II. The Will and the Understanding

HD 28. Man has two faculties which make his life; one is called the Will, and the other the Understanding. These faculties are distinct from each other, but are so created that they may be one; and when they are one they are called the Mind. Of these, then, the human mind consists; and the while life of man is there.

HD 29. As all things in the universe, which are according to Divine order, have relation to good and truth, so all things with man have relation to the will and the understanding; for good with man is of his will, and truth with him is of his understanding; for these two faculties, or these two lives of man, are their receptacles and subjects. The willis the receptacle and subject of all things of good, and the understanding the receptacle and subject of all things of truth. Goods and truths with man are nowhere else; and because goods and truths with man are nowhere else, so neither are love and faith elsewhere; for love is of good, and good is of love; and faith is of truth, and truth is of faith.

HD 30. Since, then, all things in the universe have relation to good and truth, and all things of the church to the good of love and the truth of faith; and since man is man from those two faculties, therefore they also are treated of in this doctrine; otherwise man could have no distinct idea of them, on which to found his thought.

HD 31. The will and the understanding also constitute the spirit of man; for his wisdom and intelligence, and his life in general, reside in them; the body is only obedience.

HD 32. Nothing is more important to know than how the will and the understanding make one mind. They make one mind as good and truth make one; for there is a similar marriage between the will and the understanding as there is between good and truth. What is the quality of that marriage may fully appear from what has been quoted above, concerning good and truth, namely, as good is the very esse of a thing, and truth the existere of a thing thence derived, so the will with man is the very esse of his life, and the understanding the existere of life thence; for good, which is of the will, forms and renders itself visible in the understanding.

HD 33. They who are in good and truth have will and understanding, but they who are in evil and in falsity have not will and understanding; but instead of will they have cupidity, and instead of understanding they have science. For the truly human will is the receptacle of good, and the understanding is the receptacle of truth; for which reason will cannot be predicated of evil, nor can understanding be predicated of falsity, because they are opposites, and opposites destroy each other. Hence it is, that the man who is in evil and thence in falsity, cannot be called rational, wise, and intelligent. With the evil, also, the interiors of the mind, in which the will and the understanding principally reside, are closed. It is believed that the evil also have will and understanding, because they say that they will, and that they understand; but their willing is only cupidity, and their understanding is only knowing.

HD 34. Spiritual truths cannot he comprehended, unless the following universals are known: I. All things in the universe have relation to good and truth, and to the conjunction of both, in order that they may be anything; consequently to love and faith, and their conjunction. II. With man there is will and understanding, and the will is the receptacle of good, and the understanding the receptacle of truth, and all things with man have relation to those two, and to their conjunction, as all things relate to good and truth, and their conjunction. III. There is an internal man and an external, and they are distinct one from the other like heaven and the world, and nevertheless that they ought to make one, in order that man may be truly man. IV. The light of heaven is that in which the internal man is, and the light of the world that in which the external is; and the light of heaven is the Divine truth itself, from which is all intelligence. V. There is a correspondence between the things which are in the internal, and those which are in the external man; and consequently they appear in each under a different form, so that they can only be discerned by the science of correspondences. Unless these and many other things are known, it is impossible to form any ideas concerning spiritual and celestial things, but such as are incongruous; and thus the scientifics and knowledges, which are of the external man, without these universals, can be of little service to the rational man for understanding and growth. Hence it appears, how necessary scientifics are. Concerning those universals, much is said in the Arcana Coelestia.

