This Volume is called Enlightenment to distinguish it from Volume 1 called Reformation and Volume 3 called Regeneration. Each volume addresses itself to one of the three essential steps of full regeneration. Reformation is a process of realigning all concepts in our understanding to concord with the dualities taught in the Writings. Reformation is therefore a struggle against the concepts of nonduality that are already established in our mind, inasmuch as reformation only begins sometime in adult life.

Following reformation which takes a few months, regeneration can begin. Why do we then need to be concerned with Volume 2 called “Enlightenment”? The answer is that regeneration cannot proceed by the same truths that we have for effecting reformation.

When we first read the Writings we are in an unregenerate state, which is the state we are in prior to undergoing reformation. In the unregenerate state we read and study the Writings in its literal meaning. As will be shown in this volume, this literal meaning is expressed in natural-rational correspondences, that is, in natural appearances of truths. Correspondences are called “real appearances” (AC 9927)

The Lord conjoins Himself to uses by means of correspondences, and thus by means of appearances in accordance with the confirmations of these by man. (DP 220)

Correspondences are in great part appearances of truth enclosed within which, nevertheless, genuine truths lie concealed (DP 256)

The Word is written throughout wholly by correspondences (DP 256)

The literal sense of the Word was composed out of what are called appearances and correspondences. (TCR 650)

Since the New Church mind acknowledges the Writings as the Word, we apply whatever is said about the Word to the Writings. The above passages indicate that the Writings are “composed of appearances and correspondences.” It is said, further, that the Lord conjoins Himself to us by means of correspondences.

Clearly therefore, the Second Coming of the Lord is the conjunction of the New Church mind with the Divine Human through the natural-rational correspondences of the Letter of the Writings.

Reformation begins when we decide as an adult that we are going to worship the Letter of the Writings as the Divine Word, which is Divine Truth, which is the Lord Himself in His Second Coming as the Divine Rational. These points are established in this Volume.

In the Letter of the Writings, the human race now has possession of the truths and the reasoning process an individual needs to eliminate all nonduality in the mind, and to substitute only the dualities of the Writings as the basis for all thinking and reasoning. In the new civilization of the Second Coming, this is the definition of how anyone in the world may form the New Church mind in themselves.

The power of the Letter of the Writings is Divine. This power lies in its being written in natural-rational correspondences. The literal sense of each expression in the Writings is a natural-rational correspondence, as will be shown and illustrated in this Volume. Within this, as in a cognitive vessel or containant, lies infinite things in infinite series, since this is the character of the Word (AC 2619, 6620). The living power of the Letter of the Writings comes from what lies within the Letter. The Letter itself is dead (xx). Hence it is a Divine commandment that the New Church mind avoid remaining in the dead Letter and must “scrutate” the Letter to find out what is in it (xx). This refers to systematic, scholarly, and scientific methods for “extracting” the spiritual sense from the Letter, as is shown in this Volume.

We do our conscious rational thinking and reasoning in the portion of the mind called the natural-rational understanding. This level of thinking and reasoning is constituted out of natural-rational correspondences, that is, spiritual-rational truths accommodated to the intellect of the natural mind. The Word of the Old Testament is written in natural-corporeal correspondences, while the Word of the New Testament is written in natural-sensuous correspondences. The Word of the Writings is written in natural-rational correspondences.

The natural-rational correspondences of the Letter of the Writings are therefore a discrete degree above the New Testament correspondences, which in turn are a discrete degree above the Old Testament correspondences.

The Threefold Word has been given to the human race in three portions, each part suitable to the intellectual level of the civilization which received its portion. The natural-rational correspondences of the Writings required that they be written after modern science and the rational age had matured. Swedenborg’s prepared mind, immersed in this modern climate, served as the mechanism for delivering the Latin Word.

This indicates that Swedenborg’s level of conscious thinking and reasoning was immersed in natural-rational correspondences. His thoughts, concepts, ideas were constituted out of natural-rational correspondences. As a result, he was able to compose sentences and paragraphs in Latin that were made wholly of expressions that denote natural-rational correspondences. Many illustrations and demonstrations of this fact are given in this Volume. Undoubtedly Swedenborg also operated at a higher degree of thinking and perceiving when he was in the company of angels, especially higher angels. His thinking was then immersed in and was operating by means of spiritual-rational correspondences. But when it came to composing Latin sentences, which are laid down in a natural language, Swedenborg’s thinking and reasoning operated at a natural level, not spiritual. Hence it is that the Letter of the Writings, that is, the literal meaning of the expressions, refers to natural-rational correspondences. By this process the Lord was able to reveal His Divine Rational laid down in the natural.

The natural-rational correspondences of the Letter of the Writings give us the new rational ability to build up in our natural mind, a representation of this Letter in our knowledge, understanding, and perception. This representation of the Letter in our natural mind is constituted of natural-rational correspondences. These natural-rational correspondences are located in the natural-rational mind. This is the highest portion of the natural mind, as will be illustrated in diagrams. These natural-rational correspondences in the natural-rational mind serve for reformation.

But in order for regeneration to begin the natural-rational correspondences of the Letter in our mind, must be applied to life, that is, to our daily willing and thinking. The moment we begin this activity, which is to be a daily activity for many years, the Lord enlightens us.

Enlightenment in the New Church mind refers to perception of interior meaning in the Letter of the Writings.

