hought is determined heavenward, and
with it his whole mind, which is thus in heaven; and from heaven he
beholds the things of the world beneath him like one looking down
from the roof of a house. So the man that has the interiors of his
mind open can see the evils and falsities that are in him, for these
are beneath the spiritual mind. On the other hand, the man whose
interiors are not open is unable to see his evils and falsities,
because he is not above them but in them. From all this one may
conclude whence man has wisdom and whence insanity, also what a man
will be after death when he is left to will and think and to act and
speak in accordance with his interiors. All this also has been said
in order to make clear what constitutes a man's interior character,
however he may seem outwardly to resemble others.

533. That it is not so difficult to live the life of heaven as some
believe can now be seen from this, that when any thing presents
itself to a man that he knows to be dishonest and unjust, but to
which his mind is borne, it is simply necessary for him to think that
it ought not to be done because it is opposed to the Divine precepts.
If a man accustoms himself so to think, and from so doing establishes
a habit of so thinking, he is gradually conjoined to heaven; and so
far as he is conjoined to heaven the higher regions of his mind are
opened; and so far as these are opened he sees whatever is dishonest
and unjust, and so far as he sees these evils they can be dispersed,
for no evil can be dispersed until it is seen. Into this state man is
able to enter because of his freedom, for is not any one able from
his freedom to so think? And when man has made a beginning the Lord
quickens all that is good in him, and causes him not only to see
evils to be evils, but also to refrain from willing them, and finally
to turn away from them. This is meant by the Lord's words,

My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matt. 11:30).

But it must be understood that the difficulty of so thinking and of
resisting evils increases so far as man from his will does evils, for
in the same measure he becomes accustomed to them until he no longer
sees them, and at length loves them and from the delight of his love
excuses them, and confirms them by every kind of fallacy, and
declares them to be allowable and good. This is the fate of those who
in early youth plunge into evils without restraint, and also reject
Divine things fr