Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell

“We do need to realize, though, that it is the quality of our love that determines the quality of this life.””

— Emanuel Swedenborg

“for heaven is within us, and people who have heaven within them come into heaven. The heaven within us is our acknowledgment of the Divine and our being led by the Divine.””

— Emanuel Swedenborg

“Anyone can see that intending and not acting when we can is not really intending, and loving and not doing good when we can is not really loving.””

— Emanuel Swedenborg

“It is recognized that non-Christians live lives that are just as moral as the lives of Christians”

— Emanuel Swedenborg

“Those that are in corporeal love see nothing in the light of heaven; to them the light of heaven is thick darkness; but the light of hell, which is like light from burning coals, is to them as clear light. Moreover, in the light of heaven their inward sight is so darkened that they become insane; consequently they shun that light and hide themselves in dens and caverns, more or less deeply in accordance with the falsities in them derived from their evils. On the other hand those who are in heavenly love, the more interiorly and deeply they enter into the light of heaven, see all things more clearly and all things appear more beautiful to them, and they perceive truths more intelligently and wisely. [5] Again, it is impossible for those who are in corporeal love to live at all in the heat of heaven, for the heat of heaven is heavenly love; but they can live in the heat of hell, which is the love of raging against others that do not favor them. The delights of that love are contempt of others, enmity, hatred and revenge; and when they are in these delights they are in their life, and have no idea what it is to do good to others from good itself and for the sake of good itself, knowing only what it is to do good from evil and for the sake of evil. [6] Those who are in corporeal love are unable to breathe in heaven. When any evil spirit is brought into heaven he draws his breath like one struggling in a contest; while those that are in heavenly love have a freer respiration and a fuller life the more interiorly they are in heaven. All this shows that heaven with man is heavenly and spiritual love, because on that love all things of heaven are inscribed; also that hell in man is corporeal and worldly love apart from heavenly and spiritual love, because on such loves all things of hell are inscribed. Evidently, then, he whose love is heavenly and spiritual enters heaven, and he whose love is corporeal and worldly apart from heavenly and spiritual love enters hell.””

— Emanuel Swedenborg

“Further still, heaven is where the Lord is recognized, trusted, and loved. The different ways he is worshiped”

— Emanuel Swedenborg

“The Divine Human from eternity was the Divine truth in heaven, and the Divine passing through heaven, thus the Divine Existere which afterward in the Lord became the Divine Esse by Itself [per se], from which is the Divine Existere in heaven,””

— Emanuel Swedenborg

“So anyone who has the quality of goodness from the Lord is an angel-person.g””

— Emanuel Swedenborg

“We can see that this underlies all perfection from every instance of beauty, charm, and delight that moves both our senses and our spirits. Such instances arise and flow invariably from a harmonious agreement of many things that are in sympathetic concord, whether they are together simultaneously or follow in a sequence. They do not flow from a single unit that lacks plurality. So we say that variety delights, and recognize that the delight depends on the quality of the variety. We can see from this, as though in a mirror, how perfection stems from variety in heaven as well, since things that happen in the natural world offer us a reflection of things in the spiritual world.d””

— Emanuel Swedenborg