Isaiah 64:6 · World English Bible
For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Every effort of the outer self to make itself good stays soiled because it is done from the surface man, the ego that cannot cleanse itself with its own hands. The filthy rags are the garments of merely outward virtue, cloth worn on the body and stained by the very self that weaves it.
From the Esoteric reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
ESOTERIC
Every effort of the outer self to make itself good stays soiled because it is done from the surface man, the ego that cannot cleanse itself with its own hands. The filthy rags are the garments of merely outward virtue, cloth worn on the body and stained by the very self that weaves it. The fading leaf is the flesh, green for a season and then dry, showing that anything built on the mortal frame withers on its stem. The wind is the restless breath of the lower mind, and its gusts of wrongdoing scatter a person like a leaf torn loose, because he has nothing rooted deeper than his own moods.
Filthy rags: the garments of outward virtue, cloth stained by the surface self that wears it Leaf: the flesh, alive for a season and then withering on the stem Wind: the restless breath of the lower mind that carries a person off
Esoteric lens
How much of your effort to be good is really the effort to be seen as good?
When goodness becomes a performance, it has already gone hollow. The one busy displaying virtue has lost the thing itself.
Do not be a philosopher in appearance. Be the thing quietly, and let no one need to be told.
The self you polish and defend is not solid, so every effort to make it look right is building on sand. The relief is in setting the project down.
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Esoteric