Metaphysical word of the day...

[wil]

Metaphysical meaning of garden (rw) | TruthUnity

Metaphysical meaning of garden (rw)
garden--The spiritual body in which man dwells when he brings forth thoughts after the pattern of original divine ideas. This "garden" is the substance of God.

Garden of Eden--Represents a region of Being in which are provided all primal ideas for the production of the beautiful; the elemental life and intelligence placed at the disposal of man, through which he is to evolve.

Man's body temple is the outer expression of the Garden of Eden. God gave it to man "to dress it and to keep it." (see Gen. 2:15) Man's primary work in the earthly consciousness is to use his creative power to preserve harmony and order in his world and to conserve his powers for divine direction. (see Eden, Garden of)

 

[Aupmanyav]

In Hinduism, a garden is a garden, and I suppose every heaven will have lots of them.

 

[wil]

There is no metaphysic in Hinduism? No metaphor? An elephant is really riding on a mouse?

Our word for the day.... Serpent

Meta. The "serpent" of the garden of Eden is sense consciousness. It may also be called desire, and sensation, or the activity of life in an external expression, apart from the Source of life. When the life is lifted to the realization that it is Spirit, it becomes healing, as illustrated by Moses' lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. Those who had been bitten by the fiery serpents (lustful expressions of life) were healed when they looked upon the serpent that was lifted up by Moses at the command of God. They looked up, or perceived the truth about divine life, and their minds and bodies were cleansed.

Bitterness always has back of it a bite for some one. When man rebels against life's conditions and curses God he sets up fiery forces in his thoughts that react on his body like poison. This is the condition illustrated in the allegory of Numbers 21:5-9. God does not directly send serpents upon man, but man's rebellious thoughts set up cross currents in his consciousness, and the burning and the biting seem a divine visitation. The original Hebrew does not imply that these were real serpents, but state that they were "the seraphim," "the burning ones."

The serpent is a form of elemental life. The Oriental symbol of eternal life is the serpent with tail in mouth. When this elemental form is "lifted up," or spiritualized, it adds glory and radiance to the whole man. The brazen serpent that Moses caused to be put up where all could see it, and so be healed, represents this elevation of the sense man to a higher consciousness.

Moses prayed for the people, and they confessed their sins and repented; there was a complete change of thought and especially a concentration on the one life (represented by the brazen serpent) to which all must look to be healed. When we turn our attention within and concentrate all our thoughts of life on divine life as manifest in Christ, a harmonizing and uplifting process sets in throughout the organism. The life force is no longer dissipated in sense sensation, but is conserved and concentrated at the various nerve centers. Through the action of the mind in prayer, faith, and meditation, the life force is transmuted to higher forms of energy and the whole man is lifted up. This is the way in which the body is spiritualized, and through this method man will finally make an immortal body.

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness [of sense], even so must the Son of man [personal consciousness] be lifted up." Taking up serpents represents lifting up sense consciousness without being hurt by its reaction. Laying hands on the sick represents pouring out the healing power of Spirit. (See Mark 16:18.)

 

[Aupmanyav]

Lots of metaphysics but no garden. Serpents are brothers to Gods and demons. They are supposed to be the progeny of Kadru, a wife of Sage Kashyapa. Gods were sons of Aditi, another wife. Daityas (demons) of Diti, Eagles of Vinata, Danavas (another type of demons) of Danu and Celestial women 'Apsaras' of Muni. And all these wives were sisters (23 in all), and daughters of the Hindu Adam, Daksha.. But that hppened in a different eon, Manavantar, named 'Swarochisha', which was the second. Presently we are in the seventh. Since each Manavantarais of 306,720,000 human years, the five intervening Manavantaras stand for 1.5336 billion years.

Shiva has serpents entangling his body, and Vishnu relaxes on the coils of the seven-headed serpent, Shesha. Shesha, BTW means the remainder. So, the remainder of the creation provided the couch of Vishnu.

Shesha makes the supporting cast of 'avataras', Lakshman in case of Rama and Baladeva in case of Krishna. Being forms of Shesha, the two were short-tempered.

The 34 kg Gold statue of Vishnu reclining on Shesha:

 

[wil]

For a physical origins of snakes.. Snake Evolution - The Story of Prehistoric Snakes

word of the day... Water

Meta. Water in its different aspects represents weakness and negativeness, cleansing, mental potentiality, and in some cases life, or vital energy.

