8352. 'Saying, What shall we drink?' means that they cannot tolerate truths because, as a result of their lack of affection [for good], they find them unpleasant. This is clear from the meaning of 'drinking' as being taught truths and receiving them, and also as having an affection for them and consequently making them one's own, dealt with in 3069, 3168, 3772, 4017, 4018, but here as not being able to tolerate them because - as a result of the lack of affection for good, meant by 'the waters were bitter', according to the explanation above in 8349 - they are found to be unpleasant. This temptation consists in their complaining and their grief, because the truths which previously they have found pleasant, and which have thus constituted their spiritual life or the life of heaven for them, now seem unpleasant to them, so unpleasant that they can scarcely tolerate them.

[2] A merely natural person cannot believe that anything such as this could be a cause of grief. For he thinks, 'What difference does it make to me whether truths are pleasant or unpleasant? If they are unpleasant, let them be cast aside.' But a spiritual person has an entirely different feeling. Learning truths and being enlightened in the kinds of matters that belong to his soul and so to spiritual life is the delight of his life. Therefore when those truths are lacking, his spiritual life becomes a trial and burden to him; and this gives rise to grief and anguish. The reason is that the affection for good flows in unceasingly from the Lord by way of the internal man, arousing accordant things in the external man which have previously been the cause of delight belonging to an affection for truth; and when these things are under attack from the evils of self-love and love of the world, in which too the person has previously taken delight, a conflict of delights or affections results, which gives rise to anguish, and this in turn to grief and complaint.

[3] A brief statement needs to be made about the situation when temptation arises through lack of truth. Nourishment for spiritual life consists in goodness and truth, just as nourishment for natural life consists in food and drink. If good is lacking it is as if food is lacking; and when truth is lacking it is as if drink is lacking. The grief this causes is like the grief caused by hunger and thirst. This comparison arises from correspondence, for food corresponds to goodness, and drink to truth. This correspondence is also the reason why food and drink nourish the body better and more suitably if, during a dinner or a luncheon, the person has at the same time as he eats the pleasure of discussing with others the kinds of things he loves than if he sits at table alone without company. In the second situation the person's vessels for receiving food are narrowed, but in the first the same vessels are opened. These things are brought about by the correspondence of spiritual food and natural food. The reason for saying the pleasure of discussing with others the kinds of things he loves is that all that pleasure is related to goodness and truth; for there does not exist anything in the world that is unrelated to them both. What the person loves is related to the good present with him, and that which informs about good and so links itself to that good, is related to truth.

7122. 'And pay no attention to lying words' means to keep them from turning towards truths. This is clear from the meaning of 'paying attention to' as turning towards; and from the meaning of 'lying words', when the expression is used by those steeped in falsities, as truths, since those steeped in falsities call truths falsities, thus 'lying words', while they call falsities truths. For theirs is a contrary attitude of mind. These verses have now described in the internal sense the molestation of the upright in the next life by falsities, and have also disclosed the way in which those people are molested. That molestation is allowed to take place to the end that falsities may be removed and truths instilled, which cannot possibly be accomplished without molestation. For after death there clings to a person, lodged in [both] his memories, ¹ all the thought he had in the world, all his intentions, all his will, all that he said, and all that he did. Nothing is wiped out; rather, these things have become imprinted in his memories, especially his interior memory, which is strictly speaking the memory belonging to his spirit, see 2469, 2470, 2474, 2475. And because this is so, things which are foul and disgusting, as well as evils and falsities, inevitably cling to the person as a result of his life in the world and cause the truths which he has also learned and the forms of good which he has adopted to be hidden from view.

[2] Truths and forms of good when amid those kinds of things cannot come into view. Therefore before truths and forms of good can be seen, thus before the person can enter into association with those in heaven, it is necessary for those evils and falsities to be revealed, in order that he may see them and know them for what they are, and thereby learn what truth is and what good is. This cannot possibly be accomplished without conflict with the evils and falsities present in him. An actual conflict takes place in which evil spirits stir up falsities and evils, but angels excuse them, if the person's end in view has been good, and instill truths. It feels to him as though this were going on within himself, as with a person's experience of temptation. This too is felt to be altogether something going on within himself, when in fact it is a conflict taking place between angels and evil spirits outside him. On this subject, see 3927, 4249, 4307, 5036, 6657. Much experience has enabled me to have definite knowledge of the truth of all this. These things have been stated in order that people may know why molestation by falsities happens to those who belong to the spiritual Church, as described in the internal sense of these verses and also those that follow.

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