Volume 15 Theistic Psychology: The Scientific Knowledge of God Extracted From the Correspondential Sense of Sacred Scripture by Dr. Leon James, Professor of Psychology, University of Hawaii

by Dr. Leon James
Professor of Psychology
University of Hawaii
Published on the Web in 2004
Last update: 2006

Universal Sacred Scripture

There are two different approaches to knowing God that have been practiced by humanity over the generations. In theistic psychology these two spiritual disciplines are called sensuous spirituality and rational spirituality (see Section xx).

The discipline of sensuous spirituality involves experiencing the "divine" through various methods -- meditation, yoga, fasting, trance, self-flagellation, sexual abstinence, visions, animal sacrifices, making miracles happen, hearing living voices, ingesting psychotropic chemicals, and others. These methods involve the idea that the "divine" can be experienced by human beings. In theistic psychology this is known as the philosophy of nonduality (see Section xx). Non-duality is the opposite of dualism (see Section xx). Nonduality asserts that God and human beings are of one continuous substance, which implies that we can climb high enough to actually realize that all along we were God.

In contrast, rational spirituality is the spiritual discipline of getting closer to God through Sacred Scripture. In theistic psychology it is known that the spiritual mind in which our heaven of eternity lies, is formed by the spiritual-rational and celestial-rational correspondences of Divine Speech hidden within Sacred Scripture. This makes sense when you consider the fact that God is Divine Love (or Good) covered over with Divine Truth (or Rationality) (see Section xx). Good can only conjoin with its own truth (see Section xx). The higher the level of Divine truth that we can consciously understand rationally, the closer we come to God's Divine Truth and Rationality. Truth is the spiritual-rational and celestial-rational substance that forms the rationality in the mind of every human being (see Section xx).

Rational spirituality is the discipline of extracting the rational doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture using the method of correspondences that is revealed in Sacred Scripture, and then applying this doctrine of truth to one's daily willing, thinking, and doing (see Section xx).

It is not yet known in our modern times that the heaven of our eternity is located within spiritual-rational and celestial-rational correspondences of Sacred Scripture. When we understand and love these rational correspondences of Divine Speech, which means living and thinking according to them, then we are preparing our spiritual mind to be a conjugial heaven in which we know God directly and receive from Him all that we are willing and able to take in terms of human potential and happiness.

It is clear that knowledge about eternity and God is not possible to be discovered through the sensations from our physical body and the reasoning power of our natural mind. The proof of this is that traditional science, with its amazing history of inventions and explanations, knows zero about eternity and God, so that all it can do is to deny that such things exist or are part of scientific reality. Another proof is that the enormous scholarship and effort invested over the centuries in the literature on religion, God, and spirituality, has brought zero knowledge about God and eternity, and only wild speculations and disagreements among them.

All this proves that scientific and scholarly knowledge of God cannot be discovered and invented, but only received from God through the correspondences of Divine Speech in Sacred Scripture -- not the literal sense of Sacred Scripture (which is sectarian religion), but the revealed correspondential sense that lies hidden within (see Section xx). The diagram below portrays the distinct difference between religion and theistic psychology, even though they are both closely related to Sacred Scripture.

Sacred Scripture is the expression of Divine Speech in a natural language, transformed through the laws of correspondences that God used to create the layers of mind and existence (see Section xx).

Although the sentences of Sacred Scripture are written out by a an individual in a particular language and culture, they are not the individual's own sentences, but sentences that have been transformed by correspondences as Divine Speech descends into that individual's mind from its unconscious spiritual level to its conscious natural level (see Section xx). First, Divine Speech enters the celestial-rational mind of the individual. This is unconscious while we are still connected to the physical world. Second, Divine Speech descends into the spiritual-rational layer of the individual's mind, which is also unconscious until our resuscitation (see Section xx). Third, Divine Speech descends by correspondential meaning into the natural mind of the individual, where it becomes conscious and the person is able to write it down. The "prophet" or "revelator" does not himself know what layers of correspondential meanings lie hidden with the sentences they write down. They and others are only aware of the literal meaning.

The descent of Divine Speech through the layers of the human mind takes place by correspondences (see Section xx). Those who are conscious in their celestial-rational mind after their resuscitation (see Section xx), are conscious of Divine Speech in terms of celestial-rational correspondences (see Section xx). These celestial-rational meanings or truths give human beings the highest possible consciousness, knowledge, worship, and love of God.

Those who, after resuscitation, are conscious in their spiritual-rational mind, are conscious of Divine Speech in terms of spiritual-rational correspondences (see Section xx). These meanings of Sacred Scripture give human beings the next lowest possible consciousness, knowledge, worship, and love of God. Those who are conscious in their natural mind, namely, us while we are still connected to earth, are conscious of Divine Speech in terms of natural correspondences of Divine Speech (see Section xx). These natural meanings of Sacred Scripture give human beings the next lowest possible consciousness, knowledge, worship, and love of God.

We are connected to earth by the laws of correspondences which functionally link together our mental body in eternity and our physical body in time-space. Our conscious natural mind is capable of entering virtually, as a training ground, into the various layers of worship and love of God. We begin with natural worship and love of God which is based on our ethnic membership in a particular religion and our historical ties to the literal meaning of Sacred Scripture recognized in that religion. If we do not try to live by the truths of Sacred Scripture as we understand them, then we are not preparing ourselves adequately for immortality in eternity (see Section xx). Instead of being or existing in a heaven within our spiritual-rational mind, our consciousness then sinks into the bottom of our natural mind, which is called the corporeal-sensuous mind, as opposed to the natural-rational mind (see Section xx).

At this level of feeling and thinking, the correspondences of Sacred Scripture cannot be comprehended rationally. All truth of Sacred Scripture is inverted and perverted through irrational thoughts and feelings, which taken together as a whole, are called the human hells in the mind (see Section xx). It is our choice, but the choice is to be made prior to death, while we still can reform our character from inherited hellish traits to freely acquired heavenly traits (see Section xx).

To the extent that we try to live by the truths of Sacred Scripture that we understand, to that extent God can elevate our consciousness from the natural-sensuous thinking and feeling, to the natural-rational thinking and feeling (see Section xx). When God thus elevates and enlightens our understanding of Him, we become capable of a higher spiritual-rational worship and love of God, as a result of which God can further elevate our consciousness from natural-rational, to spiritual-rational, and finally to celestial-rational meanings of Sacred Scripture.

Knowledge of Divine truth cannot change our hellish character, but can only give us an understanding of how God's truth is to dictate our willing, thinking, and doing. Conjunction with God occurs afterward, and only to the extent that we are willing to give up our hellish and selfish enjoyments, and replace them with heavenly and altruistic enjoyments. In proportion as we do this, to that extent we are conjoined to God in rational understanding, worship, and love. Conjunction with God gives us an eternal conjugial heaven with a maximum of human love, altruism, enjoyment, and happiness (in the affective organ), along with their consequent rationality, wisdom. intelligence, knowledge, and inventiveness (in the cognitive organ).

We vary in sincerity and consistency. We must be willing to undergo the temptations that God puts in our way in our mind. This requires spiritual combat. Our understanding of Divine truth from Sacred Scripture provides the weapons for the combat against our hellish enjoyments (see Section xx). Once we engage in combat, as if of our own, then God immediately manages the victory for us. We can have no victory if we believe that we are fighting our evils with our own power and intelligence. God can provide victory only if we acknowledge in our mind and understand rationally, that by ourselves we have zero power since God is omnipotent and has all the power.

Under some conditions we fall into the persuasion that to fight our temptations as if on our own, would be to think that the power to fight is ours -- which is a hellish thought against the reality of truth. As a result of this kind of thinking, we fall into a passive mode and wait for God to liberate us in our trial. But this strategy cannot work and it prevents character reformation. In that case God cannot bring spiritual temptations for us to fight, but only natural temptations (see Sections xx). Natural temptations build our external personality, appearance, and overt conduct. This is necessary for acquiring morality according to one's conscience. But the inner character cannot be altered by natural temptations. It requires spiritual temptations. God brings spiritual temptations to our mind to the extent of our rational understanding of truth from Sacred Scripture (see Section xx).

Without the truth of Sacred Scripture in our rational understanding, God cannot bring spiritual temptations to our mind, and as a result, we cannot be regenerated. We die in the character that we inherited, which is a hell (see Section xx). Only the truth of Sacred Scripture, applied to spiritual temptations, can give us the new heavenly character we need to live in the heavens of our eternity (see Section xx). God can bring spiritual temptations to us only when we have acquired as-of self, truths from Sacred Scripture in our mind. These truths in our mind must be present before God can bring spiritual temptations to us, and thus regenerate us (see Section xx).

Hence it is necessary for us to have in our understanding Divine rational truth in order for us to be prepared for heaven by temptations through regeneration or daily efforts at character reformation. The higher the rationality in our understanding of truth from Sacred Scripture, the more we can be regenerated by God to higher and higher heavenly potentials, in proportion to our daily efforts in applying the truth to our daily willing, thinking, and doing.

It makes sense therefore to think that God has provided a method by which we can acquire higher and higher meanings, or more and more rational meanings, so that we can apply it to our daily willing and thinking, and thereby become celestial beings in our heavenly eternity (see Section xx).

The diagram above shows that theistic psychology, and theistic science generally, is the scientific knowledge that is extracted from Sacred Scripture, when we apply the method of correspondences with enlightenment (see Section xx). There are two ideas to understand here: correspondences and enlightenment.

When Divine Speech, or Divine Truth, descends by correspondences through the layers of the human mind, we are conscious of it differently at each successive layer. That is, Divine Speech forms our consciousness at each level of the mind, through meanings of Sacred Scripture.

In order to understand rationally what is Divine Speech and how it manages our thoughts and the universe, we need to remember the idea of "substantive dualism" in the positive bias (see Section xx). The word "substantive" in the mental world of eternity corresponds to the word "material" in the physical world of time. The physical sun in time-space provides all the matter needed on the planets -- air, earth, minerals, plant protein, brain tissue, electricity -- it all comes originally from a piece of the sun. All planets in a solar system are offshoots of the star that cool down and become planets. Hence everything on a planet comes from the sun. These things are so in the physical world because they are correspondences or effects produced by things in the mental world to which they correspond by creation and since creation (see Section xx).

The mental things to which they correspond include the Spiritual Sun, which corresponds to the physical sun, that is, to each star and to their totality of endless stars with endless planets. The material light with its heat that streams from the physical sun crosses instantly the space between it and the planets, and activates the things on the planet. This is so because substantive light with its heat streams out from the Spiritual Sun and crosses instantly the mental world of humanity tat God created in eternity. In other words, God created a dual universe, one materila in time-space, the other substantive in eternity. What is not known generally is that the substantive world of eternity is the mental world of the human race.

In order to create the human race, God had to create a mental world in eternity and a physical world in time. The mental world of eternity is known as the afterlife. What is not known that human beings are born simultaneously in both universes. The material body in time-space, which is temporary, and the substantive body in eternity. The substantive body is also known as the spiritual body or the mental body. The shape and form of the physical body is caused by the shape and form of the spiritual body to which it corresponds in every part and detail. When the physical body "dies", we continue life in our spiritual body, with the only difference, that now we are no longer aware of the physical world. Since we are born into eternity, we are immortal.

The reason this must be so is because our consciousness, our sensations, our thoughts, and our feelings are not made of material things from the physical sun, as our brain is. Our brain and physical body is material and temporary, but our mental life in the spiritual body is eternal. Hence it is that our personality or self, as we know ourselves, is immortal. Whatever is constructed out of substances from the Spiritual Sun, must necessarily be immortal or eternal. Our mental life is constructed out of the light and heat from the Spiritual Sun that streams into the mental world of the human race. Every spiritual body, containing our mental organs of willing (affective), thinking (cognitive), and sensing-moving (sensorimotor) is constructed, then activated, by the spiritual light streaming into the cognitive organ, and the spiritual heat streaming into the affective organ (see diagrams in Section xx).

So with that explanation as a background context, you can understand rationally how Divine Speech manages both universes. First the universes are constructed out of the substances of spiritual light and heat which stream out in infinite variety and quantity form the Spiritual Sun. Divine Speech is nothing else than this stream of spiritual light and heat creating the two universes and continuing to create them and manage them by a continuous and endless stream of spiritual light and heat.

The inmost structural framework of any created thing in the two universes is therefore this spiritual light and heat that streams out in infinite variety. Then, in successive discrete layers, this stream of substantive light and heat creates the mental world out of rational ether, with succeeding mental layers that become more and more specialized or limited in property. The upper layers of the mental world are called heavenly experiences, the middle layers are called natural experiences, and the lowest layers are called hellish experiences. Your experience as an individual is determined by which layer your consciousness is bottoming out. You can be in heavenly layers today and in hellish layers tomorrow, and then again in heavenly layers sometimes later.

While we are connected to a physical body, we can alternate across all the layers. This is because we need training and preparation for conscious life in eternity. During this training period we accumulate experiences, traits, habits, and above all, loves. Every love we accumulate is immortal and stays in our mental world forever. Hence it becomes extremely critical for us to manage our loves. We inherit strong tendencies to love and enjoy hellish traits. Unless we learn to detach ourselves from these inherited loves, they remain attached to us in our mental world. After we are resuscitated, a few hours following our "death", we have various experiences that force us to look at all our loves, both heavenly and hellish. Then after exploring them, we are forced to select what we are willing to give up. This is called the vastation (see Section xx).

If we are unwilling to give up even one of our hellish loves, then all our heavenly loves and traits are put to sleep biologically, and rendered inoperative. This is called "damnation" or "second death." Your personality in hell, that is, when all your heavenly traits are removed, is crude, gross, beastly, evil, infernal, monstrous, irrational, delusional, constantly enraged, stupid, and with the deepest hatred for God, innocence, infants, and conjugial marriage. Further, Swedenborg reports that our mental states in hell do not allow any sexuality that can satisfy us, but only compulsions and fetishes that are inherently acerbating and tormenting our mind endlessly.

Bit if we are willing to give up all hellish loves, then they are biologically put to sleep, rendered inoperative. This allows our consciousness to rise to our heavenly loves, and to remain in them forever (see Section xx). Your heavenly personality is celestial, conjugial, rational, wise, intelligent, peaceful, and loving God, innocence, infants, and conjugial marriage. Further, Swedenborg reports that our mental states in heaven allow true human sexuality that can satisfy us with joy and conjugial bliss that is inherently expanding and enriching our mind endlessly.