HD 35. Man has two faculties, one which is called the will, and the other the understanding (AC 35, 641, 3539, 3623, 5969, 10122). Those two faculties constitute the very man (AC 10076, 10109, 10110, 10264, 10284). The quality of man is according to those two faculties with him (AC 7342, 8885, 9282, 10264, 10284). By them also man is distinguished from beasts, by reason that the understanding of man may be elevated by the Lord, and see Divine truths, and in like manner his will may be elevated and perceive Divine goods; and thus man may be conjoined to the Lord by those two faculties, which make him; but that the case is otherwise with beasts (AC 4525, 5114, 5302, 6323, 9231). And since man may thus be conjoined to the Lord, he cannot die as to his interiors, which are his spirit, but he lives forever (AC 5302). Man is not man from his form, but from good and truth, which are of his will and understanding (AC 4051, 5302). As all things in the universe relate to good and truth, so do all things in man to the will and the understanding (AC 803, 10122). For the will is the receptacle of good, and the understanding is the receptacle of truth (AC 3332, 3623, 5835, 6065, 6125, 7503, 9300, 9930). It amounts to the same, whether you say truth or faith, for faith is of truth, and truth is of faith; and it amounts to the same whether you say good or love, for love is of good, and good is of love; for what a man believes, that he calls true; and what he loves, that he calls good (AC 4353, 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367). Hence it follows that the understanding is the recipient of faith, and the will the recipient of love; and that faith and love are in man, when they are in his understanding and will, for the life of man is nowhere else (AC 7179, 10122, 10367). And since the understanding of man is capable of receiving faith in the Lord, and the will of receiving love to the Lord, that by faith and love he may be conjoined to the Lord, and whoever is capable of conjunction with the Lord by faith and love, cannot die to eternity (AC 4525, 6323, 9231). Love is conjunction in the spiritual world (AC 1594, 2057, 3939, 4018, 5807, 6195, 6196, 7081, 7086, 7501, 10130). The will of man is the very esse of his life, because it is the receptacle of good, and the understanding is the existere of life thence derived, because it is the receptacle of truth (AC 3619, 5002, 9282). Thus the life of the will is the principal life of man, and the life of the understanding proceeds therefrom (AC 585, 590, 3619, 7342, 8885, 9282, 10076, 10109, 10110); comparatively as light proceeds from fire or flame (AC 6032, 6314). Whatever things enter into the understanding, and at the same time into the will, are appropriated to man, but not those which are received in the understanding alone (AC 9009, 9069, 9071, 9133, 9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109, 10110). Those things become of the life of man, which are received in the will, and thence in the understanding (AC 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109, 10110). Every man also is loved and esteemed by others according to the good of his will and thence of his understanding; for he who wills well and understands well, is loved and esteemed, and he who understands well and does not will well, is rejected and is held in low estimation (AC 8911, 10076). Man also after death remains such as his will and the understanding are (AC 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153), and those things which are of the understanding, and not at the same time of the will, then vanish, because they are not in man’s spirit (AC 9282). Or, what amounts to the same, man after death remains as his love and its faith are, or as his good and its truth are; and the things which are of the faith and not at the same time of the love, or the things which are of truth and not at the same time of good, vanish, because they are not in the man, thus not man‘s (AC 553, 2363, 10153). Man is capable of comprehending with the understanding what he does not do from the will, or he may understand what he does not will, because it is against his love (AC 3539). The will and the understanding constitute one mind (AC 35, 3623, 5835, 10122). Those two faculties of life ought to act as one, that man may be man (AC 3623, 5835, 5969, 9300). How perverted a state they are in, whose understanding anœl will do not act as one (AC 9075). Such is the state of hypocrites, the deceitful, flatterers, and simulators (AC 2426, 3573, 4799, 8250). The will and the understanding are reduced to one in another life, and there it is not allowable to have a divided mind (AC 8250). Every doctrinal of the church has its own ideas by which its quality is perceived (AC 3310). The understanding of the doc trinal is according to those ideas, and without an intellectual idea, man would only have an idea of words, and none of things (AC 3825). The ideas of the understanding extend themselves widely into the societies of spirits and angels round about (AC 6599, 6600-6605, 6609, 6613). The ideas of man’s understanding are opened in another life, and appear to the life as to their quality (AC 1869, 3310, 5510). Of what quality the ideas of some appear (AC 6200, 8885). All the will of good and the understanding of truth is from the Lord, but not so the understanding of truth separate from the will of good (AC 1831, 3514, 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153). It is the understanding which is enlightened by the Lord (AC 6222, 6608, 10659). The Lord grants to those who are enlightened, to see and understand truth (AC 9382, 10659). The enlightening of the understanding is various, according to the states of man‘s life (AC 5221, 7012, 7233). The understanding is enlightened as far as man receives truth in the will, that is, as far as he wills to act according thereto (AC 3619). They have their understanding enlightened who read the Word from the love of truth and from the love of the uses of life; but not they who read it from the love of fame, honor, and gain (AC 9382, 10548, 10549, 10551). Enlightenment is an actual elevation of the mind into the light of heaven (AC 10330); from experience (AC 1526, 6608). Light from heaven is the enlightenment of the understanding, as light from the world is to the sight (AC 1524, 5114, 6608, 9128). The light of heaven is the Divine truth, from which is all wisdom and intelligence (AC 3195, 3222, 5400, 8644, 9399, 9548, 9684). It is the understanding of man which is enlightened by that light (AC 1524, 3138, 3167, 4408, 6608, 8707, 9128, 9399, 10569). The understanding is such as are the truths from good, of which it is formed (AC 10064). The understanding is that which is formed by truths from good, but not what is formed by falsities from evil (AC 10675). The understanding consists in seeing truths, the causes of things, their connections, and consequences in regular order, from those things which are of experience and science (AC 6125). The understanding consists in seeing and perceiving whether a thing be true, before it is confirmed, but not in being able to confirm every thing (AC 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780). The light of confirmation without a previous perception of truth, is natural light, and may be possessed even by those who are not wise (AC 8780). To see and perceive whether a thing he true before it is confirmed, is only given with those who are affected with truth for the sake of truth, consequently who are in spiritual light (AC 8780). Every dogma even what is false may be confirmed, even so as to appear true (AC 2243, 2385, 4677, 4741, 5033, 6865, 7950). How the rational is conceived and born with man (AC 2094, 2524, 2557, 3030, 5126). It is from the influx of the light of heaven from the Lord through the internal man into the knowledges and sciences, which are in the external, and an elevation thence (AC 1895, 1899, 1902). The rational is born by truths, and not by falsities; consequently according to the quality of the truths, such is the rational (AC 2094, 2524, 2557). The rational is opened and formed by truths from good, and it is shut and destroyed by falsities from evil (AC 3108, 5126). A man is not rational who is in falsities from evil; and consequently a man is not rational from being able to reason upon every subject (AC 1944). Man scarcely knows how to distinguish between the understanding and the will, because he scarcely knows how to distinguish between thinking and willing (AC 9995). Many more things concerning the will and the understanding may be known and concluded from what has been just adduced concerning good and truth, provided the will be perceived instead of good, and the understanding instead of truth, for the will is of good, and the understanding is of truth.