The Word is written in correspondences, as already mentioned. The natural-rational correspondences of the Letter of the Writings are appearances of Divine Truth regarding the Divine Rational of the Lord. These natural-rational correspondences contain an interior spiritual meaning which is constituted of spiritual-rational appearances of truth. In other words, the spiritual sense of the Writings is nothing else than the spiritual-rational correspondences that are within the natural-rational correspondences of its Letter.

You can see the all important difference between natural-rational correspondences of the Letter, on the one hand, and on the other, spiritual-rational correspondences of the internal sense of the Letter. The relationship is like that between earth and heaven, or that between what is dead in itself as an ultimate, and what is alive within it as Divine. Swedenborg’s thinking and perception was immersed in spiritual-rational correspondences when in the company of angels, but in natural-rational correspondences when writing in Latin or Swedish. Since the two correspond, we are able to extract from the natural-rational correspondences, the spiritual-rational correspondences which lie within. The Writings have provided detailed instructions on how to apply this method of extraction to the Letter, as is shown in this Volume.

For reformation we use natural-rational correspondences; for regeneration, we use spiritual-rational correspondences. One is a more interior appearance of truth. This more interior appearance of truth is itself an appearance or correspondence, but it is a higher appearance, or higher correspondence, and what is higher is superior.

Superior in this case means closeness of conjunction with the Lord, which is the actual power that effects regeneration. Divine power is needed to effect regeneration because we are born in the jaws of the infernal hells and when we try to change, we face those hells in all their ferocity and tenacity. And the hells are united so that each evil society draws power from all the others there. Only the Lord can overcome the combined power of all the hells. But the Lord cannot effect regeneration without our cooperation. Hence we must struggle and undergo temptations for many years.

This Volume explains the process of enlightenment needed for regeneration.

It warns against the dangers of remaining in the Letter.

It collects many passages from the Writings to show what enlightenment is and how it works in our regeneration.

It debunks and demystifies the various notions and fears that we may have when thinking about the idea of an internal sense to the Writings.

It explains what is the Spiritual Doctrine we are commanded to extract from the Letter of the Writings. It gives various methods of extraction and many illustrations.

I have tried to make only arguments from the Writings and I cite relevant passages. The (xx) citations are still to be inserted. If you know any of these, please email them to me at leon@hawaii.edu. If you find anything that seems like a doctrinal error, please write.

For the Preface to Volume 1, please consult the Table of Contents above.

DEDICATION

To my wife

It is her internal wisdom that led me to write this book as-of myself. She brought into our marriage the conjugial love she has in her from the Lord, inborn from nativity

An inclination to love one of the opposite sex, and with it a capacity for receiving that love, has been implanted in Christians from birth, for the reason that this love comes from the Lord alone

(CL 466).

Wives are by birth forms of love, so that it is innate in them to wish to be one with their husbands … But it is different with husbands; since they are not by birth forms of love, but designed to receive that love from their wives (CL 216)

The intelligence of women is by nature modest, gracious, peaceable, compliant, soft and gentle, while the intelligence of men is by nature critical, rough, resistant, argumentative, and given to intemperance. Evidence that this is the nature of women and the nature of men is clearly apparent from the body, face, tone of voice, speech, bearing and behavior of each sex.

(…)

From this I could clearly see that a man is born a form of the intellect, and a woman a form of love. I could also see what the nature of the intellect is and what the nature of love is in their beginnings, and thus what a man's intellect in its development would be like without conjunction with feminine love and eventually conjugial love.

(CL 218)

Chapter 1 The Spiritual Sense Of The Writings Demystified

1. Introduction

Only from doctrine can there be a church (AE 1088)

The interior angels do not even perceive the church, but the faith of that church (AC 1025)

Everyone who is regenerate is a temple of the Lord (AC 40)

'A field' means doctrine, and so everything constituting doctrine concerning faith and charity. (AC 368)

We have to be willing to study the rational truths conveyed by the literal language of the Writings, every day for many years, in order to be able to create for ourselves a rational Doctrine of life out of them, to guide our willing and thinking every conscious moment. The Lord commands us to follow a spiritual discipline by which we compel ourselves to live by in our daily willing and thinking acts. And step by step, the Lord approaches closer and closer in proportion to our sincerity and persistence in this lifelong discipline. We receive from the Lord the conscious light of spiritual understanding by means of the application of Doctrine in our natural mind. This is a conscious light in our natural mind, easily seen from great distance in the spiritual world on account of its spiritual content within the interior-natural mind. The interior-natural is also called the spiritual-natural and is the level of thinking in which the angelic spirits are in the First Heaven (xx).

This spiritual light is the light in which we perceive and think when our thinking is immersed in spiritual-rational correspondences. This light is what provides enlightenment for the New Church mind. This is the light needed by every regenerating mind to be able to resist falsities of evil in us from heredity. As will be shown in this Chapter, the spiritual-rational correspondences that provide us with enlightenment are not located anywhere in the external rational mind. The Letter of the Writings is in the external rational mind, not the interior-natural mind, because this Letter is written in natural-rational correspondences (not spiritual-rational). Only spiritual-rational correspondences afford us the ability to understand spiritual topics spiritually. By means of the natural-rational correspondences we understand spiritual topics naturally. To understand spiritual topics spiritually is called enlightenment because spiritual understanding is only from the light of heaven.

When we see in this spiritual light those things about our willing and thinking all day long, and when we see in this spiritual light those things that surround us in the natural and cultural environments, we experience delight and bliss that cannot be described.

But this delight and bliss is nothing but the consequence of the spiritual heat we sense in response to our willing the good and thinking the true.

