Home | Books of Interest | Site Map | Partners | Contact | Resources
 |
 |
 |
|
Temptations A series of extracts compiled by Bazil Lazer from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg on the nature, cause and purpose of spiritual temptations CONTENTS
Introduction
"Regeneration takes place in order for the previous life of the person to die away and for a new life that is heavenly to come in. You can assume from this that there certainly will be a struggle, for the former person resists and does not want to die out, while the life of the new person can enter only where the old life has expired. Clearly there is a struggle on both sides, and a fierce one because it is a struggle for life" Emanuel Swedenborg
"Temptations" compiled by Bazil Lazer from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg New Translation of Latin quotations and revision of Basil Lazer's remarks by David F Gladish For Basil Lazer Trust The New Church Originally printed in Australia by Nadley Press • 68 Oak Road Kirrawee NSW 2232 ISBN 0 646 29546 2
Layout design and linocuts by Donna Heldon © 2009
|
It is people's inward life that makes them people and distinguishes them from animals. On this inward plane people live after death to eternity, and by it the Lord can raise them up among the angels. It is the matrix from which people are made human. These inner reaches of people do not have life in themselves, but they are forms that receive life from the Lord. The more someone is evil, either by practice or by heredity, the more he is as if separated from this inward level that is the Lord's and is with the Lord. For although it is part of a person and inseparable from him, to the extent that someone moves away from the Lord, he is as if separated from his inner life. But the separation does not separate him from his inner plane, for then he would no longer be capable of living after death. It is insurrection and a distancing on the part of his less lofty levels—the rational and the worldly—from this inmost level. The more the insurrection and distancing, the more the disconnection from the Lord; and the less the insurrection and distancing, the more the person is joined with the Lord by this inmost plane of existence. [Arcana Coelestia 19993-4] The rational plane of a person is intermediate between the most inward plane and the most outward. [Arcana Coelestia 1015] ______________________________________________________ the rational plane of a person is intermediate between the most inward plane and the most outward ______________________________________________________ The rational plane is what joins the innermost
plane of people with the outermost. The connection depends on the
state of the rational plane. But the rational plane is nothing
unless affection flows into it, activating it and giving it life. So
it follows that the state of the rational plane depends on that of
the affection. When an affection for good flows in, this affection
for good becomes, in the rational plane of existence, an affection
for the truth. The opposite goes for an affection for evil. The rational plane is born from the innermost
person as a father and from the most outward as a mother. Unless
these two are joined together, nothing rational exists at all. The rational plane of a person comes from the
joining of the inmost person with the life and emotions of the
worldly plane. The worldly plane in relation to the rational
plane, or, in other words, the outermost person in relation to the
more inward person, is like a housekeeper. The contaminated aspects of one's worldly life
are all the things related to self-interest and materialism. When
these contaminated qualities have been cleaned up, good states and
true concepts flow in. It is painful to separate truth from the worldly
level of a person and raise it to a rational level, for on the
worldly level are fallacies, evil self-interest, and false
convictions. So long as these are present and are attached to the
truth, the worldly side of the person keeps the truth for itself and
will not let it be raised onto the rational level. This is because
the worldly side of a person questions the truth and debates whether
or not it is so. As soon as the Lord sorts out the evil
self-interest and false convictions, however, and out of goodness,
the person begins to abandon his arguments against the truth, then
truth is ready to separate from the worldly plane, rise to the
rational, and be clothed in goodness. The worldly side of a person is quite fully in
the world, and the foundation of people's thought and will is laid
in the worldly plane as in the ground. This is why a person is aware
of a struggle between his rational or inner life and his outer or
worldly life as he is regenerated. It is also why his outer person
is much slower and more difficult to regenerate than his inner. For
what is nearer the world and body cannot easily be coaxed to obey
the inner person.
Or go to the previous [4th] chapter "The struggles of temptation"
[1] Where temptations come from
Appendix |
