§66 heaven reflects an individual 35
c. In the Word, “righteousness” [or “justice”] refers to what is good and “judgment” to what is
true, so “to do justice and judgment” is to do what is good and true: 2235 , 9857.
d. In the highest sense, the Lord is our neighbor, and so loving the Lord is loving what comes
from him, since he is present in everything that comes from him, and therefore what is good and
true is also our neighbor: 2425 , 3419 , 6706 , 6711 , 6819 , 6823 , 8123. Therefore, everything good that
comes from the Lord is our neighbor, and intending and doing that good is loving our neighbor:
5028 , 10336.
as the commonwealth that is to be cared for. This is the meaning of the
Lord’s words “Seek fi rst the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
everything will be given you in addition” (Matthew 6 : 33 ). To “seek his
righteousness” is to seek his good.c
[ 3 ] There are people who in this world love the good of their country
more than their own and the good of their neighbor as their own. They
are the ones who love and seek the kingdom of the Lord in the other life,
since there the kingdom of the Lord takes the place of one’s country.
Further, people who love to do good to others not for self-centered rea-
sons but for the sake of the good itself are people who love their neigh-
bor, since in the other life the good is one’s neighbor.d All individuals
who are of this quality are in the universal human—that is, in heaven.
Since heaven in its entirety does refl ect a single individual, and is in 65
fact the divine spiritual person in its greatest form and image, heaven is
therefore differentiated into members and parts like a person, and these
are given similar names. Angels know what member one community or
another is in and say that this community is in the member or province
of the head, that one in the member or province of the chest, that one in
the member or province of the genitals, and so on.
In general, the highest or third heaven forms the head down to the
neck, the middle or second forms the torso as far as the genitals and
knees, and the lowest or fi rst forms the feet to the very soles and also the
arms all the way to the fi ngers, since the arms and hands are among our
“lowest things” even though they are at our sides. We can see from this
again why there are three heavens.
Spirits who are below heaven are amazed when they hear and see that 66
heaven is both below and above them. They have had the faith and opin-
ion common to people in this world that heaven is only overhead. They
do not really know that the locations of the heavens are like the locations
of the members and organs and viscera in a human being, with some
above and some below, and that it is also like the locations of the parts