Throughout the generations of communities over the millennia, God has provided information on the two universes, how He manages them, and how we are to prepare for our immortal life in eternity. This information is obtained from the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture, which has been provided in some form in every culture.

Divine Speech issuing from the Spiritual Sun and spreading into the two universes, becomes conscious to human beings through the meanings of Sacred Scripture, and these meanings are different throughout the layers of the mind. Sacred Scripture exists in every layer of the mind so that people who live in that layer can have conscious access to Divine Speech. After you are resuscitated you will be able to see copies of Sacred Scripture. Swedenborg saw these on a regular basis and reports that a very intense light shines forth from the book, and this is on account of the Spiritual Sun which is in its inmost layer of meaning (see Section).

Divine Speech comes to us as meaning. This meaning is our consciousness itself. The mental world of the human race is constructed out of meaning or rational ether. There is only one mental world of eternity, just as there is only physical world of space. Every spiritual body is in this one mental world. So the source of your sensations, thoughts, and feelings is the same as the source of my sensations, thoughts, and feelings. This is true for every individual and the entire human race (see Vertical Community, Section xx).

The meaning of Sacred Scripture in the highest layer of our mental world is at the level of consciousness called celestial-rational. Anyone whose loves are heavenly, and has given up loves that are hellish, resides and exists in this celestial mental layer of the human race. Sacred Scripture is available at any layer to allow us to climb up in consciousness to the celestial-rational meanings and thinking. At this level of existence we are Angels of great power and knowledge, existing in conjugial bliss that increases to eternity (see Section xx).

The next layer of consciousness is to think in terms of spiritual-rational correspondences of Divine Speech in Sacred Scripture. In a lower layer we can exist in spiritual-natural correspondences of Divine Speech in Sacred Scripture. Below that we can exist in the natural correspondences of Divine Speech in Sacred Scripture. This is the level the people are typically conscious of. They read Sacred Scripture in a natural language and they see that it contains information about God's interactions with certain people at certain times. All religions are based on this natural interpretation of their Sacred Scripture.

This is why there needs to be as many religions as there are groupings of cultures, and each religion must have its own original revelation or Sacred Scripture, given to a prophet by God. This is done with people who are willing to be the trustworthy guardians and protectors of that Sacred Scripture. In other words these people were "chosen" by God because He could activate their loves as loyal keepers of the sacred text. You can see how important it was for the text to be preserved exactly as dictated by God through the prophet's mind. The text starts as celestial-rational ideas of God's words, then changes to spiritual ideas of God's words, then to natural ideas of God's words. That's when the prophet becomes conscious of the words and writes them down.

You can see that it's not possible for the prophet to know or express God's words in either celestial or spiritual meanings. The prophet thinks and writes in a natural language, not spiritual, not celestial. So the text of God's words in a natural language looks like....what? Well, we know this from the Sacred Scripture familiar to us from our socialization or education. God talks about His relationship to a particular people and tells stories about their lives on earth. God also talks about commandments were must do. Also, that He loves us and provides for us. And also, that if we love Him, He can reward us with heaven. But if we oppose Him, we will suffer the torments of hell.

What do you think? Is this all? Is it all that God is talking about to human beings? No insights? No solved puzzles? No description of the afterlife? Of the future? Of how God manages it all? Why isn't God talking about that? Wouldn't it be more believable if God talked about these higher things instead of ordinary things that ordinary people and children can understand?

The answer is that these higher things are the very things God is talking to us about, but by the time it gets translated from celestial, to spiritual, to natural, what's left are the things understood by ordinary people and children. God also provides a way for people who want more. He makes sure that all sacred text written out by a prophet is sequenced and selected so that the inner and inmost layers of meaning in it, are maintained.

The result is that all Sacred Scripture serves two purposes. One for letting ordinary people and children know that there is God, that He loves them, that He wants to take them to heaven, but that they must cooperate by following the commandments in the sacred text. The second source of Sacred Scripture is for scientists, scholars, and students who want to climb up the layers of meaning hidden with. Every single word of Sacred Scripture is sacred, holy, and Divine, and every sequence of words is Divine Truth. This fact cannot be known or understood unless one knows that there are layers of Divine meaning hidden within, and to some extent, what they are (celestial, spiritual, natural, see Section xx).

People entrusted with the sacred task of being keepers and protectors of some Sacred Scripture ought to be honored for their efforts over the centuries and generations. Even if they do not accept the ideas of theistic psychology, that there are hidden layers of meaning, they still are ready to defend and protect the text itself. With this they are performing a universal service for all humanity, past, present and future. Every Sacred Scripture represents a unique link God has created between Him and humanity. Through this link flows a never ending and continuous stream of consciousness raising meanings that equip us with heavenly truths that we can use to empower our heavenly loves to defeat the hellish ones.

So the purpose of all Sacred Scripture is to give human beings heavenly truths that we can use to defeat our hellish loves and their falsities. Without these truths, we are pulled down inexorably into the psychobiology of existence in eternal hell.

All this has been arranged by God as a method for our spiritual growth, which is achieved by climbing up the layers of meaning hidden in Sacred Scripture. All Sacred Scripture at any particular layer of the mental world, contains all the layers that are above it. Hence whatever layer people are at in their thinking and feeling, they can use their Sacred Scripture to climb up to the celestial-rational level of thinking and loving. The climbing of meaning in all Sacred Scripture is different outwardly between different sacred texts, but the same inwardly in all of them.

This is because there is only one God and He manages every person regardless of their culture, beliefs or knowledge. Theistic psychology is the knowledge we acquire through which we can make this climb successful with any Sacred Scripture. Success is guaranteed because it is prescribed by God in the hidden layers of meaning of Sacred Scripture.

God's meanings or Divine Rationality is adapted or accommodated to the individual's mind by means of the layers of meanings that there are in correspondences. The change in meaning of Sacred Scripture across the layers of the human mental world, is managed by God through successive levels of correspondences to His Divine Speech or Rational Ideas. God wants us to know what these correspondences are that He uses to manage the created universe through Divine Speech or truth (see Section xx). God has therefore revealed through Sacred Scripture what these correspondences are. But subsequently these correspondences were corrupted and used for magic so that God managed to have them forgotten until this desire to corrupt correspondences died out. God then gave new sacred text in which he revealed once more what correspondences are (see Section xx). Illustrations and demonstrations will be given in the following Sections (see also Section xx). The new revelations about correspondences in the Writings Sacred Scripture given through Swedenborg in the 18th century, now provides modern science access to this powerful knowledge.

One must therefore study and understand the laws of correspondences by which Divine Speech becomes Sacred Scripture at various levels of human thinking and feeling. These laws are Divine and cannot be discovered. We must not invent them or construct them from human intelligence. In the Writings Sacred Scripture, God has revealed to the modern scientific mind what these correspondences are. The same correspondences apply to all Sacred Scripture since there is only one Divine Speech that filters through the various natural language versions of Sacred Scripture in all the genuine religions that God has created on this earth.

You can read a dictionary of correspondences (see Section xx) and try to understand the spiritual meaning of natural expressions in Sacred Scripture -- but this will only allow you to perceive the natural meaning of these correspondences. For instance we can read in the dictionary of correspondences that when Sacred Scripture mentions "water" in some sense (rain, ocean, river, flood, fountain) it is actually discussing cognitive operations in the natural layer of our mind, which involves meanings paraphrased from the literal sense of the sacred text. When the sacred text contrasts "water" with "wine" in some way, it is referring to cognitive operations in the spiritual layer of our mind, which involves meanings we derive by correspondences of the literal text of Sacred Scripture.

Spiritual meanings of God and eternity (wine) and natural meanings of God and eternity (water) are at different layers of understanding or consciousness in our mind. The sacred text is striving to bring our focus on its spiritual meanings because these are the meanings that raise our consciousness above the natural world. These spiritual meanings are needed for our preparation for eternity. This is why theistic psychology can be so beneficial to all humanity.

Theistic psychology is the scientific knowledge that we accumulate through the method of correspondences with enlightenment. The reason we say "with enlightenment" is that all spiritual meanings must be perceived by enlightenment from God. God constantly and ceaselessly works in our individual mind to enlighten it with spiritual light from the Spiritual Sun. This results in the elevation of our consciousness from the natural world to the spiritual world of eternity.

You can see the result of this effort as you read throughout the 18 volumes of this work. If your purpose for studying theistic psychology is to acquire correspondential truths from Sacred Scripture ("wine"), with a view to applying them to your daily willing, thinking, and doing, then God will enlighten you, raise your consciousness to the highest levels, and empower you with wisdom and conjugial love (see Section xx). If your purpose is not that of applying the knowledge to your character reformation, then it is impossible for God to enlighten you and to raise your consciousness. This is because enlightenment is the process of using spiritual truths to fight our hellish enjoyments (temptations, see Section xx).

The following diagram depicts the evolutionary steps of humankind on this earth created by Divine Speech exteriorized as Sacred Scripture. It presents a historical sequence extracted from the Writings Sacred Scripture.

The above diagram presents evolution in a successive order (see Section xx). The diagram below presents it in simultaneous order. It shows that what has been produced by successive steps in development exists in real time in simultaneous order. That is, what was first is now inmost, and what was last is now outmost.

See also the following diagram which explains the relationship between successive and simultaneous order.

God creates all things by means of truth within which is good (see Section xx). These two substances are living and infinite as they are part of God's own infinite substance. It follows therefore that the inmost framework of an object is the substance of good and truth arranged in a particular and unique order to produce existence of that object. Divine truth within which is good is therefore the basic infrastructure upon which all creation rests, and from which all objects get their unique form and properties. Remember that God is omnipresent. Now you can begin to see how that is scientifically true.

God is omnipresent not in space but apart from space (see Section xx). The words "apart" and "within" are used in theistic psychology to refer to the discrete layers of all created objects. God is present in every object, molecule, or property, in a discrete degree "apart" or "within" the object itself. Since good and truth are substances in God and of God, they remain of God when they are "apart" or "within" any object. Hence it is that God is omnipresent -- through his own substance that lies within every object, maintaining it in existence, thus giving it subsistence (see Section xx).

It is the same whether you say truth within which is good, or whether you say Divine Truth within which is Divine Good, and also, whether you say Divine Speech within which is Divine Love. Hence you can see that we can also say that God creates and maintains all things in existence through Divine Speech. As Divine Speech descends from God it first enters into the mental world of the human race (see Section xx). From the top layer called celestial mind, it then descends or exteriorizes into the next layer called the spiritual mind, then the rational mind, then the natural mind, then the physical body and the rest of the physical world of matter in time space. This is at the bottom or the most exterior level of existence.

Divine Speech enters each layer of creation by the power of correspondences that is built into good and truth. In other words, the substances of good and truth can exist at different spiritual distance from that which first proceeds from the Divine Human through the Spiritual Sun (see Section xx). The celestial arrangement of good and truth is as perfect an image and likeness of God's mind as is possible to achieve for created and finite human beings. The Sacred Scripture that exists in the celestial layer of the mental world was seen by Swedenborg, and may be seen by all whose consciousness rests on celestial-rational correspondences of Divine Speech (see Section xx).

Swedenborg was able to compare the written version of the Old and New Testament Sacred Scriptures across the four layers of the human mind: celestial or third heaven, spiritual or second heaven, interior-natural or first heaven (spiritual-natural), and finally exterior-natural, which is the version that is known here on earth in a natural language and script.

It is revealed in Sacred Scripture that the physical world is created for the sake of our physical body which allows us to develop a natural mind that contains an operational affective organ for feelings, a cognitive organ operating our thoughts, and a sensorimotor organ that acts as an intermediary between the interior mental and the exterior mental (see Section xx). The question immediately arises as to why there is evil in the human mind and things in the world that are noxious to the life and happiness of human beings. Evil in the mind, like selfishness and cruelty, and noxious things in the world, like poisons and draughts, were not present with the earliest generations that lived on this earth. They were "celestial" people, peace loving and in mutual respect and love to each other (see Section xx). Their natural mind grew and was formed into a natural heaven that corresponded to their spiritual and celestial mind or heaven. Earth was then a paradise in outward form. When the inhabitants reached their third decade of life they were regenerated sufficiently so that they could transition from their natural mind to their spiritual mind in eternity.

Swedenborg interviewed some of them in their celestial heavens and they appeared to him to live in an heavenly paradise similar in appearance to what they had on earth many thousands of years ago, by earth time. They were not at all conscious of time and appeared in age to be around 20. They lived as conjugial couples in eternal bliss. They possessed, worshipped, and cherished God as the Divine Human, whom they could not see or talk to directly until after the Incarnation Event. They were able to talk to the Divine Human through an intermediary celestial person who was then put into a trance like mental state, speaking only what God spoke through the intermediary person (see Section xx). They had with them the Sacred Scripture of the Most Ancient Church called the Most Ancient Word (see Section xx). Their religions were celestial rational, as the diagram above shows. Their Oral Sacred Scripture was the source of all their knowledge about God and reality. When they left their physical body they were resuscitated directly into the heaven of their celestial mind. Hell did not yet exist in the human mind.

But subsequent generations did not do as well. They started exploring what it would feel like to disobey their conscience and their teachers from heaven who communicated with them. God allowed this to occur and provided for it as well, always moderating their tendency to precipitate themselves into greater and greater profanation of the truth of their Oral Sacred Scripture which they had in their understanding and memory. When these people were resuscitated they were unable to raise their consciousness and life to the level of their heavens. Their feelings and emotions could not stand the obedient, altruistic, and virtuous spheres of their heavens. Hence God provided for them a portion of the mental world where a sphere of hell can exist and support their life of evil loves, delusional beliefs, and bestial lifestyle. After this, all people who were born on this earth inherited this hell in their mind. Life on earth then became a struggle to regenerate, to alter fundamentally one's inherited character traits, from a love of hellish traits, to a love of heavenly traits (see Section xx).