This hot light of consciousness shines brightly in the spiritual world. All such light issues from the spiritual Sun (DLW 89). We cannot see this light directly in a natural-sensuous way, but we can see it in a rational way by its correspondences to the natural or external things in our mind and in society. The happiness we feel is not something we can grasp for as a goal. Neither would we be satisfied with this happiness as a goal in itself, rather than as a consequence. The happiness is only a by product of the use, which is the willing and thinking as of-self to harmonize with the Doctrine we take up in our mind.

The Doctrine in our mind is first natural from the Letter of the Writings, then spiritual from enlightenment as we apply the literal sentences to our daily willing and thinking.

When the Doctrine is understood literally, consequently naturally, we consider it the same as the Letter of the Writings. In other words the expressions “the Heavenly Doctrine” and “the Letter of the Writings” are taken to be the same. But when Doctrine is understood spiritually, it is as remote from the Letter as the light of the moon is in comparison to the light of the sun (xx). The Heavenly Doctrine understood spiritually is called the Spiritual Doctrine. This is the Doctrine we must form for ourselves for making progress in our regeneration. Spiritual Doctrine understood spiritually has light and power like the noonday sun in the summer in relation to a garden or field. We begin reformation through a natural understanding of Doctrine in its literal sentences, but by the time we complete reformation, and begin regeneration, more and more of Doctrine is now seen spiritually. In other words, our enlightenment grows in proportion to our regeneration.

The Spiritual Doctrine is the Writings understood spiritually.

To understand the Writings literally and naturally is to put up an effort as-of self in our natural-rational mind. The literal understanding of the Writings is the understanding immersed in natural-rational correspondences. This is a far higher level of thinking and understanding than the natural-sensuous correspondences in which the New Testament is written. Seventeen centuries of intellectual and scientific development intervene between the natural-sensuous correspondences of the New Testament and the natural-rational correspondences of the Writings. The natural-rational correspondences of the Letter of the Writings elevate the mind of the human race to a new level of conscious understanding and functioning. This level is the highest possible level of thinking and understanding with the natural mind. Yet it is only like the light of the moon at night when compared to the portions of the mind above the natural which are in the bright and intense light of the spiritual Sun. The spiritual topics of the Writings can be understood naturally or spiritually, and one gives us the light of the moon at night, the other gives us the light of the summer sun at noon

At first we see the Heavenly Doctrine as something outside of ourselves, something in the Letter. We take up the literal sentences into our memory and into our natural-rational understanding. Note that we do this by dint of intellectual effort and reasoning. Now that a form of the Heavenly Doctrine is in our natural-rational mind, we feel it as our own, to the extent that we also love it, not merely understand it. Once we have this natural understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine, it stays with us as we go about our daily willing and thinking, and not merely when we read the Writings. It’s as if the Writings are written in our memory and heart, rather than in a book or computer file.

We can now use the Heavenly Doctrine we have appropriated by applying it to guide our daily willing and thinking. This is part of the process of regeneration, namely, taking up a natural understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine and then applying it to guide our daily willing and thinking. This natural understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine is nothing else than the understanding of the natural-rational correspondences in which its words and expressions are written.

But the natural understanding of Doctrine does not have the power to regenerate because the natural cannot enter the spiritual, and we must be regenerated by what is spiritual entering the natural (xx).

Hence the Lord gives us enlightenment to the extent that we apply our natural understanding of Doctrine to daily willing and thinking. The spiritual entering the natural consists of applying natural-rational correspondences to our willing and thinking, an act or operation that the Lord uses to enlighten us. This effect is obtained because our willing and thinking constitute the interior level of the particular in creation, while the Doctrine in our mind constitute general principles and relations. The particular is a discrete degree above the general, as will be shown in the diagram that follows.

Only after this enlightenment has occurred, do we have a conscious perception of the Spiritual Doctrine.

This means that we have a conscious perception of spiritual-rational correspondences. It is shown later in the Chapter how this process takes place and in which anatomical portion of the mind.

As this process of enlightenment and regeneration goes on, we appropriate more and more of the Spiritual Doctrine, feeling it within us and as being ours. It will be shown below that this Spiritual Doctrine in our mind is Divine Doctrine. This is important to prevent us from appropriating the Divine. The Spiritual Doctrine is felt to be our own from intellectual effort in penetrating the Letter of the Writings. That it feels like our own, means that we are consciously conjoined to the Divine. Our love and worship of the Spiritual Doctrine is the condition the Lord waits for to effect conjunction with the individual New Church mind. When we worship the Spiritual Doctrine born in our understanding, we are not attributing divinity or infallibility to ourselves. Instead, we are acknowledging the Divine Child or Seed implanted in our mind by the Lord. This Divine Seed is Divine Truth from the Lord accommodated to the individual in a unique way. Thus, the Divine Doctrine is different with each individual, and yet they are all congruent because they are each from enlightenment and genuine charity, which are only from the Lord.

The Divine Doctrine in one New Church mind may not be recognized by another New Church mind, since recognition or enlightenment is dependent on the regeneration series each must undergo in their time. Therefore if there were a political attempt to impose the Divine Doctrine of one individual on another, the Church would be destroyed and the Spiritual Doctrine would be consummated and vanish. Only the Letter of the Writings, not the spiritual or internal meaning, can be used for Church management issues. Since the Letter can be turned in a variety of endless directions, the result is that the Church remains stable by proliferating culturally, so that each Church specific is run according to its selection and interpretation of the Letter.

