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Arcana Coelestia #8910

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8910. 'You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his male slave nor his female slave, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's' means that one must be on one's guard against self-love and love of the world, and so one must take care to prevent the evils contained in the preceding commandments from becoming present in the will and consequently going out of it. This is clear from the meaning of 'coveting' as a wanting that springs from an evil love. The reason why 'coveting' has this meaning is that all covetousness or craving exists as the result of some kind of love. For nothing is coveted unless there is a love of it, and therefore covetousness extends as a continuation from some kind of love, in this instance from self-love and love of the world. It is so to speak the life of what those loves breathe, for what an evil kind of love breathes is called covetousness or craving, whereas what a good kind breathes is called desire. The love itself belongs to one of two parts of the mind, which is called the will; for what a person loves, that he wills and intends. but covetousness belongs to both parts, to both the will and the understanding, that is, it is an attribute of the will within the understanding, to be precise. All this shows why it is that the words 'you shall not covet the things that are your neighbour's' mean that one must take care to prevent them from becoming present in the will, since what takes possession of the will becomes the person's own; for, to be sure, the will is the real person.

[2] The world believes that thought is the person. But there are two powers that constitute a person's life - understanding and will - and thought belongs to the understanding, the affection inherent in love being what belongs to the will. Thought without the affection inherent in love does not in any way at all constitute a person's life; but thought springing from such affection, that is, the understanding springing from the will, does constitute it. Those two powers are distinct from each other, which is evident to anyone who stops to reflect on the matter from the consideration that with his understanding a person can perceive that that thing is bad which his will desires, and that that thing is good which his will either does or does not desire. From all this it is plain that the will is the real person, not his thought, except so far as anything passes into it from the will. So it is that things which enter a person's thought but do not pass on through it into his will do not render him unclean; only those which pass through thought on into the will do so. The reason why the latter render a person unclean is that he takes them to himself then and makes them his; for the will, as has been stated, is the real person. The things which become part of his will are said to go into his heart and to go out from there, whereas those which are merely part of his thought are said to go into the mouth and to go out by way of the bowels into the sewer, according to the Lord's words in Matthew,

Not what enters the mouth renders a person unclean, but what comes out of the mouth, this renders the person unclean. Everything that goes into the mouth departs into the bowels and is cast out into the sewer. But the things which come out of the mouth come out of the heart, and these render a person unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, ravishments, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. Matthew 15:11, 17-19.

[3] From these words as from all the others the nature of the Lord's manner of speaking becomes clear. That is, its nature was such that internal or spiritual matters were meant, but they were expressed by means of external or natural things and in accordance with correspondences. For the mouth corresponds to thought, and so do all parts of the mouth, such as the lips, tongue, and throat, while the heart corresponds to the affection inherent in love, and so to the will. For the correspondence of the heart to these, see 2930, 3313, 3883-3896, 7542. Consequently 'entering the mouth' is entering thought, and 'going out of the heart' is going out of the will. 'Departing into the bowels and being cast out into the sewer (or latrine)' is going away into hell; for the bowels correspond to the way to hell, while the sewer or latrine corresponds to hell itself. Hell also in the Word is called 'the latrine'. All this shows what is meant by 'everything that goes into the mouth departs into the bowels and is cast out into the sewer', namely that evil and falsity are introduced into a person's thought by hell and are discharged back there again. Such evil and falsity cannot render a person unclean because they are discharged from him. For a person cannot help thinking what is evil, but he can refrain from doing it. As soon however as he receives evil from his thought into his will it does not go out but enters into him; and this is said 'to enter the heart'. The things that go out from here are what render him unclean; for what a person desires in his will goes out into speech and action, so far as external restraints do not inhibit him, those restraints being fear of the law, and fear of the loss of reputation, position, gain, or life. From all this it is now evident that 'you shall not covet' means that one must take care to prevent evils from becoming present in the will and consequently going out of it.

