Water in its chemical form is described as H₂O.  This means that when two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom bond together a water molecule is formed.  There are given physical and chemical concepts as to why two hydrogen atoms to one oxygen atom combine and how the negative and positive charges facilitate a combining that works and remains stable once this bonding has happened. Collectively these H₂O molecules are what we know as water. Water, seen from a purely physical scientific conceptual base is the result of this bonding of Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms. Water forms a liquid above 0⁰C and below 100⁰C.  Below 0⁰C, water becomes ice and above 100⁰C it becomes a gas (steam).   One thousand litres of water make up a metric ton at sea level.  All other weights are measured relative to this datum point given to us by water.  These are some of the basic concepts around water as purely a mineral element – water in the world of minerals.  When one takes in all these facts around the physical nature of water, one feels an affinity for it as one has grown to understand it a bit better.  This last statement is of significance to the parable that is being attempted here.

Now, if we plant a seed of a tree in soil at the right time of the year and the seed is healthy, and we water the seed from a watering can, the water, as described above, remains exactly as we have described it above while it is outside the seed.  The seed however needs water to germinate and thus absorbs the water.  The moment this water becomes part of the germinating seed, this water, now taken into the plant, performs a higher purpose – it is part of the growth and reproduction forces of the plant.  The forces of growth and reproduction of the plant use the water, thus taken into their influence, for this purpose.  Plants grow, they produce fruits and seeds, provide food, grazing and so on.  It is the same with the other physical elements that make up a plant, they serve a higher purpose when they are ‘inside’ the ‘grasp’ of the life force (growth and reproduction forces) of plants – water being used in this example. This part of the parable should be the easier part to grasp in ordinary consciousness.

Moving on now, just as the above is a reality, that water can be seen as a mineral substance outside of the plant but then taking on quite different qualities when it has been drawn into the plant’s life forces, so too could one say that our human understanding of something can be just a dead ‘mineral’ thought, or it can take on new qualities that serve a higher purpose.  We can make the link in the following way using the above example of understanding water, either as mineral or under the influence of the growth and reproductive forces found in plants.  Reverting back to the different qualities of thinking, if one re-reads paragraph 1 above with the following qualities in one’s soul, what happens to what one gets out of the paragraph?  The qualities that I want us to place in our souls for this exercise are haste, laziness, negativity and self-indulgence.  If one reads the paragraph again firstly with haste, this does not mean fast, but with a wish to get it out of the way so that one can tick the task off, one will discover that one gets very little from the paragraph and while one can read it and understand the writing, punctuation, spelling and so on, the real understanding fails to enter one’s soul.  The same can be done with the next three qualities of laziness, negativity and self-indulgence.  We can then try them all-together.  We will discover that we have taken in very little of the facts around the water molecule as a mineral substance.  Taking such soul qualities with one into life, then, when one comes across a chance to use one’s understanding of a water molecule in a particular situation, the understanding will simply not live in one’s soul.  The connection of the percept of water with the correct and applicable mineral concepts, will simply not be there for one.  One would not be able to bring understanding to anyone or any circumstance requiring this understanding.  Conceptual growth and reproduction will not be possible.  In this example, it is similar to leaving the water outside of the plant – the seed being unable to absorb the water.  The understanding of water as a mineral exists as a possibility, but we have left it there and did not absorb it into our own souls lives to become part of our understanding of the world.

The question that then begs from this is ‘how can one draw understanding of water as a mineral into oneself so that this understanding serves a higher purpose – as an understanding that could be transferred to others?

The answer for me lies in being conscious of what qualities one places in one’s soul as one navigates reading this first paragraph above.  If one consciously fills one’s soul with the four opposites of the qualities used in the exercise above, let’s see what happens.  One fills one’s soul now with patience, diligence, positivity and selflessness.  One reads the first paragraph above with patience first.  Much of what is written there can now approach one’s inner life and grow to be connected with one’s living soul in a real way that leads one’s soul to an understanding of the water molecule as a mineral.  One finds a real inner connection to the water molecule through connecting the percept to the applicable and relevant concepts and one inwardly understands the water molecule.  One can then bring this understanding to bear when it is required later in any circumstance that requires this.  One becomes a fertiliser of real and correct concepts with all people and circumstances that require this.  One brings understanding to Mankind when one is conscious of what one nurtures as living soul capacities within one and so one becomes a carrier of clear thinking in a compassionate way to others.  This is growth for humanity through the reproduction of concepts from one person to another.

In summary, water serves a higher purpose than purely being a mineral wherever it is absorbed into a living organism.  When Mankind includes love, patience, selflessness, diligence, positivity, courage and so on, in his soul capacities, out of his conscious choice of what he wants in his soul, he chooses to be someone that can understand the world and himself.  When he decides to be accountable to self and take into his soul from what lies freely accessible to us, but remains outside us until we desirously and consciously take it in, he participates in the conceptual understanding and transmission of this to others – growth and reproduction.  In this way we become participants in the Good and the True, servants of the higher possibilities in us.  The world of the Good and the True is outside there.  We can take it into ourselves where it can serve others through our own conscious, managed, loving souls.  Is this not an element of our Human significance?  Leaving these enlivening soul capacities out there on the shelf of God’s store, they remain dead, as minerals are until they get absorbed into something living.  Only human beings have the capacity to know what has been written here.  We can leave this all on these pages or screens, or we can start taking the content into our own special souls consciously.  We can become the growers and reproducers of the humanity that currently lies too dormant in us.