Proverbs 17:23 · World English Bible
Proverbs 17:23 Meaning A Wicked Man Receives a Bribe
A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, to pervert the ways of justice.
What does Proverbs 17:23 mean?
The hidden bribe drawn from the fold of a garment is the ego's whole practice held up to the light, for it is always taking something in secret to bend perception toward its own ends. That secret payment is guilt, slipped quietly into the mind so that seeing itself is warped and every judgment tilts toward attack before the eyes have even opened.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Proverbs 17:23 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
The hidden bribe drawn from the fold of a garment is the ego's whole practice held up to the light, for it is always taking something in secret to bend perception toward its own ends. That secret payment is guilt, slipped quietly into the mind so that seeing itself is warped and every judgment tilts toward attack before the eyes have even opened.
No fair sight is possible while such a gift is accepted, because a mind already paid to condemn will find the guilty verdict it was purchased to reach. Refuse the bribe, let the hidden thing be brought into the open, and judgment gives way to the simple sight that everyone is innocent.
Bosom: the hidden fold of the mind where guilt is concealed and quietly kept, the secret place where the ego stores what it will not look at Gift: the concealed bribe of guilt the mind accepts, the payment that bends its seeing toward condemnation before it has truly looked
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Live Proverbs 17:23 today
- When you catch yourself reading someone's message in the worst possible tone, read it again as if a friend wrote it. One of those readings you invented, and it was not the kind one.
- Before a hard conversation, name to yourself what you secretly want the outcome to be, then set it on the shelf and go in able to be wrong. That is most of the work.
- In a meeting where the decision is already half made in your head, ask one real question you do not know the answer to. See what shows up when you are not steering.
What have I already decided about someone that I have never actually checked?
The same truth in other traditions
Buddhism
The mind that has already decided finds only the evidence it was looking for. Clear seeing begins when the wanting is set down.
Stoicism · Epictetus
It is impossible to learn what you think you already know. The verdict you carry in blocks the thing in front of you.
Zen
A muddied pool shows nothing until it is left alone to settle. Stop stirring and the bottom becomes visible on its own.
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