Metaphors with water

"The waters of the great oceans are moved at a deeper level."

Water as metaphor for how we navigate through the world

"You are the captain of your ship while you are sailing these waters. You need to take responsibility, become effective and learn to become a leader of your mind and emotions rather than their victim or captive. You cannot tell where you are sailing, and you do not know what is in the cargo of your ship, but you must be the captain on deck, negotiating the changing circumstances of your life and the pleasures and tribulations that present themselves on your voyage."

"There are dangerous waters ahead, more dangerous than any situation that the human family has ever had to face before."

"Only this deeper Knowledge, this sacred Knowledge, will know how to navigate the difficult times ahead, will know how to sail the troubled waters, for troubled waters there will be."

"Now at this great threshold, you will have to read the signs very carefully and very objectively, both from what the world is telling you and from what Knowledge within you is indicating, in order to begin to navigate a changing set of circumstances, a changing set of situations—navigating the troubled waters ahead."

"When the ship begins to list and takes on water, you will be ready. You will not be frozen. You will not go down with the ship."

"The ship is already taking on water, you see. It is already beginning to list to one side."

"You must follow an inner urging and an inner direction, without really understanding what is happening and what your future or the outcome will look like. If you do not have the strength or courage to do this, you will just stand where you are, becoming increasingly full of anxiety and confusion, increasingly worried, increasingly frustrated and compulsive until your circumstances just fall away and erode your life, like a person who is standing on a slowly shrinking island or in a boat that is taking on water increasingly."

"There is a deeper mind within you now, and it is this greater intelligence that will respond to God’s New Message. It is this greater intelligence that will be your raft to navigate the difficult waters ahead."

"The person of Knowledge is only looking for Knowledge. If you get too involved in studying your personality, there will be a great deal of motion but not much movement, like splashing around in the water but not really getting to the other shore. You think things are happening because you are making such a splash, stirring yourself up. Going from a hot shower into the cold ocean, back and forth, back and forth, is very stimulating to the body, but not much is really happening."

"Jesus Christ is a person who has set sail. He is not in the shipyard doing repairs. He is on the water. He is moving. He does not have to be concerned about what he has to be in life. His only emphasis is to maintain his sails and to adjust them according to the movement that is moving him."

"You know you need to set sail. We can ride with the wind. We are not bound to the shore. We do not drown in the waters of life, so we go with you."

The metaphor of crossing an icy stream

"If you were crossing ice cold water in a fast river, you would not be judging the river, you would simply be watching it to know where to put your feet. This is a very alert state. Caution is like that. Some people may think this is being fearful, but it is not."

Water as a metaphor for levels of knowing

"You have come into the world for your own advancement and for the advancement of your group. As your group advances and expands, it will be able to join with other groups, and then, like rivers joining with one another into greater and greater flowing bodies of water, you will find your way home to God, which is the source and destiny of all relationships."

Streams of water metaphor

"Your connection is very deep. It is like the rivers that run underground Under the desert Underground rivers of the purest water But which cannot be seen from the surface

And which cannot be found except by other means."

Ocean water metaphors

"At the surface, life looks chaotic and unpredictable. It looks mundane. There is nothing really extraordinary about it. It is full of stimulation, some of which gives pleasure and much of which gives pain. But deeper down, there are deeper currents moving your life, moving you into proximity to learn something, to see something, to respond to something—both within yourself and within the world at large. It is like the ocean, which is turbulent at the surface—swept by the winds of the world, moved by trivial forces. But at its depths, the ocean is being governed by greater forces, by planetary forces, by immense and mysterious forces that are moving water from one part of the Earth to another.

Your life is like that. At the surface, it is calm, it is turbulent, it changes from day to day, but it gives no real indication of its real movement and real purpose. From the surface of the ocean, how can you determine what the great movement of the waters really is? You cannot. You would need to have a greater wisdom, a greater insight of Knowledge here to really comprehend the fact that the water of the Earth is moving in a conveyor-like manner from one part of the globe to another—something you could not see or understand from the surface."

"You walk down to the ocean with a little cup in your hand, and you dip it in the water and you look at the water. Is that water the ocean? Yes and no. Yes, it is part of the ocean, but is it the ocean? People try to claim the reality of God, the intention of God. People are even so arrogant as to think that God will not send another Messenger into the world, thinking that all of the Messages have been sent and no more are really needed. They take their cup to the ocean, and they fill it, and they walk away thinking that they have the ocean. But they only have a tiny, tiny little bit—so tiny that it does not give the reality of the ocean and all of the life that lives within the ocean. So you take, instead of a cup, a bucket down to the ocean, and you fill it full of the ocean water, and now you think you understand God. You look in the bucket and you say, “Oh, this is the ocean, this is God.” But God is so much greater, and your little bucket of water does not represent the diversity of life living within that ocean. For using this as an analogy, if you try to claim the reality of God and God’s purpose and intention for the world, and you say, “This is it! This is God! This is what God wills for humanity. This is what God has given to humanity. This is the ultimate!” then it is like calling the bucket of water the entire ocean.

The ocean is vast. The universe is vast. It is full of life, beyond human estimation. The universe is like an ocean without end, the product of evolutionary forces that God had set in motion at the beginning of the physical universe."

Metaphors with water in dry lands

"You are like water in a thirsty land. You are bringing nourishment to people because you yourself are nourished."

"You begin to experience the deeper current of your life that is flowing deeply within you like the water flowing beneath the desert surface. Where everything appears to be arid on the surface, there is the purest water flowing deep down underground."4

"Religious experience transcends all theological boundaries and then returns to life to give new structure and meaning to religion and new opportunities for religious experience to be shared and translated to others. It is as if the world were a garden that is constantly being watered. It is constantly drying out, and it is constantly being watered. Even those who have developed within the context of the world’s religions must break new ground."

Fish tank water metaphors

"It is like being in and out of the fish tank. When you are in the fish tank, it is an all-consuming experience, yes? Yet, when you are out of the fish tank, you can see things in the fish tank very clearly, but you cannot easily interfere. We are out of the fish tank. You are in. You are underwater in your world, but only for a little while."

"In the world, people live in a state of amnesia. Like fish in a tank. Your world is that tank. Rarely can you see beyond the waters of your little world."

Metaphors with water as antidote

"What does it take to wake someone up when the house is on fire? You use a bucket of cold water if nothing else will work because you must arouse them. They are dreaming on, and the house is on fire. And they treat your awakening them as a great intrusion until they realize the seriousness of the situation. Then they look at you and they say, 'I owe you my life!'"

"When the house is on fire, everyone must get involved. Some will take greater roles. Some will take lesser roles. Some will simply pass water down the water line. It does not matter who is a hero or who is a heroine, for everyone works together. All that matters is that the fire is put out and the house is saved."

"Developing discernment is becoming sober. It is shaking off the clouds that shroud your vision and make it difficult for you to think clearly. It is like coming out of a stupor. It is getting yourself straight, like a person who is intoxicated and must wash his face with ice-cold water in order to bring himself back, to get himself straight."

Other metaphors with water

"I knew I must follow this. I turned and returned. The pursuing armies did not even see me. I passed through them like a knife passes through water. I was not invisible; I had no magical powers, but I did not expose myself unnecessarily."

"You only need relatively few people with Knowledge to preserve life here. Everyone drinks from their wellspring, yet only a few know where the water comes from and who brought it here."

See also

Spiritual Family

Further study

• Steps to Knowledge, Step 186: I Am Born Of An Ancient Heritage.

• Building the Foundation for a New Life: The Ship