§558b evil & falsity 339
b. The self-image that we get from our parents by heredity is nothing but condensed evil: 210 ,
215 , 731 , 876 , 987 , 1047 , 2307 , 2318 [ 2308 ], 3518 , 3701 , 3812 , 8480 , 8550 , 10283 , 10284 , 10286 , 10731
[ 10732 ]. Our self-centeredness involves loving ourselves more than God and the world more than
heaven, and regarding our neighbor as nothing compared to ourselves except when it benefi ts us;
so it is loving ourselves and is a love for oneself and for the world: 694 , 731 , 4317 , 5660. From love
for oneself and for the world when they are put fi rst come all evils: 1307 , 1308 , 1321 , 1594 , 1691 ,
3413 , 7255 , 7376 , 7480 [ 7490 ], 7488 , 8318 , 9335 , 9348 , 10038 , 10742 ; which are contempt for others,
hostility, hatred, vengefulness, savagery, and deceit: 6667 , 7372 [ 7370 ], 7374 , 9348 , 10038 , 10742 ;
and from these evils, everything false fl ows: 1047 , 10283 , 10284 , 10286.
the human community, and our fellow citizens—we are being led by
the Lord because this is the love he is in and the love that comes from
him. However, to the extent that we focus on love for ourselves—doing
constructive and worthwhile things for our own sakes—we are leading
ourselves; and to the extent that we lead ourselves, we are not being led
by the Lord. Again, then, it follows that the more we love ourselves, the
more we move away from the Divine and also from heaven.
Being led by self is being led by what we claim as our own, and what
we claim as our own is nothing but evil. It is actually our evil heredity,
which involves loving ourselves more than God and the world more than
heaven.b
We are completely absorbed in our self-image and therefore in our
hereditary evil whenever we focus on ourselves in anything worthwhile we
are doing, for we are focusing on ourselves and away from what is good
and not on what is good and away from ourselves. So in the worthwhile
activities we set up an image of ourselves and not an image of the Divine.
I have been assured of this by experience as well. There are evil spirits who
live halfway between the north and the west, underneath the heavens,
who are particularly skilled at getting upright spirits involved in their self-
image and therefore focused on various kinds of evil. They do this by get-
ting them absorbed in thinking about themselves, either openly by words
of praise and esteem or covertly by focusing their feelings exclusively on
themselves. To the extent that they succeed, they turn the faces of the
upright people away from heaven and also becloud their understanding,
calling up evils from their self-concern.
If you look at their origins and essences, you can see that love for one- 558 b
self and love of one’s neighbor are opposites. In people who are wrapped
up in love for themselves, love of their neighbor begins from self. They
claim that everyone is his or her own neighbor; and from this as a center