The Doctrine of the Proprium

We have seen how the appearance of self-life increases progressively as one grows from infancy to adult age. It increases in proportion to one's ability to do what he wants to do, and to attain his heart's desire. A newborn infant has no appearance of self-life because he is not yet aware of himself. Even when he becomes self-conscious, the appearance of self-life with him is extremely circumscribed. He is helpless, and completely dependent upon others. Gradually, as he gains physical strength and skill, as he acquires knowledge and understanding, he becomes less dependent upon others and more capable of doing things for himself. To this extent he feels more and more as if his life were his own. This appearance is greatly enhanced when he reaches adult age and is released from the obvious control of parents and teachers; yet he is still subject to many limitations due to ignorance and lack of skill. He is subject to the civil and moral laws imposed by the society in which he lives. He is limited by space and time and financial means.

If he is to achieve his desired goal in life, he must learn to overcome these obstacles by application, study, practice, all of which call for self-discipline. He has merely exchanged the external bonds of compulsion by others for internal bonds of self-compulsion; yet in self-compulsion there is a greater sense of freedom and independence than is possible under the domination of others. Gradually a man learns how to adapt himself to his environment. He can train himself to live quite happily within many of the limitations that beset him. To do so becomes increasingly easy, habitual and spontaneous. He finds that in spite of seeming limitations he can successfully pursue the goal he seeks. To this extent the appearance grows stronger that his life is his own.

All of this can be done through the exercise of the "first rational," represented by Ishmael. But as long as the goal he seeks is some natural ambition, the product of his own imagination, he will be motivated inmostly by the love of self. He may believe in the Lord, but he will think of the Lord's will as being identical with his own. He will not understand the real meaning of the Word because he will interpret it as a promise that the Lord will grant him his inmost wish. Because what he has conceived as a goal is not at all that to which the Lord would lead him, and because, being centered in self, it inevitably does injustice to others and robs them of their happiness and use, the Lord cannot allow him to accomplish his purpose. His will must be checked. His hopes must be frustrated, at least as far as they would bring permanent injury to the spiritual life of others. That is why it is written: "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." (John 8: 34) Of the Divine mercy, it is ordained, for the protection of others, that one who is motivated by self-love must learn at last, through bitter experience, that his life is not his own to do with as he pleases.

However, it is the Lord's will that the appearance of self-life should be perpetually increased, and to this end the Lord has provided the means by which the love of self may gradually be removed, that man may learn how to live, freely and gladly, in accord with the Divine laws of order which obtain in heaven. The means provided are the truths of the Word and the affection of truth, in the light of which man may learn to understand those truths in their genuine spiritual sense. We read:

"Because man, in respect to his ... [proprium] is [wholly evil], means have been given by the Divine mercy of the Lord, by which man can be withdrawn from his proprium; these means are given in the Word; and when man co-operates with these means, that is, when he thinks and speaks, wills and acts, from the Divine Word, he is kept by the Lord in things Divine, and is thus withheld from ... proprium; and when this continues there is formed with man by the Lords as it were a new ... [proprium], both voluntary and intellectual, which is wholly separated from man's ... [proprium]; thus man becomes as it were created anew, and this is what is called his reformation and regeneration by truths from the Word, and by a life according to them." (Apocalypse Explained 585: 3)

Here, by man's "proprium" is meant the love of self. The affection of spiritual truth is insinuated with everyone during infancy and childhood. It is perceived as a delight in acknowledging the Lord as a Heavenly Father, and the Word as holy and Divine. When man reads the Word, and reflects upon its teaching from this affection, he can begin to understand it spiritually. In states of worship, when worldly ambitions and external cares are temporarily set aside, one can acknowledge that what the Word teaches must be true, even though one cannot yet understand how it is true. In that state one can readily perceive that all life, all good and truth, all wisdom and all power belong to the Lord alone, and that man, from his own intelligence, is constantly prone to error. Thus arises a lack of confidence in one's self, an attitude of humiliation before the Lord, and a sincere desire to seek the Lord's guidance, rather than one's own.