Whenever a new view arises about the Letter that does not agree with the existing views in a Church, the members with the new view will form a separate Church so as not to experience opposition. In this way, the Church proliferates according to its cultural views and selections and interpretations of the Letter of the Writings. Every Church specific, if charity is the primary in it and faith its secondary, receives from the Lord Divine Doctrine by means of enlightenment of its members, in accordance with each member’s progress in the regeneration series they each must undergo.

The location of this new spiritual understanding of Doctrine is not in our natural-rational mind, for the spiritual cannot be in the natural, but only above it or within it, in a discrete degree higher than the natural. It is necessary therefore that the Lord create a new mind within the natural-rational.

This new mind is called the interior-natural mind and its operation is nothing else than spiritual-rational correspondences. This is the level of understanding and thinking of the angelic spirits have who live in the First Heaven. The new interior-natural mind now gives us the capacity to have a spiritual consciousness that was not possible before. Spiritual consciousness is the conscious perception of spiritual-rational correspondences. The spiritual understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine is located not in the external natural mind but in the interior-natural mind. This is the level of thinking and reasoning that serves for our regeneration.

We cannot be regenerated by natural-rational correspondences.

Hence it is that the Letter kills but the spiritual sense gives life. The spiritual sense is nothing else than the perception of spiritual-rational correspondences. This perception is called enlightenment. This Chapter presents methods for extracting spiritual-rational correspondences from natural-rational correspondences.

The study of the Letter of the Writings and the consequent natural understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine, is our First Education, or reformation. The application of the Letter in our mind to our daily willing and thinking, leads to the spiritual understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine, and is our Second Education, or enlightenment. But there is one more step: We must then confirm this spiritual understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine by means of the Letter of the Writings, and this can be called our Third Education, which is regeneration itself. Thus, starting from the Letter, we end with the Letter. These three steps are required for every regenerating New Church mind.

The interior-natural mind responds to three discrete levels of Doctrine. These three levels mirror by correspondence the Doctrine that is in the three heavens.

As we regenerate, the Lord opens the unconscious spiritual mind more and more, with more and more interior truths of Doctrine that He implants as a Divine Seed in a Divine Garden or Eden. This is the return of the human race to the pristine celestial sate called the Garden of Eden, which in the East. This biological activity in the unconscious spiritual mind results in a corresponding activity in the interior-natural mind, which is conscious. By this mechanism the Lord gives us conscious perception of the spiritual forms of Doctrine in the three heavens.

Our unconscious spiritual mind being built up by the Lord during regeneration is the mind that lives and is conscious in heaven in the afterlife. The discrete level to which our unconscious spiritual mind is opened determines which of the three heavens we enter for eternal life. This depends on our regeneration. Those who suffer themselves to be regenerated to the celestial level, enter the highest or Third Heaven.

The interior-natural mind is therefore the organ of consciousness for the understanding of Spiritual Doctrine. It is the organ that contains spiritual-rational correspondences and gives us conscious perception of them. Note that the content of the interior-natural mind originates from the unconscious spiritual mind, which is spiritual of celestial origin, hence from the Divine.

Both the unconscious spiritual mind and the conscious interior-natural mind are from celestial origin. Therefore everything in them is Divine, just as everything in the Garden of Eden is Divine, and everything in heaven is Divine (xx).

There is nothing in them from self or the world. This is in contrast with the content of the natural-rational mind which originates from as-of self effort and intelligence. This is why the natural understanding of the Heavenly Doctrine is from self-intelligence, but its spiritual understanding is from heaven and the Lord. The Spiritual Doctrine in our mind is nothing but the spiritual-rational correspondences in our perception from the interior-natural mind. Consequently, the Spiritual Doctrine in our mind is Divine Doctrine.

The First Education is for reformation. The interior-natural mind is not yet opened in this phase because our understanding of Doctrine is not yet spiritual. We undergo reformation by means of the truths of the Letter understood naturally. When we begin our regeneration, then for the first time the Lord enlightens us with a more interior perception of Doctrine. This is the beginning of our Second Education. The Lord now creates an interior-natural mind within our natural-rational mind. At first, only the lowest discrete level is built up in the new interior-natural mind. This corresponds to the spiritual understanding of Doctrine by the natural angels in the First Heaven. Then, as we confirm the spiritual understanding in the Letter of the Writings, we obtain our Third Education. Now the interior-natural mind is opened to its second degree that corresponds to the understanding of Doctrine possessed by the spiritual angels of the Second Heaven.

In old age, the New Church mind enters into the third degree of the interior-natural mind, which is the level of understanding of Doctrine possessed by the celestial angels of the highest or Third Heaven. This level is discussed in Volume 4 (in preparation).

2. A Diagram Showing The Formation Of The New Church Mind

The diagram shows the topical organization of this book. It represents the operations of regeneration by means of the Writings. The formation of the New Church mind is what’s called regeneration, hence the title “A Man Of The Field” which refers to the spiritual understanding of Doctrine required for undergoing regeneration.

The diagram depicts nine categories of dualities arranged in an ennead matrix of nine cells (3x3). There are three levels (I, II, III) within each of the three operations, or class of activity, described as Volume 1, 2, and 3 (Reformation, Enlightenment, Regeneration).

Thus, Reformation operates at three levels of thinking: Knowledge (I), Understanding (II), and Perception (III). So does Enlightenment, and also Regeneration.

These nine dualities represent nine steps we go through to install the New Church mind in ourselves. It is the process of regeneration described in the Writings. I will discuss each of the nine installation steps following the discussion on reading the columns and rows of the ennead matrix.

