is a natural world and also a spiritual world (see above 57). Therefore, to the extent that man is spiritual, so far he is the medium of conjunction; but, to the extent that a man is natural and not spiritual, he is not a medium of conjunction. Nevertheless, apart from the mediation of man, Divine influx into the world and also into the things of the world pertaining to man, goes on, but not into man's rational faculty.

 

114. Something will now be said about the knowledge of correspondences and its use. It was said above that the spiritual world, which is heaven, is conjoined to the natural world by means of correspondences. Therefore, by means of correspondences, communication with heaven is granted to man.

For the angels of heaven do not think from natural things, as man does. Consequently, when man is in the knowledge of correspondences, he is able, in regard to the thoughts of his mind, to be together with the angels, and thus, as to his spiritual or internal man, to be conjoined with them. In order that there may be conjunction of heaven with man, the Word has been written by means of pure correspondences, for all things in it in general and particular are correspondences.  

If man, therefore, were in the knowledge of correspondences, he would understand the Word as to its spiritual sense and would thereby be enabled to know arcana of which he sees nothing in the sense of the letter. For in the Word there is a literal sense and there is a spiritual sense. The literal sense consists of such things as are in the world, but the spiritual sense of such things as are in heaven, and since the conjunction of heaven with the world is by means of correspondences, therefore such a Word was given in which the details down to the least jot (iota) are in correspondence. 

 

 

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.

Now as was [their] custom, His parents regularly went their way – year by year – into Jerusalem during the Feast (or: festival) of the Passover. 

So when He came to be twelve years [old], after their finishing going up – according to the custom of the Feast (or: festival) –

and upon finishing the days, during their process of returning, the Boy Jesus continued to remain in Jerusalem.

Yet, inferring from custom for Him to be within the group journeying together (= in the caravan; company of fellow travelers), they went a day's way (= a day's journey on the road) and then began seeking Him back among the relatives and acquaintances.

Then upon not finding Him, they returned into Jerusalem, continuing in searching again for Him.

Later, after three days, it happened [that] they found Him within the Temple courts (or: grounds), continuing in sitting within the midst of the teachers, constantly listening to them, as well as repeatedly making inquiries and putting question to them.

Now all the folks continuing to listen to and hear Him began 'standing outside themselves' in amazement and were repeatedly astonished at His understanding (His ability to make things flow together) and discerning responses (or: decided answers).

And so, upon seeing Him, [His parents] were bewildered and overwhelmed (or: struck out [of their wits]), then His mother said to Him, "Child, why did you treat us in this manner?  Look, and consider, your father and I were caused constant pain as we continued searching for you."

So He said to them, "Why [is it] that you were trying to find Me?  Had you not seen so as to now know that it continues binding and necessary for Me to be within the midst of the men belonging to My Father (or: to constantly be among the things that pertain to My Father; or: to continue being in union with those things which are My Father)?"

And yet they, themselves, did not understand (make flow together) the result of the flow (declaration; gush-effect) which He spoke to them.

And so He walked back down with them and came into Nazareth, and continued being set in a supportive arrangement for them (or: kept on being subject to and under them). 

His mother also continued carefully watching, noting and keeping all these sayings (gush-effects; results of the flows; declarations; matters) within her heart. 

And so Jesus kept on cutting a passage forward, making progress in (or: by; with) the Wisdom – as well as in maturity and physical stature – and in (or: by; with) grace and favor, beside God and mankind (or: in the presence of God as well as people).   

Luke 2:41-52 Jonathan Mitchell Translation

In Part 1 of The Teacher in the Temple, we explored the need to develop conscious listening as a core spiritual literacy skill for participating in Logopraxis group life. To listen to one another in a conscious way involves making an effort to be aware of our own state as we listen to what is being shared. In Part 1 we saw that the ability to step outside of the ‘self’ or proprium, to observe what it strives to direct us towards when left to its own rule, is what allows us to see what is of the Lord. To be in the effort to hear the Lord in another is one aspect of what it means to love the neighbour or what is of the Lord in another. To listen consciously is not about judging whether another’s state is of the Lord or not. It is instead about attending to the thoughts and affections arising within our own state as we respond to what we are hearing in what is being shared. We are watching for the thoughts and affections that want to judge, condemn, criticise, praise, analyse and solve rather than simply listening for spiritual principles or truths found within what’s being shared.   

