In judo, you are trained to take advantage of your opponents' momentum to throw them off balance, and to the ground. You don't have to be bigger or stronger to win a combat.

There's a spiritual judo arena for each of us. When we start to try to shun evils, learn truths, and do good, we're entering the arena. We're going to engage in contests, combats.

We can expect that our opponent (our old, selfish mind/self, which believes false things and loves evil things) will try to use our new momentum to throw us off balance, and down. If we shun an evil successfully, once or twice, it will pull us into the evil of self-congratulation. If we learn some exciting new truths, it will yank us further into a pride in our own intelligence. If we fail a few times, it will throw us into despair or lead us to abandon the whole project.

If we know to expect these judo tactics, can we do better at keeping our balance? Yes, for sure. We can recognize that we're in the spiritual arena, in spiritual combats, or temptations. We can try to keep our balance, keeping the Word as our touchstone, and getting advice and support from people we love and trust. We can move without over-reaching, learning truths to match with new-found loves for doing good things. We can practice, over and over again, and not lose heart.

Judo is not mentioned in the Bible, but when you look, you can see the techniques at work:

Three times in the Old Testament, there are stories of good high priests - Aaron, Eli, and Samuel - who have evil sons that they don't rein in. Initially strong, good efforts get pulled off balance, either by inattention or pride or neglected practice. (See Leviticus 10:1-2, 1 Samuel 2:12-34, and 1 Samuel 8:1-3)

The three most prominent kings of Israel, Saul, David, and Solomon, all start well, but get seduced by their power, pride, or wealth, which seem to corrupt them.

In another case, during the Exodus, Moses has led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, and towards the land of Canaan. He's doing well, obeying the Lord's commands. But at Meribah, he gets impatient, and loses trust in the Lord, and tries to take matters into his own hands. As a result, he's not permitted to enter the Promised Land. (See Numbers 20:6-13)

In Swedenborg's work, "The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine", there's a chapter about temptation that begins in section 196. In section 197 we find this statement:

"Temptation is a combat between the internal or spiritual man, and the external or natural man. (See Arcana Coelestia 2183, 4256)"

When you set out to make spiritual progress, you're entering the judo arena. Your new-forming spiritual self will combat your habitual "natural" self. You'll be fighting to keep your balance, and -- if you stay aware that you're in a spiritual battle -- you'll even be able to see ways to throw evil and falsity off-balance, to the ground.

4256. 'Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him' means the state of truth in relation to good, in which truth has made itself first. This becomes clear from what has been stated in various places above, especially from those which deal with the birthright which Jacob acquired to himself by means of the lentil pottage and with the blessing which he took from Esau by the use of deceit. What is represented and meant by those two incidents may be seen in the places dealing with them, where it is shown that truth seems to occupy the first position when a person is being regenerated and good the second, but that in reality good occupies the first and truth the second, as is plainly so once he has been regenerated. These matters are dealt with in 3539, 3548, 3556, 3563, 3570, 3576, 3603, 3701, 4243, 4244, 4247. When therefore order is being turned around and good plainly takes up the first position, that is, when it starts to have dominion over truth, the natural man experiences fear and distress, 4249, and also enters into temptations.

[2] The reason for this is that when truth occupied the first position, that is, when it seemed to itself to have dominion over good, falsities intermingled themselves. For truth is not able to see from itself whether it is the truth, but has to do so from good; and where falsities exist so does fear when good draws near. Furthermore all who are governed by good start to experience fear when falsities are seen in the light received from good, for they fear falsities and want to have them rooted out. But they cannot be rooted out if they are well established, except by Divine means provided by the Lord. This explains why, following the experience of fear and distress, those who are to be regenerated enter into temptations too; for temptations are the Divine means by which falsities are removed. And this reason why a person who is being regenerated undergoes spiritual temptations is a most profound one. Yet it is not seen at all by the person himself because it lies beyond his range of discernment, as does everything which stirs, pricks, and torments his conscience.

