Mid-century illustration of a tree planted by a pool of water on a path

Proverbs 23:15 · World English Bible

Proverbs 23:15 Meaning My Son

My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine.

What does Proverbs 23:15 mean?

When one part of a mind chooses love, no part of it is left behind in the gladness. The teacher within does not stand apart, waiting to be pleased by a pupil across a distance; the joy of the awakened self and the joy of the one still learning are a single joy, because in truth they were never two minds but one.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 23:15 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

When one part of a mind chooses love, no part of it is left behind in the gladness. The teacher within does not stand apart, waiting to be pleased by a pupil across a distance; the joy of the awakened self and the joy of the one still learning are a single joy, because in truth they were never two minds but one.

This is why the rejoicing is doubled and yet the same. A mind that lets wisdom guide its choosing discovers that the love it turns toward was already turned toward it, delighting in the very shift it thought it had to earn.

Son: the part of the mind still learning, the self that is coming home to what it already is Heart: the seat of choosing where a mind elects fear or love, the place the decision for peace is actually made

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 23:15 today

  1. When you make the kinder choice today, the small quiet one nobody sees, let yourself feel glad about it for ten seconds instead of moving straight on. That gladness is not vanity, it is the thing itself.
  2. Tell one person in a group chat that something they did made you happy, with no advice attached. Watch how the gladness goes both ways in the same moment.
  3. In a tense meeting or a traffic jam, drop the idea that you have to prove you deserve to feel okay. Let it be true before you have earned it, and act from there.

Where today are you working to earn something that was already being offered?

The same truth in other traditions

Tao Te Ching

The great way does not stand above you waiting to approve; it holds you already, and returning to it is simply stopping the struggle against what carries you. Nothing had to be won.

Sufism · Rumi

The longing you feel for love is love's own longing reaching back through you. What you were searching for was already doing the searching.

Hinduism · Upanishads

The self that seeks and the self that is sought turn out to be one, so the discovery is a recognition rather than an arrival. The distance was imagined.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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