The Receptacle of and the Dwelling for the Lord - The Will and the Understanding - in Man: Making man in God's Image and Likeness
Lecture by Rev. Paul Booth
Lecture by Rev. Paul Booth
A man can decide look to up and learn of God; he can learn to love as the Lord loves and, so, can raise his mind to God according to His love. From this you can see that the mind of man is the man, since in the mind resides all affections, emotions and thoughts, for God is Man Himself. Therefore the external of the mind is the body, which feels and acts and, so, is one with the spirit within and is according to the person's ruling love either a heavenly love if it is raised up in love and wisdom or a hellish love if not, and then the man falls further into infernal love and hell.
In all states - the natural, spiritual, or celestial - of man there is a connection with the Lord through the receptacle of will and the understanding when the truths and goods of the Lord are believed and followed willingly. Not so when they are rejected, and rejected they are closed. Now, because the man chooses to love his 'self', he does not understand clearly the truths that the Lord has given him in His written Word and what he sees or understands is distorted because of his love for 'self'.
Thus, the receptacle and dwelling of the Lord in man can make a man in the Lord's form in His image and likeness. However, because man is no longer in conjunction with the Lord, his spirit which is no longer in innocence when he becomes an adult and his affection and thought becomes distorted, thus, also, his will and understanding; in fact, he no longer has will, but instead lust, nor does he have understanding, but only knowledge, which is stored up in his memory along with goods and truths insinuated into him when he was an infant and child. There is a correspondence in man with the will and understanding, that is, with the Lord who dwells within in these receptacles, when the New Church enters man in truth and good, for he then begins to see spiritually. Thus, truths and goods are loved knowing that the Lord sustains him every moment. We have spoken that from the brain all parts are extensions and this is called the body and, that it acts and moves from the mind. In that respect, the mind is the man since it is in every part of him, not just the brain. Let us now see this in man that we might see how conjunction is affected with the Lord and that he comes again to see the Lord's love first most.
In a person there is a correspondence with the will and understand that can be seen in the heart and lungs, and it is in this way known that one's life is from the Lord. Basically, we have shown that all things of the mind have reference to the will and understanding in which we have said are the receptacles for the Lord where He dwells within man. However, all things of the body have reference to the heart and lungs, as the science of anatomy shows. Therefore, there is a correspondence between the mind and the body as there is between the will and understanding with heart and lungs. Now, if man has been separated from his spiritual life and, so, his spirit, then how is he to learn of the Lord's love that he may follow His wisdom which is not natural, but spiritual? If there is a relationship between the body and the mind, then there is also between man and the Lord, whose goods and truths fill the will and understanding where the Lord dwells within man.
You might be wondering what this has to do with a person's faith or one's worship. Yet, it does have everything to do with it. The state that the Jewish Church was in and the first Christian Churches came into was one where they did not know what the spiritual was and how it differs with the natural. So, they do not know such a thing as correspondences or the correspondence between the spiritual and the natural or that such correspondence conjoins them with either Heaven or hell. Nonetheless, these things could have been known, but were not. However, when they are known the written Word can become enlightened to where the man can understand the spiritual sense of the Word, for the Word uses the various parts of the body and its various systems to teach and if their representatives and significations are known, then the spiritual sense is understood. As for instance: the will and understanding with the heart and lungs and these with the mind and body, which are their correspondences.
But, let us show how. Think of one's affection and thought. Aren't they spiritual, for there is no organ in the body in which they naturally exist? Think of action and speech. Aren't they natural; don't they move and act from affection and thought? Example: if we want to do something or want something don't we move or act to do it or get it if our desire is strong enough? Does not one speak from his thoughts from the body, that is, through the vocal cords, tongue and lips? From these we can see they correspond and are a correspondence, such as thought makes the tongue speak and affection together with thought makes the body act. Anyone can see they are two distinct things, for we also can think without speaking. Neither does the body think or will, but the mind does. The mind has a correspondence with the body and all things each with the other.
