REALITY

What is reality? As human beings, we seem to  have access to two realms of experience. We sense an outer world where we exist as a body with other bodies. But we also experience an inner world of consciousness, thoughts and emotions. This suggests that Reality is not only physical; it is also psychological or spiritual. This is confirmed by Quantum Theory where consciousness determines the existence of physical particles.

Consciousness is the spiritual world that is spoken about in the Bible. And consciousness is the cause of all manifestations of life. In order to understand the purpose of the universe, we need to be conscious and understand the spiritual world. For example, many persons erroneously believe that Good and Truth are matters of opinion. But Emanuel Swedenborg, while in the spiritual world, discovered that Good and Truth are emanations of Reality. They are the spiritual heat and Light of the spiritual world. He could see that this Love and Wisdom emanated from the Spiritual Sun in the spiritual world. And the Spiritual Sun represented the Lord's presence in the spiritual world. 

How do these spiritual facts change our view of Reality? First, we must understand that the realm of our mind and emotions is not personal; it is universal. We are present in the spiritual world through our will and understanding. Our will or emotional heart was designed to give and receive Love while our understanding was conceived to give and receive Wisdom. In order to understand what is happening in the spiritual world, we need Truth, Wisdom or spiritual Light. This Light or Wisdom does not come from our own self, it comes from the Spiritual Sun or the Lord. In other words, we cannot just have a personal opinion about what is Good and True. If we want to be enlightened, we must understand the Word of God or Divine Truth. This is the light of the spiritual world or the realm of our mind and emotions. We can choose not to understand the Word but, then, we will remain in the darkness of our own illusions, fantasies or lies. 

Second, we must understand how the spiritual world differs from the natural world. In the natural world, we erroneously think that Time and Space are absolute. The fact is that Time and Space are just notions of our sensual mind. Reality is Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient and Eternal. Over there, yesterday and tomorrow are just illusions of the sensual mind. In Euclidean space,  some bodies seem separated by great distances while certain events seem separated by periods of time. But when we observe all this from a spiritual or psychological perspective, we can see that certain persons who live thousands of miles apart can be united through their mutual love while a certain event in the present can be caused by another event in the distant past. The past and future are present in the world of consciousness, mind and emotions.  

We have also been told that the natural sun is millions of miles away from us in outer space. Yet we know that, without the Light  and heat emanating from this celestial  body, we would not be alive or see anything. In the same way, the Spiritual Sun is Omnipresent by the influx of Love and Wisdom in the spiritual world. We think that God  is very far away from us in Heaven. But the Truth is that He is eternally present with every one through the power and grace of Divine Love and Wisdom. We just have to open our emotional heart and rational mind.  

How does this change our view of life? This means that all of human history is still present in the spiritual world. It is still affecting us for better or worse. Everything we did in the past is affecting us here and now. The natural world is just a world of effects. What is being manifested in the natural world is caused by what is happening and what has happened in the spiritual world of consciousness, intentions, beliefs, emotions and ideas.  We cannot just ignore the past; we must resolve it or it will continue to haunt us and keep us from being free and alive. How do we resolve the past? By Love, Understanding and forgiveness. We must forgive our ancestors because they were ignorant. God can forgive and erase our own past transgressions if we are truly repentant. But we must begin to will what is Good and understand what is True. How can we stop from doing evil if we do not understand the difference between Good and evil or Truth and falsity? 

Sin or transgression always stems from ignorance. And ignorance comes from not understanding the Truth. Swedenborg says that, in the highest or Celestial Heaven, angels never argue about what is True and Good. They immediately understand what is True and do what is Good. Why? Because they can see the Truth and feel Goodness; it is their Reality. The Love of God enters their heart and His Wisdom enters their understanding without any obstruction.  Unfortunately, this is not the case for most of us. We are all still arguing about what is Good and True. Why? Because we live in spiritual darkness. Each one us has his own false ideas and beliefs about what is Good and True. 

If somebody were to ask you to prove to him that the natural sun exists, what would you think? You would think that he is not in his right mind.   What if someone else told you that he had his own personal opinions about the nature of heat, electricity and light, what would you think of him? Well some of us think that there is no God while others believe that Goodness and Truth are matters of opinion. The problem is that we have the freedom to live in spiritual darkness if we choose to do so. But, unlike in the natural world where the outer environment is more or less the same for every one, in the spiritual world, our outer reality is totally dependent upon our inner reality. If we do not acknowledge the Truth, we will have to live in the dark caves of our illusions and lies.   Some of us also believe that they do not have to obey the Laws of Heaven. But the only reason the Laws of Heaven are needed is so that all angels in Heaven can live in Peace and Harmony. Spiritual Laws are Laws of Heavenly Society. Why do we need traffic lights that tell us to stop from time to time? We need them so that traffic can flow freely and fluidly. If there were no traffic lights, there would be accidents everywhere and no one would be free to go anywhere. Wherever there is a society of more than one individual, there has to be Laws. These Laws are needed to preserve the freedom of all members of society.  

There are conflicts and wars in human society because human beings are still in spiritual darkness. Every human being or every nation has its own erroneous beliefs about what is Good and True. If we can all agree that the natural sun exists and that it is the source of electricity and Light, perhaps we could all agree that there is a common Spiritual Sun in our hearts and minds and that it is a source of Universal Love and Wisdom. We all have access to Heaven through our rational mind and loving heart. But, in order to enter and remain in Heaven, we must obey the Laws of Heaven.  

Swedenborg discovered that Heaven was organized in the form of a human being. This is the Order of Heaven. This is the Divine Truth that we must understand. But Heaven and Earth are connected through human beings on Earth.  Heaven is our higher rational mind and loving heart. And so what does it mean to commit a sin?  It means to transgress the Laws of Heaven or our higher mind. It is to behave and act as if our higher mind does not exist. And, if we do not acknowledge the Love and Wisdom that is radiating into our higher mind, we are bound to transgress the Laws of Heaven. The border between our sensual mind and our higher mind is our conscience. Swedenborg even says that there are two guardian angels from Heaven at the border of our conscience that are continually helping us understand the Laws of Heaven. Unfortunately, we also have the freedom to ignore  our conscience and follow our lower instincts. These lower instincts are in correspondence with evil spirits from hell or the realms of spiritual darkness. In the end, we are free to choose our own reality. But the Truth will never change; it is the eternal Light of the spiritual world. And Goodness or Love is not a matter of opinion; it is the heat or electricity of the spiritual world. Without Light, we cannot see and without electricity, we cannot function.  Without spiritual Light or Wisdom, we cannot understand and without spiritual electricity or Love we cannot live.