You can see therefore that the generations that were born after the human hells had been created are different from the generations that were before. The earliest generations, called the celestial human race, does not have a hell in their affective organ of the natural mind. Subsequent generations, called the spiritual race, were born with hell in their mind. This essential anatomical difference in mental structure necessitates the separation in spiritual geography, of the two races, celestial and spiritual. The people of the celestial race that live in the hells are separated from the rest of the celestial race that does not have a hell in the mind.

The spiritual race has therefore a different evolutionary history. The early generations of the spiritual race, called the Ancient Church, derived their rationality and knowledge from the Ancient Sacred Scripture which they had with them. This was the first time that a written Sacred Scripture became available to the human race. Their religions were spiritual-rational, as shown in the diagram above. Swedenborg was able to read this version in the spiritual world as it is still with the people in heaven who had received it while on earth. A few passages from this Ancient Word are quoted in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture (see Section xx). This is an indication that the evolution of Sacred Scriptures on this earth took place not by replacement of each other but by incorporation. The later version always incorporates the earlier version, making it a basis for itself, and then expanding on it by new revelations that take the human race further in its evolution, that is, in its relationship to God.

The spiritual-rational religions also evolved in the course of time until the original understanding was gradually lost. Subsequent versions of Sacred Scripture were given which incorporated the previous versions, and took them to new revelations and new relationships to God. First among these natural-rational religions was the Old Testament Sacred Scripture, then the New Testament Sacred Scripture, then the Qu'ran Sacred Scripture.

The next evolutionary step came when the human race was brought to modern times and science and a new ability to understand Sacred Scripture rationally. The Writings Sacred Scripture were given in the 18th century as a spiritual-rational revelation in modern scientific terms, and they incorporate, confirm, and strengthen the Divine truths that have been revealed in all of Sacred Scripture until then, but now, in a scientific way which was not possible before. This has given birth to theistic psychology, which may be called a celestial-rational science.

It is clear therefore that Sacred Scripture plays a principal and essential role in the evolution of the human race both on earth and in eternity.

This presentation continues in Section 1.1.4.3.2 Extracting the Content of Divine Speech Through Correspondences and related Sections. (see Section xx).

Note that what we call correspondential sense in theistic psychology, is called "spiritual sense" or "interior sense" in the Writings Sacred Scripture.

The Old Testament Sacred Scripture and the New Testament Sacred Scripture were written a thousand years apart, and yet they are continuous with each other, both in the literal (religious) sense and in the correspondential (scientific) sense. The continuity is evident in many places where it is foretold in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture that God will be incarnated on this earth. One of the most direct statements is found in the Old Testament Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 9, verse 6, quoted below.

The New Testament Sacred Scripture validates the Old Testament Sacred Scripture by incorporating it into itself. The New Testament Sacred Scripture reveals that the Old Testament Sacred Scripture has a correspondential sense whose topic is the repeated announcement of the Divine incarnation of God as a human born on earth (see Section xx). For instances there are numerous Divine laws given in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture regarding animal sacrifices and how they were to be performed. The New Testament Sacred Scripture reveals that the purpose of these animal sacrifices was to serve as a symbolic representative in worship of the Divine Incarnation process. Centuries later, the Writings Sacred Scripture reveals that the entire Old Testament Sacred Scripture possess two levels of meaning, one visible, the other hidden. All Sacred Scripture contains these two senses because Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech expressed in natural correspondences. This visible, literal, historical sense of all Sacred Scripture serves the very basis and foundation for religion (see Section xx).

The visible sense of all Sacred Scripture is necessarily immersed in a culture and time. It has an historical and ethnic social context and identifies God by a particular Name, as specified in the Sacred Scripture given through their prophet from God. This knowledge had been revealed to the earliest generations on this earth who possessed the Oral Sacred Scripture from direct perception through the spiritual mind which was then still conscious to the human race on earth (see Section xx). Subsequently this knowledge of correspondences in Sacred Scripture was lost. The Writings Sacred Scripture reveal that God kept the knowledge hidden until the 18th century when the modern mind evolved enough in scientific rationality to understand theistic psychology. The Writings Sacred Scripture were recognized by a few readers immediately upon Swedenborg's publication of the last volume of the Writings in 1771 (see Section xx). The first groups of Christians calling themselves as the New Church religion based on the Writings Sacred Scripture occurred in 1787 in England and the United States (see Section xx).

When you examine the Old Testament Sacred Scripture, the New Testament Sacred Scripture, and the Writings Sacred Scripture it becomes fully evident that they are connected at both levels -- connected historically at the visible literal level of meaning, and connected universally by the hidden correspondential or scientific level of meaning. Since correspondences are now revealed in the Writings Sacred Scripture any one can demonstrate this scientific continuity between the these three collections of Sacred Scripture. They were given to different cultures and times separated by thousands of years. The dozens of authors involved in their writing were unrelated to each other and themselves had no idea at all that what they were writing down under Divine dictation contained a hidden correspondential meaning. Hence the rational and scientific continuity of the subject matter and topics in these collections of Sacred Scripture can only be considered of a Divine authorship, and not merely human.

The New Testament Sacred Scripture for the first time two thousand years ago, has revealed to humankind that God speaks in correspondences in Sacred Scripture. Further, it reveals numerous details about what these Divine correspondences are. The most direct instances are the many parables of Jesus that are given there and explained as to what their spiritual lesson is. The Writings Sacred Scripture go over these revelations in the New Testament Sacred Scripture and amplify upon them, demonstrating with multiple instances what the correspondences are in all of the Old and New Testament Sacred Scriptures.

The following is a selection from The Parables of Jesus Christ Explained by The Rev. J. Clowes (1851) who was a New Church minister in England.

Now we can look at some additional revelations that are useful for the study of theistic psychology because they show the empirical observations one can make about correspondences. Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

The Numbers quoted above explain the essential difference between the celestial and spiritual races of humanity as they occurred in human history and in the evolution of human consciousness. This evolution is accomplished through the daily perfection of the Grand Human, that is, the race's mental states called heaven (see Section xx). When we are in that mental state we are called angels to eternity. In other words, we migrate in our spiritual geography between the first and second death (see Section xx). If we are willing, we are given to ascend in consciousness from being spiritual to being celestial. When we are in spiritual mental states our thoughts and interests revolve around the topic of what is truth, how can truth be formed into doctrine, and how can genuine doctrine lead to charity and uses. When we are in celestial mental states our thoughts and interests revolve around the topic of what is loving God and neighbor, how love gives perception of all truth, and how charity and uses precede doctrine.

The spiritual states are less interior, the celestial states more interior, and the difference is not directly comparable, so superior is the interiorness of the celestial states of feeling and thinking. The only relationship possible between celestial and spiritual states is that of correspondence, like the correspondence between cause and effect.

Odhner, C.Th. (1914) Correspondences of

Egypt

: A Study In the Theology of the Ancient Church. (The Academy Book Room Bryn Athyn. Pa.). Available online: www.humanorganic.org/HO/CTOdhner/Egypt.shtml

The Sacred Scriptures collected under the religion of Hinduism are fully theistic in the sense that this is defined in theistic psychology. It acknowledges the reality of monotheism, of God's omnipotence, of sin, regeneration, holy scripture, Divine inspiration, heaven, and hell. The correspondential sense of Hindu Sacred Scripture has not yet been examined in any detail. The following are selections from the literal sense of Hindu Sacred Scriptures and commentaries.

I present a correspondential analysis of concepts from Hindu Sacred Scriptures. These particular quotes by an interpreter are not directly from Sacred Scriptures but they use concepts from the Hindu Sacred Scriptures. Hence these concepts have a correspondential sense that can be analyzed.

Lord Brahma is the creator
= God as He is in Himself, infinite, unknowable, indescribable ("Father")

Lord Vishnu the preserver
= God as He appears outside of Himself in His creation ("Son", "Divine Human")

Lord Siva the destroyer
= God as He manages the universe and the mind ("Holy Spirit", "Divine Providence")

Goddess Saraswathi is the consort of Lord Brahma
= Divine Love in infinite variety in God as He is in Himself

Lakshmi and goddess earth of Lord Vishnu
= Divine Truth in infinite variety in God as He is outside of Himself in creation

Parvathi and Ganga of Lord Siva
= the marriage of Divine Love and Divine Truth in God as He is in all created things

the three phases of life
= all the stages of spiritual development or character regeneration in adult life

Brahma represent the first phase, the phase of celibacy and studentship (brahmacharya) where knowledge or study is the main pursuit of the individual.
= the stage of mental reformation of the understanding during which one acquires spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture, and this requires the desire to know God ("celibacy") and the commitment to the study and doctrinal interpretation of Sacred Scripture as God's Word or Divine Speech ("studentship")

Knowledge (goddess Saraswathi) is his constant companion during this phase.
= the affection or love for acquiring the truths of Sacred Scripture

Lord Vishnu represents the second phase, that is the phase of the householder and adulthood during which the individual fulfills his religious and family obligations, helps the poor and the needy and works for the preservation of his family and community.
= the stage of character reformation of the will when we reach adulthood ("householder") during which we struggle against our inherited traits ("family obligations"), struggle to avoid hurting others for selfish reasons ("helps the poor and the needy"), and compel ourselves to become a sincere and useful citizen ("works for the preservation of his family and community").

During this phase wealth (goddess Lakshmi) is his constant companion without which he cannot perform his responsibilities well.
= character regeneration requires submission to and guidance of spiritual doctrine from Sacred Scripture

Lord Siva represents the old age, or the third phase called Vanaprasthashrama (life of renunciation)
= the stage of advanced regeneration ("old age") during which we are fully committed to living according to the spiritual doctrine in our mind from Sacred Scripture ("life of renunciation")

during which he renounces his worldly life
= in advanced stages of regeneration of character we are focused on doing only that which is useful to others as well as to oneself, not merely what is useful and convenient to self ("renounces worldly life")

goes to a forest and spends his life there along with his wife.
= during this stage of spiritual development we immerse ourselves in a life of good ("wife") according to spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture ("goes to a forest")

Like Lord Siva he leads a homeless life with meager belongings and without any attachment
= in this final stage of spiritual development we rely totally on the work of Divine Providence in our mind ("Lord Siva"), rejecting anything that is based on our own self-intelligence ("leads a homeless life") or our own power ("with meager belongings"), rejecting all loves and enjoyments belonging to our inherited character ("without any attachment")

in pursuit of true knowledge.
= the spiritual phase of advanced regeneration of character consists in relying exclusively on spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture, and from no other source, whether self or others

In the final phase called sanyasasrama dharma, he becomes Iswara himself ! During this phase he renounces life altogether and tries to attain liberation from this mortal world.
= in the advanced stage of character regeneration based on spiritual doctrine from Sacred Scripture ("sanyasasrama dharma") we take on God's Proprium or Character ("Iswara himself") as a result of which we no longer pursue any of our inherited ego traits ("renounces life altogether"). This state gives us celestial peace in the stream of Divine Providence, no longer tempted by the corporeal enjoyments and needs of our inherited ego ("liberation from this mortal world").

He destroys all his previous attachments and desires and engages himself in deep meditation, leading the life of a true renunciate
= in this regenerated state we no longer struggle ("leading the life of a true renunciate") to overcome our inherited enjoyments and needs ("destroys all his previous attachments and desires"), and all our willing and thinking in daily activities is consciously motivated by our knowledge and understanding of spiritual good and truth ("engages himself in deep meditation")

along with his wife who as his consort becomes the Universal Mother.
= the state of liberation and enlightenment is the state of conjugial love or marriage unity between husband and wife, who then form a single unit or spiritual mind ("Universal Mother")

Thus the three phases of life represented by the trinity ends in One representing the fact that they are one and the same Iswara.
= All the phases of spiritual regeneration of our character lead us to the celestial state of eternity in which husband and wife as one human unit constitute the Divine Proprium in whom there is the Trinity of God (see above).

The following essay should be read in its entirety. I quote here only a few highlights which allow us to examine its essential relationship to theistic psychology. Some overlapping concepts include:

See also: Suzuki, D. T. (1996). Swedenborg: Buddha of the North. West Chester: Swedenborg Foundation.

See also: "Swedenborg: Buddha of the North By D. T. Suzuki" Reviewed by Barbara Darling-Smith. Philosophy East and West Vol. 49, No. 2 (April 1999) pp. 231-235. Online at: ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/ew94208.htm

See also 7.0.5.1 The Law of Karma of Good and Evil as described in the Writings Sacred Scripture.

Steinsaltz, Adin. Rabbi. (2003). Opening the Tanya. Discovering the Moral and Mystical Teachings of a Classic Work of Kabbalah. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

See: Christian perspective:

To Embrace Hebrew Roots: Part VIII Literal Kabbalah: Gematria & Numerology
http://www.seekgod.ca/print/hrpr/printliteralkab.htm

15.0.4.9 The Correspondences in Yoga

Quoting from a Web site www.hinduism.co.za/rajayoga.htm

Raja Yoga
From The Mahabharata
Santi Parva, Section CCCXVII
Translated by Sri Kisari Mohan Ganguli

(Sankhya and Yoga compared)

Addressing King Janaka

Yajnavalkya said:

Listen now to me as I truly discourse on the science of the Yogis as heard and seen by me, O best of kings! There is no knowledge that can compare with that of the Sankhyas. There is no puissance that compares with that of Yoga. These two ordain the same practices, and both are regarded as capable of leading to Emancipation. Those men that are not blest with intelligence regard the Sankhya and the Yoga systems to be different from each other. We, however, O king, look upon them as one and the same, according to the conclusion to which we have arrived (after study and reflection). That which the Yogis have in view is the very same which the Sankhyas also have in view. He who sees both the Sankhya and the Yoga systems to be one and the same is to be regarded as truly conversant with the topics or principles that ordain the universe. Know, O king, that the vital breaths and the senses are the chief means for practising Yoga. By only regulating those breaths and the senses, Yogis wander everywhere at their will.

[Note: By the word ‘Rudra’ is meant ‘Prana’ and the other breaths. The commentator explains that the etymology in Sanskrit is :Utkramana Kale Dehinam Rodyanti iti Rudrah Pranah. By regulating the vital breaths and the senses, Yogis attain to Yoga puissance and succeed in roving wherever they please in their Linga-sarira or subtle bodies.]

