Ezekiel 38:11 Meaning You Will Say

There is a place in you that dwells without walls, without bars or gates, at rest and unafraid. It is not a place you build but the openness you already are beneath the defenses of the mind. The ego raises walls to guard a fragile self-image, and every wall is a form of fear.

To dwell in unwalled villages is to be so settled in Being that nothing in you needs protecting. You can live open and undefended, at rest among things as they are, because you are no longer guarding a self-image, and once that identification falls away there is nothing left that a wall could keep safe.

Cetanā: Intention Cetanā is the willing that makes an act kamma. Gog's invasion begins as a sentence said inwardly, "I will go up," with no horse saddled and no border crossed. The mind has already gone up into that land, and the army only catches up with it later.

Abhijjhā: Covetousness Abhijjhā is the mind leaning toward what belongs to someone else. Open villages become desirable for the single reason that they are open, the way a thief walking a street of locked doors stops at the one left unlocked. Covetousness counts the ease of entry and never the people resting inside.

Khema: Safety Khema is security that nothing can reach. Dwelling without walls is the sweetest sort of rest and the most exposed, since peace resting on a neighbor's goodwill lasts exactly as long as the goodwill. The freedom the elders call secure has no gate an enemy could march through, because there is no territory in it to take.

Indriyasaṃvara: Guarding the sense doors Indriyasaṃvara is the watch kept at eye, ear, and the rest. Bars and gates are ordinary hardware, and a house that leaves them off all night takes in whoever happens by. Eye and ear are gates in the same plain way, and a sight or a word that walks through unchallenged settles in and stays.

Māra: The tempter Māra follows a person around, looking for a way in. His method is Gog's method: survey the ground, note that there are neither bars nor gates, and go where entry costs nothing. A mind at ease and unwatched is the country he prefers, and he takes it without a fight.