From this we see that all things of the mind have reference to affection and thought or with will and understanding, while all things of the body have reference to the heart and lungs. In this, we can see correspondences between heart and will and between the understanding and lungs. Still, because man has been so external to accept anything except what is natural, he cannot see this. Man loves the natural and, so, delights mainly in his own understanding, which, we said is but mere natural knowledge. This has left his will to be only for natural things of this world, thus leaving the spiritual thinking that the spiritual is just a purer form of the natural.
In order for us to more clearly see these correspondences between the will with the heart, let us examine a person's affection with the heart's actions and we will learn how they correspond, and thus, see how they are conjoined; for if we are to be together with Heaven and with the Lord and thus, in our regeneration and in salvation we must have an understanding of the receptacles of the will and understanding within in us in which the Lord comes to dwell in and so, reign over us, that we are one with Him. He in us and us in Him, as He is within the Father or the Divine and the Divine within Him. If we look at the effects that the spiritual, that is, that the affections have, which we know springs forth from love, we can begin to understand this correspondence. Example: When our affections for or are to another the rate of our heart changes. The systolic and diastolic motions of the heart changes and vary according to our affections and love. Of course, these changes have been expressed in speech, for we talk of one having a generous heart, or a joyous heart, and a sad heart, or a hard or soft heart and of one made of stone. There are innumerous expressions and these are seen in the Word. It is thus that the Word is written by means correspondences.
Now, the heart is known as a vital organ of life meaning that it is essential to one's life. It is also known that in the body there is a certain heat that if man dies that heat leaves the body. In years past people talked about there being a 'vial heat' or 'vital life' in every man and animal. It was spoken of by conjecture - by theorizing. Some even guessing that such vital heat came from the sun. However, because we do not know what life is that word is not often used today. Nonetheless, if correspondences are known between love and its affections with the heart and its derivations, then we can see that love is the origin of such 'vital heat'. So it is that love flows in by correspondence into the heart and its blood and gives the body life. This again can be seen by the effects it causes. For doesn't a man grow hot and 'as it were' burns, according to his love. As an example: he becomes numb and chilled as these actions decreases. Or it can be felt in the heat of the whole body and seen in the flush of the face when love increases. And, when love becomes extinct the body feels cold and the face pallor.
In the Word there is seen this expressed in the life and soul of man as life in man through the blood by means of the action of the heart, for in the Word 'blood' is called the soul, as in Genesis 9: 4 and Leviticus 17: 14.
Earlier in this talk we spoke of there being a celestial and a spiritual Heaven where angels of such qualities are. These angels are from mankind. And, in fact, we said that man was formed first, within celestial and then in the spiritual and natural, wherein he was spiritual/natural before he fell into the natural state alone and his conjunction with Heaven was cut off. Thus, are there two distinguishable kingdoms in Heaven - the celestial and the spiritual kingdom Love to the Lord reigns in the celestial angels and wisdom from that love reigns in the spiritual angels. Since the celestial kingdom is where the heart corresponds to the will or to love, then that kingdom can be called or known as heaven's cardiac kingdom and where the understanding of the spiritual angels reigns there is the pulmonic kingdom. Here, we can begin to see that Heaven is in the form of a man and appears before the Lord's sight as a man which is seen in the written Word of the Divine Human as the 'Grand Man'. Thus, it is that the Lord is Life and that Life flows 'as it were' into a man causing the effect of the body's cardiac and pulmonary motions, for their correspondences are love and wisdom and is in those of the Lord. And, as these qualities are from the Sun of the spiritual world, which is from and of the Lord, they proceed into not only Heaven, but into the universe, thus, into the natural life of man. It was earlier stated that in Heaven there is no space, though there is the appearances of space. Think of Heaven without space and think of omnipresence, for the Lord is omnipresent in love and wisdom, or in good and truth, which He is, He having even said He was. Now, He is present with those who are in place (space) according to their reception of Him, of His good and truth.
