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Proverbs 19:27 · World English Bible

Proverbs 19:27 Meaning If You Stop Listening to Instruction

If you stop listening to instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.

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What does Proverbs 19:27 mean?

Two teachers speak to every mind, and the counsel here is simply to stop lending an ear to the one that leads astray. The instruction that causes error is the voice of fear, always reasoning the mind further into separation, always making the guilt seem real and the world seem dangerous.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 19:27 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

Two teachers speak to every mind, and the counsel here is simply to stop lending an ear to the one that leads astray. The instruction that causes error is the voice of fear, always reasoning the mind further into separation, always making the guilt seem real and the world seem dangerous. To cease hearing it is not to fight it but to withdraw attention from it.

A mind cannot listen to both teachers at once and stay at peace, for their words point in opposite directions. Turning from the counsel of fear is all that is asked, because in that silence the words of truth, never absent, become audible again.

Son: the learning mind, the listener that chooses which of its two teachers it will heed.

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Live Proverbs 19:27 today

  1. Mute one account, group chat or news source today that reliably leaves you more afraid than informed. You are not arguing with it, just stopping the subscription.
  2. When a conversation starts building a case against someone, do not add the next brick. Change the subject, or ask something kind about them, and feel how the whole shape loosens.
  3. At the start of a stressful task, name the fearful voice as it speaks: this is the scared commentary, not the facts. Then do the next small step anyway, without answering it.

Which voice have I been giving the most airtime, and what would get through if I turned it down?

The same truth in other traditions

Zen

You cannot stop the second thought by arguing with it. You simply stop feeding it attention, and it goes where unfed things go.

Stoicism · Epictetus

You are not disturbed by events, but by the running commentary you accept about them. Refuse the commentary and the disturbance has nowhere to stand.

Hinduism · Upanishads

There are two birds on one branch. One eats the fruit restlessly, the other watches in silence. Learn which one you are.

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