more. When we do get more we are profoundly overjoyed. When we lose
wealth we are profoundly grief-stricken. Our heart is in it.
If we love ourselves above all else, we keep ourselves in mind at all
times. We think about ourselves, talk about ourselves, and act for our
own benefit, because our life is a life of self.
[ 3 ] (c) Our purpose is what we love above all else. We focus on it in
each and every thing we do. It exists in our will like a hidden current in a
river that moves and carries things along, even when we are doing some-
thing else, because it is what motivates us. It is the factor that people look
for and identify in others; then they use it either to influence the others
or to cooperate with them.
[ 4 ] (d) Our nature is completely shaped by the dominant force in our
lives. That force is what differentiates us from other people. If we are
good, our heaven is created to accord with it. If we are evil, our hell is
created to accord with it. It is our will, our self, and our nature. It is the
underlying reality of our life. It cannot be changed after we die, because
it is our true self.
[ 5 ] (e) For each of us, all our pleasure, joy, and happiness comes from
our dominant love and depends on it. This is because whatever we love
we say is enjoyable, since we feel it that way. What we think about but we
do not love we are also capable of calling enjoyable, but it is not the cen-
tral enjoyment of our life. What our love enjoys we experience as good,
and what our love does not enjoy we experience as evil.
[ 6 ] (f ) There are two types of love that act as a source for all forms of
goodness and truth. There are two types of love that act as a source for all
forms of evil and falsity. The two loves that originate all forms of good-
ness and truth are love for the Lord and love for our neighbor. The two
loves that originate all forms of evil and falsity are love for ourselves and
love for the world. When the latter two loves are dominant, they are
completely opposite to the former two loves.
[ 7 ] (g) Love for the Lord and love for our neighbor are the two loves
that constitute heaven in us, as I said. They are the dominant types of
love in heaven. Since they constitute heaven in us, they also constitute
the church in us.
The two loves that originate all forms of evil and falsity, which as I
said are love for ourselves and love for the world, constitute hell in us,
since they are the dominant types of love in hell. Therefore they also
destroy the church in us.
singke
(singke)
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