564.此外，我能从他们那里充分理解许多事，因为他们只是思考，并不关心细节。1)例如，当我正在认真思考什么是理解力之光，即它是从我们的主所流入的真理之光，事实上是一种关于普遍真理的更高级的知识，如我们的主掌管一切时，（我明白）人的知识模糊了这光，这类细节，或关于细节的真理，处于那种普遍的光，这种光就像产生世上色彩的变化。重生也因此被比作彩虹。2)此外，我还明白，正是思维造就了一个人的品质。当思维只是附着于世俗和肉体的事物时，理解力就会固定于它们，以至于这个人不可能与灵人的天堂对话；因为思维冲到外面，进入自己、世界和自然，在来世会造成持续不断的幻想，这些幻想必须通过痛苦的分离过程被甩掉并死亡。而那些一心思想主，因而思想天堂事物的人则不然。3）因此，彩虹有两条弧线：一条由与属灵事物相联的幻想产生，是新来的灵魂所爱的；另一条由属灵和属天元素的光谱产生，没有任何自然界的东西，这是更内在天堂的特征。（1748年1月26日）
564. Moreover, I was able to grasp many things from them because they only think, and are not interested in particulars.
1. ) For example, when I was considering what the Light of understanding is, namely that it is the light of truth flowing in from our Lord, and in fact, a higher knowledge of universal truths, such as that our Lord governs all things, then [I understood] that personal knowledge obscures this light, and that such details, or truths about details, are in that general light like the variations that cause colors in the world - for which reason regeneration is also compared to the rainbow.
2. ) I further understood that it is the thinking that makes a human being's quality. When the thinking only clings to worldly and bodily things, then the understanding attaches itself to them to such an extent that the person cannot possibly speak with the Heaven of spirits; for the thought rushes outwards, and into oneself, the world, and nature, causing persisting fantasies in the other life that must be shaken off and die, which takes place by a painful separation process. It is different in the case of those who are absorbed only in thoughts about the Lord, thus about things of heaven.
3. ) There is therefore a twofold arc of the rainbow: one, which [newly arrived] souls love, arising from fantasies joined to what is spiritual; the other, arising from a spectrum of spiritual and heavenly elements, without anything of nature, and such is the very inward heaven. 1748, the 26th day of January.
564. Moreover, from them 1I could more fully comprehend many things because they only think, and do not care about particulars. For instance, when I kept my mind intent upon the subject of what intellectual light is, namely, that it is the light of truth flowing in from our Lord, and is indeed the cognition of universals - as that our Lord governs all things -
(1) then those things that are particulars obscure that light, and the singulars, or the truths of singulars, are in that general light as varieties in the world, which produce colors. For this reason also regeneration is compared to the rainbow. Furthermore, [I perceived] that thoughts are what make man to be such as he is: when the thought only inheres in worldly and corporeal things, then intellectual things connect themselves therewith,
(2) so that the man cannot by any means speak with the heaven of spirits, for the thought proceeds outwards, and into oneself, the world, and nature; thence are the phantasies remaining in the other life that must be shaken off and die, and this is effected by a painful separation. It is otherwise with those who are only in thoughts concerning the Lord, thus concerning heavenly things. There is therefore a double arch of the rainbow,
(3) the one consisting of phantasies joined to spiritual things, which is what souls love; the other consisting of a variety of spiritual and celestial things without the natural, which is the character of the more interior heaven. 1748, Jan. 26.
Footnotes:
1. That is "angelic spirits" as they are called in the Index (s.v. Foviales).
564. Praeterea ab iis potui plenius comprehendere multa quia solum cogitant, et particularia non curant, sicut dum mentem intendi, quid Lux intellectualis, nempe quod sit lux veritatis a Domino nostro influens, et quidem cognitio universalium, ut quod Dominus noster regat omnia, tunc ea, quae sunt particularia, quod obscurent eam lucem, et quod singularia, seu veritates singularium se habeant in luce illa communi, sicut varietates in mundo, quae efficiunt colores, quare etiam regeneratio comparatur iridi; praeterea, quod cogitationes sint, quae faciunt, quod homo talis sit, qualis est; quando cogitatio solum inhaeret mundanis et corporeis, tunc intellectualia iis se connectunt, adeo, ut cum spirituum Coelo nequaquam loqui possit, nam extrorsum vadit cogitatio, inque se, mundum, et naturam, inde phantasiae remanentes in altera vita, quae excutiendae, et moriturae, quod fit per separationem dolorificam; aliter, qui solum in cogitationibus de Domino sunt, ita de coelestibus: est itaque duplex arcus iridis, unus constans ex phantasiis junctis spiritualibus, quem amant animae, alter qui ex varietate spiritualium ac coelestium, absque naturali: tale est coelum intimius. 1748, die 26 Jan.