The Swedenborg Library Vol 1/Chapter 8

by Emanuel Swedenborg

VIII.

THE DELIGHTS OF LIFE AFTER DEATH.

HAT the ruling affection or dominant love remains with every one to eternity, was shown in the preceding chapter; but that the delights of that affection or love are turned into corresponding delights, is now to be shown. By being turned into corresponding delights, is meant into spiritual ones which correspond to natural. That these are turned into spiritual delights in the other world, may be evident from the fact that so long as man is in the natural world he is in a terrestrial body: but when he leaves that body he enters the spiritual world and puts on [or there has] a spiritual body.

All the delights which man enjoys are those of his ruling love; for he feels nothing to be delightful except what he loves. Consequently that which he loves supremely, is in the highest degree delightful. It amounts to the same, whether we say the ruling love, or that which is loved above all things.

These delights are various. There are in general as many as there are ruling loves, and therefore as many as there are men, spirits, and angels,—for the ruling love of one is never in all respects like that of another. Hence it is that the face of one is never exactly like that of another; for the face of everyone is an image of his mind, and in the spiritual world is an image of his ruling love.

The delights of every individual in particular are also of infinite variety; nor is a single delight of any one altogether similar to, or the same as, that of another, whether we regard those which succeed one after another, or those which exist simultaneously one with another. One delight is never given exactly like another. But still these specific delights with every individual refer themselves to the one love belonging to him, which is his ruling love; for they compose it, and thus make one with it.

In like manner all delights in general have reference to one universally ruling love. This, in heaven, is love to the Lord; and in hell, the love of self. What and of what nature are the spiritual delights into which the natural delights of every one are turned after death, can only be known from the science of correspondeuces. This teaches in general, that no natural thing exists to which something spiritual does not correspond; and it also teaches in particular, what and of what nature the corresponding thing is. Therefore a person skilled in that science may learn and know his own state after death, provided he knows his own love, and its relation to that universally ruling love just spoken of, to which all loves have reference.

But it is impossible for those who are in the love of self to know their ruling love, because they love whatever is their own, and call their evils goods; and the falsities which favor and thereby confirm their evils, they at the same time call truths. Nevertheless, if they wish, they may learn it from others who are wise, since these see what they themselves do not; but this is not possible with those who are so filled with the love of self as to spurn all the instruction of the wise. But those who are in heavenly love receive instruction; and on being brought into the evils into which they were born, see them from truths,—for it is these which make evils manifest.

Every one can see evil and its falsity by means of truth derived from good; but no one can see the good and the true from evil, because the falsities of evil are darkness, and likewise correspond to darkness. They who are in falsities derived from evil are therefore like blind persons, who do not see the objects which are in light. They also shun truths, as creatures of the night shun the light of day. But truths derived from good are light, and likewise correspond to light. Therefore they who are in truths derived from good, are seers, having their eyes open, and discerning the'things which are of light and of shade.

In these truths I have also been confirmed by experience. The angels in the heavens both see and perceive the evils and falsities which sometimes rise up in themselves; and likewise the evils and falsities wherein are the spirits who, in the world of spirits, are connected with the hells; but the spirits themselves cannot see their own evils and falsities. What the good of heavenly love is, what conscience, what sincerity and justice,—except as practised for some selfish end,—and what it is to be led by the Lord, they do not comprehend. They declare that there are no such things, and therefore that they are nothing.

These things are said to induce man to examine himself, and from his delights learn the quality of his love, and what therefore will be the state of his life after death, so far as he understands the science of correspondences.

DELIGHTS OF THE EVIL.

How the delights of every one's life are turned into corresponding delights after death, may indeed be known from the science of correspondences. But because that science is not yet generally known, I will illustrate the subject by some examples from experience.

All those who are in evil, and have confirmed themselves in falsities against the truths of the church, and especially those who have rejected the Word shun the light of heaven, and betake themselves to subterranean places, which through the openings appear very dark, and to the clefts of rocks, and there hide themselves. And they seek such retreats because they have loved falsities and hated truths; for such caverns and clefts of rocks and darkness also, correspond to falsities; and light corresponds to truths. It is their delight to dwell in such places, and undelightful to them to dwell in open plains.

In like manner do those who have taken delight in clandestine and insidious plots, and in the secret contrivance of fraudulent schemes. These, too, are in those caverns, and enter into chambers so dark that they cannot even see one another, and there they whisper in each other's ears in corners. This is what the delight of their love is turned into.

They who have studied the sciences with no other end than to acquire the reputation of learning, and who have not cultivated their rational faculty by means of them, and have taken delight in the things of memory from pride thence, love sandy places, which they choose in preference to fields aud gardens, because sandy places correspond to such studies.

They who have been acquainted with the doctrinals of their own church and of others, and have not applied any of their knowledge to life, choose for themselves rocky places, and dwell among heaps of stones, shunning places that are cultivated, because they dislike them.

They who have ascribed all things to nature, and they also who have ascribed all things to their own prudence, and who by various artifices have raised themselves to honors, and have acquired wealth, apply themselves in the other life to the study of magical arts, which are abuses of divine order, and find therein the highest delight of their life.

They who have applied divine truths to gratify their own loves, and thus have falsified them, love urinous places and odors, because these correspond to the delights of such love. They who have been sordidly avaricious, dwell in huts, and love swinish filth, and such nidorous exhalations as proceed from indigested substances in the stomach.

They who have passed their life in mere pleasures, have lived delicately, and indulged their appetites, prizing such enjoyments as the highest good of life, love excrementitious things and privies in the other life. These are delightful to them, because such pleasures are spiritual filth. They shun places that are clean and free from filth, because such places are undelightful to them.

