AC 10227 - The Rich and the Poor; And In the Sight of Angels

AC 10227 [2-3, 24]

All have the capacity to understand and to be wise;
but the reason one person is wiser than another
is that they do not in like manner
ascribe to the Lord all things of intelligence and wisdom,
which are all things of truth and good.
Those who ascribe all to the Lord
are wiser than the rest,
because all things of truth and good,
which constitute wisdom,
flow in from heaven, that is, from the Lord there.
The ascription of all things to the Lord
opens the interiors of a person toward heaven,
for thus it is acknowledged
that nothing of truth and good is from himself;
and in proportion as this is acknowledged,
the love of self departs,
and with the love of self
the thick darkness from falsities and evils.
Also, in the same proportion
the person comes into innocence,
and into love and faith to the Lord,
from which comes conjunction with the Divine,
influx from there, and enlightenment.
From all this it is evident from where it is
that one is more wise, and another less;
and also why the rich should not give more
and the poor less --
namely, that all alike have the capacity of being wise;
not indeed an equal capacity of being wise,
but they are alike in having the capacity to be so,
because both the one and the other can be wise.

By the capacity to be wise
is not meant the capacity to reason
about truths and goods from memory-knowledges,
nor the capacity to confirm whatever one pleases;
but the capacity to discern what is true and good,
to choose what is suitable,
and to apply it to the uses of life.
Those who ascribe all things to the Lord
do thus discern, choose, and apply;
while those who do not ascribe to the Lord,
but to themselves,
know merely how to reason about truths and goods;
nor do they see anything
except what is from others;
and this not from reason,
but from the activity of the memory.
As they cannot look into truths themselves,
they stand outside,
and confirm whatever they receive,
whether it be true or false.
Those who can do this in a learned way
from memory-knowledges
are believed by the world to be wiser than others;
but the more they attribute all things to themselves,
thus the more they love
what they think from themselves,
the more insane they are;
for they confirm falsities rather than truths,
and evils rather than goods,
and this because they have light
from no other source
than the fallacies and appearances of the world,
and consequently from their own light,
which is called natural light,
separated from the light of heaven;
and which light when thus separated
is mere thick darkness
in respect to the truths and goods of heaven.

The meaning of "wealth" and of "riches"
as being what belongs to intelligence and wisdom,
is also from correspondence;
for among the angels in heaven
all things appear as if they shone
with gold, silver, and precious stones,
and this because they are in the intelligence of truth
and in the wisdom of good;
for the interiors of the angels
are presented to view in this way
from the correspondence.
Moreover, with the spirits who are below the heavens
there is an appearance of riches
according to the state of the reception
of truth and good from the Lord.