6210. On some occasions I have happened to be deep in thought about worldly matters and the kinds of things that concern most people - possessions, the acquisition of riches, pleasures, and the like. At these times I noticed that I was slipping back into sensory-mindedness, and that to the extent that my thought was immersed in those worldly interests I was more removed from companionship with the angels. This also proved to me that people who are deeply engrossed in such concerns cannot have any real contact with them in the next life. For when such thoughts occupy the whole mind they bear its lower part downwards, like weights pulling it down. When such worldly interests are a person's final concern they remove him from heaven, to which he cannot be raised except by means of the good of love and faith. This has been made additionally clear to me by the following experience. I was once taken through the dwelling-places of heaven, at which time my ideas were spiritual ones. Then I suddenly slipped into thinking about worldly matters, and all those spiritual ideas were scattered and became as nothing.

9007. 'Anyone striking a man - and he dies' means injury done to the truth of faith, and consequent loss of spiritual life. This is clear from the meaning of 'striking' as injuring by means of falsity, dealt with in 7136, 7146; from the meaning of 'a man' as the truth of faith, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'dying' as loss of spiritual life, dealt with in 5407, 6119, 7494, no other kind of life being meant in the internal sense, though natural life is meant in the external sense. The reason why injury done to the truth of faith leads to the destruction of spiritual life is that good united to truth composes that life, and therefore when truth is snatched away good falls to the ground, and so does spiritual life.

[2] The reason why 'a man' means the truth of faith is that in heaven they do not focus their attention on the person or anything of the person, only on things in the abstract, that is, without envisaging any actual person, 4380 (end), 8343, 8985. Consequently they do not think of 'a man' when this expression is used in the Word, for a man is a person; instead they think of his power of mind which makes him a man, namely the power of understanding. And when they think of this they think of the truth of faith, since it belongs to that power of mind and not only enlightens it but also shapes it. Just as in heaven they think of someone's power of understanding when 'a man' (vir) is used, so they think of his power of will when 'a human being' (homo) is used; for a human being is a human being by virtue of the will, whereas 'a man' is such by virtue of the understanding. And as the will is really the human being, 'human being' therefore means the good of love, since it belongs to the will, perfecting and composing it. For the meaning of 'a man' as the power of understanding and consequently the truth of faith, see 158, 265, 749, 1007, 2517, 3134, 3309, 3459, 4823, 7716; and for 'a human being' as the good of love, 768, 4287, 7523, 8547, 8988.