[p021]
51. Every society is a heaven on a smaller scale and every angel is a heaven in miniature because the good of love and faith constitutes heaven and this good exists in every society of heaven and in every angel of that society. It does not matter that the good is everywhere different and various for it is still the good of heaven. The difference is only that heaven is of one quality in one place and another in another. It is therefore said, when any one is taken up into a society of heaven, that he has gone to heaven; and of its inhabitants that they are in heaven and every one in his own heaven. All who are in the other life know this and therefore those who stand without or beneath heaven and look from a distance at the companies of angels, say that heaven is in this or that place. The case may be compared with that of lords, officers, and attendants in one royal palace or court who, although they live separately in their respective apartments or chambers, one above and another below, are still all in one palace or court, ready to serve the king in their several capacities. This shows what is meant by the Lord’s words, “In my Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14. 2), and what is meant by the “habitations of heaven,” and by the “heavens of heavens” in the prophets.
[p022]
52. That every society is a heaven on a smaller scale may also be evident from this fact, that every society is in a heavenly form like that of the whole heaven. In the whole of heaven those who excel the rest dwell in the centre and round about them even to the boundaries in a less perfect order are those who are less excellent, as may be seen in the preceding chapter (n. 43). The same may also be evident from this fact, that the Lord guides all in the whole heaven as if they were one angel, and in like manner those who are in every society. Hence an entire angelic society sometimes appears in the form of a single angel, as I have been permitted by the Lord to see. When the Lord Himself appears in the midst of angels, He does not appear encompassed by a multitude but as One Being in an angelic form. Hence it is that the Lord in the Word is called an angel and also that an entire society is so called. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are only angelic societies so named from the functions they perform.
53. As an entire society is a heaven on a smaller scale, so every angel is a heaven in miniature; for heaven is not outside an angel but within him. For the inner regions of his mind are arranged in the form of heaven and thus are adapted for the reception of all the elements of heaven which exist outside him. These he receives according to the quality of the good which is in him from the Lord. Hence an angel also is a heaven.
[p023]
54. It can in no case be said that heaven is outside any one, but that it is within him; for every angel participates in the heaven which is around him by virtue of the heaven which is within him. This plainly shows how much he is deceived who believes that to go to heaven is only to be raised among the angels, whatever the nature of his inner life may be, and thus that heaven may be conferred on any one by unconditional mercy; for the truth is that if heaven be not within a person, nothing of the heaven around him can enter into or be received by him. Many spirits entertain the above belief and for this reason have been taken up into heaven. But when they came there, their inner life being contrary to the life of angels, their intellects were blinded until they became idiots and their wills were in such a torment that they behaved like madman. In a word, if those who live wickedly come into heaven they gasp for breath there and writhe about like fishes taken out of the water into the air; or like animals in ether in the receiver of an air-pump with air exhausted. Hence it is evident that heaven is not outside a man but within him.
55. Since all receive the heaven which is around them according to the nature of the heaven which is within them, therefore they receive the Lord in the same manner, because the Divine Sphere of the Lord constitutes heaven. When therefore the Lord manifests Himself in any society, He appears there according to the nature of the good of that society and therefore not the same in one society as in another. Not that this diversity is in the Lord, but in those who see Him in the light of their own good. The angels are affected also at the sight of the Lord according to the nature of their love; for those who love Him most intimately are most intimately affected; and those who love Him less are less affected; whilst the evil, who are outside heaven, are tormented by His presence. When the Lord appears in a society He appears there as an angel; but He is clearly distinguished from other angels by the Divinity which shines forth from Him.
56. Heaven also exists wherever the Lord is acknowledged, believed in and loved. The variety in His worship arising from the variety of good in different societies is not a disadvantage but an advantage; for the perfection of heaven is the result of that variety. It is difficult to explain intelligibility how the perfection of heaven is the result of variety without employing terms in use in the learned world; but by their help we may explain how a perfect whole is formed from various parts. Every whole is composed of various parts, for a whole which is not so composed is nothing at all, having no form and therefore no quality; but when a whole is composed of various parts and these are arranged in a perfect form in which each part connects itself with the rest in a series of harmonious agreement, then it is perfect. Now heaven is a whole composed of various parts arranged in the most perfect form; for the heavenly form is the most perfect of all.
[p024]
That all perfection has its origin from the harmony of varieties is evident from all the beauty, pleasantness, and delight which affect both the senses and the mind; for they exist and proceed from on other source than from the concord and harmony of many concordant and harmonious parts, either in co-existent or successive order, and not from a whole without such parts. Hence the proverb that variety is charming, and it is well known that its charm depends on the nature of the variety. From all this it may be seen as in a mirror how perfection results from variety even in heaven; since from the things that exist in the natural world those which are in the spiritual world may be seen as in a mirror.
57. Whatever has been said of heaven may also he said of the church, for the church is the Lord’s heaven upon earth. There are many churches and yet each is called the church and is a church so far as the good of love and of faith rules in it; and here also the Lord makes one whole out of various parts and thus one church out of many churches. The same may also be said of the members of the church in particular that is said of the church in general, namely, that the church is within man not outside him; and every man in whom the Lord is present in the good of love and faith is a church.
Again: whatever is said concerning an angel who has heaven within him may be said concerning a man who has the church within him, for he is a church in miniature as an angel is a heaven in miniature; indeed it may be said that a man who has the church within him is a heaven equally with an angel, for a man was created to go to heaven and become an angel; and therefore he who receives good from the Lord is a man-angel.