3. The Operation Of Reformation, Enlightenment, Regeneration

Reformation (Volume 1) is the struggle against nonduality in the New Church mind. Nonduality is the denial of duality. Nonduality is also any duality perceived on a continuous scale between the two elements, instead of a discrete degree difference. At the level of thinking called “knowledge level” (I), nonduality is replaced by the fundamental duality in the Writings called the “internal man” vs. the “external man.” This is the same as the duality of the spiritual world and the natural world. This class of dualities is installed in our external mind and constitute the external scientifics of the Letter of the Writings. At the second level of thinking “understanding” (II), we install the class of dualities that contrasts the natural-rational mind vs. the interior-natural mind. This is the same as acknowledging the difference between natural-rational correspondences of the Letter and spiritual-rational correspondences of the spiritual sense within the literal. The third level in the process of reformation is called “perception” (III), by which we install the class of dualities that relate to our perception of the particular within the general. This is the highest understanding in reformation because we can then see how Divine Doctrine applies to our willing and thinking moment by moment. These three levels correspond to the three educations mentioned above. Please refer again to the diagram above.

Enlightenment (Volume 2) is the opening by the Lord of the interior-natural mind. Level I thinking is represented in the diagram by a class of dualities represented by the idea of the “spiritual sense existing within the natural sense.” At the second level of enlightenment or thinking (II), we install the class of dualities represented by the distinction between natural-rational correspondences of the Letter and spiritual-rational correspondences extracted from the Letter. At the third level of enlightenment (III) we install the class of dualities represented by the Spiritual Doctrine that is extracted from the literal and built into a coherent rational system of principles. Please refer again to the diagram above.

Regeneration (Volume 3) is the application of enlightenment to reveal our willing and thinking and to compel ourselves into proper alignment with the Spiritual Doctrine in our mind. At level I, regeneration is merely the knowledge from the Letter that we must undergo reformation in adult life, followed by regeneration until the end. At level II, regeneration is the understanding that the church in our mind must be a heaven in miniature. No willing and thinking must be left standing that is not in obedience and conformity with the Heavenly Doctrine understood spiritually. At level III, regeneration is the development of conjugial love. And example is the Doctrine of the Wife, discussed in Volume 3. Please refer again to the diagram above.

So far we discussed the diagram vertically by operation (reformation, enlightenment, regeneration). Now if you look at the diagram horizontally you will get a picture of the overall operation for each level. The three “levels” refer to the three levels of thinking and reasoning: the level of knowledge (I), the level of understanding (II) and the level of perception (III), as described in the Writings (xx). But reading the diagram horizontally gives us a specific perspective on the role of these three levels within each operation.

For example: What is the difference between the knowledge level of thinking between reformation and enlightenment?

The diagram answers this question with a contrast between, on the one hand, “internal man/external man” duality (reformation level I), and on the other hand, the “spiritual sense/natural sense” duality (enlightenment level I). In other words, the idea that the spiritual sense is to be extracted from the natural sense is an enlightenment step, while the idea that the internal man rules the external man from an invisible world that is a discrete degree above it, is a reformation step. This notion is discussed further below when the nine installation steps are described individually.

Take a second example: “What do spiritual-rational correspondences correspond to?”

The diagram answers this question with a contrast between, on the one hand, “spiritual-rational correspondences,” and on the other, the “Spiritual Doctrine.” Both are operations of enlightenment. The diagram shows that understanding the duality “spiritual-rational” within natural-rational” is the foundation for level III, namely perceiving the Spiritual Doctrine. This duality is further discussed below in the installation steps. But for now, you can see that spiritual-rational correspondences are at a lower level of thinking (II) than the Spiritual Doctrine (III). This means that the spiritual-rational correspondences in the understanding point to, or refer to, that which is above themselves. And this is the Spiritual Doctrine. In the same way you can see that the Letter of the Writings is the external portion of the Spiritual Doctrine and the two cannot be equated since they form a duality.

Take a third example: “What is the essential difference between the natural-rational mind and the interior-natural mind?”

The diagram answers this question with a contrast between, on the one hand, “interior-natural mind” and on the other, the “natural-rational mind.” This contrast is installed in the operation of reformation at level II. The diagram shows that the interior-natural mind is a discrete degree above the natural-rational mind. Above or within in terms of discrete degrees always means superior (xx). The way in which the interior-natural mind is superior to the natural-rational mind is shown by adjacent dualities. For instance, going horizontally on the matrix, the interior-natural mind in reformation (level II) becomes the containant for spiritual-rational correspondences in enlightenment (II). This indicates that the opening of the interior-natural mind during reformation paves the way for understanding the duality between interior-natural correspondences and natural-rational correspondences. Upon understanding this duality depends the ability to perceive the Spiritual Doctrine (level III). There is therefore an indirect but determinative relationship between understanding the interior-natural mind and perceiving the Spiritual Doctrine. These matters are discussed in more detail later in the Chapter.

Take a fourth example: “What is the relationship between perceiving the Spiritual Doctrine and understanding what is heaven?”

This question contrasts “enlightenment level III” with “regeneration level II.” The diagram answers this question with a contrast between, on the one hand, the “Spiritual Doctrine” and on the hand, “Heaven.” The diagram shows that both are interior elements of their duality. Their external elements relate to each other as “Letter of the Writings” relates to “Church on earth.” To express these relations verbally we would say that the Church on earth is the external natural vessel for heaven, when all is in order from creation. Similarly, the Letter of the Writings is a natural vessel for the Spiritual Doctrine. However, these relations vary for each operation.