When the gross body is destroyed, Yogis endued with subtle bodies possessed of the eight Yoga attributes of Anima, Laghima, Prapti, etc., wander over the universe, enjoying (in that body) all kinds of felicities, O sinless one. The wise have, in the scriptures, spoken of Yoga as conferring eight kinds of puissance. They have spoken of Yoga as possessed of eight limbs.

[Note: The eight limbs of Yoga are Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dhyana, Dharana, Tarka, Samadhi, with the two additional ones of Yama and Niyama]

Indeed, O king, they have not spoken of any other kind of Yoga. It has been said that the practices of Yogis excellent as these are (for their results) are of two kinds. Those two kinds, according to the indications occurring in the scriptures, are practices endued with attributes and those freed from attributes. The concentration of the mind on the sixteen objects named, with simultaneous regulation of the breath, O king, is one kind. The concentration of the mind in such a way as to destroy all difference between the contemplator, the object contemplated, and the act of contemplation along with subjugation of the senses, is of another kind. The first kind of Yoga is said to be that possessed of attributes; the second kind is said to be that freed from attributes.

[Note: In the first line of 9 the word ‘Pranayama’ is used to mean regulation of the vital breaths. In the second line, the same word implies the ‘Ayamah’ or ‘Nigraha’ of the senses with the mind. By Dharana is meant the fixing of the mind, one after another, on the sixteen things named in treatises on Yoga. By ‘Ekagrata’ of the mind is meant that concentration in which there is no longer any consciousness of difference between, ‘Dyatri’, ‘Dhyeya, and ‘Dhyana’.]

Then again, regulation of the breath is Yoga with attributes. In Yoga without attributes, the mind, freed from its functions, should be fixed. Only the regulation of the breath which is said to be endued with attributes should, in the first instance, be practised, for, O ruler of Mithila, if the breath (that is inhaled and suspended) be exhaled without mentally reflecting the while upon a definite image (furnished by a limited Mantra), the wind in the neophyte’s system will increase to his great injury.

[Note: It is difficult for those who do not practise Pranayama to understand this fully. The fact is, Saguna Pranayama , when the breath is inhaled, the inhalation is measured by the time taken up in mentally reciting a well-known Mantra. So when inhaled breath is suspended, the suspension is measured by the time taken in mentally reciting a particular Mantra. When therefore, the suspended breath should be exhaled, it should be done by similarly measuring the time of exhaling. For beginners, this Saguna Pranayama is recommended. Of course only exhalation has been spoken of but it applies equally to inhalation and suspension. These three processes, in Yoga language, are Puraka, Kumbhaka, and Rechaka.]

In the first Yama of the night, twelve ways of holding the breath are recommended. After sleep, in the last Yama of the night, other twelve ways of doing the same have been laid down. Without doubt, one endued with tranquillity, of subdued senses, living in retirement, rejoicing in one’s own self, and fully conversant with the import of the scriptures, should (regulating one’s breath in these four and twenty ways) fix one’s soul (on the Supreme Soul).

[Note: ‘Ekantasilin’ means a Sannyasin. Atmarama is one who takes pleasure in one’s soul instead of in spouses and children.]

Dispelling the five faults of the five senses, viz., (withdrawing them from their objects of) sound, form, touch, taste and scent, and dispelling those conditions called Pratibha and Apavarga, O ruler of the Mithilas, all the senses should be fixed upon the mind. The mind should then be fixed on Consciousness, O king, Consciousness should next be fixed on intelligence or Buddhi, and Buddhi should then be fixed on Prakriti. Thus merging these one after another, Yogis contemplate the Supreme Soul which is One, which is freed from Rajas, which is stainless, which is Immutable and Infinite and Pure and without defect, who is Eternal Purusha, who is unchangeable, who is indivisible, who is without decay and death, who is everlasting, who transcends diminution, and which is Immutable Brahma.

Listen now, O monarch, to the indications of one that is in Yoga. All the indications of cheerful contentment are his who is slumbering in contentment are seen in the person, that is in Samadhi. The person in Samadhi, the wise say, looks like the fixed and upward flame of a lamp that is full of oil and that burns in a breezeless spot. He is like a rock which is incapable of being moved in the slightest degree by ever a heavy downpour from the clouds. He is incapable of being moved by the din of conches and drums, or by songs or the sound of hundreds of musical instruments beat or blown together. Even this is the indication of one in Samadhi. As a man of cool courage and determination, while ascending a flight of steps with a vessel full of oil in his hands, does not spill even a drop of the liquid if frightened and threatened by persons armed with weapons even so the Yogi, when his mind has been concentrated and when he beholds the Supreme Soul in Samadhi, does not, in consequence of the entire stoppage of the functions of his senses at such a time, move in the slightest degree. Even these should be known to be the indication of the Yogi while he is in Samadhi. While in Samadhi, the Yogi beholds Brahman which is Supreme and Immutable and which is situated like a blazing Effulgence in the midst of thick Darkness. It is by this means that he attains, after many years, to Emancipation after casting off this inanimate body. Even this is what the eternal Sruti declares. This is called the Yoga of the Yogis. What else is it? Knowing it, they that are endued with wisdom regard themselves as crowned with success.

from a Web site www.hinduism.co.za/rajayoga.htm

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture on the spiritual significance of breath and respiration, and on the difference between external and internal respiration:

SE 3121. CONCERNING GENERAL RESPIRATION.
A general indulation of heaven was perceived, and I was told that it is the respiration of heaven, whereby [comes] the respiration of men and of many things. It corresponded to my respiration about as 3 to 1: for such respiration goes out [abit] into endeavor [conatum], from which all things respire. (SE 3121)

SE 3464. I was afterwards remitted into the company of those of this character, from whence respiration flowed in, that I might know their quality; the respiration was then separated from the pectoral region, and removed to the abdominal about the naval, nor did it extend itself any further; and this signifies a life separated from good and truth. There were then shown to me certain species of respirations, concerning which much conversation also was had, as, for instance, that there is conjoined with the usual respirations an external one, which is common to the world of spirits; then an internal with an insensible external, which is sufficiently good; then an internal without an external, which is better; and finally an insensible one that was to me scarcely perceptible, which is angelic. But these in general; there are still other genera, and an indefinite number of species, pertaining to different regions of the body and the determinations thence, concerning which, by the favor of the Lord, I shall speak elsewhere.

I was first accustomed thus to respire in my early childhood, when saying my morning and evening prayers, and occasionally afterwards, when exploring the harmonies of the lungs and heart, and especially when deeply engaged in writing the works that have been published. For a course of years I continually observed that there was a tacit respiration, scarcely perceptible, concerning which it was subsequently given me to reflect, and then to write. I was thus during many years, from the period of childhood, introduced into such respirations, especially by means of absorbing speculations, in which the breathing seems to become quiescent, as otherwise the intense study of truth is scarcely possible. Afterwards, when heaven was opened to me, and I was enabled to converse with spirits, I sometimes scarcely breathed by inspiration at all for the space of a short hour, and merely drew in enough of air to keep up the process of thinking.

Thus I was introduced by the Lord into interior respirations. I have also again and again observed, that when I was passing into a state of sleep, my respiration was almost taken away, so that I would awake and catch my breath. When I observe nothing of the kind, I continue to write and think, and am not aware of my respiration being arrested, unless I reflect upon it. This I may say has happened in instances innumerable. Nor was I at such times able to observe the various changes, because I did not reflect upon them. The design of all this was, that every kind of state, every kind of sphere, and every kind of society, particularly the more interior, might find in my own a fit respiration, which should come into play without any reflection on my part, and that thus a medium of interaction might be afforded with spirits and angels. (SE 3164)

HH 449. As to the senses of the body I was brought into a state of insensibility, thus nearly into the state of the dying, but with the interior life and thought remaining unimpaired, in order that I might perceive and retain in the memory the things that happened to me, and that happen to those who are resuscitated from the dead. I perceived that the respiration of the body was almost wholly taken away; but the interior respiration of the spirit went on in connection with a slight and tacit respiration of the body. Then at first a communication of the pulse of the heart with the celestial kingdom was established, because that kingdom corresponds to the heart in man.# Angels from that kingdom were seen, some at a distance, and two sitting near my head. Thus all my own affection was taken away although thought and perception continued.

[2] I was in this state for some hours. Then the spirits who were around me withdrew, supposing that I was dead; and an aromatic odour like that of an embalmed body was perceived, for when the celestial angels are present everything pertaining to the corpse is perceived as aromatic, and when spirits perceive this they cannot approach; and in this way evil spirits are kept away from man's spirit when he is being introduced into eternal life. The angels seated at my head were silent, merely sharing their thoughts with mine; and when their thoughts are received, the angels know that the spirit of man is in a state in which it can be drawn forth from the body. This sharing of their thoughts was effected by looking into my face, for in this way in heaven thoughts are shared.

[3] As thought and perception remained with me, that I might know and remember how resuscitation is effected, I perceived that the angels first tried to ascertain what my thought was, whether it was like the thought of those who are dying, which is usually about eternal life; also that they wished to keep my mind in that thought. Afterwards, I was told that the spirit of man is held in its last thought when the body expires, until it returns to the thoughts that are from its general or ruling affection in the world. Especially was I permitted to see and feel that there was a pulling and drawing forth, as it were, of the interiors of my mind, thus of my spirit, from the body; and I was told that this is from the Lord, and that the resurrection is thus effected.

# The heart corresponds to the Lord's celestial kingdom, the lungs to His spiritual kingdom (n. 3635, 3886, 3887). (HH 449)

SE 605. There is also a collective breathing, about which I was able to observe the following, namely, that I was then somehow taking part in a collective breathing that was easy and spontaneous; and indeed, that the collective breathing of heaven related to my own breathing as three to one, as did my heartbeat also. Nevertheless, because of the collective respiration, all can breathe in accordance with this rule, that the contiguous collective breathing turns into something continuous, so that from that continuum, all have their own breathings, of every variety.
1748, 30 January. (SE 605)

SE 1614. Another common operation or action of theirs was into the respiration of the lungs, to the left, which was such that if described it could scarcely be perceived, for there was a gentle leading of my respiration from the interior, so that I had no need of anything like voluntary effort in inhaling or expelling my breath; this was governed by heaven from the interior, so that not so much the substances as the animations of the lungs, from which arises their motion, [were controlled by it.] Thus the influence was in the interior [pulmonary] fibers that are not visible to the eye, for the animation was perceived to be ruled by heaven, without voluntary action on my part, so that I had no need to draw my breath or spirit, but it was drawn by heaven. The forces employed in this animation, as evinced by the intervals [between the pulsations], were such as seemed habitual to me. (SE 1614)

SE 1615. The third common action of heaven was in the systole and diastole of the heart, which was manifestly perceived, but was gentler or softer than at other times. Its pulsations were like the animations [of the lungs] in softness, and within them, but the times regular like those of the heart, being about one- third, yet such that they terminated in the pulmonic movements, and thus in a certain manner governed them. The times of the pulmonic respiration were common to them and to the heart, as composed of those of the heart; the terminations of the heart's times closed in the pulmonic beats, and were related to each other somewhat like the motions of the angelic gyres, concerning which elsewhere. But how it is precisely that the pulmonic motions commenced I could not perceive; but how [the influx] insinuated itself into the lungs at the end of every animation, I could in a measure observe. The heart, therefore, represents the celestial, the lungs the spiritual; the analogy lies in the manner in which the celestial inflows into the spiritual. The pulsations of the heart, which were soft and regular, were so observable that I could count them one by one. (SE 1615)

AC 3884. As in the world it is quite unknown that there is a correspondence of heaven or the Grand Man with all things of man, and that man comes forth and subsists therefrom, so that what is said on the subject may seem paradoxical and incredible, I may here relate the things that experience has enabled me to know with certainty. Once, when the interior heaven was opened to me, and I was conversing with the angels there, I was permitted to observe the following phenomena. Be it known that although I was in heaven, I was nevertheless not out of myself, but in the body, for heaven is within man, wherever he may be, so that when it pleases the Lord, a man may be in heaven and yet not be withdrawn from the body.

In this way it was given me to perceive the general workings of heaven as plainly as an object is perceived by any of the senses. Four workings or operations were then perceived by me. The first was into the brain at the left temple, and was a general operation as regards the organs of reason; for the left side of the brain corresponds to rational or intellectual things, but the right to the affections or things of the will.

[2] The second general operation that I perceived was into the respiration of the lungs, and it led my respiration gently, but from within, so that I had no need to draw breath or respire by any exertion of my will. The very respiration of heaven was at the time plainly perceived by me. It is internal, and for this reason is imperceptible to man; but by a wonderful correspondence it inflows into man's respiration, which is external, or of the body; and if man were deprived of this influx, he would instantly fall down dead.

[3] The third operation that I perceived was into the systole and diastole of the heart, which had then more of softness with me than I had ever experienced at any other time. The intervals of the pulse were regular, being about three within each period of respiration; yet such as to terminate in and thus direct the things belonging to the lungs. How at the close of each respiration the alternations of the heart insinuated themselves into those of the lungs, I was in some measure enabled to observe. The alternations of the pulse were so observable that I was able to count them; they were distinct and soft.

[4] The fourth general operation was into the kidneys, which also it was given me to perceive, but obscurely. From these things it was made manifest that heaven or the Grand Man has cardiac pulses, and that it has respirations; and that the cardiac pulses of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the heart and with its systolic and diastolic motions; and that the respirations of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the lungs and their respirations; but that they are both unobservable to man, being imperceptible, because internal. (AC 3884)

AC 1879. On one occasion while in bed I was told that evil spirits were conspiring against me with the intention of suffocating me, but as I was safe and felt secure under the Lord's keeping, I disregarded the threats and went to sleep. But awaking in the middle of the night, I felt that I was not breathing of myself, but from heaven, for there was nothing of my own respiration, as I plainly perceived. It was then said that the band of conspirators was present, and that it was composed of those who hold in hatred the interior things of the Word (that is, the very truths of faith, for these are the interiors of the Word), and who thus hate them because they are contrary to their fallacies, persuasions, and cupidities, which the sense of the letter might be brought to support.

