December 31st
Heaven’s union with us and our union with it are of such
a nature that each relies on the other.
June 18th
Everything we consider true and consequently allowable forms our conscience.
June 17th
People who are to have perception in spiritual matters
must have a desire for truth based on goodness and will always
be longing to know truth. This sheds light in their intellect,
and when their intellect has been enlightened, they
are able to perceive something inwardly. People without
a desire for truth, on the other hand, know what truth they
know from the religious teachings they choose to believe
in, and from the fact that a priest, elder, or monk has
called it true.
June 16th
People who want to be enlightened by the Lord must be especially careful not to adopt any religious teaching that fosters evil.
June 15th
Ceasing to do wrong is left up to our free will. We then
receive an inflow of good from the Lord, which is never
absent, because it is present in the very life the Lord gives
us. The amount of good we receive with our life, however,
depends on the amount of evil that is moved aside.
June 14th
The Lord does not force us to accept what flows in from
him. Rather, he guides us in our freedom, and so far as we
let him, he uses our freedom to guide us to what is good.
So the Lord leads us in harmony with our pleasures and
also in harmony with our illusions and the assumptions
we base on them; but he gradually extracts us. Moreover,
it appears to us as though we do it on our own. The Lord
does not break our pleasures and illusions, then, since
to break them would be to violate our freedom, whereas
freedom is a must if we are to be reformed.
June 13th
Direct influence of truth imparted by the Lord does not provide an actual perception of truth; it provides light that enables the person to understand.
June 12th
Divinity itself cannot teach us and talk with us or even with angels directly, only indirectly through divine truth.
June 11th
Something more needs to be said about people who wait
for something to flow in. The only people of this kind who
actually receive anything are the few who deeply long for
it. They occasionally receive a kind of answer through a
vivid impression or a subtle voice in their thinking, but
rarely through anything obvious. In any case, what they
receive leaves them to think and act the way they want
to and the way they can. If they act wisely they become
wise, and if they act stupidly they become stupid. They
are never told what to believe or what to do; otherwise
their human rationality and freedom would be destroyed.
That is, things are managed so that they act freely and rationally,
and to all appearances, autonomously.
June 10th
The Lord is present with us through our human freedom, in that freedom, and with that freedom, constantly urging us to receive him but at the same time never removing or taking away our freedom. Therefore you could say that our freedom is where the Lord dwells with us in our soul.
June 9th
There is a general and a particular influence exerted by
the Lord through the spiritual world on recipients of that
influence in the natural world. The general influence is
exerted on recipients that follow the code ordained for
them; the particular influence is exerted on recipients
that do not. Animals of every kind live by the code ordained
by their nature, so a general influence is exerted
on them. We human beings, on the other hand, do not
live by the code ordained for us or by any law of that
code, so a particular influence is exerted on us.
June 8th
A vision is a profound revelation received through perception.
—Secrets of Heaven 1786
Genuine visions mean the vision or sight of things that
really do exist in the other life. They truly are objects that
can be seen with the eyes of the spirit, not the eyes of the
body. People on earth see them when the Lord activates
their inner sight.
—Secrets of Heaven 1970
June 7th
Inflow happens by means of correspondences, and cannot happen as a result of continuity.
June 6th
We are led by the Lord through an inflow and taught by being enlightened. The reason we are led by the Lord through an inflow is that both the being led and the flowing in are connected to our love and volition. The reason we are taught by the Lord by being enlightened is that being taught and being enlightened are properly connected with our wisdom and discernment.
June 5th
Only through humankind is there a descent from the heavens into the world, and an ascent from the world to
the heavens. The brain and its inner depths provide the means of descent and ascent.
June 4th
A stream of influence progresses from the divine level and continues in order until it comes to rest on the bottom level of the earthly dimension—the worldly and bodily level.