We will now turn to examine the correspondence of the understanding with the lungs, for in man like the will of the spiritual man or his mind, the understanding rules. While it appears that the heart and lungs control the natural man or body. Thus, it is that all things of the body correspond to the mind, which is of the spiritual man. That the understanding corresponds to the lungs we must examine from our thought and speech. Example: can anyone think when his breathing stops? On the other hand one can think quietly when his breathing is quiet and when his breathing is deep his thought is deep. We can see a correspondence between the lungs and the respirations and so, of the thought and the influx of love. But let us read from the Word. "Thou shall love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all thy soul" (Matthew 22: 37), and "God will give a new heart and a new spirit" (Ezekiel 36: 26; Ps. 51: 10). We see that heart signifies the love of the will. So, here, 'soul' or 'spirit' signifies the wisdom of the understanding. Since man is to be made in God's image, he is to have a similar spirit or soul. God's spirit is now called the Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit means Divine Wisdom, which is of Divine Truth and is the light or the understanding of man.
From this, when we read that 'the Lord breathed on His disciples' and said, 'receive ye the Holy Spirit' and also where 'God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of lives, and he became a living soul' we see that the Lord is called the 'breath of the nostrils' and the 'breath of life'. And, isn't it respiration that passes though the nostrils and so, a person perceives or is aware through the senses. Just think of the spiritual or the mind and you will see that the correspondence is that a man has understanding, even intelligence and wisdom, from God. Again, when it is known that the word 'wind' and 'spirit' in the Hebrew are the same and that they mean breathing and if man dies, he is said to give up the ghost or spirit, that is, his breath or life ceases.
What becomes evident is that 'to love God with all the heart and all the soul' is to love Him with all the love willingly and with all the understanding, and to 'give a new heart and a new spirit' is to give new a will and a new understanding.
We have said that there is a distinction between the will and the understanding, thus there is also in the heart and the lungs, and so, too, the mind or spirit and the body. There is therefore in man two brains, for those who study the brain and its function knows that there is a cerebrum where the understanding resides 'as it were'. That there are two hemispheres of the brain, also of the heart, of lungs, and of all parts and that all of these two parts are conjoined one with the other. Now, this is because from the Lord flows both Love and Wisdom or goodness and truth. And, because these two are one in the Lord, they need to be one in man that he come into an image and a likeness of Him and that they become reciprocal, for they relate, the truth belonging to the goodness and, the goodness belonging to truth. Herein is the oneness of union: the goodness of love from which comes the truth of wisdom and the truth of wisdom comes from the goodness of love. Thus, it is that the spirit of man is to rule and the body is to be obedient. The spirit is lead by and from the Lord through the Holy Spirit or it is led by one's self, in which case man's will and understanding becomes distorted and, so, his life becomes destroyed and is separated from the Divine's Love and Wisdom.
You might say and wondering what use has all this knowledge to do with me. However, within the knowledge of correspondences many secrets concerning the will and understanding, and love and wisdom are disclosed. We cannot of ourselves know what love and will are, though we can know what understanding is and do understand and think 'as if' of our self. Neither can we make our heart to beat. Therefore, through correspondences we can learn what love and will are from the heart and lungs, for these can be examined by the eye and, of course, have been and are described by anatomist. Since they correspond to the will and understanding, which cannot be examined by the eye, these secrets can be revealed through them. In this way, the spiritual mysteries become enlightened to those who from a love for the truth, become known and acknowledged and no longer are closed to the understanding.
We have shown that man's mind is his spirit, and the spirit is the man. While the body is the external through which the mind or spirit feels and acts in its world, but this is not known from our natural life, but from correspondences. You can understand that when the natural body dies and what remains is spirit, then the spirit comes into the same form, but of spiritual substance, for as was shown the spirit is the man; he is a human from the Lord, because God is Man and we are human from Him.
Finally, let us see that the union of a man's spirit with his body is by correspondences and that we have shown that these are of his will and understanding with his heart and lungs and that separation is through non-correspondence. If you can understand that the man is the spirit, then the spirit has a pulse and respiration as the body does, for they flow from the spirit into the body and produce them. You can see that here there is an exact correspondence between the spirit and the body. Thus, when these duel motions cease to correspond there is a separation, which is death. Therefore, it is that our bodily life depends on the correspondence of its pulse and respiration of our spirit. Once our bodily life ends because there is no longer correspondence between the spiritual and the natural, our life then continues in our spirit. How it continues is determined by how man lived in this world, whether from love to one's self or from love to the Lord. In love to self and to worldly things one appropriate falsities and evil enters into the spirit, into one's mind, as we have already shown, and our spirit continues living in the spiritual world after the body dies, having aversion to the light of Heaven, that is, to the Lord's Good and His Truth as he did in this world. It is otherwise when we appropriate truth and good enters into our spirit, into to our mind. For then our spirit continues living in the spiritual world in Heaven having an affinity for the light of Heaven while in this world from the Lord's Good and Truth flowing into this world.