[p025]
And here it may be well to state what man has in common with angels and what he has which the angels have not. Man has this in common with angels that his inner mind like theirs is formed in the likeness of heaven so far as he lives in the good of love and of faith. Man has this which the angels have not, that his outer mind is formed in the likeness of the world and in proportion as he lives a good life the world within him is subordinated to and is ruled by the heaven; and then the Lord is present with him in both as He is present in His heaven; for the Lord is everywhere present in His own Divine order because God is order.
58. Lastly, it must be observed that when a man has heaven within himself, his mind is heavenly not only as a whole but also in all its details; for the latter present a likeness of the former. This results from the fact that every one is his own love and is such as his ruling love is; for the ruling love flows into and arranges the most minute particulars and everywhere induces a likeness of itself. The ruling love in the heavens is love to the Lord, because there the Lord is loved above all things. Hence the Lord there is All in all; He imparts His influence to all the angels, sets them in due order, and induces on them His own likeness, constituting heaven by His presence. Hence an angel is heaven in miniature, a society is heaven on a larger scale and all the societies taken together are heaven on the grandest scale. That the Divine Sphere of the Lord constitutes heaven and that He is the All in all, may be seen above (n. 7-12).
즐겨찾는 글동네> 되돌아볼 옛 고전>Emanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and its Wonders and Hell
글
1.
답글삭제Heaven is a world whose visible and tangible phenomena are the direct outbirth of the spiritual states of its inhabitants.
... 같은 책에서 다른 이가 썼던 Forword에 나왔던 말로 기억난다. 내용인즉,
... 천국에 가서 봤더니 그곳에서 눈에 보이고 만져볼 수 있었던 모든 현상들은 천국에 거주하는 이들의 영성(즉 마음)이 "그대로 현실이 되어 이루어진(direct outbirth)" 그런 세상이다.
Every society [in heaven] is a heaven on a smaller scale and every angel is a heaven in miniature because the good of love and faith constitutes heaven and this good exists in every society of heaven and in every angel of that society. It does not matter that the good is everywhere different and various for it is still the good of heaven. The difference is only that heaven is of one quality in one place and another in another.
... 51절에 나오는 이야기다. 내용인즉,
... [천국은 여러 사회들로 구성돼 있는데] 천국에 있는 모든 사회는 작은 단위의 천국이고 모든 천사는 하나의 "축소형 천국(a heaven in miniature)"이다. 사랑과 믿음의 덕(the good of love and faith)이 천국을 구축하는 것이고 이 덕(this good)은 천국의 각 사회에 존재하며 그 사회의 각 천사 안에 존재하기 때문이다. 천국에 존재하는 각 사회마다 그 덕이 서로 다르고 다양하다는 것은 문제될 것이 없다. 그 모든 덕들이 천국의 덕이기 때문이다. 천국 안의 구석구석이 다 그 나름의 성격이 있어서, 이곳은 이렇고 저곳은 또 저런 모습을 띤다는 차이밖에 없다.
2.
한편, 어느 불경(아마 능엄경이라는 경전 같다)을 보면 이런 말이 나온다는 주해를 본 적이 있다. 석가 가라사대, "산하, 허공, 대지가 모두 묘명진심(妙明眞心: 신비롭고 밝은 참된 마음) 속의 물건들일 뿐이다. 그렇다면 이 몸뚱이는 뭐냐? 그냥 허깨비일 뿐이다... 진공묘유(眞空妙有: 물질의 경계를 넘어 참된 빈 곳에 들어서면 바로 신비로운 존재가 열리느니라)"
3.
전자는 17~18세기 때 임마누엘 칸트와 동시대인으로 주로 영국에서 활동했던 스웨덴 사람이고 독실한 기독교인이다. 그가 다녀왔다는 천국과 지옥의 이야기들은 아주 흥미롭고 신비로운 감흥을 불러일으킨다. 그가 남긴 말들을 요약한 한 구절인 "direct outbirth of the spiritual states of the inhabitants of heaven" 은 묘명진심(妙明眞心)을 가꾼 맑은 이들이 진공묘유(眞空妙有)의 경계에 도달한 모습과 다르지 않을 거라고 여긴다. 전자는 "천국이 천사(혹은 불교식의 천인天人)의 밖이 아니라 바로 그 안에 있다(heaven is not outside an angel but within him)"고 몇 번씩이나 강조하고 있으니 말이다. 그래서 이런 생각이 든다.
종교를 따지기 이전에 마음 속의 신앙이 중요하다. 천국이든 극락정토이든 그곳은 "마음의 길"로 맺어져 있다는 것 아닌가? 그래서 신앙은 그저 마음공부일 뿐이다. 세속의 공부에는 국어, 영어, 수학, 과학 ... 등 이렇게 무지 많은 공부가 있듯이 종교도 공부의 수단이기에 많은 것이다. 국어를 공부해야 한다고 주장하는 사람이 수학은 공부하지 말라고 한다거나, 영어가 좋다는 사람이 너는 왜 과학을 좋아하냐고 우기는 것처럼 어리석은 일은 없다.
4. "the good." "좋은 것" 즉 "선(善)"이다. "the truth"에 "진(眞)"을 대응시키면, "the good"에는 "선(善)"을 대응시킴이 어울릴 것이다. 하지만 "the good"을 "덕(德)"으로 옮겨봤다. "the good of love and faith"와 같은 표현에서 보듯이, 지은이는 "the good"을 아주 포괄적인 천국과 천사의 특성으로 보고 있으니, "사랑과 믿음의 선"보다는 "사랑과 믿음의 덕"이라고 옮기면 훨씬 훈훈한 어감이 배어나오는 듯하다.