hey are sent away; and when sent away they betake
themselves to desert places, where they lead a life like that which
they lived in the world. [2] Man can be formed for heaven only by
means of the world. In the world are the outmost effects in which
everyone's affection must be terminated; for unless affection puts
itself forth or flows out into acts, which is done in association
with others, it is suffocated to such a degree finally that man has
no longer any regard for the neighbor, but only for himself. All this
makes clear that a life of charity towards the neighbor, which is
doing what is just and right in every work and in every employment,
is what leads to heaven, and not a life of piety apart from
charity;{1} and from this it follows that only to the extent that man
is engaged in the employments of life can charity be exercised and
the life of charity grow; and this is impossible to the extent that
man separates himself from those employments. [3] On this subject I
will speak now from experience. Of those who while in the world were
employed in trade and commerce and became rich through these pursuits
there are many in heaven, but not so many of those who were in
stations of honor and became rich through those employments; and for
the reason that these latter by the gains and honors that resulted
from their dispensing justice and equity, and also by the lucrative
and honorable positions bestowed on them were led into loving
themselves and the world, and thereby separating their thoughts and
affections from heaven and turning them to themselves. For to the
extent that a man loves self and the world and looks to self and the
world in everything, he alienates himself from the Divine and
separates himself from heaven.

{Footnote 1} Charity towards the neighbor is doing what is
good, just, and right, in every work and every employment (n.
8120-8122). Thus charity towards the neighbor extends to all
things and each thing that a man thinks, wills, and does (n.
8124). A life of piety apart from a life of charity is of no
avail, but together they are profitable for all things (n.
8252, 8253).

361. As to the lot of the rich in heaven, they live more splendidly
than others. Some of them dwell in palaces within which everything is
resplendent as if with gold and silver. They have an abundance of all
things for the uses of life, but they do not in the least set their
heart on these things, but only on use