AE 569 - It Is One Thing to be Rational, and Another to be Spiritual

AE 569 [7-8, 15, 20]

It is one thing to be rational,
and another to be spiritual;
every spiritual person is also rational,
but the rational person is not always spiritual,
since the rational is in the natural person,
that is, is its thought,
while the spiritual is above the rational,
and through the rational passes into the natural,
into the cognitions* and knowledges of its memory.

But it is to be known that the rational does not
introduce anyone into the spiritual,
but it is only said to do so
because such is the appearance;
for the spiritual flows into the natural
through the rational as a medium,
and in this way it introduces.
For the spiritual is the inflowing Divine,
since it is the light of heaven,
which is the Divine truth proceeding,
and this light through the higher mind,
which is called the spiritual mind,
flows into the lower mind,
which is called the natural mind,
and conjoins this to itself,
and through that conjunction
causes the natural mind to make one with the spiritual;
thus introduction is effected.
Since it is contrary to Divine order
for a person to enter through his rational into the spiritual,
therefore in the spiritual world
there are angel guards to prevent this from taking place.

As "the river Euphrates" means the rational,
so in the contrary sense it signifies reasoning;
reasoning here means thinking and arguing
from fallacies and falsities,
while the rational means thinking and arguing
from knowledges and from truths;
for the rational is cultivated always by knowledges,
and is formed by truths,
therefore one who is led by truths or whom truths lead,
is called a rational person;
but a person who is not rational has the ability to reason,
for by various reasonings he is able to confirm falsities,
and also to induce the simple to believe them,
which is done mainly by means of
the fallacies of the senses.

For by means of the Word
there is conjunction of the Lord with the church,
and when the Word is perverted
by reasonings that favor evils and falsities
there is no longer any conjunction . . ..
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* cognitions - the mental action or process
of acquiring knowledge and understanding
through thought, experience, and the senses