In judo, you are trained to take advantage of your opponents' momentum to throw them off balance, and to the ground. You don't have to be bigger or stronger to win a combat.

There's a spiritual judo arena for each of us. When we start to try to shun evils, learn truths, and do good, we're entering the arena. We're going to engage in contests, combats.

We can expect that our opponent (our old, selfish mind/self, which believes false things and loves evil things) will try to use our new momentum to throw us off balance, and down. If we shun an evil successfully, once or twice, it will pull us into the evil of self-congratulation. If we learn some exciting new truths, it will yank us further into a pride in our own intelligence. If we fail a few times, it will throw us into despair or lead us to abandon the whole project.

If we know to expect these judo tactics, can we do better at keeping our balance? Yes, for sure. We can recognize that we're in the spiritual arena, in spiritual combats, or temptations. We can try to keep our balance, keeping the Word as our touchstone, and getting advice and support from people we love and trust. We can move without over-reaching, learning truths to match with new-found loves for doing good things. We can practice, over and over again, and not lose heart.

Judo is not mentioned in the Bible, but when you look, you can see the techniques at work:

Three times in the Old Testament, there are stories of good high priests - Aaron, Eli, and Samuel - who have evil sons that they don't rein in. Initially strong, good efforts get pulled off balance, either by inattention or pride or neglected practice. (See Leviticus 10:1-2, 1 Samuel 2:12-34, and 1 Samuel 8:1-3)

The three most prominent kings of Israel, Saul, David, and Solomon, all start well, but get seduced by their power, pride, or wealth, which seem to corrupt them.

In another case, during the Exodus, Moses has led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, and towards the land of Canaan. He's doing well, obeying the Lord's commands. But at Meribah, he gets impatient, and loses trust in the Lord, and tries to take matters into his own hands. As a result, he's not permitted to enter the Promised Land. (See Numbers 20:6-13)

In Swedenborg's work, "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine", there's a chapter about temptation that begins in section 196. In section 197 we find this statement:

"Temptation is a combat between the internal or spiritual man, and the external or natural man. (See Arcana Coelestia 2183, 4256)"

When you set out to make spiritual progress, you're entering the judo arena. Your new-forming spiritual self will combat your habitual "natural" self. You'll be fighting to keep your balance, and -- if you stay aware that you're in a spiritual battle -- you'll even be able to see ways to throw evil and falsity off-balance, to the ground.

197. Whence and of what quality temptations are.

Temptations exist from the evil spirits who are with man, who inject scandals against the goods and truths which a man loves and believes, and likewise they also excite the evils which he has done and the falsities which he has thought (n. 741, 751, 761, 3927, 4307, 4572, 5036, 6657, 8960). Then evil spirits use all sorts of cunning and malice (n. 6666). The man who is in temptations is near to hell (n. 8131). There are two forces which act in temptations, a force from the interior from the Lord, and a force from the exterior from hell (n. 8168).

The ruling love of man is assaulted in temptations (n. 847, 4274). Evil spirits attack those things only which are of man's faith and love, thus those things which relate to his spiritual life; wherefore at such times it is about his eternal life (n. 1820). A state of temptations compared with the state of a man among robbers (n. 5246[1-4]). In temptations angels from the Lord keep man in the truths and goods which are with him, but evil spirits keep him in the falsities and evils which are with him, whence arises a conflict and combat (n. 4249).

Temptation is a combat between the internal or spiritual man, and the external or natural man (n. 2183, 4256). Thus between the delights of the internal and external man, which are then opposite to each other (n. 3928, 8351). It takes place on account of the disagreement between those delights (n. 3928). Thus it is concerning the dominion of one over the other (n. 3928, 8961).

No one can be tempted unless he is in the acknowledgment, and likewise in the affection of truth and good, because there is otherwise no combat, for there is nothing spiritual to act against what is natural, thus there is no contest for dominion (n. 3928, 4299). Whoever has acquired any spiritual life, undergoes temptations (n. 8963). Temptations exist with those who have conscience, that is, with those who are in spiritual love; but more grievous ones with those who have perception, that is, with those who are in celestial love (n. 1668, 8963). Dead men, that is they who are not in faith and love to God, and in love towards the neighbor, are not admitted into temptations, because they would fall (n. 270, 4274[1-2], 4299, 8964, 8968). Therefore very few at this day are admitted into spiritual temptations (n. 8965). But they have anxieties on account of various causes in the world, past, present, or future, which are generally attended with infirmity of mind and weakness of body, which anxieties are not the anxieties of temptations (n. 762, 8164). Spiritual temptations are sometimes attended with bodily pains, and sometimes not (n. 8164). A state of temptation is an unclean and filthy state, inasmuch as evils and falsities are injected, and also doubts concerning goods and truths (n. 5246[1-4]). Also, because in temptations there are indignations, pains of the mind, and many affections that are not good (n. 1917, 6829). There is also obscurity and doubt concerning the end (n. 1820, 6829). And likewise concerning the Divine Providence and hearing, because prayers are not heard in temptations as they are out of them (n. 8179). And because man when he is in temptation, seems to himself to be in a state of damnation (n. 6097). Because man perceives clearly what is doing in his external man, consequently the things which evil spirits inject and call forth, according to which he thinks of his state; but he does not perceive what is doing in his internal man, consequently the things which flow in by means of angels from the Lord, and therefore he cannot judge of his state therefrom (n. 10236, 10240).