They who have taken delight in adulteries, dwell in the other world in brothels where all things are vile and filthy. These places they love, and shun chaste houses; as soon as they come near the latter, they faint away. Nothing is more delightful to them than to break the bonds of marriage. They who have thirsted for revenge, and have thence contracted a savage and cruel nature, love cadaverous substances, and are also in such hells. So in other instances.

DELIGHTS OF THE GOOD.

But the delights of the life of those who have lived in heavenly love in the world, are turned into corresponding objects such as are in the heavens. These objects exist from the sun of heaven, and from the light thence proceeding, which light presents to view such objects as conceal within them things divine. The objects which thence appear affect the interiors of the angels which belong to their minds, and at the same time the exteriors which belong to their bodies. And because divine light, which is the divine truth proceeding from the Lord, flows into their minds which are opened by heavenly love, therefore in externals it presents to view such objects as correspond to the delights of their love.

Having undertaken to confirm this matter by examples from experience, in order to illustrate the truths already deduced from the causes of things, I will adduce some particulars concerning the heavenly delights into which natural delights are turned with those who live in heavenly love in the world.

They who have loved divine truths and the Word from interior affection, or from the affection of truth itself, in the other life dwell in light, in elevated places which appear like mountains, and there they are continually in the light of heaven. They have no idea of darkness like that of night in the world. And they also live in a vernal temperature. There are exhibited before them as it were fields and harvests, and likewise vineyards. Everything in their houses glistens as if made of precious stones. To look through the windows, is like looking through pure crystals. These are the delightful objects of their sight. But the same things are interiorly delightful on account of their correspondence with divine-celestial things; for the truths derived from the Word which they have loved, correspond to harvests, vineyards, precious stones, windows, and crystals.

They who have applied the doctrinals of the church derived from the Word immediately to life, are in the inmost heaven, and in the enjoyment of the delights of wisdom above the rest. In every single object they behold things divine. They see the objects, indeed, but the divine things corresponding to them flow immediately into their minds, and fill them with a blessedness wherewith all their sensations are affected. Hence all objects, to their eyes, seem as it were to laugh, sport, and live.

They who have loved the sciences, and have cultivated their rational faculty by means of them, and thus have procured to themselves intelligence, and at the same time have acknowledged the Divine, find the pleasure which they derived from the sciences, and their rational delight, turned in the other life into spiritual delight, which is that of the knowledges of good and truth. They dwell in gardens, where appear beds of flowers and grass-plats beautifully arranged, and rows of trees round about, together with porticoes and walks. The trees and flowers are varied every day. The view of the whole in general presents delights to their minds, and the varieties in particular continually renew them. And because these objects correspond to things divine, and those who behold them are in the science of correspondences, they are perpetually replenished with new knowledges whereby their spiritual rational faculty is perfected. They are sensible of these delights, because gardens, beds of flowers, grass-plats, and trees, correspond to sciences and knowledges, and to intelligence thence derived.

They who have ascribed all things to the Divine, and have regarded nature respectively as dead, only subservient to things spiritual, and have confirmed themselves in this belief, dwell in heavenly light, which renders all things that appear before their eyes transparent; and in that transparency they behold innumerable variegations of light, which their internal sight imbibes as it were immediately. Thence they perceive interior delights. The objects which appear in their houses are as if made of diamouds, resplendent with similar variegations of light. I have been told that the walls of their houses are like crystal, thus also transparent; and in them appear as it were moving forms representative of heavenly things, also with perpetual variety. And these phenomena exist, because such transparency corresponds to an understanding enlightened by the Lord, and free from the shades which originate in faith merely natural, and in the love of natural things.

Such are the things, with numberless others, concerning which it has been said by those who have been in heaven, that they have beheld things which eye hath not seen, and,—from a perception of divine things thence communicated,—that they have heard things which the ear never heard.

They who have not acted clandestinely, but have been willing that all their thoughts should be known abroad, so far as was consistent with the interests and customs of civil life,—because they have thought nothing but what was sincere and just from the Divine,—appear in heaven with radiant faces, wherein every affection aud thought are imaged, while their speech aud actions are the very forms of their affections. Hence they are loved more than others. When they speak, their faces become a little obscure; but when they have done speaking, the same things which they have spoken appear simultaneously in their faces, clearly manifest to the sight. All the objects which exist around them also—because they correspond with the interiors—assume such an appearance, that what they represent and signify is clearly perceived by others. When the spirits who have taken delight in acting clandestinely, see these ingenuous ones at a distance, they shun them, and appeal to themselves to crawl away from them like serpents.

They who have regarded adulteries as abominable, and have lived in the chaste love of marriage, are beyond all others in the order and form of heaven, and thence in all beauty, and forever remain in the bloom of youth. The delights of their love are ineffable, and increase throughout eternity; for all the delights and joys of heaven flow into that love, because it descends from the conjunction of the Lord with heaven and the church, and in general from the conjunction of good and truth; which conjunction is heaven itself in general, and with every individual angel in particular. Their external delights are such as no human language can describe.

But these are only a few of the things which have been revealed to me concerning the correspondences of the delights with those who are in heavenly love.

From the things here related it may be known that the delights of all after death are turned into corresponding ones, the love itself still remaining to eternity; as conjugial love, the love of what is just, sincere, good and true, the love of the sciences and of knowledges, the love of intelligence and wisdom, and all other loves. The things which flow from love like streams from their fountain, are delights, which also are permanent, but exalted to a superior degree, when from natural delights they are raised to spiritual.