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“Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.”
*Bhagavad Gita
The Jesus of John's Gospel says, in chapter 7.37-39: "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." (NASB)
Likewise, in John 4.9-11, we read: 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?" (NASB)
The theme "living water" was already well-known to Jesus' contemporaries. An example from the Hebrew Scripture derives from Jeremiah: "For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters [or, waters of life, life-giving waters], and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." (Jeremiah 2.13, AV)
The Jeremiah passage speaks of human tendency to resist surrender to the One Who is living water. This refusal, more than not, is an act pride. Indeed, even a religious or spiritual acquisitiveness is a chief obstacle to enjoying Grace, for Grace only flows into the space formed by surrender.
Thus, contemplative prayer and living is our opening to That which Itself lives in and from Itself. This Self-Subsisting, Self-Giving One pours Itself out for all, without losing any of Its plentifulness. All life derives from this Fount, and the Fount loses nothing of its substantial flow in giving all of Itself to all, always.
Thus, reception of life, flowing like fresh water, is the receiving of Love. This Love never needs to be replenished, for the Love never loses any Love in giving all Love, the nature of Love being irreducible.
The Jeremiah passage identifies the "life giving water" with the Spirit, as does Jesus, clearly, in John 7. That is, the Divine One is Living Water, and to partake of such Grace is to partake of Life, for God is Life, living Life.
This is a reason we meditate. We go to the "innermost being" and find that point at which only One lives. Essentially, we are of God and God is of us.
Being the Image of God, we all together, as one, are living water, the Presence of the Divine. Meditation leads us to realization of the plentiful, abundant Life in which we join in all things and as part of everything, as God, without God being other than God or our selves being other than our selves.
Then, through Silence, we drink of what we are, imbibing the Truth at the beginning and end, as one, of who we are and have always been. With this drinking, we are reoriented to our true Identity, an Identity-in-Communion. We are refreshed to live presently and in service through each of our selves as particularized expressions of the God-in-Life we embody, integrally, in service with all others.
Reflection
What to you is the living water?
How do you imbibe living water?
Sources: Quote from Bhagavad Gita from thinkexist.com .
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For Brian's on-line audio sermons, go to www.wherethelightshines.org and select Pastor's Corner; on the following page is his weekly sermons given at Christ United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL.
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For replies and biographical information, and submission to "The Light Shines" daily devotionals ~ a ministry of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL, see next page:
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