Genesis 37:2 · World English Bible
This is the history of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father.
A part of the mind that tends its thoughts alongside the others begins instead to watch them for fault and carry the accusation upward. This is how the ego works within the self: it appoints an inner informer, one that gathers an evil report and delivers it, certain that naming the wrong in others earns favor above.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
The same verse, read by 2 traditions.
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
A part of the mind that tends its thoughts alongside the others begins instead to watch them for fault and carry the accusation upward. This is how the ego works within the self: it appoints an inner informer, one that gathers an evil report and delivers it, certain that naming the wrong in others earns favor above.
Yet every report of another's guilt is guilt the mind feels within and sets outside itself to be seen elsewhere. The brothers were tending the same flock, sharing the same work, until seeing turned to surveillance. A mind at peace watches over its thoughts to keep them; a mind afraid watches them to convict.
Flock: the thoughts the mind is given to tend and keep, the shared field of the inner life that can be watched over in care or spied upon for fault. The father: the deeper authority within to whom the mind carries its account, sought as a judge whose favor accusation hopes to win.
ESOTERIC
Joseph is the Christ within, the higher self that tends the flock of thoughts among the lower thoughts that surround it. The brethren are the left-side thoughts of a person, and they cannot abide the higher one moving among them. He carries their evil report up to the father, the right hemisphere of the brain, the higher seat where their nature is known for what it is.
So the inner Christ is set among the crowd of lesser thoughts and reports them truthfully to the higher mind, and for this the 12 turn on him and drive him out. The rupture that follows is not a family quarrel but the separating of the higher self from the old traditions and the lower crowd that resent its presence.
Joseph: the Christ within, the higher self among the thoughts Brethren: the left-side thoughts of a person, the lower crowd Father: the right hemisphere of the brain, the higher seat of knowing Flock: the thoughts a person tends and watches over
Christian Psychology lens
What would I have to feel in myself if I stopped reporting it in someone else?
The sage does not go looking for fault in others, because keeping watch over your own heart is already a full day's work. Hunting for error outside is how the inner quiet is lost.
It is easy to see the failings of others and hard to see your own. People sift the faults of their neighbors like chaff in the wind while hiding their own from view.
How much time is bought back by refusing to ask what another person has done wrong. Guard your own judgments instead, and there is nothing left to report.
Free · No account needed
Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.
Get Lensightful on the App Store
Christian Psychology
Esoteric