“Because the Lord is Divine love and Divine wisdom, and these two
in essence are Him, it must needs be, for Him to dwell in mankind and give
mankind life, that He… fashioned in mankind recipient vessels… for Himself, one
for His love, and the other for His wisdom. These recipient vessels… are called
will and intellect-the recipient vessel… of love being called the will, and the
recipient vessel… of wisdom the intellect… from these two springs all a
person's life.” (DLW 360)
When the Lord created humanity, He created a world of vessels.
Each individual is able to be receptive to the Lord’s inflow of life and can
influence that reception to a certain extent. This influence is our
“vessel-hood” which is not only the highway for the Lord’s influx but also determines
whether we go to Heaven or hell after death. The quality of our vessel is
determined by how well we receive the Lord and can be influenced by how we
choose to live our lives. The more our vessel receives the Lord, the closer to
Him we become and the more likely we are to have a heavenly home. Conversely,
the more we close our vessel to the Lord and turn inward to love of self and
the world, the farther from Him we move and more likely to end in hell. This is
why it is our mission here on earth to refine our vessel so that we may be
better conduits for the Lord’s Divinity.
The Lord is Divine Love and Wisdom and in turn the very basis of
reality. But Divine Love is not just a noun describing the essence of God; it
is also a verb. To love is to will what is good for something outside of
oneself, so the Lord created humanity. He created vessels with the freedom and
rationality to reflect the Lord’s Love and Wisdom as a mirror to the Divine (DP
52). Although the Lord is infinite and eternal, in us He has extended Himself
into finite and temporal beings capable of holding Him or rejecting Him (DP
219). Through this creation of life apart from Himself the Lord has a group of
sentient beings whom He loves. We express God to the extent that we form ourselves
into His image. But this is only an appearance; truly we can do nothing apart
from Him because nothing can exist fully apart from God. But there is such a
thing as “nothing” and it has the ability to turn us from the Lord and from His
will. (Marijke Bau-Madsen gives important incites on the use of appearances in her
paper.)
Our sense of self, our ownership of life, like our very existence,
is only an appearance. However, we are not aware of this; for all intents and
purposes we are ourselves and control our lives. This experience of life as our
own is the proprium and along with our freedom and rationality, is what
separates us from the Divine and creates the space between us and the Lord that
can be closed through the process of regeneration. Through regeneration a
reciprocal relationship with the Lord is created through conjunction (DP 219).
Brandy Rose emphasizes how the proprium is used for agency in regeneration in her
discussion of the proprium.
But as much as this space creates the opportunity for conjunction with the
Lord, it also gives us the freedom to turn away from him; this is the power of
evil. Though the proprium is a mere appearance, without the Lord we have no
other knowledge than that we are an individual self. To make things worse, we
are born with a hellish proprium which tends to all evils (HH 293). But if
there can be a hellish proprium then there can also be a heavenly proprium (AC
3812).
Despite the fact that we are born with a tendency for evils of
every kind, evil from the proprium is not the fault of the proprium or inherent
in its existence; rather, evil is a result of the proprium. The good news is
that the proprium can be shaped and bent to the Lord’s will if in our sense of
self we can acknowledge that the only true “self” is the Lord. It is when this
truth is acknowledged and our actions reflect this truth that our proprium can
become truly heavenly. This is why celestial spirits would be perfectly happy
without a proprium: they have full knowledge and acceptance of the Lord’s life
and have perception of their own life being only the Lord’s life in them. And
yet they still possess a proprium through the Lord’s order (AC 141).
Evil is simply the absence of the Lord; it is everything that is
in opposition to the Divine which makes it nothing, the “nothing” mentioned
above. But the appearance of nothing has power proportional to its effect on
us; even though evil is nothing it is something in as much as it is the absence
of the Lord in us (CL 444). We are an empty vessel without the Lord and that
emptiness is called evil. When emptiness is all there is, it acts as a deathly
vacuum which only wishes to take more into itself; everything from the Lord is
in direct opposition to evil and so is the main target for evil’s wish to
consume and devour. While the Lord’s Love and Wisdom produces, evil consumes.
Furthermore it is in the nature of this emptiness to believe that it does in
fact exist; evil will never admit that it is not real because that would
include the recognition that what comes from the Lord is all reality. Because
the proprium is the sense of self its main function is to appropriate
everything to itself (DP 78). A hellish proprium appropriates everything to
itself, to the point that the evil in it grows like a cancer, claiming all that
is good and true for itself and turning it into evil and falsity (Visit Eric
Rossi’s discussion of evil for an in-depth look at evil
and its purposes). A heavenly proprium, on the other hand, has a willingness to
be bent by the Lord’s order; it also appropriates goodness and truth but only
to the extent of acknowledging that we can hold the goodness and truth of the
Lord. A vessel with a heavenly proprium is therefore self-aware of its
vessel-hood and understands that nothing filling the vessel is from the vessel.
