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Proverbs 23:23 · World English Bible

Proverbs 23:23 Meaning Buy the Truth

Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.

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What does Proverbs 23:23 mean?

To buy the truth is to give whatever the ego values in exchange for what is real, laying down grievance, judgment, and the wish to be right so the mind can receive what was always free. The price is only the illusions a mind clings to, and it is the gladdest bargain there is.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 23:23 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

To buy the truth is to give whatever the ego values in exchange for what is real, laying down grievance, judgment, and the wish to be right so the mind can receive what was always free. The price is only the illusions a mind clings to, and it is the gladdest bargain there is.

Not to sell it is to refuse the ego's steady offer to trade peace back for the small satisfactions of attack. A mind that will not make that trade keeps what cannot be bought again once released, and learns that truth held is truth that quietly keeps the one who holds it.

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 23:23 today

  1. Pick one grudge you have been keeping warm and set it down today, quietly, with no announcement. You are not excusing anything, you are putting down something heavy.
  2. In your next disagreement, give up needing to be declared right. Say "you might be right" once and see what it opens.
  3. When you have the chance to score a point at work and win the room, skip it. Keeping the peace you already had is worth more than the point.

What would you have to stop holding to receive what you say you want?

The same truth in other traditions

Zen

A student arrives wanting to be given something and is told to empty the cup first. The only cost of truth is the room you make for it.

Sufism · Rumi

What you are looking for will not fit while you are still holding what you refuse to drop. The trade is the whole practice.

Buddhism

Letting go of grasping is not a loss but the end of the burden of carrying it. You pay with the weight you were tired of anyway.

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