ES – Selected Readings from Swedenborg’s Secrets of Heaven

KIsses From Heaven

26 – The true idea of divine infinity is instilled into angels by their being instantaneously under the Lord’s view with no intervening space or time even if they came from the end of the universe. And the true idea of divine eternity is instilled into them by the fact that thousands of years do not appear to them as a period of time, but almost as if they had lived for only a minute. Both ideas are also instilled by means of the fact that the present with them includes past and future together. Consequently they have no anxiety about things of the future, nor do they ever have any idea of death, but only of life. And so their present includes within it the Lord’s eternity and infinity. Arcana Caelestia 1382 27 – All distress and grief are the result of a person’s being deprived of the things for which he/she has affection, that is, which he/she loves. Arcana Caelestia #2689 28 – For human life from infancy to old age, is nothing else than a progression from the world to heaven and the last age, which is death, is the transition itself. This is why “burial” means resurrection, because it is a complete putting off (of the body). Arcana Caelestia #3016e 29 – When a person dies it is like passing from shade into light because he/she passes from the things of the world to those of heaven, and from the things of the body, to those of the spirit . . . The life that a person has gained for him/herself in the world, follows him/her . . . without dying altogether no one can put off the life acquired from infancy [and put on the new life the spirit]. When people pass into the other life they leave many things behind which have no place there such as care for food, for clothing, a place to live, and also for gaining money and wealth . . . When the external things of the body and the world are taken away, the person is the kind of person that he/she has been inwardly . . . Love to God and love toward the neighbor are what make a person to be human. Arcana Caelestia #3957 30. When a person dies he/she leaves behind him the external things of the natural level, but carries with him into the other life the deeper aspects, where they serve as a foundation on which spiritual and heavenly things can be based. For when a person dies he loses nothing except his bones and flesh. He keeps his memory in which everything he has done, spoken, or thought is recorded. And he keeps every natural affection and desire, and so every deeper aspect of the natural level. He does not need its external aspects. Arcana Caelestia #5079:2 31 – Society is more of the neighbor than a single person, because it consists of many people. . . . Society is loved when its good is looked at from a love of what is good. Our country is the neighbor more than a society, because it is like a parent. This is because each individual is born in a country, and it nourishes him/her, and protects him/her from injuries. Good is to be done to our country from love, according to its needs, which mainly consists in its sustenance and the civil and spiritual life of those who live there. People who love their country, and from good will, do good to it, love the Lord’s kingdom in the other life, for there the Lord’s kingdom is their country, and those who love the Lord’s kingdom love the Lord, because the Lord is everything in all things of his kingdom. Heavenly Doctrine #92,93 adapted 32 – When someone’s body can no longer perform its functions in the natural world in response to the thoughts and affections of its spirit . . . then we say that the individual has died. . . . The person, though, has not died at all. We are only separated from the physical nature that was useful to us in the world. The essential person is actually still alive. I say that the essential person is actually still alive because we are not people because of our bodies but because of our spirits. After all, it is the spirit within us that thinks, and thought and affection together make us the people we are. We can see, then, that when we die we simply move from one world into another. This is why in the inner meaning of the Word, death” means resurrection and a continuation of life. Heaven and Hell #445 33 – Anyone who has not experienced the peace of heaven cannot perceive what the peace of the angels is like. . . . To get an idea of the peace of heaven we must be able to raise our thoughts and withdraw them from the body. . . . There are two inmost qualities of heaven – innocence and peace. They are the inmost because they proceed directly from the Lord Innocence produces everything that is good in heaven, and peace is the source of every delight. . . . Innocence and peace walk hand in hand. Heavenly peace is possible with people who are wise because they are in the truth and also in goodness. As a result they have a sense of contentment in God. Heaven and Hell #284-288 34 – Those who are in heaven are continually advancing towards the springtime of life, with a greater advance towards a more joyful and happy spring the more thousands of years they live, and this to eternity. This increases according to the growth and degree of their love, charity and faith. Women who have died old and worn out with age, if they have lived in faith in the Lord, in love to the neighbor and in happy marriage love with a husband, as the years pass, advance more and more into the flower of youth and early womanhood, and into a beauty that transcends every conception of any such beauty as is seen on the earth. Goodness and love are what give this form and thus manifest their own likeness, causing the joy and beauty of love to shine forth from every least detail of the face, and causing them to be the very forms of love . . . In a word, to grow old in heaven is to grow young. Heaven and Hell #414 35 – All spirits who are taken up into heaven and become angels are taken to the society where their love is. And when they arrive there it is as if they were at home and in the house where they were born. The angels perceive this, and are associated with those people there who are similar. When they go away to another place they feel constantly a kind of resistance, and a longing to return to people like themselves, thus to their ruling love. Heaven and Hell #479 36 – In order that people may live to eternity, that which is mortal in them is taken away. The part of them that is mortal is their material body, and this is taken away by its death. In this way the part that is immortal in them, which is their mind, is unveiled and they then become spirits in human form. . . . All who have lived well, when they enter heaven, come into an age like that of their early manhood or womanhood in the world, and continue in it to eternity. . . . Eternal life is also eternal blessedness. This condition of people is the purpose of creation. Divine Providence #324

