Sand in the oysters and pearls of great price

Thinking about the role of suffering in the overall production line whereby we regenerate and come to practice the love of God and in the neighbor in truth, one came to a parable of the Lord's which has not much been under our crosshairs here:

Matthew 13:44-46 - King James Version (KJV)

<44> Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. <45> Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: <46> Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

Arcana Coelestia says of this passage the following:

"'The kingdom of heaven' stands for the good and truth present with a person, and so for heaven present with him. 'Field' stands for good and 'pearl' for truth, while 'buying' stands for acquiring these and making them one's own. 'Selling all that one has' stands for alienating that which previously was properly one's own, thus alienating evil desires and false ideas, for these are properly one's own" (5886).

One will add that the pearl of great price involves a concept of good and evil, of the will and the heart; here in the upright position as a great truth about good and the labor we should be prepared to expend to obtain it.

'Great', in the Word, signifies something good or evil; in this case good, because in the upright position.

Now, where do we get pearls?? We get them from the irritation of a clam about a grain of sand which has intruded on its flesh.

We are likewise, in our flesh -- the part of us prone to feeling, thinking and acting sinfully -- irritated by a grain of the sand of the seas of the Lord. And it would not be over much for one to infer that the Lord meant for us to understand that His teachings will irritate the flesh.

Sand consists of little stones, thus little truths, and even little truths -- like the princess and the pea -- can have disproportionate impacts in proximity to the sins of ours currently being worked upon during the order of regeneration.

The concentration of the attention on strident ideation should be perceived when it occurs; because one has watched and prayed. It will be some kind of specific tirade with evidently nasty feeling; and it will not only be perceived, as at first, but known as to its class in its quality of breaking the commandments of the Lord.

You will perceive, for instance, a haughtiness, a sneering, a stridency of repeated feelings and thoughts in adultery together concerning something or someone; and it will be obviously distinct from constructive criticism and evidently an instance of some hatred and its supportive ideation, some bread of wickedness and its wine of violence. 

This is the arena of battle, and in the meantime -- before all that peace we were promised -- we will have to stride energetically into a future where doing the right thing sometimes involves irritations in our flesh; and we have to accept their crucial involvement in baking the bread of love.

Neither the poor person on the dole nor the rich man without occupation have a sufficiently tense tight rope to walk upon. In facing challenges, in undergoing sufferings, we have a tremendous river to dip our turbines into, if we are willing. It is an unpleasant river, and it might as well become more useful around the house. 

Some experience sufferings and nothing of value occurs except for that. Others allow it into the mix of becoming a better person. One arrogant person will break their arm and continue in their arrogancy; while another arrogant person will also break their arm and will learn thereby some humility from the occasion.

Our sufferings will surely occur; let us then approach them as the opportunities to sell all that we have of the evil and the false in our platters and cups that they are; not merely suffering for nothing but harnessing the inevitable pains and frustrations of material existence up to why we are alive, to the best possible outcome.

John 6:60 - King James Version (KJV)

<60> Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

It was in response to His telling them that they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Were they honestly offended at His language? Of course not! That is just the husk and not the seed, and the seed is that they must face spiritual battles to purify their love and their understanding, eating His flesh and drinking His blood being thus traumatically and cannibalistically represented.

Many followed Him no longer, for this truth that there would be combat of the platter and cup suited them not. People are like clams intent upon avoiding any sand at all of truth about the evils and falsehoods to be faced in the face of the interior. But the sand will in some wise enter, the choice will be made. We are not served by a hellish life, but neither are we served by idle luxury. 

If we are not sufficiently irritated by sand, naturally and spiritually speaking, we do not feel that intent feeling that we are in a combat for our spiritual lives essential to taking the commandments seriously as guides to our inner lives and outer.

Those who apply the truths of faith to their inner and outer lives will face a tailored sequence of sin and error thoughtforms. This is called the 'order of regeneration'. This is the rotten onion of self-love and its supportive ideation, layer by exposed layer.

For we are brought into particular states of will and of understanding in interrelation, into marriages or adulteries of heart and mind, into states of sin and error and of love and wisdom. And in temptation we are brought into interrelations of sin with error in an orchestrated sequence.

We face the big bosses of our own evil desires and excuses for feeding them successively. 

As people overcome in their encounters with sin and error, in their trials by fire and by water, they face more interior sin and error thoughtforms, subtler levels of self-love and its supportive ideation; and the great evils proceeding from these. 

What evils proceed from these? There are ever subtler types of pride and envy and hate and greed and their supportive ideation severally. For instance, someone might as a result of hearing and doing the Word cease to be outright unrighteous on the outside; while not for all that 'getting very far', since in their interiors they have gone from outward unrighteousness to inner self-righteousness. So this sort of temptation to do, think, or feel something for which our sin natures lust may be faced and overcome. Look out for particular varieties of stridency and false witness in 'your' cogitations about someone of the neighbors to be loved.

And these all proceed from self-love, the foreskin we cut off with the sharp stone and the sharp sword of the Word; and the filth of evil that we wash with practiced truth.

The twelve gates to the New Jerusalem are twelve pearls are of great price that are bought with much irritation by the sand of unwanted divine truth, in the mouth as honey but in the belly of the flesh bitter; divine truth that exposes the sins and errors to be faced to purify the gold and the silver and become His new creatures and children indeed.