If I were to distill all of Emanuel Swedenborg’s writings into one concentrated principle it would be this: You are what you Love and you Love whatever you give your attention to. In the same way that the Earth circles around the Sun, everything revolves around this Law - every facet of human and spiritual existence.
Think of this Law as running sunlight through a prism. It reveals a spectrum of colors, the true essence of light, that is invisible to the naked eye. Everything is understandable and knowable in light of this Law. There is no spiritual maturity without embracing it and making one’s peace with it.
To further explore this Truth let’s see it in action. Take forgiveness for example. What is it? How does it happen? What does it look like? How does it feel? How can you be sure you are in a right relationship with it? Forgiveness is a choice, your choice, to grow beyond what has hurt you. But it is more than that. It is having the power to grow beyond any and all limitations.
Forgiveness is a choice to define yourself as Divine Love and Wisdom and absolutely nothing else. When a person chooses to see themselves as Divine Love and Wisdom, they are also simultaneously senior to any situation or condition in their life. Nothing in the physical and non-physical worlds has more power than Divine Love and Wisdom. There is no way any person can be a victim, helpless, hopeless, powerless, shameful, or “less than” and be embracing their authentic identity as Divine Love and Wisdom at the same time. Clearly one choice will exclude the other.
When you know that you are Divine Love and Wisdom, everything that unfolds in life has to be in the service of your highest growth. Why? Because Divine Love and Wisdom is the most powerful force in the Universe. It wins! Divine Love and Wisdom does not have the power to create a learning experience of itself that it does not need or benefit from. It creates what you need when you need it.
This means that predators and violators do not have more power than your Divinity or your ability to grow beyond their rein of terror and injustice. As Swedenborg states it, others can only touch your life if, within that interaction, there resides the seeds of a higher development for your essence. So, no matter how overwhelming or painful your life lessons are, the offenders are here to serve you and your ultimate liberation. The question is, will you give your attention, your Love, back to investing in your Divinity as having more power than these other people’s violence and wrongdoings? The choice to take your power back as a force of Love is forgiveness in action.
When you know you are Divine Love and Wisdom, you know that no matter what harm others intend to inflict upon your life, they are only empowering your personal evolution. When that is true for you, the next deeper question is what actually needs forgiving?
What most likely is in need of forgiveness is where the Divinity of any or all parties involved was betrayed by not honoring the Spiritual Identity that connects us all to God. In other words, the first thing to grow beyond is the habit of seeing ourselves as separate from Divine Love and Wisdom and at the mercy of the natural world. Then forgiving our loyalty to giving our power away to people and forces outside of our Divinity. Finally forgiving where we did not claim that whatever happens, it is working for our highest good. And considering that forgiveness is the means to putting pain and limitation in the rear view mirror, choosing forgiveness is its own reward - not something that requires a sacrifice on our part or enables an unjust outcome. No one is getting “let off the hook.”
Because of this Law, you are what you Love and you Love whatever you give your attention to, when you give your attention to seeing yourself as Divine Love and Wisdom you are beyond any and all limitations and the grip of senseless suffering. You are now in a position to take your power back and realize that your growth can only be heightened and accelerated by the challenges that you face. Your choice to align with Divine Love and Wisdom now has more dominion than anyone or anything. You now Love recognizing only one power in your life and that is Divine Love and Wisdom. You have graduated from seeing fear, worry, and loss as having any authority in your life. You now Love growing beyond what has hurt you, as how you choose forgiveness as your passage through life.
When you know you are Divine Love and Wisdom, you also know that you are immortal and timeless. Let’s merge that with what Swedenborg writes about in relation to what happens when a person dies. Once the mortal coil is shed, the spirit enters the spirit realm minus the baggage of the physical body. The life review begins. In the life review, you experience how you and your actions affected other people. If, for example, you beat up someone, in the life review, you will now feel the pain that you imposed upon their life. You will see and feel everything from their perspective. Conversely, if anyone has harmed you in any way, what greater punishment could there be than for that person to now be on the receiving end of the pain that they have inflicted? This larger point of view makes it easier to let go of the need to have earthly conditions in place in order to forgive. No judgment or court on Earth has the equalizing leverage of the life review.
How does forgiveness happen? It is put into motion every time you choose to return your attention to, “I am Divine Love and Wisdom.” But like anything involving a choice, practice makes perfect. Focusing on forgiveness happens fluidly and gracefully in life by seeing every offense as an opportunity to advance your Divinity. Everything that touches your life is a sacred opportunity to practice giving your attention, without hesitation or restraint, to knowing your oneness with Divine Love and Wisdom. In short, forgiveness happens every time you Love giving your attention back to the Divine.
What does forgiveness look and feel like? As Swedenborg underscores in his writings, forgiveness is not an intellectual construct. It is the direct result and complete manifestation of what you Love. When you Love seeing yourself as Divine Love and Wisdom, that engagement of Free Will is going to intersect with the totality of your human experience. All of life takes on the look and feel of what you give your attention to. Everything will always come back to this Law: you are what you Love and you Love whatever you give your attention to. Forgiveness takes on a life of its own based on the actions you take when you choose to show up as a force of Love right here, right now. Forgiveness starts with what you choose to imbue with your attention and therefore your Love, and it extends sequentially into your intentions, service, and finally to the consequences of your actions.
Forgiveness is the physical embodiment of Divine Love and Wisdom choosing to create Heaven on Earth beyond the reach and the contamination of fraud, deceit, violence, mean-spiritedness, and evil.
How can you be sure you are in a right relationship with forgiveness? Again it all comes down to this: what are you giving your Love and attention to on a moment-to-moment basis? Spirit means life; there is no life without Divine Love and Wisdom. Examine your relationships and your life. Are they expansive and resilient like Heaven, or are they constrictive and reactive to hellishly limited emotions and perceptions? Forgiveness, Truth, Wholeness of mind, body, and spirit all have one thing in common: they are all based on the well-Loved practice of giving your attention to seeing, relating, and defining yourself as Divine Love and Wisdom, and the actions and relationships that spring forth from that Love.
The answer to everything in life, be it forgiveness, an across-the-board experience of abundance, self-confidence or personal happiness will always be as simple or as complicated as you are what you Love and you Love whatever you give your attention to. So, from the bottom of my heart and Swedenborg’s writings, please choose to Love wisely.