End.
In all states - the natural, spiritual, or celestial - of man there is a connection with the Lord through the receptacle of will and the understanding when the truths and goods of the Lord are believed and followed willingly. Not so when they are rejected, and rejected they are closed. Now, because the man chooses to love his 'self', he does not understand clearly the truths that the Lord has given him in His written Word and what he sees or understands is distorted because of his love for 'self'.
Thus, the receptacle and dwelling of the Lord in man can make a man in the Lord's form in His image and likeness. However, because man is no longer in conjunction with the Lord, his spirit which is no longer in innocence when he becomes an adult and his affection and thought becomes distorted, thus, also, his will and understanding; in fact, he no longer has will, but instead lust, nor does he have understanding, but only knowledge, which is stored up in his memory along with goods and truths insinuated into him when he was an infant and child. There is a correspondence in man with the will and understanding, that is, with the Lord who dwells within in these receptacles, when the New Church enters man in truth and good, for he then begins to see spiritually. Thus, truths and goods are loved knowing that the Lord sustains him every moment. We have spoken that from the brain all parts are extensions and this is called the body and, that it acts and moves from the mind. In that respect, the mind is the man since it is in every part of him, not just the brain. Let us now see this in man that we might see how conjunction is affected with the Lord and that he comes again to see the Lord's love first most.
In a person there is a correspondence with the will and understand that can be seen in the heart and lungs, and it is in this way known that one's life is from the Lord. Basically, we have shown that all things of the mind have reference to the will and understanding in which we have said are the receptacles for the Lord where He dwells within man. However, all things of the body have reference to the heart and lungs, as the science of anatomy shows. Therefore, there is a correspondence between the mind and the body as there is between the will and understanding with heart and lungs. Now, if man has been separated from his spiritual life and, so, his spirit, then how is he to learn of the Lord's love that he may follow His wisdom which is not natural, but spiritual? If there is a relationship between the body and the mind, then there is also between man and the Lord, whose goods and truths fill the will and understanding where the Lord dwells within man.
You might be wondering what this has to do with a person's faith or one's worship. Yet, it does have everything to do with it. The state that the Jewish Church was in and the first Christian Churches came into was one where they did not know what the spiritual was and how it differs with the natural. So, they do not know such a thing as correspondences or the correspondence between the spiritual and the natural or that such correspondence conjoins them with either Heaven or hell. Nonetheless, these things could have been known, but were not. However, when they are known the written Word can become enlightened to where the man can understand the spiritual sense of the Word, for the Word uses the various parts of the body and its various systems to teach and if their representatives and significations are known, then the spiritual sense is understood. As for instance: the will and understanding with the heart and lungs and these with the mind and body, which are their correspondences.
But, let us show how. Think of one's affection and thought. Aren't they spiritual, for there is no organ in the body in which they naturally exist? Think of action and speech. Aren't they natural; don't they move and act from affection and thought? Example: if we want to do something or want something don't we move or act to do it or get it if our desire is strong enough? Does not one speak from his thoughts from the body, that is, through the vocal cords, tongue and lips? From these we can see they correspond and are a correspondence, such as thought makes the tongue speak and affection together with thought makes the body act. Anyone can see they are two distinct things, for we also can think without speaking. Neither does the body think or will, but the mind does. The mind has a correspondence with the body and all things each with the other.
From this we see that all things of the mind have reference to affection and thought or with will and understanding, while all things of the body have reference to the heart and lungs. In this, we can see correspondences between heart and will and between the understanding and lungs. Still, because man has been so external to accept anything except what is natural, he cannot see this. Man loves the natural and, so, delights mainly in his own understanding, which, we said is but mere natural knowledge. This has left his will to be only for natural things of this world, thus leaving the spiritual thinking that the spiritual is just a purer form of the natural.