[2] After their attempt had failed, their leaders tried to enter into the viscera of my body, and to penetrate even to the heart, and to this also they were admitted. This was all the time perceived by manifest sensation, for one to whom the interiors of the spirit are opened, gets at the same time a sensible perception of such things. But I was then introduced into a kind of celestial state, which was that I made no effort to repel these visitors, still less to avenge the injury. They then said that there was peace; but soon they were as if deprived of rationality, breathing out vengeance, and striving to carry out their purpose, but in vain. They afterwards dispersed of themselves. (AC 1879)

CL 171. (xiii) A wife is linked to her husband by the sphere of life which issues from her love for him.

From each individual there comes, or rather pours forth, a spiritual sphere due to the affections of his love; this surrounds him and enters into the natural sphere coming from the body, and they are linked together. It is commonly known in the world that there is a natural sphere continuously emanating from the body, not only from human beings, but also from animals, and indeed from trees, fruits, flowers, and also from metals. It is much the same in the spiritual world; but there the spheres which emanate from objects are spiritual. The spheres emanating from spirits and angels are more deeply spiritual, because they possess affections of love, and so inward perceptions and thoughts. This is the origin of every kind of sympathy or antipathy, and it is what links everything or holds it apart. Presence or absence in that world depends upon these spheres, for what is of the same nature and concordant causes presence and linking, but what is of different nature and discordant causes separation and absence. These spheres therefore are what create distance there.

Certain people are also aware of the effects produced by these spiritual spheres in the natural world. The mutual inclination of married couples towards each other are from no other origin. Spheres of unanimity and concord unite, those of opposition and discord separate; for concordant spheres are pleasant and welcome, opposing and discordant ones unpleasant and unwelcome.

[2] I have heard from angels, who are able to perceive the spheres clearly, that there is not a single internal or external part of a person which is not renewing itself. It does this by dissolving and being replaced, and this is the source of the sphere which continually pours forth. They said that this sphere is packed closely around the person to the back and to the front, thinly at the back, but densely at the front. The sphere coming from the chest is linked with respiration. That is why a married couple who differ in disposition and disagree in their affections lie in bed turned away from each other, back to back. Conversely, those who agree in disposition and affections turn towards each other.

[3] They also said that since the spheres come from every part of the person and extend to some distance around him, they not only link or separate the couple from without, but also from within. This, they said, is the origin of all the differences and varieties in conjugial love. They ended by saying that the sphere of love coming from a wife who is tenderly loved is perceived in heaven as a sweet fragrance, notably more pleasant than that perceived in the world by a newly wed bridegroom in the first days after his wedding. These facts make plain the truth of the assertion that a wife is linked to her husband by the sphere of life which comes from her love for him. (CL 171)

15.0.4.10 Zoroastrian Sacred Scripture

VISPERAD 3 - BEGINNING OF THE HAOMA OFFERING; ROLL-CALL OF THE PRIEST.

1. (The Zaotar speaks.) (I call for) the Havanan, and would have him here. (The Ratu answers.) I will come (and fulfill his duties). (The Zaotar speaks.) I would have the Atarevakhsha here. (The Ratu answers.) I will come (and fulfill the services which fall to his charge). (The Zaotar.) I would have the Frabaretar. (The Ratu.) I will come (and fulfill the services which fall to his charge). (The Zaotar.) I would have the Aberet present. (The Ratu.) I will come (for him). (The Zaotar.) I would have the Asnatar. (The Ratu.) I will come (and do the duties which he serves). (The Zaotar.) I would have the Raethwishkar to be here. (The Ratu.) I will come (for him). (The Zaotar.) I would have the Sraoshavareza present, the wisest one, the most correct and veracious in his speech (The Ratu.) I will come.

2. (The Zaotar.) I would have the Fire-priest to be here, and the warrior, and the thrifty tiller of the earth, and the house-lord, and the lords of the Vis and the Zantu.

3. And I summon the youth of holy thoughts, words and works, and of good conscience; (yea), the youth of good speech, given (in marriage) to his kin. And I summon the province-ranger, and the itinerant of many arts, and the house-mistress.

4. And I summon the woman advanced in her holy thoughts, and words, and deeds, and well subordinated, whose ruler is her lord, the holy one, who is (as) the bounteous Armaiti; (yea), I summon even Thy wives, O Ahura ! And I summon likewise the holy man advanced in his good thoughts, and words, and deeds, who is learned in pious lore, and innocent of the Kayadha, and by whose deeds the settlements are furthered in the righteous order.

5. Yea, we summon you, whoever you may be, if only chiefs of the Mazdayasnians; and we summon the Bounteous Immortals, and the pious Saoshyants (the prophets for our help), the most correct and truthful in their speech, the most zealous, the most glorious in their thoughts, the greatest ones, and the powerful; and we summon the Fire-priests, and the warriors, and the diligent husbandman of the Mazdayasnian faith.

6. (The Zaotar.) As an Ahu to be (revered and) chosen, the Atarevakhsha (announcing) speaks forth to me. (The Ratu [?].) So let the Ratu from his righteousness, holy and learned, speak forth. (The Ratu.) As an Ahu to be (revered and) chosen, the Zaotar (announcing) speaks forth to me. (The Zaotar.) So let the Ratu from (his) righteousness, holy and learned, speak forth. (The Ratu.) Thou art the announcer for us, O Fire-priest! [(Pazand.) It is the Zaotar (who is meant).] (The Zaotar.) I will come as this Zaotar, and recite the Staota Yesnya with memorized intoning, chanting, and praise.

VISPERAD 4.

1. (Yea,) we sacrifice to the thoughts of the mind, and to the good wisdom, and to the good and blessed sanctity, and to the good religious knowledge, and to good health (of soul and body). [At their (several) seasons, and with the presence of seasonable circumstances, they are hymned.]

2. Confession is to be made for the Kine; we, Zarathushtrian Mazdayasnians, celebrate at the sacrificial time for the Myazda-offering, at the time for the Ratufriti, the prayer for blessings, for the sacrificial worship, homage, propitiation, and praise of the entire creation of the holy (and the clean).

VISPERAD 5.

1. I come to You, O Ye Bountiful Immortals! as a praiser priest, and invoker, as a memoriser, reciting (Your ritual), and as a chanter for Your sacrifice and homage, Your propitiation, and Your praise; (yea, for Yours) the Bountiful Immortals, and for our preparation, (O ye holy Saoshyants!) and for your well-timed prayer for blessings, and your sanctification, and for our victorious smiting of our foes, beneficial (as it is) for our souls, for ours, the Saoshyants, (with you), and holy.

2. And I make my offering to You, O Ye Bountiful Immortals, who rule aright, and who dispose (of all) aright! (Yea), I offer You the flesh of my very body, and all the blessings of my life as well.

3. And I confess my belief in Thee, O Ahura Mazda! and as a Mazdayasnian of the order of Zarathushtra, and in accordance with this Faith.

VISPERAD 6.

1. In accordance with the precept, with praise, and with the joyful reception of grace, with Zaothras intelligently offered, with sacrificial words correctly spoken, I call the good Amesha Spenta by their names of beauty; yea, I worship the Bountiful Immortals by their beautiful names, with the blessing of the ritual Order, with the longing blessing of Righteousness the good.

VISPERAD 7.

1. We worship the (sacrificial) words correctly uttered, and Sraosha (Obedience) the blessed, and the good Ashi, (the blest order of our rites), and Nairya-sangha. And we worship the victorious Peace as the unprostrated and unmoved. And we sacrifice to the Fravashis of the saints, and to the Chinwad Bridge, and to the Garo Nmana of Ahura, even Heaven, the best world of the saints, the shining and all glorious!

2. And we sacrifice to that better path that leads to that Best World (as well). And we worship Arshtat (Justice) the good, which helps the settlements to advance and flourish, benefiting them thereby, that Arshtat which is the Mazdayasnian Faith; and (with her) we worship Rashnu the most just, and Mithra of the wide pastures. And we worship Parendi the wealthy, wealthy with a wealth of thoughts, with a throng of words, and with a breadth of actions, [for she makes our persons agile (for good thoughts and words and actions)]

3. And we worship that virile defensive Heroism which possesses men who think beforehand, and heroic men, which is fleeter a than the fleet, stronger than the strong, which comes to him who is endowed by God, which, when especially made theirs by men, produces one who is a freer of the body. And we worship Sleep, the Mazda-made, the gladdener of the herd and men.

4. And we worship those things in the creation of the holy which are the ancient institutions, those formed before the sky, the water, the land, the plants, and the Kine of blessed gift. And we worship the sea Vouru-kasha, and the stormy wind which is made by Mazda, and the shining heaven, of old created, the first-made earthly object of (all) the earthly world.

5. And we worship thee, the Fire, O Ahura Mazda's son! the holy lord of the ritual order, and this Baresman, having the Zaothra with it, and the girdle with it, spread out with sanctity, the holy ritual chief, and we worship Apam-napat (the son of waters)

VISPERAD 8.

1. With this word be Thou approached, with the proper word be Thou present here, Thou who art Ahura Mazda, the holy, together with the good Yazads who are the Bountiful Immortals, who rule aright, and dispose (of all) aright, together with fifty, and a hundred, and a thousand, and ten thousand, and millions, and yet more.

2. And to Him who rules the best let the Kingdom be!

From:
AVESTA: VISPERAD (Extensions to the liturgy) (Translated by L. H. Mills : From Sacred Books of the East, American Edition, 1898.)

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/zoroscripts/avesta_3_visperad.htm

Sad Dar

Translated by E. W. West, from Sacred Books of the East, volume 24, Clarendon Press, 1885.

From:
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/zoroscripts/saddar0.htm

INTRODUCTION.

1.

In the name of Ohrmazd, the lord, the greatest and wise, the all-ruling, all knowing, and almighty.

2.

This is a book (kitab), about the proper and improper, which is extracted from the good and pure religion of the Mazda-worshippers. 3. What is expedient (vajib) is this, for every one to know and keep this in practice. 4. And it is not desirable that he become independent (hali) of this for a single hour (sa'hat). 5. Because, when one becomes independent, the sin for each one may become abundant; and when it is brought into practice the reward becomes abundant.

6.

On this occasion (vaqt) I, a servant of the religion -- like the mobed Eran-shah, son (bin) of Yazad-yar, son of Tishtar-yar, son of Adarbad, son of Mahraspand -- have sent a reward to their souls, unto every one who reads and is bound by duty. 7. Thus much (in qadar), which has come written, is a good work they know, whosoever are superior; but it is not possible for every one inferior to know of this. 8. If it were more (ziyadat) it is proper, but if (imma) less than this it is not proper to know; while, in gratitude for the benefits (shukr-i ni'hmat) of the sacred being, they become increasing in action, and the sacred being, the most high (ta'halai), makes benefits occur on the spot on that account.

9.

And, secondly, the kindness (lutf) and generosity (karm) of the sacred being, the most high, are manifest from this, that he created us with each member (alat) complete (tamam), and did not keep anything from the maternal nature. 10. And whatever was necessary for use he gave us. 11. At the head, likewise, he appointed a master, which is the wisdom for the purpose that they may keep these members in action.

12.

May the peace of the sacred being, the most high, be on the souls of those acquainted with the religion of the pure Zartosht, the Spitaman, and of those who are pure and virtuous. 13. For the souls of those persons it is desirable that every duty they perform they shall perform through the authority dasturi) of the wisdom of the high-priests.

CHAPTER 1.

1.

The first subject is this, that it is necessary that they become steadfast in the religion, and do not introduce any hesitation (shakk) and doubt into the heart. 2. And that they make a statement ('haqiqat) with confidence (i'htiqad), that the good religion, the true and perfect, which the Lord sent into the world ('halq), is that which Zartosht has brought; which is this I hold.

3.

Every time that mankind are like this, and do not introduce any hesitation and doubt into the heart, of every duty and good work that others have done, from the days of Zartosht until these days, and of whatever one does after this until the resurrection, there is a share for that person. 4. When the soul, on the fourth night, arrives at the head of the Chinwad bridge, the angel Mihr and the angel Rashn make up its account ('hisab) and reckoning. 5. And, if the good works it has done be deficient in quantity, of every duty and good work that those of the good religion have done in the earth of seven regions they appoint it a like portion (nazib), till the good works become more in weight; and the soul arrives righteous in the radiant locality of heaven.

6.

For it is declared in revelation, that of the duty and good work which they perform in doubt -- that is (ya'hni), they entertain a suspicion like this, that 'I do not know that this faith, which I possess, is better in comparison with other faiths' -- no merit whatever comes to their souls. 7. Therefore, the first (avval) thing is to become steadfast in the religion; and this is the chief of all good works.

CHAPTER 2.

1.

The second subject is this, that it is necessary to make an effort (gahd), so that they may not commit any sin. 2. If even a trifling sin occurs it is not desirable to assume that this small quantity does not possess harm hereafter.

3.

For it is said in revelation, that if such be the quantity of sin that the sin is one filament of the hair of the eyelashes more in weight than the good works are, that person arrives in hell. 4. And if such a quantity of good works be in excess, he arrives righteous in the radiant locality of heaven.

5.

Therefore, even if a sin be trifling it is not desirable to commit it; and it is requisite to refrain, so that they may not commit it, and may become without doubt as to the religion.

CHAPTER 3.

1.

The third subject is this, that it is necessary for man that he be continuously employed (mashjhul) on his own work, and then the work becomes his own.

2.

For it is declared in revelation, that every one who hereafter becomes employed on his own work, if in the midst of that work any trouble and discomfort happen to him, obtains in that other world twelve recompenses for every single instance. 3. If he becomes employed on iniquity (fasad), and in the midst of that work any trouble and harm happen to him, he so obtains in that other world only torment ('huqubat) and punishment.

4.

Similarly (maTHalam), if any one be himself going, employed on his own work, and a robber falls upon him on the road, and carries off his property (qumash), or he be slain, they give him back in that other world four things for each one of whatever they have carried off. 5. If he be slain he becomes righteous, any sin that he has committed goes clean away from him, and they convey him to heaven. 6. But (amma) if he becomes faulty (batil) in any duty, and a robber falls upon him on the road, and carries off his wealth (mal), or he be slain, when he descends to that other world all the property that other carried off from him becomes just as though it were his who has carried it off from that person; and, besides, there occur, as a substitute ('hivaz) for that property, the punishment and torment they give him. 7. And if he be slain it is just as though he who has carried it off from that person were one who had innocently slain that person who arrives in hell as retribution (mukafat) for sin.

CHAPTER 4.

1.

