DLW 263 - The Natural and Spiritual Minds

DLW 263 [2-4]

It should be known
that in the greatest and least constituents of the universe --
both animate and inanimate --
one finds the reciprocal relation of action and reaction.
It is what holds all things in equilibrium.
This equilibrium is suspended
when the action is greater than the reaction,
and vice versa.

It is the same with the natural and spiritual minds.
When the natural mind is prompted by
the delights of its love
and the gratifications of its thought,
which in themselves are evil and false,
then the reaction of the natural mind
removes those elements
which belong to the spiritual mind
and bars the door to them
to keep them from entering,
causing the action to come from such things
as accord with its reaction.
The result is an action and reaction
of the natural mind
which is opposed to the action and reaction
of the spiritual mind.
This in turn causes a closing of the spiritual mind,
like the twisting of a spiral
into the opposite direction.

On the other hand,
if the spiritual mind is opened,
then the action and reaction of the natural mind
are reversed.
For the spiritual mind acts
from above or from within
and at the same time through
those elements in the natural mind
which have been disposed
from within or from without to obey it,
and it twists into the opposite direction
the spiral in which
the natural mind acts and reacts.
That is because the natural mind is from birth
in a state of opposition to
matters belonging to the spiritual mind,
a state it acquires by heredity from parents,
as people know.

Of such a nature is the change of state
called reformation and regeneration.
The state of the natural mind before reformation
may be likened to
a spiral twisting or curving downward,
while after reformation it may be likened to
a spiral twisting or curving upward.
Consequently a person before reformation
looks downward to hell,
but after reformation upward to heaven.