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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
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It is
very true that the Lord guides people through spirits and angels. When
evil spirits begin to take control, angels are busy turning aside evil
influences and false ideas, so a struggle develops. This is the struggle
that one is aware of as the perception and dictates of conscience. By
these clues, as by the temptations, people would clearly recognise that
spirits and angels are with them if they were not so involved in their
bodies that they believe nothing that is said about spirits and angels.
If people like this felt these struggles a hundred times, they would
still pronounce them fantasies and caused by some mental illness. I have
known about these struggles and vividly felt the effect of them a
million times, almost continually now for some years, including who
caused them, what kind of spirits, where, when they ebbed, and when they
flowed.
And I have talked with them! To eat products of the ground in great sorrow (Gen. 3:17) represents a miserable state of life, especially since to eat, in an inward sense, means to live. Add the fact that a miserable life follows when evil spirits begin to attack and the angels around a person ______________________________________________________ a person lives like a wild animal if his inner plane is separated from his outer plane it is through the inner person that the Lord makes someone human ______________________________________________________ the
angels around a
person get to work, and all the more if the evil
spirits begin to be in control. Then the evil spirits lead the outer
person, angels the inner, of which so little is left that the angels can
hardly find anything of it to protect the person with. This results in
misery and stress. People who are spiritually dead rarely notice misery
and stress like this. The reason is that they are no longer human, no
matter how much they think that they are more human than anyone else.
They do not know what is spiritual and heavenly and what eternal life is
any more than animals do. Like the animals they look downward at things
on the ground and around at worldly things. All they cherish is their
ego, and they indulge whim and sense with the full consent of their
rational minds. Being dead spiritually, they do not undergo any
struggle or temptation. If it did come over them, it would be more
severe than they could survive, and they would condemn themselves even
worse and plunge even deeper into the damnation of hell. So they are
spared until they are taken into the other life, where they can no
longer die of any temptation or misery. Then they undergo very serious
experiences, which are also meant by the cursed ground and eating the
fruit of it in great sorrow. A person lives like a wild animal if his inner plane is separated from his outer plane so that it functions only in a general way in him. For it is through the inner person that the Lord makes someone human. But the wild animal in people comes from the outer plane. Without
the inner dimension, this is nothing but a wild animal with animal
nature, animal drives, animal appetites, animal illusions, and animal
sensations. And the same organs. Yet this outer person can reason, and,
as it seems to him, reason cleverly. He gets this ability from the
spiritual substance which life from the Lord can flow into, but which is
distorted in such a person and turns into a life of evil, which is
death. This is why he is spoken of as dead. No one can resist evils and falsities until he knows
what evil and falsity are, and therefore not until he has been taught.
He does not know what evil is, much less what falsity is, until his
intellect and judgment are strong, and this is why people do not enter
temptations until adulthood—each when grown up. But the Lord did in
childhood. In the very beginning, each person resists on the basis of the morals and the verities that he is acquainted with. By and through them he passes judgment on bad and false things. And each person, when he first begins to resist, thinks that the goodness and the truths with which he resists are his own. That is, he attributes them to himself, and he also attributes to himself the power to stand fast. This is acceptable, for at that point the person has no way of knowing any better. Until someone has been regenerated he cannot know at all—not to the extent of being able to say that he knows, accepts, and believes—that no goodness or truth is from himself but all goodness and truth are from the Lord. He does not know, either, that he cannot resist anything evil or false by his own fortitude. In fact, he does not know that evil spirits stir up and pour in evil and false influences, still less that through evil spirits he is in touch with hell. Nor does he know that hell is pressing in on him like the sea on every ______________________________________________________ yet this outer person can reason, and,
as it seems to him, reason cleverly ______________________________________________________ part of the shore, which no one can hold back by his own strength. But before he is regenerated he cannot help thinking that it is by his own strength, so this is permissible, and in this way he is introduced to struggles or temptations. But later he gets more and more enlightened. When
someone is at the stage where he thinks that goodness and truth are from
himself and the power to resist is his own, the good morals and the
truths with which he resists bad behaviour and false beliefs are not
good and true, though they seem to be, for his ego is in them, and he
takes credit for victory and gloats as if he had conquered evil and
falsity, although the Lord alone is the one who fights and wins. No one
is capable of knowing that this is the way it is, excepting people who
are being
regenerated through temptations. It is truth that is in the front lines, for the fight
is carried on by means of truth. The truth makes known what falsity is
and what evil is. Therefore, these conflicts never come up before a
person is equipped with a knowledge and grasp of the truth and good
behaviour. When
people are convinced that they can do good and resist evil by their own
power and that this is how they merit salvation, the notion clings, and
it causes goodness to be bad and the truth to be false. But it is still
appropriate for someone to do good just as if it came from himself, so
he should not hold back, thinking, "If I can do no good on my own, I
should wait for a direct stimulus," and thus wait inertly.
This is not appropriate, either.
He should do good as if from himself, but
when he is mulling over the good that he does or has done, he can think,
acknowledge, and believe that the Lord, present with him, did it. If a person gives up, thinking as was described, he
is not a vessel in which the Lord can act. The Lord cannot influence
anyone who abandons everything which power can flow into.
______________________________________________________ many people are unaware that each person has an inward plane, a reasoning plane, and a worldly
plane ______________________________________________________ Many people are unaware that each person has an
inward plane, a reasoning plane, and a worldly plane, and that the
planes are quite distinct from one another—so distinct, in fact, that
one plane can dispute with another. For the reasoning plane, spoken of
as the rational side of the person, can dispute with the worldly plane,
which is the worldly side of the person. The planes are so distinct, in
fact, that the rational side of the person can see and discern a fault
in the worldly side, and, if it truly is rational, correct the fault. Until the two planes are in alignment, a person
cannot be an integrated person nor be in peace and quiet, because one
plane fights with the other. For the angels with a person guide his
rational plane, but evil spirits who are with him guide his worldly
plane. This gives rise to conflict. If the rational level prevails, the worldly is
subdued, and this gives a person a conscience. But if the worldly plane
wins, he can get no conscience at all. If the rational plane wins, his
worldly level becomes just as if it, too, were rational. But if the
worldly plane wins, the rational plane becomes worldly to all intents
and purposes. Furthermore, if the rational plane wins, angels come
closer to the person and fill him up with charity, which is something
heavenly that the angels get from the Lord. Then the evil spirits go far
away. However, if the worldly plane prevails, the angels go farther
away—that is, more toward his inner reaches—and evil spirits approach
more closely his rational plane and keep attacking it, filling the lower
parts of his mind with hates, resentments, deceits, and so forth. If the rational plane prevails, the person finds
peace and quiet, and in the other life heavenly peace. But if the
worldly plane wins, he seems to be in peace while he lives, but in the
other life he enters the turmoil and torment of hell. This shows the human condition on the rational plane
and on the worldly plane. So there is nothing that can make someone
blessed and happy except for the rational level to keep the worldly in
line and both to be in alignment. This is only accomplished by love for
other people, which comes only from the Lord.
For Comments please E-mail: information@swedenborg.ca Read the next [5th] chapter "Inward, worldly and rational" Or go
to the previous [3rd] chapter "All
kinds of temptation"
[1] Where temptations come from
Appendix |
