TCR 568 - our internal is our spirit

TCR 568

Everyone after death,
when he becomes aware that he is still alive,
but in another world,
and he is told that above him is heaven,
where there are everlasting joys,
and below him is hell,
where there are everlasting sorrows,
is first brought back into the external state he was in,
while he was in his former world.
Then he believes that he will certainly reach heaven,
and he talks intelligently and behaves prudently.
Some say:
'We have lived a moral life,
we have had honorable ambitions,
we have not deliberately done evil.'
Others say:
'We have gone regularly to church,
we have attended mass,
we have kissed holy statues,
we have prayed hard on our knees.'
Some say:
'We have given to the poor,
we have helped the needy,
we have read devotional books,
as well as the Word.'
And there are many more similar claims.

[2] But when they have made these statements,
the angels standing by them say:
'All the things you have mentioned you did externally;
but you still do not know what you are like internally.
You are now spirits with a substantial body,
and the spirit is your internal man.
It is this in you which thinks what it wishes,
and wishes what it loves,
and this is the pleasure of its life.
Everyone from early childhood
begins his life on the external level.
He learns to behave with morality,
to talk intelligently,
and once he has formed some idea
of heaven and its blessedness,
he begins to pray, to go to church and attend regular services.
Yet he still treasures up in the depths of his mind
the evils which spring in profusion from their native source;
he cleverly covers them up too
with reasonings based upon fallacies,
until he himself does not know that evil is evil.

[3] 'You said that you lived a moral life
and devoted yourselves to religious studies.
But my question is,
did you ever examine your internal man
and become aware of any longings for revenge,
even to the point of murder,
any longings for indulging your lusts
even to the point of adultery,
any longings for fraud
even to the point of stealing,
any longings for lying
even to the point of giving false witness?
Four of the Ten Commandments contain the injunction,
"You are not to,"
and the last two "You are not to covet."
Do you really believe
that in these matters
your internal man resembled your external one?