Deuteronomy 17:20 · World English Bible
that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn away from the commandment to the right hand, or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the middle of Israel.
The heart lifted up above others is the ego reaching for superiority, needing to stand higher so that it can feel like something. Whenever the mind measures you as better than those around you, it has quietly made itself the center again, and true presence is lost.
From the Ego v. Being reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
EGO & BEING
The heart lifted up above others is the ego reaching for superiority, needing to stand higher so that it can feel like something. Whenever the mind measures you as better than those around you, it has quietly made itself the center again, and true presence is lost.
Turning neither to the right nor the left is the stillness of one who no longer swings between pride and its opposite, but rests in what simply is. A life stays whole and endures when it is not consumed by that constant comparing. The one who remains among his brethren, feeling no need to rise above them, keeps his kingdom precisely because he has stopped defending an imaginary self.
Ego v. Being lens
Who are you still measuring yourself against, and what would be left if you stopped?
Because the wise do not try to shine, they are seen clearly. The one who stops competing has nothing left to defend.
Do not waste the hours comparing yourself to others or rehearsing what they think of you. Do your own work and let that be enough.
To study the self is to forget the self. The moment you stop measuring where you stand, you are simply here, doing what is in front of you.
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Ego v. Being