Genesis 45

Verses 16-20. And the voice was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, Joseph’s brethren have come; and it was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye; lade your beasts, and go, come ye into the land of Canaan; and take your father and your households, and come unto me; and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. And now commanded, this do ye: take you out of the land of Egypt carts for your babes, and for your women, and bring your father, and come. And let not your eye be sparing upon your stuff; because the good of the whole land of Egypt, this is for you.

Arcana Coelestia  

5948. Also let not your eye be sparing upon your stuff. That this signifies that things instrumental are not to be cared for, is evident from the signification of “stuff” or “vessels,” as being things instrumental. That these are not to be cared for is signified by “let not your eye be sparing.” There are things essential, and things instrumental. For an essential to work an effect anywhere, it must have an instrumental whereby to act; for just as an instrumental has been formed, so it acts. For example, the body is the instrumental of its spirit; the external man is the instrumental of the internal; memory-knowledge is the instrumental of truth; and truth is the instrumental of good (n. 3068, 3079); and so on.

[2] In the Word things instrumental are called “vessels;” in the present case “stuff,” because they are said of the migration, thus of the things in the houses. But essential things are called in the Word “things,” and are those which act by means of instrumental things. Thus as interior things act through exterior things, they are relatively essential. By instrumental things not being to be cared for, is meant that these must not be regarded as the end, but essential things; for insofar as instrumental things are regarded as the end, so far essential things withdraw themselves and vanish. Thus if memory-knowledge is regarded as the end, and truths are not cared for, truths at last so vanish away that it cannot be perceived whether there are any truths. Also if truths are regarded as the end, and good is not cared for, good at last so vanishes as not to be. Furthermore, with those who have earthly, or bodily, or worldly things as the end, so that these are their only care, and not heavenly things, heavenly things so vanish away that at last scarcely anything heavenly is acknowledged. These and similar things are what are signified by “let not your eye be sparing upon your stuff.”

[3] But be it known that “essential” and “instrumental” are relative terms; that is, that an essential is so called because it acts by means of another thing as by its instrument or organ. But when another thing acts by means of that which was essential, then this becomes instrumental; and so on. Moreover in the created universe there is not anything essential in itself; this exists solely in the Highest, that is, in the Lord, who, because He is Esse or the Essential in itself, is called “Jehovah” from esse (being). All other things are only instrumental. From all this then it follows that because as before said essential things must be regarded as the end, and not instrumental things, the Lord alone must be so regarded.

5928. As regards the conjunction of good with truths, and the reciprocal conjunction of truths with good, be it known that when good flows into truths and conjoins them with itself, it pours into them good from its own, and by means of its own attaches them to itself, whence comes the conjunction. And as truths thus receive life, it afterward appears as if they act from themselves, when they act reciprocally or react. Nevertheless truths do not act from themselves, but from the good which flows into the good attached by itself to the truths.

The case herein is like the blood vessels in a living body. Truths are as it were the vessels without the blood; but good is as it were the blood; when this pours itself into the vessels which before were empty, it sets them in motion, and also in reciprocal motion, for they have received from the blood a capacity of moving, and as it were life. From all this it is evident how the case is with the conjunction of good with truths, and with the reciprocal conjunction of truths with good.

5937. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph. That this signifies the perception of the natural from the internal celestial, is evident from the signification of “saying” in the historicals of the Word, as being perception (of which often above); from the representation of Pharaoh, as being the natural in general (see n. 5160, 5799); and from the representation of Joseph, as being the internal celestial (n. 5869, 5877). As the celestial which Joseph represents is internal, and the natural which Pharaoh represents is external, therefore the perception is of the natural from the internal celestial, for all perception is from within, and in no case is there any perception of what is interior from without; for whence the influx, thence the perception.

 

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.

Heaven and Hell

72. The one love which is the origin of the good of all in heaven is love to the Lord from the Lord. It is from this that the entire heaven in general, any one society less generally, and each angel in particular is a likeness of the Lord.