The waters of Genesis 1:6, 7 represent unexpressed possibilities in mind. There must be a firm starting point established. This point or "firmament" is faith moving on the unformed capacities of Spirit consciousness.

In every mental proposition we have an above and a below. Above the firmament are the unexpressed capacities (waters) of the conscious mind resting in faith in Divine Mind. Below the firmament are the unexpressed capacities (waters) of the subconscious mind.

The "Seas" of Genesis 1:10 represent the unformed state of mind. We say that a man is "at sea" when he is in doubt about a mental process; in other words he has not established his thoughts in line with the principle involved, he is unstable. The sea is capable of production, but must come under the dominion of the formative power of mind, the imagination.

Water ("the sea"), in Mark 6:47-51, represents mental potentiality; it can also be understood as negation. The race thoughts have formed a sea of thought, and to walk over it safely requires that one have faith in oneself. Faith necessary to accomplish so great a work comes from understanding--understanding of God and man and the law of mastery given to man.

God is substance: sub, under; stare, to stand. He is the underlying principle of the universe, upholding all things by His word of power, by the omnipresent energy that permeates all creation. An understanding of God in His true character establishes the mind firmly in faith and causes the feet to walk safely over the sea of the mixed, negative thoughts of the race.

It is not necessary to walk on material water to follow Jesus. His walking on the water is a lesson in spiritual overcoming. When we have found the spirit of the law the material expression adjusts itself. We live constantly in a sea of thought that is moved on by every impulse of the mind. There are greater storms on land than on sea, and they are far more destructive because of the many minds reached by the psychic waves. Men need every day the saving call, "Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid."

The majority of men try to sail the ocean of life without the sustaining power of Spirit, but eventually they always go down in a troubled sea. Even those who have been taught of the Master are still filled with doubts and fears when storms arise, and instead of a reality they see an apparition. But the Christ mind is not an apparition; it is a mighty power, and when we have faith in it all the discordant elements of our life are quieted and we reduce to harmony and wholeness everything that our peace-giving thoughts touch.

Water, in one of its phases, represents negativeness. The individual who allows himself to become negative to the good finds himself uncertain and unstable in his mind, and often his body becomes so submerged in the waters of negation that his physical condition is low. Weak sympathy with error and the results of error helps to produce this condition. To be positive in the good it is very necessary that one have right ideas of God, that one know Him as good. The mind and the body are often toned up by one's thinking of God as divine law. One's understanding Him to be divine law frees the mind from sentimental ideas of God solely as love. It is these sentimental ideas that make weak human sympathy.

God is our Father, and it is His place to instruct and discipline us in righteousness. Those who will not learn their lessons in easy ways will have to learn them in hard ways, and we should not be sentimentally sympathetic with those who make severe corrections necessary. Weak, teary sympathy is just one of the ways in which we bring floods upon ourselves. Water often breaks up and dissolves old error states of consciousness in the individual, just as the Flood dissolved and washed away from the race the old conditions that the combined error force of individuals had formed.

Water is symbolical of weakness, lack of stability: "Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel" (Gen. 49:4, A. V.). In Mark 14:13 it is stated that the disciples were to recognize the man in whose home they were to eat the Passover by his carrying a pitcher of water. The meaning is that we should meet the error thought at the weakest point in consciousness. The error thought to be met in this case was designated as Judas, one of the disciples, who was possessed of a devil. This means that Jesus had discovered that He had one point in His character that was not yet cleansed and spiritualized by the power of the word, or the regenerating thought given by the Father. He said on a former occasion that His disciples (faculties) were all clean through the power of the word, save this one. So Jesus had to meet in the Judas faculty the reaction of an error thought that was working there from the personal or adverse side of existence.

Water also represents material cleansing, and fire represents spiritual cleansing. When John the Baptist baptized with water, he washed away the sins of an external character. He did not enter into the subconsciousness. It takes something more powerful than water to purify the error conditions accumulated by the soul in its many incarnations. The presence of God through Christ is necessary to purify this part of man. (See BAPTISM.)

Water also represents the great mass of thoughts that conform to environment. Every thought leaves its form in the consciousness, and all the weak, characterless words and expressions gather in the subconscious mind as water gathers in holes. When we get discouraged or disappointed and "give up," the undertow of life sweeps this flood of negative thought over us, and we are conscious of bodily weakness of some sort. Then, if we get scared, there is trouble ahead. When we know the Truth, and "brace up," however, the waters are confined to their natural channels again and our strength is restored.

