2144. 'In the oak-groves of Mamre' means the character of the perception. This is clear from the representation and meaning of 'oak-groves', and also from the representation and meaning of 'Mamre'. What oak-groves in general represented and meant has been shown in Volume One, in 1442, 1443, and what the oak-grove of Mamre specifically represented and meant, in 1616, namely perceptions, though of a human kind such as spring from factual knowledge and from the initial rational concepts derived from that knowledge.

[2] What perception is, is totally unknown at the present day, for nobody today possesses the kind of perception that the ancient and especially the most ancient people possessed. The latter knew from perception whether a thing was good and consequently whether it was true. There was an influx from the Lord by way of heaven into the rational part of their minds, and from that influx when they thought about anything holy, they perceived instantly whether a thing was so or was not so. Later on such perception with mankind perished and people began to entertain heavenly ideas no more but only worldly and bodily ones; and when this happened the place of such perception was taken by conscience (which also is a kind of perception), for acting contrary to conscience and according to conscience is nothing else than discerning from conscience whether a thing is so or not so, or whether it ought to be done.

[3] But perception that goes with conscience does not originate in inflowing good but in truth which from earliest childhood has been implanted in the rational part of the mind in accordance with the holiness of people's worship, and after that has been confirmed; for that truth alone is believed by them to be good. Consequently conscience is a kind of perception, but it has its origin in truth such as this; and when charity and innocence are introduced into it by the Lord, the good that goes with that conscience is then brought into being. These few considerations show what perception is. Yet between perception and conscience there is a wide difference. See what has been stated about perception in Volume One, in 104, 125, 371, 483, 495, 503, 521, 536, 597, 607, 784, 865, 895, 1121, 1616; about the perception spirits and angels have, in 202, 203, 1008, 1383, 1384, 1390-1392, 1394, 1397, 1504; and about the learned not knowing what perception is, in 1387.

[4] As regards the Lord when He lived in the world, all of His thought sprang from Divine perception since He alone was a Divine and Celestial Man. For He has been the only one in whom Jehovah Himself was present and from whom His perception came, also dealt with in Volume One, in 1616, 1791. His perceptions became more and more interior the closer He came to union with Jehovah. The nature of His perception at this time becomes clear from what has been stated in Volume One, in 1616, about the oak-groves of Mamre; and then the nature of it when He perceived the things contained in this chapter is described in what follows below.

99. The life - that is, the order of life - as it exists with the spiritual man is such that the Lord flows in by means of faith, into his intellectual concepts, his rational concepts, and his factual knowledge. But because his external man is at war with the internal, it seems as though intelligence were not flowing in from the Lord but from himself by way of facts and rational concepts. But life - that is, the order of life - as it exists with the celestial man is such that the Lord flows in by way of love and of faith included with love into his intellectual concepts, his rational concepts, and his factual knowledge. And since there is no resistance, he perceives that this is the case. In this way order which up to now has with the spiritual man been turned upside-down is restored with the celestial. This order, which is man, is called 'the garden in Eden, from the east'. In the highest sense 'the garden planted by Jehovah God in Eden, from the east' is the Lord Himself; in the inmost sense, which is also the universal sense, it is the Lord's kingdom and heaven, where a person is placed on becoming celestial. At this point his state enables him to be with angels in heaven, and to be virtually one among them. In fact, man has been so created that while living on earth he may at the same time be in heaven. In that situation all of his thoughts, all his mental images produced by thoughts, and even his words and deeds lie open, containing what is celestial and spiritual. They lie open all the way from the Lord. Indeed everyone has the Lord' s life within him, enabling him to have perception.