272 HEAVEN and HELL §466
without believing anything before they are convinced by the information,
their memory looks dark, with a quality that actually absorbs rays of light
and turns them into darkness. For people who have been guileful and hyp-
ocrites it looks bony and hard as ebony that refl ects light rays.
However, for people who have focused on the good of love and
truths of faith, no such callus is visible. This is because their inner mem-
ory is transmitting rays of light into their outer memory, and those rays
fi nd defi nition in its contents or concepts as though it were their founda-
tion or their soil, and are intensely satisfi ed to fi nd something to contain
them there. This is because the outer memory is the outmost element of
the design, where spiritual and heavenly matters come gently to rest and
dwell when there are good and true contents in it.467 While we are living in the world, if we are engaged in a love for
the Lord and in thoughtfulness toward our neighbor, we have with and
within us an angelic intelligence and wisdom, but it is hidden away in
the depths of our inner memory. There is no way this intelligence and
wisdom can become visible before we leave our bodies. Then our natural
memory is put to sleep and we are awakened into consciousness of our
inner memory and eventually of our actual angelic memory.
468 I do need to explain briefl y how our rational ability is developed. A
genuine rational ability is made up of true elements and not of false ones.
Anything made up of false elements is not rational. There are three kinds
of true elements: civic, moral, and spiritual. Civic truths have to do with
judicial matters and the governmental affairs of nations—in general, with
what is fair and equitable. Moral truths have to do with matters of per-
sonal life in its societal and social contexts, in general with what is honest
and upright, and in particular with all kinds of virtues. Spiritual truths,
however, have to do with matters of heaven and the church, in general
with what is good in respect to love and what is true in respect to faith.
[ 2 ] There are three levels of life in every individual (see above, § 267 ).
Our rational ability is opened at the fi rst level by means of civic truths, at
the second level by moral truths, and at the third level by spiritual truths.
We need to realize, though, that our rational ability is not formed
and opened simply by virtue of our knowing these truths, but by virtue
of our living by them. Living by them means loving them out of a spiri-
tual affection; and loving them out of a spiritual affection means loving
what is fair and equitable because it is fair and equitable, what is hon-
est and upright because it is honest and upright, what is good and true
because it is good and true. On the other hand, living according to them