In the operation of enlightenment, the relation between the spiritual and the natural is by means of the perception (level III) that the natural-rational correspondences of the Writings have a spiritual-rational correspondence to which they refer from within. Consequently, it is the perception that the Spiritual Doctrine is not in the Letter but within it, and must be extracted from the Letter by appropriate methods.

In the operation of regeneration, the relationship between the interior and external is defined by a perception (level III) of conjugial love within the marriage of regenerating couples. Therefore our understanding (level II) of heaven is the result of this perception since understanding (level II) is always the result of perception (level III) (xx).

As you can see the ennead diagram has powerful abilities to organize a lot of ideas from the Writings. You can practice deriving questions by picking a contrast, as I have done above in the four examples. Then, giving an answer by invoking the neighbor dualities. You can move around vertically, horizontally, and diagonally, each movement defining the type of question being asked and its answer.

See Note 24 for more information on the amazing properties of enneads that I have discovered over the years.

4. The Nine Installation Steps

Starting with level I at the bottom, you can see the duality external man / internal man. This is the first installation step. Notice the two arrows. The arrow on the right pointing downward represents the order of creation. In this case the internal man was created to rule the external man, and gradually does so, as we are regenerated. The reverse arrow on the left pointing upward represents the order of appearances. In the appearances of our biography it seems that the internal man is discovered by the external man. For instance we might read this in the Writings at which time we say to ourselves: “OK, I have an internal man of which I’m unconscious. This internal part of myself is called a heaven in miniature (xx) because that portion of my spirit or mind is actually in heaven with angels” (cf. xx).

From this we live the appearance that the external man discovers the existence of the internal man. When this appearance is taken for reality, the internal man cannot descend into the external man and heaven remains unattainable and distant as long as we remain in that state of mind.

The two arrows must work together to achieve functionality of the Divine operation.

The downward arrow represents the dominion of the internal over the external. Heaven then rules that person, and the individual is then in heaven already. The upward arrow represents the resistance we put up to obeying the Doctrine in our mind. It is our unregenerate state. Understanding this duality moves us into level II of reformation. It is the first step up in our reformation, which begins at some point in adulthood with the knowledge from the Writings that we must undergo reformation by subduing the external man and place him in obedience to the internal man. Acknowledging this process allows us to begin reformation but in order to progress we must take the second installation step.

The first installation step that begins reformation (Volume 1), is our acknowledgement from the Letter of the Writings that the internal man is superior even though invisible to the external man. Until reformation we were in our unregenerate state and we believed the internal/external contrast in a natural way. The contrast in our mind was a nonduality created by the idea of a continuum that stretches between the internal and the external of our mind. We thought of it like we think about the internal wall of the heart and its external wall. They are different along a continuum of muscle-cartilage combinations. Both the external wall and the internal wall of the heart belong to the same specialty in medicine, and the same techniques are used for managing both during surgery and after. This is a nonduality because the internal and external portions of the heart are made of similar fibers and protein molecules. They are at the same discrete level.

But not so for the internal man and the external man—they are at discrete levels relative to each other. The internal man can see the external man, but the external man cannot see the internal man (xx). Their relationship and interaction is by correspondence only since they are in two separate realms of existence. Reformation begins when we acknowledge that the relation is a discrete duality. Then for the first time we can accept the idea that the external man did not discover the internal man, but it is the internal man that revealed himself to the internal man. This new acknowledgment completes the paths of the two arrows and renders the duality functional, allowing the second step up.

Prior to the beginning of reformation sometime in adult life, we have the Letter of the Writings in our understanding and we take the literal meaning to be the spiritual meaning, especially when we had to work hard to finally understand some passage or see a relation between a collection of passages. We equate “hard to understand” with “deeper meaning,” and then we equate “deeper meaning” with “spiritual meaning.” Meanwhile, our thinking is immersed in the natural-rational correspondences of the Letter. We worship the Letter as one worships the Lord’s Body buried in a tomb hewn out of rocks.

But when we acknowledge that the internal man reveals himself to the external man, we can begin to understand this as a scientific or medical process of the growth of the human mind. This new understanding is the second installation step, as the diagram indicates. The third installation step is above understanding into perception. We are in this final phase of reformation we can perceive the particular within the general. This means: when we apply the Letter to our willing and thinking. Our willing and thinking is the particular out of which the general is constructed. Another way to say this is that our reformation is complete when we perceive the duality of the particular within the general. The general refers to the general principles and laws of Doctrine that we have in our mind from the Letter. When our reformation is completed (installation step III), our mind is then operating differently from before. We were not able to perceive how the Letter applied to our willing and thinking. We were not able to see the particular within the Letter, only its general on the exterior. Yet the general is for the sake of the particular, just as the external is for the sake of the interior.

Looking at the diagram again:

Installation step 4 begins the operation of enlightenment (Volume 2).

This step is the acknowledgement of the duality between the spiritual sense and the natural sense. Until this first step of enlightenment we had believed that the natural sense of the Letter of the Writings is the same as the spiritual sense of the Old and New Testaments. This point of view cannot see a duality between them in discrete degrees, but only as a nonduality contrast, or continuum within the same degree. The first step of enlightenment therefore comes when we acknowledge that the Writings are written in pure correspondences.

The second step of enlightenment is installation step 5. The diagram shows that this involves understanding the duality of spiritual-rational correspondences within natural-rational correspondences. We obtain this understanding when we practice reading the Letter of the Writings with substitutions for parts from another part of the Writings. This technique and its enlightening consequences are described later in the Chapter.

