Numbers 2:2 · World English Bible
“The children of Israel shall encamp every man by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers’ houses. They shall encamp around the Tent of Meeting at a distance from it.”
The ordering of a camp is the ordering of the powers inside one person. Each tribe takes its fixed place around the center, and this is the arrangement of the mental faculties, the desires and the drives, each holding its own station around the still point at the middle.
From the Esoteric reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
ESOTERIC
The ordering of a camp is the ordering of the powers inside one person. Each tribe takes its fixed place around the center, and this is the arrangement of the mental faculties, the desires and the drives, each holding its own station around the still point at the middle. Israel is the striving mind that has learned to govern itself, so its energies no longer scatter but stand each in its assigned quarter.
The tabernacle set apart in the middle is the inner sanctuary of awareness, kept clear while the busy faculties encamp at a respectful distance. Nothing crowds the center. A well-ordered person is one whose many appetites keep their ranks and leave the deep stillness untouched at the core.
Standard: the distinct signature of each mental power, the banner under which a single faculty gathers and knows itself. Tabernacle: the inner sanctuary of pure awareness at the center of the body, kept clear of the crowding faculties. Israel: the striving mind learning to rule its own energies rather than be dragged by them.
Esoteric lens
What have I let move into the center of me that was only ever supposed to camp at a distance?
The room is useful because of the empty space in it, and the wheel turns on the hollow at its center. What is kept clear is what makes the rest work.
The pond shows the moon only when nothing is thrown into it. Everything in the garden may stay exactly where it is, as long as the water is left alone.
He kept telling himself to withdraw into the small quiet place inside, which stays unspoiled no matter how crowded the day. Everything else can keep its station, but that center must not be built over.
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Esoteric