Isaiah 57:18 Meaning I Have Seen His Ways

Yathābhūtañāṇadassana: Knowing and seeing as it is Seeing a thing exactly as it stands. Every turn of that wandering road has already been watched, the idols under the green trees and the bed made on the high hill, and what follows the watching is a cure rather than a verdict. Sight like this belongs to a doctor, who reads the whole wound before laying a hand on it.

Anusaya: The underlying tendency A habit lying dormant in the mind until conditions wake it. "His ways" are worn grooves, the same turning taken so often that the feet find it in the dark, which is why he kept backsliding in the way of his heart even after being struck for it. Healing that reaches only the visible detour leaves the tendency that keeps laying the road.

Sallakatta: The arrow remover A healer whose work is to draw the barb out. Promising to heal him means going in after the embedded thing, since covetousness lodged that deep will not close over on its own. The same hand that struck in anger now kneels to pull the shaft, and nothing is asked of the patient first.

Purisadammasārathi: The charioteer of those who can be trained One who takes the reins of a person still workable. "I will lead him also" puts those reins back in a driver's hands after the horse has bolted off the road again and again. Leading of this kind works by steady pressure over a long road home, one correction at a time.

Nibbuti: The cooling The going out of a fire. Comfort restored is coolness returning to a body that has been burning, since the anger just before and the man's own covetous heat are both flames. It arrives the way relief comes when a fever finally breaks, quietly, from the inside.

Karuṇā: Compassion The heart's stir at another's pain, with the wish to lift it. His mourners are named alongside him, the ones weeping around the sick man and not only the sick man, and comfort is measured out to them as well. Sorrow in a house touches everyone under the roof, so consolation is handed to everyone under it.