The final step in enlightenment is installation step 6.

The diagram shows that this is the perception (III) of the duality Spiritual Doctrine within the Letter of the Writings. This is the highest step of enlightenment when our perception is elevated to heavenly light and we perceive spiritually like the angels do, though by means of natural correspondences, ever higher and more discretely representative. When we are fully enlightened and can perceive the Spiritual Doctrine within the Letter, we are at last fully prepared for the operation of regeneration (Volume 3).

Note the two arrows again in installation step 6, or the final phase of enlightenment (III). From the order of creation, the Spiritual Doctrine creates a suitable natural vessel for itself called the Word. This creative cause-effect relation is represented by the right arrow pointing downward. But in biographical appearance, the order is reversed. It appears that the Letter comes to us first, and that we study it for many years, believing that our increasing understanding is the spiritual sense that we penetrate. This is represented by the left arrow pointing upward. But as soon as both arrows become functional, the process is completed. In this case, the Spiritual Doctrine is no longer seen as something we infer and figure out, but something we derive or extract from the Letter because it is located within the Letter. It is a mining operation rather than a discovery and invention operation. And there are definite rules and techniques to be applied for the mining operation to be effective. This Chapter describes these methods of orderly an legitimate extraction of the Spiritual Doctrine from the Letter.

Installation step 7 is the first step of regeneration.

As the diagram shows, it is the acknowledgement of a discrete duality between reformation and regeneration. Prior to this first step, we believe that we have already been regenerating since childhood or adolescence. This is a nonduality notion of the unregenerate mind. We knew before that there was a distinction between reformation and regeneration. But we did not understand this relationship spiritually, only naturally. But now, we acknowledge it as a discrete duality, so that we can recognize the task that lies ahead. The task of regeneration has not begun until the tasks of reformation and enlightenment have been completed. Only when we perceive the Spiritual Doctrine within the Letter can we acknowledge the discrete duality between reformation and regeneration. We acknowledge reformation to be the external part of our work, while regeneration is the internal part. The external part has to do with the understanding and the dualities therein, while the internal part has to do with the will and our infernal delights.

The second step of regeneration is installation step 8.

The diagram shows this is the understanding (II) of the duality of heaven within the Church on earth. You can see from the diagram that this understanding depends on the duality between spiritual-rational correspondences and natural-rational correspondences established earlier (panning left to enlightenment, level II). We know from the Writings that heaven is the Grand Human and that nothing can be inducted into that Divine Form but what is genuinely Human, that is, what is from the Lord. There is a purification process that we must undergo if our mind is to be a Church that is tied to heaven, thus a Church in which there is an internal worship. Regeneration is the process of purification by which the Lord brings our awareness to evil delights we cleave to, thus giving us the opportunity to reject them by turning our face toward Him. Thus we can desist from the evil delights, and at last hold them in aversion and detest them. Then the Lord can admit us into the innocence of wisdom in old age (see Volume 4). This is the celestial mind, the Church on earth.

The final step of regeneration is installation step 9.

The diagram shows that this is the perception (III) of the duality conjugial love within marriage. Prior to this final phase of our regeneration we could not perceive a discrete degree between the external of our marriage an its internal, which is conjugial love. Volume 3 discusses the Doctrine of the Wife which is the central method for entering the last phase of one’s regeneration.

After completion of the nine installation steps, the New Church mind is fully regenerated. Then begins a new form of regeneration that does not depend on combat, as before. This is the first time that we have become fully human, as a celestial mind on earth. It is called the innocence of wisdom in old age (volume 4—in preparation).

5. Doctrine Is The Reception Of Spiritual Information Packets

Prior to regeneration we equate “spiritual Doctrine of the Word” with “the Letter of the Writings.” After reformation, the Lords creates an interior-natural mind within our external rational understanding where we have stored up the Letter of the Doctrine from studying the Writings. IN this interior-natural mind we con consciously see the correspondences of the Doctrine in a spiritual way. This is our spiritual understanding of the spiritual Doctrine located in our interior natural mind. Now we can see the difference between the Doctrine in the Letter and the spiritual Doctrine laid down within the Letter in our mind. Now we can see that there is an inexhaustible source of interior spiritual truths within the Writings. We can understand that the Letter of the Writings is a finite set of Numbers and sentences. They have been indexed and translated many times. There is a definite and finite number, even if we go down to the letters of each word. How then can there be an endless collection of spiritual truths in the Writings, to serve the entire humanity of the entire future ahead to eternity?

We can see the answer as soon as we have established for ourselves the idea that the spiritual Doctrine is spiritual, made of a collection of spiritual truths. And right away we can see that there is no limit to the number of spiritual truths. Hence we can see that the endless collection o few truths for the human race form the Letter of the Writings will come by enlightenment as the Letter is known and honored and applied to one’s life situation.

6. Biology Of The Spiritual Doctrine

The development of Doctrine can be thought of objectively and scientifically in terms of spiritual psychobiology, spiritual neurology, or spiritual agriculture. The mind is an organ made of spiritual fibers that must be grown into a bulk and into a gyration or coiling process, similar to the brain’s fissures with its billions of synapses coiled in coherent networks called “cell assemblies” in modern physiology. But instead of physical food and caloric energy, the mind uses spiritual packets called “truths” and “truths falsified.” These two kinds of information packets are coiled opposite to one another, and have opposite consequences on our life.

