Meditate | Maybe 'Gain' Isn't So Hip After All...

Meditate is a monthly column in which insights gained from meditating on the Word are shared. You could write for Meditate, too! Contact us if you'd like to write a submission for this column. -Editor

“'And you shall not accept a gift' means detesting any kind of gain. This is clear from the meaning of 'a gift' as anything worldly that is loved, whether it is riches, positions, reputation, or something else that gratifies the natural man, for these worldly things generally are called gain and in the internal sense are what is meant by 'a gift' which blinds and perverts; and from the meaning of 'not accepting' as detesting, for unless such gain is detested it is still looked for and accepted. It is detested when what is heavenly and Divine is loved more than what is worldly and earthly; for to the extent that one is loved the other is hated, as accords with the Lord's words in Luke,

No slave can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other ... You cannot serve God and mammon. Luke 16:13.

'Hating' means detesting, for detestation is a feeling of hatred, and hatred is the opposite of love, which is why it says 'or he will love the other'. From all this it is evident that 'you shall not accept a gift' means detesting any kind of gain.” Arcana Coelestia 9265

So hopefully you’ve already scanned the above quote, but just take a minute to let sink in how extreme that idea really is.  Is there any bigger motivator out there than “gain” (or “self-advantage” in another translation)?

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Mixed Media | How Do You Know God is Not in a Tree?

What is it about this simple video by Curtis Childs which has attracted so many positive responses and over 2,000 views on YouTube? Perhaps people have left the age of reading and require video before engaging with interesting ideas. Perhaps the ideas written by Swedenborg are magnetic when presented in an accessible and humorous form? Viewers have said, "Amazing, succinct, powerful!" "This made me THINK and I LOVE that!" "Nice little video. I'd like to see more like this." "As an agnostic I found this very interesting. Well done sir." If you're one of the people who finds this video to be a useful medium for sharing cool ideas, share it on Facebook or pressure Curtis for more. -Editor

This video came to me on an incredibly beautiful day. The sun was low (this time of year that goes on at about 4:30 pm) and the colored light bouncing off everything was so crisp, so vivid—everything just seemed so, real. I was just observing objects: the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, the fields, the silhouettes of trees and, contrary to my normal M.O., I was feeling pretty peaceful and present.

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The Hidden Influence and Relevance of Swedenborg 3: Swedenborg's Influence

This is the third of three sections of an essay by Curtis Childs on the significance of Emanuel Swedenborg's work. Start with Section 1: Why We Are Here. Then read Section 2: Egypt, Assyria, and Quantum Mechanics.  Then finish up here with: Swedenborg's Influence. - Editor.

Swedenborg's Influence

Let me explain why Swedenborg merits scrutiny. It is a fact that the greatest poets and prose writers have borrowed liberally from him. The list is long: first Blake, as his direct spiritual descendant; then Goethe, a fervent reader of Swedenborg (as was Kant followed by Edgar Allan Poe, Baudelaire, Balzac, Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Emerson, Dostoevsky.... (
Czeslaw Milosz, 1980 Nobel Prize, Literature, Swedenborg.ca)

The task of compiling a list of the people and institutions affected by Swedenborg becomes a decision about who and which to include. His influence has been massive. While discussion of his scientific achievements would merit its own article, for brevity this section will focus only on the impact of his theological works, necessarily robbing him of credit for the achievements of the first fifty-six years of his life.

Hellen Keller, perhaps best known for her activism on behalf of the handicapped and for other causes, was greatly affected by Swedenborg’s writings. Struck in early childhood by an illness that left her deaf, blind, and dumb, somehow she was able, through the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan, to overcome and become a prolific writer, speaker, and activist. Swedenborg’s works entered her life during her teenage years, when she was first given a copy of Heaven and Hell. This had a huge impact on her, and it showed up in her writing, throughout her life: “Swedenborg’s books have lifted my wistful longing for a fuller sense-life into a vivid consciousness of the complete being within me… yes, the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg have been my light and a staff in my hand, and by his vision splendid I am attended on my way” (34).

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The Hidden Influence and Relevance of Swedenborg 2: Egypt, Assyria, and Quantum Mechanics

This is the second of three sections of an essay by Curtis Childs on the significance of Emanuel Swedenborg's work. Start with Section 1: Why We Are Here. Finally, turn to Section 3: Swedenborg's Influence. - Editor.

Perhaps one of Swedenborg’s most striking revisions of Christian thought centers around what is today called the Holy Bible. While Jesus Christ’s use of parables to teach is well documented in the New Testament, Swedenborg lays out, especially in his multi-volume work Secrets of Heaven, an extremely thorough, systematic, and extensive exegesis illustrating the belief that the entire Bible is, in fact, an allegory. Swedenborg’s interpretation relies on “correspondences,” the idea that the places, characters, and even the words appearing in Biblical text simultaneously represent aspects of God, humanity’s relationship to the divine, and a map of each of our personal spiritual journeys. The actual concept, though consistent, is quite complex, as one scholar studying Swedenborg’s Secrets of Heaven noted, “unfortunately, any straightforward definition of correspondence fails to capture the incredible richness of the Swedenborgian concept” (Woofenden 47).

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The Hidden Influence and Relevance of Swedenborg 1: Why We Are Alive

This week we introduce the first of three sections of an essay by Curtis Childs on the significance of Emanuel Swedenborg's work. Curtis begins here by looking, from a broad context, at the remarkable contribution Swedenborg made to teachings about the life after death. The following two sections are: Section 2: Egypt, Assyria, and Quantum Mechanics and Section 3: Swedenborg's Influence. - Editor.

< p>Richard Smoley, in his essay, “The Inner Journey of Emanuel Swedenborg,” introduces us to the Swedish visionary: “like most great figures in history, Emanuel Swedenborg both epitomizes his time and transcends it” (4). In 1688, when on January 29th, Swedenborg was born to Jesper Swedberg and Sara Behm, institutional Christianity ruled Sweden, as well as the rest of Europe. However, secular philosophy and scientific naturalism were also coming into their own, creating a dichotomy that few, other than Swedenborg, could satisfactorily bridge. Swedenborg was educated at the University of Uppsala. After several initial endeavors that met with little success, he began to publish many books in different scientific and philosophical fields. He served on Sweden’s Board of Mines, was given a seat in the House of Nobles, and lived the life of a “nobleman, bureaucrat, and author” (Kirven 31).

Sometime around the year 1736, Swedenborg began to undergo a change that “was to mark the turning point in his life, and it would lead him to the vocation for which he would be most remembered—that of spiritual visionary and sage” (Smoley 19). Swedenborg first began to receive contact from something beyond this world through his dreams, which he recorded as they began to grow more intense. He had several powerful experiences, but what may have been the trigger for the redirection of his studies for the rest of his life occurred at an inn in London in 1745.

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