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Ecclesiastes 7:21 · World English Bible

Ecclesiastes 7:21 Meaning Also Don’t Take Heed to All Words

Also don’t take heed to all words that are spoken, lest you hear your servant curse you;

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What does Ecclesiastes 7:21 mean?

Not every remark a person overhears deserves a place in the self-image. The mind that files each stray word, each muttered complaint, builds its portrait from scraps that were never meant to define anyone.

From the Cybernetics reading below.

Ecclesiastes 7:21 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CYBERNETICS

Cybernetics

Not every remark a person overhears deserves a place in the self-image. The mind that files each stray word, each muttered complaint, builds its portrait from scraps that were never meant to define anyone. A man who hunts down every comment will find one that stings.

Much of what wounds us is noise. When a person stops treating passing talk as a verdict, the sting has nowhere to lodge. The picture he carries of himself stays steady, unbothered by the small cutting words that were only weather.

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Cybernetics lens

Live Ecclesiastes 7:21 today

  1. Stop checking the one place you go to see whether someone said something about you. Just today, leave it closed.
  2. When you overhear a half sentence that was not meant for you, let it stay half a sentence. Do not finish it in your head on the drive home.
  3. If a comment lands badly in a meeting, do not take it into the afternoon with you. Say to yourself that it was one line from one tired person, then go back to what you were doing.

Which stray remark are you still carrying that was never a verdict on you?

The same truth in other traditions

Stoicism · Epictetus

Epictetus said other people's opinions are not yours to carry, and that we are disturbed by what we decide those opinions mean. The remark is theirs, the wound is ours to decline.

Zen

There is a Zen saying that the wild goose leaves no track on the water. A passing word can cross a steady mind and leave nothing behind.

Taoism · Tao Te Ching 23

The Tao Te Ching says a hard wind does not blow all morning and a hard rain does not last all day. Most of what you hear is weather.

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