The fourth subject is this, that it is not desirable for any one that he should become hopeless of the pity (ra'hmat) and forgiveness of Ohrmazd, and fix his heart outwardly on this, that our sin is excessive and it is not possible to arrive in heaven. 2. Because it happens that a small quantity of duty and good work is performed, and it may be that for that quantity Ohrmazd, the good and propitious, may have pity on him and may make him arrive in heaven.

3.

For it is declared in revelation, that one time when Zartosht was in conversation with the sacred being, the most high, he saw a man whose whole body was in hell, and one foot -- the right one -- was outside of hell. 4. Zartosht inquired of the sacred being, the most high, thus: 'What person has this man been?' 5. Ohrmazd, the good and propitious, gave a reply (javab) thus: 'He has been a king, and possessed the sovereignty of thirty-three towns, and was conducting that sovereignty many years. 6. And he never did any virtuous action, but was committing much oppression, lawlessness, and violence (thulm). 7. By chance (qazara) he was one day going on the chase, and arrived out at a place (mauza'h) and saw a goat that was tied. 8. A morsel of hay was placed very far off, and that goat was hungry. 9. Owing to this the goat was trying to eat the hay, but did not reach the hay. 10. This the king saw, and kicked his foot at that hay and cast it in front of the goat. 11. Now, in recompense for that, that one foot of his is outside of hell, and the remaining (baqi) limbs are in hell.'

12.

Therefore, although a sin has happened to any one, it is not necessary for him to become hopeless. 13. And whoever has the power (taqat) is to endeavor to perform good works, so that there may be an atonement for the sin thereby; because the sacred being, the good and propitious, is kind to every one.

CHAPTER 5.

1.

The fifth subject is this, that it is necessary for all those of the good religion that they make a thorough effort, so that they celebrate the ritual and become Navazud.

2.

For in our religion there is no good work more ample than this. 3. And it is declared in revelation, that, although much duty and good work be performed, it is not possible to attain to the supreme heaven (garothman), except on that one occasion when the Navazud ceremony is performed, or they have celebrated a getig-kharid. 4. And on any occasion ('hal), if they are not able to perform it with their own hands, it is requisite to order it; and then it is inevitably necessary that the celebration of the Getig-kharid should be in the same manner as they would have performed it with their own hands.

5.

Man and woman are both equal in this good work; therefore, it is not proper to neglect this duty, for it is the chief of all the good works of the religion. 6. Because it is declared in revelation, that on the day that they are performing the Navazud ceremony, or are celebrating a Getig-kharid on his account, three times the soul of that person arrives at heaven, and they show it a place therein, and offer it a profuse greeting (niTHar).

7.

The explanation (tafsir) of the Gahs is this, that a Gah -- that is, that his own place -- becomes visible to him in heaven that day.

8.

And if one does not perform a Navazud ceremony, or does not order the celebration of a Getig-kharid, it is the same as when a poor (gharib) man makes for a town, and does not obtain a spot where he may alight in that place. 9. Although it is his own town he is in this trouble. 10. Therefore, it is not possible to bring to hand a place in heaven through any good work, except by the performance of the Navazud ceremony, or by ordering the celebration of a Getig-kharid.

11.

And a Getig-kharid is this, that heaven is purchased in the world, and one's own place brought to hand in heaven.

CHAPTER 6.

1.

The sixth subject is this, that of the many good works there are those which, when they accomplish them, obtain great ('hathim) rewards; and if one does not perform them severe punishment seizes upon one at the head of the Chinwad bridge. 2. One is the celebration of the season festivals [Gahambars]; the second is keeping the days of the guardian spirits [fravashis]; the third is attending to the souls of fathers, mothers, and other relations; the fourth is reciting the Khwarshed Niyayesh [Sun Litany] three times every day; the fifth is reciting the Mah Niyayesh [Moon Litany] three times every month, once when it becomes new, once when it becomes full, and once when it becomes slender; and the sixth is celebrating the Rapithwin ceremony once every year. 3. If not able to celebrate them oneself, it is requisite to order them, so that they may celebrate them every single time.

4.

These six good works are things indispensable unto every one. 5. When any one of them is not performed -- be it that which, if omitted at its own time, it is not possible to accomplish, or if it be. that one time one omits an occasion, and another time they accomplish twice as much -- one should consider that as an advantage, which occurs in retribution for it, or as atonement for the transgression. 6. Because they call the transgression of each of these six a bridge-sin; that is, every one through whom a transgression of these may have arisen they keep back, at the head of the Chinwad bridge, till punishment for it happens to him, and no good work is possible in this place, which is torment and punishment for him.

7.

Therefore it is necessary to make an effort, that they may be performed each one at its own time, so hat they may obtain a recompense, and not a severe punishment.

CHAPTER 7.

1.

The seventh subject is this, that, when a sneeze ('hatsat) comes forth from any one, it is requisite to recite one Yatha-ahu-vairyo and one Ashem-vohu. 2. Because there is a fiend in our bodies, and she is an adversary who is connected with mankind, and strives so that she may make misfortune ('hillat) and sickness predominant (mustauli) over mankind. 3. And in our bodies there is a fire which they call a disposition -- in Arabic they say tabi'hat -- and they call it the sneezing instinct (gharizi). 4. It is connected with that fiend, and they wage warfare, and it keeps her away from the body of man. 5. Then, as the fire becomes successful over that fiend, and puts her to flight (hazimat), a sneeze comes because that fiend comes out.

6.

Afterwards, because it is necessary, they recite these inward prayers and perform the benediction (afrin) of the fire, so that it may remain for a long period while thou art keeping this fiend defeated. 7. When another person hears the sneeze, it is likewise requisite for him to utter; the said prayers, and to accomplish the benediction of that spirit.

CHAPTER 8.

1.

The eighth subject is this, that it is necessary to maintain the religion by rule (dastur), and to practice obedience to the commands of the high-priests; and every duty that people perform they should perform by their authority.

2.

For it is declared in the good religion, that, if they accomplish as many good works as the leaves of trees, or the sand-grains of the desert, or the drops (qatrah) of rain, which they do not perform by command of the high-priests, or to their satisfaction, no merit whatever attains to their souls, and for the good works they have done they obtain sin as a recompense. 3. While such a one is living it is not proper to call him righteous, and when he dies he does not attain to heaven, and not a single archangel comes near him. 4. He does not make his escape from the hands of the demons and Ahriman, and he does not obtain a release from hell. 5. Because duties and good works attain to the soul on those occasions when they perform them with the authority of the high-priests and those acquainted with the religion, and when they give them one-tenth of those good works.

CHAPTER 9.

1.

The ninth subject is this, that it is necessary to practice abstinence from committing or permitting unnatural intercourse. 2. For this is the chief of all sins in the religion: there is no worse sin than this in the good religion, and it is proper to call those who commit it worthy of death in reality.

3.

If any one comes forth to them, and shall see them in the act, and is working with an ax, it is requisite for him to cut off the heads or to rip up the bellies of both, and it is no sin for him. 4. But it is not proper to kill any person without the authority of high-priests and kings, except on account of committing or permitting unnatural intercourse.

5.

For it says in revelation that unnatural intercourse is on a par with Ahriman, with Afrasiyab, with Dahak [Zohak], with Tur-i Bradrok-resh who slew Zartosht, with Malkos who will arise, with the serpent Srobovar which existed in the days of Sam Nariman, and as many sins as are theirs. 6. And Ahriman, the evil one, becomes more joyful, owing to this practice, than owing to the other sins which have made high-priests necessary; for the soul itself of that person becomes extinct.

7.

And when they commit the sin with women, it is just the same as that with men.

CHAPTER 10.

1.

The tenth subject is this, that it is incumbent on all those of the good religion, women and men, every one who attains to fifteen years, to wear the sacred thread-girdle [kusti]. 2. Because the sacred thread-girdle is to be a girding of the loins and to preserve obedience (ta'hat) to the Lord, may he be honored and glorified ('hazza va jalla)!

3.

The first person who set the wearing of this sacred thread-girdle in view was Jamshed. 4. And it may be the whole (jumlah) of the demons and fiends who are made extinct by the glory of wearing the sacred thread-girdle.

5.

Every one who has tied the sacred thread-girdle round the waist is out of the department of Ahriman, and is established in the department of Ohrmazd. 6. And also, while he keeps the sacred thread-girdle on the waist, there is a share for him of all those duties and good works which they perform in the earth of seven regions. 7. It is like that which occurs when they are performing hamazor and hama asho, and have put on this sacred thread-girdle [kusti] on that account, or when, similarly, some one in Cashmere, or Eranvej, or Kangdez, or the enclosure formed by Jam [Jamshed], performs a good work, and we are not able to perform it with hama zor, then they and we, who wear the sacred thread-girdle on the waist, are mutually connected and equally meritorious, one with the other. 8. As no good work attains to him who does not wear a sacred thread-girdle -- excepting that which he performs himself -- it is therefore necessary that any one of mankind should not put it away from the waist on any occasion, so that the associated good works of those of the good religion may attain to him.

9.

And those four knots, with which they tie it on, are on this account, that it may give four attestations. 10. The first knot is that which preserves constancy (qarar), and gives attestation as to the existence, unity, purity, and matchlessness of the sacred being, the good and propitious. 11. The second knot is that which gives attestation that is the good religion of the Mazda-worshippers which is the word of the sacred being. 12. The third knot is that which gives attestation as to the apostleship and mission (rasuli) in the just ('haqq) Zartosht, the Spitaman. 13. The fourth knot is that which adduces more pleasantly, gives assurance (iqrar), and openly accepts that I should think of good, speak of good, and do good. 14. And from the whole I become established; and the pure, good religion is this, that I persist in those views.

15.

And, again, when the archangels [Amahraspands] came meeting Zartosht they likewise wore the sacred thread-girdle on the waist; and the distinctive characteristic (farq) amid the laws of the sacred being is the wearing of the sacred thread-girdle. 16. It is incumbent both on woman and on man, and it is altogether (albattah) improper when they do not wear it.

The above is from:
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/zoroscripts/saddar0.htm

15.0.4.11 The Correspondential Sense in Bahai Sacred Scripture

Theistic psychology is the knowledge and science that is extracted from Sacred Scripture through the method of correspondences that is revealed and described exclusively in the Writings of Swedenborg (see Section xx). All religions are based on a particular cultural and historical version of Sacred Scripture. In its universal idea all Sacred Scripture given by God forms one rational and scientific series of ideas -- when viewed through the correspondential sense, and not at all when viewed through the literal sense.

When we view this or that version of Sacred Scripture in its literal meaning, the versions do not agree with each other and even contradict each other to such an extent that people from different religions see each other in hostile terms. This conflict and division disappears completely when we translate each version of Sacred Scripture into its correspondential meaning. When this is done one discovers the rational and scientific unity of all Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech expressed in some natural language and in natural-historical ideas. When the universal Divine Speech to humanity descends to the physical world as a text written in a natural language, message is necessarily cast in natural ideas that ordinary people can understand and accept.

If Sacred Scripture were written directly in terms of correspondential meanings it would no longer be Sacred Scripture but theistic psychology. And this is a science that depends on facts and research, thus not at all suitable for religion. People of any religion can study the correspondential sense of their Sacred Scripture, but this would not be a religious activity but a scientific project. And this scientific project must include research on the correspondential sense of other Sacred Scriptures that one's religion does not acknowledge. Hence it is that theistic psychology is a science, not a religion.

Various cultural-historical versions of Sacred Scripture have been examined in theistic psychology and this research will continue and increase in the future as a critical component of theistic psychology.

In this Section I am examining the correspondential sense of the Baha'i Sacred Scripture.

Online copies of Baha'i Sacred Writings are presented at: http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/KI/

Baha'is believe: (From: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-beliefs )

the purpose of life is to know and worship God, to acquire virtues, to promote the oneness of mankind and to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization

all humanity was created by one God and is part of one human race

work performed in the spirit of service is a form of worship

the soul, created at the moment of conception, is destined by God to reach the afterlife, where it will continue to progress until it attains the presence of God

Baha'is practice: (From: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-beliefs )

daily prayer and communion with God

high moral principles, including trustworthiness, chastity and honesty

independent investigation of truth

a life dedicated to the service of humanity

fellowship with the followers of all religions

avoidance of excessive materialism, partisan politics, backbiting, alcohol, drugs and gambling

Social principles include: (From: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-beliefs )

equality of women and men

the harmony of science and religion as two complementary systems of knowledge that must work together to advance the well being and progress of humanity

the elimination of prejudice

the establishment of a world commonwealth of nations

recognition of the common origin and fundamental unity of purpose of all religions

spiritual solutions to economic problems and the removal of economic barriers and restrictions

the abolition of extremes of poverty and wealth

the adoption of a world auxiliary language, a world script, and a uniform and universal system of currency and weights and measures

God, His Manifestations And Man

Selections from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh
From: http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-2-12.html

The Bearers of the Trust of God are made manifest unto the peoples of the earth as the Exponents of a new Cause and the Revealers of a new Message. Inasmuch as these Birds of the celestial Throne are all sent down from the heaven of the Will of God, and as they all arise to proclaim His irresistible Faith, they, therefore, are regarded as one soul and the same person. For they all drink from the one Cup of the love of God, and all partake of the fruit of the same Tree of Oneness.

