Where The Tree Falls
There It Lies

Selection from Divine Providence ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

(1) Every man is in evil, and must be led away from evil in order to be reformed. It is admitted in the church that every man has hereditary evil, and that from this he is in the lust of many evils; and it is from this that man cannot do good of himself; for evil does not do good except such good as has evil within it. The evil that is within the good is his doing the good for the sake of self, and thus only for the sake of the appearance. It is admitted that this evil is inherited from parents. It is said to be from Adam and his wife, but this is an error; for every one is born into it from his parent, and the parent from his parent, and he from his, and thus it is successively transferred from one to another; so, too, it is increased, and grows as it were to an accumulated mass, and is transmitted to offspring. In consequence of this there is nothing sound in man, but he is altogether evil. Who has any feeling that it is wrong to love himself more than others? Who, then, knows that it is evil? And yet this is the head of all evils.

That there is this inheritance from parents, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, is evident from many things that are known in the world, as that households, families, and even nations, are distinguished from each other merely by the face, and the face is a type of the mind, and the mind is in accord with the affections which belong to the love. Sometimes, too, the features of a grandfather reappear in those of a grandson or a great-grandson. From the features alone I know whether a man is a Jew or not, and also from what stock some are; and others doubtless know the same. If affections, which belong to the love, are thus derived and handed down from parents, it follows that evils are, for they belong to the affections. But the origin of this resemblance shall now be explained.

Every one's soul is from the father, and from the mother it is merely clothed with a body. That the soul is from the father follows not only from the things mentioned above, but also from many other indications; also from the fact that a child of a black or Moorish father by a white or European woman is black, and vice versa; also chiefly from this, that the soul is in the seed, for from the seed is impregnation, and the seed is what is clothed with a body by the mother. The seed is the primal form of the love in which the father is; it is the form of his ruling love with its nearest derivations, which are the inmost affections of that love.

In every one these affections are encompassed with the honesties that belong to moral life and with the goodnesses that belong partly to the civil and partly to the spiritual life. These constitute the external of life even with the wicked. Into this external of life every infant is born, and consequently is loveable; but as the child grows to boyhood or to youth he passes from that external to what is interior, and finally to the ruling love of his father; and if this has been evil, and has not by various means been tempered and bent by his teachers, it becomes his love as it was the father's. And yet the evil is not eradicated but only removed; of which in what follows. Evidently, then, every man is in evil.

277b. That man must be led away from evil in order to be reformed is evident without explanation; for he that is in evil in the world is in evil after he has left the world; consequently if evil is not removed in the world it cannot be removed afterwards. Where the tree falls there it lies. So, too, does a man's life when he dies remain such as it has been. Every one is judged according to his deeds; not that these are enumerated, but because he returns to them and acts in the same way; for death is a continuation of life, with the difference that man cannot then be reformed. All reformation is effected in completeness, that is, simultaneously in first principles and in outmosts; and outmosts are reformed in agreement with first principles while man is in the world, and cannot be reformed afterwards, because the outmosts of life that man carries with him after death become quiescent, and are in agreement with his interiors, that is, they act as one.

(2) Evils cannot be removed unless they appear. This does not mean that man must do evils in order that they may appear, but that he must examine himself, - not his deeds alone but also his thoughts, and what he would do if he did not fear the laws and disrepute, especially what evils he regards in his spirit as allowable and does not account as sins; for these he still does. It is to enable man to examine himself that an understanding has been given him, and this is separated from the will to the end that he may know, understand, and acknowledge what is good and what is evil, also that he may see what his will is, that is, what he loves and what he longs for. In order that man may see this there has been given to his understanding higher and lower thought, or interior and exterior thought, to enable him to see from the higher or interior thought what the will is doing in the lower and exterior thought; this he sees as a man sees his face in a mirror; and when he sees it and knows what sin is, he is able, if he implores the Lord's help, to cease willing it, to shun it, and afterwards to act against it, if not freely, still to coerce it by combat, and finally to turn away from it and hate it; and then, and not before, he perceives and also feels that evil is evil and that good is good. This, then, is examining one's self, seeing one's evils, acknowledging them, and afterwards refraining from them. But as there are few who know that this is the Christian religion itself (because such only have charity and faith, and they alone are led by the Lord and do good from Him), so something shall be said of those who do not do this and nevertheless think that they have religion. They are these:

(1) Those who confess themselves guilty of all sins, and do not search out any one sin in themselves.
(2) Those who neglect the search from religious reasons.
(3) Those who for worldly reasons think nothing about sins, and are therefore ignorant of them.
(4) Those who favor them and in consequence are ignorant of them.
(5) To all such sins are not apparent, and therefore cannot be removed.
(6) Lastly, the reason, hitherto hidden, will be made evident, why evils cannot be removed unless they are sought out, discovered, acknowledged, confessed, and resisted.

278b. But these points must be examined one by one, because they are the primary things on man's part of the Christian religion. First: Of those who confess themselves guilty of all sins, and do not search out any one sin in themselves. Such a one says, "I am a sinner; I was born in sin; there is nothing sound in me from head to foot, I am nothing but evil: good God, be gracious unto me, pardon me, cleanse me, save me, make me to walk in purity and the way of righteousness," and so on; and yet he does not examine himself, and consequently is ignorant of any evil; and no one can shun that of which he is ignorant, still less can he fight against it. He also believes himself to be clean and washed after his confessions, and yet he is unclean and unwashed from the head to the sole of the foot; for a confession of all sin lulls one to sleep, and at length brings blindness. It is like a universal apart from any particular, which is nothing.

[2] Secondly: Of those who neglect the search from religious reasons. These are especially such as separate charity from faith; for they say to themselves, "Why should I search whether there is evil or good? Why search for evil, when it does not condemn me; or why for good, when it does not save me? It is faith alone, thought and declared with trust and confidence, that justifies and purifies from all sin; and when once I am justified I am whole before God. I am indeed in evil, but God wipes this away as soon as it is done, and thus it no longer appears;" and other like things. But who does not see, if he will open his eyes, that such things are empty words, in which there is no reality, because there is no good in them? Who cannot so think and speak, even with trust and confidence, when at the same time he is thinking about hell and eternal damnation? Does such a one wish to know anything further, either what is true or what is good? Respecting truth he says, "What is truth but that which confirms this faith?" And respecting good he says, "What is good but that which is in me from this faith? But that it may be in me I must not do it as from myself, since this is meritorious; and good for which merit is claimed is not good." Thus he ignores everything until he ceases to know what evil is. What then shall he examine and see in himself? Does not his state then become such that the pent-up fires of the lusts of evil consume the interiors of his mind and lay them waste to the very gate? Only this gate does he guard that the burning may not appear; but after death this is opened, and then it is evident to all.

[3] Thirdly: Of those who for worldly reasons think nothing about sins and are therefore ignorant of them. These are such as love the world above all things, and admit no truth that would lead them away from any falsity of their religion, saying to themselves, "What is that to me? It is not for me to think of." Thus they reject the truth the moment it is heard, and if they listen to it they stifle it. They do much the same when they hear preaching; they retain nothing of it except some few phrases, - nothing real. Dealing thus with truths they do not know what good is; for good and truth act as one; and from any good that is not from truth evil is not recognized, unless it be to call it good, and this is done by means of reasonings from falsities. Such are meant by the seed that fell among thorns, of whom the Lord says: - Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. These are they that hear the Word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches so choke the Word that it becometh unfruitful (Matt. xiii. 7, 22; Mark iv. 7, 19; Luke viii. 7, 14).

