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TRINITY & OTHER DOCTRINES OF GOD:<br />
PROF. M. M. NINAN<br />
influx intersect in my vicinity. I have to say "in my vicinity" rather than "in me," precisely<br />
because I have no way of telling where the boundary is between me and others in this<br />
realm of ideas.<br />
If that sounds a little odd, listen to the following from Heaven and Hell (n. 203).<br />
To the extent that we are in the form of heaven . . . we are involved in intelligence and<br />
wisdom. In fact, . . . all the thinking of our discernment and all the affection of our<br />
intentionality reach out into heaven on all sides, according to its form, and communicate<br />
marvelously with the communities there, and they with us.<br />
There are people who believe that thoughts and affections do not really reach out<br />
around them, but occur within them, because they see their thought processes inside<br />
themselves, and not as remote from them; but they are quite wrong. As eyesight has an<br />
outreach to remote objects, and is influenced by the pattern of things seen "out there,"<br />
so too that inner sight which is discernment has an outreach in the spiritual world, even<br />
though we do not perceive it.<br />
There was a spirit who believed that he thought independently-- that is, without any<br />
outreach beyond himself and consequent communication with outside communities. To<br />
let him know that he was wrong, he was deprived of communication with his neighboring<br />
communities. As a result, he not only lost [the power of] thought, he even collapsed,<br />
virtually lifeless-- just able to flail his arms about like a newborn infant. After a while, the<br />
communication was restored to him, and bit by bit as it was restored, he returned to his<br />
thinking state.<br />
This is a graphic illustration from Swedenborg's experience of the basic principle that all<br />
our thoughts and feelings flow into us, and that they are in some way also happening<br />
outside of us. We are not life, we are just recipients of life. In terms of our wave<br />
properties, we don't originate anything, and there is nothing we can legitimately call our<br />
own in any exclusive sense.<br />
Swedenborgianism Churches<br />
• General Church of the New Jerusalem<br />
• Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma<br />
• Swedenborgian Church of North America<br />
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