Another interesting quote that opens rather than closes, includes rather than excludes, points the way rather than blocks the road:
“People who recognize what is good and true on the basis of perception
receive that intuition from the Lord by an internal route. Those who
recognize it on the basis of doctrine receive their knowledge by an external
route—the physical senses. The difference is like that between light
and darkness.” (Swedenborg’s Arcana Coelestia 521)
What does this mean? I think it means this: I do not have to be an intellectual, I do not have to know stuff, I do not have to be clever and academic. All wisdom, all truth is available by a direct internal route, as well as a longer and external route. Doctrine is what is written in books. Perception isn’t written anywhere.
The only question that matters then is: where is it written? Where is this internal route? I want to find that internal route.
The route is always present and we are always walking the internal route. The thought that we are not and that there is a “bad” or “sinful” and “wrong” way is an illusion and the truth sought for is as inseparable as the wind from the air.
Drum roll…