169. Throughout the created universe, in its largest and smallest instances alike, we find these three--purpose, means, and result. The reason we find them in the largest and smallest instances of the created universe is that these three are in God the Creator, who is the Lord from eternity. Since he is infinite, though, and since in one who is infinite there are infinite things in a distinguishable oneness (as explained in 17-22 above), these three are a distinguishable oneness in him and in the infinite things that belong to him. This is why the universe, being created from his reality and (if we look at its functions) being an image of him, retains these three in each of its constituent details.

445. Our Revival from the Dead and Entry into Eternal Life

When someone's body can no longer perform its functions in the natural world in response to the thoughts and affections of its spirit (which it derives from the spiritual world), then we say that the individual has died. This happens when the lungs' breathing and the heart's systolic motion have ceased. The person, though, has not died at all. We are only separated from the physical nature that was useful to us in the world. The essential person is actually still alive. I say that the essential person is still alive because we are not people because of our bodies but because of our spirits. After all, it is the spirit within us that thinks, and thought and affection together make us the people we are.

We can see, then, that when we die we simply move from one world into another. This is why in the inner meaning of the Word, "death" means resurrection and a continuation of life. ¹

სქოლიოები:

4621. 'And Esau and Jacob his sons buried him' means that it rose again within the good of the Natural and within the good of truth in the Natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'being buried' as resurrection, dealt with in 2916, 2917, and as the state of representation that has been raised up in someone else, 3256; from the representation of 'Esau' as the Lord's Divine Natural as regards good, dealt with in 3302, 3576, 4241; and from the representation of 'Jacob' as the Lord's Divine Natural as regards the good of truth, dealt with in 4273, 4337, 4538. From these considerations and those stated above in 4618 it is evident that 'Esau and Jacob his sons buried him' means that it rose again within the good of the Natural and within the good of truth in the Natural. The reason 'being buried' in the internal sense means rising again is that once the body has died the soul rises again. Consequently when burial is referred to in the Word angels do not think of the body which is cast aside but of the soul which rises again; for angels possess spiritual ideas, and so ones that are ideas of life. Therefore anything to do with death in the natural world means something to do with life in the spiritual world.