John 6:66 · World English Bible
John 6:66 Meaning At This
At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
What does John 6:66 mean?
The disciples who walk back are not followers leaving a teacher. They are the states of mind that cannot hold a high claim once it is made.
From the Manifestation reading below.
John 6:66 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Manifestation
MANIFESTATION
Manifestation
The disciples who walk back are not followers leaving a teacher. They are the states of mind that cannot hold a high claim once it is made. The moment a person assumes something the senses do not yet confirm, a crowd of inner attitudes turns and drifts toward the old evidence, the familiar facts, the comfortable doubt.
Walking no more with him is the mind quietly abandoning the assumption it briefly entertained. This happens to everyone the instant a new self is claimed. Most of what a person believes turns back at once, because most of him still trusts what he can see. What remains and keeps walking is the small part willing to stay with the unseen state until it hardens into fact. Nothing here concerns disloyal men. So much of a person deserts a new conviction the moment it asks him to believe against appearances.
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Live John 6:66 today
- Say the new thing about yourself once, quietly, in the car or in the shower, and then watch how fast your own head lists reasons it is not true. Let the list run. You do not have to answer it.
- When you tell one person about something you are hoping for and they go quiet or change the subject, stay friendly and let it pass. Their doubt is not a verdict, and you do not need their yes to keep holding it.
- In a hard hour at work, when the numbers or the email or the room all say the old story, keep the newer and quieter claim going underneath. Most of you will side with the evidence. The small part that does not is the part that matters.
Which part of me keeps walking when the rest turns back?
The same truth in other traditions
Bhagavad Gita 6
The mind is restless and hard to hold, and it wanders off the moment you set it on something. Krishna does not call this failure. He says bring it back, again and again, and that bringing back is the whole practice.
Zen
In sitting practice, thoughts leave the moment they arrive. The teaching is not to keep a clear mind but to stay seated while most of your attention gets up and walks out.
Stoicism · Epictetus
When you take up a new way of living, expect to be laughed at, first by other people and then by yourself. Hold the course anyway, because the mocking is a sign you have actually started.
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