Spiritual freedom refers to our self-controlled access to these information packets. Whichever type we love, that we access, that is, streams into us from heaven or hell, which builds up the fibers of the mind into clusters of coherent coiled shapes. In order to distinguish between the two types that enter externally into our rational mind, we must filter them through our reasoning process. The accuracy of our reasoning process depends on our motive. We can perform the rational analysis between true and false information packets, in order to keep our inherited delights. In this case, our reasoning process will be necessarily biased and false, leading us to take falses for truths, and truths for falses. This is a disastrous course that leads all the way to hell because only truth leads away from hell. Or, we can perform the rational analysis between true and false information packets, in order to shed our inherited delights. This leads to heaven because all inherited delights are ties to hell and shunning them turns us toward heaven.

But what would lead us to shed our inherited delights?

The Writings teach that there is only one thing that can convince us to freely give up our inherited and acquired evils. And that is the Doctrine in our mind from the Writings (xx). If we love the Doctrine because it is from the Lord and is the Lord (xx), we will work daily to acquire it into our mind. And if we continue to love it in our mind, we will hold it up in the air as a brass serpent (xx), and guide our steps in its light. Every moment we take a step in our mind, we are advancing the spiritual fibers further into hell, or further into heaven. Every act of willing or desiring, every idea and conclusion of our thinking, is each a spiritual act that coils the fibers of our mind into heaps tending to hell, or beautiful networks of coherence and rationality that reach toward heaven, and touch it, thus becoming part of it. In one day there are 1440 minutes and 86,400 seconds. Think of every second as involving at least one spiritual act, but usually many more, if one thinks about it from sudden memory (see Chapter 8 Section 1). Clearly then, every day builds a considerable amount of spiritual fibers in our mind, and these are permanent installations!

It’s obvious that we must therefore have a way of filtering and monitoring these thousands of spiritual acts we perform by the hour every day! Every single one is formed by an information packet that comes to our natural mind either from hell or from heaven. And since all these billions and trillions of fibers that we inherit are from hell, we’ve got a big job on our hands if we are going to get to heaven! Of course we could not even begin to do this from our own power and intelligence, since we are born spiritually insane, and power we have none (xx). So the Lord has made a way for us. He will supply the motive power, moment by moment, and He will supply the sanity of thinking moment by moment. The Lord cannot do this directly, like we do agriculture on earth, but only spiritually, through our own willing and thinking acts. To the extent that we compel ourselves to do our willing and thinking acts in accordance with His Divine Truth, to that extent we can be reformed and regenerated. He has given us this Divine Truth in information packets called Doctrine in their aggregate, and He has placed them in the Word of His Second Coming. This is the Word of the Writings, which we must love as we love Him, for Divine Truth is Him (xx).

By loving these packets of truth in the Letter of the Writings, we imbibe them from the literal language into our external mind, called the natural-rational, and then simultaneously, the Lord, from within, puts the spiritual content into our spiritual mind, and by correspondence into our interior-natural mind. Now we have the living truth of Doctrine in us. Its external part is in the literal meaning of it in our natural-rational mind. This conscious understanding of truth from the Writings comes to us from the external natural world in the form of a book. Within this conscious truth, the Lord implants spiritual truths from within. This takes place in the spiritual mind in an unconscious way. But the unconscious activity becomes conscious by correspondence in our conscious interior-natural mind, as explained.

7. Diagram Of The Discrete Levels In The Mind and the Writings

The mind is created into discrete degrees or levels. Each upper level interacts with the level below itself by means of correspondences. The bottom level of the natural mind is corporeal and it is not active with angels in heaven (xx). But while we are in the physical body, the corporeal mind provides us with the ability to memorize the Letter. Children are very good at this and can be taught to recite large chunks of the Word, and to learn it by song and play. But this level of thinking does not allow them to understand a single sentence or rational concept. Above this is the natural-sensuous mind which allows us to interpret the surface layer or meaning of the Letter. Anyone with education can paraphrase many sentences in the Writings, or translate them into another language. However this sensuous level of thinking and understanding does not allow one to see general applications or see the equivalence between different passages, or how they relate to one another and build on a theme or principle. These activities can only go on in the natural-rational mind. You can see form the diagram that it is the highest portion of the external natural mind. Above this is no longer the external natural mind but its interior, called the interior-natural mind.

Note this important fact: While the natural-rational mind is built up by our own studious effort at figuring out the Writings, the interior-natural mind is activated solely by the Lord.

This means that the interior-natural mind is the consciousness of the Holy Spirit with us. It is the physiological organ of the mind that provides for the dwelling of the Divine within our conscious awareness.

Note from the diagram that the interior-natural mind is activated by the Lord simultaneously with our mental activity of rationally figuring out a sentence in the Writings. This is the process of enlightenment from the Lord as one reads or reflects upon the Letter. It is provided by the Lord for the sake of our regeneration, for without this enlightenment we could not perceive the spiritual sense, and without perceiving the spiritual sense no one can be regenerated. This is the physiological process the Lord provides and there is no other method by which to be regenerated and saved.

The spiritual meaning that is in our interior mind is from the Lord. The natural-rational meaning that is in our external mind comes from our intellectual effort to understand the literal of the Writings. Together the external truth springs into life and becomes a living truth. Living truths is what heaven is made of, therefore we need them to enter eternal life in heaven (xx). The living spiritual truths which form heaven in our mind is called the City, the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly Doctrine (xx). This is the spiritual truths we must have in our mind in order to filter the packets and arrange them in the heavenly order, until at last, our mind is a heaven in miniature (xx). Without this spiritual Doctrine in our mind, nothing can happen but the inevitable slide down to hell. Our spiritual acts of wi