Temptations are generally carried to desperation, which is their ultimate (n. 1787, 2694, 5279-5280, 6144, 7147, 7155, 7166, 8165, 8567). The reasons (n. 2694). In the temptation itself there are also despairings, but that they terminate in a general one (n. 8567). In a state of despair a man speaks bitter things, but the Lord does not attend to them (n. 8165). When the temptation is finished, there is at first a fluctuation between the truth and falsity (n. 848, 857). But afterwards truth shines, and becomes serene and joyful (n. 3696, 4572, 6829, 8367, 8370).

They who are regenerated undergo temptations not once only, but many times, because many evils and falsities are to be removed (n. 8403). If they who have acquired some spiritual life do not undergo temptations in the world, they undergo them in the other life (n. 7122). How temptations take place in the other life, and where (n. 537-539, 699, 1106-1113, 1122, 2694, 4728, 4940-4951, 6119, 6928, 7090, 7122, 7127, 7186, 7317, 7474, 7502, 7541-7542, 7545, 7768, 7990, 9331, 9763). Concerning the state of enlightenment of those who come out of temptation, and are raised into heaven, and their reception there (n. 2699, 2701, 2704).

The quality of the temptation from lack of truth, and the desire thereof at the same time (n. 2682, 8352). The temptation of infants in the other life, whereby they learn to resist evils, their quality (n. 2294). The difference between temptations, infestations, and vastations (n. 7474).

7502. 'behold, the hand of Jehovah will be on your livestock that are in the field' means the laying waste of the truth and good of faith which they had acquired from the Church to which they had belonged. This is clear from the meaning of 'the hand of Jehovah being on someone' as a plague or punishment, for 'hand' means power, 4931-4937, 6292, 6947, 7188, 7189, and 'the hand of Jehovah' almighty power, 878, 3387, and since those who are confined to the superficial things of the Church are led by appearances to believe that every plague or punishment comes from Jehovah (for they attribute all things to His power), 'the hand of Jehovah being on someone' means punishment, in this instance laying waste or vastation (for the stages In the vastation of those who molested were punishments); from the meaning of 'livestock' as forms of the truth and good of faith, dealt with in 6016, 6045, 6049; and from the meaning of 'the field' as the Church, dealt with in 2971, 3310. 'The field' is the Church because 'seed' which is cast onto the field means the truths of faith, and also because 'the products of the field', such as wheat, barley, spelt, and forms of the good of charity, and truths of faith, thus the kinds of things that belong to the Church.

[2] To understand why it is that hellish spirits who molest the upright in the next life undergo vastation in respect of the truths of faith taught by the Church, it should be recognized that those who molest the upright belonged to the Church. Those who have not belonged to the Church cannot molest others who do belong to it. They cannot do so because falsities, which are opposed to the truths of faith taught by the Church, are what spirits use when they molest, and those who have been outside the Church cannot molest anyone by means of such falsities because they have never come to know them. It is those who have claimed to be believers but have lead an evil life that turn to falsities in the next life and molest the upright with them, see 7097, 7127, 7317. Therefore to prevent the truth of faith which they had acquired from the teachings of their Church while they were living in the world from affording them any light at all from heaven (for they take with them into the next life everything they have come to know in the life of the body; nothing whatever is missing), and to prevent them from using things seen in the light of heaven to lend support to the falsities and evils belonging to hell, everything like that is taken away from them, and they are left finally with the evils forming their life and with the resulting falsities. This vastation is the subject at present.

[3] The reason why those who have belonged to the Church but led an evil life are devastated in stages in this way before they are cast into hell is that they had come to know the truths of faith, which put them in contact with heaven. The heavenly communities with whom they were in contact in the world, and with whom they are still in contact in the next life, cannot be separated from them except in stages. For in heaven such is the nature of order originating in the Lord that nothing is carried out in a violent manner. Everything people do they do in freedom, of their own accord so to speak. Therefore those communities are not wrenched away from them, but separated gradually, so that those people may seem to depart of their own free will and accord. From this one may now see what vastation is like for those who have known the truths of faith taught by the Church and yet have led an evil life.

[4] Without revelation no one can be aware of what such vastation is like; for without revelation people have no knowledge of things that take place in the next life. And since people show little concern to find out from the Word about the truths and forms of the good of faith, because they have no affection for truth for its own sake, let alone for life's sake, neither are such things revealed to them. Yet these things are discernible in the Word; indeed the whole sequence in which they occur and the course they take is presented in its internal sense. Since therefore people in the Church have no affection for knowing truth from the Word, only an affection - for worldly reasons - for substantiating the teachings of their Church, whether true or false, they know nothing whatever about the state after death, nothing about heaven, and nothing about hell. They do not even know what makes heaven or what makes hell with a person. In fact their ignorance is such that they teach and believe that anyone can be admitted into heaven, some believing that a person can be admitted by the power which they have arrogated to themselves, others by the Lord's mercy, irrespective of the life the person has been leading. Scarcely any know that heaven is given to people while they live in the world, through a life of charity and faith, and that this life is enduring. These matters have been stated in order that people may know what members of the Church are like who advocate faith alone but are unconcerned about the life of faith; for these are the ones who are represented by the Egyptians here and in what follows below.