9371. THE INTERNAL SENSE.

Verses 1-2. And He said unto Moses, Come up unto Jehovah, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and bow yourselves afar off; and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah; and they shall not come near; and the people shall not come up with him. “And He said unto Moses,” signifies that which concerns the Word in general; “come up unto Jehovah,” signifies conjunction with the Lord; “thou and Aaron,” signifies the Word in the internal sense and the external sense; “Nadab and Abihu,” signifies doctrine from both senses; “and seventy of the elders of Israel,” signifies the chief truths of the church which are of the Word, or of doctrine, and which agree with good; “and bow yourselves afar off,” signifies humiliation and adoration from the heart, and then the influx of the Lord; “and Moses, he alone, shall come near unto Jehovah,” signifies the conjunction and presence of the Lord through the Word in general; “and they shall not come near,” signifies no separate conjunction and presence; “and the people shall not come up with him,” signifies no conjunction whatever with the external apart from the internal.

9093. And they shall divide the silver of it. That this signifies that the truth thereof shall be dissipated, is evident from the signification of “dividing,” as being to banish and dissipate (see n. 6360, 6361); and from the signification of “silver,” as being truth (n. 1551, 2048, 5658, 6112, 6914, 6917, 7999). That “to divide” denotes to dissipate, is because if those things which have been associated together are divided, they are also scattered, as he who divides his mind destroys it. For the mind of man is an association of two parts, one part being called the understanding, the other the will. He who divides these two parts scatters the things which belong to one part, for one part must live from the other; consequently the other also perishes. It is the same with him who divides truth from good, or what is the same, faith from charity. He who does this destroys both. In a word, all things which ought to be united in a one, if divided perish.

[2] This division is meant by the Lord’s words in Luke:

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will prefer the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Luke 16:13).

That is, by faith serve the Lord, and by love the world; thus acknowledge truth, and do evil. He who does this has a divided mind, from which comes its destruction. From all this it is evident whence it is that “to divide” denotes to dissipate; as is also evident in Matthew:

The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall divide him, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites (Matthew 24:50-51); where “to divide” denotes to separate and remove from goods and truths (n. 4424), thus to dissipate.

[3] In Moses:

Cursed be their anger, for it was vehement; and their wrath, for it was hard. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel (Genesis 49:7); where Israel speaks prophetically of Simeon and Levi. By Simeon and Leviticus are there represented those who are in faith separate from charity (n. 6352), by Jacob and Israel the church external and internal, and also the external and internal man (n. 4286, 4598, 5973, 6360, 6361). “To divide them in Jacob” denotes to expel them from the external church; and “to scatter them in Israel” denotes from the internal church; thus to dissipate the goods and the truths of the church appertaining to them.

[4] That “dividing” has this signification is also plain from the words written on the wall when Belshazzar king of Babel, together with his lords, his wives, and his concubines, drank wine from the vessels of gold and of silver which belonged to the temple that was at Jerusalem. The writing was:

Numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided (Daniel 5:2-4, 25-28); where “divided” means separated from the kingdom. In this passage it is plain how all things were at that time representative. In it is described the profanation of good and truth, which is signified by “Babel” (that Babel” denotes profanation, see n. 1182, 1283, 1295, 1304-1308, 1321, 1322, 1326); “vessels of gold and of silver” denote the goods of love and the truths of faith from the the Lord, (n. 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917). Profanation is signified by “drinking therefrom, and at the same time praising the gods of gold, of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone,” as we read in the fourth verse of the chapter, which denote evils and falsities in a series (n. 4402, 4544, 7873, 8941). By the “temple at Jerusalem” from which the vessels came, is signified in the supreme sense the Lord, in the representative sense His kingdom and church (n. 3720). The kingdom of Belshazzar being “divided” signified the dissipation of good and truth, and he himself being “slain that night” signified the loss of the life of truth and good, thus damnation; for “to be divided” denotes to be dissipated; “a king” denotes the truth of good (n. 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148); the like is signified by “kingdom” (n. 1672, 2547, 4691); “to be slain” denotes to be deprived of the life of truth and good (n. 3607, 6767, 8902); and the “night” in which he was slain denotes a state of evil and falsity (n. 2353, 7776, 7851, 7870, 7947). From this it is plain that all things there were representative.

[5] It says in David:

They divided My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast a lot (Psalms 22:18).

They divided His garments, casting a lot; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet (Matthew 27:35).

The soldiers took His garments, and made four parts; and the tunic, the tunic was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore, Let us not divide it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be; that the Scripture might be fulfilled (John 19:23-24).

He who reads these words and knows nothing of the internal sense of the Word, is not aware that anything secret lies hidden in them, when yet in each word there is a Divine secret. The secret was that Divine truths had been dissipated by the Jews, for the Lord was the Divine truth; and hence He is called “the Word” (John 1). “The Word” denotes Divine truth; His garments represented truths in the external form; and His tunic, truths in the internal form; the division of the garments represented the dissipation of the truths of faith by the Jews. (That “garments” denote truths in the external form, see n. 2576, 5248, 5954, 6918; also that “a tunic” denotes truth in the internal form, n. 4677.) Truths in the external form are such as are those of the Word in the literal sense; but truths in the internal form are such as are those of the Word in the spiritual sense. The division of the garments into four parts signified total dissipation, in like manner as the division in Zechariah 14:4, and in other passages; likewise the division into two parts, as we read of the veil of the temple (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38). The rending of the rocks also at that time (Matthew 27:51) represented the dissipation of all things of faith, for a “rock” denotes the Lord as to faith, consequently it denotes faith from the Lord.

