86 HEAVEN and HELL §156
c. Our self-image is loving ourselves: 694 , 731 , 4317 , 5660. This self-image must be detached from
us in order for the Lord to be present: 1023 , 1044. It is actually detached when we are being kept
in what is good by the Lord: 9334 , 9335 , 9336 , 9445 [ 9447 ], 9452 , 9453 , 9454 , 9938.appearance according to the things that are within them. We will describe
what these are and what they are like in later chapters, where we discuss
representations and appearances in heaven.157 Each individual angel undergoes and passes through changes of state
like this, and so too does each community collectively. Still, one indi-
vidual does so differently from another because people vary in love and
wisdom. There are people in the middle, in a more perfect state than
those who are around them all the way to the borders (see above, §§ 23
[ 43 ] and 128 ). But it would take too long to recount the differences, since
the quality of love and faith determines how each individual undergoes
the changes. Consequently, one may be in clarity and delight when
another is in dimness and discomfort, even at the same time, within the
same community. It happens differently in one community than in
another, too, and in communities of the heavenly kingdom differently
than in communities of the spiritual kingdom.
Broadly speaking, the differences in their changes of state are like the
variations of states of days in one climate and another on earth. There it
is morning for some people while it is evening for others, and some have
warmth while others are cold, and vice versa.
158 I have been told from heaven why changes of state like this occur.
Angels have said that there are many reasons. First, the delight of life and
of heaven that angels enjoy because of the love and wisdom given them
by the Lord would gradually pall if they were constantly engaged in it,
the way it happens for people who are involved in pleasures and enjoy-
ments without variety. A second reason is that angels have a sense of self
or self-image just as we do, and this involves loving themselves. All the
people in heaven are kept free of their sense of self, and to the extent that
the Lord does keep them free, they enjoy love and wisdom. To the extent
that they are not kept free, however, they are caught up in love for them-
selves; and since all of them do love that sense of self and carry it with
them,c these changes of state or successive alternations do occur. A third
reason is that they are made more perfect in this way, since they become
accustomed to being kept in love for the Lord and kept free from love for
themselves. Further, by these alternations of delight and discomfort,