Tree Quotes

[billcompugeek]

Man can indeed repent of evils that he has done in body, and still think and will evil; but this is like cutting off the trunk of a bad tree, and leaving its root in the ground, from which the same bad tree grows up again, and spreads forth its branches. But it is different when the root also is torn up; and this is done in man when he examines the intentions of his will, and puts away his evils by repentance.

Spiritual Experiences Minor (Buss) n. 4646
4646. The case with that dogma, that a tree remains where it falls, is not as is [usually] explained, but in this wise: It is the agreement of the internal or spiritual man with the external or natural, which remains as it falls. Man possesses both, in the other life. The internal or spiritual is terminated in his external or natural, as in its ultimate. The inmost or spiritual man is perfected in the other life - but, according to the agreeing things it is able to make use of, in the external or natural. The latter, however, namely, the external or natural man, cannot be perfected in the other life, but remains of the quality it has acquired in the life of the body; and, in the latter [life], it is perfected by the removal of the love of self and the world, and so by reception of the good which is of charity, and of the truth which is of faith, from the Lord. Hence, it is agreement or non-agreement which is the tree, with its root, which remains, after death, where it falls.