197. The origin and characteristics of crises of the spirit. Spiritual crises arise from the evil spirits who are with us; these spirits put barriers between us and the goodness we love and the truths we believe, and also stir up evil things that we have done and false things that we have thought: 741, 751, 761, 3927, 4307, 4572, 5036, 6657, 8960. At such times evil spirits use extreme cunning and malice: 6666. When we are undergoing a spiritual crisis we are close to hell: 8131. There are two forces at work in spiritual crises, a force from the Lord from within and a force from hell from without, and we are in between: 8168.

[2] In spiritual crises, what is under assault is the thing we love the most: 847, 4274. Evil spirits exclusively attack the things we believe and love and therefore our spiritual life itself, so that our eternal life is at stake: 1820. A comparison between the state we are in during a spiritual crisis and the state we are in when being attacked by thieves: 5246. When we are in spiritual crises, angels from the Lord hold us to a path of truth and goodness, while evil spirits hold us to a path of falsity and evil, which causes a conflict and a battle: 4249.

[3] A crisis of the spirit is a battle between the inner or spiritual self and the outer or earthly self: 2183, 4256. So it is a battle between the pleasures of the inner and the outer selves, which at this point are opposite to each other: 3928, 8351. This happens because the two kinds of pleasure clash with one another: 3928. So what is at stake is the control of one self over the other: 3928, 8961.

[4] No one can undergo a spiritual crisis who does not acknowledge the existence of truth and goodness and desire them, since if these are lacking no battle occurs. That is, there is nothing spiritual to counteract what is earthly and therefore there is no battle for control: 3928, 4299. Only those who have gained some spiritual life undergo spiritual crises: 8963. Crises of the spirit affect people who have a conscience-people, then, who have gained a spiritual kind of love. Such crises are more severe, though, for people who have perception-people who have gained a heavenly kind of love: 1668, 8963. Dead people-that is, people who have no faith in or love for God and no love for their neighbor-are not allowed to undergo spiritual crises, because they would give up the fight: 270, 4274, 4299, 8964, 8968. So nowadays not many people undergo spiritual crises: 8965. People do, however, have anxieties caused by various worldly situations-whether those situations have happened, or are happening, or are going to happen-situations that generally include mental affliction or physical illness. These are not, though, the same as the anxieties caused by spiritual crises: 762, 8164. Spiritual crises may or may not happen during times of physical suffering: 8164. The state we come into during a crisis of the spirit is impure and filthy, because we are inundated with evils and falsities and also doubts about what is good and true (5246) and because in these crises there are resentments, mental anguish, and many feelings that are not good (1917, 6829). There is also an element of darkness and doubt about the outcome (1820, 6829) and also about divine providence and whether we are being heard, because in crises of the spirit, prayers are not heard the way they are outside of such crises (8179), and because when we are in spiritual crises we experience ourselves as being in a state of damnation (6097). This is because we have a clear sense of what is happening in our outer self and therefore of the things that the evil spirits are injecting and evoking (and these shape the way we are thinking about our state). On the other hand, we do not sense what is happening in our inner self, which means we do not sense what is flowing in through angels from the Lord. The result is that we are incapable of judging our own state: 10236, 10240.

[5] Crises of the spirit continue until we reach despair, at which point the process comes to an end: 1787, 2694, 5279, 5280, 6144, 7147, 7155, 7166, 8165, 8567. Why this is so: 2694. Throughout the course of a spiritual crisis there are certain feelings of despair, but at the end they become all-encompassing: 8567. In despair we say some bitter things, but the Lord pays no attention to them: 8165. Once a spiritual crisis is over we at first fluctuate between truth and falsity (848, 857), but then the truth shines forth we feel peaceful lighthearted (3696, 4572, 6829, 8367, 8370).

[6] When we are being regenerated we experience crises of the spirit not just once but many times, because we have many evils and falsities that need to be put aside: 8403. If people gain some spiritual life in this world but do not undergo spiritual crises here, they go through them in the other life: 7122. How and where spiritual crises happen in the other life: 537, 538, 539, 699, 1106-1113, 2694, 4728, 4940-4951, 6119, 6928, 7090, 7122, 7186, 7317, 7474, 7502, 7541, 7542, 7545, 7768, 7990, 9331, 9763. The state of enlightenment of people who are emerging from crises of the spirit and being raised into heaven, and what happens to them there: 2699, 2701, 2704.