It is the Lord that responds under the divine law to our thought and word. Those who "believe . . . through their word" are the ones that demonstrate. When one is so attached to property or to position that its loss takes away courage and ambition, the functions of the body sympathize with the negative thought and express in like manner.

"Living water" (John 4:10) signifies the inspiration of Spirit, also life. In Revelation 22:17 we read, "He that will, let him take the water of life freely."

 

[Aupmanyav]

The world as per Indo-Iranian Aryan belief:
The Zoroastrian name of the the serpent is 'Azi Dahaka'.

 

[wil]

Interesting.... where is the chart for the numbers...what is the ooze the southern hemisphere is floating in? and are how are these beliefs held now as science has grown?

 

[Aupmanyav]

.. what is the ooze the southern hemisphere is floating in? and are how are these beliefs held now as science has grown?

This was the belief at the time of Vedas and Zoroastrin Gathas. The world has moved on. The Iranian Aryans adapted/were forced to adopt Islam. Indian Aryans adopted Hinduism. Now both go with science. Though Islam says Allah did it and Hindus either say their Gods did it (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Mother Goddesses Durga) or that whatever you perceive is just an illusion, maya. There was never any creation. Brahman is unchangeable. I will check about the numbers.

 

[wil]

Tree.. ....

Meta. "Trees" represent nerves, and nerves are expressions of thoughts of unity; they connect thought centers. In Ezekiel 47:7 the trees growing on both sides of the river represent the nerves radiating from the spinal column, and connecting and unifying the whole organism through the nerve fluid.

The "tree" (Gen. 2:9) signifies the connecting link between earth and heaven --between body and mind, the formless and the formed. "Every tree that is pleasant to the sight" pertains to the perceptive faculty of mind. It is always pleasant to perceive Truth. The substance of spiritual thought is the "food" that is good. The "tree of life also in the midst of the garden" represents the absolute life principle established in man consciousness by Divine Mind. The roots of the tree of life are centered in the solar plexus region, and they are symbolized in the physical organism by the nerves.

The generative center in the loins of man is the point at which the physical man contacts life, but when the consciousness has been redeemed and man has placed himself in the "garden" through I AM, Jehovah God, he contacts the "tree of life" at the solar plexus region, or heart center, and from this center exercises authority and dominion over the whole current of life in the organism.

The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" represents the discerning capacity of mind. Man first perceives Truth; then he must discern the relation of ideas before perfect activity is set up within him.

Jehovah God told Adam to avoid the tree whose fruit was a knowledge of good and evil, "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." It is evident that this tree is closely related to individual free will, which is in direct touch with the "serpent" or selfhood. In that state of consciousness, or day, the individual shall surely die.

The branch that separates itself from the tree withers away and dies. So a belief by the ego that its life, substance, and intelligence are self-derived cuts off the source of supply, and the ego begins to revolve in a mental vortex whose dominant tones are good and evil, birth and death--duality.

It is through the affections, the feminine in us, that we partake of both good and evil. The soul, or woman, was given to man by Jehovah God, and is the avenue through which the inspirations of Spirit come. When the I AM assumes mastery over the soul it brings forth only good.

If man could lay hold of the tree of life while thinking both good and evil to be real, he would go on living in the negative part of his being and would bring destruction upon himself.

Man lost consciousness of his divine nature in Spirit, and so must begin again to lay hold of the potential ideas in substance and must "till the ground from whence he was taken."

The spiritual life is protected from the coarser consciousness by the "flame of a sword which turned every way," or the word of God and "the Cherubim," sacred wisdom. Man can regain entrance into Eden only by being "born anew" of Spirit.

The "tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month" (Rev. 22:2) is explained as follows:

The "tree of life" is the inherent life of the organism; it is symbolized in the physical by the nerves and the spinal column. The spinal column represents the tree; the nerves, which carry the living waters, are the branches and the leaves of the tree. Every month a transmutation of the living waters takes place, under divine order; thus are the "twelve manner of fruits" produced by the "tree of life . . . in the midst of the garden," the spiritualized body. (This latter text reverts to Gen. 2:9.) Man is kept from partaking of this precious, healing, life-giving fruit only by thoughts of sensuality. When this phase of sense consciousness is taken up in Truth and eliminated, and the idea of purity is built in, man's body begins to express its original holiness and perfection. We eat of the fruit of the "tree of life" when we appropriate ideas of divine life, ceasing to dwell on life as something that comes and goes, or something that is governed by birth and death.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Wish-fulfilling tree, Kalpavriksha, Kalpadrum, Paarijata. You ask anything and the tree will give it to you. Similarly Kapila cow, Kamadhenu, Surabhi. And there were many fights between Gods, Demons and humans about possession of the Vriksha (tree) and the cow.

