AC 5639 - What Is the Spiritual?

AC 5639

In its essence within a person
the spiritual is the very affection of good and truth
for the sake of good and truth,
and not for the sake of self,
and also the affection of what is just and fair
for the sake of what is just and fair,
and not for the sake of self.
When a person feels in himself delight and pleasantness,
and still more if he feels happiness and blessedness,
from these affections,
this is the spiritual in him,
which comes not from the natural,
but from the spiritual world or from heaven,
that is, through heaven from the Lord.
This then is the spiritual,
which when it reigns in a person,
affects and as it were tinges
all that he thinks, wills, and does,
and causes the thoughts and the acts of his will
to partake of the spiritual,
until at last these also become spiritual in him,
as when he passes
out of the natural into the spiritual world.
In a word, the affection of charity and faith,
that is, of good and truth,
and the delight and pleasantness,
and still more the happiness and blessedness so derived,
which are felt inwardly in a person
and make him a person truly Christian,
are the spiritual.