DLW 242, 246 - Spiritual Light and Spiritual Heat; DLW 255 - The Sensual Person

DLW 242

Spiritual light flows in through the three degrees in a person,
but not spiritual warmth except to the extent
that the person refrains from evils as being sins
and looks to the Lord.

DLW 246

This spiritual warmth can be acquired only
by refraining from evils as being sins
and at the same time by looking to the Lord.
For as long as a person is caught up in evils,
he is also caught up in a love for them,
being driven by a lust for them,
and a love of evil and its lust are prompted
by a love opposed to spiritual love and affection.
This love or lust cannot be removed
except by refraining from evils as being sins;
and because a person
cannot refrain from them on his own but from the Lord,
he must therefore look to the Lord.

Consequently when a person refrains from evils
and does so from the Lord,
then the love of evil and its warmth are removed,
and in their stead are introduced
a love of good and its warmth,
by which the higher degree is opened.
For the Lord flows in from above and opens it,
and at the same time joins spiritual love or warmth
to spiritual wisdom or light;
and as a result of that union
the person begins to blossom spiritually,
like a tree in springtime.

DLW 255

. . . the sensual person,
who is in the lowest degree natural,
differs from the animal
only in his ability to fill his memory with facts
and to think and speak in accordance with them,
an ability he derives
from the faculty inherent in every person,
which is to be able to understand truth if he wills to.
This is the faculty that distinguishes the human being.
But still, many by abuse of this faculty
have made themselves lower than animals.