[4] The fact that 'covetousness' is a craving or lusting on the part of the will, and so of the heart, is also clear from the Lord's words in Matthew,

You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that if anyone looks at a woman 1 so that he lusts after her he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28.

'Lusting for' is used here to mean desiring in the will, and - but for the fears acting as external restraints - also doing. This is why it says that one who looks at a woman so that he lusts after her has committed adultery with her in his heart.

[5] Lusting after what is evil is also meant by 'the right eye causing one to stumble', and lusting after what is false by 'the right hand causing one to stumble' in the Lord's words, again in Matthew,

If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you; for it will be better for you that one of your members perish, than that your whole body be cast into gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you; for it will be better for you that one of your members perish, than that your whole body be cast into gehenna. Matthew 5:29-30.

From these words the Lord's way of saying things is again clear. That is to say, He was speaking from the Divine, as in every other place in the Word, in such a way that He expressed inward and heavenly matters through outward or natural ones in accordance with correspondences. In this instance He expressed an affection for evil or lusting after it by 'the right eye causing one to stumble', and an affection for falsity or lusting after it by 'the right hand causing one to stumble'. For the eye corresponds to faith, the left eye to the truth of faith, and the right eye to the good of faith, or in the contrary sense to the evil of faith, so that 'the right eye causing one to stumble' corresponds to lusting after what is evil, 4403-4421, 4523-4534. But the hand corresponds to the power that truth possesses, the right hand to the power of truth coming from good, or in the contrary sense the power of falsity coming from evil, so that 'the right hand causing one to stumble' corresponds to a lusting after it, 3091, 4931-4937, 8281. 'Gehenna' is the hell of lusts, cravings, or covetousness. Anyone may see that here 'the right eye' was not used to mean the right eye or that it was to be plucked out; also that 'the right hand' was not used to mean the right hand or that it was to be cut off, but that something other was meant. What this is cannot be known unless one knows what is really meant by 'the eye', in particular by 'the right eye', also what is meant by 'the hand', and in particular by 'the right hand', as well as what 'causing to stumble' really means. Nor can the meaning of these expressions be known except from the internal sense.

[6] Lusts, cravings, or covetous desires are what spring from an evil will, thus from a heart that is such; and according to the Lord's words in Matthew 15:19, murders, adulteries, ravishments, thefts, false witness, blasphemies come out of the heart or will, that is, the kinds of evils contained in the preceding commandments of the Decalogue. In all this lies the reason for saying that this - 'you must not covet the things which are your neighbour's' - means that one must take care to prevent the evils contained in the ''receding commandments from becoming present in the will and consequently going out of it. The reason why 'you shall not covet the things which are your neighbour's' also means that one must be on one's guard against self-love and love of the world is that all the evils composing covetousness well up from those loves as their source, see 2045, 7178, 7255, 7366 7377, 7488, 8318, 8678.

Footnotes:

1. Following the version of Sebastian Schmidt Swedenborg adds a word which implies that the woman is another man's wife.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia #3883

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3883. THE GRAND MAN AND CORRESPONDENCE - continued IN THIS SECTION THE CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE HEART AND LUNGS

What the Grand Man is, and what correspondence with it is, has been stated already. The Grand Man consists in heaven in its entirety, which in general is a likeness and image of the Lord. Correspondence is a correspondence of the Lord's Divine with the celestial and spiritual things of heaven, and of those celestial and spiritual things of heaven with natural things in the world, primarily those in man. Thus there exists, by means of heaven or the Grand Man, a correspondence of the Lord's Divine with man and every individual part of him, so much so that man comes into being from that correspondence and is all the time coming into being, that is, is kept in being, from it.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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Arcana Coelestia #9496