[4] Fourthly: Of those that favor sins, and in consequence cannot know them. These are such as acknowledge God and worship Him in accordance with established ceremonies, and convince themselves that any evil that is a sin is not a sin, painting it over with fallacies and appearances, and thus hiding its enormity; and having done this they favor it, and make it their friend and familiar. It is said that those do this who acknowledge God, for others do not regard any evil as a sin, for all sin is against God. But let examples illustrate. One that is greedy for wealth makes evil to be no sin when, from reasons that he devises, he makes certain kinds of fraud allowable. He does the same who justifies in himself a spirit of revenge against enemies; or who in war justifies the plundering of those who are not enemies.

[5] Fifthly: To all such sins are not apparent and therefore cannot be removed. Every evil that is not seen nourishes itself. It is like fire in wood covered with ashes, or like matter in a wound that is not opened. For all evil that is shut in grows and does not stop till the end is reached. That no evil, therefore, may be shut up, every one is permitted to think in favor of God or against God, and in favor of the holy things of the church or against them, and not be punished therefore in the world. Of this the Lord. thus speaks in Isaiah: -  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; the wound, the bruise, and the fresh stripe, they have not been pressed out, nor bound up, nor mollified with oil. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes, cease to do evil; learn to do well. Then, although your sins have been as scarlet they shall become white as snow; although they have been red as crimson they shall be as wool. But if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured by the sword (i. 6, 16-18, 20).  "To be devoured by the sword" signifies to perish by the falsity of evil.

[6] Sixthly: The reason hitherto hidden why evils cannot be removed unless they are sought out, discovered, acknowledged, confessed and resisted. It has been remarked in the preceding pages that the entire heaven is arranged in societies according to [the affections of good, and the entire hell according to] the lusts of evil opposite to the affections of good. As to his spirit every man is in some society; in a heavenly society if he is in an affection for good, but in an infernal society if he is in a lust of evil. This is unknown to man so long as he lives in the world; nevertheless he is in respect to his spirit in some society, and without this he cannot live, and by means of it he is governed by the Lord. If he is in an infernal society he can be led out of it by the Lord only in accordance with the laws of His Divine providence, among which is this, that the man must see that he is there, must wish to go out of it, and must try to do this of himself. This he can do while he is in the world, but not after death; for he then remains forever in the society into which he has inserted himself while in the world. This is the reason why man must examine himself, must recognize and acknowledge his sins and repent, and then must persevere even to the end of his life. That this is true I could prove by much experience, sufficient for complete belief; but this is not the place to set forth the proofs of experience.

(Divine Providence 277 - 278)

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...if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.  Eccl 11:3

As long as people live, they are in the lowest level of order, have a bodily memory, which grows, and in which those things are to take root what belong to the inward memory. Consequently, the more harmony and interaction of good and truth there is in them, and between them, the more of life they have from the Lord, and the more they can be perfected in the other life. But it is that outward or bodily memory in which inward qualities take root. People after death indeed have with them all their outward or bodily memory, in all and the least details, but it can no longer grow, and where it is not functioning, new harmony and interaction cannot be formed. Nevertheless, all things of their inward memory are also grounded in their outward memory, even though it is not permitted them to use it.

This all shows what it means that as the tree falls, so it remains [Eccl. 11:3] not that those imbued with good cannot be perfected: such can be perfected immensely, even unto angelic wisdom, but to the level corresponding to the harmony and interaction that had existed between their inner and outer qualities when they lived in the world.  After the life of the body, no one receives outer, but only inward, and inner qualities.

As for that dogma that the tree remains where it falls, its meaning is not as it is usually explained, but it is the degree of harmony of our inner or spiritual person with our outer or earthly one, that remains as it falls, both of which man has with him in the other life. The inner or spiritual quality is grounded in his outer or earthly one as its base. The inner or spiritual person is perfected in the other life, but depending on the harmony it is able to find in the outer or earthly one. But the latter, namely outer or earthly one cannot be perfected in the other life, but remains of the quality it had acquired in the life of the body, and is perfected in that life by the removal of the love of self and of the world, and then by the reception of the good of charity, and of the truth of faith, from the Lord. Hence it is the harmony or disharmony that is the tree, together with its root, that remains after death, where it falls.

(from Spiritual Diary [min] 4645, 4646)