143. But that east is always in front of angels no matter which way they turn their faces and bodies - this is even harder to understand in our world, since for us, the direction that is in front of us depends on which way we are facing; so this too needs to be explained.

Angels turn and direct their faces and bodies in any direction just as we do, but still, the east is always before their eyes. The way angels turn is not the way we turn, since it comes from a different origin. The two modes of turning look the same, but they are not. The origin [for angels] is a ruling love. It is the basis of all delimitation for angels and spirits; for, as noted just above, their deeper levels are actually turned toward their common center. So in heaven they are turned toward the Lord as the sun; and since love is constantly in front of their deeper levels, and their faces are manifestations of these levels (being their outward form), the love that is predominant is always in front of their faces. In heaven, then, this is the Lord as the sun, since he is the source of all their love. ¹ Further, since the Lord himself is in his love among the angels, it is the Lord who causes them to be looking at him wherever they turn. These matters cannot be further clarified here, but they will be in subsequent chapters. In particular, where we deal with representations and appearances and with time and space in heaven, they will be presented to understanding more plainly.

As for angels having the Lord constantly in front of them, this I have been granted to know through a great deal of experience. Sometimes when I have been in the company of angels, I have noticed the Lord's presence before my own face: even though I did not see him, I could tell he was there because of the light. Angels have often borne witness to the truth of this as well.

Since the Lord is constantly in front of angels, we say in our world that they have God before their eyes and faces, that people who believe in him and love him look to him and see him. Expressions like this come to us from the spiritual world, for this is the source of many of our expressions, though we are unaware that they come from there.

അടിക്കുറിപ്പുകൾ:

4321. Though these are apparent contradictions and unbelievable to man, they must not for all that be rejected as untrue, because experience itself declares that they are true. If everything for which the cause is not known were so rejected, countless things that reveal themselves in the natural order, for which scarcely one ten-thousandth of their causes is known, would be rejected. For the arcana belonging to the natural order are so many and so great that those which man knows are scarcely any in comparison with those he does not know. What must the situation be with the arcana that reveal themselves in the sphere above the natural order, that is, in the spiritual world, such as the following?

There is one life alone, and from this all receive their life, each individual in a different way from another. Even the evil receive their life from that one life alone, and so too do the hells. Inflowing life acts according to the way it is received.

Heaven is ordered by the Lord in such a way that it is like a Human Being, on account of which it is called the Grand Man. Consequently everything in the human being corresponds to it.

Without influx from heaven into everything with him the human being cannot remain in being even for an instant. All in the Grand Man occupy an unchanging position determined by the nature and the state of the truth and good which governs them. Position there is not position but state, and therefore those on the left are seen constantly on the left, those on the right constantly on the right, those in front constantly in front, and those behind constantly behind. They are seen to be on a level horizontal with the head, chest, back, loins, or feet, overhead or underfoot, straight ahead or obliquely, closer in or further away. They occupy these positions, no matter how or in which direction a spirit turns.

The Lord as the Sun is seen constantly on the right, in the middle of the sky there, a little above a line horizontal with the right eye; and everything exists in relation to the Lord as the Sun and to the Centre there, and so in relation to its one and only source from which it is brought into being and kept in being. And since all appear before the Lord occupying their own unchanging positions, which are determined by states of good and truth, they are therefore seen in the same way by everyone, for the reason that the Lord's life, and therefore the Lord Himself, is present in everyone in heaven.

And there are countless other arcana besides these.