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9496. 'And you shall make poles of shittim wood' means power derived from this. This is clear from the meaning of 'poles' as the power which truth from good possesses, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'shittim wood' as the good of merit that is the Lord's alone, dealt with above in 9472, 9486. Here it must now be stated what it was that enabled the ark and the dwelling-place to represent heaven, and at the same time the rim of the ark to represent a border, the corners firmness, the rings the joining of good to truth, and the poles power. It has been shown that the whole natural system, thus every single thing existing in true order there, is representative of the Lord's kingdom, that is, of heaven and heavenly realities present there, 9280. It has also been shown that the whole of heaven resembles a human being, and that for this reason heaven has been called the Grand Man, 9276 (end). From this it now follows that all objects which serve to represent heavenly realities correlate with the human form, and that they carry spiritual meanings according to their similarity to that form.

[2] From this it is now evident how the ark can come to mean heaven where the Lord is, the rim on it to mean a border, the sides to mean good to which truth must be joined, the corners to mean firmness, the rings to mean the actual joining together, and the poles to mean power. For the poles resemble a person's arms and therefore also have a similar meaning to the arms; the rings resemble the ginglymi or sockets where the arms are linked to the breast; the corners resemble the actual protrusions where that link is made; the sides resemble the chest cavity or thorax, and the rim resembles the [shoulder-]girdle which forms a border for it. From this it becomes clear that power is meant by 'poles', as it is by 'arms' (for the meaning of 'arms' and 'hands' as power, see 878, 4931-4937, 5327, 5328, 6292, 6947, 7188, 7189, 7205, 7518, 7673, 8050, 8153, 8281, 9025, 9133); and that the same thing is meant by 'the sides' as by the chest or thorax of the body, namely good, since the chest contains the heart and lungs, and 'the heart' means celestial good and 'the lungs' spiritual good, 3883-3896, 9300. From all this it is evident that by 'rings' the same thing is meant as by ginglymi or joints which join the chest to the shoulders, and the shoulders to the arms, namely the joining of good to truth, and that firmness is meant by 'the corners', for the strength of the body is exerted there, and the body is equipped with strength and power through the arms. From all this one may recognize how it comes about that natural objects which are inanimate can represent the same realities as ones that are animate, that is, as parts of the human body. That is to say, it comes about because heaven resembles a human being, and the things present in heaven resemble those that exist in the human being, as may be seen from what has been shown at great length regarding the correspondence of the human being with the Grand Man or heaven. See the places referred to in 9276 (end).

[3] Just as the poles which were used to carry the ark meant power, so did the poles or bars which were used to secure the gates of cities, as is clear from the following places: In Hosea,

The sword falls on its cities, and consumes its bars. Hosea 11:6.

'The sword' stands for truth battling against falsity, 'cities' for matters of doctrine, and 'bars' for power. In Isaiah,

For your sake I have sent to Babel, and I will break down all the bars. Isaiah 43:14.

In Jeremiah,

The mighty ones of Babel are seated in strongholds; their power has been destroyed. 1 Its bars have been broken. Jeremiah 51:30.

In Amos,

I will break the bar of Damascus. Amos 1:5.

In Isaiah,

I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron. Isaiah 45:2.

Similar words occur in David, Psalms 107:16. In Jeremiah,

It has no gates or bars; they dwell alone. Jeremiah 49:31.

In Ezekiel,

They all dwell without a wall; 2 they do not have bars and gates. Ezekiel 38:11.

In Jeremiah,

Her gates have sunk into the earth, He has destroyed and broken in pieces her bars. Lamentations 2:9.

In David,

Praise your God, O Zion! For He strengthens the bars of your gates. Psalms 147:12-13.

In these places matters of doctrine are meant by 'cities', 2449, 2712, 3216, 4492, 4493, firmness and protection by 'gates', and the power which belongs to truth derived from good by 'bars'. The fact that all power belongs to truth, but to truth that is derived from good, see 6344, 6423, 8200, 8304, 9133, 9327, 9410.

Footnotes:

1. literally, given to oblivion

2. i.e. they live in villages which do not have walls around them

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.