A "field" in the Bible usually represents the Lord's church, and more specifically the desire for good within the church. It's where good things start, take root, and grow. When you have a desire to be a good person and to do good things, the natural first questions are "What does that mean?", "What should I do?", "What can I do?". You look for ideas, concepts, direction. Once you figure out something you want to do or a change you want to make in yourself, you seek specific knowledge. If you want to volunteer at a food pantry, say, you'd need to know whom to call, when they need help, where to go, what to bring. Armed with that knowhow, you're ready to get to work. That process could be compared to food production. You start with a field -- which is that desire to be good. Then you plant seeds -- those ideas and concepts. Those seeds sprout into plants -- the specific facts and knowledge needed for the task (easily seen in the food pantry example, but also true with deeper tasks like "being more tolerant of my co-workers" or "taking more time for prayer," or "consciously being a more loving spouse"). Finally, those plants produce food -- the actual good thing that you go and do. The Writings also say that in a number of cases a "field" represents the doctrine, or teachings, of the church. This sounds markedly different. The desire for good is emotional, a drive, a wanting; doctrine is a set of ideas. But for a church to be true, its doctrine must be centered on a desire for good, and must lead people toward doing what is good. So sound doctrine is actually closely bound up with the desire for good.

5199. 'Beautiful in appearance' means which are expressions of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'beauty' and 'appearance'. Spiritual 'beauty' is essentially an affection for interior truth, while spiritual 'appearance' is essentially faith, so that 'beautiful in appearance' means an affection for the truth of faith, see 553, 3080, 3821, 4985. The reason spiritual beauty is an affection for interior truth is that truth is the outward form taken by good. The good which they receive in heaven from the Divine provides angels with the life they possess; but the outward form taken by that life is provided by the truths springing from that good. The truth of faith however does not provide the beauty but the affection itself present within the truths of faith springing from good. Beauty that is provided solely by the truth of faith is like the beauty of a face seen in a painting or a sculpture, but the beauty provided by an affection for truth springing from good is like the beauty of a real face full of life imparted to it by heavenly love; for as is the love - that is, as is the affection - which shines out of the form provided by the face, so is the beauty seen there. This being so, the outward appearance of the angels is indescribably beautiful. Their faces are radiant with the good of love passing through the truth of faith, which good and truth not only present themselves visually but can also be felt from the spheres that emanate from them.

[2] The reason why this is the source of beauty is that heaven in its entirety is the Grand Man and has a correspondence with every single part of the human being. Everyone therefore who has the good of love and for that reason the truth of faith present in him has the form which heaven possesses present within him; and as a consequence of this there is also imparted to him the beauty which heaven possesses, heaven being a place where the Divine going forth from the Lord is the All in all. This also explains why those in hell, being the opposite of what is good and true, are horribly ugly, and in the light of heaven do not look like human beings but like monsters. The reason why spiritual appearance (aspectus) is faith is that in the internal sense 'looking at (aspicere) and seeing' means understanding, and in a sense more internal than this having faith is meant, see 897, 2150, 2315, 2807, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421.