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1 Samuel 9:19 · World English Bible

1 Samuel 9:19 Meaning Samuel Answered Saul

Samuel answered Saul, and said, “I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for you are to eat with me today. In the morning I will let you go, and will tell you all that is in your heart.

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What does 1 Samuel 9:19 mean?

A man sets out after lost animals and walks into someone who can read him. The seeker always arrives with a small worry, and the master answers a question that was never asked, because the worry was only the excuse the heart used to move the feet.

From the Indian Guru reading below.

1 Samuel 9:19 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

AWARENESS

Indian Guru

A man sets out after lost animals and walks into someone who can read him. The seeker always arrives with a small worry, and the master answers a question that was never asked, because the worry was only the excuse the heart used to move the feet.

Seeing belongs to a different order than thinking. One whose own noise has stopped reflects the visitor's inner state the way still water reflects a face. And what he shows is nothing new, only what was there all along, unlooked at through the whole search.

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Indian Guru lens

Live 1 Samuel 9:19 today

  1. Write down the small worry that has been pulling at you, then ask what you are really restless about underneath it. The worry is usually just the excuse that got you moving.
  2. When someone comes to you with a problem today, do not solve it. Stay quiet long enough that they hear their own real question, which is almost never the one they walked in with.
  3. In a meeting or a hard conversation, listen for what the person is not saying while they talk about the thing they came to talk about. Respond to that instead.

What are you actually looking for behind the thing you say you want?

The same truth in other traditions

Tao Te Ching

Still water shows a face clearly. A person whose own mind has settled reflects whoever comes near, without adding anything.

Zen

The teacher does not hand you something new. He takes away what you were holding, and what is left was there the whole time.

Sufism · Rumi

What you are searching for is also searching for you. The lost thing that got you walking was never really the reason you set out.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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