Celestial Bliss

This is our third dissertation digest. Pearse Frazier (with help from his wife Taryn) give us a little taste of his study on bliss. Pearse helps us understand in simple and real terms what constitutes pleasure or happiness at the different levels of our being. Two weeks ago we featured Todd Beiswenger's disseration digest on Creating Your Own Reality. Last week Stephen Muires shared extracts of his dissertation on The Sacred. -Editor

Many people say they would be happy to just barely make it to the lowest level of heaven—what the teachings for the New Church call the “natural” heaven. The idea of ending up in the highest, “celestial” heaven may seem overly ambitious. Even the term “celestial” is hard to grasp; it sounds nice, but its meaning is ephemeral. Do you really think you’re able to experience celestial bliss, the kind of delight the highest angels feel?

Don’t sell yourself short. Celestial bliss is real and attainable. You don’t have to wait for the highest heaven. Odds are, you’ve experienced it before, and you can experience it again, here and now.

To understand why anyone can feel this level of bliss, I’ll review some teachings of the New Church.

Your mind (and the mind of every person) has three levels, or degrees: celestial, spiritual, and natural. Each degree has affections tied to it. An affection is a desire for something—something to which you respond positively. You are willing to change for, to strive for, to satisfy an affection. When an affection is fulfilled, you experience delight. As a result, each level of the mind has its own delights, too. Let’s look at each level in turn, and then I’ll illustrate these concepts with an example.

The natural level of the mind and its delights are tied to the self and the world. This level is, in turn, composed of three parts: sensory, middle, and rational. The sensory level of the natural mind is, of course, tied to your bodily senses. You experience sensory delight when an affection finds fulfillment through the senses. Affections of the middle-natural mind are fulfilled in the imagination. Rational delight is the satisfaction you get from clear reasoning and thinking.

The spiritual level of the mind and its delights have to do with a love of the neighbor. You experience spiritual delight when your affection for another person is realized.

Finally, the celestial level of the mind and its delights have to do with the Lord and His church. You experience celestial bliss—the highest level of delight—when your affections for the Lord and His church are fulfilled.

All of this is very abstract, and celestial bliss may seem even less possible than before. How do we actually feel affection for the Lord? I’ll use a very mundane personal example—ice cream.

I have an affection for ice cream. I want ice cream, and I am willing to change for ice cream—to sacrifice time and money to buy and eat ice cream. When I do this, I experience sensory delight as the cold, sweet, and creamy ice cream fulfills that affection tied to the lowest level of my natural mind.

Just writing about ice cream makes my mouth water. I'm imagining ice cream, and I’m actually getting delight just thinking about it. This is the delight of the middle-natural, tied to my imagination.

If I think more about ice cream, I think of all the things that make ice cream wonderful. It has fats, proteins, and sugars, which I know my body wants and needs. Ice cream comes in many forms and flavors. I get delight in understanding how it‘s made, knowing about the different varieties, and how I go about getting it. This is rational delight.

But all of this is merely natural, focused on me. I also, thankfully, have an affection for my nephew—a spiritual affection. He's a cute guy, and he loves ice cream too. If someone tells him that there’s ice cream for dessert, he spontaneously breaks into an ice cream dance. Whenever I see his delight in ice cream, I have to smile. My love for him—my neighbor—is fulfilled. This is spiritual delight. Divine Love and Wisdom 47 teaches, “To feel another's joy as joy in oneself, that is loving.”

This is where celestial bliss comes in. If I pause and reflect on the delight I feel, eating ice cream or watching my nephew enjoy ice cream, I can remember the Lord. The Lord is the one who provided our senses so we could experience ice cream. He is the one who gave us milk, sugar, ice, and the other ingredients in ice cream. He gave us minds that can think about, understand, and plan for these things. He also gave me my nephew.

What is more, delight itself comes from the Lord. In fact, everything good in my experience, all of it, is from the Lord. When I look at my nephew and I see the delight in his face, I can see the Lord. It feels like my heart is swelling with gratitude for the Lord, even as I write this down. This celestial affection brings the highest delight, the bliss of the highest heaven.

This sense of gratitude to the Lord for everything good in life—that good feeling is celestial bliss. It flows down from the highest parts of our minds, through the spiritual, into our reason, imagination, and senses. As it descends though these levels of the mind, we can really feel bliss. On earth, this delight is a momentary thing. Everyday distractions cause us to forget about the Lord, and we lose that highest delight. But we can make a habit of trying to remember the Lord in moments of delight. Angels of the celestial heaven, who have made of habit of this kind of thinking, never forget the Lord. For them, celestial bliss is not fleeting, but rather continues as everlasting happiness.

Pearse and Taryn Frazier

Pearse and Taryn Frazier live in Bryn Athyn, PA. Pearse is a student at the Academy of the New Church Theological School (www.ancts.org).

Comments

[Stephen Muires]

"I like ice cream, therefore I am." (Descartes)

[Chelsea Odhner]

Thanks for this article. I really enjoyed it! It made me feel very happy.

[Freya Fitzpatrick]

Thanks for giving a concrete example of what celestial bliss can look/feel like. It's sometimes hard to grasp what something abstract like 'celestial bliss' is, and that makes it seems unattainable. I love the idea that everything spiritual has a natural containant or ultimation. To me the power in ultimates is obvious in my life and I appreciate having a spiritual (celestial) concept grounded in a natural containant.

[Amos Glenn]

Really interesting article! With some intriguing implications, such as the comparatively moderate pleasures of the lower heavens and the acceptability of not actually thanking the Lord when you enjoy a bowl of ice cream.

I'd love to read--or at least scan--the entire paper, if you are willing to email a copy to me.

Thanks!

[Frank Maiorano]

Personally, I focus my attention on two points when it comes to attaining "heavenly bliss".
"The closer one is to the Lord the happier one becomes " (DP)
and Conjugial Love is the means to grow in love and wisdom, thus happiness and joy to eternity!
In this current life, the only way I can attain true happiness is by "shunning evils as sins against the Lord".
Thank you for your thoughtful essay!