"When man thinks that the Divine in respect to power and wisdom is everything, and man in comparison is nothing.... When man is in this acknowledgment from the heart he comes as it were out of himself ... and is removed from the proprium ... which in itself is wholly evil; when this is removed, the Divine fills him and raises him up; not that the Divine desires such humiliation on its account, but because evil is then removed, and so far as evil is removed with man, so far the Divine flows in; for evil alone stands in the way." (AE77)

When man thinks from the affection of spiritual truth, he not only knows that the teaching of the Word is true, but he perceives something of its real meaning. The idea that all life inflows from the Lord, and that man has no life in himself, is not now something that he piously affirms from a blind faith, but something that he really sees and perceives within himself to be true. This perception comes at first only in flashes of insight, during states of worship and of withdrawal from the cares of the world. It cannot be long retained, because the pressures of the world, the appearance that he has life in himself, return and take possession of the mind; yet the memory of that perception remains, and according to it the conscience is formed, and this constantly calls him back to the delight of spiritual truth, the delight of trust and confidence in the Lord. Under the impulse of conscience, from the fear of losing that deeper delight, a man is prompted to compel himself, in spite of every appearance to the contrary, to think, to believe, and to act in accord with the teaching of the Word. This self-compulsion gradually confirms the temporary state of trust in the Word, and makes it permanent. We read, therefore, that

"man ought to compel himself to do what is good, to obey the things commanded by the Lord, and to speak truths, which is to 'humble himself under' the Lord's hands, or to submit himself to the sovereign power of the Divine good and truth.... The arcanum herein contained is that a man is thus gifted by the Lord with a heavenly ... [proprium], for this heavenly ... [proprium] of man is formed in the effort of his thought; and if he does not maintain this effort by compelling himself (as the appearance is), he certainly does not maintain it by not compelling himself." (AC 1937)

"In all self-compulsion to what is good," the number continues, "there is a certain freedom, which is not discerned as such while the man is engaged in this self-compulsion, but still it is within.... This freedom is from the Lord, who insinuates it into man's conscience, and by means of it causes him to overcome evil as if from his proprium. Through this freedom man acquires a proprium in which the Lord can work what is good.... In this freedom, when man is compelling himself to resist what is evil and false, and to do what is good, there is heavenly love, which the Lord then insinuates, and through which He creates man's proprium; and therefore the Lord wills that it should appear to the man as his, although it is not his. This proprium which man during his bodily life thus receives through what is apparently compulsory, is filled by the Lord in the other life with illimitable delights and happinesses.”

Man has had to compel himself before to comply with the requirements of the civil and the moral law; but he has done so for the sake of himself, or in order to secure his personal ambition. Thus he has done so from what has been called "enlightened self-interest;" but now he compels himself from spiritual conscience, from the love of spiritual truth, from the desire to obey the Lord's will. This is what produces the heavenly proprium. As to the nature of this heavenly proprium, we read that

"this comes forth from the new will that is given by the Lord, and differs from man's ... [proprium] in the fact that they who have it no longer regard themselves in each and all things they do, and in each and all things they learn or teach; but they then have regard to the neighbor, the public, the church, the Lord's kingdom, and thereby the Lord Himself. It is the ends of life that are changed. The ends that look to lower things, that is, to self and the world, are removed, and ends that look to higher things are substituted in their place. The ends of life are nothing else than the man's life itself, for they are his very will and loves, because what a man loves he wills and has for an end. He who is gifted with ... [a proprium] that is heavenly is also in quietude and peace; for he trusts in the Lord, and believes that nothing of evil will reach him, and knows that concupiscences will not infest him. And besides, they who are in the heavenly ... [proprium] are in freedom itself; for to be led by the Lord is freedom, because ... [this is to be] led in good, by good, to good. From this it is evident that they are in blessedness and happiness, for there is nothing that disturbs them, nothing of ... [self-love], consequently nothing of enmity, hatred, and revenge; nor is there anything of the love of the world, consequently nothing of fraud, of fear, of unrest." (AC 5660)

The reason one who removes the love of self and the world can enjoy perfect freedom and an ever-increasing appearance of self-life is that he can be given every opportunity to achieve his heart's desire. There is no need to restrict him, because what he strives for is in accord with the Lord's will, and looks to the welfare, success and happiness of others. He can therefore feel life as if it were his own, and enjoy it to the full, without harm or injury to others. That is why the seemingly curious statement is made that

"the heavenly marriage is ... in the ... [proprium], which, when vivified by the Lord, is called the bride and wife of the Lord.... Suffice it therefore to observe that the angels perceive that they live from the Lord, although when not reflecting on the subject they know no other than that they live from themselves; but there is a general affection of such a nature that at the least departure from the good of love, and the truth of faith, they perceive a change, and consequently they are in the enjoyment of their peace and happiness, which is inexpressible, while they are in their general perception that they live from the Lord." (AC 155)

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