Correspondential Analysis:
"The Bearers of the Trust of God"
        = the prophets and revelators that God provides to the peoples and nations of this world, that they may bring to people the Voice or Speech of God to humanity

"are made manifest unto the peoples of the earth"
        = spiritual truths that were previously incomprehensible, can now be seen in the conscious natural mind by any thoughtful person

"as the Exponents of a new Cause and the Revealers of a new Message"
        = Divine Speech expressed in natural languages is given by God anew from time to time, each time with a new spiritual message that could not be given as clearly in earlier revelations

"these Birds of the celestial Throne are all sent down from the heaven of the Will of God"
        = new spiritual-rational ideas from God through heaven descend into the minds of all individuals, ideas that contain God's love and God's truth for the human race, both in this world and in the world of eternity where our heavens are and to which we all pass on at the death of the temporary physical body

"they all arise to proclaim His irresistible Faith"
        = all spiritual-rational ideas descend from God into every person's unconscious spiritual mind, from where they descend into our conscious natural mind, where we can understand rationally that God is love (good) and truth, and that all good (love) and truth that each of us possess, is actually God's love and truth in our mind, thus God with us

"they, therefore, are regarded as one soul and the same person"
        = the content of humanity's mind consists of all the people's intentions, loves, thoughts, sensations, actions, in all the past, present, and future, are in one endless collection that in God's Mind is united into One Grand Human or Individual

"they all drink from the one Cup of the love of God"
        = every human being, past, present, and future, has the same relationship to God through the acknowledgement of God's truths given in Sacred Scripture

"all partake of the fruit of the same Tree of Oneness"
        =         = every human being, past, present, and future, has the same relationship to God through the reception of God's love or good, that is given in our will or heart each time we avoid evils in our heart and mind as sins against God

+++

These Manifestations of God have each a twofold station. One is the station of pure abstraction and essential unity. In this respect, if thou callest them all by one name, and dost ascribe to them the same attributes, thou hast not erred from the truth. Even as He hath revealed: "No distinction do We make between any of His Messengers." For they, one and all, summon the people of the earth to acknowledge the unity of God, and herald unto them the Kawthar of an infinite grace and bounty. They are all invested with the robe of prophethood, and are honored with the mantle of glory.

Correspondential Analysis:
"These Manifestations of God have each a twofold station. One is the station of pure abstraction and essential unity. In this respect, if thou callest them all by one name, and dost ascribe to them the same attributes, thou hast not erred from the truth."
        = God has given various outward versions of Himself in different Sacred Scriptures ("These Manifestations of God"), but they each have the same inner correspondential meaning of Him. This inner spiritual meaning constitutes their inner spiritual unity, which is the good and truth flowing to human beings from the same One God. The diversity in the versions of Sacred Scripture reflects and supports the diversity of cultural practices and world views that exist among the people of this earth.

"Even as He hath revealed: "No distinction do We make between any of His Messengers." For they, one and all, summon the people of the earth to acknowledge the unity of God"
        = The versions of Sacred Scripture ("His Messengers") are all equivalent in their inner correspondential message, which is that our willing and thinking in all daily activities must be made to conform to God's eternal order.

"and herald unto them the Kawthar of an infinite grace and bounty. They are all invested with the robe of prophethood, and are honored with the mantle of glory."
        = God has provided that each version of Sacred Scripture, in its own literal, theological, or cultural sense, be sufficient and adequate in providing a clear unambiguous message to adherents of God's commandments of life for them. Every literal version of Sacred Scripture is given to humanity through an individual chosen and prepared by God ("invested with the robe of prophethood") to receive Divine Speech or Truth in that particular version at that particular time in that historical and geographic place. Every literal version of Sacred Scripture is invested with an inner correspondential meaning ("honored with the mantle of glory").

+++

Thus hath Muhammad, the Point of the Qur'an, revealed: "I am all the Prophets." Likewise, He saith: "I am the first Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus." Similar statements have been made by Imam 'Ali. Sayings such as these, which indicate the essential unity of those Exponents of Oneness, have also emanated from the Channels of God's immortal utterance, and the Treasuries of the gems of Divine knowledge, and have been recorded in the Scriptures.

Correspondential Analysis:
"Thus hath Muhammad, the Point of the Qur'an, revealed: "I am all the Prophets." Likewise, He saith: "I am the first Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus." Similar statements have been made by Imam 'Ali."
= the inner unity of all Sacred Scripture is affirmed by God in the literal sense of Sacred Scripture in its various versions, yet each version reveals something new of its own, given through God's chosen prophet, each new prophet being capable of receiving something new from God, and creating a new spiritual force for God in the world and in eternity

"Sayings such as these, which indicate the essential unity of those Exponents of Oneness, have also emanated from the Channels of God's immortal utterance, and the Treasuries of the gems of Divine knowledge, and have been recorded in the Scriptures"
= the literal sense of various versions of Sacred Scripture affirms the Divinity of all versions of Sacred Scripture. The literal sense is Divine, and the inner correspondential sense is Divine. Both are Divine Truth.

+++

These Countenances are the recipients of the Divine Command, and the Day Springs of His Revelation. This Revelation is exalted above the veils of plurality and the exigencies of number. Thus He saith: "Our Cause is but One." Inasmuch as the Cause is one and the same, the Exponents thereof also must needs be one and the same. Likewise, the Imams of the Muhammadan Faith, those lamps of certitude, have said: "Muhammad is our first, Muhammad is our last, Muhammad our all."

Correspondential Analysis:

"These Countenances are the recipients of the Divine Command, and the Day Springs of His Revelation."
= the literal sense of Sacred Scripture contains God's commandments about our intentions, thoughts, and acts that we perform during our daily activities -- how we must arrange them in a heavenly order, for this is the mental order that exists in our eternity or heaven

"This Revelation is exalted above the veils of plurality and the exigencies of number."
= the literal sense of every version of Sacred Scripture provides access to God's commandments for our mental world, which He wants us to arrange in the order of heaven, which is Himself

"Thus He saith: "Our Cause is but One." Inasmuch as the Cause is one and the same, the Exponents thereof also must needs be one and the same."
= the literal sense of all Sacred Scripture enjoins its adherents that in order to be saved and enter the eternal heavenly life, they must acknowledge the spiritual unity of God, regardless of the literal, theological, or cultural versions. There is only One God and every event in the world and in the mind is managed by Divine Providence from His Divine Love and Omnipotence through His Divine Truth and Omnipresence.

"Likewise, the Imams of the Muhammadan Faith, those lamps of certitude, have said: "Muhammad is our first, Muhammad is our last, Muhammad our all."
= God's chosen prophet receives the Divine Truth from God, and Divine Providence sees to it that only God's Divine Word is written down. Hence the literal of Sacred Scripture contains within itself Divine Truth and even, God Himself.

+++

It is clear and evident to thee that all the Prophets are the Temples of the Cause of God, Who have appeared clothed in divers attire. If thou wilt observe with discriminating eyes, thou wilt behold Them all abiding in the same tabernacle, soaring in the same heaven, seated upon the same throne, uttering the same speech, and proclaiming the same Faith. Such is the unity of those Essences of Being, those Luminaries of infinite and immeasurable splendor! Wherefore, should one of these Manifestations of Holiness proclaim saying: "I am the return of all the Prophets," He, verily, speaketh the truth. In like manner, in every subsequent Revelation, the return of the former Revelation is a fact, the truth of which is firmly established....

The other station is the station of distinction, and pertaineth to the world of creation, and to the limitations thereof. In this respect, each Manifestation of God hath a distinct individuality, a definitely prescribed mission, a predestined revelation, and specially designated limitations. Each one of them is known by a different name, is characterized by a special attribute, fulfils a definite mission, and is entrusted with a particular Revelation. Even as He saith: "Some of the Apostles We have caused to excel the others. To some God hath spoken, some He hath raised and exalted. And to Jesus, Son of Mary, We gave manifest signs, and We strengthened Him with the Holy Spirit."

It is because of this difference in their station and mission that the words and utterances flowing from these Well Springs of Divine knowledge appear to diverge and differ. Otherwise, in the eyes of them that are initiated into the mysteries of Divine wisdom, all their utterances are, in reality, but the expressions of one Truth. As most of the people have failed to appreciate those stations to which We have referred, they, therefore, feel perplexed and dismayed at the varying utterances pronounced by Manifestations that are essentially one and the same.

It hath ever been evident that all these divergencies of utterance are attributable to differences of station. Thus, viewed from the standpoint of their oneness and sublime detachment, the attributes of Godhead, Divinity, Supreme Singleness, and Inmost Essence, have been, and are applicable to those Essences of Being, inasmuch as they all abide on the throne of Divine Revelation, and are established upon the seat of Divine Concealment. Through their appearance the Revelation of God is made manifest, and by their countenance the Beauty of God is revealed. Thus it is that the accents of God Himself have been heard uttered by these Manifestations of the Divine Being.

Viewed in the light of their second station -- the station of distinction, differentiation, temporal limitations, characteristics and standards -- they manifest absolute servitude, utter destitution, and complete self-effacement. Even as He saith: "I am the servant of God. I am but a man like you."...

Were any of the all-embracing Manifestations of God to declare: "I am God," He, verily, speaketh the truth, and no doubt attacheth thereto. For it hath been repeatedly demonstrated that through their Revelation, their attributes and names, the Revelation of God, His names and His attributes, are made manifest in the world. Thus, He hath revealed: "Those shafts were God's, not Thine." And also He saith: "In truth, they who plighted fealty unto Thee, really plighted that fealty unto God." And were any of them to voice the utterance, "I am the Messenger of God," He, also, speaketh the truth, the indubitable truth. Even as He saith: "Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but He is the Messenger of God." Viewed in this light, they are all but Messengers of that ideal King, that unchangeable Essence. And were they all to proclaim, "I am the Seal of the Prophets," they, verily, utter but the truth, beyond the faintest shadow of doubt. For they are all but one person, one soul, one spirit, one being, one revelation. They are all the manifestation of the "Beginning" and the "End," the "First" and the "Last," the "Seen" and "Hidden" -- all of which pertain to Him Who is the Innermost Spirit of Spirits and Eternal Essence of Essences. And were they to say, "We are the Servants of God," this also is a manifest and indisputable fact. For they have been made manifest in the uttermost state of servitude, a servitude the like of which no man can possibly attain. Thus in moments in which these Essences of Being were deep immersed beneath the oceans of ancient and everlasting holiness, or when they soared to the loftiest summits of Divine mysteries, they claimed their utterances to be the Voice of Divinity, the Call of God Himself.

Were the eye of discernment to be opened, it would recognize that in this very state, they have considered themselves utterly effaced and non-existent in the face of Him Who is the All-Pervading, the Incorruptible. Methinks, they have regarded themselves as utter nothingness, and deemed their mention in that Court an act of blasphemy. For the slightest whisperings of self within such a Court is an evidence of self-assertion and independent existence. In the eyes of them that have attained unto that Court, such a suggestion is itself a grievous transgression. How much more grievous would it be, were aught else to be mentioned in that Presence, were man's heart, his tongue, his mind, or his soul, to be busied with any one but the Well-Beloved, were his eyes to behold any countenance other than His beauty, were his ear to be inclined to any melody but His Voice, and were his feet to tread any way but His way....

By virtue of this station they have claimed for themselves the Voice of Divinity and the like, whilst by virtue of their station of Messengership, they have declared themselves the Messengers of God. In every instance they have voiced an utterance that would conform to the requirements of the occasion, and have ascribed all these declarations to Themselves, declarations ranging from the realm of Divine Revelation to the realm of creation, and from the domain of Divinity even unto the domain of earthly existence. Thus it is that whatsoever be their utterance, whether it pertain to the realm of Divinity, Lordship, Prophethood, Messengership, Guardianship, Apostleship, or Servitude, all is true, beyond the shadow of a doubt. Therefore these sayings which We have quoted in support of Our argument must be attentively considered, that the divergent utterances of the Manifestations of the Unseen and Day Springs of Holiness may cease to agitate the soul and perplex the mind.5

From:
http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-2-12.html

The Book of the Covenant

From:
http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-3-1.html

O ye that dwell on earth! The religion of God is for love and unity; make it not the cause of enmity or dissension. In the eyes of men of insight and the beholders of the Most Sublime Vision, whatsoever are the effective means for safeguarding and promoting the happiness and welfare of the children of men hath already been revealed by the Pen of Glory. But the foolish ones of the earth, being nurtured in evil passions and desires, have remained heedless of the consummate wisdom of Him Who is, in truth, the All-Wise, while their words and deeds are prompted by idle fancies and vain imaginings.

O ye the loved ones and the trustees of God! Kings are the manifestations of the power, and the daysprings of the might and riches, of God. Pray ye on their behalf. He hath invested them with the rulership of the earth and hath singled out the hearts of men as His Own domain.

Conflict and contention are categorically forbidden in His Book. This is a decree of God in this Most Great Revelation. It is divinely preserved from annulment and is invested by Him with the splendour of His confirmation. Verily He is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

It is incumbent upon everyone to aid those daysprings of authority and sources of command who are adorned with the ornament of equity and justice. Blessed are the rulers and the learned among the people of Baha. They are My trustees among My servants and the manifestations of My commandments amidst My people. Upon them rest My glory, My blessings and My grace which have pervaded the world of being. In this connection the utterances revealed in the Kitab-i-Aqdas are such that from the horizon of their words the light of divine grace shineth luminous and resplendent.

O ye My Branches! A mighty force, a consummate power lieth concealed in the world of being. Fix your gaze upon it and upon its unifying influence, and not upon the differences which appear from it.

From:
http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-3-1.html

Extracts from the Bahá'í Writings on Consultation

From:
http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-6-6.html

Man must consult on all matters, whether major or minor, so that he may become cognizant of what is good. Consultation giveth him insight into things and enableth him to delve into questions which are unknown. The light of truth shineth from the faces of those who engage in consultation. Such consultation causeth the living waters to flow in the meadows of man's reality, the rays of ancient glory to shine upon him, and the tree of his being to be adorned with wondrous fruit. The members who are consulting, however, should behave in the utmost love, harmony and sincerity towards each other. The principle of consultation is one of the most fundamental elements of the divine edifice. Even in their ordinary affairs the individual members of society should consult.

(From a Tablet - translated from the Persian)

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Every one of the friends should highly praise the other and each should regard himself as evanescent and as naught in the presence of others. All matters should be consulted upon in the meeting and whatever is the majority vote should be carried out. I swear by the one true God, it is better that all should agree on a wrong decision, than for one right vote to be singled out, inasmuch as single votes can be sources of dissension, which lead to ruin. Whereas, if in one case they take a wrong decision, in a hundred other cases they will adopt right decisions, and concord and unity are preserved. This will offset any deficiency, and will eventually lead to the righting of the wrong.

(From a Tablet - translated from the Persian)

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The purpose of consultation is to show that the views of several individuals are assuredly preferable to one man, even as the power of a number of men is of course greater than the power of one man. Thus consultation is acceptable in the presence of the Almighty, and hath been enjoined upon the believers, so that they may confer upon ordinary and personal matters, as well as on affairs which are general in nature and universal.