26 – The true idea of divine infinity is instilled into angels by their being instantaneously under the Lord’s view with no intervening space or time even if they came from the end of the universe. And the true idea of divine eternity is instilled into them by the fact that thousands of years do not appear to them as a period of time, but almost as if they had lived for only a minute. Both ideas are also instilled by means of the fact that the present with them includes past and future together. Consequently they have no anxiety about things of the future, nor do they ever have any idea of death, but only of life. And so their present includes within it the Lord’s eternity and infinity. Arcana Caelestia 1382

27 – All distress and grief are the result of a person’s being deprived of the things for which he/she has affection, that is, which he/she loves. Arcana Caelestia #2689 28 – For human life from infancy to old age, is nothing else than a progression from the world to heaven and the last age, which is death, is the transition itself. This is why “burial” means resurrection, because it is a complete putting off (of the body). Arcana Caelestia #3016e 29 – When a person dies it is like passing from shade into light because he/she passes from the things of the world to those of heaven, and from the things of the body, to those of the spirit . . . The life that a person has gained for him/herself in the world, follows him/her . . . without dying altogether no one can put off the life acquired from infancy [and put on the new life the spirit]. When people pass into the other life they leave many things behind which have no place there such as care for food, for clothing, a place to live, and also for gaining money and wealth . . . When the external things of the body and the world are taken away, the person is the kind of person that he/she has been inwardly . . . Love to God and love toward the neighbor are what make a person to be human. Arcana Caelestia #3957 30. When a person dies he/she leaves behind him the external things of the natural level, but carries with him into the other life the deeper aspects, where they serve as a foundation on which spiritual and heavenly things can be based. For when a person dies he loses nothing except his bones and flesh. He keeps his memory in which everything he has done, spoken, or thought is recorded. And he keeps every natural affection and desire, and so every deeper aspect of the natural level. He does not need its external aspects. Arcana Caelestia #5079:2 31 – Society is more of the neighbor than a single person, because it consists of many people. . . . Society is loved when its good is looked at from a love of what is good. Our country is the neighbor more than a society, because it is like a parent. This is because each individual is born in a country, and it nourishes him/her, and protects him/her from injuries. Good is to be done to our country from love, according to its needs, which mainly consists in its sustenance and the civil and spiritual life of those who live there. People who love their country, and from good will, do good to it, love the Lord’s kingdom in the other life, for there the Lord’s kingdom is their country, and those who love the Lord’s kingdom love the Lord, because the Lord is everything in all things of his kingdom. Heavenly Doctrine #92,93 adapted 32 – When someone’s body can no longer perform its functions in the natural world in response to the thoughts and affections of its spirit . . . then we say that the individual has died. . . . The person, though, has not died at all. We are only separated from the physical nature that was useful to us in the world. The essential person is actually still alive. I say that the essential person is actually still alive because we are not people because of our bodies but because of our spirits. After all, it is the spirit within us that thinks, and thought and affection together make us the people we are. We can see, then, that when we die we simply move from one world into another. This is why in the inner meaning of the Word, death” means resurrection and a continuation of life. Heaven and Hell #445 33 – Anyone who has not experienced the peace of heaven cannot perceive what the peace of the angels is like. . . . To get an idea of the peace of heaven we must be able to raise our thoughts and withdraw them from the body. . . . There are two inmost qualities of heaven – innocence and peace. They are the inmost because they proceed directly from the Lord Innocence produces everything that is good in heaven, and peace is the source of every delight. . . . Innocence and peace walk hand in hand. Heavenly peace is possible with people who are wise because they are in the truth and also in goodness. As a result they have a sense of contentment in God. Heaven and Hell #284-288 34 – Those who are in heaven are continually advancing towards the springtime of life, with a greater advance towards a more joyful and happy spring the more thousands of years they live, and this to eternity. This increases according to the growth and degree of their love, charity and faith. Women who have died old and worn out with age, if they have lived in faith in the Lord, in love to the neighbor and in happy marriage love with a husband, as the years pass, advance more and more into the flower of youth and early womanhood, and into a beauty that transcends every conception of any such beauty as is seen on the earth. Goodness and love are what give this form and thus manifest their own likeness, causing the joy and beauty of love to shine forth from every least detail of the face, and causing them to be the very forms of love . . . In a word, to grow old in heaven is to grow young. Heaven and Hell #414 35 – All spirits who are taken up into heaven and become angels are taken to the society where their love is. And when they arrive there it is as if they were at home and in the house where they were born. The angels perceive this, and are associated with those people there who are similar. When they go away to another place they feel constantly a kind of resistance, and a longing to return to people like themselves, thus to their ruling love. Heaven and Hell #479 36 – In order that people may live to eternity, that which is mortal in them is taken away. The part of them that is mortal is their material body, and this is taken away by its death. In this way the part that is immortal in them, which is their mind, is unveiled and they then become spirits in human form. . . . All who have lived well, when they enter heaven, come into an age like that of their early manhood or womanhood in the world, and continue in it to eternity. . . . Eternal life is also eternal blessedness. This condition of people is the purpose of creation. Divine Providence #324