By shaping our proprium to the Lord’s will, we become better
vessels for His Love and Wisdom. This is the work of regeneration. Through the
use of our freedom and rationality we marry our will and understanding so that
they may better receive the Lord’s life through goodness and truth. As we
improve our vessel-hood we also close the space between us and the Lord. We
even become more ourselves as we become more like the only true self, which is
the Lord (DP 42). The goal is to become an extension of the Divine.
The Lord’s true expression of being is in Divine truth, but
humanity is the expression of the Lord as much as we fulfill His purpose of
building a Heaven from the human race (DP 27). In this way the closer we grow
to Him the more we further His use. But if we add to His use by growing closer
to Him, do we detract from His use by turning away? Does the choice of evil and
the existence of hell reduce the Lord’s purpose? On the one hand, of course
not; evil is only an appearance and we are only vessels and have no effect on
the infinite and eternal Divine. Coming closer to God may make Him more Himself
but distancing ourselves from Him doesn’t make Him less Himself. He is infinite
and will pour life into us for eternity. Heaven is an expression of God as much
as individuals are and as it grows so does the manifestation of God’s infinity
(HH 71). On the other hand, however, in rejecting the Lord we are profaning a
potentially heavenly vessel by filling it with evil. Although it is impossible
to subtract from infinity, choosing the emptiness of evil is a form of
stealing; it is stealing the Divine gift of life and treating it as our own.
At the same time as Heaven grows so does hell. Humans are kept in
perfect balance between good and evil so that our choice to turn toward or away
from the Lord is still our own. This equilibrium and this world of fixity give
us the capacity to shift the nature of our vessel. It is our chance to bend our
proprium to the Lord’s will and acknowledge that all life comes from Him (HH
597). But once we die and enter the spiritual world and become free of
appearances, there is no movement and we choose either Heaven or hell. But it
takes time before we die to become an expression of the Lord and to shape our
vessel. We know that it has to be gradual in order to be a real choice. This is
because in the process of regeneration our souls are traveling from heaven to
hell and back again while our physical bodies are here on earth (DL 28). If
this happened quickly we would go insane. This journey is necessary if we are
to be a fully productive and wise human beings because experiencing the empty
vessel of evil is part of what gives the process of regeneration contrast and
therefore meaning (TCR 763). Through the knowledge of evil we can appreciate
and recognize good. This is why the Lord gives us time on earth and starts us
with a hellish proprium: we have to experience hell before we can fully choose
to turn to Him and accept life from Him. The Lord could have made us
insta-angels, ready for Heaven from day one. Instead, the Lord gifts us with
the capacity to choose Him or not and keeps us in constant equilibrium and
therefore freedom.
But true freedom is not actually the choice between good and evil.
True freedom only applies to the choice to follow the Lord. Any other choice
appears to be freedom but is truly slavery (TCR 495). This is because freedom
was created by the Lord to follow the Lord; he is the only reality, so not
choosing the Lord means choosing to not be real and distancing yourself from
anything of true substance.
The intention of us for Heaven is the core of the Lord’s order and
He wants us all to be expressions and extensions of His Divine love and wisdom
but he also wants us to possess freedom—the freedom, rationality, and sense of
self that allows us to be distinguished from Him. In this way all that the Lord
does and creates has a use that serves His end goal (DLW 327). Even evil has
its use in the Lord’s plan as it gives meaning to everything that does come
from the Him. Evil allows us to understand what it is to be an empty vessel.
With this contrast we can better understand why we should work to improve our
reception of the Lord’s life.
I would like to wrap up this very theoretical analysis of life,
the universe and everything with something more concrete. You are a vessel.
There is no escaping that much. But thanks to your proprium it is your choice
what you will be filled with. So the question is will you fill yourself with
was is real or with emptiness that only believes itself to be full.
It can be difficult, if not impossible, to know whether you are serving as a
vessel for the Lord or serving as a vessel for evil, and this too is within the
Lord’s order. But when in doubt, a good place to start is to follow His Word.
It is no coincidence that this is also the method for regeneration. Of course
just following the Lord’s Word doesn’t seem to solve the problem of the hellish
proprium. But rather than seeing the proprium as a roadblock between you and
the Lord, consider that it can be a tool to turn toward Him. When we can know
that the Lord is the true self we can bend and shape our proprium to parallel
that of the Lord and transform ourselves into a mirror for Him. Then even after
life on earth is over we can become a continually perfecting vessel for the
Lord’s love and His wisdom.