In order for us to more clearly see these correspondences between the will with the heart, let us examine a person's affection with the heart's actions and we will learn how they correspond, and thus, see how they are conjoined; for if we are to be together with Heaven and with the Lord and thus, in our regeneration and in salvation we must have an understanding of the receptacles of the will and understanding within in us in which the Lord comes to dwell in and so, reign over us, that we are one with Him. He in us and us in Him, as He is within the Father or the Divine and the Divine within Him. If we look at the effects that the spiritual, that is, that the affections have, which we know springs forth from love, we can begin to understand this correspondence. Example: When our affections for or are to another the rate of our heart changes. The systolic and diastolic motions of the heart changes and vary according to our affections and love. Of course, these changes have been expressed in speech, for we talk of one having a generous heart, or a joyous heart, and a sad heart, or a hard or soft heart and of one made of stone. There are innumerous expressions and these are seen in the Word. It is thus that the Word is written by means correspondences.
Now, the heart is known as a vital organ of life meaning that it is essential to one's life. It is also known that in the body there is a certain heat that if man dies that heat leaves the body. In years past people talked about there being a 'vial heat' or 'vital life' in every man and animal. It was spoken of by conjecture - by theorizing. Some even guessing that such vital heat came from the sun. However, because we do not know what life is that word is not often used today. Nonetheless, if correspondences are known between love and its affections with the heart and its derivations, then we can see that love is the origin of such 'vital heat'. So it is that love flows in by correspondence into the heart and its blood and gives the body life. This again can be seen by the effects it causes. For doesn't a man grow hot and 'as it were' burns, according to his love. As an example: he becomes numb and chilled as these actions decreases. Or it can be felt in the heat of the whole body and seen in the flush of the face when love increases. And, when love becomes extinct the body feels cold and the face pallor.
In the Word there is seen this expressed in the life and soul of man as life in man through the blood by means of the action of the heart, for in the Word 'blood' is called the soul, as in Genesis 9: 4 and Leviticus 17: 14.
Earlier in this talk we spoke of there being a celestial and a spiritual Heaven where angels of such qualities are. These angels are from mankind. And, in fact, we said that man was formed first, within celestial and then in the spiritual and natural, wherein he was spiritual/natural before he fell into the natural state alone and his conjunction with Heaven was cut off. Thus, are there two distinguishable kingdoms in Heaven - the celestial and the spiritual kingdom Love to the Lord reigns in the celestial angels and wisdom from that love reigns in the spiritual angels. Since the celestial kingdom is where the heart corresponds to the will or to love, then that kingdom can be called or known as heaven's cardiac kingdom and where the understanding of the spiritual angels reigns there is the pulmonic kingdom. Here, we can begin to see that Heaven is in the form of a man and appears before the Lord's sight as a man which is seen in the written Word of the Divine Human as the 'Grand Man'. Thus, it is that the Lord is Life and that Life flows 'as it were' into a man causing the effect of the body's cardiac and pulmonary motions, for their correspondences are love and wisdom and is in those of the Lord. And, as these qualities are from the Sun of the spiritual world, which is from and of the Lord, they proceed into not only Heaven, but into the universe, thus, into the natural life of man. It was earlier stated that in Heaven there is no space, though there is the appearances of space. Think of Heaven without space and think of omnipresence, for the Lord is omnipresent in love and wisdom, or in good and truth, which He is, He having even said He was. Now, He is present with those who are in place (space) according to their reception of Him, of His good and truth.
We will now turn to examine the correspondence of the understanding with the lungs, for in man like the will of the spiritual man or his mind, the understanding rules. While it appears that the heart and lungs control the natural man or body. Thus, it is that all things of the body correspond to the mind, which is of the spiritual man. That the understanding corresponds to the lungs we must examine from our thought and speech. Example: can anyone think when his breathing stops? On the other hand one can think quietly when his breathing is quiet and when his breathing is deep his thought is deep. We can see a correspondence between the lungs and the respirations and so, of the thought and the influx of love. But let us read from the Word. "Thou shall love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all thy soul" (Matthew 22: 37), and "God will give a new heart and a new spirit" (Ezekiel 36: 26; Ps. 51: 10). We see that heart signifies the love of the will. So, here, 'soul' or 'spirit' signifies the wisdom of the understanding. Since man is to be made in God's image, he is to have a similar spirit or soul. God's spirit is now called the Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit means Divine Wisdom, which is of Divine Truth and is the light or the understanding of man.
