200 HEAVEN and HELL §356
activity that focuses on our eternal life: 3086. Then the heavenly and spiri-
tual characteristics of our spiritual person reach out to the information that
is in our natural person, and adopt whatever is suitable: 1495. Then the
Lord draws out whatever is useful for heavenly life from the information in
our natural person, by way of the inner person, and elaborates and exalts it:
1895 , 1896 , 1900 , 1901 , 1902 , 5871 , 5874 , 5901. Facts that do not fi t, or that
oppose, are banished to the sides and eliminated: 5871 , 5886 , 5889.
[ 7 ] The sight of the inner person selects from the information of the
outer person only those items that suit its love: 9394. In the view of the
inner person, the items that suit its love are in full light, in the center,
while those that do not suit are off to the sides, in the shadows: 6068 ,
6085 [ 6084 ]. Suitable facts are grafted onto our loves step by step, and, so
to speak, dwell in them: 6325. We would be born into discernment if we
were born into love for our neighbor, but since we are born into love for
ourselves and the world, we are born into complete ignorance: 6323 ,
- Information, discernment, and wisdom are children of love of God
and our neighbor: 1226 , 2049 , 2116.
[ 8 ] It is one thing to be wise, another to be discerning, another to be
well informed, and another to act; still, to the extent that we are alive
spiritually, these follow in a sequence and are all together at once when
we act, or in our deeds: 10331. Further, it is one thing to be well informed,
another to acknowledge, and another to have faith: 896.
[ 9 ] The factual knowledge of the outer or natural person is in the
world’s light, while the truths that have become matters of faith and love,
and have thus come to life, are in heaven’s light: 5212. Truths that are
suited to spiritual life are grasped through natural ideas: 5510. Spiritual
infl ow is from the inner or spiritual person into the information that is in
the outer or natural person: 1940 , 8005. Facts are receptacles and, so to
speak, vessels of the good and the true elements of the inner person:
1469 , 1496 , 3068 , 5489 , 6004 , 6023 , 6052 , 6071 , 6077 , 7770 , 9922. They
are like mirrors in which the good and true elements of the inner person
appear as in an image: 5201. They are all there together in their most con-
crete form: 5373 , 5874 , 5886 , 5901 , 6004 , 6023 , 6052 , 6071.
[ 10 ] Infl ow is spiritual and not physical: that is, there is an infl ow
from the inner person into the outer and therefore into its information,
but not from the outer into the inner and therefore not from information
into the truths of faith: 3219 , 5119 , 5259 , 5427 , 5428 , 5478 , 6322 , 9110 , 9111
[ 9401 ]. We are to start from the truths of the church’s teaching, which are
drawn from the Word, and this teaching should fi rst be acknowledged: it
is legitimate to consider facts on this basis: 6047. This means that for