TCR 659 - No Evil a Person Thinks

TCR 659

The reason no evil a person thinks 
is imputed (assigned) to him 
is that a person is so created 
that he can understand 
and so think about good or evil, 
the good coming from the Lord, 
the evil from hell. 
A person is placed in the middle, 
with the power to choose 
one or the other 
by reason of his free will in spiritual matters . . .. 
Since he has freedom to choose, 
he can will a thing or not will it. 
What he wills is received by the will 
and made its own; 
what he does not will 
is not received 
and so is not made its own. 
All the evils to which a person tends from birth 
are written upon the will of his natural person. 
To the extent that he draws upon these evils, 
they flow into his thoughts. 
Likewise good things together with truths flow 
down into his thoughts from the Lord, 
and there they are balanced, 
like weights on the pans of a pair of scales. 
If a person then takes to himself evils, 
they are received by his old will 
and added to the former ones. 
But if he takes to himself 
good things together with truths, 
the Lord forms a new will 
and a new understanding above the old one, 
and there the Lord plants new forms of good 
one after another by means of truths. 
By means of this good He overcomes 
the evils which are below and removes them, 
setting all in order. 
This also makes it plain 
that thought is the process 
which purifies and excretes the evils 
inherited from one's parents.
If therefore the evils 
one thinks were to be imputed, 
reformation and regeneration would be impossible.