Second image - Kalpavrisksha in Ajmer, Rajasthan.

 

[wil]

One handy tree...

Metaphysical meaning of breaking of bread (mbd)
breaking of bread, and prayers (Acts 2:42).

Meta. The stirring into action, in consciousness, of the inner substance of Spirit (bread) and the concentrating of mind upon it as the real possession. Then "they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart." All who have attained realization of the inner substance will testify to the gladness with which it is appropriated in the consciousness. All outward pleasures give way to the inner light of the Holy Spirit when it begins to shed its rays in the heart.

________________________

 

[Aupmanyav]

Breaking bread. There is one story with quick-to-anger sage Durvasa.

In one story, Durvasa goes to Pandava ashram with his 10,000 pupils. Yudhishthira invites him for meal after they had their bath in the nearby river. But there was nothing in the kitchen (Pandavas were completing the period when they were supposed to remain underground). So, Draupadi requested Krishna to save her from the predicament. Krishna asked Draupadi to bring the rice bowl. There was one grain of rice in the bowl. Krishna ate that and Durvasa and all his pupils were satiated. Since they were not in a position to eat anything more, they just slithered away.

And, of course, there is the story of Sudama's rice gift.

Sudama and Krishna were class-mates in Guru Sandeepani's ashram. After their studies, Krishna went to become a king since he was from a royal family, and Sudama, who was from a very poor brahmin family took up his family profession as a brahmin. When Sudama could not provide even two meals a day to his children, his wife asked him to seek the help of Lord Krishna. Thinking that Krishna also was a poor brahmin, she tied a handful of rice for Sudama to give it to Krishna.

Sudama reluctantly went to Krishna and was stopped at the gate. The gate-keeper asked his name and went to inform Krishna. It is said that Krishna came to welcome Sudama in such a hurry that he even forgot to put on his shoes. He made Sudama sit on his thrown and washed his feet.

Already knowing everything, Lord Krishna asked Sudama as to what gift has his wife given for him. Sudama was loath to present a handful of rice to Krishna in that palace where even the floor and walls were studded with jewels. But Krishna forcefully snatched the rice bundle from him and ate it without cooking saying that they were the sweetest thing he has ever eaten. The story is known in Hinduism as 'Sudama ke tandula" (Sudama rice), and the message is that old friendships should never be forgotten.

Sudama returns empty handed, but he did not know that Krishna had changed his humble dwelling into a place and filled it with all the riches. When he reached his home, he stopped in surprise. But then, his wife narrated what Krishna had done for him.


Krishna and Sudama in School, Krishna Welcomes Sudama, Krishna eats the rice puffs, Sudama being invited in his own palace

 

[wil]

Enjoying this... the story of the rice is similar to the loaves and fishes.. The feeding of more than 5,000 persons with an initial supply of five loaves of bread and two fish is perhaps the most spectacular of all Jesus' public demonstrations of the power of spiritual consciousness (miracle). Bread symbolizes spiritual substance. Fish symbolize ideas. Five loaves of bread symbolize the spiritual origin, character, and purpose of the five senses. Two fish represent the two ideas of polarity--yes and no. The hands of Jesus symbolize the working power of spiritual consciousness. When, in spiritual awareness, we recognize the spiritual origin, character, and purpose of our five senses, and when we.have spiritual awareness of how to handle the ideas of "yes" and "no" in our lives, we then have power to produce, reproduce, and increase the forms brought from substance into our manifest environment. Through bringing forth such increases of forms we are able to meet the needs and satisfy the hungers of all the factors in our life (symbolized by the 5,000 hungry ones).

The reality... Jesus was told they were hungry...he was asked if they should go to town and purchase food (indicating how much was in Jesus treasury...the possibility of lunch for 5,000) but no, he said pass around the loaves and the fishes... folks traveled with food...they didn't know when the next McDonalds would be. So while they were tight, coveting their food, the disciples shared theirs with the group, and as Jesus spoke others took a little and pulled what they had and added some to the baskets, each eating and sharing and discovering the abundance they all had...

Spiritual reality meets actual reality as perceived reality fades away...yeah...a miracle.