 

Arcana Coelestia

3049...in itself truth is good, because from good; and truth is the form of good, that is to say, when good is formed so as to be perceived intellectually, it is then called truth... In themselves general memory-knowledges are not goods, nor are they alive; it is the affection of them that causes them to be goods, and to be alive; for when there is this affection they are for the sake of use; since no one is affected by any memory-knowledge or truth except for some use; use makes it a good; and such as the use is, such is the good.

 

5199... That spiritual beauty is the affection of interior truth, is because truth is the form of good. Good itself which is from the Divine in heaven is that from which angels have life; but the form of their life is given by means of the truths which are from this good. And yet beauty is not produced by the truth of faith, but by the affection itself within the truths of faith, which is from good. Beauty that is from the truth of faith alone is like that of a painted or sculptured face; but beauty from the affection of truth, which is from good, is like that of a living face animated by heavenly love; for such as is the love or affection that beams from the form of the face, such is the beauty. From this it is that the angels appear in ineffable beauty; from their faces beams forth the good of love through the truth of faith, which not only appear before the sight, but are also perceived from the spheres coming from them.

 

5912... For when good is in the first place, and has dominion, it continually produces truths. It multiplies them around itself and also around each truth, and makes each truth like a little star, in the center of which there is a bright light. Nor does good only multiply truths around itself, but it also produces truths from truths by derivations in succession, which are the “sons’ sons,” or grandsons; and so on.

 

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.

Heaven and Hell 

73. Therefore each angel is a complete human form .In the two preceding sections it has been shown that heaven in its whole complex resembles one man, as does any one society in heaven. From the sequence of reasons there set forth, it follows that this is equally true of each angel. As heaven is man in the greatest form, and a society of heaven in a less form, so is an angel in the least form. For, in the most perfect form such as that of heaven is, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole. This is the case for the reason that heaven is a communion, for it communicates all it has with each one, and each one receives all he has from that communion. An angel is a receptacle, and by virtue of this, a heaven in least form, as was also shown above in the appropriate section. A man, too, so far as he receives heaven, is also a receptacle, a heaven and an angel (see above 57). This is described in the Revelation as follows,

He measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem, a hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, that is of an angel. Revelation 21:17.

Jerusalem  there is the Lord's Church, and, in a higher sense, heaven; the wall  is the truth that is a defence against the assault of falsities and evils; the hundred and forty-four are all truths and goods in the complex;  the measure  is the quality; a man is one in whom are all goods and truths in general and particular, that is, in whom is heaven, and as it is from these that an angel also is a man, it is said, the measure of a man which is that of an angel. This is the spiritual sense of the words. Without that sense, who could understand that the wall of the Holy Jerusalem is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel? 

76. It ought to be known, however, that angels cannot be seen by a man through the eyes of his body but through the eyes of the spirit within him,  because this is in the spiritual world, while all things of the body are in the natural world. Like sees like from being alike. Besides, as everyone knows, the bodily organ of sight which is the eye is so gross as to be unable even to see, except through magnifying glasses, the smaller things of nature; still less then can it see the things that are above the sphere of nature such as are all things in the spiritual world. But these things may be seen by a man when he is withdrawn from the sight of the body, and the sight of his spirit is opened. This takes place instantly whenever it pleases the Lord that these things should be seen. In that case, the man does not know but that he is seeing them with his bodily eyes.

 

495. As the life of spirits recently from the world is not unlike their life in the natural world, and as they know nothing about their state of life after death and nothing about heaven and hell except what they have learned from the sense of the letter of the Word and preaching from it, they are at first surprised to find themselves in a body and in every sense that they had in the world, and seeing like things; and they become eager to know what heaven is, what hell is, and where they are. Therefore they are instructed by their friends about the conditions of eternal life, and are also taken about by them to various places and into various companies, and sometimes into cities, and into gardens and parks, being shown chiefly such magnificent things as delight the externals in which they are. They are then brought in turn into those notions about the state of their soul after death, and about heaven and hell, that they had entertained in the life of the body, even until they feel indignant at their total ignorance of such things, and at the ignorance of the Church also.

