Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. We welcome your insights, too, in the form of comments or even your own article. Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor
The outer self contains attributes that harmonize [with the inner self] and attributes that clash…Even the ones in the outer self [that harmonize], since they form a unit with the inner self…belong to the inner self.
The inner and outer selves in any individual can never become one…When we have been reborn, it seems as though they exist united in us, but they are the Lord’s. Anything harmonious is the Lord’s, whereas anything discordant is ours. Secrets of Heaven 1577
In regard to separation, we need to see that it is not a separation but a muting…When it quiets down, though, it seems to go away, since it seems nonexistent. Secrets of Heaven 1581
So it turns out the outer self has qualities that harmonize with the inner self in addition to ones that clash. Who knew? That adds a nuance to the idea of the outer self described in last month’s Meditate. But there’s a twist. The twist is that the attributes or qualities that harmonize in the outer self actually belong to the inner self. What? If the qualities that harmonize with the inner self that are in the outer self are actually just the inner self, why make the confusing claim in the first place that they are the outer self’s? Because if the inner self remained only some high and lofty thing it would never do us any good. And the Lord doesn’t want to seem out of reach to us. The attributes that clash with the inner self need to be separated or muted and the ones that harmonize that ARE IN the outer self are critical to a person’s ability to make that separation.
When I examine myself and acknowledge behaviors I have that are clearly discordant with the Lord’s way, I first go through a phase of recognizing a deep powerlessness over them—of myself I know I cannot change; I cannot imagine behaving in any other way. But really, thank goodness that’s only half the picture! Swedenborg writes of what he calls holy ignorance—acknowledging with humility that what you know barely compares with what you don’t know (Secrets of Heaven 1557). In the realm of behavior, I can come to a place of humility to acknowledge that there is a different way. Really, there must be, or I’m a goner. Here’s where I see those qualities-of-the-inner-self-that-are-in-the-outer-self come in as critical players. When I imagine a scenario striped of my habitual negative behavior, there’s left a void. It’s these qualities-of-the-inner-self-that-are-in-the-outer-self that serve as a bridge to get from hopeless compulsive behavior in a certain scenario to the same scenario only with the clashing parts of the outer self muted. For my own practice, contemplating this in meditation, I narrowed in on two specific inner-in-outer qualities—qualities I know come from the inner self that belong to the Lord, but that really ARE IN my outer self so that my consciousness can employ them as its own: presence of mind and self-restraint. I can make these qualities an intention and act on it in those moments when my negative behavior usually has sway. And prayer is useful, since truly, as of myself I can do nothing.
My prayer is that the Lord brings these inner-in-outer qualities to bear in the moments when I need them through the day, to realize a new way of being. Good thing the Lord says,
“Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery? Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?”(Isaiah 66:9).
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17).
Chelsea lives with her husband and three young children in Willow Grove, PA. She is an assistant editor for New Church Connection and an editor and writer for New Church Perspective.