For instance, when a man hath a project to accomplish, should he consult with some of his brethren, that which is agreeable will of course be investigated and unveiled to his eyes, and the truth will be disclosed. Likewise on a higher level, should the people of a village consult one another about their affairs, the right solution will certainly be revealed. In like manner, the members of each profession, such as in industry, should consult, and those in commerce should similarly consult on business affairs. In short, consultation is desirable and acceptable in all things and on all issues.

(Cited in a letter dated 15 February 1922 written by Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of Persia)

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Regarding thy question about consultation of a father with his son, or a son with his father, in matters of trade and commerce, consultation is one of the fundamental elements of the foundation of the Law of God. Such consultation is assuredly acceptable, whether between father and son, or with others. There is nothing better than this. Man must consult in all things for this will lead him to the depths of each problem and enable him to find the right solution.

(From a Tablet - translated from the Persian)

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The honoured members of the Spiritual Assembly should exert their efforts so that no differences may occur, and if such differences do occur, they should not reach the point of causing conflict, hatred and antagonism, which lead to threats. When you notice that a stage has been reached when enmity and threats are about to occur, you should immediately postpone discussion of the subject, until wranglings, disputations, and loud talk vanish, and a propitious time is at hand.

(From a Tablet - translated from the Persian)

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Settle all things, both great and small, by consultation. Without prior consultation, take no important step in your own personal affairs. Concern yourselves with one another. Help along one another's projects and plans. Grieve over one another. Let none in the whole country go in need. Befriend one another until ye become as a single body, one and all...

(From a Tablet - translated from the Persian)

From:
http://info.bahai.org/article-1-3-6-6.html

15.1 Faith and Charity

zzzz

15.2 Charity or the Love of Being Useful

15.3 Consciousness Raising and Enlightenment

zzzz

15.4 Miracles and Prophesies

zzzz

15.4.1 Visions of Heaven

AC 1882. There are two kinds of visions that are not of the ordinary kind, into which I have been let solely that I might know their nature, and what is meant by its being said in the Word that men were "withdrawn from the body," and that they were "carried by the spirit into another place." (AC 1882)

AC 1883. As regards the first, namely, being withdrawn from the body, the case is this. The man is brought into a certain state that is midway between sleep and wakefulness, and when he is in this state he cannot know but that he is wholly awake. All his senses are as fully awake as in the highest wakefulness of the body; the sight, the hearing, and, wonderful to say, the touch, which is then more exquisite than it can ever be in the wakefulness of the body. In this state also spirits and angels have been seen to the very life, and also heard, and, wonderful to say, have been touched, and almost nothing of the body then intervened. This is the state of which it is said that they are "withdrawn from the body," and that they "do not know whether they are in the body or out of it."* I have been let into this state only three or four times, merely that I might know how the case is with it, and that spirits and angels are in the enjoyment of every sense, even touch in a form more delicate and more exquisite than that of the body.
* See 2 Cor. 12:3. (AC 1883)

AC 1884. As regards the other kind of vision-being carried away by the spirit into another place-it has been shown me by living experience what it is, and how it is done, but only two or three times. One single experience I may mention. Walking through the streets of a city and through the country, and being at the same time also in conversation with spirits, I did not know but that I was wide awake and saw as at other times, so that I walked on without mistake, and all the time being in vision, seeing groves, rivers, palaces, houses, men, and many other things. But after I had thus walked for hours, suddenly I was in the sight of the body, and became aware that I was in another place. Greatly amazed at this, I perceived that I had been in such a state as they were in of whom it is said that they were "led away by the spirit into another place;"* for while this state lasts there is no reflection concerning the way, even if it be many miles; nor is there reflection concerning the time, even if it be many hours or days; nor is there any feeling of fatigue. Moreover the person is led through ways of which he has no knowledge, even to the appointed place. This took place that I might know that a man can be led by the Lord without his knowing whence and whither.
* See 1 Kings 18:12; 19:8; Ezek. 3:12, 14; Acts 8:39. (AC 1884)

AC 1885. These two kinds of visions, however, are extraordinary, and were shown me merely to the end that I might know their nature. But the things I have habitually "seen" [as mentioned in the title to this work] are all those which of the Lord's Divine mercy you may see related in this First Part, and which are placed at the beginning and end of the several chapters. These are not visions, but things seen in the highest wakefulness of the body, and this for several years.* (AC 1885)

15.5 Persuasive and Blind Faith

15.6 Rational Faith and Rational Love

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

TCR 371. (iii) The link with the Lord is reciprocal, so that the Lord is in the person, and he is in the Lord.

Scripture teaches, and the reason too can see, that the link is reciprocal. The Lord teaches that His link with the Father is reciprocal, for He says to Philip:

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? Believe me, I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. John 14:10, 11. So that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. John 10:38.

Jesus said, Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son too may glorify you. John 17:1.

Father, all that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine. John 17:10.

The Lord's description of His link with man is similar, that is, as being reciprocal; for He says:

Remain in me and I in you. He who remains in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. John 15:4, 5.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. John 6:56.

On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:20.

If anyone performs Christ's commands, he remains in Christ and Christ in him. 1 John 3:24; 4:13.

If anyone shall confess that Jesus* is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. 1 John 4:15.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I shall come in to him, and dine with him, and he with me. Rev. 3:20.

[2] These plain statements make it obvious that the link between the Lord and man is reciprocal; and it follows inevitably from this that a person ought to link himself with the Lord, so that the Lord may link Himself with him. It also follows that the consequence would otherwise be not linking, but removal and separation, though this is not on the Lord's part, but on man's. In order to make the link reciprocal, man has been given free choice, allowing him to set foot on the road to heaven, or the road to hell. This gift of freedom is the source of man's ability to reciprocate, so that he can link himself with the Lord or with the devil. But more illustrations will be offered of that freedom, its nature and the reason it has been given to man, in the following chapters dealing with free will, repentance, reformation and regeneration, and imputation.

[3] It is to be deplored that the reciprocal linking of the Lord and man, despite the clarity of its statement in the Word, is still unknown to the Christian church. The reason for this ignorance is the theories held about faith and free will. The theories about faith are that faith is conferred without man contributing anything to its acquisition, or adapting himself to receive it or making any more effort than a block of wood. The theories about free will are that man has not so much as a grain of free will in spiritual matters. But to prevent the reciprocal linking of the Lord and man, on which the salvation of the human race depends, from remaining any longer hidden in ignorance, I am compelled to make it known; and there is no better way of doing this than through illustrative examples.

[4] There are two kinds of reciprocation leading to linking: one is alternate, the other mutual. Alternate reciprocation leading to linking can be illustrated by the breathing of the lungs. A person inhales air, using it to expand the chest, and then expels the inhaled air, so contracting the chest. The act of inhaling and the consequent expansion is effected by means of the force exerted by the atmospheric pressure; but the expulsion of air and consequent contraction is effected by means of the muscular effort operating on the ribs. Such is the reciprocal link between the air and the lungs, and on it depends the functioning of the senses and movement throughout the body; for if respiration ceases, both of these fail.

[5] Reciprocal linking by alternate action can also be illustrated by the heart's link with the lungs and the lungs' link with the heart. The heart supplies blood from its right chamber to the lungs, and the lungs return it to the left chamber of the heart. This produces a reciprocal link, and on it the life of the whole body is totally dependent. There is a similar link of the blood with the heart, and of the heart with the blood; the blood from the whole of the body flows through the veins into the heart, and flows out of the heart through the arteries to the whole of the body, so that its action and reaction constitute a link. There is a similar action and reaction, which keeps a link in being, between the embryo and the mother's womb.

[6] However, the reciprocal link between the Lord and man is not of this sort; it is a mutual link, achieved not by actions and reactions, but by co-operation. For the Lord acts, and the man receives the action from the Lord, and works as if of himself, to be precise, of himself from the Lord. This working on the man's part coming from the Lord is imputed to him as if it were his, since he is perpetually kept by the Lord in a state of free will. The freedom which he has in consequence is the ability to will and think from the Lord, that is, from the Word, and also the ability to will and think from the devil, that is, contrary to the Lord and the Word. The Lord gives man this freedom so that he can enter into a reciprocal link, and by its means be granted everlasting life and blessedness; for this is unattainable without a reciprocal link.

[7] This kind of mutual reciprocal link too can be illustrated by various features of man and the world. Such is the link between the soul and the body in each individual. Such is the link between the will and action or between the thought and speech. Such is the link between the two eyes, the two ears and the two nostrils. The linking of the two eyes being, in its own fashion, reciprocal, is clear from the optic nerve; in this fibres from either hemisphere of the brain are twined round one another, and thus entwined proceed towards either eye. The case with the ears and nostrils is similar.

[8] There is a similar mutual reciprocal link between light and the eye, sound and the ear, smell and the nose, taste and the tongue, and touch and the body. For the eye is in light and light is in the eye, sound is in the ear and the ear is in sound, smell is in the nose and the nose is in smell, taste is in the tongue and the tongue is in taste, and touch is in the body and the body is in touch. This sort of reciprocal linking can also be compared with that of a horse with a carriage, that of an ox with a plough, that of a wheel with a machine, that of a sail with the wind, that of a flute with the air. To sum up, such is the reciprocal link between end and cause, or between cause and effect. There is, however, no room to explain all these one by one, since it would take a great many pages. (TCR 371)

15.7 Fundamentalism and External Worship

For an in depth analysis, please see: James, Leon. (2003) Moses, Paul, and Swedenborg: Three Steps in Rational Spirituality. Available at: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/moses.html

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

SE 5936. WOMEN WHO PREACH. Women who think in the way men do on religious subjects, and talk much about them, and still more if they preach in meetings, do away with the feminine nature, which is affectional; owing to which they must be with married men: they also become material, so that affection perishes and their interiors are closed. They also begin to develop a tendency, as regards the thoughts, to take up with crazes; which takes place because the affection, being then destroyed, causes the intellectual to be crazy. In outward form, indeed, they are still able to appear like other women. In a word, they become sensual in the last degree. Woman belongs to the home; and she [becomes] of a different nature where [she engages in] preaching. (SE 5936)

The correspondential sense of SE 5936, to be confirmed in the literal sense of the Writings Sacred Scripture where marked (zzz)

“women who preach” = the proprial self-intelligence and self-love of a man or a woman (zzz -- see why Eve from man’s rib)

“women who think the way men do” = the thoughts of a man or a woman when led by self-intelligence and self-love (zzz)

“do away with the feminine nature, which is affectional” = what is contrary to the regenerated will or disorder in the individual’s willing in daily activities (feelings, intentions, emotions) (zzz)

“owing to which they must be with married men: they also become material” = the proprial unregenerate will of men and women is corporeal and sensuous, which is infernal (“to be with married men” = adultery = corruption of the will) (zzz)

“so that affection perishes and their interiors are closed” = a man or woman prior to being regenerated is in the order of hell. (zzz)

So that the first half of SE 5936 becomes in its true meaning:

The proprial self-intelligence and self-love of a man or a woman, that is, the thoughts of a man or a woman when led by self-intelligence and self-love, are contrary to the regenerated will, indicating disorder in the individual’s willing in daily activities (feelings, intentions, emotions). This proprial unregenerate will of men and women is corporeal and sensuous, which is infernal. Thus, a man or woman prior to being regenerated is in the order of hell.

15.8 Rational Spirituality and Internal Worship

15.9 Resurrection and Resuscitation of the Dead

15.10 Children in Heaven

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

HH 345. What the difference is between those who die in childhood and those who die in mature life will also be told. Those dying in mature life have a plane acquired from the earthly and material world, and this they carry with them. This plane is their memory and its corporeal natural affection. This remains fixed and is then quiescent, but still serves their thought after death as an outermost plane, since thought inflows into it. Consequently such as this plane is, and such as the correspondence is between the things that are in it and the rational faculty, such is the man after death. But little children who die in childhood and are educated in heaven do not have such a plane, but they have a spiritual-natural plane, since they derive nothing from the material world and the earthly body. For this reason, they cannot be in such gross affections and consequent thoughts, since they derive all things from heaven. Moreover, these little children do not know that they were born in the world, but believe that they were born in heaven. Neither do they know about any other than a spiritual birth effected through the cognitions of good and truth and through the intelligence and wisdom, from which man is a man; and as these are from the Lord they believe themselves to be the Lord's own, and love to be so. Nevertheless, it is possible for the state of men who grow up on the earth to become as perfect as the state of little children who grow up in heaven, provided they put away bodily and earthly loves, which are the loves of self and the world, and receive in their place spiritual loves. (HH 345)

15.11 Marriage in Heaven

15.12 The Clergy, Sacraments, and the Priesthood

The Writings of Swedenborg are available on the Web in a searchable format at:

www.theheavenlydoctrines.org and at www.smallcanonsearch.com
and at www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/index1a.html

Theistic Psychology:
The Scientific Knowledge of God
Extracted from the
Correspondential Sense of Sacred Scripture

Universal Sacred Scripture

Central Theme

The Supreme Is Infinite And Therefore Cannot Be Fully Comprehended

Tapas, Dama And Karma -- Means Of Spiritual Progress

HYMN XXV. Varuna.

Sad Dar

INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER 1.

CHAPTER 2.

CHAPTER 3.

CHAPTER 4.

CHAPTER 5.

CHAPTER 6.

CHAPTER 7.

CHAPTER 8.

CHAPTER 9.

CHAPTER 10.

Baha'is believe: (From: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-beliefs )

Baha'is practice: (From: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-beliefs )

Social principles include: (From: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-beliefs )

Theistic Psychology: The Scientific Knowledge of God Extracted from the Correspondential Sense of Sacred Scripture

Universal Sacred Scripture

Central Theme

The Supreme Is Infinite And Therefore Cannot Be Fully Comprehended

Tapas, Dama And Karma -- Means Of Spiritual Progress

HYMN XXV. Varuna.

Sad Dar

INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER 1.

CHAPTER 2.

CHAPTER 3.

CHAPTER 4.

CHAPTER 5.

CHAPTER 6.

CHAPTER 7.

CHAPTER 8.

CHAPTER 9.

CHAPTER 10.

Baha'is believe: (From: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-beliefs )

Baha'is practice: (From: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-beliefs )

Social principles include: (From: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-beliefs )

Theistic Psychology:
The Scientific Knowledge of God
Extracted from the
Correspondential Sense of Sacred Scripture