Nearly all are anxious to know whether they will come into heaven. Most of them believe that they will, because of their having lived in the world a moral and civil life, never considering that the bad and the good live a like life in externals, alike doing good to others, attending public worship, hearing sermons, and praying; and wholly ignorant that external deeds and external acts of worship are of no avail, but only the internals from which the externals proceed. There is hardly one out of thousands who knows what internals are, and that it is in them that a man has heaven and the Church. Still less is it known that outward acts are such as the intentions and thoughts are, and the love and faith in these from which they spring. And even when taught, they fail to comprehend that thinking and willing are of any avail, but only speaking and acting. Such for the most part are those who, at this day, come from the Christian world into the other life.

 

See also Logopraxis : Awakening to Spiritual Life : Part 1: Heaven and Hell 491-520

 

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.

True Christian Religion 735

[5] The angel afterwards called together his companions, and as they went along, he gave them the following instruction concerning heaven. There are in heaven, as well as in the world, food and drink, feasts and repasts. For leading personages the tables furnished with richest food, delicate and splendid, by which their minds are exhilarated and refreshed. There are sports and stage shows, instrumental music and song, and all in the highest perfection. Such things are pleasures to those for whom they are provided, but not happiness; which indeed will be found in pleasures, and which springs from them. When it is present in them it causes them to be real pleasures, enriching and elevating them, and preventing them from degenerating and becoming distasteful but happiness comes to every one from the use he performs in his own vocation.

[6] There is in the affection of the will of every angel a latent tendency which induces the mind to do something; and this tranquilizes and satisfies it. Satisfaction and tranquillity create a state of mind receptive of the love of use from the Lord; and it is from the reception of this love that heavenly happiness results, which is the very life of those pleasures already referred to.

Heavenly food in its essence is the harmonious union of love, wisdom and use; that is, use from love through the exercise of wisdom.

For this reason food for the body is given to every one in heaven according to the use which he performs, sumptuous to those who perform uses of an outstanding character, moderately fine but of choice flavor to those whose uses are of moderate importance, and plain to those who perform humble uses of lesser importance; but none to the indolent.

 

Heaven and Hell 85

But, that God is Man can scarcely be comprehended by those who judge all things from the sense-experiences of the external man. For the sensual man can think of the Divine only from the world and the things that are therein, thus of a Divine and Spiritual Man in the same way as of a corporeal and natural man. From this he concludes that, if God were a man He would be as large as the universe, and if He ruled heaven and earth it would be done through many, after the manner of kings in the world.

If told that in heaven there is no extension of space as in the world, he would not in the least comprehend. For he who thinks from nature and its light only, never thinks otherwise than from an extension such as there is before his eyes. But they are completely deceived when they think in this way about heaven.

The extension there is not like extension in the world. In the world, extension is determinate and thus measurable, but in heaven it is not determinate and therefore not measurable. What, however, extension in heaven is, will be seen in the pages to follow in connection with space and time in the spiritual world. Besides, everyone knows how far the sight of the eye extends, namely, to the sun and stars which are so remote. Whoever thinks more deeply knows that the internal sight, which is that of thought, has a still wider extension and therefore that a still more interior sight must extend even more widely. What, then, must not the Divine sight be which is the inmost and highest of all? Because thoughts are capable of such extension, all things of heaven are communicated with everyone there, so too are all things of the Divine which makes heaven and fills it-as has been shown in the preceding sections.

 

Conjugial Love 183(3-5)

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.

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.

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.

 

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.

Arcana Coelestia

5922 [10] That Divine truth, from which are all wisdom and intelligence, as well as the appearance of a variegated cloud before the external sight, is “glory,” is evident also from these passages:

Jehovah said, Living am I, and the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah (Numbers 14:21);

this was said by Jehovah when the Israelitish people were disowned, and it was said that only their little ones should come into the land of Canaan. Under these circumstances, by “the whole earth being filled with the glory of Jehovah” was signified that in the representatives of the church with them, and in the Word, which for the most part treated of them, there should be the glory of Jehovah, with which the whole heaven should be filled, and thence the holy things of the church.

[11] In Isaiah: 

The seraphim cried, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah Zebaoth; the fullness of all the earth is His glory (Isaiah 6:3).

 

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.