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Afterlife: A Guided Tour of Heaven and Its Wonders - Swedenborg ...

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<strong>Heaven</strong><br />

immense heaven’s pleasure is. For there is in heaven a<br />

sharing by everyone with each individual, <strong>and</strong> by each<br />

individual with everyone.<br />

This kind <strong>of</strong> sharing flows from the two loves <strong>of</strong> heaven,<br />

which are love for the Lord <strong>and</strong> love for our neighbor.<br />

These loves by nature want to share their pleasures. The<br />

rea son love for the Lord is like this is that because the<br />

Lord’s love is a love <strong>of</strong> sharing everything it has with every -<br />

one, it intends the happiness <strong>of</strong> everyone. Much the same<br />

love exists in individuals who love him, because the Lord<br />

is in them. So there is a mutual sharing <strong>of</strong> angels’ pleasures<br />

with each other. We shall see later that love for our<br />

neighbor is like this as well. We may gather from all this<br />

that these loves by nature want to share their pleas ures.<br />

The faint sense <strong>of</strong> pleasure, the almost imperceptible<br />

sense <strong>of</strong> well-being that was found in people who were<br />

focused on love for God <strong>and</strong> love for their neighbor in the<br />

world, turns into the pleasure <strong>of</strong> heaven, perceptible <strong>and</strong><br />

palpable in countless ways. That sense <strong>of</strong> well-being that<br />

had been lying hidden in their deeper natures while they<br />

lived in the world is now unveiled <strong>and</strong> released into open<br />

sensation, because now they are in the spirit, <strong>and</strong> this was<br />

the delight <strong>of</strong> their spirit.<br />

All the pleasures <strong>of</strong> heaven are united to forms <strong>of</strong> serv -<br />

ice <strong>and</strong> dwell within them, because forms <strong>of</strong> service are<br />

the good effects <strong>of</strong> the love <strong>and</strong> thoughtfulness that angels<br />

are immersed in. Consequently, the nature <strong>of</strong> each indi -<br />

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