From the Bible and from Swedenborg

Secrets of Heaven, #27-28. NCE

Genesis 1:9. And God said, “Let the waters under heaven be gathered
into one place, and let dry land appear”; and so it was done.
When we learn that we have an inner self and an outer, and that
truth and goodness come from the inner self—or rather from the Lord
by way of the inner self into the outer, even though this is contrary to
appearances—this information, this knowledge of truth and goodness, is
stored away in our memory. The knowledge takes its place among the
secular facts we have learned, because anything instilled in our outward
memory, whether earthly, spiritual, or heavenly, lodges there as a fact,
and from there the Lord draws on it.
This knowledge is the waters gathered into one place and named seas.
The outer being itself, on the other hand, is called dry land. Immediately
afterward it is called earth, as the next verse shows.

Genesis 1:10. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of
waters he called seas; and God saw that it was good.
To find waters symbolizing religious and secular knowledge, and seas
symbolizing a body of such knowledge, is quite common in the Word. In
Isaiah:
The earth will be full with the awareness of Jehovah, like the waters
covering the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)
In the same prophet, where both kinds of knowledge are portrayed as
lacking:
The water will disappear from the sea, the river will drain away and dry
up, and the streams will recede. (Isaiah 19:5, 6)
In Haggai, where a new church is the subject:
I am shaking the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land;
and I will shake all the nations, and those who are the desire of every
nation will come, and I will fill this House47 with glory. (Haggai 2:6, 7)
And in Zechariah, on the regenerating

And in Zechariah, on the regenerating individual:
That will be a single day; it is known to Jehovah; it is not day or night.
And it will happen that at the time of evening there will be light. And it
will happen on that day that living water will go out from Jerusalem,
156 SECRETS of HEAVEN §26
part of it to the eastern sea and part of it to the western sea.48
(Zechariah 14:7, 8)
In a passage in David depicting a devastated person who is being reborn
and will come to revere the Lord:
Jehovah does not despise his prisoners; the heavens and the earth, the
seas and every creeping thing in them will praise him. (Psalms 69:33, 34)
In the following passage in Zechariah, the earth symbolizes that
which receives something put into it:
Jehovah is stretching out the heavens and founding the earth and forming
the human spirit in the middle of it. (Zechariah 12:1)





 

I'll never forget Memorial Day of 1980. My husband and I were finally purchasing a home! It was in rural New Hampshire, and there was lots of room for a garden. I was so excited! I so wanted to grow my own organic vegetables. The closing date on our home was just after Memorial Day, but the owners let me start planting on Memorial Day week-end. I had read that in my part of New Hampshire, Memorial Day was the point at which it was safe to plant heat-loving seeds and seedlings.

I had such a great time digging up the ground and putting my little seeds in. Then I had to water them, so they could start growing. I hadn't actually thought of that beforehand!

The house was far from the garden, so there was no hose. There was a stream near-by. So I got a bucket and began bringing buckets full of spring water to my little seeds. After a few trips, I was getting tired and there was hardly any water in the ground.

I noticed that the well was close to the garden! I remembered the well at my grandparents' house as a child. It had a neat handle that I could pump to get water. This well had no handle. It was covered with a cement top, and the water was pumped by electricity up to the house.

I thought maybe I could dig some trenches from the stream to the garden. I worked at that for awhile, and then realized that the land was too hilly for trenches to bring the water.

I looked up at the sky. Any chance of rain? It was my only remaining hope. The skies were bright and sunny.

Well, in the end, I went to a hardware store to buy a very long extension for a garden hose so that I could water that garden.

Today, I am blessed to live near a C.S.A., where I can support their efforts in growing organic vegetables.

I've thought about that Memorial Day in 1980 when I've read St. Teresa of Avila talking about prayer like a garden.


 She says that there are 4 forms of prayer, just as there are 4 basic ways to water the garden.

The first is using a well and a bucket. You have to raise up the water from the well, and then carry the bucket of water to the garden. It is a lot of work, and produces a minimal amount of water.


Teresa saw the soul as part of our inner being; just as Swedenborg did later. So prayer is a way of coming to know this deepest part of the self.

She saw two main forms of prayer: meditation and contemplation. The former is prayer that is intentional, and requires some effort.

Contemplation is just a grace of God, and our only act is to receive it.
Now imagine that God has presented you with a lovely plot of land in an arid area. The soil is tilled; God has planted the seeds. God has even removed all of the weeds.

There is only one thing you need to do: water the garden, through prayer.

So, one begins. One might purchase books, and read the prayers that are in the books. Or one might attend church and listen the prayers being offered. One might try a disciplined form of meditation, and learn to sit and focus and chant a mantra.

These can go on for years. Eventually, however, they lose of attractiveness. They are empty. They prayer takes more energy than we have.

  How about a water wheel and an aqueduct?

 

THE PRAYER OF QUIET

This is watering the garden with a water wheel and an aqueduct.  It requires less work, and produces more water.

The person’s will is quieter and more absorbed in God’s grace. One has no desire to move.

Here are some of the things she says about the Prayer of Quiet:

THE PRAYER OF INFUSION

The third way is to use flowing water from a near-by stream.
This way is a deeper contemplation; where the faculties are more deeply asleep. The flowers are blooming in the garden. It is “infused” in that one is not doing anything to be in this state of prayer; it just happens. In the prayer of quiet, one just wanted to sit quietly and be with God; like Mary. Now one is energized to out in the world and do good deeds – uses – for others. One combines Martha with Mary, so that one is “engaged in both the active and contemplative life together.
There is an apparent union with God, but it is not yet complete.

THE PRAYER OF UNION

The soul is now in union with God.

“Now how this prayer they call union comes about, and what it is, I don’t know how to explain. …what I’m attempting to explain is what the soul feels when it is in Divine union. What union is we already know since it is two separate things becoming one?


Teresa really cannot explain it. Has anyone ever been able to explain it? She does say the state if very brief; a half an hour is a long time.

LIVING LIFE

Teresa seems to say that, in our real world, we are not meant to ignore our gardens and just wait for rain. “if there were no winter and the weather were always mild, there would be no lack of flowers and fruit. but this is impossible while we are living on the earth. Individuals must always take care so that when one kind of water is lacking they might strive for another. The water from heaven often comes when the gardener is least expecting it.”

I take this to mean that our prayer lives are not a neat hierarchy. We need different forms of prayers at different times, and need to be open to whatever is right for us at a given time.

SWEDENBORG ON WATER

It makes sense that Teresa would use "water" as a way to help us understand prayer.  Swedenborg, too, often talked about water.  Here are some quotes from Secrets of Heaven:

.




Water, for Swedenborg, was about truth and clarity.

He also had some comments on the importance of gardens:

Carl Jung and St. Teresa of Avila

John Welch wrote a fascinating book about Carl Jung and Teresa as spiritual pilgrims on a similar path.

He said that water had a similar meaning to Jung as it did to Teresa.


Here are notes taken during one of Jung's lectures:


Whenever water appears, it is usually the water of life, meaning a medium through which one is reborn.  It symbolizes a sort of baptism ceremony or initiation; a healing bath that gives resurrection or rebirth.
[page 61.]


For Jung, water conveyed the depth of human richness and depth within our deepest being. For Swedenborg, it was about truth.  Teresa used it as a way of explaing prayer to us.

How do you water your garden of prayer?



Our closing song is quiet music about a garden.  Memorial Day is a time to remember those who have died -- in war or in dimension of our lives.  Give yourself a moment to remember and to reflect.

CLOSING SONG

 

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