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

Heaven
Heaven does not consist of wanting to be least in order
to be greatest. People who do this pant and long for great -
ness. Rather, it means a heartfelt wishing better for
others than for oneself, and serving others for the sake of
their happiness with no thought of reward, simply out of
love.
Actual heavenly joy as it is in and of itself is beyond
descrip tion because it dwells in the deepest natures of
angels. It flows from there into the details of their thought
and affection and from these into the details of their
speech and action. It is as though their deeper levels were
wide open and freed to accept a delight and bliss that
spreads out through all their fibers and therefore through
their whole being, giving them a kind of perception and
feel ing that simply cannot be described.
Some spirits wanted to know what heavenly joy was, so
they were allowed to feel it to the point that they could
not bear any more. Still, this was not angelic joy, but only
the slight est trace of the angelic quality that they were
allowed to observe and share. It was so slight that it was
almost cool, yet they called it most heavenly because it
was so deep within them. I could tell from this not only
that there are levels of heavenly joy, but also that the
deep est level of one individual barely touches the outmost
or some median level of another. I could also see that
when we do reach our own deepest level we are in our own
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