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Interaction of the Soul and Body # 8

Pag-aralan ang Sipi na ito

  
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8. VI. Those two, heat and light, or love and wisdom, flow conjointly from God into the soul of man; and through this into his mind, its affections and thoughts; and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body.

The spiritual influx hitherto treated of by inspired men is that from the soul into the body, but no one has treated of influx into the soul, and through this into the body; although it is known that all the good of love and all the truth of faith flow from God into man, and nothing of them from man; and those things which flow from God flow first into his soul, and through his soul into the rational mind, and through this into those things which constitute the body. If any one investigates spiritual influx in any other manner, he is like one who stops up the course of a fountain and still seeks there perennial streams; or like one who deduces the origin of a tree from the root and not from the seed; or like one who examines derivations apart from their source.

[2] For the soul is not life in itself, but is a recipient of life from God, who is life in Himself; and all influx is of life, thus from God. This is meant by the statement: “Jehovah God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of lives, and man was made a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). To breathe into the nostrils the breath of lives signifies to implant the perception of good and truth. The Lord also says of Himself, “As the Father hath life in Himself so hath He also given to the Son to have life in Himself” (John 5:26): life in Himself is God; and the life of the soul is life flowing in from God.

[3] Now inasmuch as all influx is of life, and life operates by means of its receptacles, and the inmost or first of the receptacles in man is his soul, therefore in order that influx may be rightly apprehended it is necessary to begin from God, and not from an intermediate station. Were we to begin from an intermediate station, our doctrine of influx would be like a chariot without wheels, or like a ship without sails. This being the case, therefore, in the preceding articles we have treated of the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jehovah God (5); and of the influx thence of love and wisdom, thus of life (6, 7).

[4] That life flows from God into man through the soul, and through this into his mind, that is, into its affections and thoughts, and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body, is because these are the things pertaining to life in successive order. For the mind is subordinate to the soul, and the body is subordinate to the mind. The mind, also, has two lives, the one of the will and the other of the understanding. The life of its will is the good of love, the derivations of which are called affections; and the life of the understanding there is the truth of wisdom, the derivations of which are called thoughts: by means of the latter and the former the mind lives. The life of the body, on the other hand, are the senses, speech, and actions: that these are derived from the soul through the mind follows from the order in which they stand, and from this they manifest themselves to a wise man without examination.

[5] The human soul, being a superior spiritual substance, receives influx directly from God; but the human mind, being an inferior spiritual substance, receives influx from God indirectly through the spiritual world; and the body, being composed of the substances of nature which are called matter, receives influx from God indirectly through the natural world.

That the good of love and the truth of wisdom flow from God into the soul of a man conjointly, that is, united into one, but that they are divided by the man in their progress, and are conjoined only with those who suffer themselves to be led by God, will be seen in the following articles.

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

Mula sa Mga gawa ni Swedenborg

 

Interaction of the Soul and Body # 7

Pag-aralan ang Sipi na ito

  
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7. V. Both that heat and that light flow into man: the heat into his will, where it produces the good of love; and the light into his understanding, where it produces the truth of wisdom.

It is well known that all things universally have relation to good and truth, and that there is not a single thing in existence in which there is not something related to those two. On this account there are two receptacles of life in man: one, which is the receptacle of good, called the will; and another, which is the receptacle of truth, called the understanding; and, as good is of love and truth is of wisdom, the will is the receptacle of love, and the understanding the receptacle of wisdom. Good is of love, because what a man loves that he wills, and when he brings it into action he calls it good: and truth is of wisdom, because all wisdom is from truths; indeed, the good which a wise man thinks is truth, which becomes good when he wills and does it.

[2] He who does not rightly distinguish between these two receptacles of life, which are the will and the understanding, and does not form for himself a clear notion respecting them, strives in vain to comprehend the nature of spiritual influx. For there is influx into the will, and there is influx into the understanding. Into the will of man there is an influx of the good of love, and into his understanding there is an influx of the truth of wisdom, each proceeding from Jehovah God, directly through the sun in the midst of which He is, and indirectly through the angelic heaven. These two receptacles, the will and the understanding are as distinct as heat and light; for, as was said above, the will receives the heat of heaven, which in its essence is love, and the understanding receives the light of heaven, which in its essence is wisdom.

[3] There is an influx from the human mind into the speech, and there is an influx into the actions; the influx into speech is from the will through the understanding, but the influx into the actions is from the understanding through the will. Those who are only acquainted with the influx into the understanding, and not at the same time with that into the will, and who reason and conclude therefrom, are like one-eyed persons, who only see the objects on one side of them, and not at the same time those on the other; and like maimed persons, who do their work awkwardly with one hand only; and like lame persons, who walk by hopping on one foot, with the assistance of a staff. From these few observations it is plain that spiritual heat flows into the will of man, and produces the good of love, and that spiritual light flows into his understanding, and produces the truth of wisdom.

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

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Arcana Coelestia # 1495

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1495. 'Why did you say, She is my sister?' means that He knew no other at that time than that He possessed intellectual truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sister' as intellectual truth, and also from the fact that Abram had said so, as is clear from verse 13, which was done to the end that what was celestial should suffer no violence but should be saved. From this it was evident that when the Lord as a boy absorbed facts. He first of all knew no otherwise than that facts existed solely for the sake of the intellectual man, that is, that they existed so that from them He might come to know truths. But later on it was disclosed that they had existed so that He might attain to celestial things. This took place so that celestial things should suffer no violence but be saved. When a person is being instructed the progression is from facts to rational truths, then on to intellectual truths, and finally to celestial truths, which are meant here by 'a wife'. If that progression passes from facts and rational truths straight to celestial truths and not by means of intellectual truths, then that which is celestial suffers violence; for no connection is then possible, linking rational truths, based on facts, with celestial truths, except through intellectual truths, which are means. What celestial truths are, and what intellectual truths are, will be seen in what follows shortly

[2] To enable people to know what is implied in all this, something must be said about order. Order consists in the celestial flowing into the spiritual and adapting this to be of service to itself; the spiritual in the same way flowing into the rational and adapting this to itself; the rational in the same way into factual knowledge and adapting this to itself. But when a person is receiving instruction during earliest childhood, the same order in fact exists, but it appears to be otherwise; that is to say, he appears to progress from facts to rational things, from these to spiritual, and so at length to celestial things. The reason why his instruction appears to follow such a course is that a way must thereby be opened to celestial things, which are inmost. All instruction is simply the opening of a way; and as the way is opened - or what amounts to the same, as vessels are opened - an ordered influx accordingly takes place, as has been stated, of rational things derived from celestial-spiritual things with celestial-spiritual things flowing into rational, and celestial things into celestial-spiritual. Such celestial things are presenting themselves uninterruptedly, and are also preparing for themselves and forming the vessels which are being opened. This is also made clear by the fact that in themselves factual knowledge and rational conception are dead, but that they give the appearance of being alive because of the interior life flowing into them. This may become plain to anyone from the powers of thought and of forming judgements.

[3] Hidden within those powers lie all the secrets of analytical art and science, which are so many that not one ten-thousandth part of them can ever be explored; and these secrets lie hidden not only with the adult person but also with children. All their thought and everything they speak from it is full of such things - though not one, not even the most learned, is aware of this; yet this could not be unless celestial and spiritual things within had been presenting themselves, flowing in, and bringing forth all these thoughts and utterances.

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