THE HUMAN MIND

Definitions

1. It is the spirit see Divine Providence 196; 299; cf. Divine Love and Wisdom 199, 386, 387

2. Its laws are those of the spiritual world Divine Providence 299, 300. Cf. Divine Providence 307

a. Notice how the mind obeys those laws - time flies when you're having fun. The wish for spiritual distance. Turning our backs on the Lord - people forget Him or eternity soon after coming into eternity.

b. Positives - the ability of the mind to feel close to a far off loved one.

c. The mind is never old - for its laws are eternal.

3. The mind is spiritual, and the body is its external. Cf. Interaction of the Soul and Body 14; Heaven and Hell 356.

4. It is the intermediate between the soul and the body Conjugial Love 101; Interaction of the Soul and Body 8e

5. It is made up of will and understanding. Divine Love and Wisdom 372 et al.

a. These are now separated, but in the other world they are conjoined again Heaven and Hell 425; Arcana Coelestia 8250.

What makes up the mind?

1. Spiritual substances. Divine Love and Wisdom 257.

2. Made up, not of 102-odd elements, but of our loves and truths Divine Love and Wisdom 372; cf. Divine Providence 326:3; Arcana Coelestia 4390

3. Our affections and thoughts. Interaction of the Soul and Body 8

4. The human mind is nothing but a form of Divine good and Divine truth spiritually and naturally organized. True Christian Religion 224

5. The truth of faith and the good of charity constitute his more interior mind Arcana Coelestia 6158.

6. The soul is a superior spiritual substance, and receives influx immediately from God; the mind, an inferior spiritual substance, receives it from God mediately through the spiritual world. Interaction of the Soul and Body 8e.

7. Thus there are three influences on the mind: the soul, the spiritual world, and the natural world. Interaction of the Soul and Body 8.

a. Note the term natural nearly always refers to what comes to us through our senses, or through our heredity.

b. The term spiritual means what is living. It has spirit within it. Divine Providence 321.

So, what does this mean?

1. Think of knowledges as real substances.

2. They gather around affections. Bound into bundles around affection True Christian Religion 38.

a. The initial way we learn of something is from many different sources. Affections pull them together

b. First natural affections, later spiritual affections.

3. The mind has extension. It is like a landscape. When you learn new things, a new field opens up, and it grows grass and trees and flowers, and is peopled with animals and birds.

4. Think of a little child's mind as an empty space.

a. At first, its goods are a delight in toys, a love for his parents, a need for security, etc.

b. Note the hierarchy. Even to a little child, the security and love are more important than the toys.

c. As it learns, it receives fields into its mental landscape.

5. Journey to Brazil, Japan. A new field, a new set of affections and thoughts.

6. Get married, have a child, become grandparents, retire. Each opens up new vistas.

7. And when we are being regenerated, new loves are born of the Lord from within, creating new realms.

a. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.

Can the mind be organized around the wrong affections?

1. Yes, indeed. We can learn the truths of the Writings because we are vain, and we are proud of ourselves above others. Then those truths gather around a selfish, maybe an evil affection.

2. Think of the great scientists who have used science for evil.

3. Such a mind, instead of being a heaven in least form, is a hell.

Memory

1. All memories are the storehouse of a sense impression (or a thought) together with the affection that belongs to it.

2. Note that through regeneration the memory is reorganized. We learned for bad reasons, and then the truths are shaken up and rearranged around good affections.

Degrees of the Mind

1. The mind is composed of discrete degrees of life

a. Delight in friendship is natural

b. Delight in love is spiritual

c. Things that belong to friendship are natural - communication, trust, shared ideas about values of this earth

d. Those that belong to love are spiritual - are not really articulate on this earth.

e. Degrees of attraction to the opposite sex.

2. Most general are natural, spiritual, celestial. cf. Divine Love and Wisdom 222, 236; 186, et al.

3. There are three degrees of the natural, and they are opened by education.

4. The higher degrees are opened by regeneration. Divine Love and Wisdom 237; Conjugial Love 305.

5. Note that the natural degree cannot flow into or order the higher degree, but the reverse can happen! It is called regeneration

a. A natural illustration: the rational mind can see that the sun doesn't set (while still enjoying the appearance that it does); but as Galileo found to his cost, the sensuous mind can only see the evidence on its level of thought.

6. The three degrees of the mind correspond to the three heavens. Divine Love and Wisdom 186; 239.

7. The spiritual mind is closed because of hereditary evil. It has to be opened by regeneration. Divine Love and Wisdom 269, 138, 270

8. How are the degrees of the mind opened? By receiving terminations into themselves. Arcana Coelestia 5145.

Summary

1. The whole education process is to allow the mind to assume an ordered form. If it comes to adult life in such a form, then it is prepared for regeneration.

2. The affections around which truths are arranged in the natural mind will be orderly, natural affections. These affections will have affinity for each other.

3. The truths in the interior mind will be remains, ordered around heavenly affections for truth. Inmostly there will be affections for good.

4. Through obedience to the Lord, and the temptations that follow, those natural affections become re-ordered around the spiritual affections which flow from within.

a. Note that there are spiritual affections hidden inside natural ones, because the natural ones correspond to spiritual ones!

b. The negative natural affections will be cast out. This is the story of the butler and the baker in Egypt.

5. Finally, this means that we cannot teach a spiritual truth! We can teach a natural truth which contains a spiritual one within, but only the Lord can inspire that life of truth from within and make it spiritual, living, in another person's mind! Divine Love and Wisdom 237; Arcana Coelestia 3185; 3207; cf. 5580, et al.