5 comments:
Things I appreciated: I appreciated how you pointed out that evil is actually nothing. It gives one the ability to try and give it less authority because it actually has none. I also appreciated how you kept to your topic that we are nothing without the Lord. I loved being able to see a more in depth version of what you have been discussing throughout the term.
Potential improvements: You do an excellent job of describing the proprium and how it shapes us. But it felt like there wasn't much on how you shape your proprium to be good and receive the Lord more.
Questions: If evil is the absence of the Lord's love and therefore is nothing. Then is hell nothing or is it provided for by the Lord's love of the human race regardless of their delights and loves?
This was a fascinating read. You covered a whole bunch of topics in explaining this, which makes sense. You were quite successful in linking these many issues together in your discussion of "vessel-hood." I can safely say this is an idea I have not often considered before now, but now I am intrigued. You also did a really good job of describing how evil is just empty, and good is actually filling the pots.
I would ask could perhaps you could have spoken of the proprium in your introduction? You talk about it a lot in the rest of your paper, but there's no mention of it in the intro. It just seems that the proprium is somewhat thrown on the reader when they might not have expected it from starting the paper.
These do not detract from my interests in your paper. I was wondering how far we can purify the proprium in this world? And once we're finished here is that it? Is there any sort of purification of it after death, for those who are going to heaven?
Thanks for writing this paper Tykah. You had some great points on a variety of subjects, and it was very impressive how many you were able to bring in and still manage to have them relate to your topic. It gives a whole new meaning to seeing the glass as half-full or half-empty.
Beautiful paper Tykah!
I really loved the comparisons to an individual with a vessel. I appreciate you to bringing the idea to light that evil in itself is nothing. I think this idea isn’t commonly understood, but yet that perspective is important.
My one question is your idea of emptiness. I think you’re implying its anything that doesn’t contain any good or truth. I get were your “vacuum” effect is coming from in terms of emptiness, but I think the reader could use some more hand-holding through the theme. Possibly an example or two would help.
All together your paper does a nice job of drawing a vivid and explicit comparison between good and evil. After reading your paper I realize the importance of considering yourself as a vessel. It’s cool to think about what other parallels your vessel could be involved in. Can evil and good be present at the same time of your vessel? Who cancels out the other?
Thanks for “filling” me up with some interesting information.
Excellent dissertation Tykah! Vesselhood tends to be often discussed in the New Church but never described in such great detail!
I greatly appreciated the idea of an evil person, rather than having a vessel full of evil, as being simply empty. I have never considered the idea of emptiness to describe a person who is evil, but it makes sense! As you described very well in your paper. The nothingness of evil, as it is devoid of life, which is from the Lord, is a difficult concept to grasp. You managed to make that idea believable and comprehensible.
Your paper might be lacking in some real-world examples and applications. Your final paragraph does well to bring the reader inside your paper, as you addressed me directly! However, without more real-life examples, it was harder to understand the full scope of vesselhood.
The biggest question I have is why does the Lord have to make our proprium evil? You said that is it so we will choose Him, but does that mean it must be His antithesis, which is evil? Why can't our proprium start as more neutral with less inclination towards evil?
Overall, I think that your paper makes vesselhood clear and understandable, even to someone who does not know much about the topic. Thank you for helping my understanding as well!
Insightful essay Tykah! I am new to the New Church, yet I found your explanation of the proprium articulate and easy to follow! The references to vessel-hood and shaping are helpful to convey the Lord's work within us, attributing all to Him. Your statement that "in life we can be an expression of the Lord" fulfills the essence of your topic "Fill the Emptiness."
Your overview of the principals of the relationship between the Lord and man, especially the role of the proprium, as the agency in regeneration. The proprium as appropriating everything to itself, the receptacle of evils, the very source of transformation if conjoined to the Lord's influx. Your explanation is very understandable.
The segment on the purposes of the Lord was very insightful, especially that we are an "expression of the Lord as much a we fulfill His purpose of building Heaven from the human race(DP27)." If we express the Lord to the extent that we form ourselves into His image, what are some practical real life examples about how this may be accomplished? How can we reflect the Lord's love and wisdom? How can we serve the Lord's end goal of "building Heaven from the human race?" Other considerations, is this only about our own journey in this life, does this include our neighbor? Although the vessel may be only and appearance, and even if we can not truly know our inner self, what are practical ways the Lord can grow within us and can He manifest through us in this lifetime? Afterall, to continue your analysis, the vessel serves to delivery the contents to ports and destinations.
Post a Comment