Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. Later Simon and the others went out to find him. When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” But Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.” So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons. Mark 1:35-39
The more closely a person is joined with the Lord, the wiser they become. Since a person has in them from creation and so from birth three degrees of life, they have especially three degrees of wisdom. These are the degrees that are opened in a person in the measure of the conjunction. They are opened in accordance with their love, for love is the essence of the joining. But a person perceives only dimly the ascent of love by degrees, whereas those who know and see what wisdom is perceive clearly the ascent of wisdom in them. The reason degrees of wisdom are perceived is that love enters through its affections into one's perceptions and thoughts, and these display themselves to the mind's inner sight, which corresponds to the body's outward sight. So it is that wisdom is seen, and not so much the love's desire which produces it. The case here is the same as with all the other things that a person actively does. They are aware of how the body accomplishes them, but not how the soul accomplishes them. Thus a person perceives also how they deliberate, perceive and think, but not how the soul of these activities - which is their affection for goodness and truth - produces them. Swedenborg, Divine Providence §34
But there are many other ways of getting oneself out of a bad inner state. You must understand that no work is possible unless you get into these bad states because they are tests or, if you like, temptations, which are absolutely necessary in order to make us skillful in dealing with them. You will not learn to swim well unless you are often dropped into the water. And it is always surprising that some of you think that if you pass into a bad state it is because you cannot do the Work. It is just in these bad states that one can work and learn what it is about. It is quite an interesting view, that was once given a long time ago, to regard bad states as something about which you must be clever and use, as it were, every possible intelligence and technique to get out of them. There are many different forms of Self-Remembering, and Sly Person was once defined as “they who know how to remember themselves in different ways at different moments.” Sometimes when one is in a bad state and attempts to get out of it and fails to do so, one can be consciously passive to it, without being negative and without identifying with it fully, having the inner certainty that it will pass provided one does not let negative imagination work and does not consent to its presence. This is a form of Self-Remembering and is just as if one has to wait, and knows that one has to, because it is raining too heavily and one cannot go out just at present and yet remains certain it will clear. Nicoll, Commentary I, pg. 368
CREDITS
Dr. Sue Johnson, “Love Sense” https://www.youtube.com/@DrSueJohnson
Emanuel Swedenborg, www.swedenborg.com
John Clark Echols, www.clarkechols.com
Solomon Keal “Affection for Truth” www.solomonkeal.net
Podcast Host: John Clark Echols
Music Credit: Solomon Keal
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I invite you to continue to listen to the next episode. Be well.
