4387. 'And Esau returned on that day on his own way, to Seir' means the state at that time of Divine Natural Good to which the goods of truth had been linked. This is clear from the meaning of 'day' as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462 - hence 'he returned on that day' means the state which it assumed at that point; from the representation of 'Esau' as Divine Natural Good, dealt with above in 4340; from the meaning of 'way' as truth, dealt with in 627, 2333, in this case the good of truth, which is truth in will and action, 4337, 4353; and from the meaning of 'Seir' as the joining of truth to good, dealt with above in 4384. These different meanings when drawn together to give one overall sense show that the words used here mean the state at that time of Divine Natural Good to which the goods of truth had been linked.

[2] It is not at all apparent from the historical sense of these words that such ideas are meant by them. All the same, it is just these ideas that those words hold within them in the spiritual or internal sense. For heaven, which is within man - that is, the angels who reside with him - do not have the slightest interest in details to do with the history of the world. Neither do they know who or what Esau was, who or what Seir was. Nor do they have any thought of the day when Esau returned or of the way to Seir; instead they gather ideas of the spiritual things which correspond to those historical facts, instantly deriving such a spiritual meaning from them. For correspondences work in the following way: They are very much like a person talking in a foreign language to someone else who instantly understands what is meant as if in his own language, the sounds and pronunciation of the words actually used being no hindrance to him. So it is with the internal sense of the Word, which sense is in perfect agreement with the universal language which angels use, that is, with the spiritual speech which is expressive of their thought. Their speech is spiritual because their thought is a product of the light of heaven which shines from the Lord.

540. Almost everybody entering the next life is ignorant of what heavenly blessedness and happiness are, for people do not know what internal joy is, or the nature of it. They gain a conception of it solely through bodily and worldly delights and joys. Consequently that of which they are ignorant they imagine to be nothing. But in fact bodily and worldly joys are by contrast worthless and foul. Therefore so that upright persons who do not know what heavenly joy is may come to know and recognize it they are taken first of all to the gardens there, which surpass anyone's entire imagination. These will in the Lord's Divine mercy be described later on. These persons now suppose that they have entered the heavenly paradise, but they are taught that even this is not true heavenly happiness, and so they are then given to know about the inward states of joy that enter their inmost being. After this they are brought into a state of peace that reaches to their inmost being, at which point they declare that no part of such experience could possibly be expressed in words or even conceived of. Finally they are brought into a state of innocence, and this too reaches their inmost feelings. In this way they are given to know what true spiritual and celestial goodness is.