From this, when we read that 'the Lord breathed on His disciples' and said, 'receive ye the Holy Spirit' and also where 'God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of lives, and he became a living soul' we see that the Lord is called the 'breath of the nostrils' and the 'breath of life'. And, isn't it respiration that passes though the nostrils and so, a person perceives or is aware through the senses. Just think of the spiritual or the mind and you will see that the correspondence is that a man has understanding, even intelligence and wisdom, from God. Again, when it is known that the word 'wind' and 'spirit' in the Hebrew are the same and that they mean breathing and if man dies, he is said to give up the ghost or spirit, that is, his breath or life ceases.
What becomes evident is that 'to love God with all the heart and all the soul' is to love Him with all the love willingly and with all the understanding, and to 'give a new heart and a new spirit' is to give new a will and a new understanding.
We have said that there is a distinction between the will and the understanding, thus there is also in the heart and the lungs, and so, too, the mind or spirit and the body. There is therefore in man two brains, for those who study the brain and its function knows that there is a cerebrum where the understanding resides 'as it were'. That there are two hemispheres of the brain, also of the heart, of lungs, and of all parts and that all of these two parts are conjoined one with the other. Now, this is because from the Lord flows both Love and Wisdom or goodness and truth. And, because these two are one in the Lord, they need to be one in man that he come into an image and a likeness of Him and that they become reciprocal, for they relate, the truth belonging to the goodness and, the goodness belonging to truth. Herein is the oneness of union: the goodness of love from which comes the truth of wisdom and the truth of wisdom comes from the goodness of love. Thus, it is that the spirit of man is to rule and the body is to be obedient. The spirit is lead by and from the Lord through the Holy Spirit or it is led by one's self, in which case man's will and understanding becomes distorted and, so, his life becomes destroyed and is separated from the Divine's Love and Wisdom.
You might say and wondering what use has all this knowledge to do with me. However, within the knowledge of correspondences many secrets concerning the will and understanding, and love and wisdom are disclosed. We cannot of ourselves know what love and will are, though we can know what understanding is and do understand and think 'as if' of our self. Neither can we make our heart to beat. Therefore, through correspondences we can learn what love and will are from the heart and lungs, for these can be examined by the eye and, of course, have been and are described by anatomist. Since they correspond to the will and understanding, which cannot be examined by the eye, these secrets can be revealed through them. In this way, the spiritual mysteries become enlightened to those who from a love for the truth, become known and acknowledged and no longer are closed to the understanding.
We have shown that man's mind is his spirit, and the spirit is the man. While the body is the external through which the mind or spirit feels and acts in its world, but this is not known from our natural life, but from correspondences. You can understand that when the natural body dies and what remains is spirit, then the spirit comes into the same form, but of spiritual substance, for as was shown the spirit is the man; he is a human from the Lord, because God is Man and we are human from Him.
Finally, let us see that the union of a man's spirit with his body is by correspondences and that we have shown that these are of his will and understanding with his heart and lungs and that separation is through non-correspondence. If you can understand that the man is the spirit, then the spirit has a pulse and respiration as the body does, for they flow from the spirit into the body and produce them. You can see that here there is an exact correspondence between the spirit and the body. Thus, when these duel motions cease to correspond there is a separation, which is death. Therefore, it is that our bodily life depends on the correspondence of its pulse and respiration of our spirit. Once our bodily life ends because there is no longer correspondence between the spiritual and the natural, our life then continues in our spirit. How it continues is determined by how man lived in this world, whether from love to one's self or from love to the Lord. In love to self and to worldly things one appropriate falsities and evil enters into the spirit, into one's mind, as we have already shown, and our spirit continues living in the spiritual world after the body dies, having aversion to the light of Heaven, that is, to the Lord's Good and His Truth as he did in this world. It is otherwise when we appropriate truth and good enters into our spirit, into to our mind. For then our spirit continues living in the spiritual world in Heaven having an affinity for the light of Heaven while in this world from the Lord's Good and Truth flowing into this world.
End.
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